155In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.—Albert Schweitzer
Chapter 2
"What did you do yesterday on your day off?" Jimmy asked over a bowl of cereal the next morning.
Sophie shrugged and shoved her hair into a ponytail, "I met a few guys."
He stopped eating mid-chew, slowly swallowed and stared at her, "Want to run that by me again?"
She smiled and bent down to tie her sneakers, surprised the thin shoelace didn't snap in her hand, "When I was dropping my school work off at the office yesterday…do you remember the two military dudes?"
Jimmy nodded, "Did they bother you? I knew I should have come with you."
Sophie grinned, "No, its okay. Honest. They 'escorted' me and we all went lunch together—well, a friend joined but that's not the point."
"Okay…wait, I'm getting confused." He said.
"That can't be helped but I'm going to be late if I don't leave now." She said and patted Jimmy's head.
"Double shift? I'll come pick you up—"
Sophie shook her head and shrugged on Jimmy's jean jacket, "Nah. I'll see if Sergei or someone can drop me off. He lives near here so…that'll be fine." She turned around, her hand still on the doorknob, "Oh, that reminds me. How'd the portfolio go?"
He sighed, the haunted look back in his green eyes, "Dejected and rejected."
"Seriously? I don't understand why—your art is amazing!" Sophie snapped, suddenly wanting to go by the art gallery and throw some punches. Sophisticated bastards didn't know what they were missing.
"It's okay, Sophie. I know my art isn't mainstream but I can't be bothered just yet to change." He ran a hand through his puffy, unkempt hair and waved her away, "Now, go before you're late."
"See ya!"
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Jimmy reached into his pocket and felt around for his keys, "Jimmy Malone?"
He glanced up and saw two very huge men loitering by the entrance to the apartment building. He had just finished his afternoon shift at the bookstore and his fingers ached for charcoal but a part of him felt raw and intense hatred for his art and talent. It was a curse to be an artist, a curse and yet a gift. He shook away the despair and glanced at the two men, "And you two are?"
"I'm Wolfe Brandt and this here is Marcus Ellis. I'm from the bus yesterday." Wolfe explained.
"The army guys?" Jimmy asked, shoving his keys back in his coat.
Marcus glanced at Wolfe, "Sophie—"
"Yeah, she mentioned you. It was confusing…damn, how about a coffee? I don't really want to go up anyway." Jimmy said. He caught Marcus glancing up at the building and shook his head, "She's working a double shift tonight."
"You going to pick her up?" Wolfe asked with a frown.
Jimmy glanced between the two and rolled his eyes, "You both are really something. No, a mutual friend is probably going to drop her off. They work together."
"Ah." Marcus said and followed behind this Jimmy character. He had bright orange hair, was pale and shorter than either of them but Sophie had spoken highly of him. He shook his head. He must be insane to go along with Dakota and Wolfe. Hell, even his brother Shane and other friend Wyatt had agreed that him and Wolfe should go and see if this Jimmy was all that good.
They had phoned a friend, Stieg at base and pulled in a favour to search and locate a Jimmy and found that he was now twenty-one, had jumped back and forth in foster care until finally reaching the legal age before moving into an apartment and working full-time.
If Marcus didn't like Sophie as much as he did, he really wouldn't have bothered to read up on all of Jimmy's life or even involving Stieg. Their friend back at base had offered to dig Sophie's life up and though he'd been tempted, too damn curious for his own good, he had held off. He either wanted Jimmy to tell him or Sophie, though he had a feeling he'd be eighty before Sophie would ever say anything.
They walked in silence before stepping into a coffee shop, Jimmy nodding at the barista before walking to an empty table at the back of the shop, "So, I guess you looked me up?"
Wolfe sat down, followed by Marcus, "Yes." He answered unabashedly.
Jimmy sighed and lifted a hand motioning for three coffees. The barista nodded and began working, "I still don't understand. Explain things to me again. Sophie was in a rush to get to work this morning so all she said was she met military dudes, hung out and went to lunch with you. Where's the other one?" He asked remembering.
Marcus smirked, "He's at home."
Jimmy nodded, "So?"
"After you left the bus, our friend annoyed Sophie and felt bad so we both followed her to apologise and decided that it was too bad a neighbourhood for her to walk all by herself." Wolfe explained.
"Then we all went for lunch and went to the batting cage afterwards." Marcus finished.
Jimmy glanced between the two and thanked the barista who came to drop off their coffees, a plate of cookies, the milk and sugar. "I don't know why you'd do that." He began, adding enough sugar into the black coffee to give him a cavity.
Marcus shrugged, "Don't think we really understand either."
"Tell us more about Sophie." Wolfe ordered.
"I don't think she'd like that." Jimmy retorted, dipping the stale cookie into the coffee. He was more amused than paranoid.
He read people, as an artist, he studied them and saw all of their nuances, even things they tried to hide from themselves. He'd read these two as easily as the clouds. They were the good guys, the type that would take their coat off and cover a puddle for a lady, the same type to join the military. He was more amused at the two very big and very confused military men asking him about Sophie than anything else.
"I don't see her as the type to open up to us." Wolfe commented dryly.
Jimmy snorted with laughter, "The only reason she did with me was because she had pneumonia and I threatened to take her to the hospital if she didn't tell me anything."
Marcus glared at Jimmy, "You didn't take her to the hospital? She could have died."
Jimmy soon regretted saying anything when he found himself being glared at by two very big angry looking men. He raised his hands pacifyingly, "Look, she survived. And I got the truth out of her. I was eighteen, what did you really think I would do?"
"Take her to the hospital? Even when my younger brother was sixteen, I damn well know he'd have taken Sophie to the hospital." Marcus snapped.
Jimmy rolled his eyes, "Fine, okay. Can I go on with the story?"
"Go ahead." Wolfe bit out trying to remind himself that Jimmy had helped Sophie.
"I usually walk through the park on twenty-first street?" He waited until both of them nodded before continuing, "And I saw this crumpled thing lying on a bench. I ignored it and continued on my way—"
Marcus cursed and Jimmy decided that if he ever survived this coffee break with both of them, he was going to steer clear of all military men in the future. Too much testosterone for his liking. "I went and got myself a coffee and decided to swing by the park just as the heavy snow warning went into effect."
"And?" Wolfe asked.
"Well, I poked at the blob, I didn't know if the thing was alive or dead or what it was." He said and smiled at the memory, "So I sat on it."
"You sat on Sophie." Marcus reiterated.
Jimmy laughed, "She woke up sputtering and shivering like a drowned rat." He took a sip of coffee before continuing, "I told her that if she didn't let me help her, I'd report her to the police and the state would be involved."
"So you threatened her?" Wolfe asked with a frown.
He shrugged, "It worked, didn't it? She followed me back to my place but passed out—" Wolfe let out an expletive and Jimmy nodded, "I'm just happy it was me that found her and not someone else." He said quietly.
"How old was she?" Marcus asked.
Jimmy sighed, "She was fourteen."
Wolfe ran a hand over his head in frustration, "Tell us why."
Jimmy glanced around and leaned in closer, "If you ever tell her—"
Marcus shook his head, "Don't really want to threaten us, man."
"Yeah, you've got a point." Jimmy studied them before nodded, "Her dad died by a drug overdose. And her mom—" He sighed, "Her mom is an alcoholic now living five states over."
"That's not all." Wolfe said after sharing a glance with Marcus.
Jimmy shook his head, he needed a cigarette badly, but he'd promised Sophie he'd given them up. His hand shook when it reached for his coffee cup, "She ran away from home but got caught by a social worker. They threatened to throw her into the system."
"But you didn't let that happen." Marcus added.
"No, I couldn't. I was in the system for too long and it almost destroyed me. I didn't want it to destroy Sophie." Jimmy shook his head, "We all compromised. It was decided that Sophie would live with me and do long distance learning to get her high school diploma—"
"But she'd need a parental signature, right?" Marcus asked.
Jimmy nodded, "That's why Sophie works so much. She sends money back to her mom so she can stay here."
Wolfe shook his head, tampering down the anger threatening to boil over, "She's buying her mom off?"
"Hey, it's not like that. She's buying her freedom." Jimmy defended, glaring fiercely at Wolfe.
Marcus sighed, "That's not what Wolfe meant. Her mother is accepting money from Sophie and not caring about taking care of her?"
"It's working though. Here she can do what she likes without wondering if she's going to be beaten or forced into a bad situation or wondering if the state is going to take her." Jimmy continued knowing he had spent many hours worrying if he should send her back but he never did. Despite their poverty, she was happy here. She was safe. "She forced her mother to accept her own terms and thankfully, her mother is too much of a drunk to care."
"Has she ever tried to get her back?" Wolfe asked.
Jimmy sighed, "I don't know. I think Sophie's just praying for the day she finishes school and turns eighteen."
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Sophie closed and dead bolted the apartment door behind her, yawning into her hand. "You'll never guess who I saw earlier today…well, yesterday, I guess." She jumped and flicked the lights on in the kitchen.
"Were you sitting there in the dark waiting for me?" She asked Jimmy trying not to sound too freaked out.
He grinned and pushed away from the table to walk to the refrigerator, "Sit down. I'll make you something quick to eat before you go to bed."
"Nah, its okay—"
"Sit down or I'll force you." Jimmy threatened though with the large circles under his eyes and the way his red hair stood in spikes, she couldn't help but grin.
"Fine." She said and fell into a chair, stretching out her legs. She had worked from seven in the morning until midnight. She was beyond tired but double shifts helped come payday. Thankfully, for the rest of the week until Friday, she only had evening shifts.
"Who did you see?" She asked when Jimmy made no move to tell her.
"Huh?" He asked as though he had forgotten, "Oh right! Your army dudes."
Sophie jolted awake, "What? You saw them? How? Why?"
He laughed and slid a plate of scrambled eggs in front of her, "They found me. They were waiting outside of the apartment."
"Seriously?" She asked unsure if she should be annoyed, secretly pleased or suspicious. "What's your take on them?"
Jimmy shrugged, "Good guys that want to be your friend."
She nodded and squirted ketchup onto the eggs, "What'd you all talk about?"
"Well, there was only two of them." Jimmy explained.
"Oh?" She asked between mouthfuls.
"Marcus and…Wolfe." Jimmy thought before nodding, "The other one was at home, if I recall."
"Okay, so…?" She asked impatiently.
"We talked about me and you." Jimmy said knowing though he wanted to lie, he couldn't. Sophie didn't trust often and when she did, even a smidgen of doubt could ruin that trust.
She finished eating and stood to go wash her plate and fork, "So…you're telling me that they waited for you, and then pretty much jumped you for information."
"They were well prepared." Jimmy added.
Sophie sighed, was she really all that surprised? Of course they would find out all they could, it was only human nature. She turned to Jimmy, "So, what should I do?"
He shook his head with a grin, "I don't think they want anything other than to be your friend, Sophie."
It was Sophie's turn to shake her head, "Why?"
"Because they're good guys." He retorted, "It's difficult for us to understand but some people out there genuinely want to help others."
Sophie stared at Jimmy for a full minute before nodding in resolution, "Fine. I'll play along. Did you tell them about me?"
Jimmy sighed and Sophie knew he had. She wanted to be angry and embarrassed for her messed up life but she was so past tired that she didn't care. "Okay. I need sleep. I'll deal with this tomorrow."
"They only mean to help, Sophie. They want to understand you." Jimmy called to her.
Maybe it was because she was tired but she felt desolate at the idea of never seeing Dakota, Wolfe and Marcus again if they did decide she was too much scum for them. And she'd only known them since yesterday.
Sophie shook her head, "What if they don't like what they find out? What if I never see them again?"