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STAR

“What did you want to meet here for?” I grouched. "We could have done this in a coffee shop."

Chadwick peered at me from the bench he was sitting on. “You stop playing or something?”

Grimacing as I stared at the unusually blue sky, I muttered, “No. But chessboards are mobile. Anyway, you’re just pissed I beat you during our last game.”

Didn’t matter that was around seven years ago… Soldiers bore the worst grudges.

He hitched a shoulder. “Let’s see if you got better or worse.”

Heaving a sigh, I sat opposite him and realized I was white. “You trying to psych me out? You always play white.”

He beamed a loaded grin at me. “I changed since we last met, Star.”

“Apparently. Since when did you work for the mafia?”

“Since Aurora Valentini took me in off the streets.”

“Off the streets ?” I blinked at him. “Does Cin know?”

He pursed his lips. “No. I don’t want her to know either. I don’t take charity.”

“So you’ll take charity from the Sicilian mafia but not from a friend?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Is this how you want this meeting to go?”

“No.” I gritted my teeth. “What’s going on, Chadwick?”

“I got myself a job. One I don’t hate. Seems like you did too if you’re friendly with the Irish. Or is that emerald on your finger not an engagement ring?”

“It is an engagement ring,” I stated proudly. “And nobody hires me. I choose who I work with.”

“Not everyone is as lucky as you.”

“Lucky? You think we don’t all have unpleasant histories?” I sneered at him. “I ended up in a fucking trafficker’s nest, and you landed on the streets when there were people who’d have your back stateside if you’d just have asked.

"The government might not support us, but we make our own friends, don’t we?”

He cut his gaze to the ground. “I was in a bad place, Star.”

“So? That’s what friends are for. You had our backs in the sandbox; we’d have had yours at home.”

“Not everyone’s like you. Maybe I forgot that. It’d been some time since we last caught up. And when I said I was in a bad place, I meant it. Got off my meds and shit.”

“You’re back on them?”

“I am.”

Relief filtered through me. “Good. That’s what I like to hear.” I picked up a pawn and studied the piece—it was the same we’d used back when we’d been in Baghdad together. “It’s good to see you, Chadwick.”

“You always did ride people’s asses when you liked them,” he teased.

“Exactly. That’s how you know we’re friends.”

“Good to see you too, Star.”

I didn’t bother demurring: “What are you doing with the Sicilians?”

“Like I told you, Aurora took me in and she realized what I can do?—”

“She took you in?”

“There’s no funny business. Hunter De Laurentiis is her husband.”

“I know. But why you? In particular, I mean? When you said she realized what you can do, does she know what you’ve done?”

“Does she know what I did for Uncle Sam? Sure. Does she know what I did off the books? No. That’s why it’s called off the books .”

“You didn’t tell her?”

“No. Of course not. But she probably read between the lines anyway. She’s canny like that.” He shot me a look loaded with warning. “Aurora’s good people. The streets around her base are riddled with the homeless and she took us in, gave us food, put a roof over our heads, gave us a place to wash ourselves and our clothes?—”

“She gave you the basics to allow you to pick your lives up again.”

He nodded. “Good people, see?”

“I see.” I wouldn’t have expected that of Aurora either. Not when she exuded ‘stone-cold bitch’ vibes. “So you got a promotion?”

“I did.”

“Do I wanna know how?”

He smirked at me, and Jesus, it was good to see that smirk. “Nope. Anyways, are we playing?”

“We’re playing. I’m glad you’ve found your feet, Chad.”

“Me too, to be honest. When I said I was in a bad place, I meant it.”

“You willing to work with me?”

“In what way? I won’t betray Aurora, Star.”

“Not asking you to. If you didn’t realize at the Summit, we’re allies.”

Snickering, he shook his head. “You and your prickly ass attitude, I swear. You reverse psychology the fuck out of people.”

“That’s not a verb.”

“It is for you. But yeah, if you don’t expect me to feed intel from the Sicilians back to the Irish, I’ll work with you.”

“You’re going to let Aurora know?”

His gaze was measured as he took in the first move I made on the chessboard. “Yes.”

I hummed. “Interesting.”

We played for a while, and I scoped him out, trying to see if he’d changed his strategy. I was unsurprised to learn that he had. I figured I had too. He was more cautious; I was less. Fitting considering our pasts. They shaped us, after all.

“You still talk to Cin?”

I thought about what Conor, Troy, Cin, and I had gotten up to recently. “I still talk to her, yeah.”

“Don’t tell her you saw me,” he said as he made a questionable move on the board.

Taking his knight, I replied, “If you think I’m getting on her bad side because of you, you’re mistaken.”

He hissed under his breath. More at my comment than at the piece I took. “You already texted her about our meeting, didn’t you?”

“Yup. You’re lucky she’s busy or she’d have been here herself.”

His mouth tightened.

“Never understood why you fought it, to be honest.”

“Fought what?”

His growl used to do shit to my insides. I guessed that was the power of Conor if he could make a hunk like Chad unappealing.

“You and Cin would be perfect together.”

“Creed liked her.”

“They weren’t dating,” I pointed out, unsurprised that I took his rook when he wasn’t focusing on the game.

And it wasn’t a lie.

Fucking while in the sandbox did not a relationship make.

“Bro code.”

I sniffed. “That’s dumb. He shouldn’t stop you from dating her. You heard from him?”

“He’s overseas.”

“You kept in touch with him but not us?”

“It’s different between us.”

“Why?”

“Just is.”

I huffed out a sigh. “If she kicks your ass, I’m going to watch.”

“And enjoy?”

“You bet.”

He arched a brow at me. “You gonna tell me what happened to you in this ‘trafficker’s nest?’”

“If you want to know.”

“Of course I do.”

So, I blew out a breath and shared the sorry state of my past with him.

The passage of time hadn’t changed our bond.

But I’d still sic Cin on him.