Free Rome: A Marked Men Novel by Jay Crownover

your liver
    that’s your choice to make, but while you’re here, I won’t watch another good man go down.”
    “Weren’t you the one pouring me endless shots of Wild Turkey the other night?” I would rather have all
    my teeth removed from my head by rusty pliers than admit how often a bottle of Belvedere was putting me
    to bed these days.
    “It was the Fourth; every soldier should be allowed to celebrate what they have given up to support
    freedom, no matter how long ago that victory was.”
    I considered him carefully, but couldn’t fault him his reasoning, so I just shrugged.
    “All right, I don’t think that should be a problem.”
    “It won’t be a problem.”
    Jeez, this guy sounded like the very first drill sergeant I had when I enlisted.
    “Okay, Brite, it won’t be a problem.”
    His teeth appeared through the tangle of facial hair again and he smacked his palms flat on the bar.
    “Excellent. You’ll meet the rest of the gang eventually as we go along. The Sons of Sorrow haven’t
    been back in, but if they come, I’ll have a talk with the chapter president and let him know he better rein his
    prospects in. I don’t mind a fistfight here or there, it gives the place character and keeps things interesting,
    but I have a hard-and-fast rule and no one, and I mean no one, touches servicemen or women when they’re
    in here. Everyone knows that.”
    I laughed a little and climbed to my feet.
    “It’s the American Legion.”
    Brite laughed with me and picked up a bar towel. “Civilian life can be a real bitch to settle back into,
    sometimes it helps to have a place that feels more familiar. That’s what the Bar is all about, son.”
    Since I was feeling so adrift myself, I had to admit what he was talking about sounded not only nice but
    also particularly necessary. I slapped my ball cap back on my head and shook Brite’s hand. I agreed that I
    would be back tomorrow when he opened the doors at ten in the morning. I wasn’t exactly excited about it,
    but it was the first time since I got back to the States that I actually had someplace to be. And that felt more
    right than anything had in a long time.
    I would’ve gotten up early the next morning, but considering I was sleeping fitfully at best, I was wide-
    awake already when my alarm went off at eight. Since Nash normally didn’t have to go into work until
    noon, we usually tried to hit up the gym before he went in—that is, if he made it home from wherever he
    spent the night before. I think he felt bad for me, because while he and Rule had a pretty lax gym ritual they
    usually adhered to, I went every morning, and since I’d moved in he had managed to trudge along or at
    least made the effort to try. I needed the gym to work out the things chasing me in my subconscious, and
    even if I didn’t feel like a warrior anymore, at least I could still look like one. Besides, I was just too big; if
    I didn’t go to the gym, I would turn into a blob of a man in no time flat, especially since I was no longer out
    running PT and ops with kids ten years younger than me on the regular.
    I was rubbing my eyes and making coffee when Nash’s bedroom door opened. I never knew if it was
    going to be him coming out or some dewy-eyed young thing that looked like she had been through the sex
    spin cycle. Nash and my brother both had a way about them that drew attention from the opposite sex in a
    way I just never really understood. Not that I lived like a choirboy in my youth, but I had never been the
    kind of guy who wanted quantity over quality. That made my momentary lapse with the trashy redhead
    even more stupid. Man, maybe I really did deserve having my ass kicked the other night.
    Nash was flying solo this morning, which was unusual. He was pulling a T-shirt on over his head and
    muttering a few swearwords under his breath. I handed him a cup of coffee and asked him what was
    wrong.
    He just shook his head and cracked his neck.
    “I’m trying to get my