“Forgive my ignorance of this particular war, but what is the importance of this bridge we’re going to see?” Julian asked.
“The North Bridge was part of the Battle of Concord,” Nick answered. “Four-hundred minutemen and Colonial militia against just under a hundred British regulars. It was the first battle of the war, the opening bell that told the British the Americans were going to put up real resistance.”
“I see,” Julian said.
Nick handed his phone to Kelly. “Call Hagan for me, will you? I told him we might have to go off grid last night, but he’ll call out the cavalry if I don’t check in.”
Kelly pushed Nick’s aviators down his nose and flipped through Nick’s recently dialed numbers. He paused when he saw that Nick had called Ty Grady several nights ago. He glanced at Nick in surprise. Nick hadn’t spoken to Ty about anything that didn’t have to do with work since they’d come home from Scotland.
“You talked to Ty?” Kelly asked.
Nick glanced at him, then again before returning his attention to the road. “Yeah, he called to check up on us. I called him back, he pegged JD’s accent for us. Why?”
Kelly shrugged. “If you two are on speaking terms again, he’d be a good one to call in for this shit, you know?”
“Are we talking about Tyler?” Julian asked, leaning forward to put his face between the two of them from the backseat. “Please do call him, I have missed being handcuffed to every possible surface whenever I speak.”
Nick glanced at him in the rearview mirror, smiling slightly. Then he tapped Kelly’s knee and shook his head. “We got this. Call Hagan.”
“Okay.” Kelly found Hagan’s number and dialed, then handed the phone to Nick. He watched him, though, his hangover forgotten. Ty and Nick had known each other since they were both seventeen years old. To think that their friendship was crumbling, or worse, coming to an end, made Kelly immeasurably sad. It was like losing a family member.
“Hagan. Yeah, I’m sorry, I should have checked in last night. I know.” Nick glanced at Kelly and rolled his eyes. “We got distracted. Anyway listen, we’re on our way to Concord.”
Kelly returned his attention to the passing scenery as Nick filled Hagan in. He shifted around, trying to get comfortable. He wasn’t sure what Nick had done to him last night, but he hoped he would do it again when Kelly could remember the specifics of how he’d gotten so f**king sore. It was probably fun.
It was about a thirty-minute drive to the bridge, and Kelly was surprised when they arrived to find a visitor’s center, loads of tourists, and stone monuments commemorating the battle.
“It’s a national park?” Kelly asked when he joined Nick at the bumper of the Range Rover. He’d expected a little parking lot next to a creek with a bridge over it. But there were monuments and walkways and visitor centers and tour bus parking. He couldn’t even see the river, much less the bridge.
Nick leaned against it, his arms crossed. “And it’s the first Sunday of summer.”
Julian was pacing, eyeing the crowds like they might be filled with hidden assassins gunning for him. Kelly would have been amused by it, but he had to acknowledge that it might actually be true.
“What’s our plan?” JD asked them.
Nick pursed his lips, his expression mostly hidden behind his sunglasses. He lowered his head. Kelly glanced from him to JD with a wince, then looked over to Julian, who simply shrugged.
“Do we have a plan?” JD asked, sounding a little more agitated.
“You’re the treasure hunter,” Nick told him.
“Look, I’m not a hound dog who’ll point on command, all right? I don’t remember any of my f**king training.”
“Let’s do a recon of the bridge,” Kelly suggested. “If he carved a message in it, it’s got to be somewhere accessible, but hidden enough to escape notice all these years. Can’t be too many places like that on a bridge in the middle of all these tourists.”
“We’ll split up along the scenic paths,” Nick agreed.
“Approach it from each side. Kels, you and Cross circle around the north end, JD and I will take the south. We’ll meet you at the bridge’s head.”
“Right.” Kelly patted Julian on the shoulder and they headed off together as Nick and JD went the other way.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” Julian asked almost as soon as they were out of earshot of the others.
“I guess, sure.”
“Does it bother you that he orders you around like he does?”
Kelly’s head jerked up. “No,” he answered. “If we were making breakfast or going to a movie, he’d be asking for opinions left and right. This is a tactical situation, though, and he’s reverting to his training. If he hadn’t, I’d be worried about him.”
Julian arched an eyebrow as they walked along the paved path.Kelly just shrugged. “People see Nick in all kinds of ways.”
He smiled fondly. “He’s so much more than you see on the surface, though.”
“If you say so.” Julian returned his attention to the crowd as they meandered along the path, trying to blend with the tourists.
Kelly briefly let his mind wander to Nick before he did the same. He didn’t care if he was the only one who saw through all Nick’s layers. He knew the man who’d hold the hand of a dying enemy, who would let a kid tie a piece of yarn around his wrist for luck and still be wearing it five years later, who would lay his head in Kelly’s lap and sigh as if he’d just dropped a huge weight from his shoulders. He was the man who would never, ever make a promise unless he intended to keep it or bleed trying.
“There’s the bridge,” Julian said, pul ing Kelly out of his reverie.
Ahead of them was a large stone monument, rising over the bank of the river. A concrete path led around it toward an arched wooden bridge.
“It’s wood,” Kelly blurted.
He and Julian shared an uneasy glance. “There are covered bridges in the area that are over two hundred years old, right?” Julian asked. “It could have survived, being an important landmark.”
“I guess . . .”
They loitered near the monument until Nick and JD came into sight. JD was talking animatedly, and Nick had his head down as he walked. Kelly could tell he was staying aware of his surroundings by the tension in his shoulders, but he also looked irritated.