The Warlord Returns novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Roland Park

We reached the Ellsworth house in Roland Park at noon on Wednesday.

It had a driveway long enough to need its own name.

Jack parked his rented truck behind a row of black sedans and cut the engine.

"Rules," he said.

"You've got rules?"

"Three. I'm Jack Mercer. I was in the army, now I do odd jobs.

"Our story is that you met me six weeks ago at a bar."

"What do I do if they ask what we talk about?"

"Say I make you laugh."

"Do you?"

"We'll find out."

He got my bag from the back seat and came around to open my door.

Then he took my hand, and that was the first time I realized he was good at this.

His palm was warm and rough, and he laced our fingers.

A housekeeper in gray led us through a hall hung with portraits of dead Ellsworths.

None of them looked happy.

Dinner was in a dining room with a table for twenty and five of us sitting at one end of it.

Margaret at the head.

Wyatt on her right, his fiancée at his side, still wearing that square emerald.

Jack and me across from them.

"Mr. Mercer," Margaret said, and unfolded her napkin. "Joanna tells me you were in the army."

"Yes, ma'am."

"What did you do?"

"Mostly trucks, ma'am. Fuel and supplies."

"How noble."

Her smile didn't touch her eyes.

"And now you do odd jobs. Is there much call for that in this economy?"

"Enough."

"Wyatt's late fiancée had a brother in the army," Margaret said, to nobody and everyone.

"A great one, they say. A colonel. He didn't even come to the funeral."

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