“I’ve been digging –”
“I’ve been asking –”
“I’ve been looking—“
The three of us say at once causing Jensen’s head to turn.
“Tink, go upstairs with EJ, please.” Evan asks because he knows she’ll do whatever he says. It doesn’t escape my notice that she has tears in her eyes. She knows the magnitude of what’s happening and what that note means. Evan’s return and our subsequent investigation has rattled someone and it’s someone close to us. Now, the question is who?
“Outside,” Carole demands. You would think after her daughter’s life has just been threatened that she’d be more upset, but she’s calm on the outside. We follow her out to the backyard for reasons unknown to me. “Gather around, and listen closely,” she says. “The three of us have been digging and the more I find hidden, the more I’m convinced something transpired that the Navy doesn’t want us to know about. I don’t want any of you talking about this in the house, am I clear?”
“Carole –”
“No, listen to me Jensen. I know I’m a conspiracy theorist, but my gut is telling me that I’m right on this one. Four highly trained and decorated SEALs do not go into the jungle and just disappear. They don’t receive care packages and updates from home after their loved ones have buried their bodies. And if I wasn’t right, we wouldn’t receive a death threat on the one-day that we’re all at the same house. Who knew you guys were coming here today?”
“McCoy, but you invited him… and Frannie. I told her when I was leaving that I’d be back later. She asked where I was going and I told her.”
Carole nods and looks at me. “No one but Carter and Lois would assume I’m over here if I’m not at their house.”
“McCoy isn’t in the right frame of mind to do this. He’s hurting, just like you guys. But Frannie –”
“Hold up, Mom. You think Frannie has something to do with this?”
“I didn’t say that but tell me this Ryley, who was with you the whole time Evan was gone?”
Ryley steps back and looks at me. “Aside from you and Dad - Nate, Frannie, Carter and Lois,” she says as her eyes go wide. “That could mean that –”
“Carter wouldn’t,” I say and am shocked to find Evan nodding in agreement.
“People do the unthinkable when they find themselves stuck in certain situations. We have to find out what that situation is, what was the catalyst that set this in motion. Someone knows something,” Carole says pleadingly. “Jensen, I know you’re worried about Ryley and EJ, I am too, but she has two highly lethal men in her life that will kill before they let a hair on either of their heads be harmed. They’ll protect her.”
“What about you?” he asks.
“I’ll be safe,” she says to Jensen.
Carole is right, regardless of whom Ryley and EJ belong to right now, Evan and I won’t let anything happen to her. Same goes for Carole.
IT’S OFFICIAL... A FIVE-YEAR-OLD has more logic than I do. When did that happen? After a tension filled dinner, Jensen suggested that one of us start staying with Ryley. An argument ensued and I lost simply because EJ asked that his dad spend the night. I didn’t think tonight was the time to assert my position in his life, and as much as I wanted to pound my chest and go all Tarzan on everyone, I can’t compete with the imploring looks from EJ. Ryley says that I’ll learn, but right now I don’t want to. I want to give in to every little request he has and give him the world. I want to learn what makes that little boy tick, what his favorite cereal is and whether he puts ketchup on his eggs like I do.
When I look at him I see me.
When he looks at me I want him to see his dad.
“Tough night?” Rick asks as he wipes down the bar. Magoo’s is empty for the most part. There’s a couple in the corner, but they’re so into each other they’re not paying attention to anyone else.
“You could say that.”
“I’d ask you what’s bothering ya, but I can probably figure it out.”
I finish off the beer in my mug and slide it toward him. “I imagine that you’ve heard a lot of stories, people tell you a lot of things. So let me ask you, have you ever heard of anyone going through what we did?”
Rick takes my mug and refills it, placing it on the bar along with a fresh bowl of popcorn and nuts. I shouldn’t be hungry but can honestly say I didn’t eat a thing at Ryley’s earlier, so bar food it is.
When Jensen showed us that note I wanted to lose my shit, but figured that’s what the people who are doing this want. It seems like they want the fight but aren’t willing to show face. They’re hiding behind death threats being left on front porches. Cowards... that’s what they are.
“I hear things,” Rick says, leaning closer to me. “I’m told things. And some people aren’t careful with how loud they are. Take that couple behind you.” I turn, looking quickly. “He’s having an affair, but his lady there doesn’t know it. He came in last night with a different woman.”
“That’s stupid.”