Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
“You’ve got mail, Rankin,” the Captain called out.
“Huh?”
“Probably you’re AARP card,” Josie joked. She was the youngest member on our team, and she was constantly giving me shit for my age.
I walked over to the mail cubbies, pulled out a letter, and immediately froze. It was the same handwriting as the threats that my dad had received. I looked at the postmark. Yep, it had come from Knoxville, same as Dad’s.
“Well, aren’t you going to open it?”
I wasn’t really surprised that Zarek was looking over my shoulder. He always had been a curious bastard.
“Not here,” I whispered.
As soon as I said that, his eyes changed from twinkling to assessing. “Kitchen should be empty since it’s in the middle of a shift change.”
I nodded and we both headed upstairs. Since I had just arrived, I hadn’t had a chance to put my gear away in my locker, so I had what I needed with me. When we got to the kitchen I fished out my copies of the two letters Dad had received. I saw Zarek frown. “What are those?”
“Dad got these. They were delivered to the bank.” I handed them to Zarek. He took a moment to read them.
“I’m assuming the one that mentions your mom is the second one?”
I nodded. “Yep, he was definitely angrier in that one.” I looked it over again.
Rankin,
You better be listining too me
You and your fancy wife
took what was mine
You will pay.
You will roo the day you intifered.
“This guy is a total nutjob. Roo the day? At least you know you’re not dealing with a mental giant.”
I wasn’t so sure, my gut was telling me this was bad. I carefully opened up the envelope addressed to me, like Simon had taught me, then I read the note.
Mikey
Your time has come
You took away my life
Now I’m coming for yours
The note slipped out of my hands and slowly floated to the floor. I hadn’t been called Mikey since I was adopted by the Rankins.
Zarek bent down and picked up the note. “What the fuck, man? Who is this guy? And why is he calling you Mikey?”
“It’s my dad. Only my real mom and dad ever called me Mikey, and my mom is dead.” I shook my head, trying to clear out my confusion. “I mean, my biological parents.”
Zarek tilted his head. “I keep forgetting you were adopted. And the fact that you hardly spoke when you started school with us. You were a weird kid to begin with, but that didn’t matter to Chloe and me, we liked weird.”
Zarek’s hand landed firmly on my shoulder. “I’m sorry your real mother is gone. If you ever need to talk about it…”
I shook my head, my throat tightening. “Not now.”
“Okay.” His grip was solid, grounding. “But when you’re ready, I’m here.”
“Thanks, man.” I met his eyes briefly, grateful for the lifeline he always offered.
“So this note… you think it’s from your dad?” His tone was careful now.
“It has to be,” I said, my voice low, the realization settling in like a lead weight. When had he even gotten out of prison? He’d been sentenced to life. How was this possible?
I clenched my jaw, shoving the notes into my bag. “I’ve got to talk to the Captain. I need a couple hours to figure this out.”
“Understood. We’ve got your back.” Zarek’s voice was steady, and for a second, I felt like I wasn’t spiraling alone.
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
“Thanks.” I nodded, my gratitude too heavy to put into words. With my heart pounding, I strode toward the Captain’s office, every step laced with the weight of the past and the storm brewing ahead. I needed Simon—or Roan—or both. This wasn’t just a letter. It was a warning.
“Yeah, he was released six months ago,” Roan said, his tone clipped as he looked up from his computer. “According to his parole officer, he’s checked in for every meeting on time. He’s also passed every home inspection with flying colors.”
“Where is he living?” Just the thought of the man had me shaking with horror. I hadn’t thought of him since bootcamp, when I’d been exhausted and hungry from training and had nightmares of my childhood where I had been exhausted, hungry and beaten.
“Nashville. I’ve got his address,” he said, tapping his screen. “According to his parole officer, he’s due for a surprise inspection.”
“Is there any way you could tag along?” I asked, my stomach knotting.
“No,” Simon answered. “But I’m having a friend hack into the parole officer’s system and see when the surprise inspection is scheduled and we can follow him to your dad’s.”
“Sweet.” That was the first smile I’d had all day.
“We’ll let you know when we have things set up, okay?”
I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. “You’ve got it. Thanks.”
I turned back to Roan. “How’s Jace and his family settling in?”
Roan laughed and shook his head. “It’s crazy over at that house. Jace’s brother Bruno has his crew over there working on the kitchen that Jace’s wife Bonnie, wants. But when I go over there, the baby always seems to be crying, and the twins trying to help the contractors!”
“What about Bonnie?”
“She’s calm as a cucumber. It’s like she has eyes in the back of her head, she always knows what the twins are up to, and when the baby cries she hands him over to Jace and he immediately settles down. Jace is like an honest-to-God baby whisperer.”
“That I’d like to see.” I grinned. Jace was a huge guy with rough features and was a former Navy SEAL.
“When things calm down and they’re more settled, Simon is chomping at the bit to hire him.”
I frowned and looked at Simon. “There can’t be enough work in Jasper Creek for three of you.”
“Word has got around. We’ve got a waiting list all across Tennessee, and some out of state. Trust me, we need him. We really need more than Jace. We need someone, man or woman, who has skills. Former military training or law enforcement would be best.” Simon gave me a pointed look.
“Nope, not me. I like my job as a firefighter.”
“You were a Ranger,” Roan protested.
“And that’s the reason why I came back to Jasper Creek to work as a firefighter and I didn’t apply to be a smokejumper. I had enough of jumping out of airplanes.”
“But—”
“Give it a rest, Roan,” Simon interrupted his partner. “Michael knows what he wants out of life, leave him to it.”
“Thanks.” I gave Simon a chin lift.
“Gotcha,” Roan said with a grin. “Ya gotta do what speaks to your soul. I respect that.”
Now that was the reason that Roan Thatcher was one of my best friends.
“Let’s get back to the letters,” Simon said as he picked up the one addressed to me. “I looked at the court transcripts of your father’s trial. Since you were only five years old, all of your testimony was done via closed circuit TV, so you didn’t have to see your father. I tried to get a copy of that, but I couldn’t.”
“Not even the techies from your old SEAL teams could get you a copy?” Roan asked with disbelief.
“Not so far.”
“If they do, don’t show it to me,” I said, a rock sitting in my gut. The last thing I wanted was to relive those days. Seeing my father kill my mom had been bad enough, but then those days spent reliving it as I was questioned over and over had been agonizing. They’d even asked me questions about my life before the murder. Something I’d been trained never to talk about. They’d had this lady come in and talk to me. She’d told me that the man in the robe wouldn’t hurt me and I had to tell the truth. That my father would be punished for what he had done to my mother if I told the truth and finally I had believed her, and sat in a special chair beside the man in the robe and answered all the questions. I told the truth about all the time I’d been beaten and how I’d learned not to cry. Only babies cried.
“Do you think your dad would hold a grudge after all this time?” Roan asked.
“Definitely.”
“Is he the type who would just kill you?” Simon asked quietly.
I had to think about it. I was just a kid when I knew him. But thinking about him through an adult lens, I realized he got off on power. He was one sadistic bastard.
“No, he wouldn’t just come after me. Not directly. He would want to make my life miserable. That’s why he’s targeting my parents. He wants to make me suffer.”
Simon nodded. “That’s my take, too. It’s good that, for now, he doesn’t know where they live, but unfortunately everybody in Jasper Creek knows where they live.”
“They’re not listed anywhere. I did an internet search, their address doesn’t come up,” Roan said. “And nobody in Jasper Creek would tell a stranger their address.”
“But I want to be safe. We need to install a security system in their house,” Simon said.
“It needs to be top-of-the-line.” I said, my voice sharp.
“That goes without saying,” Simon agreed.
“And you need one, too,” Roan insisted.
“I can take care of myself.”
“Nope, you need an alarm,” Roan argued.
“I have a dog.”
“Not good enough,” Roan scowled.
I sighed. “Okay, set me up with an alarm system.”
“We’ll set you up with Ace Alarm Systems. They’re the best. We’ll ask for a favor to put you and your folks at the top of their schedule,” Simon smiled. “In the meantime, watch your back.
“Always,” I said, my jaw tightening. Because if my father thought he could worm his way back into my life and destroy it, he had another thing coming.