CHAPTER SIX
“You placed a camera facing my door?” she asked with a slight tone of anger. “Why? Did you not trust me?”
“Of course I trust you,” said CJ. “But I didn’t trust Tim. He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t like loose ends, and if he had anything to do with his teammate’s death, he knew that you were smart enough to figure that out sooner or later. Plus, you very well could have been the JAG to prosecute him. I wanted to watch over you, Jill. I just wanted to make sure that you were safe and no one was screwing around with your home.”
“But you did that without asking, CJ,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I would have agreed if you’d only asked me.”
“I know. I know, and I’m fucking sorry I didn’t tell you. I just wanted you to be safe.” Jill looked at Georgie, who shrugged.
“Honey, you might as well get used to that shit. Believe me, it’s going to get worse. Around here, they like to make sure there are no possibilities for any of us to be in harm’s way. He should have told you, but he did it for all the right reasons.”
“I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you,” he said, walking toward her. He slowly put his arms around her, and she looked up at him.
“Please don’t leave me out of things like that again. I don’t like to be lied to, and I definitely don’t like secrets.”
“I promise,” he said, kissing her. He turned to face the others, happy that one crisis was averted. “What do we need to do? Do we need to go back to D.C.?”
“We? They want me, CJ. Don’t stick your neck out for me.” The entire room laughed, and she realized how foolish that sounded. “Okay, okay, I get it.”
“We’re all going to D.C.,” said Georgie. “I told them we’d be there first thing tomorrow morning to make our statements and provide evidence of your whereabouts. Right now, I have the tech team digging into his background to see if we can find out why he was murdered.”
“Well, it could be a number of things. He was a Ranger, but he was also screwing around with his teammate’s widow and ended up marrying her after his death. She was, is pregnant.”
“That’s a juicy little morsel,” frowned Cam. “Teammates know better than to do that shit. How did he die?”
“I don’t know yet,” said CJ. “I was asking around about it, but no one seemed to be able to give me a response. Something definitely wasn’t right.”
“We’ll find the wife and figure out what’s happening,” said Georgie. “You’ll be cleared, considering all the proof we have of your whereabouts. For now, just try to enjoy the day here. Wedding breakfasts are the best.”
“She’s right,” smiled CJ. “One day, you’ll experience our own.”
“CJ,” she blushed, shaking her head.
“I haven’t changed my mind, Jill. You’re the woman I’m going to marry. End of story.”
“My son is hard-headed,” smiled Milo. “Like his mother, really. He knows what he wants, and he’s not going to back off from that. If I can put in my two cents, I’d like to say that I think you fit in perfectly with our family, Jill. Your interviews were great. You’re obviously a talented lawyer, but more than that, you’re the woman that my son loves. I know it all might seem fast to you, but for this group, he’s been taking his sweet time.”
“I’ve heard that things move faster here,” she nodded. “Alright, let’s have breakfast, and I can spend the next twenty-four hours worrying about my career.”
“There is nothing to worry about,” said Georgie. “You were nowhere near your home for the last four days. He was found dead yesterday. It’s obvious you had nothing to do with it. We’ll figure out the cause of death and find out what’s going on. Until then, just enjoy the day.”
Jill didn’t think she’d be able to enjoy the day, but she was proved wrong. Above and beyond the spectacular food, music, games, and people, there was love everywhere. She could feel it in her bones.
“Are your parents living?” asked Lia.
“Oh, no,” said Jill, shaking her head. “My mother left when I was little, leaving my father and me on our own. He was a police officer in the D.C. area. We had a neighbor lady who always took care of me. She was wonderful.”
“And your father?” asked Ajei.
“When I was eleven, he was killed while trying to rescue a woman and her son. It was a bitter winter, and she’d driven off into the river. My father dove in and saved them both but got trapped beneath the ice.”
“I’m so sorry, honey,” said Ajei, reaching for her hand.
“Me, too. He was a great man and a wonderful father. I was lucky to have Mrs. Clausen. She was old when it happened but fought to get custody of me. Fortunately, the guys on the force knew what Dad wanted and went to bat for me. She passed away after I graduated from law school and went to work at the Pentagon.”
“Then you have no family?” asked Kate.
“No. No, I guess I don’t. I mean, my dad had some distant cousins, so I suppose they’re out there somewhere, but I don’t know them.”
“Well, you’re about to have more family than you can handle. We tend to stick together like glue,” smiled Sophia Ann. “Some of us are blood-related, others just fortunate enough to be married to this crazy group. It won’t matter. You’re a sister now.”
“A sister,” she smiled. “I always wished I’d had a sister or two.”
“How do you feel about a hundred?” smirked Gwen.
“I might need a hundred after this week,” she laughed. “I just don’t understand why he would have come back to my condo after leaving like he did. I took his keys from him, so he didn’t have a key to get in.”
“That’s good information for Georgie to have,” said Kate. Jill nodded, looking concerned for herself but also for CJ. She stared at him as he laughed and joked with some of the other men. “Don’t worry about him. He’s a big boy and can handle himself.”
“I know. It’s just, well, what if something strange is going on? What if Tim was doing something I didn’t know about, and it reflects poorly on CJ?”
“Was he doing something?” asked Ajei.
“I honestly have no clue. He rarely talked about work, and I was fine with that since I couldn’t really talk about work either. At least not until my cases were done. It makes me wonder why he ever started dating me.”
“Why do you think he started dating you?” asked Gwen. She looked at the faces of the women around her and then back at Jill.
“I don’t know. That’s the truth. I met him through friends at dinner one night, and he asked me out. I hadn’t been on a date in forever, so I said yes. He was tall, a prerequisite for me. He was reasonably nice-looking, not like CJ. But we never really connected intellectually. I’m not sure why I got so comfortable with him.”
“Being comfortable has its perks,” said Ajei. “It’s hard to know whether or not something is love or friendship when you’ve been around one another for so long.”
“Oh, it wasn’t friendship. I never felt like he was my friend. With CJ, I felt friendship right away. I mean, I was physically attracted to him. Intellectually we were clicking all the way, but I felt friendship from moment one. I never felt that with Tim.”
“So, why did you agree to marry him?” asked Sophia Ann. “I mean, I don’t want to pry, but it doesn’t feel like it was love.” Jill was quiet for a few minutes, then nodded.
“You’re right. It wasn’t. It was the feeling that he might be my only shot at happiness and a family. I’ve missed out on so much of that with my dad being gone. I think I was just hoping to have a little of it for myself. We were comfortable. That’s such a terrible word to use.”
“No, it’s understandable,” said Kate. “Listen, I grew up with Cam. Ajei and Luke knew each other from the time they were in elementary school. Sophia Ann and Eric, from the time they were babies. Gwen and Hex met later, but comfortable isn’t a bad word. You want to be comfortable with your partner. Feel as though you have something in common.”
“I don’t think we did. Other than the military, we didn’t have anything in common.”
“Did you ever meet his teammates? The one that died?” asked Ajei.
“Yes. I knew Alana, his new wife. She and Adam were married probably a year. I’d been to their home a few times. He was a nice enough guy, a little rough around the edges, but he was always sweet to her.”
“What was she like?” asked Georgie, listening in on the conversation.
“Alana. Alana was motivated.”
“That’s an interesting word to use,” said Ajei. Jill nodded.
“Yeah, it is, isn’t it? She always wanted more. They had a lovely house, two-bedroom, two-bath. But it was just them. I remember that it was decorated perfectly. Sometimes, you can tell when someone is decorating on a budget. She was not. This was stuff that came from high-end design stores.
“When I asked about this mirror in their dining room, she blew it off, saying it was one of Adam’s family pieces. She thought it was junk and wanted it to go. She said she already had one picked out from this antique store in Alexandria. She even bragged about it costing more than their car.”
“That’s quite a mirror,” frowned Georgie.
“Yeah, she was always wanting more. The last time I saw her, before the confrontation with Tim, we all went to dinner with his team before they deployed. It was a nice restaurant, so I was wearing a dress, and I had a small clutch. Something I’d spent a lot of money on after winning a big case. I mean, I’m single, I make good money, it shouldn’t have mattered.
“She went crazy over it, yelling at Adam that it was the bag she asked him to buy her for her birthday. I felt terrible. I told Adam I was sorry that I ever brought it. He was really nice about it and just said it was just her throwing a fit like she always did.”
“Interesting,” said Ajei. “Most women are well aware that when they marry a Teams guy, they’re not going to be rich. They marry for love of the man, not the paycheck.”
“Huh,” frowned Jill.
“Huh, what?” asked Sophia Ann.
“Well, I remember Tim saying to me once that we couldn’t get married until he made more money than me. I just laughed it off. I thought he was joking. Maybe there was something to that.”
“Maybe,” nodded Kate. “Men have fragile egos, and most don’t like it when their wives make more money than them. Our guys wouldn’t care. It’s not something anyone ever talks about. But other men probably would.”
“I was very frugal,” said Jill. “My father left me a nice inheritance, and of course, there were additional policies because he was killed in the line of duty. But that’s money that I never touched. It was put in a trust for my children. I didn’t need it.”
“Did Tim know about it?” asked Ajei.
“I don’t think I ever told him. Proof again that we weren’t meant for one another. I mean, I just shared that with all of you. Relative strangers. That seems telling, doesn’t it?” Georgie nodded at her.
“Maybe, honey. Maybe.”