Chapter 30
“ W hat’s Rian up to these days?” Gabriel asked Joseph. He sat across the aisle from her and Gabriel in the bus taking them to the trailhead where they’d start an eight-mile hike.
Callie kept her gaze on the passing scenery but tuned her ears to the answers.
By unspoken agreement, they hadn’t broached the subject of Joseph’s family at all the night before, wanting the youngest Nolan comfortable with them before they started probing.
That Gabriel started with Rian, a man he believed to be innocent, surprised her.
Then again, maybe not; Rian was the one who connected the two men, and asking about Aiden first might seem odd.
Although she wasn’t sure Joseph would notice. The man was far too trusting.
“Working too hard as usual. And after Laura,” Joseph said, his voice trailing off.
“No news on her?” Philly asked.
In the reflection of the window, she saw Joseph shake his head. “My dad thinks Rian is well rid of her, but I always liked Laura. Doesn’t matter what we thought, though, since Rian was the one married to her and loved her. Still does.”
“He’s working too hard?” Philly prodded.
Again, Joseph nodded. “He’s always worked more than he should.
He misses out on so much because he’s spending his time behind a desk.
I don’t mean he should ignore work, but what’s the use of making money if you don’t use it?
Life is about balance. Well, not always, but we have the privilege of being able to balance our lives.
I don’t understand why Rian chooses not to. ”
“I assume business is going well though? If he’s dedicating so much time to it?”
Joseph shrugged. “It has some swings, but overall, people need clothes and all the other things we make, so, yeah, it’s going well.
Rian’s started managing the retail/civilian side while Dad’s taken on more of the government work.
That’s been growing over the years. He’s working to close a deal with the Canadian government next month to supply their military and police.
If it goes through, it will be our single biggest government agreement yet. ”
“For what? Like uniforms and stuff?” Philly asked, as if he had no clue.
“Yeah, and stuff for bases like towels, sheets, things like that.”
“Wow, I hadn’t realized the company had moved into that space. The last time I talked to Rian, he was on his way home from a meeting with the heads of the big European fashion houses. But I guess the law enforcement market is a stable one. Always there.”
Joseph nodded.
Gabriel turned the conversation away from business by asking what other ways Joseph balances his life, which lasted until they pulled into the trailhead.
In the scramble of unloading the seven people who’d elected to hike that day, along with the two guides, Callie pulled out her phone.
She wanted to ask Leo and Sabina to check into the Canadian deal, but one look at the device told her she’d have to wait.
Cell service didn’t make it this far into the canyon.
Despite the trip being about business, about digging out information from Joseph, the beauty of the hike wasn’t lost on her.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d escaped to the wilderness just to hike.
She ran almost every day. She’d hiked to crime scenes, because even white-collar agents got out every now and again.
And she’d participated in a fundraising mini-trek for a colleague who’d died in a car accident, leaving her husband and three kids behind.
But she hadn’t hiked just to hike since she and Gabriel were kids.
Together, they’d spent hours traipsing through the woods and gentle hills surrounding their small town outside of Philadelphia.
Her parents wouldn’t have allowed it if she’d asked, so most of their adventures began from her grandparents’ farm.
The north part of their property abutted a state park, which then linked to several other parks.
As happy as those memories were, their childhood hikes seemed like a stroll through a wooded wonderland compared to the wilderness they now traversed.
Red dirt trails lined with fragrant desert sage guided them into a canyon, up and down several steep ravines, and along a wide ridge until they emerged at the top of a sandstone monolith.
More barren and sparse than Pennsylvania, but also more breathtaking.
“It’s stunning,” she said, gazing down to the mountain-ringed valley below.
“You’ve never been here?” Joseph asked, coming up alongside her and handing her a power bar a guide distributed.
“Thanks,” she replied, taking the bar with a shake of her head. “I’ve been to New Mexico, but not this part of the country.”
“This is one my favorite spots,” he continued. She glanced around to see Gabriel in conversation with an older couple.
“You’ve been before, then?”
He nodded. “This is my fifth time in this area. Third at this resort.”
“It’s too bad your family doesn’t come to share it with you.”
He lifted his shoulder. “Like I told Gabe, Rian is a workhorse. Always has been, but it got worse after his wife disappeared. And my dad, well, he’s not a bad sort, but, well, he’s not someone you’d want to spend a lot of time with, so it’s a good thing he doesn’t like traveling with me.”
She offered him a wry smile. “In other words, he’d ruin it for you?”
He responded with a chagrined one of his own. “Does that make me a terrible son?”
She laughed. “No, I love my sister, but she’s more about high fashion than high altitudes. I’d never bring her on a trip like this.”
“But you’d travel with her?”
She bobbed her head. “I would and I have. But we go to spas or Caribbean beaches, that sort of thing.”
“I wouldn’t travel with my dad. Rian, yes. My dad, no. And that gives you more insight into our relationship than you wanted,” he added with a rueful chuckle.
“I take it you don’t get along?” When he hesitated, she added, “No need to make excuses if that’s the case.
You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want, but if you do, you’re talking to someone who can empathize.
I haven’t spoken to my parents since I left home at eighteen.
Not even at either of my grandparents’ funerals. ”
He looked over at her. Joseph was a handsome man—not her type, but handsome in that generic, well-taken-care-of way.
His dark hair was tousled by the wind, and his eyes held a mix of curiosity and optimism.
A combination that didn’t make a lot of sense to her, but the golden retriever reference came to mind again.
Joseph Nolan looked like a man who actively hoped to see the good in people.
A wonderful—if somewhat exhausting—trait.
A trait she was starting to feel oddly protective of.
There should be more people in the world like Joseph.
People who genuinely believed in the good in other people.
She thought Joseph might say more about his dad, but the guide called out that they’d be leaving soon. If they wanted any last pictures, they had five minutes. Gabriel ambled over, looking as if he’d been out on a walk, not a four mile, uphill hike.
“Let’s take some pictures,” Joseph said. Gabriel caught her eye, then laughed at Joseph’s exuberance.
“Sure,” he said. “I suck at selfies, though, so you’ll have to take them. You can text them to me,” he said, coming to her side.
For the next few minutes, Joseph snapped his shots.
Some of the three of them, some with Gabriel, and then he asked her to take a couple of him on his own.
She hoped he had someone special to send them to.
Joseph was the kind of guy who deserved someone in his life who appreciated and wanted him in that way.
When they returned to the resort, the staff had a full lunch ready.
Their small group passed the time talking about other hikes, sharing pictures, and getting to know one another.
About halfway through the meal, as a story about a hike in New Zealand had the table roaring with laughter, a spike of panic sliced through her enjoyment, cutting it off as effectively as a guillotine.
What was she doing sitting at this table appreciating a nice meal, laughing , while on a case?
She needed Sabina and Leo to start looking into the Canadian deal Joseph mentioned.
She needed them to start looking into Aiden more deeply, in general.
She still wasn’t 100 percent convinced Rian wasn’t involved in the nefarious side of the Nolan business, but her gut told her Gabriel was right about Joseph.
“Oh, where in Brazil?” Joseph asked one of the two brothers in their group, the conversation having moved on to another part of the world as she chastised herself. “My dad travels to Brazil all the time. He goes for business, but it’s the one place he seems to enjoy other than home.”
She looked at Gabriel. He inclined his head. Brazil had the highest rate of child prostitution in South America.
“Sabina and Leo can look into that, too,” Gabriel said, leaning toward her so as not to be overheard. “We’re here to gather information.”
Her gaze darted around the table. “Gather information, report it back, so Sabina and Leo can run with it,” she said more to herself than him.
Gabriel nodded. “We’re scouts. It’s an important job, trust me. Scouts saved our team’s collective ass more than once. What we report back will help us come up with the best plan,” he said. Almost as if trying to assuage her anxiety.
“You’re not just saying that to appease me?” she asked. His brow dropped in confusion. “Never mind,” she said on an exhale. His head cocked. “Really, never mind,” she insisted. He didn’t need any more insight into her performance anxiety issues than he already had.
“You done?” she asked, nodding to his plate.
He held her gaze, then nodded.
“Shall we go make that call?” he asked.
And because he already knew her answer would be “yes,” he pushed back from the table and rose.