Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
“Holy hell,” Julie said on a gigantic sigh as she flopped off of Scott’s body and down onto the bed beside him. “That was amazing,” she said with a grin as she looked at him. “Give me a few minutes to catch my breath before we go for round two.”
Scott laughed as he jumped out of the bed and headed to the bathroom. They had spent the afternoon in the hotel room, then he’d taken her out to dinner. When they’d returned they started making out, and they had the best sex of his life.
Back out on the bed, he climbed under the covers naked, and gathered her in his arms. When she wiggled to get away from him, he scowled at her, but watched as she turned to face him, then looked down at him. “Can I ask you a sort of serious question?”
“Sure, what do you want to know?”
“Do you have any family?” Julie asked, then shook her head and laid her hand on his chest gently. “I’m not talking the guys you served with, I’m talking biological. You know, like Sara and me.”
“I have a sister, but I don’t talk to her. We went no contact with each other years ago.”
“Can I ask what happened? I’m just being nosy and trying to get to know you better.”
“Sure,” Scott said as he shrugged and moved up in the bed and adjusted the pillows at his back as he leaned against the headboard. “My sister is eight years older than I am. I was seventeen when she married Duane. Because of our age differences, we never really hung out. She always thought I was the irritating little shit, that’s what she always called me and I wasn’t someone she couldn’t be bothered with. I knew at a young age to stay out of her way. I’m not saying this next part to be mean, I’m stating it as facts because I saw it with my own eyes.” He looked at her with a raised brow and when she nodded, he continued, “I know women have PMS, I learned about it in Health class at school, and I even talked to my friend and her mother about it once.” He shook his head sadly as he looked off into space as he was remembering something.
“My parents, while they were there physically and financially, they weren’t there mentally, or emotionally. The house was always clean, meals cooked, laundry done, but they just didn’t care about Cara or myself. You could walk up to them and ask for five dollars and they’d empty their wallet for you, no questions asked. Cara took advantage of that. She started actively hating me when I was around thirteen or fourteen. I started playing sports and needed equipment. She was pissed that I got more money from my parents than she did.” Scott shook his head and looked at Julie wryly. “She didn’t do anything but boys.”
“Got it, let me guess, was she the typical mean girl in school?”
“Yeah, sort of like Boom-Boom and Jimmy John with her attitude. Anyway, when she left for her four-year partying stint, it was just my parents and myself.”
“Partying stint?”
“College,” Scott smirked when he looked at her. “Don’t tell her I told you this, but Cara failed a couple of years, so she was actually twenty when she graduated high school, and twenty-one by the time she enrolled into college. It became very peaceful around the house with her gone. I knew how flaky my parents were, so I was basically raising myself. I hardly ever saw them, but there was clean laundry, and my meals had been cooked ahead of time and left labeled in the freezer or refrigerator.”
“Were they gone?”
“Yes, they started a new project and were working on that. It wasn’t until the time between graduating high school and leaving for Navy boot camp that I found out what they were doing. Oh, and as I said, they never neglected me financially. Every Monday morning there was an envelope on the counter with my name on it full of cash. When I got my license, they even left me keys to one of their vehicles. The only thing I lacked from my parents was their physical presence and an emotional connection.”
He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “When I was a senior, Cara came home for the holidays with Duane in tow. That was the first time she had returned since leaving for college.” Again, he shook his head. “What I mentioned about PMS earlier I forgot to explain. Once a month, Cara went on a rampage, I mean it was bad. Screaming at the top of her lungs, that everything wrong in her life was everyone else’s problems and not hers. That her life would be better if I hadn’t been born. Real entitled bitch stuff. We all ignored her. Why? Because she was always that way, it was just that one time a month it was amped up about ten times worse. We learned to just ignore her.”
“Oh, wow.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t pretty. Anyway, when she brought Duane home, I had an instant connection with him. I got big brother vibes from him and we connected on that level.”
“Good for you.”
“Thank you, anyway, while Cara majored in partying and general studies, Duane was going after a degree in Criminal Justice. He was studious, but still could party on the weekend.”
“A mature adult then?”
“Exactly, anyway, they got married, I left for boot camp, and I didn’t make it home right away. I’m not dissing you for returning after boot camp and your schooling, because our lives were totally different. You had responsibilities at home, while I didn’t. Anyway, after I left and went through the weeks of boot camp and schooling, I was scheduled to be on a ship for a year.”
“Did you like it?”
“Nope, not one bit. I never knew I could get seasick on such a large vessel. Halfway through that tour I talked to my commander and asked him how I could apply to become a SEAL. He helped me fill out the necessary forms,” Scott stopped suddenly and looked at her with wide shocked eyes. “Holy shit,” he said in awe.
“What?”
“After I talked to the commander, he get me set up with the ship’s Communications Officer, and he helped me do what I had to. That would have been you, right?”
“Yes, that was my job while on board.”
“Wow, anyway, when I got back on dry land, I only had two weeks from the time the ship docked and for me to get to Coronado out in California. I made a quick stop at home to let them know I was alive and well, and found out that Cara and Duane had married by then. I didn’t see her, but I congratulated him, and we talked about his career. After he got married he had applied to the Federal Bureau of Investigations and got in.” He shook his head, then flopped the blankets back and walked naked over to the table to grab a bottle of water, he brought it back to the bed after downing half of it, then set it on the table beside the bed.
“Anyway, it was another four years before I could make it home. By then I’d gone through SEAL training, made it through Hell Week, and was assigned to Echo team. When I got an opportunity to make it home, I went back to my parents’ house, but found that Mom and Dad had sold the house and moved, and Duane and Cara were in a small apartment.” He shook his head sadly and closed his eyes as he continued to shake his head.
“As far as I know, Cara refused to work, she said she wanted to be a stay-at-home wife, however, she refused to cook or clean, yet expected Duane to pay her ninety-percent of his check.”
“Please tell me he didn’t do that?”
“He didn’t. He kept his money to himself and paid all the bills. He only allotted her one-hundred dollars every two weeks when he got paid. When she screamed at him that she deserved more, he put his foot down and told her she would get more if she did things around the house. If she didn’t like that, then she could get a job. I don’t know if all of this is accurate, but from what little time I saw them, or spent around them, this was my impression of things.”
“Wow, I bet that went over like a ton of bricks.”
“Yeah,” Scott chuckled, then looked at her seriously. “Before I continue, I need to tell you that there are two things I hate in this life and no matter what the circumstances are, I will never forgive anyone who does that to me. I don’t care if we’ve been together for five minutes or fifty years, I will not tolerate it.”
“What?”
“Lying and cheating.”
“I totally understand. I feel the same way.”
“Good. This will make this next part easier. Duane was home for an odd weekend. He admitted to me years later that he signed up to be undercover for the FBI because he hated going home to Cara. He would be out on the streets or in some location for weeks or months at a time. Not only was he doing his job, but he was avoiding his wife.”
“Why didn’t he divorce her?”
“Because he didn’t have any proof that she might be cheating on him, and he wanted it. Without it, she could take him to the cleaners.”
“Okay, I understand. What type of undercover work?”
“Vice, narcotics, he had been gone for about eight months when he came home for the weekend, the weekend I had been there. He told me a little about his case, there was this meth dealer they were trying to nail, but he kept eluding them. In frustration, the big boss gave the team the weekend off. As we were sitting there enjoying our beer and pizza, Cara came home. She wasn’t there when I arrived. She was about fifteen feet into the room when Duane swore under his breath and leaned in to tell me to restrain my sister on his say so. It all happened in less than two minutes, but Duane made a move, said the word, and while I had my arms wrapped around the screaming shrew of my sister, the man she brought home with her was face down in the carpet with cuffs on his wrists behind his back. Duane refused to let him up as he pulled out his phone and because Cara wouldn’t shut up, he pointed his gun at her and told her to be quiet in the coldest voice I had ever heard.”
“Oh, shit, what happened?”
“The guy she was kissing as they entered the apartment was the meth dealer they had been looking for. It turned out Cara had been having an affair with him for the past six months. She screamed that Duane had ruined her life for being home.”
“One question,” Julie asked in shocked awe. “Was she doing the drugs?”
“No, but after the investigation it was revealed that she had her hand deep, like shoulder deep, into this guy’s business. She was in charge of the female drug runners. Not to mention that she might have been involved in helping the dealer launder the month.”
“Oh, shit. Did she get jail time?”
“Ten to fifteen. She’s been in for twelve already. Before you ask, she was in jail for two years as they gathered evidence and it turned out that because of how deep into the organization she was, Duane was granted his divorce. It took a lot of talking with the upper brass for them to realize that Duane had nothing to do with it. It helped that he had been undercover for eight months. Two months before Cara became involved in the drug world.”
“Okay, I can understand all that, but why are you no contact with her?”
“Okay, you remember I just told you that I hate liars and cheaters?”
“Yes, what does that have to do with anything?”
“I lost all respect and feelings for her when I saw it with my own eyes that she came home with another man. That’s the cheating part. The lying part is that she not only lied that Duane had set her up to go into the organization, as he partner in the undercover world, and the he threatened her that if she didn’t do as he said, he would divorce her, she also told lies about me. Thank god they were unfounded.”
“What type of lies?”
“She told her lawyer that I was part of the operation along with her and Duane. That she would get the meth to me, and I smuggled it on the ship and distributed it to the ports we landed at. The way she talked, she thought the ship would make stops like a cruise ship did.”
“Little did she know that you were basically in the middle of the ocean for weeks, months on end, with no land in sight.”
“Correct, and it helped that I had a JAG lawyer on my side and could provide proof that I was a SEAL and was overseas on a mission when she gave dates and times.”
“Lucky for you.”
“Yeah, I didn’t stick around for her trial, but I was called in to testify, that’s when JAG came to see me, and we worked on our strategy to prove her wrong. I only returned when they sentenced her. Duane had called me to tell me the verdict, and it was another three months before she got the official sentencing. The judge allowed victims to speak. Because she lied and tried to get me in trouble, I gave a statement.”
“I hate to ask, but what did you say?”
“I don’t remember the exact words, but I do know that when I stared at her, I felt nothing. No brotherly love, no familial love, nothing, not even a twinge. I didn’t mince my words. I told her that she had been a terrible sister to me my entire life, and that because she tried to ruin me and my career that she was dead to me. I would not acknowledge her as a sister, and I never wanted to see or talk to her again.”
“I want to say that was harsh, but if she tried to mess with your career, I can see why you said what you did. Did she ever try to reach out to you?”
“I have no clue. After the statements were said, and she got ten to fifteen, Duane and I went out to celebrate. I told him that he was my brother-in-law, and he was divorced from my sister, I didn’t think he should stop being family. We kept in touch over the years, and it wasn’t until I was released from the Navy that we hooked up again. Sure, we saw each other and caught up over the years, but nothing serious. Manny and I went to him to see what it would take, or if we would even be eligible to join the FBI.” He shook his head in wonder.
“It turned out that he was in the middle of a gun running case that went over state lines. Because of what Manny and I had done in our previous jobs, Duane pulled some strings and we were allowed to tag along on that mission. Imagine our shock when the first person we saw was Ryan Carter.”
“Really? How?”
Scott went on to explain about the trouble Erin had had and discussed what they had done. “After we took the bad guys down, oh, it’s not over by a long-shot, they are sitting in jail without bail, but the DA has to gather evidence and get a case against them. They aren’t going anywhere. But once it was all done, Erin offered a job to Manny and me. That’s where Manny went to Wyoming to pack up The Double A and bring it back to Colorado, and I was sent here to find a man by the name of Patrick Clemmons. I met you, and that’s when I offered you to talk with Erin. Now, we are here waiting for you to sign the papers, then we can go home.”
“Did you find this Patrick Clemmons?”
“I did, remember I brought him to the restaurant the night I met Sara, and he left here the day I came here months ago for dinner. He’s back at New Double and working with the horses there alongside Cole Mercury and Ann, Manny’s girl.”
“First, I’m sorry your sister was such an entitled bitch,” Julie began, then paused when Scott spat out the water he’d just taken. He looked at her with a wide grin and a raised brow.
“You aren’t wrong.”
“Okay, with that said, I will never ask about her again. Rest assured that I will never be the girl that says you have to do something for the sake of family. I only have one more question, then I’ll drop the subject of your family.”
“What’s that? Oh, and I do have family I am close with. Duane Manchester is my family.”
“Good. What happened with your parents and how did they take what Cara did?”
Scott damn near split his face in two with his grin. “Nothing.”
“What do you mean nothing?”
“Duane and I went to find them. After they sold the house we grew up in, they took the money and bought a plot of land. I think it was like fifty acres, in the middle of nowhere and started living off-grid. They live off the land, they use rain water, and Dad was able to rig something up so he collects it. They have no electric bills, no gas bills, no water bills. With the sale of the house, and savings they bought the land outright. They used the trees on the land to build the cabin. They grow their own food and animals. Not something I would ever want to do, but I can see where it comes in handy.”
“What’s that look for?”
“Pru raises chickens and it’s great having fresh eggs every day, and with Ann wanting to put in a garden, I can see the benefits of that in the future. But I draw the line at the no power. I was in that basement in the dark and I can’t do it. Oh, I’m sure there’s light, I know they have solar panels on top of the house and barn, and they have a wood stove for head, candles, and kerosene lamps, but I don’t know if I could live without flicking a switch and getting power.”
“It would be like they are permanently camping, but with a roof over their heads?”
“Exactly. Maybe down the road I’ll look them up and take you to introduce you to them.”
“It’s something we can look into.” Julie turned in the bed and laid her head and hand on his chest to give him comfort. She smiled and sighed when he started playing with her hair, and it wasn’t long before she fell asleep.