Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Six miles was about the amount of time it took Caleb to run out his frustrations. Not that he could solve all his problems and figure out what to do in that amount of time, but it certainly helped him relieve some of the tension building in him since he woke up in the hospital.
He slowed to a walk coming back up the drive to the house and spotted Pops on the porch. The old man lifted a bottle of water from the wood planks beside his chair and handed it to Caleb as he approached.
“Thanks.” Caleb twisted the lid and drained the bottle dry. After he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, he said, “Everything okay?”
“Forgot she was coming. When I remembered, I figured you could use the surprise.” The old man rocked in his chair, chuckling to himself. He wore a checkered shirt over his T-shirt. Jeans and boots. Pretty much his uniform for as long as Caleb could remember.
“It’s good that she comes over and helps you out.”
Caleb had spent most of his run thinking about the curvy older girl he’d known, and the woman in slouchy clothes who had been mopping the floor.
Singing loudly, thanks to the volume of the music in her earbuds.
He’d been more than a little mesmerized before she turned and screamed at him, which was the last thing he needed and the furthest thing from what he’d expected would happen today.
“I think she thought I was there to murder her.” And a moment after that scream she’d been determined to beat him off with a mop. “She wouldn’t have gone down without a fight.”
Pops chuckled. “No, she would not have.”
Now all Caleb needed to do was get the girl next door out of his head long enough for him to make a plan. He needed to work out what he was going to do next.
Now that Nathan Kessler had ruined his life, Caleb had some payback to dish out. Recovering here was one thing, but it wasn’t like he was going to just roll over and let Kessler—or his lackeys—do this to him.
“You know,” Pops said. “If you were lookin’, can’t go wrong with a woman like Tess. She makes a mean chicken fried steak.”
Caleb shot him a look. “Pops.”
“I know.” The old man waved a hand.
They needed a change of conversation stat. “Have you heard back from Noah yet?”
Pops shook his head. “Sorry, son.”
“Surely he heard by now that I’m dead.” Caleb didn’t bother to lift his hands and make quotes. They both knew what he meant.
“Even if he did, you really think he would have believed it?” Pops asked. “I mean, you’d know, right? If it was him.”
“It’s not like some mystical connection. I can’t feel if he’s in pain, or whatever they say on TV.” But they were identical twins. At most, Caleb felt strong emotions from his brother. But only on occasion, though. “But yeah, I would probably know if he’d been killed.”
Caleb leaned against the porch rail. The understanding between him and his brother that they would call each other if they ever needed help had stretched to three years of not much contact. Truth was, nearly dying had made him realize what he wanted to change about his life.
Talk about a cliché.
Lying in a Catholic hospital in Guatemala, he’d had to face some things that he’d been ignoring for years.
Like the faith that Pops had tried to instill in them when they were little.
A priest had sat by his bed for hours, explaining the gospel to him.
Everything Pops had ever said made sense to him.
Now that he was back, he wanted to dig into it.
And he wanted his brother in his life for real. Not just from a distance.
Problem was, he couldn’t just call Noah himself. Even cops had to use channels with the military to try and get him a message since all the emails Caleb sent went unreplied to.
Pops eased out of the chair. “He’s your brother. He’ll come back around eventually.”
Caleb could only nod. “I’m going to take a shower, then do you want to hit the store?”
“Sounds good. I’ll go take a nap while you’re in the shower.”
He didn’t bother telling Pops that the shower would take less than five minutes. The old man needed to rest when he felt like he should.
Every time he saw Pops over the years it seemed like the guy aged way more than he should have. But then, he wasn’t going to stay the same spry grandpa he’d been when they were young. Not now that Caleb and Noah were in their thirties and Pops was over eighty.
He passed the framed pictures in the hallway, the snapshots of family life over the years.
Caleb didn’t often stop and look at the ones showing his parents, but something about missing his brother made him pause.
He looked at the image of him and Noah with mom and dad at the lake, all of them holding fishing poles.
One of the rare times that their parents had actually been around in the summer rather than leaving them with Pops and taking off to who knew where.
One summer they had simply never come home.
Pops hadn’t known where they’d been going, and Caleb and Noah had never been able to figure out what happened to them.
Over the years, the not knowing had grown into a cold indifference. After all, if their parents had been able to come home to them then they would have. Nothing would have stopped them, right? So either they just didn’t want to, or for some reason they couldn’t—which probably meant they were dead.
Caleb had never found out.
Eventually he just moved on with his life, and summers with Pops at the ranch had turned into high school in this part of Montana.
Sharing a broke down pickup truck with his brother.
High school football championships, all state two years in a row.
Girlfriends. Graduation. The military, him only for a few years before leaving and becoming a fed.
His brother sticking it out with the Army.
All of it with Tessa Ashland living next door. The preacher’s daughter, pretty much off-limits just because of that. But Caleb couldn’t say he never thought of her.
That he’d never wondered what might’ve happened if he’d stuck around.
After he dried off and dressed, Caleb went to the laptop on his desk—the one he’d done his homework at in high school. While he rubbed the gel on his burns, he looked through the information he’d amassed about Nathan Kessler.
It was going to take a serious operation to get the man to come out of hiding long enough for Caleb to snatch him up.
Working his way up the ladder, taking out every sympathizer and climbing to the top of the pile to take down Kessler would take longer.
Maybe. Right now he needed a serious infusion of godly wisdom to figure this out.
Grandpa had promised him last night that wisdom was in the cards, now that he was renewing his faith.
Caleb put his head in his hands, his elbows on the desk, and laid it all on the altar in prayer. Revenge was something he desperately wanted. It drove him not to let this go. But he had to be smart about it and go for justice, not just the destruction of those he considered his enemies.
Noah would probably laugh at his line of thinking. Consider him soft for doing the right thing. But then, maybe not. Maybe his brother had gone through a similar kind of change since the last time they’d spent much time together.
A little while later, Pops knocked on the door frame and they headed out to the store. The route from the ranch toward town took them past Tessa’s farmhouse. The one she still lived in with her father.
“Did she ever leave town?” Caleb gripped the wheel, like that was a perfectly innocent question to ask.
“Only for vacation.” Pops shifted in his seat. “Her best friend lives over in South Dakota, so she drives and visits Meg and her family for the 4th of July every year.”
As Caleb looked over the house as it stood now, and the expanse of field between it and the road, he saw the front door fling open and a second later Tessa ran out. She looked around frantically as if she was missing something. Her movements jerky and tense.
Caleb grabbed the wheel with both hands and turned the corner onto her dirt track, spraying gravel.
Thankfully there were no other cars on the highway, so he didn’t cause an accident.
Whatever was going on with Tessa, Pops would want to help her out.
That was the reason he was now speeding down her lane toward where she stood.
As soon as he stopped, Pops hopped out of the car. Moving faster than Caleb had seen him do since he got back.
Caleb jogged over in time to hear Pops say, “What’s going on, Tess?”
She pushed the hair back from her face, her elbows splayed.
“My dad was supposed to be home by now, but I can’t get him to pick up the phone.
Someone was in the house earlier. While I was at your place.
” She dropped her hands. “I thought it was just a delivery, but when I looked it shows they actually broke into the house.”
Caleb said, “Did they take anything?”
She shook her head. “Nothing was missing, but everything is just…off. Like someone went through all our stuff.”
“You think they were looking for something?”
“I guess.”
Caleb motioned to the open front door. “May I?”
“Should we call the police or something?” Tessa asked.
“Give me a second first.” Caleb strode to the front door and stepped inside, the familiar scent of the preacher’s house washing over him in a way that hit him with nostalgia.
He and Noah had come here with Pops every Sunday for lunch after service. The two men had been friends for years. Caleb was pretty sure that his father and the preacher had been good friends as well, close in age.
Back then it hadn’t hurt that Tessa had been at the table. It didn’t matter what card game she taught them, she always won. But she seemed to do it in a way that made the whole thing hilarious and enjoyable.
Caleb wandered through the house, seeing what she’d meant. It did look like someone had gone through everything. He stopped in the study where the preacher prepped for his messages and looked around.
Had whoever was in here uninvited taken what they came for, or did they leave empty-handed?