Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Caleb hung up the wet towel and pulled on his clean clothes.
Jeans and a T-shirt. No idea where his belt was, but he didn’t need it for a long drive in his car.
Before the T-shirt slipped down to his waistline he caught a look at the giant bruise on his chest. He would be taking shallow breaths for the next few days thanks to being shot in the vest.
He’d followed up that battle with dragging the three bodies into the cabin and setting fire to it, along with all of the evidence.
Not the scenario he wanted because it smacked too much of someone trying to hide their actions.
But right now he didn’t need anyone getting a clue about what was going on, or the fact he was here.
Caleb wanted to be hundreds of miles from this part of Montana by the time anyone realized he’d come home.
He sat on the edge of the bed and slipped on his socks and shoes, grabbing the rest of his clothes out of the drawers and shoving them in his duffel bag.
He grabbed the phone off the nightstand and dialed his brother’s number.
For a second he didn’t care if anyone traced him thanks to the phone call. He needed to connect with his twin.
Caleb listened through the recorded message, an automated one that his brother hadn’t bothered to update. When the tone sounded Caleb said, “Call me back when you get this.”
He ended the call and tossed the phone on the bed, certain his brother would know from his tone that this was urgent.
He didn’t need to leave anything incriminating on a message.
Pops appeared in the doorway. “Not going to change your mind, am I?”
Caleb tried to look like a guy who hadn’t just taken a shower for the simple reason he’d burned three bodies in a cabin and smelled like smoke. “No, you’re not going to change my mind.”
He needed to get somewhere he could turn over the phones and IDs and get some answers.
As soon as he was out of this area he’d research private forensics labs.
Someone with the tech to look into the phones he had taken the batteries out of and shoved in the bottom of his duffel.
A company that would take his cash and not ask too many questions, but who could give him actionable intel at the end of it all.
“Your father was the same way.”
And here he was thinking that he had to leave before his business got someone he cared about killed. “I’m nothing like him.”
Caleb wanted to be far more like Pops than either of his parents.
“Noah is more like your mom, but you have your father’s stubbornness. And his sense of duty.”
This was how he was going to try and get Caleb to stay? He looked at Pops. “Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
Probably so that Pops couldn’t be captured, tortured, and forced to tell someone where they were. But what on earth did that mean his parents even did? Caleb had realized all too late that he knew nothing about them. Only what he’d been told, which had turned out to be a lie.
“Why did they leave us?”
“Why do you think?” Pops stared at him. “It’s what you’re doing right now.”
Caleb hated everything about that, because it meant he lost his parents all the same—but that they had done it to save his life.
Self-sacrifice didn’t do the other person any favors if they didn’t even know.
Was he supposed to be grateful they’d abandoned him?
Far as he could see it only made the person being noble feel better about themselves and their choices.
And yes, that was exactly what he was doing right now.
And he hated that as well.
Caleb gritted his teeth. “If I stay, I put you all in danger and expose myself.”
“And if you leave,” Pops said, “you’ll never find out what I know, or what the preacher knows about them.”
“Why don’t you just tell me so I can go knowing and you’ll be safe?”
Pops shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that.”
Caleb shoved the last few things in his duffel and zipped it up.
He slung it over his good shoulder. Which was of course, a misnomer.
Everything hurt right now. But he would take a couple of painkillers and get on his way.
It didn’t take a lot of strength to drive for days.
Sleep in his car. Continue pretending to be dead.
Never see Tessa again.
“I’m not going to back down. It doesn’t matter what you say.” Caleb had made up his mind and he was going to stick with it.
“God brought you back here and right when you’re starting to get answers you’re going to leave?”
“You didn’t see Tessa facing off against a gunman.”
“Thought that plan was your idea.”
Caleb said, “Just because it was the only way to resolve the problem doesn’t mean I liked seeing her in danger. A second from getting shot. Any of us could have died, and if it was me there would have been nothing I could do to save her.”
“Because she’s just an innocent, or your neighbor? Or because of something else?”
“This isn’t the time for us to get into that. I have a job to do.”
“So do it. Here.”
Caleb shook his head. “These people are serious. They aren’t going to back down just because I think someone shouldn’t be involved. They’ll do whatever they want with no regard for collateral damage.”
Pops gave him a steady look. “So you take all the risk and protect everyone else in the balance. Just like your parents.”
Great. They were back to that.
Fine. He wanted to talk about them?
Caleb lifted his chin. “Who are they that they had to leave just to save our lives?”
He would rather have had them in his life. He wanted to be the little boy he was on the inside. The one asking why he couldn’t have gone with his parents instead of being left behind.
But then the life he lived right now wasn’t one he would have taken a child along for.
“Your parents are people who do important work, just like you.”
Caleb said, “That’s not an answer. It doesn’t tell me anything.”
It’d been years since they left. Whatever danger there had been back then couldn’t possibly be the case now, right? Maybe it was just easier to stay away when they’d been out of contact for so long.
But again, the little boy inside wanted his mom and dad back.
“I’m leaving. As soon as this case is finished I’ll be back, because I’m not like them.” Caleb slung the duffel over his shoulder and headed down the hall.
Gus wandered out of the living room and stopped for Caleb to say bye to him. He dropped the duffel bag by the door and bent to give the dog a rubdown. He kept his mouth shut, ignoring the stinging in his eyes. It was just a dog for crying out loud.
But everyone knew that wasn’t the whole truth. Even if he was just focusing his emotions on the animal right now and it was about so much more than just leaving Gus behind.
Caleb cleared his throat.
“There are people here who could help you. Folks you know you can trust.”
“Like Tessa?” Caleb straightened. “She’ll get herself killed and I’ll have to live with that on my conscience.”
Once had been one time too many, and he had no desire to repeat that scenario ever again. He was not bringing his life into this town anymore.
Nathan Kessler’s men had found him here and come after Tessa’s father. As much as he would like to know what that was about he was going to take the chance and turn the fight back on the man he’d spent years trying to bring down.
“Did you stop and pray about it?” Pops asked.
“That was a low blow.” Using that to make him feel guilty that he was leaving without talking it through? “I’ve been praying for weeks about how to do this, and I finally got a lead. It might not have come the way I expected it to but I’m not going to just sit here and wait for him to come to me.”
The most he could figure was that his parents had sent Tessa’s father information to pass to Caleb.
He and the preacher hadn’t had occasion to meet yet.
Maybe her dad hadn’t even known that Caleb was home right now.
Now that he did, it didn’t matter. Caleb had the contents of the white envelope and all the intel he could gain from those three men.
Men willing to kill to get what they wanted. To bury the secret that Caleb was the one on the right side of the law.
“I’m not going to let them take my life away. They already got far too much.”
“So you’ll walk away and sacrifice your future.”
“What future?” Caleb lifted his hands, then let them fall back to his sides.
“My arm is a whole lot better than it was when I got here a couple of weeks ago. If I don’t finish this case and clear my name, taking down Kessler in the process, I don’t have a future.
All I have is a life in hiding being blamed for things I didn’t do. Labeled a traitor when I am not one.”
“The people who know you know the truth that you could never be what they’re saying you are.”
“You want that to be enough, but I need my integrity. I need my reputation.”
Pops nodded. “I understand.” He looked at Caleb with a pensive expression, then said, “You should go now. Tessa will be here soon.” He paused. “Unless you want to say goodbye to her before you go.”
Caleb stared at his grandpa. “Why is she coming here?”
“Because they won’t let her stay overnight at the hospital and she doesn’t want to go home alone to house that was broken into by these people.”
“She isn’t in any danger.” He’d made sure of that.
“Also she has something she was going to tell you about what happened at the hospital.”
Now Pops was dangling information that was supposedly vital.
“She can call me and tell me whatever it is.”
“You’re running away from her because deep down you don’t think you deserve a good woman.
But the truth is that if you are waiting for your life to be right before you take the next step in a relationship you’ll be waiting a long time.
Probably forever. There’s no need to put things off until you feel like you have everything in the right place. ”
As if Caleb needed relationship advice. He and Tessa had known each other a couple of days in so many years. It was hardly the beginning of a forever love. “The life I have right now is going to get her killed.”
“And deep down you believe you don’t deserve her.”
“Have you been reading psychology books again?”
“I know you. I know what life taught you to believe about yourself. Why you keep everyone at arm’s length and focus on work rather than letting people in.”
Pops stared at him. “And I’m telling you that God’s grace gives us more than we could imagine and definitely what we never deserve no matter how hard we push or how far we go.
Or how much we work to be the best version of ourselves that we can be.
You turned your life over to Him and He’s going to keep piling on things you never would’ve imagined you could have.
Blessings. People. More than you ever deserved. ”
“And you think Tessa is that?”
Someone moved behind him, catching him off guard. “You think I’m what?”
Caleb spun around and stared at her, standing in the doorway. How much had she heard?
Tessa looked down at his duffel bag and then back up at him. Were those tears in her eyes? “You’re leaving?”