Chapter 34
SOFIA
Ablock of a man whose name was embroidered onto his jacket as “Jackson” stepped in front of me when I got to the base. “I’m sorry, ma’am. This area is off-limits.”
“Of course, it is,” I snapped. “It’s a fucking military base. I know where I am, soldier. I also know where I need to go.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Do you have an appointment?”
“Yes, with Charles Cantor. He’s my father.”
Jackson did a double-take. “No shit. Really?”
“Really. Step aside, and maybe I’ll tell him how good you are at security.” I knew I wasn’t being fair to him, but I needed to get to my dad.
Urgency burned like a living thing inside of me. After the talk I’d had with Haley, I was one-hundred percent sure that my dad knew where Lincoln was and that he’d had something to do with his disappearance from my life.
Jackson wisely let me in without any further argument, but he did check my ID to make sure I was who I said I was. Once I got onto the base, I headed straight for my father’s office.
I had no way of knowing whether he’d be there or if it was even still his office, considering that he was technically retired, but it seemed as good a place as any to start searching for him. As it turned out, it had been the right move to try him there first.
The door was open, and the inside of the office looked exactly like I remembered. He even still had the picture of me when I was five on his desk.
“Do they know you’re retired or do people just keep their offices here for the rest of their lives?” I asked as I walked in, planting a hand on my hip.
Dad frowned when he looked up from a folder spread out on the surface of his desk. “I still have business to attend to here. You know that. Once it’s all wrapped up, I’ll clear out. What are you doing here?”
“I came to talk to you,” I said. “About Lincoln. Where is he?”
His hazel eyes flashed at me. “This is not the place for that discussion, Sofia.”
“Well, you didn’t want to have it at home, either.” I marched right up to his desk and stared down at him. “It’s been days since I’ve heard from him, and I’m worried. Where is he?”
“That’s none of your concern,” he ground out. “It’s official business. You know better than to question me on matters I can’t discuss with you.”
“Bullshit.” I folded my arms tightly across my chest and sat down without breaking eye contact. “I’m not leaving here until you tell me where he is.”
“Sofia,” he said, his voice a low warning.
Before he could say anything else, though, there was a faint clicking sound on the floor that sounded like crutches.
As I turned around, I saw Lincoln’s very blond friend limping into the office. His skin was pale, but his jaw was set with determination. “I’m here to give my statement, sir.”
“As you can see, Phillips, I’m in the middle of something.” My father leveled him with a glare, but the guy didn’t back down. “I’ll call for you to come in when I’m ready for you.”
“With all due respect, sir, my statement in this matter is overdue. No one has contacted me, and now Dobbs isn’t answering his phone.”
My heartbeat sped up at the mention of Lincoln. “What is going on here, Dad?”
“Dad?” The guy frowned, then comprehension set in behind his light green eyes. “You’re Sofia, aren’t you? I remember you now. From the party.”
“And you’re Eden.” It wasn’t a question. “You haven’t heard from Lincoln either?”
He gave his head a curt shake. “Not a word. It’s been days. This isn’t like him. Something is wrong.”
“Nothing is wrong,” my dad chimed in with a glare at both of us. “We have placed him on indefinite suspension and he’s the subject of an ongoing investigation. He’s in the brig. When will your generation learn your place?”
Eden shuffled forward on his crutches. “My place, and Lincoln’s, is on active duty, sir. If you’ll take my statement, I have been cleared by my doctors to give it.”
“You should be resting, son. Dobbs almost cost you your life not so long ago. Now is not—”
“Lincoln didn’t almost cost me my life,” Eden said, his voice louder as red blotches mottled his skin. “He saved my life and everyone else’s too.”
“Phillips, there is a civilian—”
This time, I interrupted him. “I’m not going anywhere. My involvement with Lincoln is obviously clouding your vision right now, and I won’t have it. Being with him isn’t a crime, but what you’re doing to him might be.”
My father turned a very unhealthy shade of red but then drew in a deep breath. “I’m too old for this shit. Phillips, get the hell off your feet before your doctors come after me. Sofia, if you’re staying, none of what you’re about to hear leaves this room.”
“Of course, it won’t,” I bit out.
Eden seemed surprised by my father’s sudden change of mind but took the seat beside me and rested his crutches against the armrest. When he was seated, my father picked up a legal pad full of notes from his desk and nodded at him.
“If you take any strain while doing this, I’m taking you back to the hospital myself. I haven’t received notice that you’ve been discharged, nor have your doctors notified me that you’re cleared to make a statement.”
Eden lowered his chin in acknowledgment. “I understand, sir.”
“Do you also understand that I’ll need to get that clearance before anything you say here can be taken into serious consideration? You had a head injury, Phillips. It might have affected your memory.”
“It didn’t,” Eden said quietly. “When I first woke up, I was a little confused, but that’s no longer the case.”
“Even so, I’ll need to speak with your doctors. That’s why I haven’t come to take your statement yet. I was waiting on the all-clear from them.”
“I received it this morning, but I know you’ll need to follow up.”
“Very well.” My father nodded. “You also understand that what you say here can affect your future? You were on that mission, too, Mr. Phillips. While on suspension, no less. Given that the only marks on your otherwise clear record are when you were with Dobbs, I—”
“Exactly. I was with Dobbs, not under his influence but right there with him. My decisions have always been my own. When I have chosen to act in any manner contrary to orders or instructions, it has been my choice to do so.”
“Yes, but Dobbs—”
“No, there’s no but there, sir. You haven’t been out there with us. You have no idea what we’ve been through or what has led Lincoln to make the decisions he’s made. I’ve heard about what you were like before you became an instructor, and I respect you greatly, but I respect Lincoln more.”
Dad’s jaw slackened, but Eden kept going.
“Every so-called bad call Lincoln has made has saved lives. My own life has been one of those saved by him countless times.” He was panting now, but it didn’t look like exertion. To me, it looked like an impassioned belief.
Dad must have thought the same thing because he didn’t stop him.
“Whenever Lincoln has to make a decision he knows he’s going to get shit for, he makes it anyway because he doesn’t care about consequences to himself. All he cares about is doing his job to the best of his ability and getting everyone out alive.”
Dad watched him carefully, then swiped at his lip with his tongue as he made a note. “If that is true, how did the two of you end up on a mission while you had been taken off active duty?”
“Our lieutenant called us in, sir. It wasn’t our choice. We didn’t go rogue. We didn’t intercept information or bullshit our way onto that plane. We got called in and given the order to go.”
My eyes widened as I flicked a glance at my father. “How did you not know about that?”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t answer my question. “Go on, Phillips.”
“Lincoln asked if we had been cleared, but we were told we were needed and ordered to go. There was no time for questions or to run the order up the chain of command, not that it’s expected of us to do that anyway, but we were on the plane less than thirty minutes after arriving at the base.”
Dad frowned. “One of our planes?”
“Yes.” Eden swallowed. “Check the logs if you don’t believe me.”
“I’ll do that.” The sound of the pen scratching against paper filled the air as he nodded to Eden. “What happened next?”
“We were dropped into a firefight at that warehouse. I was blasted off my feet by debris not even five minutes later. Lincoln dragged me to safety before he ambushed the hostiles from behind. His sudden appearance distracted them enough that the team could regroup.”
Emotion choked him up, but he seemed determined to get through his statement. “Lincoln barked the order that he had been put in charge. We knew most of the guys on the team, and they didn’t question him.”
“Lincoln had been put in charge?” Dad’s eyebrows swept all the way up. “He took that order?”
Eden nodded once. “Without question or argument. He rounded the team up, and with his guidance, they secured the stolen cache of weapons and got out before anyone got hurt.”
“He left a trail of bodies in his wake,” Dad remarked. “None of them were ours, but it’s not standard operating procedure to practically blow up a warehouse in a populated area, shoot up a street, and just leave.”
“None of that was his doing. The fires were already burning when we arrived. We saw the smoke from the air. Why has no one else given you any of this?”
“We’ve been gathering information on the ground,” Dad said sharply. “I won’t have you questioning the process.”
“Which means you haven’t bothered to speak to any of those guys because you were trying to build a case of recklessness against Lincoln.” My spine shot ramrod straight. “It’s been weeks. Who’s really being reckless here?”
“You are on very thin ice with me right now, young lady.” Dad’s gaze darkened. “You don’t want to push me. You and I will discuss our situation later. Unless you want me to arrange an escort out of here for you, you will keep quiet.”
He questioned Eden for a few more minutes until even I could see the other man was exhausted. He still wasn’t giving up, though.
“The lieutenant made a bad call, sir. It almost cost the lives of all the SEALs involved, and it would have if Lincoln hadn’t been there. I’m not trying to pin the blame on him, but it’s not the first time something like this has happened with our lieutenant.”
“We will question him, but this is about Lincoln Dobbs. Not his lieutenant.”
“Sure, but have you never wondered why Lincoln has to make so many calls when it should be the lieutenant making them?”
“No.” My father’s eyes narrowed. “Because it’s not Lincoln’s place to make calls. It’s his place to follow orders, which he seems incapable of doing. He doesn’t even wait for them to be made.”
“Maybe you should look into that,” Eden suggested. His cheeks had paled again, and he swayed slightly in his seat. “I guarantee you won’t find what you think you will if you actually investigate.”
“Dobss has been given plenty of opportunities to advance if he wanted to be in charge. It’s not his lieutenant’s fault if he doesn’t want to step up but can’t play on anyone else’s team either.”
The corners of Eden’s lips pressed in, and he shook his head sadly. “Just look into it, sir. I’m not saying everything Lincoln has done has been smart or right, but he shouldn’t receive a dishonorable discharge just because he wasn’t ready to grow up yet.”
Dad and I both frowned at Eden, but then Dad dismissed him. “Go get some rest. You look like you’re about to pass out. I’ll look into the information you provided.”
He looked like he wanted to say more, but when he swayed again, he nodded. Dad called in one of the soldiers who walked past to help Eden back to his bed. Then he turned his attention on me.
There was a lecture in his eyes, but I didn’t let him get to it. “I don’t know what you’ve been doing here, but you need to get Lincoln back.”
“It’s not that simple. Eden’s account is only one piece of evidence, and he has a head injury. I won’t let you tell me how to do my job.”
“I shouldn’t have to tell you how to do it. Heaven only knows my involvement with a man shouldn’t influence how you do it, either. Lincoln is one of the best you’ve got. Even you know it.”
I stood up, sighing as I looked into my dad’s eyes. “Get him back, Dad. If you don’t, you won’t ever see me again. I won’t let you use me as a bargaining chip to end someone’s career.”
Dozens of emotions flashed in Dad’s eyes, but before he could voice any of his thoughts, I spun around and marched out of his office. The door slammed behind me, the loud bang echoing in the corridor.
Dad didn’t come after me. I only prayed it was because he was already doing the right thing, already trying to make this right.