Chapter 6
Dane tapped the envelope twice when I didn’t grab it. “Are you going to open that?”
“Do I have to?” He’d just given me the entire speech about safety.
Something about this note made me worry. A bunch of red flags went off in my head. Who would send me a note at a rented condo in Charleston? I highly doubted it was from Elenore. Which meant Dane was probably going to yell.
“You do, princess.”
I sucked in a breath, grabbed the envelope and did a quick check for anthrax. “Fine, but it’s probably nothing.”
My thumb slid into the opening, and I tore the top back, revealing a folded-over piece of paper. Just wonderful. No one sent anything good on a folded piece of notebook paper. I pulled it free and scanned the message before handing it to Dane and preparing for his upcoming lecture.
“Let William rest in peace. Or else,” Dane said as he read the note again. “That’s reassuring. Just wonderful! Less than forty-eight hours and you get a threatening letter. That has to be a record, Delaney.”
So dramatic.
I flipped the envelope over. “No return address.”
“Of course not. Why would they make it that easy?”
It would be nice for one thing.
Why weren’t the scary criminal types ever nice?
“This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Dane. It might be…” I searched for a word that wouldn’t send him into a tizzy.
He dropped the paper. “It’s a warning, princess. Or else never means a cupcake.”
“You know what? I’m hungry,” I lied. “It would be better to review this footage over chips and salsa.”
Dane signed. “Are you talking about that Tacos & Tequilla place down the street?”
“Dane, it’s too early for tequila.”
“What am I going to do with you?” he asked, turning off the television. “You’re not going to take this seriously at all.”
We were so getting tacos. “We should get cheese dip if they have it.”
What was I thinking? They were a taco place. They’d have cheese dip.
Dane pulled at the bottom of his black T-shirt. “You’re really not worried about this note? I’m going to send images of it to headquarters.”
“No,” I lied even more. “We can’t sit around being worried all day.”
I really wanted to be worried all day, but refused to look scared in front of Dane. It would ruin my image.
* * *
“Just promise me you aren’t going to mix up the salsa with the cheese dip like last time,” Dane said as we sat at a red Formica table in the restaurant’s back corner.
I pulled my cheese-covered chip away from the salsa bowl. “They get all mixed up in your stomach.”
Plus, I’d given him the entire spicy salsa bowl after trying two bites and determining it was way too spicy for me. He dunked a chip into the bowl as he watched. It was a little impressive.
“You’re going to burn a hole through your stomach with that dip,” I said, using another chip to grab salsa from the mild bowl and then layering the chips together.
“Probably.” He crunched down on another chip before saying, “Military life ruined my tastebuds.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re blaming the Navy for your poor taste in dip now?”
“Technically SEAL Team Three,” he said, dunking another chip. “And yes. That’s my current working excuse.”
I dipped my chip in the cheese sauce before topping it with another chip loaded with mild salsa, like a sane person. Outside the restaurant’s windows, Charleston glowed in the early afternoon sun. Tourists roamed the streets with happy smiles.
Inside, the building was quieter. Only a few patrons filled the seats. They probably said it was too early for tequila, too. The bartender had taken up a position behind the bar, making drinks for the one person ordering them. A man with a long beard sat just a few feet from him.
“You don’t talk about the Navy very often,” I said without thinking about it.
We’d been together three times and Dane hadn’t told me anything substantial about his time in the military.
He shrugged, munching on one of his outrageous chips. “Not much to say.”
“That has to be a lie. SEALs are supposed to be kick-ass. You had to have done some wild shit while you were there.” Everyone knew SEALs were out saving the world daily. Now he was keeping me safe for a podcast. It had to be a boring change of pace.
He paused mid-dip, set the chip down, and leaned back in the booth. “Yea. It’s a lie.”
I waited.
“I stayed too long,” Dane said after a full minute stare-off. Then he kept going. “I should have gotten out earlier. But you don’t know it’s too late until it’s too late. You get complacent. You eat, sleep, deploy, repeat. It feels perfect until it isn’t.”
“Can you talk about what finally did it?” I desperately wanted to know—to have this connection with him. But I didn’t want to press too hard if it was difficult for Dane.
He didn’t rush to answer me, and I waited. Across the table, something shifted in his eyes. His door cracked just a little. Long enough for him to decide he could trust me.
“There was a guy in my unit. Charlie. He was a funny guy. Smart. Always had grape gum. We served together for almost four years. Then one day…” He paused as if deep in thought. “Something in him broke. Just snapped.”
I leaned across the table. “How?”
Dan’s jaw tightened. “Started talking to people who weren’t there. Thought we were constantly being followed. Stop trusting his SEAL team.”
“Oh, no.”
“We pulled him out before it got too dangerous, but it shook me. Charlie was so strong one day and then completely different the next. It made me think maybe I wasn’t doing as well as I thought either. How long did he hide the signs from us?”
“So, you got out?”
He nodded, finally grabbing his chip and tossing it into his mouth. “Put in for discharge the day after he left. Now I’m private sector. Fewer rules, but I sleep in the same bed almost every night.”
“And now you get to run around keeping insanely outstanding people like me safe. And that parrot.”
Dane laughed. “Exactly. You’d like the parrot. If you ever have a case in upstate New York, we can go meet him.”
A calm silence grew between us. Not awkward, just casual. Like two friends who didn’t need to fill every second with conversation. It was the type of silence that said something shifted between us.
“What about you?” he asked. “What’s with your newfound need to solve murder cases?”
He’d been honest with me. Now was my turn to share a piece of myself with Dane. “My dad had a stroke earlier this year. He’s okay now, but… it shook something in me. I’m all he’s got, and vice versa.”
I picked up a chip, dipped it, but let it sit in the cheese sauce.
“He always tells me to focus on the future and build something solid. You know? A legacy. That means something to him.”
Dane nodded and gave me a brief grin. “That sounds reasonable.”
“Yeah, so… that’s why this case is important. I want to leave my mark. Do something good for the world.”
That had to make sense to a man who gave up so much to protect people as well.
“I can see that,” Dane said. “You’ve got drive and a good heart.”
My smile was faint. “Except for killers. They get no sympathy.”
“I know you well enough to realize you won’t be satisfied until you leave some footprint in this world.” He grabbed the chip I left in the cheese dip and ate it.
I blinked, considering his words. They landed harder than I expected.
“Do you think it’s selfish?” I asked. “To want to be remembered?”
“No,” Dane said. “It’s honest, and I appreciate honesty.”
We sat in another bout of silence.
“Do you ever miss it?” I asked. “The Navy? Your SEAL Team?”
Dane broke a chip in half. “Sometimes. But I don’t miss the person it would have turned me into had I stayed.”
“I understand that.” I stole a chip from the small bowl of them in front of him.
Dane narrowed his eyes. “That’s war, princess.”
We grinned at each other like idiots. For those few seconds, everything in the world fit just right. I didn’t know how we were going to solve William’s murder, but I’d have Dane by my side, and that made everything okay.
“You two are so adorable,” a waitress in a black shirt and slacks said as she approached our table. “What are you celebrating?”
“The honeymoon,” Dane answered quickly and easily.
She laughed. “Let me get a picture.”
I leaned over the table to get closer to Dane as he passed his phone to her.
“No,” she said. “Get closer. Let’s get a kiss over the chips.”