Chapter 28
Brett stood in the kitchen of the main house, staring through the darkness toward the smaller cabin where Grace and the twins slept.
The smell of pancakes wafted through the room, the sound of keys clicking on a laptop the only noise in the room.
He had a nagging sense of unease that defied explanation. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“What kind of something?” asked Mac.
“I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it.” Brett turned and took a seat at the table. “I saw something in a flash of lightning when we were leaving Lamont Scientific. It’s fucking bothering me. I didn’t get a good enough look at it.”
“Probably a bird.” Trace put a plate piled high with flapjacks in the center of the table. “Eat up, kids.”
Brett narrowed his eyes. “At night? In the middle of a thunderstorm?”
Razorback looked up from his laptop. “Got it. Dr. Richard E. Cage is the editor in chief of the journal Nature.”
Brett pulled out his phone and opened a browser window. “Time we paid the good doctor a visit.” He Googled the other man. The word obituary jumped out at him from the results. “No, no, no…” His eyes went wide. “God fucking damn it! Cage died in a car accident three days ago.”
“Let me guess,” said Mac. “Hit-and-run?”
Brett hit the table with the palm of his hand. “Fucking Fleming got to him first.”
Razorback’s phone rang. “It’s Moto,” he said, answering it. “You’re on speaker. What’d you find out?”
“I got into Joni’s computer files at Lamont Scientific, including some files on the twins. She had them genetically tested when they were barely more than blastocysts. She knew they would have Damon’s Disorder before she had them implanted in her uterus.”
Knowing Joni was aware of the disorder beforehand made Brett feel that much better about the boys’ prospects for a healthy future. “But Fleming didn’t want anyone to know the procedure wasn’t perfect,” he chimed in. “And the boys are evidence of that.”
“Exactly,” said Moto. “I also found an email from Fleming to Joni dated just last week. He’d been contacted by the editor from Nature for comment on her research, and he was mad as hell, ranting and raving about investors and scandal.”
“So that’s it,” said Brett. “Fleming killed Joni and Cage in an attempt to kill the research article.” He thought of those two little boys who’d grow up without a mother, without ever knowing Luke.
The futility of it all was his undoing, and the room seemed to take on a thick, unfocused haze.
“I want to wring his neck. I want to squeeze it until his face turns red and all the life seeps out of his body.”
“He’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars,” said Razorback.
“That’s not good enough, damn it,” snapped Brett. “He deserves to die, and I want to be the one to pull the trigger.”
Mac cocked his head. “You okay there, Champ?”
“Fuck no, I’m not okay. Fleming killed the two most important people in my life. He killed the mother of my children. What kind of asshole would I be if I were okay right now?”
Mac stood. “Let’s go for a walk.”
“I don’t want to go for a fucking walk.”
“Now, Champion.”
Brett sighed heavily and stood, following the leader of HERO Force out the door. The rain had slowed to a mere drizzle, the humidity in the air only making it seem even colder than it was.
“You gotta rein it in,” said Mac, leading the way down the path toward the lakefront. “Keep that monster inside under control. Do you hear me?”
“Why? Why do I have to rein in shit, Mac? This son of a bitch destroyed my kids’ lives. They should have had it all. A mother and father who love them, the kind of life I will never be able to provide. He took that away in one selfish, arrogant drive across a parking lot.”
“This kind of hatred can control your actions, make you do things that have consequences. Not just for yourself but for those little boys of yours. I’m afraid that if you came face-to-face with Fleming right now, you’d take him out, that you would strangle him with your bare hands, and you’d enjoy it, too.
Then those babies really would have nothing left. ”
Brett shook his head, the rain collecting on his face and arms. “They’re probably be better off without me, anyway.”
“Bullshit. You know better than that, boy. You just ain’t had experience with children.
You never had a kid look up to you like the whole world rests on your shoulders, but you will.
That’s what being a father means. And I know, because I fucked it up like the best of them.
I let my kids down, and I’ve paid the price for that all these years now.
Don’t you fuck this up before you even get off the ground by losing your shit with Fleming. ”
“I want justice, Mac. I want him to pay for what he did.”
“And you’ll get it, but it might be slow in coming.
You and me and Trace and Razorback… we’ll get him.
We’ll prove that he killed your friends.
But you might have to close your eyes at night for years before that man is sitting behind bars.
It will happen, but you might have to wait.
And I need you to promise me that you will wait, that you know it’s more important you don’t fuck up your own life than you put an end to his. ”
The lake waters lapped at the rocky shore, sounding like the surf of the ocean.
At the end of the path they were walking, the windows of the lakeside cabin glowed golden against the night.
Grace was in there, along with his sons.
In the space of a few days, his entire world had changed.
He was responsible for those boys, had already carved out a place for them in his heart.
And what about Grace?
Their strange conversation before he went to Lamont Scientific was stuck in his craw. One minute, they’d been making love. The next, she was pushing him away as clearly as any woman ever had. It didn’t make a damn bit of sense.
“She’s quite a woman,” said Mac, as if reading his mind.
For a moment, Brett considered acting as if he didn’t understand. But what was the point? Mac had a sixth sense about his men, and there would be no putting him off the scent. “Yes.”
“Good with those boys, too.”
“She just broke up with her boyfriend.” He didn’t know what he said it, the words just coming out. Maybe because Mac was more like a father to him than anyone else on the team. Maybe because he wanted forgiveness.
“Because of you?”
Brett considered that for a moment. “I was part of it.”
“Not every couple’s meant to be.”
“Are you talking about me and Grace or Grace and her boyfriend?”
“I suppose it depends on how you want this story to end.” Mac stopped walking. “So, how do you want it to end, Champion?”
“I was a shitty husband to my first wife. Wasn’t there when she needed me. Completely checked out when I got back from my last tour.”
“Me, too.”
“Don’t know that I’ll be doing that again.”
Mac didn’t even look at him. “Kids need stability. Grown-ups need it, too.”
“And what if I’m not the most stable guy?”
“You’ll do fine, Champ. Just as soon as you make up your mind and decide to let her in.”
“And if it’s not that simple?”
“It’s exactly that simple. And exactly that hard.” Mac pivoted on his heel and headed back toward the house. “You coming?”
Brett looked back to the glowing lights of the cabin. “No. I’m going to turn in.”
“Thought you might.” Mac chuckled. “You’ve got this, Champ.”
Was Mac right? Was it as simple as deciding to let Grace in? He’d gotten the distinct impression she wanted out of here, and fast. But what the hell had changed between the time they made love and the time he got out of the bath?
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
He headed for the cabin. She was different than any woman he’d known. Special. Feisty and cranky and sweet and precious, all rolled into one. He just needed her to give him a chance, to prove to her he was better than the side of him she’d seen to date, living right next door.
Feeling hopeful, he reached for the door. It was a crack open, and he pushed it open all the way. Confusion paralyzed him as he took in the empty room. There was no sign of Grace, no sign of his sons.
A single piece of paper lay on the dresser, thick black handwriting filling the entire sheet. brING ME BACK MY ROCK.
He turned to the doorjamb with fresh eyes. The lock had been kicked in, the metal plate where it should have latched bent and broken, just like the doorjamb of Fleming’s office at Lamont Scientific.
Panic screeched to life inside him, every nerve ending instantly on alert. “Mac!” he screamed, running for the main house at full speed. “Mac! Trace! Razorback! They’re gone!”