Chapter Sixteen
Honor’s Edge Investigations Office
“We’re going to go over there and tell them,” Nate told his brother.
With the wedding over, and Landon and Aly back from their mini-honeymoon, it was time to tell them about the threat to Cal.
Sure, another threat hadn’t shown up. Nate still maintained it was less countdown and more symbolic—days being numbered. But who knew by how many days that meant. Time between threats concerned Nate that an escalation would be next.
So everyone needed to be aware.
Nate didn’t truck in secrets anymore.
“What’s the point of telling them?” Cal demanded.
He stood on the stairs up to the apartment—where Nate had waylaid him.
“What’s the point of not?” Nate replied equitably, pretending like standing at the bottom of the stairs and looking up at Cal wasn’t putting a damn crick in his neck.
“Aly not worrying? Landon not being annoying as hell?” Cal returned.
Superiority and petulance shining through in his voice enough that Nate was reminded of being a kid, and having his big brother look down at him like he was perpetually dim-witted.
It shouldn’t grate. They were adults. Nate had to work very hard not to let his hands curl into fists.
“What if this threat does connect, and us telling them means they’re watching out for something weird … and see it before something bad happens?” he managed to say to Cal without sounding petulant himself.
“You got a lot of worst-case scenarios going on in that brain of yours?” Cal asked in that way he had that was somehow meant to be annoying—and succeeded—but also cut straight to the heart of something Nate hadn’t realized was still a sore spot.
Luckily, he knew how to deal with his brother’s unwavering ability to hit a soft spot. Lean in. He tapped his temple. “Twenty-four-seven. All that military training.”
Cal was silent for a moment—Nate always considered that a point scored.
Eventually Cal just shrugged. “Lucky you.”
“Yeah, lucky me,” Nate muttered. “Now, do we want to do the whole family dinner thing, or you just want to head up and deal with them one on one?”
“Where’s Sam?”
Nate glanced at the clock on the wall. She should have been back by now, but he wasn’t going to let Cal in on any worry he might have over that.
“If it’s a dinner thing, and she’s not held up, she’ll come too.”
“Come on, Nate,” Cal said with a dramatic groan for effect. “The newly married couple doesn’t want us cramping their style. There’s no new threat. There’s no new anything. Let’s let this lie and let them do whatever terrible things married people do.”
“We both know where letting things lie leads. I imagine they can keep their hands off each other for a meal, considering they’ve been shacking up together for nearly a year.”
Nate had been around his brother enough of late to immediately recognize the way Cal’s gaze went sharp, and he knew—just knew—when Cal opened his mouth, something snarky about him and Sam was going to come out.
He could let him. He could pretend it didn’t bug him. He could do a lot of things.
But damn it, he was tired. Tired of beating his head against the brick wall of Cal Bennet. “Don’t poke at me and Sam. Just pick the way you want to tell them, or I’ll go up and tell them right now myself.”
Cal’s expression firmed, but he did not say anything about Sam. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Maybe. Maybe it is. Maybe we’re wasting our time on a prank. On nothing. I’d rather do that than have something happen. What about you?”
Before Cal could answer, Nate heard the bell on the door. “I’ve got to take care of that. Call Aly—if you don’t, I will.” Then he left his brother with an order that Nate had no idea whether or not he’d follow.
Cal wasn’t one for patience, but Nate’s was wearing thin.
And that was something.
He had work, and Sam wasn’t here even though she should be and…
Well, everything had been a little too easy lately. A little too nice. The threat felt … well, like the only thing real. Because it was bad, and bad felt … far more tangible.
Which was probably messed up, but Nate knew the good wouldn’t last. Couldn’t. Didn’t mean he had to discount anything good, just that he could hardly let his guard down to be sideswiped by whatever was hiding behind that threat.
Bad didn’t stay dormant forever, that was for sure. No matter what he did.
Nate strode back into the main part of the building, then came up short. He hadn’t really thought about who he might find in the office, but Jake Hayes was pretty low on his list—and felt like more of all that bad.
For a moment, they both stood there, like some kind of Wild West face-off. It was that image, and hearing his brother come up from behind him, that had Nate moving.
“What can I help you with, detective?” Nate asked equitably.
Okay, probably not equitably at all, but he tried for something less than antagonistic. Really.
Jake’s gaze moved from Nate to Cal, then back again. “Looking for Sam.”
If it was meant to bother him, it did, but he’d be damned if he’d show it. “She’s not here.”
Another silence descended so Nate moved for his desk. Cal stood back by the exit, arms folded across his chest, leaning negligibly against the wall, but Nate knew his brother. He was carefully filing everything about Detective Jake Hayes away.
Why? Nate didn’t have a clue, and he didn’t want to.
He wanted nothing to do with Hayes.
“I can tell her you stopped by, or you can leave her a note if you want.” Nate gestured at the whirlwind disaster of Sam’s desk.
Still, Hayes said nothing. Just stood there, like he knew if he was still and silent for long enough, Nate’s hold on his temper would explode—and Jake would win.
Whatever dumb contest they were in.
“Are you part of this Harrington investigation?” Jake finally asked.
Nate didn’t outwardly react, though he inwardly winced at Jake asking that in front of Cal. Nate very much doubted Cal knew about Jill hiring Sam to look into Glenda. He didn’t even think Aly knew.
“No. That’s all Sam’s,” Nate said, booting up his computer. He didn’t glance at Cal but was happy his brother wasn’t interjecting. Stirring this already simmering pot of shit.
Of course, when he saw he had three emails from Jules Hyatt, he wasn’t sure which simmering pot of shit he really wanted to deal with.
“Okay. Well, tell her something if you would. She was asking about my dad in regards to all that—God knows why. But I got a call a few days ago. That my father’s remains were found.”
Nate didn’t know what to do with that information, or the fact he felt the tiniest smidge of sympathy for Jake fucking Hayes. “She’ll probably want to talk to you about that.”
“Yeah, she’s got my number.” He looked again—from Nate to Cal to Nate again. Expression almost blank enough to make Nate jealous. “Have her call me if she’s got questions, but Gallatin County will have more answers than me.”
With that, Jake turned and left the office. Not one challenge tossed down, which only made that tiny sliver of sympathy get a foundation.
“I can’t tell you why, but there is something about that guy. A punchable face,” Cal decided aloud.
Nate snorted. “Yeah, something like that.”
“So, what does his dad have to do with Glenda?”
Nate gave up pretending like none of this got to him and scrubbed his hands over his face on a heavy sigh.
“I’m not sure. Sam said she found out Glenda’s husband had been hunting buddies with two other veterans—enough they were named in his obituary.
One was Hayes’s dad and another guy.” But Cal being here reminded Nate that he kind of knew the other guy himself.
Because Cal used to talk about him. “I think you know him. Daryl Everly? Wasn’t he one of your favorite teachers or something? ”
“Yeah, he … he wrote me some college recommendations. Mr. Everly … yeah, hell, he’s half the reason I was able to get out of here.” Cal seemed to consider it in the same way Nate was.
That no connection made sense here—Hayes’s dad, Glenda’s dead husband, and Cal’s favorite teacher. Particularly if it was somehow supposed to connect to Glenda’s traumatized muteness.
But Nate didn’t like any of it, or the uneasy feeling it all gave him in the pit of his stomach.