9. Troy
August, Present Day
Maple Ridge
Six retiredNavy SEALs in their late thirties, my brothers, and I are sitting around the campfire, our five tents erected a few feet away. Our talking and laughter are the only sounds in the night air heard above the crackling flames.
Allan pops open a beer can and takes a swig from it. “You guys are lucky to live close to all this.” He gestures with his can to the towering pines skirting the area. “It’s a huge improvement over San Diego.”
“But you have the ocean,” Tim points out. “And beaches.”
“Plus, San Diego doesn’t get buried under dumps of snow,” Kevin, who’s from New York State, adds.
“Does get pretty cold in Manhattan,” Allan says, tipping his can as if to acknowledge Kevin’s point. “But you sure do have a lot of fancy restaurants.”
The men’s conversation shifts to a story about their last deployment together. My thoughts drift to Jess—and how we’ve been dating for the past month, but we haven’t gone on a date. The kind of date that involves dinner. In a restaurant.
“I heard the other day that Savannah Townsend is living in Oregon.” Eric’s tone is casual, as if he’s discussing his favorite beer, and his words yank me from my thoughts.
Allan makes a scoffing noise that sets off warning sirens in my gut. “I still can’t believe she got let off. She was the mastermind of Wayne Townsend’s murder.”
Kevin’s forehead creases into a frown. “Savannah Townsend?” He slides a puzzled glance between Eric and Allan.
“The cop killer?” The lilt at the end of Allan’s reply isn’t so much a question about whether she killed a cop as it is inquiring what rock Kevin has been living under. “She got her lover to murder her husband. She was originally convicted for killing Wayne and was sentenced to twenty-five years. A technicality got her out of the slammer after she only served five years.”
The technicality being she was wrongfully convicted of the crime.
I tighten my grasp on my beer bottle and open my mouth to defend Jess to this asshole. My gaze falls on Kellan. He slowly shakes his head, his eyes never leaving mine.
Message received.
Me going land mine on Allan won’t change the SEAL’s mind. If anything, it will just draw their attention to which Oregon town Jess lives in.
“What happened to her lover?” Kevin asks.
“Don’t know,” Eric responds. “She’s probably with him.”
“No doubt killed him too,” Allan pipes in. “Or she’s plotting to do that as we speak.”
Kellan glowers at his beer. Lucas and Garrett look like they don’t know what to say or do.
Fuck that.
“From what I heard about the case,” I note, keeping my anger to a low simmer, “Savannah’s husband was an abusive asshole. I’m not saying he deserved to be killed.” He totally deserved what happened to him after what he put Jess through. “But if the cops hadn’t arrived at her house when they did, she would have died from a drug overdose.” I keep my opinion out of my tone. I’m just impartially relaying the facts. “She hadn’t knowingly taken those drugs. Someone gave them to her.” That part was on the news a few months ago, after a blood splatter expert had raised new questions about the legitimacy of the previous testimony.
Allan snorts, shaking his head like I’m the one who’s the idiot. “That’s what she wanted the media to believe. It was a great excuse. Except I’m sure she hadn’t taken enough to end her life. She wouldn’t have actually died.”
He’s wrong. She would have. An anonymous phone call alerted 9-1-1 that they had heard shots from the house. That fed into the conspiracy theory her lover had been the caller. To this day, no one knows where the call came from, other than it was probably sent from a burner phone.
“Did the news say where she’s living in Oregon?” Kevin’s question is directed at Eric and Allan. The other three SEALs sit there quietly, apparently having no opinion on the topic. Or maybe they do, but they’re not willing to voice it. Two of them watch the campfire.
Unable to listen to this bullshit any longer, I stand from the log I was sitting on and walk past the tents.
I turn on my phone flashlight and do my best not to look like I’m storming off because of what Eric and Allan said. I just need a moment to collect myself, to focus on the woman I love and nothing else.
I head deeper into the forest. The crackle and pop of the campfire becomes a faint noise in the background as if playing an accompaniment to the night sounds—the occasional rustle of dead leaves on the ground and the steady chirping of insects. The men’s voices carry but not loud enough for me to make out what they’re saying.
I enter a clearing overlooking the valley and park my ass on a boulder. Above me, billions of stars sparkle in the dark sky. Jess’s and my conversation from a few weeks ago about The Great Cock constellation slips into my thoughts, and my lips twitch into a smile. “Are you watching the stars, Jess, and thinking about it too?” The murmured words mingle with the cool night air.
The news about Savannah Townsend living in a small mountainous town in Oregon was in Tuesday’s newspaper, but other than Zara, no one has said anything about it to Jess or me. She’s an introvert and hasn’t spoken to a lot of people since moving to Maple Ridge, but she has been seen in enough places to be recognized from the photo. Yoga class. The Veterans Center. The grocery store. Theresa’s wedding. The library. Or even walking along Main Street.
All it takes is a few people to tell their friends or coworkers they’ve seen her, and for those people to tell someone else. And before long, too many people will know where she’s living.
If people respect her privacy and don’t judge her like Jess fears will happen, her location being revealed is no big deal. But that won’t be the case. There will be people, like the idiots at the campfire, who will judge her and twist the truth to fit their narrative. I have no idea what to do about that.
For the first time since I’ve been away on a Warriors trip, I don’t want to be here. I want to be with the woman I love.
I have no idea how long I’ve been staring at the stars when I hear the crunch of hiking boots stepping on the undergrowth. My stalker isn’t trying to be stealthy.
I glance over my shoulder. A flashlight—probably from a phone—moves toward me, the beam focused on the ground.
“You’re losing your touch if you actually want to be left alone,” Garrett says, humor lightly warping his otherwise neutral tone. “You were too easy to track.”
“That, or you really are part wolf like I suspected when we were kids,” I deadpan.
Garrett chuckles, the sound barely heard over the steady chirp of night insects. He sits on the boulder next to mine. “How’re you doing?” The humor in his tone has flatlined.
“It’s not me you have to worry about.” I turn my attention to the valley and pine trees in the bright glow of the almost full moon.
“I’m worried about both you and Jess. I’m not so worried about those two jerks. Or at least I don’t think you’re gonna throw them off the mountain.”
I rub my hand down my face. “Believe me, it is tempting. None of what they were saying surprises me. It’s not news that some people think Jess was guilty of her husband’s murder. Like it’s not news that some people think the moon landing was faked or believe thousands of other conspiracy theories. I just don’t know what to do about it.”
“I’m not sure there is anything you can do. Jess has been through a lot, but despite all of that, she’s still standing. She’s still strong. She’s probably stronger than any woman I know.”
“You don’t have to tell me that. But even steel has its breaking point.”
A heavy silence falls between us, the night sounds filling in our gap in the conversation. “Is she starting up therapy again?” Garrett asks after a long moment.
“She had an appointment this morning with Robyn.” Thank Christ for that. “Hopefully it will help Jess cope with the current situation.”
“There’s also a chance what those guys said doesn’t echo the sentiments of anyone in town. And if it does, they’ll keep their opinions to themselves.”
I smirk. “You really believe that?”
Garrett huffs out a hard breath. “Maybe it’s just wishful thinking. But until we know if that’s the case, it won’t do us much good dwelling on it. That won’t solve the problem.”
“I just like being prepared.” It’s what we did in the Marines. It’s what I do with my job. I anticipate problems I might have to deal with and have a contingency plan.
“I know you do. But sometimes it’s too easy to get caught up in the maybes and forget to live in the here and now. Remember, you and Jess aren’t in this alone. She has friends who believe in her and who will stand by her, no matter what.”
I nod and go back to staring at the stars.
“Have you told her you love her?”
I’m quiet for a moment, half ready to brush off the question and not answer it. I’m not particularly interested in laying out my emotions raw. But this is Garrett, my brother. I might not always agree with his opinions, but I do trust him. “Yes. But she’s not there yet. Or maybe she’ll never be there.”
“What happens if she never gets there?”
I flash him a one-sided grin he probably can’t see even in the moonlight. “Luckily you’re not a romance writer.”
“Hey, I have a romance storyline threading through my series.” He might not say it, but the implied dumbass is there in his tone.
I bark out a laugh, head flung back. “That’s your idea of a romance storyline? You killed off the love interest in the last book.”
“You know that because you read the book or because Zara told you?” From the way he says it, I can tell Zara gave him heck for killing off the woman.
I inwardly roll my eyes. “You know I read all your books. Wouldn’t miss ’em. I’d say I’m your biggest fan, but that would be Zara.” She always buys his latest releases in hardback and gets him to sign them.
We sit quietly for a few minutes. All I can think about is what Jess could be facing if more people in town discover her secret. The campfire continues to crackle and pop in the background. The men’s laughter isn’t so loud now, but the low murmur of their conversations remains a constant.
“You ready to join everyone, or do you need more time?” Garrett asks. “Everyone’s gotta be wondering about your digestive system. You’ve been gone a long time.”
“Let them believe anything they want. I just need a few more minutes.”
“I could send Lucas to give you advice on your love life if you want. He knows what he’s doing.” The smirk Garrett flashes me is enough to coax a chuckle from me.
“Ha! I don’t know about that. He almost messed things up with Simone.”
“True. But compared to you, me, and Kellan, he’s the smart one with figuring out this love stuff.” Garrett screws up his nose as if he’s caught wind of bear shit on his boots.
“What about you? You’ve been in love before. You don’t have any advice for me?”
“My advice is don’t bother, but you’re already too gone for that.” He laughs, a low rumble deep in his chest, but there’s also something off about it.
“Are you ever planning to tell me what happened between you and Kenda?” Garrett and Kenda—Garrett’s girlfriend from college and one of Zara’s close friends back then—had practically been engaged, which is why I could never figure out what went wrong between them.
“There’s nothing to say. Her career goals didn’t involve living in Maple Ridge. She was planning to make a big difference with her journalism degree. And she couldn’t do that in Maple Ridge.”
“You could’ve gone with her.”
“I could have. But I was headed for the Marines, and she wanted to be free to disappear for long periods while doing investigative journalism. She didn’t want to be stuck in Maple Ridge, and she didn’t want to worry about someone impatiently waiting for her to return home.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal.
Except I know it was a big deal at the time.
I can’t see Jess leaving Maple Ridge since it’s her home now, the place where she’s rebuilding her life. But the risk is still there that she could bail if the thing she fears most comes true—if people target her because of her past.
Does that mean my heart’s still at risk of losing the woman who’s important to me?