Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
At first Blakely had been angry Jump had read what she’d written, then fear rose. Would he reject her over what was in that file?
He seemed genuine in his praise. She didn’t need to fear him taking things the wrong way or blowing her thoughts out of proportion.
Her life had been tough, and she’d grown up in a terrible environment. But she knew she could heal. In the two years since leaving the cult, hiding in the real world, she’d already learned so much about herself.
“How does your arm feel this morning?”
Jump shrugged then rolled his eyes. “I want to say it doesn’t bother me, but it hurts. I hate being hurt. It means I’m put on desk duty or something else like desk duty. I’ll have to sit around and do nothing but paperwork or some other mundane tasks. It’s boring.”
“I’m sorry.”
He grunted. “It’s okay. I’m just being extra about it all. We saved people, and for that, I’m thankful. It was worth it to be injured. I just hate that I need to wait to get back into it.”
“You saved people?”
He nodded. “I can’t talk about what exactly, but yeah. It was a very rewarding trip. I’m thankful we were able to accomplish our task. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.”
She moved to the refrigerator and pulled out eggs and bacon. “I’ll fix breakfast.”
“I don’t want you to think you have to do that.”
She shot a pointed look at his arm. “You’re not going to make breakfast with that injury. Besides, I’m happy to do it.”
“But it’s not something you have to do.”
She nodded. “I know I don’t have to make breakfast. You aren’t making me do this.”
“No, I’m not making you do it. I could eat cereal.”
Laughter bubbled up. “You could. And I’m sure at some point you’ll be hungry and I won’t be able to make food. I know this sounds silly, but I learned a lot from watching TV. And from the TV shows and movies I’ve watched, people seem happier when you work together.”
He nodded. “I agree. Sometimes TV and movies get it right, and other times it’s a mess.”
She cracked the eggs into a bowl and searched the cabinets for spices. She didn’t find what she wanted, so she cut up a piece of bacon to fry before adding in the eggs. They’d bought some peppers and onions, so she cut those, too, then started cooking the bacon before turning on the pan for eggs.
As the bacon fried, she spoke. “So there was this one movie I watched that I didn’t know if it was real or fake.”
“Which movie?”
“The Martian. I wasn’t sure because my family always denied the moon landing, saying it was fake. I wasn’t sure. So I had to go down a whole rabbit hole of Mars landers and trying to figure out if it was real.”
Jump chuckled. “Yeah, that movie was very realistic and good. But no, astronauts haven’t made it to Mars. They did make it to the moon back in the late sixties. And there are more missions planned now. But Mars is too far with the technology we have now.”
She glanced over at him, unsure if he was teasing. It didn’t seem like he was. “There is still so much I don’t know.”
“Hey, while I’m sidelined, how about we go to a few museums? When I was a kid, I went to a bunch of the museums with school.”
“Museums. Interesting. I wasn’t allowed to go to them. I was told they were all fake. That none of the stuff in museums was real. I think I’ll like going to them very much.”
“Good. I have a doctor’s appointment late today, but I’d like to make a list, and we can figure out which ones we want to go to first.”
She took the last piece of bacon out of the pan and focused on the eggs. The small bits of bacon she’d cut up to put into the egg pan were almost cooked. She added the vegetables and stirred. Jump came over and picked up a piece of bacon, snacking on it.
“This is good.”
“I’m an excellent cook. Which may be something I can do for a job, but I don’t want to cook or clean for others. I did that for a bit before moving here, but it’s not what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
“I get that. A lot of retired SEALs end up working for security companies and they end up back in the same places they went while in the military. I’ve had some guys talk about how much they hated it. That it’s a little too close to what they were doing before.”
“Retired. Aren’t they old?”
“No, military retirement is at twenty years served. So I’ll be eligible for retirement at thirty-eight.”
“Wow, that’s pretty young.” She popped some bread into the toaster before turning back to the eggs.
“Yeah. I think it’s why some guys end up working for companies that put them back where they were before.”
She huffed out a breath. “I grew up with my parents talking about how only weak people retire. I know it was their way of dealing with their anger at the situation they’d gotten themselves into. The cult took everything.”
“So your dad had the bank account. Did he ever take money out and use it for himself?”
“Totally. I saw him do it a few times. He would get money out to buy himself things he wanted like expensive sunglasses, a few times he would go into a restaurant to eat a meal when I stayed in the truck to eat a sandwich I’d made.
He abused the system. I learned from him. It’s what gave me the idea to run.”
“I’m glad you did.”
She plated the eggs and took his plate to the table before moving hers to the table along with two forks. He took a bite of the eggs then groaned.
“Dang, these are good.”
“Thank you. I learned the trick a few years ago.”
“So, the money thing? Is there any way for them to demand the money from you?”
She shook her head. “No. I did some research and looked into it, making sure no one could come after me. No other person was listed on the account other than my father. After eight months or so I ended up closing that account and making one in my own name at another bank. I still haven’t really spent the money, and it’s in an interest-bearing account, so I’m earning interest. But no, there is no way these people could come back at me. ”
“So the people who gave him money didn’t have contracts with your father?”
She shook her head. “No. The cult didn’t believe in leaving a paper trail. I could give some of the people back their money, and maybe I should, but I know some of those families, and I know what they do to women and children, and what they would do if they had money.”
He finished eating and sat back. “Yeah, I don’t think I’d be ready to give money to someone who supported that kind of shit.”
“I can’t. They were awful. I wish I could expose them for who they are.”
“Your writing can do that.”
She pushed the last of her food around on the plate. “I worry about that. Exposing them. I don’t want them to hunt me down.”
“Do you think they would?”
She shrugged. “Grayson found me. I don’t know how he keeps finding me. I don’t want anyone else finding me. In the cult I was seen as property. I’m nobody’s property.”
He shook his head. “Hell no. You’re your own person. I want you to have your own life, never a subset of me. If I stay in the Navy, I may have to move, but after the Navy, we can move somewhere we both want to live.”
“You might have to move?”
He shrugged. “SEALs have a few places they’re based, but regular Navy could be based almost anywhere around the globe. Or I could stay here and be an instructor.”
“An instructor?”
“SEALs have to have a huge base of knowledge. BUDs is our initial training.”
“Does everyone in the Navy go through that training?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s very specialized and only those people who want to become SEALs do BUDs.
The pass rate is very low. Only nine guys in my class passed.
The class before me had thirty, and the one after me was eighteen.
There have been classes recently that had fifty graduates.
That’s almost unheard of. Then they’ll get a class that only had a five percent pass rate. ”
“Dang, that sounds awful.”
“It is, and it isn’t. The last thing I want is someone operating beside me who can’t do their job at the level it has to be done.”
She stared at him in wonder. “I have no idea what your job involves. Honestly, I’m fairly ignorant of the way the world works. There is so much I don’t know, and I appreciate that you’re willing to do stuff like go to museums with me.”
His lips spread into a wide smile. “Honestly, I’m a geek. I love learning stuff. I think that’s why I do well as a SEAL. We are constantly learning stuff and studying information for our next missions.”
“That’s really cool. Above reading and writing and basic math, we weren’t encouraged to learn. They didn’t want us to know too much, especially the women. We were supposed to be ignorant.”
“That really sucks.”
“Yeah.”
“So going back to the writing the book, do you think they’ll ever find the book? Like how truthful can you be?”
He brought up a good point. Most of the members of the cult didn’t read books.
“I don’t know that they would ever find a book. At least not for a few years.”
He stood and took his plate to the sink. She grabbed it from him and began washing. “I can clean up.”
“Rest. I want you strong enough to show me more about what happens in bed.”
Jump chuckled. “That I can do now.”
She turned and lifted an eyebrow. “Go sit and rest. Really, I want you to heal. We can play later.”
His smile made her heart speed up and her head swim. How could some guy smiling at her make her feel this way? She liked what his gaze on her did to her insides. She was looking forward to experiencing everything he had to offer.