Chapter 9 #2
Oh, the man was making it so difficult to remain distant from him. “Okay, but you might need more coffee to keep you awake.”
His spontaneous smile almost became a chuckle. “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue. Ready when you are.”
“Okay. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Taylor let herself drift back into the past. “My mom passed a few months before my fourth birthday. I don’t have any clear memories of her, just some hazy impressions of feelings, like I know she was there, but I only know what she looked like from old photographs.
When she was gone, Pops just took over. He worked hard to support us…
got me the best childcare he could find for while he was working—and he was working some long hours.
Got me into the best school he could find.
Sent me away to college and was there at my graduation. ”
“It sounds as if he did his best to give you the best of everything.”
Although Taylor smiled at the comment, she couldn’t help but be a little sad, too. “I always believed that. What I found out a few days ago—the thing that brought us to where we are now—it’s making me question everything.”
“How so?”
His genuine concern brought a lump to her throat. “It looks as if Pops might not be the man I thought he was, and if that’s true… it feels as if my whole childhood is missing something vital, but I have no idea what. As if… something doesn’t add up.”
She gave a short, quiet laugh and shook her head.
“I’m not sure how much sense that makes.
Anyway, fast forward a few years. I graduated from college, and returned to New York, where I’d secured a great job.
I’d gotten a place of my own, and life was good.
I was dating a great guy—we met through Pops.
We were even talking about moving in together…
until Wyatt didn’t show up for a date and didn’t answer my calls.
I tried to find him, but there was no trace.
I reported him missing, and then a few days later, they pulled him out of the Hudson River. ”
“I’m sorry to hear that. It must have been a massive shock.”
“At the time, it was.” The horrible event was far enough in the past not to cause her any further grief, but Taylor still felt sad for Wyatt and his family, and to some degree, likely always would.
“He was murdered—shot twice,” she continued.
“When I called Pops to let him know… he sounded nervous. Really nervous. Told me to take a few personal days, not to go anywhere, just wait to hear from him. He wouldn’t tell me why, just said to stay home, sit tight and wait.
I didn’t question any of it. I mean, it was Pops telling me to do that, so why wouldn’t I take him at face value? ”
Looking back, those few days had been terrifying.
Wyatt dying the way he had, the advice from her father, her father’s own nervousness…
she hadn’t known what to do for the best, so she’d listened to the man who’d brought her up.
Everyone at work had assumed she was grieving the loss of Wyatt—they’d had no idea what else was going on in her life.
“So, I did as Pops said, and I waited. When he finally came to my apartment, he looked as if he hadn’t slept for days. He told me not to ask any questions, just to do as he said, and the first thing he said was I had to quit my job.”
Taylor doubted she’d ever forget that Sunday morning, and her father visiting her before six o’clock.
Rhys gave a low whistle. “That’s a serious ask. Did you?”
She nodded, and with that memory there came a rush of remembered grief and confusion.
“He also told me to set up a mail forwarding service, one that would forward parcels as well as letters, and to send the details to him at the address on the piece of paper he pressed into my hand. It was for a service he’d already arranged, and it would forward everything I sent to a post office box he was going to rent when he got to wherever he was going.
He told me to do the same. He said it was so we had a means of communication that wouldn’t leave an electronic trail.
I asked him what was going on, but he wouldn’t tell me. ”
Rhys’ features settled into a pensive frown. “Didn’t that send up a red flag?”
There was no censure in the question, just curiosity.
“It did, but I refused to acknowledge it. I told myself I was imagining things, that this was Pops and he wouldn’t do anything wrong.
So, when he told me to get out of the city and disappear, go somewhere out of the way and make a new life, I believed he had good reasons.
He made me promise to do it, and as soon as I did, he…
left. It was the last time I saw him, the last time I spoke to him. ”
Even now, part of Taylor still couldn’t believe it was all for real and still ongoing.
“I felt as if I’d stepped into the pages of a spy novel.
Crazy as it was, I told myself he must have been trying to protect me from something he couldn’t tell me about.
It was the only way I could make it all make sense at the time. ”
“So, what did you do?”
Hindsight cast a shadow over the memory.
“Exactly what I was told. Over the next few days, I quit my job, organized the mail forwarding, and arranged for my belongings to go into storage. I could only carry so much. My apartment came furnished, so I didn’t have a lot of furniture to deal with, and just as soon as I could, I went to the bus station and took the first bus out of the city.
It didn’t matter where it was headed, but doing that over and over, I ended up in Texas—came out of the bus station in town, with no idea where to go. ”
Rhys shook his head. “Doing what you did… I can’t make up my mind whether you were incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, going off like that without a plan.”
“There wasn’t time. The way Pops told it… I was terrified. Too focused on making arrangements and too exhausted to think about the finer details. I guess a lot of it was instinct. I was incredibly lucky, though.”
A fond memory coaxed her lips into a smile.
“Dee, the original owner of Honey Fields, happened to be passing the bus station. She saw me looking lost and took me in, no questions asked, gave me my first job and helped me start a new life. She even helped me cut all remaining ties to my previous life in New York. I still can’t believe the timing of it all.
If I’d left the bus station seconds earlier or seconds later…
I don’t know what I would have done without her. ”
“And what about your father?”
Taylor let go of a deep sigh. “Until a few days ago, all I could have said was since the day he came to my apartment and set everything in motion, the only contact I’d had with him had been by snail mail, using false names to remain under the radar—whatever you consider that radar to be.
As of a few days ago, I can’t tell you because I don’t know. ”
“So, what happened a few days ago?”
“Everything blew up.” It certainly felt as if her life had been blown apart.
“To begin with, his letters arrived like clockwork. Then they became less frequent. Initially, the change worried me, but the letters were still coming, and he sounded fine. As time went on, the gaps between letters became longer and longer. I kept checking, but there was nothing. I kept sending my letters, asking him what was happening, but there was still nothing.”
Taylor swallowed a mouthful of coffee. A stiff drink wouldn’t be unwelcome. “A few days ago, that changed. I received a package containing a flash drive and a large envelope with the logo of a company you might have heard of—Kilburn DefenseTech.”