Chapter 53
BOTH MEN STAND IN SILENCE at the entrance of the cabin. Although the front door is shut behind them, Lucas has barely stepped inside.
“How did you find us?” I speak smoothly although all my insides are trembling.
Lucas tries to step around his younger brother, but Clint doesn’t let him get any closer. “We need to talk.”
“How’d you find us?” I repeat, my voice icy. I have to know how he tracked us to a cabin I’ve never been to and Clint doesn’t own.
Lucas squinches up his lips, full like his brother’s, and seems to make a decision. “Candace slipped a GPS tag into your bag.” His eyes scan the room. “You were distracted on the phone, maybe.”
Another tracker. My head pounds. Must have been that call with Clint when I asked her to excuse me, but I ended up leaving her alone in my office. I glare at Lucas.
“My idea. I’m sorry. We lost the signal earlier but got a ping a couple hours ago. I couldn’t wait.”
When we turned on the hot spot for Reid’s results.
“But it was for your own protection.” Lucas tries again to move toward me. “We needed to know you’d be safe.”
Clint swears and sidesteps in front of him. “Don’t treat us like we’re stupid. You’ve never done anything for anyone else’s good or protection in your life.” He gets into Lucas’s face, baiting him to hit him.
I want to squeeze between them but know if I do, it’s over. Clint will force me to choose. He’ll think I’m choosing between him and his brother, but what he’d really be asking me to do is to defend his self-inflicted cage over his possible healing.
Instead, I stay calm. “Who is we?”
Lucas pulls his focus from Clint and looks blankly at me.
“You said, We needed to know you’d be safe. Who exactly is we?”
“Candace and I.”
“Candy.” Clint snorts. “Where is she? Off terrorizing someone else at Garman Straub? Betsey is missing. She have anything to do with that?”
“What? No.” Lucas cocks his head to the side and sucks in his lips as if he might make some confession if he’s not careful. Instead, he levels his gaze at Clint. “I admit you and my wife have bad blood.”
My jaw clenches. Not conciliatory enough, Lucas. You must try harder.
“Bad blood! I have bad blood with you, brother.” He spits the last word and then shoves his index finger into Lucas’s chest.
“Dad?” Erika’s voice pierces the air behind us.
I spin around and pitch toward our daughter. “Go back to bed, honey. Sorry we woke you.”
“Is he Dad’s brother, my uncle?” She scoots away from me.
“Yes, I’m your uncle Lucas.” A huge smile on his face, he tries to step around Clint.
“Don’t you dare,” Clint hisses.
I hold on to Erika’s shoulders and whisper to her, “I need you to be with your brother. I don’t know if this man is safe. Your father needs to know you and Reid are together.”
She raises her chin.
Don’t do this. Please.
“I understand.” She begins to turn.
I clutch her wrist. “Grab the sat phone from our closet. Call 911 if I yell to you.”
She nods while rounding her eyes at the men, who are still locked in a tangle of wills.
I walk to within five feet of them and lean back against the couch with an air of dispassion. “Lucas, why don’t you take that seat?” I point to the scuffed leather chair. “We can discuss whatever you felt you needed to protect me from.”
“Good idea.” Lucas steps around Clint, who glares as he passes.
“Where’s Candace?” I say casually as I take a seat on the couch.
“Yeah, Lucas. Where’s your wife?” Clint snarls his words as he perches on the couch beside me, his body almost vibrating with tension.
“She really is a different woman. Combat changed her. In a good way. When she got back and got into private security—”
“Cut the crap, Lucas. We know about her court-martial.” Clint shakes his head.
Lucas’s eyes blaze as he almost levitates from his chair, ready to fly across the coffee table at his brother. “There was never a court-martial. She was only defending—”
“Don’t lie to my face!” Clint spits out.
“Please. Both of you.” I extend my hands to each of them. They are forcing me to the middle. “Tell us why you’ve come, Lucas.”
“We came to warn you.”
We. My spine straightens. “What do you need to warn us about?” I hold up my palm to him.
“And before you say anything, you have to know that I’ve already sent a message about everything I know.
The investment data, which is real. The borrowing from our funds.
The falsified reports. There’s no more hiding. ”
Lucas sits back in his seat, his face blank. A switch has been pulled. He says nothing.
For the first time since the pounding on the door, I am truly afraid. My breathing accelerates. Maybe I should call out to Erika to dial 911.
Maybe this has all gone too far.