Military Heroes Bundle: A Soldier's Homecoming / A Soldier's Redemption / Danger in the Desert / Strangers When We Meet / Grayson's Surrender / Taking Cover. Merline Lovelace
guess I missed the others.”
“How come?”
“I dunno.”
When she paused at a stop sign, Connie looked over at Sophie. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Sophie’s lower lip stuck out. “Nothing.”
For the first time in a long time, Connie didn’t believe her daughter. “Honey, you know there’s nothing that makes me madder than a lie.”
“I’m not lying!”
“Okay.” Connie thought about that, admitting that I dunno was the kids’ equivalent of I don’t recall under oath. “You’re going to be a great lawyer someday.”
Sophie looked at her. “Huh?”
“Never mind. Look, there’s Micah. I need to stop for him, because we’re supposed to be working together today.”
“Okay.”
Micah stood on the sidewalk, watching her approach, and when she pulled up and rolled down her window, he bent to look in. “I see you found Little Miss Lost.”
“Lost?” Connie turned her head to look at Sophie. “Sophie, where did you go?”
“Nowhere,” Sophie said. “I told you. I dunno where the other kids went.”
Connie looked at Micah. “Later,” he said. “Take her on home. Ethan and I are going to stop for a coffee and a chat. Gage said for you to take the rest of the day.”
Connie nodded, her teeth clenched, sure Micah wasn’t telling her everything. One certainty leaped out at her, however: Gage hadn’t told them to take the rest of the day over nothing.
“Later,” Micah said again. “Ethan and I will be over shortly, if you don’t mind.”
“I’ll put the coffee on.”
“Thanks.”
She met Micah’s obsidian gaze and saw reassurance there. Forcing herself to relax, she lifted her foot from the brake and drove toward her house.
* * *
Ethan and Micah met at Maude’s diner. Midafternoon, the place was quiet, with only Maude about to handle things. She poured their coffee, then disappeared into the back. The banging that carried through the kitchen door indicated that she might be involved in dinner preparation.
The two men, so alike yet so different, looked at one another across the table. The words, it seemed, still weren’t there.
Finally Ethan broke the silence. “This thing with Sophie Halloran... I don’t like it.”
“Me, neither.” Micah sipped his coffee. “Connie tell you about her marriage?”
“A bit. As if it were the distant past.”
Micah nodded. “Faith went through something similar. When I met her, she was running from her husband, and a couple of weeks after she got here, he found her and tried to kill her.”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “And?”
Micah shrugged. “I was a deputy. I got there in time. He’s gone.”
Ethan nodded, as if approving. “Are you suggesting that Connie might be facing the same threat?”
“Not directly.” Micah looked down at his mug and suddenly smiled. “You’ll never know how many of the problems of life Faith and I solved over a cup of coffee.”
Ethan answered with a similar smile. “Good time to talk.”
“Especially when winter is howling outside. But back to Connie. She talks like it’s all in the past and she’s long over it. But I can tell you from my experience with Faith, she’s not over it. She’s buried it. That woman hasn’t dated in all the time she’s been here. Tells you something, because there are plenty of men around here who have asked.”
Ethan nodded. “I got the feeling her rendition was more cover than fact.”
“It is. When we did her background check before hiring her, I discovered the story was a lot uglier than the way she tells it. She sort of does the outline thing, like she’s reading from a list of all the abused-spouse indicators. It doesn’t get personal. But trust me, Ethan, it was personal. Very personal and very ugly.”
“Kid gloves, then.”
“That would be my advice.” Micah leaned back and sighed heavily.
“You think this has something to do with Sophie?”
“It might. You know what evil men are capable of. You don’t need me to draw you a picture. They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but I can tell you, men are worse. Far worse. And if this guy is still p.o.’d that Connie got away, there’s no telling what he might do to get even.”
“But why wait seven years?”
“Didn’t she tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“He went to prison for what he did. And the judge really slammed him, because she was a police officer.”
Ethan lowered his head a moment. “When did he get out?”
“About seven months ago.”
“Does Connie know that?”
“I don’t know. Probably. We got a routine notice through the office, because she lives here now.”
“She never mentioned it. She doesn’t even seem worried about that.”
“Then maybe she doesn’t know. Or maybe she thinks she covered her tracks well enough. She changed her last name, for one thing, after she got here. The post office has long since stopped making forwarding addresses available to the general public because of the danger. It may not have entered her head that after all this time he might come after her.”
“And maybe he hasn’t.”
Micah nodded. “Maybe he hasn’t. But I’ll tell you, Ethan, I don’t like that this guy knew Sophie’s name. And I don’t like that she disappeared today.”
“Just briefly.”
“Briefly is too long, under the circumstances.”
Ethan sipped his coffee, thinking, reordering the pieces of the puzzle he’d been working with. “Okay. That helps.”
“Maybe.” Micah straightened and sipped his own coffee. “So tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“Where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing.”
The question couldn’t have been unexpected. Indeed, it wasn’t. But Ethan had learned to compartmentalize his life in units he could handle. After a minute or so, he replied, “I think you know.”
Micah waited, then nodded. “I guess I do. The hard part is figuring out how to forgive yourself.”
Those words struck a chord in Ethan, seeming to crystallize a whole bunch of emotional and mental baggage. “Yeah. Have you?”
“There comes a point,” Micah said slowly, “where you realize that the past is past. I’m not saying all of it was right, or even that any of it was right—or, for that matter, wrong—but it’s the past, and you can’t change it. So what you do, what you have to do, is understand that all that matters now is how you live today. If you’re looking for atonement, that’s the only kind you’ll find. And the only way to get rid of nightmares is to build new dreams.” Then he said, “I’m glad you came looking for me, son.”
At that, Ethan smiled. “So am I.”