Jenna shifted on the bench seat to face him better, but Steel continued to stare forward out the windshield. “You got a promotion and the opportunity to become a command lead. You took it for better pay and less deployment time until you graduated.”
Steel nodded. “All true. Do you remember why I was offered that promotion?”
“Stop playing Twenty Questions, Jack, and just refresh my memory.”
“I discovered a fellow sniper from my class had been accepting money for wet work.” He caught Jenna’s confused expression in the reflection of the windshield. “An assassin,” he clarified.
“Sounds vaguely familiar. I am assuming that person has the first or last name of ‘Shaw’.”
“Griffin Shaw,” he told her. “Like me, he was young, idealistic, and fucking talented. We were neck and neck for most of our training, but in the end, I got the higher score. He seemed… pleasant enough about it. Not bitter or vindictive, and I was naïve enough back then to still think that he wished me well.” Steel ran a hand down his face, cynicism pouring from every part of him. “I know I did. Just because I got the highest score doesn’t mean he didn’t make rank too, and I thought him my friend, even though we were also rivals.”
“Wait, Griff? That’s the man we’re talking about?”
Steel nodded. “I wasn’t sure you remembered meeting him.”
“He came to Mr. Zarin’s funeral with you.”
Fucker. Steel had forgotten about that. “Yeah, he did.” Papaw—back then Staff Sergeant Taylor—and his fellow classmates had also attended, to show Steel support. No one outside of family friends from Port Townsend, Lilly, and Jenna knew that the man they were burying wasn’t Steel’s biological father. It was a small service, but Steel had felt honored that his Marine brothers had come to support him.
“So what happened?” Jenna prompted. “You found out he was killing for money?”
“In the most simplest explanation possible, yes.” Shifting his seat, he faced her. “You have always been a faithful military wife. Do you know how fucking lucky I am? Others talked about their wives asking questions, demanding to know details that they’re not allowed to tell and then getting pissed at them when the men kept their mouths shut. There are things we simply can’t talk about, either for national security reasonsor,” he added pointedly, “because it would embarrass the Marines, and therefore the country, if it got out.”
“And what you’re about to tell me you couldn’t before?” Jenna prompted.
“No country wants it known that a man they used taxpayer money to train turned into an assassin for hire,” Steel said bluntly. “But there’s more to it than that.”
“If you aren’t supposed to tell me, you don’t need to now,” Jenna told him, reaching for his hand. “I trust you, Jack. Whatever it is that happened, I don’t need to know if it’ll get you in trouble.”
Steel took her hand, lacing their fingers together, and bent to kiss the back of her hand. “Baby, have I told you yet today how much I fucking love you? You’re not a military wife anymore, and I don’t give a damn if they find out I told you something that happened thirty years ago. If you want to know, I’ll tell you.”
Jenna bit the inside of her lip. “I want to know why you feel guilty about Shaw.”
“I don’t,” he said plainly. “I feel guilty that I didn’t think of him the moment I was accused of a murder I didn’t commit.”
“Why?”
“Because thirty years ago, he tried to pin his murders on me, and the only reason I’m not in prison today is because of a random twist of fate that gave me an alibi he didn’t expect.”
“You were framedfor murder thirty years ago and you didn’ttell me?” Jenna was still trying to wrap her mind around what Jack had just told her. He was helping her down from the truck. The cold day hadn’t brought more snow, but that didn’t mean the ground wasn’t slippery. Her joints started to tingle the moment they stepped out of the heated truck. Thankfully, it was early morning on a Friday, and there weren’t many vehicles in the parking lot. Jack was able to park right next to the front doors.
While the club didn’t have designated handicap parking spots, most of the brothers parked away from the building to leave the spots closer to the front doors for Bree’s accessible cage or for the ol’ ladies with kids.
“Baby, I told you. I signed a lot of paperwork that forbade me from tellinganyone.”
“You almost went tojail, Jack!” She kept a tight hold on him as he guided her up the sidewalk.
“And if I had gotten arrested, obviously, you would have been told. But at the time, it was keep my mouth shut and accept the promotion or possibly be court-martialed myself.”
He wasn’t getting it. In Jack’s mind, the right man went to jail. Justice had been served. Why wouldn’t he accept a promotion when it was around the time they wanted to start their family? But it bothered her. Somethinghugehad happened to him, and she hadn’t known.
And yes, she was aware how ridiculous that sounded after he’d just commended her for being the perfect military wife. But fuck it, Jenna had always hated keeping her mouth shut. She knew how much it affected the relationships of the other military couples, and she never wanted to add to Jack’s stress. She wanted their home to be his safe haven. The place where he could put down the uniform and justbe.
But almost being arrested and charged for murder? That seemed like something she should have known.
Jack held the door open for her and guided her in, that always reliable hand at the small of her back. It shouldn’t make her feel better about what she’d just been told, but damn him, because it did.
And the look he gave her told Jenna that he knew it. Double damn him.
