“I don’t know him, sir. Not really. I know his cousin.”
Priest coughed, “Married.”
I prayed the lieutenant didn’t hear him.
“Hmm, well, if you know one Holt, you know them all. There’s a metric shit ton of them, and they’re always up each other’s asses. I rode rodeo with a couple of them. I didn’t get it.”
“Get what, sir?”
“Why join the military, ride rodeo, or any other oddball thing they did? They’re all filthy, fucking rich. It’s not like they needed the money.”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t have if I wanted to. What could I fucking say? Not a damn thing. The evidence had been plastered everywhere the eye could see.
The car.
The clothes.
The hotel.
The way the hotel staff treated him.
The fucking mansion on the beach.
It was all there, and I, the fucking idiot that I am, ignored it all because he was hot as balls, sucked dick like a vacuum, and fucked like a porn star.
Lead astray by my Johnson yet again.
“Hayden…”
I narrowed my eyes at Priest and Cameron on the other side of him, and they grimaced, turning to face ahead again as the plane taxied down the runway.
Liftoff always took my stomach, making it dip and swoop, but not this time as my stomach was already in my boots. Trauma and knowledge warred within me, blinding me to everything around me. I was so distracted, Priest had to nudge me when it was time to get on our feet.
He leaned in close, and said, “That guy could be spouting nonsense for all you know. Don’t let what he said and what Declan hasn’t get you killed today, brother.”
I nodded, following the guys ahead of me to the tail of the plane. But, when it came to my turn, instead of being a show-off like I usually was when we jumped, I fell forward, letting the air currents take me. Priest and Cameron soon surrounded me, watching me. When they tapped their wrists, I pulled my ripcord. Looking up, I watched my chute bloom in the blue sky over my head.
I followed the guys to the ground, muscle memory taking over. I probably shouldn’t have jumped today, but we all jumped with shit on our minds. Babies, bills, divorces, marriages, mortgages. You name it, we had it happening, and yet, we had a fucking job to do.
The guys and I touched down. They landed softly, but my feet hit the ground a little harder, jarring my back. I gathered my chute, like the others had, to clear the landing zone for the guys still in the air.
“Hayden…”
“Cam, let it go, okay? I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening, not after what just happened. Now listen to me. If what the lieutenant said is true, and I’m not saying it is or not, but if it is, then there’s a reason he’s not said anything. You’re feeling betrayed, I get that. But if it’s true, so’s his family.”
It took a second for me to understand what he meant, but it didn’t mean I had to like it.
“You getting me? He married someone he didn’t know without a prenup in place. Do you know what kind of fit my parents and the family’s attorneys would be having if I’d done that? And from what the lieutenant said, Declan’s family has exponentially more money than mine, so maybe he’s kept his trap shut to make sure he didn’t get saddled with a gold digger.”
I nodded. Plus, I hadn’t made a second about being tossed over because of my skin color and ethnicity by a rich girl and her family.
“You got your head screwed on straight again?”
I nodded, and Priest joked, “There ain’t nothing straight about him.”
I rolled my eyes at the dumbass. I wouldn’t trade the two of them for anything. I had a feeling I would be leaning on them more in the months to come.
