Rowan just stared at him. Then at Mack, whose mouth made a grim line.
“Seriously.” But he wasn’t about to unload there, in front of Saxon. Because he didn’t need Saxon hearing about…well, about those times when he hadn’t been Hammer Wallace. When he’d been small and weak and scared.
“Funny thing about being presumed dead,” Alden said. “People move on. They forget you existed. You disappear.” He made a gesture with his hand. “Poof.”
Rowan stared at Alden, his throat tightening.
“So, this has been educational,” Saxon said suddenly, standing and extending his hand to Rowan’s stepfather. “Thanks for the coffee and the local perspective.”
Alden somehow morphed, right then, into a politician, smiling, warm. “Anytime. You boys should come by for dinner while you’re in town. I’d love to hear more about your adventures in Alaska.”
“We’ll see how our schedule works out.” Again, Saxon, who now put a hand on Rowan’s shoulders. Almost to hold him back?
Right.
Rowan glanced at Mack. “You okay here?”
“He’s fine,” said Alden, and threw an arm around his shoulder.
Saxon cleared his throat.
“Text if you need anything,” Rowan said and Mack nodded.
The drive back toward South Eagle was quiet at first, Saxon staring out the passenger window.
“You want to talk about it?”
“Nope.”
Saxon grunted. “You’re not the person you used to be. Don’t listen to him.”
Yeah, okay, Saxon got him. Probably better than he knew. Because, well, he’d been dead too.
“He married my mom two years after my dad died. I was ten. Mack was born a few months later. Alden and I…we just…he didn’t like me much.”
Saxon nodded.
“Last time I saw him, he was, uh, bleeding from…well, let’s just say that it was either leave town or go to jail, so…”
“And your mom?”
“She died about a year before that, so…it was just Mack.”
“Which is why we went to get him.”
“Things were getting tense. Mack reached out before the Syria trip. After the dust of the op cleared, I thought I’d stop in and see how he was…saw he’d been in a fight. Mack never told me why. I might have overreacted by grabbing him, but…I don’t know. I’m okay never seeing that place again.”
A beat, then, “And that story about Sierra? Him not forgiving her?”
He glanced at Saxon. “She, uh, told her grandfather that…well, maybe things weren’t great at home. And he was the police commissioner then, so he sent a social worker around. Alden was good at making people believe his version of events. Especially people who wanted to believe the best about him.”
“And he took it out on you.”
“Let’s not talk about—wait. Is that smoke?”
They crested the hill that overlooked the valley where Renegade sat nestled between mountain ranges. Black clouds of smoke billowed into the sky, visible even in the fading daylight.
“It’s coming from the Blackwood ranch.” Rowan floored the accelerator.
