The response just added to my confusion. Magnus clearly loved Matty more than life itself and while I agreed that Tate was an incredible father to the little boy, it didn’t negate the father Magnus would have been to the child.
“Magnus, what-”
That was all I got out before Magnus interjected, “We’re here.”
The car jerked as Magnus pulled off the road and onto a dirt and gravel covered road. A small farm house and a couple of outbuildings sat on the top of a small rise about a quarter of a mile up the driveway.
“Where’s here?” I asked.
“Home,” was all Magnus said.
Chapter 6
Magnus
It hurta lot more than I thought it would – coming home. Maybe it was the fact that I’d started the process of letting go of this place by telling my captain I wouldn’t be returning to the job I loved. More likely though, it was the pain of talking about Jenna. It wasn’t like I hadn’t had to tell a few people in my life she was dead – I’d done that last summer when Hawke had told me the news. But telling Dante the whole story was different…more intimate somehow. Probably because he now knew details the others didn’t. I’d only told my captain and my friend and neighbor, Colton Andrews, about the details of Jenna’s struggles with drug addiction and how she’d ultimately died. And Colton was the only one who knew the role I’d played in my daughter’s death.
Without her body and with the two men responsible for her death both dead, there hadn’t been an official police investigation because it hadn’t served a purpose other than to drag my daughter’s reputation through the dirt. I hadn’t even told her friends that she was gone because there hadn’t been time once Hawke had shown up on my doorstep telling me that Jenna was dead but Matty was alive. I’d merely packed my bags, told Colton everything and askedhim to take care of my house while I was gone and asked my boss for a leave of absence. I’d spent the next several months focused on Matty, though some might say I’d used his illness as a way to remain in denial about Jenna’s death. It wasn’t until last month after Matty had been released from the hospital for the last time that I’d finally taken the first step in saying goodbye to my daughter, by ordering the headstone for a grave that wouldn’t even serve as her final resting place. But I’d wanted a place for Matty to go someday if he ever wanted to talk to his mom or see where she’d grown up.
I’d always loved coming home after a long day at work, even on the days when my personal life was a fucking mess. Between my ex-wife and Jenna’s battles with addiction, the house carried a lot of bad memories, but somehow I’d managed to hang on to the good ones too. My wife and I had bought the place a few months after getting married and before Jenna had arrived. She’d hated the old farmhouse style 3-bedroom house from the beginning, deeming it outdated and too far from civilization. But that was exactly what had appealed to me about the ten-acre property. I’d spent enough of my childhood in shitty apartments and around the dregs of society to last a lifetime and it had been the last thing I’d wanted for my child. I’d asked my wife, Melissa, to give the place a shot and had promised we’d move to the city if she still felt the same after a couple of years. But by the time that deadline had come and gone, I’d known my marriage was doomed to fail and I hadn’t bothered to extend the offer again. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway since Mel had been spending most of her time in the city anyway.
I pulled the rental car to a stop in front of the wraparound porch and took in the sight of the two empty rocking chairs that had been one of the first things Mel and I had bought when we’d moved in. I’d had high hopes for those chairs, but more often than not, it had just been me nursing a beer as I’d watched the sun set. But I’d never gotten rid of the second chair…not after Mel had left, not even after Jenna had disappeared. I didn’t really have a good reason why.
“It’s nice,” I heard Dante murmur.
I chuckled. “Calling me Magnus three times today and nowthis,” I said as I motioned to my run-down house. There was nothing “nice” about the peeling blue paint, loose and broken shutters and unkempt landscaping. While I hadn’t meant the comment to be negative, Dante definitely took it that way because there was a flash of disappointment in his gaze before he extinguished it all together.
“Whatever, Pop-pop,” he snapped before getting out of the car and slamming the door behind him.
“Dante,” I called, but he didn’t respond. By the time I got out of the car and called to him again, he had his gun out and was walking towards the side of the house.
“Gonna check the perimeter,” he muttered.
So much for the truce we’d somehow managed to reach.
“Fuck,” I muttered as I slammed the door closed and trudged towards the house. I pulled out my phone, dialed, and waited for Colton to pick up.
“Hey, it’s me,” I said.
“Hey, you here?”
“Yeah,” I said. I’d texted Colton the previous night from the hotel to let him know I was in town, but I hadn’t told him about the trial. As far as he was concerned, I had only returned to pack up the house and put it on the market. While my identity had been kept from the media in regards to the trial, I was going to tell Colton the truth in case the press got wind of who the primary witness against the powerful defendant really was. I’d rather he heard it from me than the news media.
“I’ll head over.”
“No, hold off,” I said as I watched Dante disappear around the side of the house. “How about you come over for dinner tonight?”
“Sure, sounds good. I had Bess grab you some groceries when she went shopping yesterday.”
Bess was Colton’s wife of nearly twenty-five years.
“Thanks. Tell her I’m looking forward to seeing her tonight.”
“She actually went to Dallas for a couple weeks – her dad’s been sick.”
I nodded to myself in understanding. The man had beendiagnosed with pancreatic cancer just before I’d left for Seattle and I suspected he didn’t have a lot of time left. While Colton couldn’t leave their ranch for extended periods of time, I had no doubt Bess made the trek to Dallas whenever she could. The couple hadn’t been blessed with children, but Colton’s wife had numerous nieces and nephews to spoil. “Well, tell her thank you and I hope he’s feeling better soon.”
“I will. See you around six?”
