Whatever dumb contest they were in.
“Are you part of this Harrington investigation?”Jake finally asked.
Nate didn’t outwardly react, though he inwardly winced at Jake asking that in front of Cal.Nate very much doubted Cal knew about Jill hiring Sam to look into Glenda.He didn’t even think Aly knew.
“No.That’s all Sam’s,” Nate said, booting up his computer.He didn’t glance at Cal but was happy his brother wasn’t interjecting.Stirring this already simmering pot of shit.
Of course, when he saw he had three emails from Jules Hyatt, he wasn’t sure which simmering pot of shit he really wanted to deal with.
“Okay.Well, tell her something if you would.She was asking about my dad in regards to all that—God knows why.But I got a call a few days ago.That my father’s remains were found.”
Nate didn’t know what to do with that information, or the fact he felt the tiniest smidge of sympathy for Jake fucking Hayes.“She’ll probably want to talk to you about that.”
“Yeah, she’s got my number.”He looked again—from Nate to Cal to Nate again.Expression almost blank enough to make Nate jealous.“Have her call me if she’s got questions, but Gallatin County will have more answers than me.”
With that, Jake turned and left the office.Not one challenge tossed down, which only made thattiny sliverof sympathy get a foundation.
“I can’t tell you why, but there is something about that guy.A punchable face,” Cal decided aloud.
Nate snorted.“Yeah, something like that.”
“So, what does his dad have to do with Glenda?”
Nate gave up pretending like none of this got to him and scrubbed his hands over his face on a heavy sigh.
“I’m not sure.Sam said she found out Glenda’s husband had been hunting buddies with two other veterans—enough they were named in his obituary.One was Hayes’s dad and another guy.”But Cal being here reminded Nate that he kind of knew the other guy himself.Because Cal used to talk about him.“I think you know him.Daryl Everly?Wasn’t he one of your favorite teachers or something?”
“Yeah, he… he wrote me some college recommendations.Mr.Everly… yeah, hell, he’s half the reason I was able to get out of here.”Cal seemed to consider it in the same way Nate was.
That no connection made sense here—Hayes’s dad, Glenda’s dead husband, and Cal’s favorite teacher.Particularly if it was somehow supposed to connect to Glenda’s traumatized muteness.
But Nate didn’t like any of it, or the uneasy feeling it all gave him in the pit of his stomach.
Chapter Seventeen
The apartment above Honor’s Edge Investigations Office
Cal woke upin a cold sweat.Everything was dark.His heartbeat thudded in his ears and against his ribcage.
He could hear Glenda, singing that damn lullaby.
He smelled blood.
“Shit,” he muttered out loud, grabbing his head with his hands.
Nightmare.Bad one.But he was alive and whole, and there was no blood.No Glenda.
Just fucking terror.
He blew out a breath, breathed like his therapist was forever telling him to do.He even talked himself through it—out loud, much to his own embarrassment—because damn he wanted that gone.
“It was just a dream,” he told himself.
Except… it very well could have been a memory, couldn’t it have?He didn’t tend to dream like this.Usually, he was awake when little snippets of horrible memory haunted him.But asleep or awake… it was all possible it was real.That was the lesson of the past year.
His brain wasn’t strong enough to handle everything it had encountered, so it went dark.Then decided to fill him in a million years later.Maybe now it was adding dreams to the mix.
He threw the covers off and got out of bed.He didn’t want to consider that.Wouldn’t, in fact.He stalked out of the room, not sure what he was going to do with all this roiling shit inside of him.
