“Wow, that’s pretty young.” She popped some bread into the toaster before turning back to the eggs.
“Yeah. I think it’s why some guys end up working for companies that put them back where they were before.”
She huffed out a breath. “I grew up with my parents talking about how only weak people retire. I know it was their way of dealing with their anger at the situation they’d gotten themselves into. The cult took everything.”
“So your dad had the bank account. Did he ever take money out and use it for himself?”
“Totally. I saw him do it a few times. He would get money out to buy himself things he wanted like expensive sunglasses, a few times he would go into a restaurant to eat a meal when I stayed in the truck to eat a sandwich I’d made. He abused the system. I learned from him. It’s what gave me the idea to run.”
“I’m glad you did.”
She plated the eggs and took his plate to the table before moving hers to the table along with two forks. He took a bite of the eggs then groaned.
“Dang, these are good.”
“Thank you. I learned the trick a few years ago.”
“So, the money thing? Is there any way for them to demand the money from you?”
She shook her head. “No. I did some research and looked into it, making sure no one could come after me. No other person was listed on the account other than my father. After eight months or so I ended up closing that account and making one in my own name at another bank. I still haven’t really spent the money, and it’s in an interest-bearing account, so I’m earning interest. But no, there is no way these people could come back at me.”
“So the people who gave him money didn’t have contracts with your father?”
She shook her head. “No. The cult didn’t believe in leaving a paper trail. I could give some of the people back their money, and maybe I should, but I know some of those families, and Iknow what they do to women and children, and what they would do if they had money.”
He finished eating and sat back. “Yeah, I don’t think I’d be ready to give money to someone who supported that kind of shit.”
“I can’t. They were awful. I wish I could expose them for who they are.”
“Your writing can do that.”
She pushed the last of her food around on the plate. “I worry about that. Exposing them. I don’t want them to hunt me down.”
“Do you think they would?”
She shrugged. “Grayson found me. I don’t know how he keeps finding me. I don’t want anyone else finding me. In the cult I was seen as property. I’m nobody’s property.”
He shook his head. “Hell no. You’re your own person. I want you to have your own life, never a subset of me. If I stay in the Navy, I may have to move, but after the Navy, we can move somewhere we both want to live.”
“You might have to move?”
He shrugged. “SEALs have a few places they’re based, but regular Navy could be based almost anywhere around the globe. Or I could stay here and be an instructor.”
“An instructor?”
“SEALs have to have a huge base of knowledge. BUDs is our initial training.”
“Does everyone in the Navy go through that training?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s very specialized and only those people who want to become SEALs do BUDs. The pass rate is very low. Only nine guys in my class passed. The class before me had thirty, and the one after me was eighteen. There have been classes recently that had fifty graduates. That’s almost unheard of. Then they’ll get a class that only had a five percent pass rate.”
“Dang, that sounds awful.”
“It is, and it isn’t. The last thing I want is someone operating beside me who can’t do their job at the level it has to be done.”
She stared at him in wonder. “I have no idea what your job involves. Honestly, I’m fairly ignorant of the way the world works. There is so much I don’t know, and I appreciate that you’re willing to do stuff like go to museums with me.”
His lips spread into a wide smile. “Honestly, I’m a geek. I love learning stuff. I think that’s why I do well as a SEAL. We are constantly learning stuff and studying information for our next missions.”
