“Okay. Is there a point to this, or is it a long way of just telling me to bug off?”
“You’re unusually funny for having survived this whole ordeal.”
“On the teams, we call it gallows humor.”
“I understand. Brady, we want to protect what we all hold dear, which is our freedoms. And our history has not been perfect. We’ve followed a fragile path to come to where we are today. But it became necessary for us to intercede in a situation we discovered. Roland Stanley was using Esquivel Rojas just as much as Esquivel Rojas was using him and all the women and children he abused. It was the perfect storm of two big egos, one cooking up an organization and one protecting the activator of the organization. That infection was going to spread.”
“That part I understood perfectly.”
She smiled. He liked it when she did that. “While confidential informants help us solve half of the problems that we have, there comes a time when the operation just doesn’t make sense anymore. Or the sacrifices are too great or it’s just too much of a risk. Stanley stepped over the line, and because you and some of the members of your team incurred his wrath years ago, you seemed like the perfect fit, the perfect candidates for this job. I did not know until eight days ago that Maggie was still alive. And, Brady, if I’d known that, I’m not sure I would have asked for your help. We have some issues with that, and I can’t promise you one hundred percent how it’ll play out, but we are trying to convince two federal judges that Maggie was brainwashed, leveraged, and compromised into doing things she would not normally do. But I have to tell you, it may be a long road.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready to see her.”
“I understand. I really do. And I don’t want to impose my will on anybody, but in this case, circumstances make it so I think the two of you should talk. I would like you to hear from her what happened and how it happened. It’s a very compelling story, Brady.”
“You’ve been very straight with me. I still don’t understand why you have to remain anonymous, but I will accept your challenge.”
“Well, I’m glad you recognize that, because not many people ever meet me. I do my work behind the scenes. I’m a non-person. I don’t want attention. I just want things to get better. I ask myself all the time, is this going to bring people together or is it going to tear them apart? Is it going to make it so the boats row in the same direction or they keep going around and round in circles and never travel anywhere? You may be familiar with those concepts, because I believe it was part of your training as a SEAL.”
“It was.”
“You took on this job agreeing to do it for one million, Brady. You accomplished the goal, and you enlisted the support of men you could count on. It was not pretty. It was full of flaws, but it worked. I’m authorized to tell you that we have agreed to double the fee. This’ll be done later on today, and your cohorts, well, I hope they appreciate it. Because this never happens.”
“I didn’t do it for the money. I did it for revenge.”
“That is why, Brady, you need to have a discussion with Maggie.”
“Just like that?”
“Let me ask you this. Do you wonder if she’s a criminal?”
“I wonder if I can trust her, yes. I loved her. But seeing her name on that certificate, it almost made her responsible for it. I don’t understand why she would choose to willingly work with a murderer like that.”
“Very well. I note your objection. I’m just asking you to reconsider. You may never be ready to face it, but when you are, the phone number in your mobile will now work, and you can leave a message on a machine. I feel like I owe it to you to remain accessible, because this part of my job is incomplete. You’ve earned your money, yes, but in the process, you’ve lost something even greater. I hold some responsibility for that.”
She stood.
“You’re leaving?”
“Got another situation I need to get up and running. There’s always something. I’d love to hang around you guys, but I can’t.”
“Thanks for the personal visit then.”
“We may not talk, but you can tell me things. On the machine.”
“Does that mean we have a relationship?” Brady looked up at her and saw he made her blush.
“Well, this is good-bye for now. No, I’m not going to answer that question, Brady, because you already know the answer. You take good care of yourself and Tate. Go heal. That’s what I want you to do.”
“Fine. I will do that. And I appreciate it.”
There was something else Brady wanted to say, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. As he watched her leave his room, he remembered. He had promised himself to do things out of goodness, to remain a force for good, rather than to live in the state of revenge. He’d been baptized in a fire of his own making. This was going to be a real test of his courage, to see how well he could put his life back together again.
As he looked at all the things he needed to do, the paths he needed to follow, every single one of them passed by Maggie’s doorway. He was not quite ready, but he was planning to be.
Chapter 18
Brady was given the choice to remain in San Diego for another week, just to give himself some rest and care and perhaps a little reunification with some of his buddies from SEAL Team 5, the team he had detached from several years ago. While the offer was generous and tempting, Brady wanted to go home.
Of course, he didn’t want to say he missed his dog. That wouldn’t appear to be very manly, but Tate was a big part of his decision. And damn it, if he couldn’t do the things he really needed to do and missed the most, what was the point of hanging around a bunch of guys who were doing things he used to do? He’d be sitting on the sidelines, experiencing his age and the fact he probably would never be able to do it again. So as tempting as a week or two in a rented cottage at the beach was, he told them that, at this point in his development, he was not interested. He needed to get back to his real life, his gardens, and his home. He was sure there was a lot of work that would need to be done.
He was prepared to find the worst—that his gardens had been overrun with animals and his grow had disappeared—but it was good work, work that made him happy. Plus, people would leave him alone there.
So he accepted Enemario’s offer to drive him from his home in San Diego up to Sonoma County. Everyone else had gone back to their respective towns. He told the organization that, at some future point, he might take them up on the little cottage at the beach. And he appreciated the offer. He wanted them to know it just wasn’t what he needed.
As they drove up I-5, he remembered Enemario’s metal flake stretch Hummer always attracted attention wherever he drove it. And Brady wasn’t used to that. Other drivers honked, and some of them gave them a thumbs-up. A few gave them the finger. Enemario was unabashed in his love of the United States, his back bumper being filled with American flags stickers from many of the special forces he had worked with in the past, his old PD badge, and “save the whales” for good measure.
“I forgot you had that on there,” said Brady.
“Ah, the girls like it. I don’t want them thinking I’m just some crazy guy, that if they get in an accident or something, I’m going to pull out a gun and shoot them. I got enough of the other kind of stickers all over it, and to be honest with you, most people are okay with it. But I had to put that on there. A friend of mine’s daughter wanted to put a unicorn on there too, but I stopped that.”