“It’s okay,” Leo said from next to her. “You did the best you could in a shitty situation.”
Swallowing hard, Cassidy nodded. But she knew she had a lot to make up for. She didn’t want Mario to end up being a spoiled-rotten brat, but giving him some of the things he’d missed out on was at the top of her agenda.
“Dad!”
A little girl came running into the kitchen, and Shawn caught her around the waist as she ran right into him.
“Hey, Sandra. I want you to meet some new friends,” Shawn said as he turned her to face Cassidy and her son. “This is Cassidy and Mario. They’re new to the area, and Gramps’s new friends.”
“Hi!” Sandra said brightly. “You wanna play with me?” she asked Mario.
The little girl was beautiful. Probably around six or seven, as far as Cassidy could tell. She had black hair held neatly in two braids, with pink and white beads at the end of each. They swung around her head as she moved to take in everyone in the room, making her seem like she was constantly in motion. She had on a pair of jeans with holes in the knees and a Silverstone Towing T-shirt.
Mario once again looked up to his mom for permission. “It’s okay,” Cassidy reassured him.
“Only for a bit,” Shawn told his daughter. “You promised to help me with dinner.”
Sandra looked at Mario and said, “We’re making chicken dumplin’s. Daddy makes them taste sooooo good. I always pick out the carrots, but you can’t even taste the other vegetables he puts in the sauce.”
“I’ve never had that,” Mario told the little girl.
“You haven’t?” Sandra’s eyes got wide. “It’s to die for! Especially the way Daddy makes them. Come on, I’ve got my Barbies and Matchbox cars set up in one of the sleeping rooms. I’m making a fort where all the people are hiding from the Bigfoot who’s about to trample the city.”
Mario looked overwhelmed, but he let his new friend grab his hand and tow him toward the same hallway where Eagle had disappeared a little bit ago.
“Sorry ’bout that,” Shawn said. “She’s a little bossy, but not in a mean way. We’re workin’ on it.”
“It’s fine,” Cassidy said. “Mario hasn’t been around many little girls, and he hasn’t had much chance to simply play. It’ll be good for him.”
Leo then introduced her to the other people in the room, all Silverstone Towing employees. He and his friends had told her all about their business while they had been in Miami. She was impressed that they’d been able to become a success in such a short period of time. But after seeing the setup and how happy all the employees were, she could understand.
She was very thankful everyone was wearing name tags, because she’d never remember their names. Jose, Robert, Christine, Leigh . . . her head was spinning. They explained how the drivers came and went from the main garage throughout the day. If things were slow, they hung out and watched TV, grabbed a nap, or ate some of the delicious meals Shawn provided for them. The dispatch room was manned twenty-four hours a day, as Silverstone Towing was always on call.
Cassidy had been blown away by the basement. Between the pinball games, the foosball table, the comfortable couches, and the huge television, it was a place where people could gather to have fun or simply relax.
The other guys were in various parts of the building with their wives, and before she and Leo had gone downstairs, they’d checked on Mario, who was happily playing with Sandra. It was currently just Cassidy and Leo in the basement, and somewhere along the line, Leo had taken hold of her hand. It had been a very long time since she’d held hands with someone other than her son, and holding Leo’s felt . . . comforting.
He led her to the end of a short hallway and stopped in front of a door that was obviously different from the others. She could tell it was reinforced, and because of the complicated-looking security pad next to it, she knew it wasn’t just another sleeping room or storage closet.
“This is our safe room,” Leo told her. “I told you about it out in the car. It’s where Silverstone does all our research and planning for our missions. It has our top-secret files on possible targets. The room itself is fireproof, tornado proof, and no one can break in.”
Cassidy swallowed. She wasn’t sure why he was showing her this room.
Like usual, it was as if Leo could read her mind. “I want you and Mario to feel safe here. For too long, you were under Coke’s control. Your life wasn’t your own. Living here in Indiana is a brand-new start. You can do anything, be anyone you want to be. I’m not saying you won’t have disappointments and challenges, because that’s life, but at Silverstone Towing, you and your son are secure. One hundred percent safe and protected. And if at any time you don’t feel safe, you can come down here and hole up in this room. No questions asked.”
Cassidy’s eyes filled with tears.
He gently wiped them off her cheeks with his thumbs when they spilled over. “I’m not expecting anything to happen. As I already told you, the FBI covered our tracks very well. But nothing is foolproof. Coke is dead, but there are others in his organization who aren’t. Silverstone is your haven. Period. Understand?”
Cassidy nodded.
“Good. Let me show you how the security pad works.”
Once inside, Leo patiently explained that the lock was biometric, and then he programmed her fingerprint into the system. “You don’t have to push any buttons to get in—just put your finger on the scanner, and the door will open immediately. In extreme situations, you can lock the door from the inside, or out, by hitting the star key, then nine-nine-nine. That will trigger extreme lockdown. No one can get in or out without the override code.”
“Who has that?” Cassidy asked.
“Bull, Eagle, Smoke, and myself. That’s it. Taylor, Skylar, and Molly are all programmed to be able to get in and out of the room, but the employees aren’t. It’s not that we don’t want them to be safe in case of anything happening, but they don’t know about our missions, and we want to keep it that way.”
Cassidy bit her lip.
“What? What are you thinking?”
“Why are you telling me?” she asked. “I mean, the others are all married to your friends. That makes sense.”
She couldn’t read the look on Leo’s face, but she heard the sincerity in his tone. “Because you need to feel safe more than anyone I’ve ever met. You’ve been screwed over time and time again. Because you know firsthand what Silverstone does. You’ve lived it. And because I trust you, Cass. I’ve known you for over twenty-five years. Granted, we don’t know the little things about each other, but when you wrote me while I was deployed, I lived for your letters. They made me smile, and we opened up to each other. I was stupid for not trying harder to keep you in my life, and I feel as if we’ve been given a second chance. But there’s no pressure here. You need time to live your life. To find your new normal. You and Mario both need that. And . . . maybe I’m crazy, and what I’m feeling is only one sided.”
“It’s not,” Cassidy whispered, feeling shy but energized at the same time. She’d written Leo when he’d been deployed because she’d missed him. Because she’d been proud of him. She’d had no idea her letters had meant so much.