“Very well then,” he says. “No more apologies. I’m here for you, Kelly. I’m being paid very well to be here for you. So if you don’t want apologies, you will get no more from me.”
“Fine,” I say. “I need to go shopping.”
“Okay.”
“You’re not going to interrogate me about why?”
“Why would I do that? Why would I question everything about you? If you say you need to go shopping, I’m taking your statement at face value. Let’s go shopping.”
“I have to go to Macy’s. To get some white blouses for work.”
“Good enough. Did I ask for an explanation?”
He laughs then. He fucking laughs. Shakes his blond head and laughs. Then he holds out his hand and ushers me out the door.
And I don’t know whether to be angry or turned on.
Because it dawns on me that I’m both.
Damn.
17
LEIF
I hate shopping. I hate it with a purple passion, but Kelly got a job. This is huge. Keeping busy will help her focus—give her something else to focus on besides whatever is eating at her inside.
This is good.
I just hope she understands she must be nice to her customers. If she ends up treating them the way she treats the rest of us?
Goodbye, job.
“All right. Macy’s it is,” I say. “You want to get some lunch first?”
She looks at her watch. “It’s only eleven.”
“True, but I’m always hungry.”
“I think I’d rather do the shopping first, if you don’t mind.”
I clutch my hand to my heart. “Wait, did I hear you right? Did you just ask me if I mind?”
She rolls her eyes at me. “You know what? Screw that. Shopping first. You don’t have to come.”
“Would I miss shopping with you?” This time I roll my eyes. “Never in a million years.” I hail a cab.
“I can’t afford to be taking cabs everywhere,” she says.
“Did I ask you to pay?”
A taxi stops for us, and the cabbie gets out and opens the back door for Kelly. She scrambles in, and I get in beside her.
The cabbie takes the driver’s seat. “Where to, mister?”
Kelly shakes her head with a huff. “What makes you think he’s in charge? Why are you asking him where to go?”
Oh, God…
“Uh…sorry.” The cabbie turns back to face the road. “Where to, miss?”
“That’s so sexist, just assuming I’m a miss.”
I breathe out slowly. This could go on forever if I don’t put a stop to it.
“Macy’s, please,” I say calmly.
“You got it.”
This particular cabbie is good at dodging through traffic. So good that Kelly’s knuckles go white as she clasps her hands in her lap.
Interesting that she does that a lot. Holds her hands together in her lap. If I knew more about body language, I’d probably know what that means. Whatever it signifies, at least she stays quiet.
When we arrive at Macy’s, I hand the cabbie my Wolfe-issued credit card and give him a handsome tip. Then we head into the store.
“I’ll take it from here,” Kelly says.
“You want me to just stand around and wait for you?”
“Either that or stand around and wait for me in the middle of the women’s section. Which do you prefer?”
“I suppose you have a point.” I shove my hands in the pockets of my pants. “Try not to be too long. I’m starving.”
“No one forced you to come along.”
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
She doesn’t reply. Just harrumphs and heads toward the escalators.
She’ll probably be a while, so I walk around the first floor of Macy’s, glancing here and there, until my phone buzzes in my pocket.
I grab it and raise my eyebrows. “Dad?”
“Hey, Leif. How is everything going?”
“It’s going. Buck and I are on an assignment from the Wolfes.”
“Buck? Isn’t he supposed to be on his honeymoon?”
“Yeah, but it got postponed. There’s another issue with one of the girls from the island. The Wolfes wanted Buck and me on it.”
“How did I not know about this? Your mother and I were at that wedding.”
“We didn’t find out until the reception was almost over. Buck and Aspen had to postpone their honeymoon. Aspen of course understands, since she was one of the women on the island.”
“She is lovely,” Dad says. “Buck is a lucky man.”
“He is.”
A rumble comes through the phone as my father clears his throat. “So I have some news.”
“Is it good news?”
“Depends on how you look at it, I guess.”
“Wait a minute. Are you and Mom all right?”
“Oh yeah, we’re fine. Scarlett and Laney are fine. “
“What is it?”
Another throat clear. “Falcon Bellamy is being released.”
The phone slips from my fingers and clatters onto the floor of the department store. I pick it up and place it back to my ear. “What?”
“He’s getting out on parole. Good behavior. All that kind of stuff.”
“Oh my God…”
The Bellamy family owns the ranch next to ours, but it’s a huge operation compared to our smaller one. Falcon Bellamy and I were best friends growing up. We’ve known each other since we were in diapers, and we were going to join the Navy together, until…
“I figured you’d want to know.” Dad’s voice is grim.
“God, Dad. I never went to visit him once.”
“I know you didn’t. You had your reasons.”
“No reasons that he’ll understand.”
“You went to school, enlisted. Went overseas. Then you got the job working for the Wolfes. You’ve been busy, Leif. Anyone would understand that.”
Falcon won’t.
Falcon Bellamy and I were fucking blood brothers. Still are, if you believe in that kind of shit.
We were going to be SEALS together. But then…someone was killed. No one really knows the real story. Only that Falcon took the heat for it. Is he capable of murder? What a loaded question. I’ve taken life myself, as part of the military. You learn to live with that. You have to.
“I can’t get away, Dad,” I tell him. “And even if I could, I’m not sure I want to.”
“You never believed Falcon was guilty.”
“Truthfully, Dad? I never wanted to believe Falcon was guilty. But the truth is I just don’t know.”
“You of all people, Leif, know that there are sometimes extenuating circumstances.”
“Taking a life in battle is different,” I say.
“Is it?”
My father was a military man. Marines. His father wanted him to run the ranch with him right out of high school, but he chose to serve his country first. We talked a lot about the military in our household, about the focus it requires, about the strength and determination. About the love for your country, the love of service.