Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 66978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
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.
We never talked about the unthinkable. But soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen—sometimes they have to take lives.
Enemy lives, for sure, but they’re still lives.
“I don’t know, Dad. I’m standing in Macy’s. I can’t have this conversation right now.”
“I understand,” he says. “I just wanted you to know that Falcon’s getting released soon. What you do with that information is up to you.”
“What are you going to do? You going to go see him?”
“I went to see him every couple of months,” Dad says.
I nearly drop the phone again. “You did? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were busy, Leif. You were either overseas, serving your country, or you were in New York, working for the Wolfe family. You had your hands full. There was nothing you could do for Falcon, but there was something I could do.”
“What exactly did you do for him?”
“I gave him friendship. The friendship he probably wanted from you, but that he couldn’t have.”
“Are you saying he was angry with me?”
“Not at you. He was angry that he wasn’t there with you, serving his country the way you both planned to.”
“That was his own damned fault.”
“Like I said, there are extenuating circumstances to every story.”
“I can’t—” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Kelly walking toward me, carrying two Macy’s bags. “I’m sorry, Dad. I have to go.”
I end the call quickly and shove the phone back in my pocket.
I am not in the mood to deal with Kelly Taylor right now.
“I’ve been looking all over for you,” she says. “You were supposed to stay right at the entrance.”
“Was I? Funny, I don’t remember taking orders from you.”
“Yeah? How long did you think it would take me to find white blouses?” She lifts one of her shopping bags, gesturing to me. “I know my size, so I grabbed six of them off the rack. Now I’m done. I been looking for you for the last ten minutes.”