Weston's Treasure

by Riley Edwards

  I found this to be extremely sad. Holden was a nice guy—funny, smart, good-looking—and I didn’t like thinking about him alone brooding. But I didn’t know him well enough to talk to him about whatever was bothering him.

  “About what?” I asked Kennedy.

  McKenna’s eyes snapped to mine before she whispered. “This is top secret. Well, not from our guys, just from Holden. He doesn’t know we know.” I nodded my understanding and McKenna continued. “He’s hung up on a woman. Has been for a long time. Charleigh was his, but she wanted more, Holden didn’t think he could give her what she needed so he stepped aside. Shortly after he let her go, she started dating one of Holden’s teammates. They got married, had a daughter, then he died in combat.”

  “Oh, no. That’s horrible.”

  “Yeah. But what’s worse is, Holden never stopped loving her. And when Paul—that’s her husband—died, his last words were to Holden asking him to take care of his family. Holden couldn’t do it. Couldn’t face Charleigh or her daughter. So now on top of being in love with her for years, he feels guilty for reneging on a promise he made to his dying friend.”

  “Poor Holden.”

  “You got that right,” Kennedy agreed. “Jameson says Holden screwed up big time letting Charleigh go. No one could believe he walked away from her. But it’s been years since Paul died. A few months ago, Charleigh was having some problems, no one knows what, but she called Holden and asked him to go down to Virginia and he went.”

  “He went? Oh, man. Bet that tore him up.”

  McKenna nodded and told me, “Remember a few weeks ago when Holden left again?”

  “Yeah.”

  “He went back to Virginia to see Charleigh again,” McKenna finished. “Nix says something happened, because since Holden’s been back, he’s off.”

  “Off?”

  “Different. Nix is really worried.”

  “He wouldn’t hurt himself, would he?”

  I couldn’t bear the thought of Holden sitting in that Airstream all alone suffering.

  “No. Absolutely not. But he’s changed. He normally jokes around and he is the funniest out of the guys. It’s all an act of course because he’s really torn up inside, but he doesn’t even pretend to be happy anymore.”

  “That sucks,” I said and sat back in my chair.

  Ellis Hopper disconnected his call and silence fell.

  I felt horrible for Holden. I knew what it was like to be all alone and I knew the loneliness that surrounded you. It was like a heavy blanket, but instead of keeping you warm, it was cold. It chilled you straight to the bone. And that aloneness didn’t lessen when people were around, it made it worse. It reminded you that while you were trapped in your life—having nothing, no one—the world around you kept going.

  As the seconds ticked by I remembered I no longer felt that loneliness. Even when I’d been on rotation and was alone in my bunk at night, I wasn’t lonely. I’d missed Weston, but I wasn’t alone. He was still with me, miles had separated us, but I could still feel him. My hand went to my still-flat stomach and I remembered something else Weston had given me, something beautiful, precious.

  “You okay?” McKenna asked.

  “Yeah. Just thinking about Holden. It wasn’t too long ago I felt like him. Only I hadn’t lost someone I loved so I imagine I actually don’t know what he’s feeling because that kind of loneliness, that bitter cold, has to be worse than anything I’ve known.”

  “You were torn up inside?” Kennedy asked.

  “You could say that. I’m sure you’ve heard about the showdown with my dad.” Kennedy nodded and her face gentled. That felt nice—before I met Weston I couldn’t remember anyone showing me any sort of concern. “My dad’s…my dad did the best he could raising me. I know he loves me. I know when I was a kid he thought he was giving me this grand life. Off on adventures to faraway places. And in some ways he did. But when I got older he ignored what I wanted, what I needed. Even after I begged him to let me go to a regular high school, have friends, do normal stuff. I told him I was lonely, I felt like I was some sort of freak being raised on a boat, homeschooled. He told me high school was boring and friends were overrated and always let you down. So, yeah, I was very lonely. And I was torn up inside over my mom. Everything she said to me, her leaving, her coming back to say more awful stuff, before she just left and never came back. My dad never addressed any of that either. He simply went on with his life, hiding his pain, so I thought that was what I was supposed to do, too. Hide it, lock it away, pretend it didn’t hurt. Without knowing what I was doing, I turned into her. Not the mean parts, but the stubborn, self-centered, bitchy parts.”

  When I stopped speaking I realized two things. The first being I’d shared—and I’d shared a lot—more than I’d ever done with anyone, save Weston. The second was I’d never had friends, not real ones, close ones where I felt safe enough to admit what I had to Kennedy and McKenna. Weston gave me that. Then there was something else that Weston had given me. Strength.

  “You know,” Kennedy started. “I admit, I thought it was cool how you grew up. All the places you’ve been. But I never thought about the flip side of that.”

  “Sorry about your mom leaving,” McKenna murmured and I knew she meant those words.

  I also knew she’d lost her mom when she was young, and the stepmom who raised her not too long ago.

  “Don’t be. She wasn’t a very good one. It was good when she left, but it would’ve been better if my dad had helped me deal with it. Instead, it festered and grew into fear.”

  “Is Weston helping you deal with it?” Kennedy asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Good.” Kennedy smiled huge.

  “So…” McKenna smiled. “Any thoughts about where you want to live?”

  Yes, I had thoughts on where I wanted to move and who I wanted to move in with, but it hadn’t been discussed further than me staying with Weston while I was looking. And now with the possibility I was pregnant, I wasn’t sure where Weston’s head was at.

  “Well, I was gonna start looking for apartments, but then with Alec’s news, that’s on hold,” I told McKenna, omitting the part about the baby and how that might change everything.

  “Will you be looking in Kent County?”

  “Yeah.”

  Both women smiled at me then looked at each other.

  “You know…” McKenna’s eyes came back to mine. “The house that’s next to mine is coming up for sale. Mr. Webber, that’s the man who owns it, came by last night to tell us. He actually offered it to me and Nix. We don’t want it, but we were thinking it would be perfect for you and Weston.”

  “Um. I don’t think I can afford that,” I told her somewhat disappointedly.

  “We’ll see.”

  “We’ll see what?”

  “Nix is gonna talk to Weston about it.”

  “But—”

  “I’m ordering lunch,” Alec said, poking his head into McKenna’s office, cutting off our conversation. “Anyone want anything?”

  “Yes,” I blurted out.

  I was starving, even though before Weston and the guys had left to go meet with Jonny Spenser, he’d gone out and gotten me two blueberry muffins. Both of which I’d scarfed down in record time. I did this in front of Weston, and without shame. He said nothing as I stuffed my face, as a matter of fact, he’d lounged in his chair behind his desk smiling at me.

  After Alec took our lunch orders he left to go back downstairs. He was using the conference room as a makeshift office until something more permanent could be arranged.

  “What do you think about Alec quitting DHS?” I whispered.

  “It’s a good thing. Nix has been trying to get Alec to work for Gemini Group for months,” McKenna explained.

  Before I could ask anymore questions my cell vibrated in my pocket, my boss’s name flashing, and I debated not answering. To say my boss was pissed was a gross understatement. As a matter of fact, his response to my made-up
illness was over-the-top. He was normally a laidback guy.

  “Sorry, it’s my boss. I need to take this.” I stood and quickly walked down the short hallway, ducking into Weston’s office and answering before it went to voicemail.

  “Hi, Travis.” I tried my best to sound sick. I wasn’t sure what a ruptured spleen entailed. I assumed it was painful, though I was then seeing the error of my ways not doing a thorough internet search of symptoms and treatment.

  “Check your texts.”

  “Huh?”

  I got no answer because after Travis’s bizarre demand, the line went dead.

  I was thinking Travis was now mostly a dick, and he was probably texting me my exit papers.

  Shit. I was going to be so screwed.

  My phone vibrated. I pulled up my texts and tapped on his name.

  Then pain sliced through me. My world stopped and I wished with everything inside of me I could turn back time. Memories flashed in my mind, cold and heartless.

  You embarrassed yourself, you sure as hell embarrassed me.

  I stared at the image of my father beaten and bloody and didn’t know what to do. Couldn’t begin to comprehend what was going on. So many thoughts were racing through my head I jumped when my phone buzzed again.

  “Hello?” I managed to choke out.

  “Don’t do it, Scout!” I heard my dad yelling and my body froze. “Whatever it is, don’t do it.”

  “You got one hour to get to the boathouse and call in or your father’s dead.”

  “What?”

  Suffice it to say, I was in shock. Totally and completely paralyzed.

  “One hour, Silver, or dear old dad kicks the bucket.”

  “I can’t make it to the boathouse in an hour,” I told him, looking around for Weston’s Jeep keys. I’d seen him toss them on his desk that morning. “I’m too far away.”

  “Yeah. I know exactly where you are,” Travis’s voice rumbled in my ear and I snatched up the keys. “That reminds me. Ditch the boyfriend. I got someone sitting outside watching. You don’t come alone, anyone follows you, Dale’s dead. I’m not fucking around.”

  I could hear my dad screaming in the background and what I heard sent chills down my spine. My dad was crying out in pain.

  My eyes screwed tight and tears started to form. All I could see was my dad’s face—not bloody and beaten but with anguish as I yelled at him.

  Dale Coyle thinks of no one but himself and the next great thrill. I’m done, Dad.

  I’d said that, to my own dad. The man who’d raised me. Loved me the best he knew how.

  Oh, God.

  “Don’t hurt him,” I begged.

  “Then you better drive fast, Silver. Your time starts now.”

  The line went dead and I stood rooted in place unsure what to do. Then I became unglued when the visions of my father being brutally assaulted invaded my mind.

  He may’ve been a crap dad but he was my dad. I had to go—had to. There was no other option. As quietly as I could, I walked down the hall, passing McKenna’s office, down the back steps, and waited. Thankfully Jameson, Holden, Chasin, Nixon, and Weston had all gone to talk to Jonny Spenser, leaving Alec there to watch over us. The last I’d seen Alec he was going back to the conference room, which I’d have to pass in order to get out the door. I slowly made my way down the corridor, peeked into the conference room and it was empty.

  Thank God.

  I had no idea where Alec was and I wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. I made a mad dash to the front door, opened it barely enough for me to slip out, shut it as quietly as I could, and took off down another set of stairs, then across the street to where Weston’s Jeep was parked. I did all of this without thinking. I was on autopilot. All I knew was I had to get to my dad before Travis killed him.

  I started the Jeep, pulled away from the curb, and drove as fast as I could through town.

  What was I doing?

  Weston was going to be furious.

  My phone rang and I pulled it out of my pocket, checked the caller ID, almost relieved it wasn’t Weston.

  “Travis,” I answered.

  “Good, you’re on your way. And you followed instructions. New plan. Head to BWI.”

  “The airport?”

  “Yes. You have two hours.”

  “Why?”

  Not that it mattered why. Nothing mattered anymore. Travis was threatening to kill my dad. I’d offered myself up in exchange. Weston would be so furious with me he’d never forgive me—that was, if I lived through whatever Travis had planned.

  “Why the airport?” It was hard to hear with the wind rushing all around me but I couldn’t miss the impatience in his tone.

  “No. Why are you doing this?”

  “Because you fucked everything up. And if you’d just come back to work like you were supposed to I wouldn’t’ve had to involve your dad.”

  “What?”

  “Jesus Christ, for someone who’s so smart, you really are a dumb fuck. You should’ve minded your own goddamned business. Homeland Security? Really?”

  Stupidly. Belatedly. Naively it hit me. Gary wasn’t the only one in on it, Travis was, too.

  “You’re an asshole,” I told him. “And not just because you kidnapped my dad. But because I liked you, thought you were a good guy when really you’re a piece of shit allowing drugs to be transported down the canal.”

  “I’d be careful not to let that mouth of yours run away with you. I’m the asshole who’s holding a gun to your father’s head.”

  I fought the urge to close my eyes as tears once again began to fall.

  …you’re a maniac.

  What kind of daughter said that?

  Most of my life my dad had been selfish, but he was still my dad and he didn’t deserve this. My throat clogged hearing about anyone holding a gun to his head.

  “Two hours,” Travis barked and the line went dead.

  I couldn’t let my dad die. I couldn’t let the last thing I said to him be in anger. I couldn’t do it.

  What was I doing?

  I was speeding down the highway in Weston’s Jeep making the worst mistake of my life. I knew it. I knew what I was doing but I couldn’t take my foot off the accelerator. I couldn’t stop thinking about how I’d told my dad to leave, all of the horrible stuff I said to him. He loved me, I knew he did.

  And Weston, he loved me, too. Thinking about him was like a dagger slicing through my heart.

  “What the hell am I doing?” I screamed.

  Then suddenly everything hit me. Weston. The baby. The conversation from three days ago playing in my mind.

  Total devastation when their women disappeared. The kind of devastation you don’t come back from, and mark this, Silver, neither of them would’ve if the outcome had been different.

  I am far from stupid, I’ve learned. And what I’ve learned is to protect what’s mine.

  Then I remembered what he’d said to me last night after he made love to me sweetly, kissing my throat, my neck, telling me he loved me.

  Hope our kid gets your pretty eyes, baby.

  I realized I couldn’t do it. My foot eased onto the brake and I slowed down and reached for my phone.

  “On our way, Nix is driving—”

  “Weston,” I cut him off.

  “Where are you?”

  “I need help.”

  “Baby, where the fuck are you?”

  “On my way to the airport.”

  “The fuck?”

  “I need you, Weston.” Tears clouded my vision and I frantically tried to blink them away. “I’m so sorry. I can’t do it. I can’t.”

  “Can’t do what?”

  “I need you,” I repeated. “Need you right now. I’m so sorry. Should’ve trusted you earlier.”

  How could I have been so stupid? So selfish? God, I was worse than both of my parents combined. But my thoughts went to my unborn child and I knew I was going to let my dad die. I knew it and guilt hit me so hard, so d
eep, I wasn’t sure I would be able to live with myself. But I knew, I knew with every fiber of my being, I had to protect my baby.

  33

  Weston’s whole body locked tight hearing Silver hysterically telling him she needed him. He could also hear wind rustling through the phone. Fear was edging in along with confusion. He’d left Silver at the office less than two hours ago. Alec had stayed behind to watch over the women while the team talked to Jonny.

  “Silver, baby, I need you to calm down and explain to me what’s going on. Are you driving?”

  “I swear, I trust you,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Where am I going?” Nix asked from beside him.

  He had no answer so he concentrated on Silver. “Baby, I need you to tell me where you are so I can come help you.”

  “I’ll call Micky,” Holden said from the back seat.

  “I’m almost to Queen Anne’s County.”

  “Queen Anne’s County,” Weston repeated.

  Nixon slammed on the brakes, executed a U-turn, and headed back out of town away from the office.

  “I got a text from Travis. They have my dad. It’s bad, Weston. Someone’s following me.”

  The tenuous hold he had on his fear was slipping.

  “Tell me exactly where you are.”

  “I just passed that pizza place with the red roof on 213.”

  Weston knew exactly where she was but none of the dread dissipated. She was obviously in his Jeep. The top was off, there were no doors, she was completely exposed.

  “Listen to me, Silver. We’re fifteen minutes behind you. I need you to slow down so we can catch up. But do not pull over.”

  “They’re gonna kill my dad. I can’t do it. I can’t.”

  “Can’t do what?”

  “Travis knew I was with you. He knew when I left the office. He said if I didn’t come alone my dad was dead. He’ll know I can’t do it, and he’s gonna kill him.”