The Navigator (Mountains Series Book 5)

by Phoebe Alexander

  She was thrilled when he did exactly that.

  She stood there for a moment as he climbed into the silver car. Chase turned the headlights on, and she watched them snake out the long, winding, tree-lined drive away from the theatre. A shiver raced through her as their tail lights disappeared into the night, and she wasn’t sure if it was from the chill of the fall air or from missing him already.

  Nine

  Garrett had tried to think of some appropriate way to thank Chase for his help, but no matter how appropriate he tried to be, the idea of stripping Chase down and giving him a long, teasing blowjob kept coming to mind. Some straight men didn’t mind receiving oral from a bi or gay man. Maybe he should ask if that would be an acceptable thank-you gift?

  Instead, he decided to make dinner for Chase on the one night they both happened to have off from work that week. His wok sizzled and rice cooker steamed as he chopped the vegetables for the salads and stir-fry. It had been a while since he’d prepared an actual meal, and it felt good to be back in the kitchen, slicing and dicing. He had thought of culinary school once upon a time...but those silly fantasies never overshadowed his serious plans for a PhD in Political Science, a long career as a college professor, and perhaps, someday, a pundit on CNN or whatever cable news network snatched him up for his fiery good looks and brilliant political insights.

  Chase swung the door open and stepped into the apartment, shivering. “Damn, it’s getting nasty out there. I think we’re in for a bad storm; the temperature just dropped twenty degrees.” He slipped off his shoes and dropped his gym bag to the floor, then the savory smell from the kitchen wafted into his nostrils. He perked his head up like a prairie dog sniffing the wind.

  “Wow, lindo, what is that smell?” He rubbed his stomach. “Smells damn good!”

  Garrett stepped out from the tiny kitchen. He had been meaning to ask Chase why he kept calling him “lindo.” He also mouthed off other things in Spanish from time to time that Garrett didn’t understand. “I made dinner to thank you for helping me out last night.”

  “Huh, and here I thought I was getting paid in coffee. Coffee and a home-cooked dinner? I definitely lucked out in the roommate department!” Chase gushed, his smile wide enough to show his teeth. No wonder he wants to be a model, Garrett thought. He has the most amazing smile.

  “It’s the least I can do.” He tossed the veggies in the wok. “Give me about ten minutes, and I’ll have this plated up.”

  “Fantastic. I am going to take a super quick shower and be right there.” Chase walked down the hallway and disappeared into the bathroom. Garrett heard the water in the shower turn on, then proceeded to put the finishing touches on the stir-fry before arranging it as artistically as possible on top of a bed of rice.

  Soon the two were sitting down on Garrett’s sofa with TV trays pulled up in front of them. “Guess we should look into getting an actual table, huh?”

  “Eh, tables are overrated,” Chase said, chuckling. He shoveled another bite into his mouth. “Besides, I don’t need a table when the food’s this good!”

  “I’m glad you’re enjoying it.” Garrett was amazed at how quickly Chase ate. He was about to savor another bite when there was a knock at the door.

  Chase started to get up, but Garrett gave him a stern look. “It’s your thank-you dinner. I’ll get it.” He stood up and made his way to the door. Very few people had his address, and most of the ones who did were lovers he’d ended things with on bad terms. Nigel was the only one he could think of who knew where he lived and might drop by. Oh, that relationship would be fun to explain to Chase...though Chase seemed to be a “live and let live” kind of guy, for which Garrett was grateful.

  He was laughing at something else Chase said as he twisted the handle and pulled the door open to reveal a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties, with fire-red hair and thick-lashed green eyes. She had a heavy smattering of freckles across her cheeks and wore no makeup, but a silver nose ring shimmered in her right nostril. “Garrett?” she asked as if she knew him.

  His heart began to pound. He didn’t recognize her, but there was definitely something familiar about her. He just couldn’t place it. It didn’t seem like a good idea to admit to his identity, just in case someone was out to nail him with a lawsuit or something. The thought of Mara Atkins and what happened at his last job was never far from his mind. She could be suing him. It could be her lawyer.

  She didn’t look like a lawyer, though. She wore knee-high brown boots, navy leggings with yellow and pink flowers on them, and a long ivory cardigan sweater. She looked like the girls he saw on campus every fall.

  “Are you Garrett Stone?” she asked again, and he realized he would have to give her an answer. Chase rose from his spot on the sofa and paced over toward his roommate, his curiosity obviously piqued.

  “Uh, yeah, why?” Garrett hated the way suspicion echoed in his tone, but with the month he’d had...

  “I’m Lilly Stone,” she said, her voice no more than a squeak as her eyes filled with tears.

  His brows drew together in confusion, but his pounding heart was beginning to beat out an idea of what it could mean, putting two and two together as his brain played catch up.

  “Garrett, I’m your sister.”

  He was not in a good place.

  As soon as those words came out of Lilly’s mouth, he’d pushed past her, desperate to get outside into fresh air. As Chase had predicted, the skies opened up and swallowed him in their downpour, drenching him from head to toe. But he was unfazed. He started down the street and kept walking.

  My sister? What the fucking hell?

  He couldn’t understand what it meant, and instead of just going back there and asking her, he kept trying to unravel the mystery for himself. Stone. Her last name is Stone.

  If there was one thing Garrett had always been glad of, it was that Clark Bowman had never adopted him. It was mentioned from time to time, but Garrett’s mother never went through with it. Garrett’s biological father walked out on his son when he was only three years old. He had only the vaguest, fuzziest memories of the man, mostly that he was tall and strong. But what man isn’t to a three-year-old?

  In the worst of times with his stepfather, Garrett fantasized that Henry Stone would magically appear, rescue him and slay the dragon that was Clark Bowman. But it never happened. And at some point, Garrett stopped believing in the myth of Henry Stone.

  He turned to look behind him. The rain was pounding down so heavily that the streets had turned into gullies of water, all flowing toward the few drainage grates down the block. He could barely see his apartment building now that night was closing in on them. He was at least three blocks away. If he made a turn and went two more blocks, he’d be at the liquor store where Chase worked. Where he had met Anjuli. If he went three more blocks beyond that, he’d end up at Anjuli’s apartment.

  His feet wanted to go that way. What the fuck? I can’t just show up on her doorstep like a drowned rat. How the hell am I going to explain that?

  He shook his head, raindrops splattering off him, and tried to talk some sense into his feet. He froze in place with water running in rivulets down his face on either side of his nose, saturating his beard. I have to go back, he realized. I have to be a fucking adult and talk to her.

  He was shaking by the time he returned to his apartment. All he wanted to do was to lock himself in his bedroom, strip out of his wet clothes, and soak himself in alcohol. It would feel so much better than the cold rain.

  The door creaked as he pushed it open, revealing Chase and Lilly sitting on the sofa where he and Chase had been eating twenty minutes before. Chase had cleaned away the trays. Lilly’s face was red and streaked with tears. She was resting her head on Chase’s shoulder, but as soon as she saw Garrett approach, she jerked herself upright. Chase went to retrieve a towel from the bathroom so Garrett could dry off.

  Lilly took a deep breath and swallowed down her lingering tears. “I know this is a s
hock, and I’m sorry to just barge in on you like this. I was able to get an address, but I don’t have your phone number.”

  “How did you get my address?” Garrett questioned, eyeing her up and down as he soaked up the rainwater with the towel. He couldn’t deny that she looked like she could be his sister. But he didn’t want to be too quick to believe her story. Trusting women hadn’t exactly worked out very well for him in the past. Trusting anyone hadn’t worked out, now that he thought about it. “How did you even know about me?”

  Her lips curled up into a faint smile as she wiped away an unshed tear. “Can we sit down and talk? I want to tell you everything, but it’s kind of a long story.”

  “Why don’t I get us something to drink?” Chase offered. “Or I can leave you guys alone? Whatever you want.”

  “Drinks would be good,” Garrett said, shooting Chase an appreciative smile. Was there no end to this guy’s goodwill? he wondered. He wanted a roommate, and he was sent an angel instead. And boy did he need an angel right about now. He’d had his fill of demons.

  Chase took three wine glasses from the cabinet and uncorked a bottle he found in the fridge. “I don’t know what you were saving this for,” he said as he carried the glasses into the living room, “but apparently it was Meet Your Long-Lost Sister Day.”

  Lilly giggled as she took a sip. She glanced at Chase and Garrett, who were still holding their glasses. “Oh, were we supposed to toast or something?”

  “Depends. Tell me how you got my address,” Garrett said. “And even my name, for that matter.”

  She sighed. “Maybe I should drink this whole thing first.” She took another sip, then set the glass down on the end table next to the sofa. She turned her body toward Garrett, who was sitting at the other end of the couch with the towel around his neck. Chase had taken Garrett’s director’s chair from the corner where his laptop was set up and turned it around to face the other two. He was apparently committed to staying unless one of the reunited siblings asked him to leave.

  He can stay as far as I’m concerned, Garrett thought. This might be the most entertainment he gets today. Dinner and a show.

  Lilly sighed again, as if she was struggling to get her story off the ground. “So, after our dad left your mom, he met my mom,” she finally began. “And they got married and had me. And my younger brother, Jax.”

  Garrett tried to control his eyes, to keep them from widening, but it was no use. “I have a brother too?”

  She looked down for a moment, and Garrett could see she was trying to choke back her emotions again. She lifted her eyes to him, glassy with her unshed tears. “Maybe.”

  “What happened?” He meant to let her tell the story at her own pace, in her own time. But patience wasn’t his strong suit. He wanted to skip ahead, to have the full picture. Immediately.

  “I’ll get to that,” she said, a sob catching in her throat. She took her wine from the end table and swallowed the rest of it in one gulp. Chase silently stood up and carried her glass to the kitchen, where he refilled it and returned it to the table before she began to speak again.

  “We were a happy little family, coasting along. Our dad works at a big lumber mill as a supervisor, and my mom is a nurse. We’ve always had a nice house and cars, and all that. Not well-off by any means, but we do okay. It started to go downhill when Jax joined the Army after graduating from high school,” she explained.

  Garrett watched her hands grip the worn leather on the edges of the cushion she sat on, like she needed to brace herself for what came next. He had never met her before, but just seeing her tense up like that, he felt a sense of empathy overcome him, so much so, he felt compelled to move closer to her and take her hand into his. “What happened to him?”

  “The first four years were okay,” she said, trying to fend off the tears that were brimming in her eyes. “He did a tour in Afghanistan, but he came back in one piece, and everything seemed fine. He met a girl—he was stationed in Colorado at the time. They got engaged, and everyone was so happy. Then he got orders for another deployment.”

  She paused for a moment and with trembling fingers reached for the wine glass. She brought it to her lips, just taking a small sip this time, as if she just needed a few moment’s break from telling her story.

  “A few months into his second deployment, we got a call,” she managed. She swallowed down another gulp of the wine. “The kind of call no family wants to get. Jax had been blown up in an IED, and he was coming home. But he was alive. We were just thankful he was still alive.”

  Garrett squeezed her hand, then glanced over at Chase, whose face had fallen ashen. He was sitting with the wine glass in his hand, not moving at all, and barely seemed to be breathing.

  “When he got home, god, it was worse than we could have ever imagined. His whole left side... His arm was missing, and his cheek and chin...” She buried her face in her palms as if trying to scrub the images from her mind. “It was horrible, devastating. He was so fucked up on pain meds. We really didn’t know if he was going to make it for a while.”

  Garrett felt a pit growing in his stomach, and the remnants of what he’d managed to eat of his dinner were swirling violently. He closed his eyes, wondering where her story was going and how on earth he was going to be able to help this poor woman when he was so fucking broken himself. He hadn’t been blown up on the outside...but in some ways, he felt like he had on the inside.

  “But he pulled through,” she said, smiling through her tears. “And for a while we thought he might be okay. We had tried really hard to get his fiancée to come out to Washington, you know, where we lived. But she wouldn’t come see him. She kept saying she’d come out when he was doing better.

  “Then one day, I went to get the mail at my parents’ house, and there was a package from Colorado. I opened it up, and it was his fiancée’s engagement ring with a note that said, ‘I’m so sorry I can’t do this. I will always love you, Jax. I’m so sorry.’”

  “Wow,” Chase finally said from across the room. “That’s fucking low.”

  “I know,” Lilly nodded. “We didn’t want to tell him. But once he got his bearings, all he did was ask for her. Finally, our dad told him the truth. He said he needed to know. He had like a man-to-man talk with him and all that.”

  It was hard for Garrett to think of the man who had abandoned him as a father to someone else, especially two other people. He had to think of him like a stranger to really wrap his head around this story. “So then what happened?”

  “My mom woke up one morning, went to Jax’s room—he’d been living with Mom and Dad while he recovered—and he was gone. He just vanished into thin air. No note. Didn’t take anything with him. We don’t even have a clue how he got transportation. He couldn’t drive. He was just getting used to his prosthesis arm.”

  “He just disappeared?”

  She nodded. “We’ve been looking for him for a year, Garrett. Twelve months, and nothing, no clue. There’s no Jackson Stone anywhere in the U.S. that we can find. But our search did turn up something else...”

  He looked right at her and knew what she was about to say.

  “You.”

  He had spent so many years trying to reconcile what had happened in his family, the family he grew up in, he never imagined that only a few towns away, his father was carrying on with an entirely different family without him. A family he would never be a part of, or even be aware of. He suffered so many years of verbal and emotional abuse at the hands of his stepfather—all because Henry Stone had walked out of his life when he was three years old. How could he forgive that? Everything he had survived came about because his father left him. His mother would have never met Clark Bowman if his father had stayed.

  Lilly was five years younger than him, which made her twenty-seven. And Jax was twenty-five. Would be twenty-five. If he was alive. But they’d never been able to find a death record for him. Garrett understood why they were still holding out hope.

  Bu
t what he didn’t understand was what Lilly wanted from him. He even asked her that night before she left to return to her hotel room.

  “I don’t know,” she had sobbed. “I wish I did. It’s just...when the PI tracked you down and took the info to our parents, I saw the look on Dad’s face. He was completely blown away. My mom didn’t even know about you.”

  “Really?” Garrett could hardly believe it. “That seems like a pretty huge secret to keep from your wife and kids for almost thirty years.”

  She had nodded. “They were against me trying to talk to you. But, I don’t know, I just thought maybe you could help somehow. And if not, then at least I would know my other brother...”

  Her voice had trailed off. She was a woman at her wit’s end, chasing a ghost. Garrett wondered what it would have been like to grow up as her big brother, in her family with Henry and whatever Lilly’s mom was named. What it would have been like if Henry would have taken him when he’d left instead of leaving him behind.

  It felt like dishonoring his mother’s memory to even imagine it. And that was something he’d vowed never to do. Lilly asked him if he was still close with his mom, and that was the moment he knew for certain he couldn’t help her.

  “You should really just go back to Washington,” he told her. “I wish I could help, but—I’m not going to be much use to you in the brother department.”

  “I don’t understand,” she had pleaded. “I know this came from out in left field, and you probably need time to process everything. I’m not asking for you to do anything, really. I just—I was just hoping you’d want to help find Jax.”

  “I wish I could.” He had walked her to the door. Chase was watching from the kitchen, where he was doing the dishes from dinner. Garrett thought he heard him mutter something in Spanish, but he wasn’t sure.

  “If you change your mind, or even if you just want to talk, here’s my number,” Lilly had said, trying to swallow down fresh tears. She pulled a post-it note from her purse and a pen, then printed her name and number on it.