by Mary Stone
“Oh.” He shifted his gaze back to the coffee table and ran a hand through his hair. As the unease lifted from his face, he opened his mouth to elaborate, but she cut him off.
“No.” She shook her head for emphasis. “No, I know that look. I know that look means you’re about to go on a spiel about something to defend yourself. So help me, Noah, if you’re about to try to tell me how this is different than when I was keeping stuff from you, I’m going to shove you off this damn couch.”
She ignored the flicker of amusement on his face at her less than menacing threat. She would tell him about the email, but this was not the time or the place. Though she could tell he had masked part of his frustration, she hadn’t missed the pang of melancholy that had gone along with the irritability. There would be a better time to bring up the topic of Justin, she just had to wait for it.
Crossing her arms, she flashed him a look. “You just got a phone call at one in the morning from someone that doesn’t have anything to do with work, and now you look like you just saw a ghost. Nothing about that says ‘it’s all right’ to me. I get it, you know. You know I had a hard day, and you don’t want to tell me because you think I’m dealing with enough already. But I can deal with whatever’s going on in my head and be your friend at the same time.”
His defensiveness appeared to slip away in the quiet moments that followed. The first hint of a wistful smile was on his lips as he turned his vacant stare away from the hall and to her.
As he spread his hands, he shrugged. “You’re right. I already know I won’t be getting back to sleep, so I don’t know why I thought it’d be any different for you.”
Every second of silence that followed his words was just short of unbearable. But as much as she wanted to reiterate her concern, as much as she wanted to prod him for an answer, she bit back the slew of questions.
“That call.”
At the quiet sound of his voice, she snapped her attention away from the clock to meet his gaze.
“I still don’t really know what to call that guy.” He shrugged, clearly at a loss. “Haven’t heard a damn word from him in years, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t on purpose. That was Eric Dalton.”
Winter scanned through her mental Rolodex. “Dalton?”
The name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t recall any in-depth conversations where he had mentioned members of his father’s side of the family. She knew his family history was complicated, but she had never pried into the specifics. For the most part, he didn’t mention them, and Winter didn’t ask.
“Yeah. He’s my biological father. He ditched me, my sister, and Mom when I was little, five or six. I don’t know why he split, but if I had to guess, I’d say it had something to do with a pretty lady he knocked up in Baltimore. And considering Natalie’s only a couple years younger than me, I’d say that happened while he was still married to my mom. Don’t know why in the hell it took him so long to leave, but once he did, he was gone.”
Winter’s heart squeezed in compassion. “Ahh, I’m sorry.”
Noah lifted a nonchalant shoulder, although the expression on his face was a clear indication that he still held strong feelings regarding their abandonment. It made Winter’s heart ache for him even more.
“My sister and I would see him once or twice a year for holidays, but whenever we stayed with him and his new wife and kids, it was pretty obvious we didn’t belong. They lived in some cookie-cutter house in the ‘burbs, part of a homeowner’s association. Storybook shit.”
She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “I know the type.”
The scowl was back. “One year, when I was in eighth grade and my sister was a sophomore, we just stopped going to visit him. Honestly, I don’t even think he noticed. Ever since then, I’ve maybe talked to him a grand total of five times. Once in person, the other ones on the phone.”
“Wow.” Winter tucked one leg beneath herself, twisting her hands together to stop from reaching for him. “What an asshole. I’m sorry. I mean, I knew he was an ass, but I didn’t know how bad it was.”
“Don’t worry about it, darlin’. My sister and I had Chris, and we still had Mom. Even compared to when Eric was actually around, my stepfather was a way better dad. You know, one of these days, you’ll have to come with me when I visit home so you can meet them. Plus, if you want a tattoo, my sister’s shop is one of the best in Austin.”
Winter gaped at him. “Your sister is a tattoo artist?”
His face brightened as he laughed at her awestruck remark. “Wouldn’t guess, huh? Yeah, she’s been tattooing people since she got out of the Navy. Her and my mom are both artists, but I guess it skipped me.”
She couldn’t seem to make her mouth close. “That’s no kidding. I’ve played Pictionary with you before, remember?”
He waggled his eyebrows at her. “I have other skills that I can do with my hands.”
Something deep and low in her belly twisted as she tried to not think of what all those skills were. She punched his shoulder. “Be serious. And I’m seriously sorry that your stepfamily was so shitty.”
Another shrug. “There are kids out there who grow up without a dad or a father figure, but I never felt that way. I never felt like my family was ‘broken’ or whatever else people want to call it. Honestly, this random-ass phone call is more weird and annoying than anything else.”
Leaning back in her seat, Winter tugged at the ends of her long hair. “Now that you explain it, yeah. It seems a little weird. What did he want? I doubt he called to apologize for being an asshole.”
“No, he sure didn’t,” Noah muttered. “He said he needed my help, something about how he fucked up and now he thought someone was trying to kill him. And guess what…?” He looked at her expectantly.
“What?”
“He’s catching the first flight into Richmond this morning.”
Winter chewed on the edge of her thumbnail. “He seriously thinks someone’s trying to kill him, and his first thought is to fly to Richmond to ask for help from the son he hasn’t talked to in literally years? Does he think he’ll get some kind of special treatment just because his biological son is in the FBI?”
He growled low in his throat. “Probably. That’s all I can think of. I don’t know why else he wouldn’t just go to the cops in Baltimore. Either that, or he’ll ask me for money when he gets here.”
“But isn’t he a pilot? And aren’t pilots pretty loaded? Has he asked you for money before?”
Noah scrubbed his face with his hands. “No, but I wouldn’t put anything past him at this point.”
“I don’t suppose he mentioned why he’s in trouble? Or who he’s in trouble with?”
“Said he didn’t want to go into detail on the phone.”
Winter fought against an eye roll. “Why? Was he worried that the FBI was spying on him?”
Shaking his head, Noah reached to readjust the band of his vintage watch. “Who knows. I don’t even really know what in the hell he thinks he’ll get from coming out here.”
“It’s been a long time since you’ve seen him, right?”
Noah nodded. “Yeah.”
“Maybe he’s changed. I don’t mean a total one-eighty, but maybe he’s not that same asshole you remember. Maybe he’s just a little less of an asshole.” Even as the words left her lips, Winter didn’t believe her own bullshit. The mention of Eric’s poor treatment of Noah and his sister had brought out an unexpected pang of something close to maternal that made her want to soothe all his hurts away.
Noah gave her a you’ve got to be kidding me look.
She lifted both hands in surrender. “Yeah, okay. Fair enough. That was dumb.”
As much as she wanted to paint an optimistic picture of the upcoming reunion with Eric Dalton, the petulance in Noah’s voice whenever he mentioned the man was unmistakable. She knew the knee-jerk comments about positivity and change were to help her friend, but she also knew that she trusted his judgment. If he still held
on to so much hostility after all these years, then there was a damn good reason for it.
She didn’t know Eric Dalton at all, so she couldn’t assess if he was lying, but if the man wanted to rush into the arms of the FBI in hopes of special treatment, he was about to be sorely disappointed.
“He must think he’s in danger, right?” she asked.
Noah nodded. “He sounded like it too. At least as far as I could tell from a phone conversation. He was talking really fast.”
“If he’s in danger, then we’d better bring him to the office. Make it official so we can open up a proper investigation.” Winter had never met Eric Dalton, but she already knew she didn’t like him.
Noah was one of the best people she’d ever met. He was kind, honest, smart, and funny. There was a certain down-home charm that came with his charming smiles and his folksy comments, but behind those green eyes was an unmistakable keenness that most people tended to underestimate.
Though Noah brushed off Eric’s sudden reappearance as an annoyance, Winter knew that much of his aloof demeanor was feigned. To be sure, he held no sense of affection for his father, but the man’s betrayal still stung even after all these years.
He has enough on his plate.
Plus, the email was probably a dead end, anyway. During the first leg of their initial investigation into Justin’s whereabouts, Winter had been hopeful that they would find a substantial clue to point them in the right direction.
Instead, they ran headlong into one dead end right after another.
Why would the email be any different?
She didn’t want to get her hopes up again only to have them dashed, and she didn’t want to heap more conflict onto Noah’s plate for no good reason. For the time being, she would keep the email to herself until she was sure the message had the potential to actually lead them somewhere.
But despite the rationalizations, the pang of guilt was persistent.
If she was keeping the news about Justin a secret for the benefit of Noah’s mental health, then why did it feel so much like she was lying to him?
3
There was little more than a tinge of light blue on the horizon when Noah and Winter pulled into the parking garage at the Richmond airport. Aside from a short nap, neither of them had managed any more sleep.
The coffee shop had only just opened when he’d pulled into the drive-thru, and he had entertained the idea of ordering a cup of espresso. Instead, he settled for an extra shot of espresso in his seasonal drink.
Winter’s lips curled into a smile, and the ruddy orange lights of the parking garage caught the shine of her glossy hair as she turned her attention to him. “Pumpkin spice. I wouldn’t have guessed.”
The smile and the comment came as a relief. Ever since he’d been woken up by Eric’s phone call, Winter had seemed edgy. At first, he attributed the tension to the mention of Eric Dalton, but now he wasn’t so sure. She had gradually relaxed since they left for the airport, but the anxious glint in her eyes remained.
Rather than give voice to the concern, he flashed her a grin. He had to trust her, to trust that she would tell him if something was wrong. “It’s the next best thing to drinking a pumpkin pie. Have you ever even had one? They’re great.”
Nodding, she sipped at her mocha. “I like them, but nothing will ever surpass chocolate in my book. So, are we going into the airport, or are we going to wait for him out here?”
He leaned back in his seat and took a drink of the festive latte. “I told him where we are.”
There was only so much effort he was willing to expend for Eric Dalton and sifting through the early morning crowd at an airport far surpassed his limit.
“What does he look like?” Winter grinned, lifting his spirits. “Just so I don’t pull out my weapon and point it at him when I see a stranger wander up to your truck.”
He bit back a derisive comment about Eric and nodded his understanding. “Little over six foot. Full head of hair, at least last I knew. Lighter than mine, probably some gray by now. And I think he’s usually got a beard, or at least he’s got one in every picture I’ve ever seen of him.”
“You’re taller than him then, right?”
“Yeah. My sister and I got our height from mom. She’s almost six-feet even and my sister’s five-eleven. We both got Mom’s eyes too.”
Another smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “That’s good. I like your eyes.”
At the compliment, he could suddenly recall the warmth of her body curled against his, the slow cadence of her breathing, the faint scent of strawberries and vanilla. In the low light, he hoped she didn’t notice the movement in his pants as he returned her smile.
Dammit. He adjusted himself in his seat, needing to cool that shit down.
He wanted to continue their lighthearted banter, to swap flattering comments about one another’s appearance, but Winter’s blue eyes snapped over to the passenger side window.
“Beard.” She squinted at the sideview mirror. “Looks sort of tall, but it’s hard to tell. Well-dressed. Looks like he’s wearing a suit jacket, dress shirt, and slacks. Dark hair, but not quite as dark as yours.”
Noah let out a quiet sigh. “Dammit. Yeah, that sounds like him.” As he set the barely touched latte in the cupholder, he flashed a quick glance to Winter.
She replied with a nod as any semblance of mirth dissolved from her expression.
Noah suppressed a groan as he pushed open the door to step out onto the drab concrete. The scent of car exhaust wafted past on the early morning breeze. For a meeting with Eric Dalton, the obnoxious odor seemed fitting. Crossing both arms over his chest, Noah leaned against the rear fender of the pickup, Winter at his side.
He grinned. She looked like she was prepared to tackle the man if he so much as said a negative word.
Sure enough, the man who trudged up the slight incline of the ramp was none other than Captain Eric Dalton.
After a stint in the Air Force after high school, Eric had landed a position as a commercial airline pilot. The pay wasn’t exceptional at first, but by the time he left Olivia Dalton and her two children, his income had risen sharply.
Noah could only guess that the increased cash flow was part of what drove him to abandon his first family in search of a new wife and children. By that point, Eric wanted something other than the Texas farm girl he had married right after high school.
Liv wasn’t refined or polished enough for his new world, for country clubs and skiing expeditions.
Never mind that Liv Raeburn had come within a couple points of a perfect score on her ACT, or the fact that she could have attended an ivy league school if she hadn’t decided to move to Bellevue, Nebraska when Eric joined the Air Force.
She had given up everything for Eric, and he returned the favor by abandoning her and their two children.
As Eric closed the distance between him and the two federal agents, the tension in Noah’s body increased with each and every step. He scowled. With Eric around, the expression was all but involuntary.
He hadn’t lied or even exaggerated to Winter—he didn’t feel like he had grown up without a father. Chris Alvarez was a great man and an even better stepfather. Noah’s disdain for Eric Dalton had more to do with the way the man had treated his mother than the fact that he had abandoned his children.
What Eric had put Liv through was unforgivable. He had used her like an accessory to his wardrobe and discarded her just as easily. He had left her to rot in a life that he’d ruined.
“Noah.” The man’s voice was familiar and alien all at the same time. Eric’s gray eyes flicked from Noah to Winter and then back as he paused to stand in front of them. His expression was harried and weary, and Noah wondered when he had last slept. “It’s, it’s been a long time. You look good.”
“Eric.” Noah’s tone was cool and crisp. “You look like shit.”
With a weary sigh, Eric shook his head. “I know. It’s been a long day, and I really can’t wait
to get a few hours of shut-eye.”
“That’s too bad.” Noah paused to gesture to Winter. “This is Special Agent Black. We’re taking you to the field office so you can answer a few questions, help us better understand the threat you’re facing.”
For a split-second, a crestfallen look passed over Eric’s face, but he recovered in short order. “Of course,” he replied. “It’s just, I was hoping…” He left the sentiment unfinished as he looked to Winter.
“Your safety is our primary concern, Mr. Dalton.” Winter’s response was so polished and cool, it could have chilled an entire bottle of wine.
“Right.” Eric nodded again. “Yeah, I mean, of course. That makes sense.”
As the three of them took their seats in the spacious pickup, Noah kept Eric in the corner of his eye. The man’s movements were just short of jittery, and he was more undone than Noah had ever seen, but none of it seemed right.
Like Winter had asked, why would Eric reach out to his estranged son if he was in trouble?
Eric was an asshole, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew the differences between federal jurisdiction and local, so why would he be so sure that the threat to his life was a responsibility that fell to the bureau? Or, did he know, and that was why he had sought out a federal agent instead of a local cop? Still, the entire line of reasoning was ridiculous.
Eric and his second wife and children had lived in Baltimore for more than twenty-six years. Without a doubt, the Daltons had their fair share of contacts affiliated with law enforcement. Plus, Eric was a commercial pilot. Wouldn’t he have regular contact with federal agencies?
Glancing up to the rearview mirror as he shifted the pickup into reverse, Noah decided Eric hadn’t been entirely forthcoming about his predicament.
If Eric intended to squeeze any special treatment out of Noah just because they shared roughly fifty percent of their DNA, the man was about to be disappointed.
As far as Noah was concerned, Eric was just another civilian who had come to the bureau for help.
