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“Damn right, we will,” he grumbles.
I glare at Aaron in warning and make a rolling motion with my hand, encouraging him to continue. “You were saying.”
“I found him alone behind the D-fac. I told him he was a stupid-ass motherfucker to put his hands on you. Then I took a swing at him. He didn’t even try to block the shot, which knocked him on his ass. He didn’t fight back, either. He just stayed there on the ground. What he did do was pull a flask from his shirt pocket.
“I wanted another shot at him, but the guy looked like shit, even without the bloody lip. Since I felt like shit, I sat down in the dirt beside him and drank half his bourbon. “We sat in the dirt for hours. Sometimes talking, sometimes not. Eventually, we hauled our asses up, and that’s when I came to find you.”
Right away, I’m on my feet, pacing the small room, talking to myself. “This is perfect. From the time we landed, you were with the team or me. After we… after… you were with Avara until leaving to find me. We spoke and then—”
“Sadie.”
Aaron has moved into my path, and his sharp call has my eyes lifting. His eyes are guarded as though he suspected I thought him guilty. “Are you… checking my alibi?”
“No, but sooner or later, someone’s going to ask. We should be ready.”
“We? No way, Sadie. I told you where I was because I trusted you and didn’t want you to worry. But there’s no way in hell I’m letting you anywhere near this. You’ve checked in, you know my alibi, and now you need to leave.”
“Young man, I believe you’ve forgotten whose cabin you’re standing in,” my father chides.
“No, I haven’t. I just have no interest in risking Sadie being charged as an accomplice to treason to save my own ass.”
“Fair enough. Sadie, let’s go.”
“What?! No!”
Shooting daggers at my friend, I order, “Aaron, get your shit. We’re leaving. Knot wants you back in Virginia. Whatever you think you can do here, he can do fifty times faster with all his resources.”
“No. Too many lives depend on Knot to let him risk his reputation. I have to do this myself. And I have resources of my own.”
Aaron turns back to my father again. “Sir, you need to get her out of here. Make Sadie return home before someone decides she needs to be looked into.”
Making one last ditch effort to reach him, I say, “We’re a team, Aaron.”
Aaron reacts physically to my words, almost like he’s been punched in the gut. “I know. I’ll find a way to keep you updated, but that’ll be the extent of your involvement. Now, please leave. For me.”
To my father, he says, “I’ll be gone by sundown. Then no one will be able to find me.”
Aaron walks out the door without another word or so much as a glance in my direction.
Like a glitch in the matrix, I stand frozen in the middle of the tiny cabin, not believing Aaron would just walk away like that. I came here to help, dammit.
Finally waking from my stupor, I rush toward the door, but my father reaches out and grabs my hand, halting my progress.
“Sadie, let the man go.”
“But he needs my help.”
“He either doesn’t want it… or he’s trying to protect you.”
The worry in my father’s eyes keeps me from pressing the issue.
Still watching the door, I resign myself to going back to Norfolk alone. “All right. Let’s go.”
Leaden feet carry me back to our four-wheelers. I climb on and scan the tree line, but Aaron’s not there. I’m sure he’s watching, though.
An hour later, the four-wheelers are pulling into the barn. My father doesn’t speak as we put our equipment away, but his clenching jaw tells me he’s got something to say. Just as my words wouldn’t have done any good at the cabin, his won’t work now. Heading off his argument, I plead, “Dad, I need to get back to Virginia. I know I haven’t been here long, but what happens to Aaron doesn’t just affect him.”
My father sags as though a heavy weight has settled on his shoulders, but he nods anyway. I run upstairs to gather my things and call the pilots. An hour later, I’m hugging my dad goodbye on the tarmac near one of Knot’s jets.