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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

David

It had been two days since Mikey received the note and I was no closer to figuring out who sent it than I was before.

Whoever gave it to Mikey was smarter than we gave him credit for. He knew where the cameras were in the school parking lot and how to avoid them. Which means the person either studied the area ahead of time or was a former student. I had John looking into that last angle and pulling all males who attended the school over the last five years. We would expand it to ten years if needed, but based on Mikey's description, my gut was saying he wasn't that old.

The problem was he couldn't see the kid’s face clearly, so even when I showed Mikey the pictures, he picked out a handful of possibilities from each year. It gave us a lot of names to work with but nothing solid to move forward on. John was good but even he couldn't pull information on dozens of men in less than forty-eight hours. He had other work that was taking up some of his time.

"I don't know how you do it, man."

We were sitting on a bench across from the high school Mikey and Nate attended. I asked Graham, another member of Cobra, to meet me and figured this was as good of a place as any. He was a big dude. Well over six and a half feet of solid muscle with a nasty scar next to his eye from when he almost lost it a few years back while working for me. Most people steered clear of him because of how he looked, but he was one of the nicest guys on his team.

"Do what?"

"Not worry every second of every day about your kid and the dangers your job puts him in. I would completely understand if you told me to shove it and never went back out with Cobra again."

"I wish I could say it gets easier but that would be a lie. I guess it helps to know I can't see him except for my approved visitation days."

Graham's ex was a bitch. A wealthy one too. She used every tool at her disposal to ensure Graham got as little time with his son as possible, all because he left her when she cheated on him while he was out on deployment.

"You know the offer is always open to help you find a really good lawyer."

When Graham was in the Army, he didn't have the financial resources to fight his ex the way he should have for custody. Things were different now; I paid a hell of a lot better than the Army did.

"If we start spending more time in the States, then I just might take you up on that offer. For now, this works with my schedule. I talk to him every day and you let me come home for my scheduled visits no matter what assignment I'm on."

"Because I know you're a good father who loves your son."

"So why the sudden interest in kids? Last time I checked, Addison was all grown up."

I laughed. "That she is. I worry about her too but I know she's in good hands. I'm asking because of my friend’s kids."

"Is this the same friend who got a premium security system custom installed just the other day?"

"The one and the same."

"So then not just a friend." Graham quirked a brow at me.

I sighed and settled more comfortably into the bench. "I'm not sure what she is. We were friends in high school. She was actually best friends with Addison's mother. Ended up dating another friend of ours and married him. We lost touch over the years but she called me when he killed himself because he left her in a bit of trouble."

Graham whistled. "I can see why you aren't sure."

"It gets even more complicated. She has two boys. Seventeen and fifteen. Their father was in their life, but . . . not, if that makes sense. He didn't actually participate in shit but . . ."

"But he was their father, so you have to walk a fine line between calling him a piece of shit and not speaking ill of the dead."

"Exactly."

"Do you care about their mother?"

I scrubbed my hands across my scruff. "I think I do."

"You think? Pretty sure you need to be more than I think if you plan to date a woman who has kids."

"I know, I know." It annoyed me how flustered I sounded. Women didn't rattle me. I never let them get close enough to do so. After what happened with Madalyn, I never saw myself settling down. I enjoyed a woman's company, but when the night ended, we went our separate ways. Kassandra wasn't like that though.

"You clearly have something on your mind, so why not tell me? Maybe saying it out loud will help you figure shit out."

It wasn't a half bad idea. It certainly couldn't make things any worse. "In high school there were four of us. We did everything together. Madalyn and I started dating first, and shortly thereafter, Kassandra and Michael began dating. It was perfect actually. The four of us hung out all the time anyway, so things didn't have to get weird when only two of us started dating."

Graham nodded his head like it made complete sense.

"Anyway, Madalyn was the kind of person that people gravitated towards. She was outgoing and everyone wanted to be around her. I think that's what drew me to her in the beginning. I was always quiet, so we balanced each other out. Kassandra was different, more like me. She was happy to be in the background and go with the flow. She was my best friend. She was the person I wanted to talk to about everything. When Madalyn left for no reason, it was Kassandra who talked to me constantly and kept me from going crazy."

"Then, when I shipped out, we exchanged letters nonstop. Until eventually, I started getting less and less of them. It wasn't until I was home after one of my deployments that I confronted her about it. She told me Michael didn't want her talking to me anymore."

"And she chose him over you," Graham correctly surmised.

"She did and I didn't blame her. They were married. I was just the best friend. I stepped away and moved on with my life."

"But now she's back in it."

"Now she's back in it," I repeated. "And the way I look at her and think about her is not the least bit friendly."

"Let me guess, now you're questioning what you felt back in high school?"

Graham hit the nail on the head.

"Madalyn was supposed to be the love of my life,” I said. “The reason I never dated after her was because she was it for me."

"Or . . ." Graham dragged the word out. "Hear me out before you say anything. Or maybe she was just your high school crush and it was Kassandra who was the love of your life, but you couldn't see it back then because you were enamored by someone else." Graham paused, and added, “Or neither of them could be your love because why the hell would you take advice from a man who was stupid enough to marry a narcissist?"

The tension of the conversation eased and I snickered at Graham's words. "I doubt you knew when you married her that things would turn out like this."

He settled more into the bench like I did. To someone walking by, it would look like we were two men just relaxing, without a care in the world, but that wasn't the case. Both of us were scanning our surroundings like we did every second of the day. We were just better at hiding it than most.

"You're right. She was charming when I first met her. I was easily swept up in her charisma. Her true nature didn't come out until after our son was born, but this conversation isn't about me. It's about you."

I sat quietly for a few minutes and watched the high school across from us. I didn't know why today of all days I felt the need to be here, but I refused to go against my instincts.

"You're right, you know. This whole situation is fucking with my head. I keep wondering if Madalyn hadn't been so full of life, would I have dated Kassandra instead? And if I did, how much better would her life have been?"

"I'm going to play devil's advocate here, but how do you know her life would've been better? You were deployed more often than not. It's not easy being a military spouse. Take it from someone who went through that pain. There's no guarantee the two of you would've made it. Now, I'm not saying I believe in destiny or any of that shit, but maybe this was how things weren't meant to go for the two of you."

I thought about what Graham said, and then what Kassandra said. If things had been different then, she wouldn't have Mikey and Nate. And I wouldn't have Addison. It didn't matter that I just met her, I couldn't imagine her not being in this world and making my best friend happy.

"Do you always have to make so much damn sense?" I groused.

"Did you miss the part where I married a narcissist? I don't even know why you're listening to me. I clearly don't know shit about love."

"Not true. You'll get your chance again."

"Ah, no. I don't want another try at love. I've got my son and a great job. There's nothing more I need. Well, except maybe to interrogate a certain gray zip-up kid." Graham nudged my shoulder and jutted his chin in the direction of the school.

Sure enough, across the street was a kid who looked exactly like the one we had a surveillance picture of, down to the same outfit he’d worn when he gave the note to Mikey.

"I guess I know now why I felt the need to meet here today. Let's go see if we can have a nice little chat."

We were off the bench and strolling casually across the street like two men in no hurry to get anywhere. When in reality, I felt the complete opposite. I wanted to tackle the kid like a linebacker sacking the quarterback for the worry he caused Kassandra.

I waited until we were only a few feet away before I spoke up. "Hey, kid? Can you help me with something?"

The kid looked around like he was trying to figure out who I was speaking to. By the time he realized it was him, I was close enough to snag his elbow just as he was about to take off.

I swung him around so his back was against the chain-link fence and Graham and I were crowding his space.

"Where are you trying to go in such a hurry? I said I need your help with something."

"I don't know nothing."

If I had to guess, the kid was barely older than Mikey, but I got the impression he lived a much harder life than most did at his age.

"Well, considering that's a double negative, it would imply you do, in fact, know something," Graham stated the obvious. The kid looked back and forth between us trying to figure out what the hell we were talking about.

"Never mind that. You delivered a note to a boy here in the school parking lot two days ago. I need to know who asked you to pass it along."

"Wasn't me." The kid violently shook his head.

I snickered when the old-school Shaggy song started to play in my head.

"You okay, boss?"

I looked at Graham and smirked. "His response made me think of a song. Now it's going to be stuck in my head."

I could see the moment it clicked for Graham. "Shit, now it's going to be stuck in mine too."

"Uh, can I go now?" The kid whose name I needed to get already tried to shimmy away but there was no getting past us. The kid was scrawny as shit underneath the baggy clothes.

"Not so fast. You got a name?"

"Benny?"

I quirked my brow at him. "Are you sure? Because you said it like it was a question."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Benny tried to puff his chest out, but compared to Graham and me, it looked more like a toddler trying to stand up to an adult.

"Okay, Benny. Tell us who asked you to deliver the note."

"I told you, I don't know nothing."

Benny here needed to go back to high school and give English class another try.

"See, I'm inclined not to believe you because I have a picture here that shows otherwise."

I yanked the surveillance picture I had John pull from the parking lot, and shoved it in Benny's face.

"That ain't me."

"How do you know when you didn't even look at it?"

Benny's eyes were glued to the ground. When it was clear he wasn't going to pick his head up to look at the picture, I moved it so Benny was forced to see it.

"Considering you’re wearing the exact same clothes in the picture, I know you're lying."

"Fine, it was me." Benny pushed the picture away with his hand. "So what?"

The kid had a lot of attitude for someone who was going against two men twice his size. We weren't going to hurt him, but there was no way Benny could know that.

"I just want to know who asked you to deliver the note."

"I don't know!" Benny screeched. "Dude stopped me a block away and asked me to bring it here. Gave me a hundred bucks to do it."

"How did you know who to give it to?"

"Dude showed me a picture. It was easy money. I didn't ask no questions. I did what he said and left."

I believed him. I wasn't sure why, but I felt like he was telling me the truth.

"How did you know to avoid the cameras?"

"This is my hood. I know how to get around without being seen."

So he was a street kid just trying to survive. I would put money on the fact that he probably didn't graduate high school. Who knows when he dropped out, or how long he's been living this way.

I pulled all the cash I had out of my pocket. It wasn't much but it was a few hundred bucks. I added my business card with it as well.

"Here, take this. If the guy comes around again, call me. I'll handle him."

Benny grabbed the money and the card. Without another word, he took off down the street.

"You think he's going to call?"

I shrugged my shoulder and watched until Benny rounded the corner, out of my sight. "Maybe, maybe not, but he just made more now than he did from our mystery person, so I have to believe that will mean something."

"Money talks."

“It sure does.”

"But it puts you back at square one," Graham said.

"Maybe. I'll have John check the cameras in the area. Maybe he can pick up where our mystery man paid Benny."

It was more information than we had before sitting on the bench, so I would take it. For now, at least.