Second Chance SEAL(115)

Hartley bit her lip and stepped toward me. “What are you going to do after all this is over?”

I shrugged. “Who knows? I’m not thinking that far ahead.”

“I want you to visit my farm. Travis, it’s beautiful. Long rows of peach trees, hedgerows, the chickens and the goats. I can show you the stream and we can skip stones just like these.”

I smiled. “Okay. I can do that. So long as you can make me a peach pie.”

She laughed. “I can do that, believe it or not.”

“Of course you can. You’re a good southern girl.” I turned away from the stream. “Come on. Let’s head back.”

She nodded and we started walking. We didn’t walk fast, and we walked close side by side. We weren’t holding hands, but our fingers brushed each other. I listened to the woods and to the stream receding into the distance as we moved away from it.

We were getting closer and closer to something else, and neither of us wanted to name it. Maybe it was like a magic spell, where if you spoke the name, the thing disappeared.

I didn’t much need to speak about it, though. I was content walking through the woods with Hartley, the best tree climber on her farm. Beautiful fucking Hartley, her long blond hair swaying slightly in the breeze.





Chapter 19





Hartley





I’d never seen him so open before. Standing next to that stream, skipping stones, I could almost imagine that we were both back in high school together. I wondered if we would have known each other. He was a few years older than me, of course, so in my fantasy we were the same age. But even then, I couldn’t see us knowing each other. Maybe we’d pass each other in the halls, maybe I’d smile or he’d nod, but that would be it.

In that other world, we could be normal people. Maybe Travis’s parents didn’t die, his brother survived the accident, he went on living in Knoxville. Maybe my daddy never took that loan, never put us in the pocket of gangsters.

But we were who we were, and the world shook out the way it did. Still, by that stream, the stream he grew up near, I had suddenly felt deafeningly homesick. I had wanted to see my mom, laugh with my brothers, sit and watch a ball game with my dad. I wanted some sense of normalcy.

Instead, we still had a bunch of people to kill and a lot more danger ahead of us.

Markus wasn’t in sight when we got back to the car. Travis wasn’t interested in going back inside, so we just pulled out and headed back to my apartment. I kept wondering if Markus would get sucked into all of this, but I actually believed him when he said that he was a survivor. You had to be if you were going to live in Knoxville and sell moonshine on the side. Markus would be okay, even if we weren’t. For some reason, I believed that.

We pulled up out front of the dry cleaners as usual and parked the car. Travis went first, like always, and like always he seemed extra watchful, extra careful. We paused outside my apartment door then he burst in ahead of me, his hand on his gun.

I stepped in behind him. Travis paused, his body tense. Sitting in the same spot as before was Culver, smiling calmly, his hands raised in the air.

“Did I surprise you this time?” he asked.

“Maybe you did,” Travis said. “Maybe not, though.”

“Sure. If that’s how you want to play this.” He smiled. “Can I lower my hands?”

“Slow.”

He did so, slowly. He laid his palms flat on the top of the table. “Come, join me again. You can keep your weapon out if you want. But I’ll just remind you that if I get injured, the mafia will not be happy.”

I followed Travis’s lead and sat down at the table. He leaned back in his chair and placed his gun on the table in front of him, the barrel pointing at Culver.

“Good. Very good. So, let’s talk.” Culver just kept smiling his calm and creepy smile.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“The money we gave you. Have you spent it?”

“Not yet,” Travis said. “Still looking for guys.”

“Good. Be careful. But not too careful. You’re on a timeline, remember.”

“I remember.”

“Very good.” He turned to me. “And how are you doing, Miss Hartley?”

“Fine,” I said, feeling nervous, but not as nervous as before.

“You look calm. Do you feel calm?”

“I guess so.”

“Good. I don’t want to make you nervous. Last time we met, you seemed very uncomfortable.”

“I’m not used to being in bars with criminals.”

He laughed. “I suppose that’s probably true.”

“Leave the girl alone,” Travis said.

“Well now, okay, Travis. I’m just being polite.”