He reached over and took her hand in his. He wasn't sure who was more surprised by the action. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you two were a couple.”
She shook her head, but didn’t pull her hand away. “Not like that. Drew was pretty much my brother. Much like Tom is yours. Sometimes families don’t need a blood link, do they?”
He nodded, feeling her pain. Oh crap. She was a walking wound right now. He didn’t want to add to that.
Of course, she’d be in trouble whether he was here or not. But he felt an incredible sense of protectiveness towards her. Where the hell had that come from? He’d just met the woman. He flashed on the Terminator they’d left back at the safe house. Of course, that guy might need an entire squad to take him down. He’d probably feel protective of anyone he was after.
She pulled her hand from his and wrapped it around her cup again, her brow furrowed. “I’m not sure how Drew’s email can help you. I haven’t had a chance to finish reading it.”
Jake raised an eyebrow. “Is it that long?”
She gave him a small grin. “Only about fifty pages. I had just started it when my uninvited guest stopped by this morning. From what I did read, it can’t be related to your brother.”
“Why? What’s it about?”
Her eyes met his. “It’s an argument for the existence of a technologically advanced pre-historic civilization.”
That wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. “What? Like Atlantis?”
“Exactly like Atlantis. I’m not sure how that can help you with the search for Tom.”
Jake shook his head, his hopes dimming. “I don’t know, either. But if it doesn’t, I don’t have any other leads to follow.” And that means Tom is lost for good.
CHAPTER 18
Havre, Montana
Tom lay on the hard ground staring at the sky. Dawn had broken hours ago, but it wasn’t his shift yet. He wasn’t sure, but he thought they might be on twelve-hour shifts. Which meant he probably had a little time before he was yanked back into hell.
“Hey man, you sleep any?”
Tom looked over at Seeley, his dig partner. He and the muscled Latino had exchanged names during their shift when the guards weren’t looking.
“Not really, man. It was fucking freezing. Besides, I just kept trying to figure out how the hell I ended up here.”
Seeley nodded his formerly bald head. It was now covered in a light layer of black peach fuzz. “I know what you mean, man. I was doing the same thing. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a saint by any stretch. I started banging at twelve, but I left that life behind. I got a kid, a girl. I don’t deserve this place.”
“Yeah, I joined the G7s when I was fourteen,” Tom smiled ruefully. “You know why they chose the name G7?”
Seeley shook his head.
“They said we’d all be flying in G7s and living the high life one day. Truth was, the only high life any of us led was the result of a blunt and most of us never even left the neighborhood, never mind flying in a private jet. And I looked up G7s when I was inside. They never even made a jet with that name. The highest they went was the G5.”
“What’d you go in for, anyway?” Seeley asked. Yesterday, Seeley had told him he’d gotten locked up for dealing. But before Tom could tell his story, a guard had moved only ten feet away from them. There’d been no conversations after that.
“Started as felonious murder, but it got knocked down to manslaughter.”
“No shit?” Seeley asked.
“No shit. I was the driver. But that didn’t matter, especially when one of my guys cut a deal with the district attorney. I got fifteen and he only got a nickel.”
Seeley grunted. “You know, they talk a good game about being brothers and staying loyal. But push comes to shove, that don’t mean shit. They’ll turn on you in a heartbeat.”
“Yeah. And the thing that kills me is that my Gran died while I was locked up. She was the only one who cared. She showed up to visit every week. Took her two buses and three hours each way. Didn’t matter. She always came.”
“Yeah. My girl was like that. She always showed up. My brothers? Didn’t see one of them.” Seeley paused and glanced at a movement behind Tom. “Hey man, heads up.”
Tom looked over his shoulder. The guards on the day shift were pulling up to the enclosure entrance. The first thing they did when they came on duty was wake up the workers. The usual wake-up involved some variation of a kindly greeting of, “Wake up, maggots!” followed by gunfire over the cage. Then, for the poor fools who were too exhausted to hear even that, a kick in the face or the back. That usually did the trick.