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“My grandmother did, but I don’t think she told our parents.” Apollo pulled onto the twisting mountain road that led to town. “We all knew Lena was different when she came back from the States, but honestly, I never thought it was because of you. I thought she was unhappy about being stuck with Kosta or maybe that her degree was a waste since she couldn’t get a good job here… I had no idea about the baby or what your family had said to her. I should’ve paid more attention.”
“I was with her that weekend and I didn’t know either,” Mick said. “She’s good at putting on a happy face when she has to.”
“I hope she doesn’t have to do that anymore. You really love her, don’t you? If this is about Mihalis, I give you my word you’ll have a relationship with your son—but don’t marry her just for him and then break her heart.”
Mick stared at him. “You need to ask me that? I love her, I’ve always loved her and I’m going to spend the rest of my life making her happy.”
“That’s good to hear.” Apollo shot him a grin. “You want to go straight to the site?”
“No one knows I’m back and I want to show up later, at the end of the day, see if there’s anything going on.”
“What do you think is happening?”
“I don’t know, but everyone is acting weird, my father basically threatened me on the phone and in retrospect, Hank was a little too anxious to get rid of me. I want to skulk about when they’re not paying attention.”
“Skulk?” Apollo arched a brow. “Seriously?”
Mick laughed. “You in or not?”
“For skulking? Absolutely.”
They waited until after eight o’clock and drove to the site. They parked a quarter of a mile or so down the road and walked the rest of the way up. With dark sunglasses and baseball caps on their heads, they tried to be as inconspicuous as possible as they approached the outskirts of the property. The destroyed portable bathrooms were gone but so was the new trailer that had been delivered. In fact, the whole area had been cleared. There were no signs, no makeshift easels with the permits, not even the traffic cones they’d been using to mark off the section where they wanted the crew to park. It was like an abandoned piece of land with nothing but the parts of the foundation that had been poured so far. All other signs of life had vanished.
“Where the hell is everything?” Apollo asked under his breath.
“I don’t know.” Mick frowned, dropping behind some rocks that bordered the property.
“Are we hiding?” Apollo asked, sinking down next to him.
“I’m not sure,” Mick admitted. “It feels like we’ve just stumbled onto something big, but I have no idea what it is.”
“It feels like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” Apollo muttered.
“Let’s hope we have a happier ending,” Mick chuckled.
They sat without talking for a while, watching the site as the sun dropped below the horizon and left them in the semi-darkness.
“Hey.” Apollo nudged him. “Who’s that?”
Someone was coming up along the back edge of the property on a four-wheeler, head covered with a helmet, but even at a distance Mick recognized Pat.
“What the fuck is Pat doing here just before dark on a four-wheeler?” he asked, even though it was more rhetorical than anything else
“That’s Pat?” Apollo squinted in that direction.
“So here’s the plan,” Mick said. “Is your phone charged?”
Apollo nodded.
“I’m going to approach him and you’re going to tape the conversation as best you can without him knowing.”
“What do you think he’s going to say?”
“I don’t know, but wouldn’t it better to have it recorded on the off-chance he tells us something important?”
“Yeah, but…” Apollo looked unhappy.
“What?”
