She dropped the keys in his palm with a shaky hand and hurried around to the passenger side of her small SUV.
Caleb had to move the seat almost all the way back, but he got them going fast. Just in case their arrival time meant the difference between life or death. He followed the GPS on her dash screen, connected to her phone, his mind full of the implications and questions that came with finding that shoebox of letters.
Letters from his parents that they’d sent to his grandfather. Caleb hadn’t managed to read more than the first one and wanted as much time as he needed to go through them all. To soak up and absorb the words.
For years he’d figured they were dead, or they didn’t want to come back and take care of him and Noah. Now he knew that Pops had been communicating with them this entire time it put a whole new spin on things. At least on what Pops had led him to believe.
Caleb couldn’t reconcile it.
It was about as astounding as a delivery envelope with information that connected to Caleb’s case in it. Information sent to the preacher of all people—made no sense.
Nathan Kessler was a former CIA agent who had gone freelance and become a businessman, funneling money he had embezzled from the US government into purchasing companies all over the world. Mainly focused on South America, he had used his legitimate shipping businesses to give cartels and other smugglers a free pass through checkpoints and borders.
Kessler also laundered money for criminal organizations. Using business transactions to hide turning illegal funds into income. How on earth that information got to Tessa’s father was anyone’s guess. He had no clue.
They definitely needed to find Tessa’s dad. Not just so she’d know he was safe, but also so that Caleb could ask him what on earth was going on—and where he got those papers from.
He couldn’t help wondering if it wasn’t some form of divine intervention. A little of what he’d prayed for earlier. “There’s a reason for me being here.”
Tessa glanced over from looking out the window. “Huh?”
“Sorry. I just meant that there’s a reason I thought to come home. Not just because it’s a safe place to be where I could recover, but also because maybe there was something here that God wanted me to find.”
Answers that he needed, and maybe even a way to take Kessler down.
Would Tessa’s father really be the key to finally bringing down Nathan Kessler, and uncovering all the dirty agents in federal law enforcement, and in the CIA? Not just that, but there were more turncoats in all kinds of hidden places. Caleb had lain awake at night thinking it through and figured there had to be more to it than just his team.
“You believe in God?” Tessa glanced over at him. “I didn’t get the feeling you did when we were in high school, but maybe I was wrong.”
He gripped the steering wheel. “You aren’t wrong. It’s only been a few weeks. But God definitely brought me home. With the injury and everything that happened after, I decided I needed to start believing again. That I needed to follow God and what He wanted for my life. It was part of why I decided to come home and try to heal with Pops. So I could have someone steady in the faith around me while I was figuring everything out.”
And maybe it was all so that God could have him here to discover the shoebox. To find the truth about his parents. The thing that Pops had been lying to him about.
He shook his head. No point dwelling on that until they could talk it out.
“I’m so used to people with faith that seems so flimsy, or people who just show up to church on Sundays and the rest of the time they don’t even act like Christians. Especially online.”
Caleb nodded.
“It’s nice to talk to someone who has genuine faith. A lot of the time it seems like I’m getting cynical about there still being true believers in the world. I mean, I know there are. People across the world are facing persecution and even death for their faith. There’s not much of that here in Montana, but we can still be strong in what we believe and stand up for what’s right.”
“It’s all still pretty new. But once that priest in the hospital started talking to me about it, it made me remember everything Pops ever told me about God, and about the Bible.”
To discover that the old man had been lying to him this entire time didn’t sit well. Not after he had been the one that brought truth into Caleb’s life. Pops was a guy who took in two teenage boys that otherwise would’ve ended up in foster care. The manwho had prayed with them and encouraged them to ask God for help when they needed it.
“I can’t believe he’s been lying for years.” Caleb shook his head. “Those letters went back decades.”
Tessa nodded. “It seemed like Pops was sending your parents photos and maybe updates about things that were happening in your life. Those letters were like the replies to whatever he sent them.”
“And he never told us they were alive? I just can’t believe he never even said, ‘I know they’re alive.’ He just let us think they were dead.”
“Isn’t it good that they wanted to know what was happening with you? If you’re inclined to look on the bright side, it means they still care about you.”
Caleb held onto the wheel around the corner. Tessa stiffened in her seat.Probably could’ve slowed down.“If they wanted to know, they could have just called. Or shown up and seen for themselves.”
The fact they hadn’t meant that maybe they weren’t able to—for whatever reason. But how did that make it any better? What could they possibly have been doing that… what, endangered their lives if they saw each other?
Maybe he was taking on a little bit of that cynical thing she’d been talking about. But this wasn’t about someone who had shallow faith. This was about parents who abandoned their children.
