“Marissa, we all need help now and then. All of us. You just stay safe, do what Joey tells you.” Marissa could feel her face blush, the heat causing her to touch her skin. “Speaking of Joey.”
“Not now, Mom,” she whispered.
“Well, that tells me what I need to know. Stay safe. Come home. Your father and the others will end this.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Everything okay?” he asked as the last lamp was lit.
“Yes. Yes, everything is good. She just wanted to be sure I was okay and safe. I guess I need to get a new phone,” she said.
“We’ll get you a new one when we get home. But I am curious why we didn’t know yours was off-line if they destroyed it,” said Joey.
“Oh, well, I guess I need to confess to the tech boys that I figured out a way to transfer the signal to a laptop and make it look like it was still running. It was stupid, I know. I just didn’t want them to randomly check on me and see that I was in a strip club.”
Joey frowned at her, taking a seat in front of her.
“What about the trackers? You’re still wearing the bracelet.” She reached beneath the bangle and pulled a small round metal object. “A magnet?”
“Yes. It interferes in the signal as well. I discovered that by accident. I couldn’t get it off, which is obviously the point. But I also just couldn’t take the chance that they would follow me.”
“Marissa,” he said shaking his head, “do you have any idea how dangerous that was? Do you understand that we use these devices to keep you safe, to keep us all safe?”
“I know,” she nodded. “I let my humiliation and fear take over. I’m a grown woman and I was terrified to talk to my parents. Honestly, I wasn’t having great conversations with them before then. I wanted to come home but I was too proud to admit that I missed everyone.”
“I don’t get it. I don’t remember you being this stubborn as a kid. What changed for you?” he frowned.
“You’re an only child, right?”
“You know I am.”
“Well, imagine not only having two individuals who are nearly identical to you, but also excel at what they’re doing. Brooks and Mitchell are Navy SEALs. SEALs for God’s sake. And they excel at it. They were popular in high school, they made amazing grades, they joined the Navy, made the SEAL teams, and in all of that still got their degrees with honors.”
“Marissa, you were on the dean’s list at Duke. That’s nothing to sneeze at, honey. That can’t be all of it.”
“It’s not. I think because my brothers and all my cousins seemed to know exactly what they were doing, my parents expected the same from me. But I wasn’t sure. The only reason I pursued chemistry was that it was easy for me and my professor thought it was a smart move.”
“So, you don’t want to be a chemist?” he asked frowning at her.
“No. I mean, yes, I do. Now, I do. I figured out a few things along the way. I think what it came down to was that I wanted space and I wasn’t ever given space at home. I needed to figure things out for myself and everyone was trying to tell me what to do.”
“Because they love you, Marissa. That’s what parents do. Hell, I can tell you that Mom and Dad definitely told me what to do more than a few times. When I decided I would become a Ranger, they were surprised. They thought I would become a SEAL.”
“Why?”
“Because I was a great swimmer,” he chuckled. “But they asked me a lot of questions, made sure I had good responses and left me alone. I can’t imagine that your parents didn’t do the same for you.”
He held her hands in his own, rubbing his big thumbs over her soft flesh. She nodded at him.
“You’re right. I’m such an idiot. I thought they were being invasive and getting into my business.”
“Honey, that’s what our family does. We get in one another’s business. Do you know,” he said, leaning back on the big iron headboard, pulling her to lay beside him, “did you know that every time I came home I tried to find out about you? I knew that I was stationed just a few hours at most, away from you but I was terrified to just drive over and say hello.”
“Why? Even if I had no romantic feelings for you, we grew up together.”
“I know. But that was my fear. What if you had no romantic feelings for me?”
“Impossible,” she said looking up at him. “You are everything to me, Joey. Everything and I regret so many things but mostly that I didn’t tell you sooner.”
