Ray is one of the good guys. I know that sounds like something I’d say right before telling you I made a terrible decision, but I mean it. He believed me when he didn’t have to. He kept digging when everyone else told him to walk away. If the evidence I gathered is enough, it’s because he helped me make it that way.
It’s all here. Everything I collected. Shipping manifests. Shell company payments and receipts. Procurement names. Contracting officers. The retired admiral. The meeting recording.
Voss doesn’t get dirty. That’s his whole thing. He smiles and makes other people touch the poison for him. But he was in that room, Maren. His voice is on that recording. Ray said it was almost enough.
I hope it’s enough now.
Maren could hear Mira’s voice in every sentence.
Not the imaginary voice she had given herself as a comfort since her sister died.
The real one.
Fast. Bright. A little reckless. Trying to sound like she wasn’t terrified even when the terror bled through the ink.
Another good guy I need to tell you about is named Sean Volker.
Maren flinched. Colin rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand.
Who is that? you ask.
Excellent question, sister mine.
Sean Volker is Juni’s father.
There it was, in black ink on paper. The truth Mira had taken to her grave.
He was a SWCC I met at absolutely the wrong time in my life. And yes, before you say it, I know there is no right time to fall into bed with a cocky sailor when you are also trying to build a case against a defense contractor with friends in places that scare smarter women than me.
Sean was cocky, because of course he was. Remember how we used to go SEAL hunting?
Okay, howIused to go SEAL hunting while you sat there sipping a club soda with lime for three hours and acting as my designated driver if I failed to bag one?
Maren laughed. It came out broken and wet, but it was a laugh.
“Mira,” she said helplessly. “God, you were a pain in the ass then.”
Colin wrapped his arm around Maren and squeezed.
Sean had swagger. God, did he have swagger. But there was so much more to him. He had this quietness under it. A gentleness. You wouldn’t have expected it from the way he joked with his friends or talked them into doing something stupid, but it was there. I didn’t know him for long, but I was falling in love with him. I really, truly was. And miracle of miracles, he felt the same way. It happened so quick, I don’t think either of us wanted to jinx it. So, we kept things on the down-low.
He talked about his hometown like it was heaven on earth. Lyons, Colorado. Mountains. A river. His sister, Arden. He and Arden were fighting when I knew him, but every time he said her name, I could tell he loved her. He made her sound sweet and strong and stubborn as hell, which means you’d probably be instant besties.
Maren’s tears fell faster now, thinking of Arden and Sean and Juni’s silver-gray eyes.
Remembering Camo pressing his muzzle into Juni’s hand like he had finally come home from a long tour.
He’s gone, Maren.
Sean was KIA.
I didn’t know I was pregnant until after he’d left on his final mission. I was afraid to contact him and make him lose focus, but I was going to tell him the minute he got home. Do you remember when I said I had the worst flu of my life and I told you not to visit? Yeah, I lied. That was the week I found out. I couldn’t get out of bed. I didn’t want to see anyone.
After Juni was born, I wanted to call his sister. I wanted to tell her. I wanted to pack Juni into the car and drive straight to Colorado and put that baby in her arms.
Obviously, I didn’t.
That was probably the wrong choice.
