Grabbing my cell phone, I pondered what to tell him. He warned me that calling me might be sporadic. A quick text here or there might be all he could do, and even that might be irregular. What could I tell him to let him know it was urgent, that I needed to talk to him soon, but that it wasn’t a matter of life and death?
Direct was best. I snapped a photo and sent it off with a message:Your father stopped by.He’d see the envelope and his mind would go to the obvious and correct conclusion.
Leaving it at that, I slipped the phone into my pocket. He’d call when he could. At least he knew what had happened and my response to the offer.
Chapter Eleven.
Jesse - On Deployment
We’d just spent thirteen days looking for a government contractor who’d gone missing. When we found him, there wasn’t much left to collect.
All I wanted to do was shower, shovel some food in me, and sleep. I could remove food from the list if necessary. We’d done our informal debriefing as soon as we’d returned to base, but now I had roughly thirty-six hours to become human again. Definitely shower, sleep, eat.
When I returned to my bunk, I turned on my cell phone. I hadn’t talked to Lyrical in all the time I’d been gone, so I figured I would send her a quick text to let her know I was alive and well, and that I’d call her tomorrow when I had a few minutes.
The text that appeared woke me up as fast as an explosion would have.
Your father stopped by.
Above it was a photo of a manila envelope, clearly sealed. I never would have believed an envelope could be menacing, but this one was.
I looked at the timestamp of the text. Five days ago. Jesus, she had to be going absolutely apeshit.
Instantly, I dialed my phone, thankful it was midday and next to no one was here in the tent with me. This was not a conversation I wanted public.
She answered on the second ring.
“Jesse?” Her voice came out breathless, as if she’d run for the phone.
“Yeah, sweetness, it’s me. You okay?”
“I’m good. Are you in one piece?”
“As good as. What’s going on?”
“He tried to bribe me to leave you. I didn’t even open the envelope. It’s still lying exactly where he threw it. He told me I had seven days to accept his offer, or it would go away. I told him to take it with him, but he refused.”
Anger surged through me. It wasn’t the first time he’d tried to tear us apart. The first time he tried was while I was in boot camp. He tried to get my contract canceled. When that didn’t work, he tried to bribe someone to cancel it. He visited shortly after the military assigned me to Camp Pendleton and offered to help us desert and sneak out of the country. We never told Lyrical, but I doubted it would surprise her.
Jamie told him to shove his offer up his ass.
I said nothing. I simply stood, turned, and left the room without looking back.
I hoped that would be the end. Obviously, he’d considered other avenues and waited until he knew Lyrical was vulnerable. I wouldn’t be home for at least another eight months. Would he continue to batter at her until she gave in?
Desperate to help her, my brain steam-rolled through options. The need to protect her from him was dominant, but I was thousands of miles away. What could I do?
“It’s all right, sweetness. He can’t harm you. Go stay at a hotel for a few days.”
“But, Jesse—”
“Please, Lyrical,” I begged. “For my sanity, take a few days off work and from volunteering at the food bank. I don’t want you anywhere he can hunt you down. I’ll figure something out, but just do this for me. Please,” I said again.
Fallujah may be across the world from where she was, but it’s like I can hear her conscience pushing to fight me on this. Her self-confidence has grown by leaps and bounds these past few years, but the sight of my father has put her into a tailspin, allowing many of her insecurities to push to the surface.
“Why can’t he leave us alone?”
“Because he’s used to getting his way, and he’s never taken no for an answer. Hell. People don’t say no to him, so it’s completely unfathomable to him.”
