Page 38 of Weston’s Treasure

“You.”

“Me?”

“He was checking to see where my head’s at.”

“Where your head’s at?”

“Babe, I’m speakin’ English.”

Okay, that was funny, but mostly annoying.

“I know you are,” I snapped. “But obviously, I don’t understand why Alec was asking you about me. And I really don’t know what it means when you say where your head’s at.”

“He wanted to make sure I wasn’t getting ready to go off the rails leaving a trail of bodies in my wake.”

“Why would he ask that?”

“Because he knows me. He knows you mean something to me. So he needed to ask.”

There was a lot there to sift through. I wasn’t ready to discuss how Alec knew I meant something to Weston, or how he didn’t deny the accusation. Instead, I went straight to the trail of dead bodies.

“That’s ridiculous. You wouldn’t kill anyone.”

“I wouldn’t?” he asked and stopped at a red light, one of the very few in Cliff City. “You sat through the meetings at Homeland. You know what I did before I left the Navy. So you gotta know, your statement is false.”

He was right, I had sat through those meetings. I also bickered with him about the planning of the operation. I’d also been adamant I should stay on the team and be the one to recon the suspected boats carrying drugs. He’d been vehemently against that plan. Then he’d straight out said I should be removed completely. It was old news and there was no point rehashing it when I knew he meant that during those meetings they discussed him being a former SEAL.

“You being an ex-SEAL is—”

“Former,” he cut me off.

“What?”

“I’m a former SEAL. Not an ex-SEAL. When I left the Navy I didn’t give up my Trident.”

I knew what a Trident was. I’d seen enough TV shows and movies to know it’s what the gold pin the SEALs wear on their uniforms, but I didn’t understand what the distinction was between former and ex. Both meant he wasn’t one anymore.

“I don’t understand. Just because you still have it doesn’t mean you can use it. Is there really a difference?”

“Babe, it’s not a badge. I didn’t flash it before I made an arrest. I earned it with my blood. It’s a part of who I am, not what I was. I am a SEAL, always will be. But I am no longer in the Navy, therefore I’m former. Never ex. Ex implies you’ve given up the right to be something.”

“Was it hard becoming a SEAL?”

“Hard doesn’t begin to describe it. But when your eye’s on the prize it’s amazing what your body can endure.”

I found that to be interesting and wanted to talk more about what he had to do to become a SEAL but I had a point to make.

“Okay. You being a former SEAL is much different than you killing someone.”

“You can call it whatever name you want, but the result’s the same—in the end, someone’s not breathin’.”

He was right about that. In the end, someone was dead. But there is a huge difference between murdering someone and killing them.

“Fine. But it’s not like you’d kill someone because I was in danger. If Alec knows you then he shouldn’t have had to ask.”

“I wouldn’t?”

There was that question again, only this time it seemed loaded and I was afraid of the answer. Not because what he said would scare me, but what that said about how he felt about me. Which meant, I must’ve misunderstood what he was asking.