Page 6

The beige Chevy Malibu rental car felt like a coffin after twenty years of military vehicles. Too quiet, too civilian, too normal. Jasper Creek looked exactly like the postcards Jase used to send. Tree-lined streets with actual trees, not the scraggly things that passed for vegetation in Kabul or the manicured perfection of Fort Gordon. Real houses with porches and swings, not compounds with blast walls. The kind of place where people probably knew their neighbors' names and didn't run background checks on them first.

Three in the afternoon, and I was in Jase's driveway.

A bike lay on its side in the front yard next to a skateboard and scooter. The house stood two stories, white with black shutters, basketball hoop in the driveway with the net half torn.

Normal.

Everything so aggressively normal.

The front door burst open before my hand reached the doorbell.

"Code?" A blonde woman stood there, hair in a messy bun, wearing yoga pants and an oversized Navy SEAL team shirt that had to be Jase's. This would be Bonnie. "According to Jase, you're early. Really early."

"This is the time I told him to expect me."

She sighed. "How come I'm not surprised? If something is about work, he nails it. Home life? Not so much."

The corner of my mouth twitched. First time all day. Hell, maybe all week.

"Jase! Your cousin's here."

"Mom!" A girl's voice echoed from somewhere deeper in the house. "Tell Lachlan to keep Scout away from the robot! He's going to break it!"

"I'm trying!" A boy's voice shot back. "He thinks it's a toy!"

A golden retriever bounded past Bonnie, nearly knocking her into the doorframe. Apparently, Lachlan had kept the dog away from exactly nothing.

"Code?" Jase appeared behind his wife. His expression shifted the moment he saw me. "You're early."

"He's on time." Bonnie's smirk could have cut glass. "He told you three o'clock."

Jase glared at me. "You said six."

A shrug seemed safest.

"You definitely said six."

"Three."

Scout shot back into the house, something metallic in his mouth.

Jase pulled out his phone, scrolled through texts. His face went sheepish. "Oh."

"Oh." Bonnie stepped aside. "Come in, Code. I'm sorry about... everything."

Chaos.

Pure chaos.

The robot sat on the dining room table with one arm hanging off. A girl who looked like a miniature version of Bonnie stood with her arms crossed, glaring at a boy who was wrestling the golden retriever. My chest tightened. Too much noise, too much movement, too much everything.

"Kids, this is Uncle Code." Jase's voice cut through the mayhem. "Code, that's Amber and the other terror is Lachlan."

"He's not our uncle." Amber didn't uncross her arms. "He's your cousin."

"Close enough," Jase said.

"It's not close at all. That would make him our first cousin once removed."