Page 30 of Keeping Collette

If she couldn’t do it, then he’d turn them around and go back to the car.

Fox nodded, and Jag came up and stopped in front of Collette. “I’m so sorry.”

A small sob escaped Collette, and Deal dropped her hand, slinging an arm around her shoulders and pulling her tight against him. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“What do you want to know?” Jag asked gently.

Deal watched Fox to see how he was reacting to the situation, but his friend’s expression was blank, as if he was there in body, but his mind was elsewhere.

Had they left him alone too long?

Should they have pushed him to talk about what he went through with Cynthia?

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on it, but he would corner Fox and talk to him later. The guy had been an elite SEAL. All of them would’ve taken a bullet for him, like he would for them. Whatever had gone down with Cynthia had affected him mentally, even more than Hell Week during their BUD/S training had.

“Where was she found?” Collette’s question pulled him back to the present. Her voice sounding stronger. Her arm had slipped around his waist, and her head rested on his shoulder.

He wasn’t upset about any of it.

Jag pointed to the shelter. “She was found in a shallow grave there.”

“Who found her?” Deal asked.

“Some kids wandering through here after a party. They were drunk, but still had the presence of mind to work out that something wasn’t right. Once they’d sobered up, they’d called the police.”

Deal was impressed. Some people might have put it down to a drunken hallucination and that they hadn’t seen what they thought they had. The fact these kids had done the right thing was telling.

Collette broke away from his hold and headed over to where Courtney was found. He wanted to haul her back, to protect her from it all.

He followed her but stayed back, giving her the space she needed to process it all. From where he stood, it appeared as if the forensic team had done a thorough job in getting as much information as they could from the site. The couple that remained were starting to pack up, so he assumed they were satisfied with everything they’d collected.

Collette squatted down, and he rushed up to her, ready to give her whatever she needed from him. As if sensing his presence, she glanced over her shoulder. “I don’t know what I was hoping to see, but there’s nothing here to give me any answers as to what happened. Or why she was taken. I still have no idea.”

“I know it doesn’t look like anything at this stage, but I’m sure with everything that’s been collected by them,” he canted his head to the retreating figures. “they’ll be able to piece together a picture of the circumstances of how she ended up here for you.”

“Maybe.” She went to stand, and he cupped her elbow helping her up.

“The medical examiner will also play a big part,” Fox said, coming up to them. Under the bright floodlights, Deal saw for the first time in weeks, a spark of who his friend usually was. There was compassion in his eyes. A stark difference to how he’d been only moments ago. “We can all come with you to the morgue if you want us to.”

Fox’s announcement shouldn’t surprise him, considering how supportive they all were of each other, but given how he’d been recently, it did.

“Thank you, but I don’t want to put you out even more. You had to wait a long time for us. I don’t want to keep you from someone else who needs you.”

“We’re right where we need to be,” Jag said.

Damn, his teammates were proving, yet again, how they stood by each other, no matter what was going on in their personal lives.

“I guess there’s no real point in staying here any longer. I just needed to see it.” Collette sighed.

No one said anything as she stared at the plot of dirt for a little longer.

Even with knowing the outcome from the beginning, seeing the stark truth of it hit hard.

No one should ever have to go through what Collette was going through.

Chapter Fifteen

The antiseptic smell hit Collette’s senses, and she swallowed hard. “I can do this,” she muttered, even though she wasn’t sure she could.