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“That’s part of why I wanted to talk to you. The poor kid is a wreck.”
I felt a stab of guilt. I had a feeling I knew what had left Alison in such bad shape. The things I had said to her the last time we met face to face were very cruel, and I couldn’t blame her for being messed up about it.
And if Henry had any idea that I was the reason his daughter was having such a hard time right now, he would reach through the phone and throttle me.
A part of me felt the urge to confess, to unburden myself. But even if I was willing to face Henry’s wrath, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t let Henry know I’d fucked his daughter. It wouldn’t be fair to her to tell her father that, and God knew I had done enough to her already.
I had to say something, though.
“I think it might be my fault she’s upset,” I managed after a few moments of silence.
“Your fault? What did you do?” He sounded a little ominous, a little threatening.
“I wasn’t that nice to her when she told me what she had found.” I was downplaying that, but it was technically the truth. “I resented the fact that she’d gotten dirt on the SEALs. I might have accused her ofwantingto find something against us.”
“Brian.”
“I know, I shouldn’t have.”
He sighed. “I can’t be too hard on you,” he said. “I gave her hell about it too. I’ve apologized since then, of course. I can see now how hard it was for her to find that shit and she had to report it. Allison hated doing it, Brian. I mean, she hated it.”
“Yeah. I believe that.”
“If you were rough on her, you should tell her you didn’t mean it. You have her phone number, don’t you?”
“I do, but I don’t think she’s going to want to hear from me,” I said.
“You could be right, for all I know. I don’t know. I’ve never seen her like this,” Henry said. “I would have expected her to be at leastsort ofhappy after her first big assignment went so well.”
“Did it go well? It must have, right?”
“She says her bosses are very pleased. I know they were threatening her with transfer to some paper-pushing job if she didn’t have a good first outing, but there’s no question of them letting her go now.”
“That’s good.” I leaned back in my chair. At least something good had come out of all this. I was glad Alison was going to see benefits at work.
“You know, I wanted to talk to you about what she found,” Henry said.
I groaned. “You’re not going to tell me I should have known Jake was no good, are you?”
“No, I wasn’t. I’m willing to bet you’ve been telling yourself that plenty.”
“You’re not wrong.” I’d been beating myself up since the arrest, wondering how I could have misjudged him so seriously.
“These things happen,” Henry said. “Remember when you and I first earned our stripes? Remember Murray?”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “I haven’t thought of that guy in years.”
“He thought he could coast through SEAL training,” Henry said, laughing. “Remember how he used to short his push-ups when the drill sergeant was looking the other way?”
“He’d get up and say he’d done the full hundred when we all knew he’d really only gotten through about sixty-five.”
“Yeah, and nobody wanted to be the weasel who turned him in, but we all hated it. We all thought he was a stain on the whole group.”
I was quiet for a moment. “It’s rough, having to be the person who says something.”
“What Allie did was brave,” Henry declared.
“I was too hard on her.”
