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Instead of heading inside, Flynn sat in one of the chairs on the deck. They’d all been cleared of snow, but it was still chilly. Sleep wasn’t going to be possible, so he might as well acclimate himself to Vermont in winter.
A soft woof had him turning to find the German Shepherd watching him quizzically through the door. Flynn crossed over and opened it. “Hey Jetson. You need to come out?”
The dog stepped outside and then moved to sit beside the chair Flynn had taken. Once Flynn sat again, Jetson laid his head on his lap and stared at him.
Flynn chuckled. “Are you an emotional support dog? You want to take a crack at figuring out what I’m supposed to think, what I’m supposed to feel?”
Jetson gave another soft woof and leaned into Flynn as he patted the large head. They sat together while Flynn patted the dog and stared at the lake.
Eventually the door opened again and Flynn wasn’t surprised when Sam dropped into the chair beside him. “Figure anything out yet?”
Flynn laughed without a lot of humor. “Not a damn thing.”
“Want to talk it out? The parts you can, anyway. You know I won’t repeat anything.”
He did know that. Sam was probably the steadiest, most reliable person Flynn knew.
They hadn’t worked in the same departments, but they’d crossed paths many times over the years. Sam’s reputation was unimpeachable. He was the reason Flynn had bought into Midnight Security. There was no one outside his family he trusted more and Flynn couldn’t talk to his family about this. “Have I told you why the Pavic case is so important to me?”
Sam nodded. “Yes. Your friend in high school was the girl killed when—” Sam’s voice dropped away and Flynn nodded.
“You got it in one. That girl was Tessa. Of course, she wasn’t Tessa then. We were told they’d positively identified her body but that the two male bodies were burned beyond identification. I always wondered if her father had disappeared off the scene. I wondered if he’d killed his own daughter and faked his own death to slide into his father-in-law’s organization without any backlash from the people he’d been working for.”
Sam swore. “That’s convoluted. Which means it fits right in with organized crime families.”
“Exactly. It never crossed my mind that C—Tessa might still be alive. All this time, I had it backward.”
Sam grunted. “Unless you were right and the other two bodies were fakes as well. Does Tess know?”
Flynn sighed. “I didn’t get that far. My mind hasn’t absorbed this yet and I haven’t handled it well.”
Sam didn’t show any judgement. “It’s a hell of a situation. I think you can forgive yourself for needing some time to figure it out.”
Flynn leaned back in the chair. “She offered to leave so I don’t have to lie to my family. I asked her to promise not to go until we have a chance to talk again in the morning.”
“Does she have to leave?”
“I don’t know. She said I have more connections here, so it should be my place. If she disappeared, I wouldn’t know anything about her new identity. That way I wouldn’t feel like I was holding something back from my family.”
“So, she’d start all over again.”
It was a statement, but Flynn answered it anyway. “Yeah.”
They sat quietly while Flynn patted the dog and stared at the lake, looking for answers.
Sam sighed. “How hard would it be to simply accept her as Tess?”
“While trying to put the rest of her family in jail? Maybe a little hard.”
That was the understatement of the century.
Chapter5
Second Guessing
Tessa woke from a fitful doze when Ginger yowled in her ear. She sat and stretched while she reached to pet the cat. “You’ve decided you like me after all? Or are you hungry?”
The cat had raced around the tiny cabin and had hidden in every spot she could find when Flynn had dumped her inside. She’d yowled and spat every time Tessa had approached. There had only been a few blueberries left, but Ginger had eaten each one out of Tessa’s hand before skittering away to hide again.
