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“The MP at the gate reported that you came on base with a woman and baby. I assumed it was Kelsey and Edwin’s grandson. Your son?”
“Yes, sir.” Again, no surprise that Dobson was aware of the complicated dynamics. “You can imagine that Kelsey is upset by all this and worried about her father.”
“Understandable and an excellent idea. Your leave is granted effective today. Sign the paperwork before you leave the base,” Commander Dobson said. “One last thing. If you do hear from Commander Reeves, I expect you to contact me immediately. The higher-ups have questions for him. I’ve got some myself.”
“Understood, sir.” After saluting, Cole left the office, stopping at a clerk’s desk to complete the leave paperwork before returning to the barracks.
In Raymond’s room, he found his buddy sitting on the floor with Eddy on his lap while Kelsey paced back and forth.
“This kid’s cute,” Raymond said, holding Eddy up so that his little legs pushed off the floor. “Strong, too. He’ll be running around before you know it.”
“Thanks for watching over them.” Cole didn’t know how to acknowledge Raymond’s comments about his son. It struck him, though, that he had yet to hold his own child, and here his friend was doing it as if it was no big deal.
“What happened? What did Commander Dobson say?” Kelsey came to stand in front of Cole.
“My leave was approved. Let’s get off the base and go for a walk. It’s a beautiful day, and we need to talk.” He was stalling, but he wanted her to be somewhere that made her happy when he told her about the documents he’d seen and the allegations against her father.
SIX
Not far off the naval base, the famous Coronado Beach stretched along the water. It was one of her favorite spots, a place that was both fun and peaceful, which Cole knew, so she wasn’t surprised when he stopped in one of the beach’s parking lots.
“Good day to walk the beach,” he said. He was already reaching for the door handle as if he couldn’t get out of the truck fast enough.
She reached for his arm. “Cole—”
“I’m going to tell you what happened,” he said. “I promise. Let’s just get out and enjoy the day for a few minutes first.”
He had something to tell her that she wouldn’t want to hear. She was sure of that. Just as she was confident that he would share everything when he was ready—and when he thought she was ready to hear it. Fine. She got out of his truck and opened the back door. Eddy was content in his car seat, half asleep and drowsy, so she transferred him to a baby sling that she kept in the diaper bag. He rested his head against her chest and his eyes drooped shut. At least one male in her life was content. Of the other two, Cole was mulish and worried, and her father…well, her father was missing, and she had no idea what kind of state he was in. She could only hope that Cole had gotten some answers for her. She controlled her sigh and walked to join Cole where he stood on the sand.
“Is he good in that thing?” he asked, gesturing to Eddy.
“Oh yeah, definitely. Babies like having this kind of physical contact. It makes them feel safe and loved.” Those were the two things she wanted most for her son. She knew the kind of damage that could be caused by the lack of them. She hadn’t actually felt physically unsafe as a child after her parents’ divorce when her father was on missions and her mother raised her, but Kelsey hadn’t felt particularly loved or nurtured by her mother. She’d fulfilled her maternal obligations and nothing more. Some women considered their mothers their best friends but in Kelsey’s case her mother was nothing more than her birth parent. Kelsey planned to give Eddy everything she hadn’t gotten and more.
She and Cole strolled toward the water that was at low tide. With hard-packed sand beneath her feet and the scent of the ocean around her, she felt almost content. She stole a glance at Cole. Several times she’d imagined what it would be like for the three of them to be a family, a real family together. Through long nights when she’d paced the floor with a colicky infant, she’d fantasized about how it could be different if Cole had stayed with her and the baby. It wouldn’t have been perfect. She wasn’t naïve enough to think that, but it would have been wonderful to not only share the challenges of raising an infant with him, but the special moments, too.
Walking on the beach as if they were a family made it easy for her to fall into that fantasy again. They could be any young couple with a baby out enjoying the day. She took a deep breath and pushed the thought aside. Yes, it was a pretty little fantasy, but that wasn’t their fate, and she couldn’t allow herself to get distracted by those daydreams. She gave herself a little shake and forced the conversation to begin.
“What did you learn that you’re afraid to tell me?” she asked to get the conversation started.
Cole stopped and studied a tidal pool formed by the low tide before answering. “Edwin may be more involved in what happened to that SEAL team than either of us wants to admit.”
She flinched at the implication of Cole’s words, which had the cascading effect of disturbing Eddy and making him whimper. She bent to kiss his brow and stroked his back to soothe him, forcing herself to stay calm and curb her spike of anger. If she vented the way she wanted to, her child would pick up on her temper and become upset. She didn’t want that for him.
“Why, exactly, do you say that? What did Dobson tell you?” she demanded in a low voice. She needed the facts so she could make sense of what Cole said.
His gaze met hers. “After your father disappeared, investigators went through his computer and saw that he’d accessed classified intel he shouldn’t have been able to view, including the whereabouts of the ambushed SEAL team.”
“When?” she asked. She couldn’t imagine that he was implying her father had something to do with the ambush. “When did he access that?”
“Just before his disappearance,” Cole answered.
“But after the ambush?” The fact that someone had been through her father’s computer wasn’t a shock, but she wanted to be clear on the time frame and details. “If he was responsible for the ambush, then wouldn’t he have had to access those files ahead of time, so he’d have the information in order to sell it? If he was looking at those files after the fact, then I’d say it looks like he was trying to learn about the ambush rather than being the one who caused it.”
“Maybe,” Cole agreed, “but that doesn’t explain the other reports he got into. Here.” He pulled out his phone. “Against my better judgment, I took pictures of the documents when Dobson stepped out of the room.”
His break with protocol surprised her, but she took the phone, turning so her body shadowed the screen, and looked at the images. She had to enlarge them and move through the pictures a quadrant at a time, putting the pieces together about what she was seeing. Lists of SEALS by names and missions going back for several months.
What she couldn’t see was how this was so incriminating. She acknowledged that her father accessed information that perhaps he shouldn’t have, but to her it suggested that he was launching his own investigation. Why didn’t Cole see it that way? Why was he questioning her father’s loyalty and integrity at all?
