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“Catfish?” Emily echoes. “You mean the type of fish or online predator?”
Kellan shrugs. “No idea. Lucas came home before I could find out why she was asking. Does it mean anything to you?” The question is volleyed back to me.
Garrett rocks from the seat to his feet and paces, muttering “Catfish” to himself on repeat.
I shake my head even though something about the word causes a feeling of déjà vu. I have no idea why. “Maybe she knows someone who might be a victim of catfishing.”
I mentally repeat the word several times. Garrett does the same out loud but saying it to himself. There’s something about catfish that isn’t sitting easy with me.
“What is it?” Troy asks me. “You look like you’ve been told to defuse a land mine and don’t remember how to do it.”
I open my mouth to tell him I’ve never known how to defuse a land mine, but the reason the word feels like a ten-ton explosive in my stomach comes to me in a flash. “One of the missions I was on in Afghanistan was Codename Catfish.”
“Did you ever tell Simone that?”
“No.”
“Maybe you said the word in your sleep?” Zara suggests. “I dated a guy in college who mumbled a lot in his sleep. Let’s just say you didn’t want him working for you if he had access to company secrets.”
“Sounds like something for your next thriller,” Kellan tells Garrett. His tone holds the smirk that isn’t on his face. “The female agent learns the villain’s dark secrets because he talks in his sleep, and she wore him out with lots of sex.”
“God, that’s so sexist.” Zara grabs a cushion from the seat Garrett vacated and hurls it at Kellan.
The man with sharp reflexes doesn’t bother to catch it. It smacks him in the chest. Emily laughs.
“Are you going to tell me where Simone went?” Since growling and glaring at Zara aren’t working, I go with a different approach. I try for a smile. A remorseful, groveling smile. “Look, I know I screwed up. I should’ve handled the news about my daughter a helluva lot better than I did. But do you really think it’s a good idea for her to be alone?”
My phone rings on the coffee table. I snatch it up in case it’s Simone.
It’s not.
“It’s Samuel.” Zara’s brother. I answer the phone. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Is Simone there?”
“No, I don’t know where she is.” I throw his sister a dark look, even though she’s not privy to the conversation.
“I’ve been trying to call her, but she’s not answering her phone. It’s her grandmother.” At his urgent tone, the muscles in my body tense. And I’m already on my feet when he says, “Someone broke into her house and beat her up. She’s still unconscious.”
Adrenaline surges through me, jump-starting my fight mode, but it’s not enough to drown out my fears when it comes to Simone.
“I’ll tell Simone as soon as I locate her.” I end the call. My next words are leveled at Zara. “Rose was beaten up in her home. Now will you tell me where the fuck my wife is?”
47
Simone
My car pulls up to my grandfather’s cabin, a small building surrounded by forest. A building I haven’t seen in more than ten years.
I’m not sure what I expected to find. Maybe a cabin that had fallen into disrepair. A building that looked abandoned. Forgotten.
That doesn’t describe the cabin in front of me. The place has been renovated, repainted, the roof retiled. Yes, the paint has faded over the past few years, but it’s obvious Aiden had been working on the cabin. This…this doesn’t make me think of someone struggling with depression. Not to the point where they’re suicidal.
The thought of my brother has my insides clenching. This is the place, just beyond the trees, where he died.
I put the car into park and rest my forehead on the steering wheel, talking myself down from the sob-fest that’s preparing to suffocate me.
Once I’ve pulled myself together, I climb out of the car and let the happy memories of the cabin and surrounding area seep into me.
