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“That’s right.”
“Why? Does the word mean something to you?”
“No, but I think it meant something to Aiden. Two months ago, I found a piece of paper in my bedroom at Grams’s. The only thing on it was the word catfish. The paper fell out when I opened the desk drawer. I’d forgotten about it until this weekend when I went to Portland. I found the same word written in the Greek mythology encyclopedia Aiden sent me a few weeks before his death. It was on the description for Themis, the Greek Titaness who is the symbol for justice. In both cases, it was Aiden’s handwriting.”
She walks over to the bookshelf and removes a book. I return the box to the coffee table and join her.
She leafs through the book and shows me a page. “And here it is again, under Forseti, the Norse god of justice. But this time he also wrote ‘Aiden4justice.’ I was about to check the other mythology books, but Jasper started barking at the door…and well, you know the rest. With everything that happened, I forgot about it.”
She hands me the book and pulls out another one. Roman mythology. She flips through the pages and lands on Justitia, the goddess of justice. This time the only thing on the page is the name of an email provider.
“Why would he write the email provider in a book?” I ask. “Aiden wasn’t the type of person who wrote notes in his books. He didn’t even do that in college when it came to his textbooks.”
Troy points at the handwritten word. “Could this have anything to do with the mission you and Aiden were on?”
“I don’t know.” I catch Simone up on the conversation from earlier, my mind spinning back to what happened with Aiden and me eight years ago.
Simone shivers again. She’s visibly exhausted, and her wariness is directed at me. Before I can even think about Aiden’s messages and what they all mean, she and I need to talk.
“I need to get Simone and Jasper home, warmed up, and fed,” I tell my brothers. “Why don’t you come over in two hours, and we’ll see if we can figure this out? And tell Garrett while you’re at it.”
Simone and I don’t talk on the drive home about the past four days. There are conversations we need to have, but they’re better had when my concentration isn’t on the wet roads.
So we listen to music and make small talk. None of it defuses the tension lingering in the air. Neither of us says what’s on our minds, but I know Simone’s wondering the same thing I am: did the break-in at Rose’s home have anything to do with the sequence of events at the cabin? Given both places were ransacked, it seems likely.
But does that mean the asshole who attacked Rose then followed Simone to the cabin? Or was Simone simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?
I park the SUV and unfasten my seat belt. “How’s your ankle?”
“Better. I got lucky.” She doesn’t give me a second glance. She’s out of the vehicle faster than I can say sniper.
I let Jasper out of the back seat, and we follow Simone into the house. The blanket from the cabin is still wrapped around her shoulders. Inside, she begins to climb the staircase.
“Where’re you going?”
She turns to me. “To take a shower.”
“Sounds like a plan. We’re going to talk. In the shower.” At the mocking tilt of her eyebrow, I walk up the steps so I’m level with her and clarify, “We both need a long hot shower. This way we conserve water and can have that talk sooner.” I brush a featherlight kiss on her lips.
Her smile is uncertain, the corners of her mouth fluttering, then they commit to a soft smile. “All right.”
On my way to the SUV to get her stuff, I text my brothers and tell them to show up in two hours from now instead of when I originally told them to come. Simone and I need that time to start fixing the bridge between us that I tore down.
I put Jasper in his crate and head upstairs to the bathroom. Simone is in there waiting for me. Our clothes are still damp, even though I had the heat blasting on the drive home to warm her up. I have a feeling it’ll take a lot more than a heater to do that.
I caress her cheek with my thumb. The ache I experienced earlier when she told me about being pregnant and losing our baby returns, spreads through my chest. “I’m sorry for how I reacted when you told me about our daughter. Things hadn’t gone the way we’d hoped with the search and rescue, and then finding out I’d failed you and our baby…” My voice comes out scraping-my-throat rough. I attempt to swallow back the pain. “I was shocked and didn’t handle the news very well.”
I kiss Simone’s lips once more and lift the hem of her long-sleeved T-shirt, slowly stripping the muddy fabric off her body. Bruises are starting to form on her skin, but it could have been so much worse. “I’m sorry you had to go through all of that alone, not only the night of the accident but afterward. I should’ve been there for you. I wish I’d been there for you.”
“I wasn’t alone.” Simone’s voice is whispery soft. “Avery was with me.”
A wry smile slips onto my lips. “I wondered why she obviously wasn’t a fan of mine when we got married, even though she and I had never met. This does explain things.”
“She wanted me to marry for love and not to settle for less. The fact that you were only interested in me for business reasons didn’t make her very happy.”
“I can understand why. You deserve to be with someone who loves you, Simone.” I stroke her cheek, absorbing the feel of her soft skin. “The way I love you. I’ve been in love with you ever since college. I didn’t want to risk having a girlfriend while in the military. You deserved better than waiting for a man who might not have come home alive or returned the same way as he left.” The latter being exactly what happened.
“The night we were together during my leave, I came close to telling you how I felt. But I chickened out. I’d planned to tell you when I returned, but you stopped sending me letters and never replied to the ones I sent you.” And then things went to hell during Operation CATFISH, and nothing was the same after that. “Once I returned, I was too scared to tell you how I felt. I let Aiden down and wasn’t there for him when he needed me the most. I was scared of letting you down, too.”
