Page 46 of Kevin's Destiny

“What thing?” Clark asked as he walked by with another plate full of food.

“I went to Seattle because of a situation.” Ryan sighed, and shook his head at Kevin. “It’s not my story to tell.”

“It involved my ex-wife.”

“Christ,” Clark said, and it was said loud enough that all of Ryan’s former teammates heard him. It was Reid who rose to his feet to bark out a demand.

“What did that fucking bitch want?” He saw Kevin and Caleb’s reaction to his demand and shook his head. “Ryan and I were swim buddies on the teams.” At several confused looks, he sighed deeply and walked up so everyone could see him. “While being a SEAL recruit you are assigned a partner on day one. You don’t get to choose, and you are told that if one of you fails, the other one does also, regardless of how good one is compared to the other. That was the first time I ever met Ryan. We ate, slept, worked, swam, and did PT side-by-side during the entire training and beyond. Then I met everyone else on our team.” He paused long enough to look around the room and raised his glass to toast all his former teammates. “Because Ryan and I were so close, we talked. I knew about his family.” He looked at Kevin and Caleb and grinned. “The way he talked about the two of you,I thought the family connection was between Kevin and Ryan. I thought they were brothers.”

“But that wasn’t the case,” Denver said as he rose to his feet, and stood next to Reid, and lifted his own glass in a salute of his own. “I’m not saying anything that isn’t true, but there were times when we were being deployed that we had to call home and tell them. Each and every time, Ryan got in a funk. After the second time, we sat him down and told him that we would go to the commanders about his headspace if he didn’t tell us what the hell happened. He told us all about his sister.”

“Christ,” Caleb said, and shook his head. He looked at the women at the table with another shake of his head. He looked at his father. “Sorry for what I’m about to say.”

“Is it the truth?”

“Absolutely. Or as much as I know it to be.”

“Then it’s your truth, you tell it the way you see it.”

“Thank you.” He nodded and looked at the women again. “Karen Carter Lassiter was a first-class royal entitled bitch. Sorry, but I can’t sugarcoat it, because it’s the truth. She’s sitting in a women’s prison in Seattle because of her entitlement and her actions from that perceived entitlement.”

No one said anything for several moments, then Kevin cleared his throat, exchanged subtle looks with Yvonne and Ryan, then rose to his feet.

“I’m going to say this once, because it’s still an ongoing investigation.” He looked at his son and shook his head. “We can talk later if you want to, but I’m saying this to let everyone know what’s going on. I don’t expect any trouble to come here, at RRR, or even over at New Double.” He then told everyone about being called into his captain’s office, and his ride to the hospital. It took a good thirty minutes for both him and Yvonne to tell them what had been done, and what they were looking into now.

“Wait,” Erin said when they finished. “The gang that tried to take you out in Seattle is up in Denver?”

“No,” Yvonne said. “It’s not the same members, but it’s the same gang.” She then told them about SSA Harmon and how they were working the case.

“Question,” Reid said with a scowl. He didn’t say anything until he had Kevin’s undivided attention. “What does Karen want out of all this?”

“Nothing,” Ryan answered the question. He stood, faced everyone and nodded. He took Pru’s hand in his when she laid it on his hip. “I asked Kevin the same thing. Because I know my sister, she never did a good thing in her life unless she could benefit from it. I went to Kevin when he called for help, because he’s family. Anyway, after we took those gang members down, no we didn’t kill them, they were hog-tied on the lawn when the locals arrived, but after we took them down, we packed up Kevin’s home, and Perry and Denver drove the truck here. Perry and Manny came with him, bringing my truck back with them. The three of them took turns driving. I stayed back because Karen wanted to see me.”

“Why?” Caleb asked, and his expression showed one of disgust.

“She said she had to tell me something. Kevin reassured me that it was all good, but understood if I didn’t want to go. Because I knew I would never return to Washington ever again, I agreed to see her. Kevin called the Warden to get us a special meeting with Karen.”

“How did it go?” Reid asked through clenched teeth.

“Surprisingly well.” Ryan looked at Caleb. “Your father will probably talk to you later, if you want, but she’d changed. I don’t know if it was because she was in prison, or what, but she apologized to me for being a bitch my entire life.” He chuckled and shook his head. “She even gave me my half of the moneyfrom our parents’ life insurance. I won’t tell you the amount, but I can tell you that I can now go to the professional doctor I’ve been talking to in order to be able to get fitted with a glass eye. I’m hoping that within the next six months or so, maybe even a year from now, I’ll be able to ditch the eye patch.” He looked over at Caleb, then at his former teammates and best friends. “I’m not saying that I forgave her for being a bitch my entire life, but we’re good.”

“I’m glad,” Reid said, and his expression showed his relief.

They went back to talking and eating, and about half an hour later, Clark gave a whistle and when everyone looked at him, he stared at Kevin and Yvonne.

“Do we have to be on the lookout or be worried about this gang coming here after Kevin?”

“About that,” Yvonne said as she slowly stood and stared out at the others, and waited for them to gather around. “I’m not saying Kevin’s in the clear, but I’m also not saying he’s safe.” She held up her hand when it looked like they were going to rush her with questions and demands. “The only thing I can tell you is that as soon as I heard Kevin’s story about the bingo card from these gangs, I remembered that the FBI in my old office had a case regarding the same thing. I reached out to my former Director, and both Kevin and I told him what happened out in Seattle. Just this morning, SSA Harmon, the director of the gang unit called me to get the story directly. Kevin talked to him. He’s going to Seattle to interview the men you guys took out, and then to go to the prison to talk to Karen.”

“Will she get a reduced sentence for this?” Pru asked as she wrapped her arm around Ryan. “For helping.”

“No,” Kevin said. Then he reminded them again that she had killed someone to protect him, and they had yet to charge her with that murder. He finally shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “As far as I know, no one from Seattle knows that I’mhere in Colorado. Yvonne is making me take the precautions of not even driving my own truck out onto the highway because it still has the Washington plates on it. I need to go into Fool’s Gold sometime soon to change that.”

“Reid and I will take you,” Erin spoke up then. She looked at Reid and grinned. “I need to talk to the grocery store manager about more vegetables, and I have a few appointments to go to. We can follow you into town.”

“That will work,” Reid said, and walked over to Erin to wrap his arm around her. “When were you thinking of going?”

“How about if we leave here around eight Thursday morning?”