Page 15 of Crave

Ever since Elías had died, it had felt as if a part of my soul were missing. The urge to be with him and mother him had only become stronger since I learned he was alive. When I added Grant into the mix, it made me yearn for something more. I wanted to belong to someone. Create a new family to replace the one I had lost. Elías bound Grant and I together forever.

I jumped in the shower and heard Hero bark a greeting to Grant when he came back from wherever he had been. When I emerged, clean and wrapped in a big fluffy towel, I saw him packing his seabag.

“Where are we going? Oh my god. Did you find Julián?”

“No, not yet. But there was a sighting in San Rafael. Kyle doesn’t want us intervening, but I figured we could go up there anyway and go through those medical records you said you’d kept.”

“Can you get off work?”

“Kyle’s covering for me. Come on, our plane leaves in an hour.”

“Plane? I don’t want to go to the airport. I mean, my Ksenya documents may be good, but they are fake. And I don’t look like my old IDs.”

“My buddy’s taking us. He’s a Blue Angel.”

“Wow, really? That’s nice of him.” Damn. I loved Blue Angels. When Joaquín and I were kids, my father would drive us to the top of a hill in Tiburon to watch them fly. After I told Grant about the trips, he made it a point to take me to see them every time they did their airshows Miramar.

We dropped Hero and Curry off with friends and headed to Carlsbad Airport to meet Beckett, who would be flying us in a small airplane. I had to admit I was disappointed by the news. I’d secretly hoped that I’d be able to hitch a ride in one of those glorious blue-and-yellow Hornets. Still, it was cool that we were getting a ride in a private plane.

We walked over to the hangar, and Grant strode toward the gorgeous man in a green flight suit who was waiting for us. He was tall, had dark hair, and wore black aviators.

“Hey, man, this is my girlfriend, Mia.”

I smiled and tried to play it cool even though my stomach exploded in butterflies when Grant called me his girlfriend.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Beck.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” I said. “Thanks for taking us.”

“No problem. Works out fine. I was headed up to the wine country for the night anyway.”

We climbed into the tiny plane, and I wanted to laugh. I may love to watch the Blue Angels doing their stunts, but I hated flying. “How do you know him?” I whispered to Grant.

“He deployed with us a year ago. He was our pilot, and then he got selected to be an Angel for the upcoming season. I’m happy for him. It’s harder to become an Angel than a Navy SEAL.”

Grant and Joaquín were always bragging about how impossible it was to graduate from BUD/S so it was nice to hear that Grant could acknowledge that Beck was as badass as he was. I gave Grant a beaming smile and tried to stuff my nerves down as deep as I could. Still, I spent the entirety of the two-hour flight white-knuckling the side of my seat, and Grant laughed at me more than once.

We landed at the Sonoma airport, and I was the first person off the plane. I wanted to puke, but Grant just rubbed my back and led me to the rental car he had waiting for us.

“Are you sure we can’t go look for Elías?” I asked when I regained my composure.

“Kyle doesn’t want us seen around the area just in case we get spotted and they get spooked.”

I gritted my teeth. “So, we’re really just here for medical records?”

“Well, those and anything else you want to bring home with you. You said it was in storage, let’s go get it.”

I took a deep breath and let my shoulders slump a bit. We really weren’t here to find our son. Grant was here to find some intel about Joaquín. “Yeah, we have a Grange box in San Rafael. There’s not much in there. Joaquín and I threw out most of it. We pretty much kept pictures. What are you looking for?”

“Nothing. Anything. Something.”

Great answer. I directed him to the row of storage boxes behind on the side of the freeway. I hadn’t been back since after Elías died. I didn’t even have a key. I was about to suggest calling a locksmith, but Grant just pulled into a parking spot and cut the engine.

“Which number is it?”

“Three-oh-four, but I don’t have a key.”

He just turned and gave me a wry smile and waited. It took me a minute, but then it clicked. He was a SEAL, and SEALs didn’t need keys.