Page 49 of Rangers Last Promise

Doc’s gaze holds mine.

“If she found the lockbox too…”

“She may have hidden it somewhere else.”

“Which means Grant wasn’t giving you evidence before he deployed.”

I look at the note again.

Mara has the key.

“No. He was telling you who could open something he already owned.”

Doc takes the paper from me and studies Grant’s handwriting.

“And if he discovered the betrayal after he deployed, he could have sent something home later.”

“To Mom.”

“She may not have known exactly what it was.”

“But she knew enough to be afraid.”

Neither of us speaks for a moment.

For fifteen years, I thought Mom’s silence came from grief.

Now I’m beginning to understand that some of it came from fear.

“We need to find that box.”

“We will.”

I look at him. “That sounded like another order.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Good.”

“It was a promise.”

Something in my chest shifts.

I look away before he sees it.

“There was another line on the back,” Doc says.

I turn the paper over.

Only five words are written there.

DON’T TRUST THE MAN IN COMMAND.

I read them twice.

“Grant meant Captain Miller.”

“Maybe.”