Page 37 of Their Stormy Reunion

“What about Bonnie?”

“She’s calm as a cucumber. It’s like she has eyes in the back of her head, she always knows what the twins are up to, and when the baby cries she hands him over to Jace and he immediately settles down. Jace is like an honest-to-God baby whisperer.”

“That I’d like to see.” I grinned. Jace was a huge guy with rough features and was a former Navy SEAL.

“When things calm down and they’re more settled, Simon is chomping at the bit to hire him.”

I frowned and looked at Simon. “There can’t be enough work in Jasper Creek for three of you.”

“Word has got around. We’ve got a waiting list all across Tennessee, and some out of state. Trust me, we need him. We really need more than Jace. We need someone, man or woman, who has skills. Former military training or law enforcement would be best.” Simon gave me a pointed look.

“Nope, not me. I like my job as a firefighter.”

“You were a Ranger,” Roan protested.

“And that’s the reason why I came back to Jasper Creek to work as a firefighter and I didn’t apply to be a smokejumper. I had enough of jumping out of airplanes.”

“But—”

“Give it a rest, Roan,” Simon interrupted his partner. “Michael knows what he wants out of life, leave him to it.”

“Thanks.” I gave Simon a chin lift.

“Gotcha,” Roan said with a grin. “Ya gotta do what speaks to your soul. I respect that.”

Now that was the reason that Roan Thatcher was one of my best friends.

“Let’s get back to the letters,” Simon said as he picked up the one addressed to me. “I looked at the court transcripts of your father’s trial. Since you were only five years old, all of your testimony was done via closed circuit TV, so you didn’t have to see your father. I tried to get a copy of that, but I couldn’t.”

“Not even the techies from your old SEAL teams could get you a copy?” Roan asked with disbelief.

“Not so far.”

“If they do, don’t show it to me,” I said, a rock sitting in my gut. The last thing I wanted was to relive those days. Seeing my father kill my mom had been bad enough, but then those days spent reliving it as I was questioned over and over had been agonizing. They’d even asked me questions about my life before the murder. Something I’d been trained never to talk about. They’d had this lady come in and talk to me. She’d told me that the man in the robe wouldn’t hurt me and I had to tell the truth. That my father would be punished for what he had done to my mother if I told the truth and finally I had believed her, and sat in a special chair beside the man in the robe and answered all the questions. I told the truth about all the time I’d been beaten and how I’d learned not to cry. Only babies cried.

“Do you think your dad would hold a grudge after all this time?” Roan asked.

“Definitely.”

“Is he the type who would just kill you?” Simon asked quietly.

I had to think about it. I was just a kid when I knew him. But thinking about him through an adult lens, I realized he got off on power. He was one sadistic bastard.

“No, he wouldn’t just come after me. Not directly. He would want to make my life miserable. That’s why he’s targeting my parents. He wants to make me suffer.”

Simon nodded. “That’s my take, too. It’s good that, for now, he doesn’t know where they live, but unfortunately everybody in Jasper Creek knows where they live.”

“They’re not listed anywhere. I did an internet search, their address doesn’t come up,” Roan said. “And nobody in Jasper Creek would tell a stranger their address.”

“But I want to be safe. We need to install a security system in their house,” Simon said.

“It needs to be top-of-the-line.” I said, my voice sharp.

“That goes without saying,” Simon agreed.

“And you need one, too,” Roan insisted.

“I can take care of myself.”