Page 64 of Embattled Return
The relief that rolled through him made him feel a little guilty. If she’d wanted it, they would have worked it out, but more time would definitely be better. “I love you, Shannon.”
“I love you too, babe,” she breathed, leaning forward for his kiss. “Now get back to work.”
John huffed and threw her a salute. “Yes, ma’am!”
Spinning the chair around he sped down the hallway, making her giggle.
18
“So, how do you think it’ll go?”
Marigold’s question rang in his brain, dragging down the mood, and he didn’t know how to respond. They’d just had a long lunch at his grandmother’s restaurant where they’d laughed and joked for hours. Now, though, they were heading to the Millers, and the tension in his gut was beginning to build.
Lisa was a volatile woman, as was Miller’s sister Ashley. “Honestly, I have no idea. Trent was Lisa’s only son, so I know she took his death hard.”
Logan’s gut churned. Even if she welcomed him with open arms, he had to tell her that he was the one that had gotten Miller killed. He hadn’t meant to, of course, but the excursion had been propelled by him.
They passed a Boulder city mileage sign, and his gut tightened further. Marigold’s phone was hanging from a dock on the windshield, and the red track of the GPS path was lit. Just a few more miles.
“Thank you for bringing me out here. It sounded like Shannon could have used you in the office today.”
Marigold shrugged, her shoulder brushing his own in the narrow car. “Maybe. I think she would have told me if she did. She’s just a little bit of a control freak.”
Logan chuckled. “I think they all are, a bit.”
“Agreed,” she responded with a laugh. “Tell me about Trent.”
Logan blinked, wondering how he could encapsulate six years of friendship into a few sentences. “We’d been together since Basic. Normally you make it through and you never see the guys you graduate with, but he and I, it was like we were in lock step. We competed through most of our class, both of us blowing away the rest of our group, and both ended up being picked up by military intelligence. We were in different jobs, but still worked together almost every day. We hung out together on our days off and that old competition faded away to friendship. We realized we liked hanging out together. He was a lot better man than I was, though.”
Marigold opened her mouth to argue, but he held up a hand. “No, he really was. We joked about it all the time. When I came across a piece of information I wanted to check out, he didn’t feel the same, but he agreed to go just to appease my damned curiosity. It’s what got him killed,” he finished, voice tight. “Without getting into too much detail, I believed that there was a stronghold in this one, deserted location that hadn’t seen any action in months. I was proven correct when we were attacked.”
He glanced at her, his eyes narrowed in remembered pain. “Not the way I wanted to be proven correct.”
“Of course not,” she murmured, reaching a hand out to rest on his own.
Logan looked down at their hands, torn. Truly, he appreciated her support, but he didn’t deserve it. There was a certain amount of guilt he struggled under, and he didn’t think he would ever be free of it. Talking to Lisa would help.
They didn’t say anything else as they drove to the two-story cabin set in the woods. As soon as they pulled into the drive, Logan started seeing flashbacks in his mind of he and Miller playing around. There were snowmobile trails all through the area, and they had spent hours mapping them out and just playing. Military Intelligence was a brutal business and they relaxed just as hard as they worked.
Then Marigold was pulling into the circle of gravel in front of the familiar cabin and parking. She turned off the noisy diesel engine and turned to face him. “You can do this, Logan. I have faith in you.” She leaned across the seat and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I’ll be right here waiting for you. Take your time, okay? I have my tablet and stuff so I won’t be bored.”
Logan stared at her for a long moment, shocked at what had just come out of her mouth. When had anyone supported him that way before? Never. “Thank you, Mari. I don’t know how long it will take.”
He gave her another kiss before turning to open the door. The hinges creaked a little as he maneuvered the crutches out first, then his legs. Gathering himself he swung away from the car, pushing the car door shut behind him with the tip of the crutch, then he headed for the steps up to the porch. He’d made this same walk several times over the years, but this time was so very different. Trent Miller wasn’t bouncing beside him, anxious to show him his family home and share his family.
Anxiety churned, nauseating him, and Logan rethought coming here. Just for a split second. Then his resolve firmed. This needed to happen.
As if in answer to his thoughts, the front door opened and Lisa Miller stepped out onto the wooden boards. She wore a thick patterned wool sweater, jeans, and socks on her feet, but no shoes. Her dirty blond hair hung over her shoulders, looking longer than the last time he’d seen her. It had been at least a year and a half. Christmas before last they’d come back for two weeks.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
Logan blinked and jerked to a halt, wondering if he’d heard her correctly. “I’m, I, uh, wanted to talk to you about Trent.”
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say, Logan,” she said firmly, her face flushing. “I need you to leave.”
Shocked, he kind of stood there, searching his mind for options. This had been one of those possibilities, but it had been low on his list. “I just wanted to...”
“I don’t care what the fuck you wanted,” she yelled, stomping to the edge of the porch. “Did you actually think I’d welcome you here? After you killed my son?”