Deploy, Part One (Rawlings #1)(68)
Declan had only been home for an hour at best, but Providence and Tobias had been digging up files in Bradyville for days. This fire kept bothering Providence. And it did so because when the family was asked to write down adversaries of Nolan, Brent Rose was one of them, and he was so because everyone knew Brent was protective of Murdock.
And the man died the same day Nolan was last seen. The fire department said they found no remains beyond Brent’s but admitted they were not looking for any others. The smoldering metal didn’t lose its heat for weeks, and by then the tragic event had been effectively investigated.
Declan would never tell Justice’s secret, that she didn’t come across the fire, that Murdock started it. But still, Providence was a smart man who had seen a lot of things in his life. He understood that the loss of Brent Rose was more of a gift.
The way he laid it out was like this. “Say your brother and him have a fight, he knocks him out, or worse, then goes to leave—faces off with your girl, but he ‘fell’ and then there was a fire. Everyone knew Brent was there, but your brother? Why would they look for him?”
Providence grinned calmly and made sure his knowing jade gaze moved over Murdock in a suspicious way. Declan had told Providence that Murdock had always made his instincts go wild, even as boys, and Providence, a man who relied on the same unexplainable senses, could easily agree.
There were too many demons in Murdock’s eyes for him not to be suspicious.
“To look for the package of course. It’s one of the only places we haven’t looked.” By package he meant Nolan, but Murdock’s civilian ears heard letters and he also saw his alibi going up in smoke.
If they placed Nolan and him across the same time and he was the only one still standing—not good. In his mind, he was running through all the ways this could go, what they could do without a body, without a truck. Not much, but this still f*cking sucked.
People were talking about Nolan now because of the Rally but in a bit he’d be a memory all over again. If they found anything...this would be new again.
“Letters? In a fire. You think you’re going to find something?”
“I always do,” Providence said with a slow grin that revealed pearly white teeth, and one dimple high on his right cheek. A smile that was drenched in a threat. “You’re Murdock, right? I was looking for you.”
“For what?” Murdock spat.
“I understand you had an altercation with Nolan before he vanished.”
Murdock shook his head, and licked his bottom lip then hitched his thumb toward Declan. “That’s the * I dealt with.”
Declan charged Murdock. In a flash Providence was between them, walking Declan back, saying something to him in that short and sharp way Chasen talked to all his boys when he needed them to cool it.
“What do you mean you fought with him?” Justice asked.
Murdock flipped off Declan, taunting the beast. He needed him to hit him. He needed a reason to stain this family before they sucked the sympathy out of this town.
Murdock dropped his gaze to Justice. “Yeah, I was pissed he was f*cking my girlfriend. Still am.” And with that he turned and walked away.
“Something is here, we’ll find it...” Providence said when he let Declan go.
Declan came right to Justice, pulled her to him, but there was no caress in his touch, just a claim. One that made Justice question what went down between him and Murdock. And why she didn’t know about it.
***
The August Providence came into their lives was a golden few days. It was full of hope, even if it was a dark hope. Beyond the almost fight Declan and Murdock had, there was no other tension, at least not until just before Declan left.
He was being deployed in a few weeks’ time. For six months, he’d be across the globe. She was afraid for him and he was worried about all he started at home.
When Declan kissed her goodbye at dawn and ran his hand down the warm flesh of her body that was draped in only a sheet, he didn’t say he loved her, he didn’t even really meet her eyes, and his smile was short, and forced.
Days later, he texted: I love you.
Her response was instant with the same. Another day went by without a word from him then he said it once more, in the same text that said he was leaving, he wouldn’t be able to talk for awhile.
Getting through the next two semesters of school was not easy on her, it was hard to focus, to care. Dawson kept her straight for the most part. They only had one class together, but since she was two years ahead of Justice, she knew most of the professors and advisors well enough to get any heat off of Justice.
What made it all worse was she had no good news to give Declan about Nolan when she did get a chance to speak to him. Her property had been cleared, and there was nothing. Not a trace of a letter, and thank God there were no remains either.
Deep into the next year, when his six-month mission ended up stretching to ten, almost eleven, she was there when he came home. She’d flown to see him come in, her first plane ride ever. Boon went with her. The pair of them were there to represent the entire family until they all had a chance to see Declan in a few months.
She was supposed to stay a week with him, but at the end of the week and the weeks that followed, he asked her to stay longer—sometimes at the terminal gate—and she said yes. For nearly two months she was in heaven with him, it felt like their forever.