Page 16 of Strangers in Love

The problem wasn’t even that I didn’t want to do it. The problem was that I had no idea what I should do. One of the reasons joining the army had been so appealing when Leo had first mentioned it was because I’d had no idea what I’d wanted to do with my life. Most of my siblings had always known what they’d wanted to do, at least in a general sense, by the time they’d been in high school. I hadn’t figured it out until I started basic training, and then it’d just clicked.

I couldn’t go back to it, though. Not after what’d happened. Maybe that made me a coward, but I figured it was better to be a coward and stay away than to pretend to be brave and end up getting someone else killed because I couldn’t handle it.

I needed to start figuring out what I could do now. The skills I’d learned in the army weren’t all ones I could use in everyday civilian life, but there were some that could be an advantage in non-military jobs. I’d been closer to Leo than anyone else I’d met in the army, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have any friends who’d made the transition from military life to something more ‘normal.’ I decided I’d sit down tonight and make a list of people to talk to.

First, though, was dinner with Mom and Da. The first couple weeks I’d been back, I’d hidden out in my room, only coming down to get something to eat when I thought no one else would be up. At the end of the second week, though, Da had come up to see me and told me, in no uncertain terms, that if I was in the house during dinnertime, I was expected to be at the table, the same as it had been when I was a kid. Back then, I probably would’ve come up with some smart-ass response, but I didn’t disrespect my parents anymore. So, since I never really went anywhere, I started having family dinner again.

I dressed in the first clothes I pulled out of my dresser since most of what I had all looked the same, then ran a comb through my hair so Mom wouldn’t follow through on her threat to shave my head in my sleep. She said she didn’t mind if it wasn’t short or styled, but she wouldn’t let me go for days with it looking like Edward Scissorhands. Her words, not mine.

When I got to the kitchen, though, neither of my parents were there. The lasagna Mom had made was in the oven, and it still had a few minutes left on the timer, but it was still strange that Mom wasn’t in here doing other things. I considered setting the table, which was what I’d intended to do when I’d come down, but something in my gut made me think that I should find my parents.

After listening for a moment, I heard voices coming from Da’s study, the tension clear in his tone even if I couldn’t hear the words. My subconscious had probably picked up on it already, which was why I’d thought I needed to find them.

The door was half-open when I got there, but I knocked anyway. A moment later, Mom opened the door, and I noticed two things right away. One, her face was pale. Not white pale, but gray pale, like something had drained the life out of her. And two, she was shaking.

Mom had always been slender, delicate looking, but she was still the strongest woman I’d ever known. She’d married her high school sweetheart not long after she’d graduated and then lost him only a decade later, leaving her a single mother to four kids – my step-siblings, Austin, Rome, Paris, and Aspen – and the majority shareholder in her late husband’s tech business.

Right now, though, she looked like she was going to pass out.

That thought got me moving, and I put my arm around her, holding her upright as I walked her over to a chair. Helping her kept me from giving in to the near panic in my stomach, my sudden certainty that something had gone really wrong.

Only after Mom was sitting did I look at Da. He was still on the phone, a far-off look in his eyes, the sort of look that came when people were trying to see something that wasn’t actually in front of them. I stayed standing, watching him, but didn’t interrupt. Whatever he was hearing had to be important. Otherwise, he wouldn’t still have been on the phone.

“Let us know as soon as you hear anythin’, son,” he said quietly.

He’d lived in America for more than two decades, and that had been enough to soften his accent, but it came back whenever he went back to his homeland or talked to someone from there…or when he was stressed.

He put the phone down in front of him but didn’t look at us right away. Before I felt like I needed to say something, Da let out a sigh and rubbed his hand over his face. Just like that, he was back with us, but he didn’t really look any better for it. In fact, for the first time in my life, I thought of my father as old.

“That was Alec,” Da said. “Keli took Evanne.”

I usually liked when Da didn’t sugarcoat shit, but right now, I couldn’t make sense of those two simple sentences. Six words, and I had no idea what they meant. Because they couldn’t mean that my brother had called to say that his ex-girlfriend, Keli, had taken their daughter Evanne without his permission. Because that wouldn’t make any sense.

A couple months ago, after having primary custody for eight years, Keli had left Evanne with Alec and run off to Italy with a guy. She’d come back after an active shooter scare at Evanne’s school, and if how she’d been with Alec here those couple days were any indication, she’d been trying to worm her way back into Alec and Evanne’s lives.

Which was why I couldn’t figure out what Da was saying.

Mom must not have known anything more than I did because Da looked at her when he kept going. He’d gotten himself back under control enough that his voice was back to normal.

“Keli was supposed to drop Evanne off at school this morning, but when Alec went to the school to pick Evanne up, her teacher told him that Keli had called in to say that Evanne was sick. Keli sent Alec a text saying that she wasn’t going to let him take Evanne away from her.”

I clenched my jaw so tight that my teeth actually hurt.

“He tried calling Keli, but she wouldn’t answer,” Da continued. “He went to the police, but because of the way the custody papers had been written, there wasn’t really anything they could officially do.”

“Bullshit,” I ground out.

It said something about how upset Mom was that she didn’t say anything about me cursing.

“The policewoman he talked to said she’d tell her people to be on the lookout and that he should look into using his resources to find Keli and Evanne.” Da leaned back in his chair. “He said he’ll call us as soon as he has a plan or hears something.”

I shook my head. I wasn’t going to sit here and wait. The cops had said to use resources, and I was one of those resources. I wasn’t a detective or private investigator, but I knew someone I could call on the flight to Seattle. He’d be able to point me in the right direction.

Once I had a direction, I could use the one tool I had that couldn’t be taught. I’d scare the shit out of anyone I needed to, do whatever I needed to, to get my niece back.

Thirteen

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