Page 56 of The Doctor

BONUS EPILOGUE

DOM

ELEVEN YEARS LATER

It was just about lunchtime when my phone rang. Owen and I were sitting on the grass outside Garnison Military Hospital in Chad. I showed him who was on the screen and he shook his head, indicating he had no intention of talking to Shiloh.

No one from back home knew he was in the hospital. Well, Aidan and Jason knew. None of the girls did and neither did his dad. Though, I had to believe his dad would find out by the end of the day. Aidan was on his way to Marina De Ferrier with his platoon commander to deliver the news that Holden Waite, Owen’s brother, was missing in action.

I wasn’t sure of the reason Owen wouldn’t tell anyone. It wasn’t like he was badly injured or anything. A broken arm that would take a few more weeks to heal and a few bruises wasn't anything serious. Instead of dwelling on his stupid reasoning, I accepted the video call and answered my friend.

“Hey, Shy.” Her smile lit up my screen and I wondered what she had going on. “Everything okay over there?”

She nodded. “Yip, I closed a case. We got the guys behind all the break-ins and I made an arrest this morning.”

“That is so cool.” At twenty-eight, Shiloh Bauman was the youngest female detective in the Marina De Ferrier PoliceDepartment. She gave up on her dream to be a profiler when she fell pregnant with her little girl in her freshman year at college. “I hear you guys are doing a sleepover for Maggie and then Pancake Club tomorrow.”

Off screen I heard someone call. “What if that was meant to be a surprise?” Maggie’s voice was low but it still carried.

“Oh, please.” I rolled my eyes. “It's MDF. Nothing stays secret. I even know that Jason will be gatecrashing. Along with Ryder and the douche… I mean Skylar’s boyfriend.”

“What? who?” She looked perplexed for a moment.

“Skylar’s boyfriend. Hilton something or the other.”

She looked confused for a moment. “Yeah. Sky mentioned Jason was bringing people.”

“Where are the munchkins?”

“They’re all here.” Maggie’s face came into view. “You don’t get to talk to them until you tell us what is going on.”

Besides Shy’s little girl, Maggie also had two kids from her ex-husband. I was about to complain when it registered what she said. “What makes you think something is going on?”

Shy shook her head. “That’s how you want to play it?”

“Why don’t you tell me what you think is happening and I can confirm or deny.” That seemed reasonable. It was also a crock of shit since I never kept things from any of them.

Maggie and Shiloh looked at each other then back at the screen.

It was Shiloh who spoke “So, earlier Aidan drove into town with some other dude in uniform. I didn’t see who it was but rumors abound that it was someone official. People are saying they came to deliver the news that something happened to Holden. I mean, if it was someone from the Army then it would be Owen, right?”

“It had to be something big, though.” Maggie’s curly hair took over most of my phone screen. “When dropped off a deliveryearlier, Holden’s dad was at the Salinger offices with Jared and Nick. How can I find out what happened? Do you think you can find out where Owen is and maybe he can tell you something?”

I glared at Owen who was sitting just off screen. “Calm down, Maggie. For all you know, they just need Salinger Security’s help with something.”

Actually, I knew that was the case. Aidan hadn’t joked when he said his commander knew Aidan had the connections the rest of the navy didn’t. Salinger Security was the best there was and if they were on the case, Holden would be found soon.

Shiloh frowned and tilted her head. “Maybe it had something to do with the prince going missing.”

“What?” No one was supposed to know about that. Even Owen sat up but remained off screen. I glared at the two women. “What are you talking about?”

Shiloh sighed. “It was on the news this morning. Prince Alexander was on a secret mission but neither him nor his team had been heard from in weeks.”

I knew about that. So did Owen and Aidan. Holden had been on that search op when he’d gone missing. We all came from a family that had pretty high security clearance and even when they didn’t, they still had the means to find out things.

Some things didn’t change. Salinger Security had grown in the last decade or so. My friends were still tight, even though many of us were scattered around the country and some of us were even out of the country. Not all of us were living our dream and many of us had hiccups along the way.

Still, we could all go home. The girls did pancake club for each other on their birthdays and whenever any of us guys were in town, we’d crash it. We were ten friends the night of the Sadie Hawkins dance. Ten friends who had so much to look forward to.

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