Page 49 of The Stone Family Warrior

“Where is that?” she asked.

“Marshall is standing in front of an old poster he used to have in his room,” Trent said, and he peered closer. “He always wanted to be a helicopter pilot for SOAR.” He inspected the collection of pictures as a whole. “It’s like all of these pictures are from the same year.”

Her heart beat rapidly. It felt like they were on the precipice of something. “That letter said to read your mom’s and dad’s journals to get to know them better.”

“Yes, it did.” Quickly, he spread the rest of the pictures out. “This one is of Brooks in front of the old movie theater in town with Mom and Dad.”

Liberty pointed to the poster in the background. “007. It must have been the latest Bond movie.”

“It was.” He sorted through the pictures until he found the one of him and Hunter again. “Our picture is the only picture that just has Dad in it.” He seemed to be concentrating. “I wonder why.”

She didn’t know if it meant something, but it was all so intriguing.

Trent put the photos in order from newest to oldest and stared at them. “How could Dad have put the pictures in the spine of his journal the year he would die?” He carefully snapped a picture of each photo, then tapped his phone. “I have to send these out on the group chat real quick. They’ll kill me if I don’t keep them updated.”

“Makes sense.” She stared at the pictures, trying to figure out what they had in common. Nothing really, as far as she could tell. Nothing that stood out. It did seem strange that their father would have put the pictures in the spine of his journal.

Once he’d sent them off, he rested his chin on her head and stared at the pictures. “It has to mean something.” Trent reached out and touched the pictures one by one. “Trey and BUD/S training.”

Just then, his phone buzzed with one text after another, startling Liberty. She hadn’t expected that they would respond so soon. The mystery of the treasure certainly meant a lot to them.

Trent grinned as he scanned his siblings’ messages. “Brooks says his career is the best. Kensi says her hair looks horrible. Marshall says his helicopter beats all of our backgrounds.”

She snorted, thinking about Marshall. “That’s funny.”

“Trey said he was the first SEAL and wanted to remind me and Hunter of that.”

Trey was a distant memory to her. She peered closer at all their vaguely familiar features. He and Kensi were older than Liberty, Hunter, and Trent, enough so that it felt like Liberty barely knew them.

“Hunter says it was evident then and now that he’s better-looking.” Trent rolled his eyes and put his phone away. “Whatever. We are going to have a family Zoom meeting tomorrow at eight a.m. sharp, Brooks has decreed. He likes to pretend he’s the boss of this op.”

Liberty noted the intense way he said “op.” It must be a SEAL thing. She’d have to ask him sometime. She turned her attention back to his picture. “How come your mother wasn’t with you that day?” she asked. Trent might be right: maybe the pictures meant something.

“Honestly, I don’t remember Mom ever coming with us to shoot. I remember Dad would always tell us she was a crack shot, but I don’t remember her shooting with us, even after …” His jaw had tightened. “Even after Dad passed away. When Trey would come home on leave, he’d take us out shooting …” He trailed off, shrugging. “I honestly don’t remember exactly when I learned to shoot. Seems like Dad was taking us since we could walk.”

She fully faced him and noted how intense he was. She smiled. “I hope this isn’t overstepping, but …”

“It’s not.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it. “You can’t overstep with me. I’m a way in-your-face type of person, and I like being treated the same way. Tell me.”

It was nerve-racking how easily the man had fallen into kissing her. She down looked at her hand.

“Focus up, Grey … or Hamilton.”

She laughed, choosing not to pick a fight with him and tell him how bossy he was. “Your dad clearly took time with each picture, even if there’s discrepancies in the fact that your mother wasn’t in the one with you and Hunter.” Her mind was processing all of this information. She pointed to Trey’s and Kensi’s pictures. “Even though they are twins, each of them has a separate picture. Why don’t you and Hunter have your own?”

His focus returned to the pictures. “Something to think about.”

“It does feel like if your father chose these pictures the year before he passed away, it might be linked to the treasure, right?”

He squinted and tapped his chin again. “It has to be. The letter said, ‘Read your mother’s and my journals.’” He jumped to his feet, and she followed suit. “We have to check all the spines.” He paused and turned back to her, gently kissing her cheek. “Thanks for doing this with me.”

“Of course.” She put a hand to her cheek. Kissing him was too easy. Too familiar. She needed to tell him she didn’t want him just kissing her like that all the time.

She watched as he carefully pulled all the journals from the display case and brought them back to the couch. He spread them out in an order that only made sense to him, and he proceeded to systematically pick each one up and peer into the spine before making a fast decision that there was nothing there.

Her excitement picked up again. It felt like old times when they would search for the treasure, but there was also something else between them. Something a lot deeper than they’d shared in old times.

He was amazingly good-looking. Every time he moved, muscles rippled, and he was not hard to watch. The focus he gave this project caught her off guard and reminded her that he was a SEAL. He was a grown man, not the kid or teen she used to know. There was something sexy about that too. Between meat eating and vowing to teach her to shoot a gun, he was very different than her husband. She grimaced at that. She hated comparing them at all.

---