Page 92 of The Archer Brothers

Cara smiles as she faces forward and starts moving with the flow of traffic. It dawns on me that her car wasn’t in park and we just made out in the middle of a traffic jam on the highway. I’m back to staring at her because I can’t get enough of her. After one kiss, I already want more.

Maybe I never stopped wanting more.

“Stop staring,” she says with a hint of laughter in her voice.

“I can’t help it,” I tell her honestly. “You’re still the most beautiful girl in the world to me. I don’t think that will ever change.”

She looks at me briefly before turning back to the road.

“Do you have any regrets?” she asks causing me to turn away. I’m a man with many regrets, but they don’t define me. I know I have to tell her the truth.

“I regret letting you leave, Cara,” I respond without hesitation. After that, words fail me. I want to ask her to stay here, to test us out and see if we have a future, but that would be unfair to her.

Cara looks off into the distance, avoiding eye contact. Her hands fidget, moving over the steering wheel. “You and Ryley –” I stop her before she can continue. I need to take a page out of Evan’s book and play dirty here.

“Cara, what Ryley and I had was different from what I shared with you. Ryley was there when everything happened and EJ was my link to Evan. I planned to marry her because I felt it gave her and EJ what they were missing. I love her, but not like I love you. Seeing you the other day, every letter we wrote, every kiss we shared, it was like it was yesterday. I want that again, if you do. I want the chance to show you that we’re not a mistake that we’re meant to be together. I want to continue what we started and create the kind of life we talked about having.”

“I want that too,” she says as she looks at me quickly. With those four words I know I’m on the path to my future.

Cara sits while I pace. Never in my life did I expect to find myself in the NCIS office. As a sailor, it’s a place that you never want to visit. If you’re here it’s because you either saw something, or did something. I’ve worked my ass off to always do right by the code in which I live. Except I feel like I’ve failed my brother. I should’ve known that he was alive, but I masked those feelings with EJ. I used my son…nephew… to fill in the gap that wasn’t missing, but broken. I trusted the code that I live by to be truthful and it failed me.

The door opens and Cara stands up. She’s dressed just like you’d see on a television crime show: Black slacks, white button down shirt with a glock resting on her hip. I have no doubt she could kick my ass, but I’d let her win anyway just so she’d have to nurse me back to health.

I step back, realizing that I’m having thoughts of the two of us in compromising situations when I’m not sure I should be. I tried to fight to keep Ryley, but in the end she let me go. I should feel comfortable moving on and maybe I am, but I’m afraid of what might happen if Cara rejects me. Kissing is one thing, but a commitment is another.

“I’m Special Agent Jeffrey Blaine, please call me Blaine.”

“I’m SA Cara Hughes with the FBI and this is Senior Chief Petty Officer Nate Archer,” she says shaking his hand. I do the same and stand to the side of her. “Thank you for seeing us in Commander Clarke’s absence, she’s not mobile at the moment.”

“No problem,” he says, motioning for us to follow him. “I have to tell you that I really shouldn’t be talking with you, but Carole asked me to do her this favor.” He sits down at a table and we sit opposite him. On the table there are multiple folders and four of them have my brother’s team members’ pictures, including his. “I’ve known Carole for a long time and we’ve worked together before, but never have I been handed a smoking gun like that Blackberry.”

Blaine slides one of the folders toward himself and opens it. “As you can see we started a file, one for each of the SEAL Team 3 members who had gone to Cuba. Through our investigation and with the help of the cell phone, we’ve uncovered a high powered cover-up.”

“High powered?” I ask.

Blaine chuckles and shows me a picture. “Do you know who this man is?” I nod, knowing full well that it’s Commander Ingram. “What about this man?” I shake my head, but Cara speaks up.

“That’s Lawson. I’ve been following him for about a year. He’s involved in child pedophilia, but I haven’t been able to nail him on it yet. When he showed up here I dug a little more, but everything was cold until Evan told me Ingram is Lawson’s father.”

“But what do they have to do with the Blackberry?” I ask as I become more confused.

“I know this is a sensitive matter and that your family has been through a lot. I wish we had this case years ago, but we understand why we didn’t. This is a folder of all the emails that we retrieved from the phone. I’m going to give you both a few minutes to look them over. We’ll be making an arrest in the morning. Carole has asked that you inform your brother of what’s going on so he knows about the parties involved.” Blaine pushes the manila folder to the middle of the table and stands. Before he leaves the room he says, “Hughes, you were right to suspect Lawson. He admits to kidnapping Abigail Chesley, the same child SEAL Team 3 went to Cuba for.”

I jump when the door slams, but Cara doesn’t as she digs right into the folder. I’m either in shock or completely stunned at what Blaine said before he left. My brother’s life was ruined because a Senator had a child kidnapped, but why?

“Why what?” Cara asks as she flips through the mound of emails.

“Huh?”

“You asked why?” Apparently I was speaking out loud and didn’t realize it.

“I don’t know,” I say. “I think it was just a reaction to what I heard.”

“Hmm… look at this. Lawson was having an affair with Vice President Charlotte, but why would he kidnap her daughter?” Her brows furrow as she reads over the emails. I take a stack and start looking through them. None of the names I see mean anything to me and the email addresses are just gibberish.

“Oh god,” Cara slumps back in her chair. “Blaine must’ve told Carole what he found and that’s why she wants you to tell Evan.” Cara hands me a piece of paper, it’s written correspondence that tells us exactly who’s involved. I read and then reread the names, words and actions of people we trusted and can hardly believe the words I’m seeing on the page. Names I recognize... of people I know…of people Itrusted. My stomach turns at the thought of everything my brother has lost at the hands of a friend.

“I need to go see him.”

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