Page 9 of Sean

“What? I’m so sorry, sweetie,” Helen texted.

“Wilson is a shit,” Sophie added. “How are you holding up, Julia?”

“Okay. Better for having support. Sean’s been great.” Next to her in the front seat he was fielding rapid-fire questions. They were probably well past twenty at this point.

“Ethan has a lot of respect for him,” Helen wrote. “That means something.”

“The same is true of Owen,” Sophie agreed.

Julia was seeing for herself that the other SEALs’ trust in Sean was warranted. “He’s moving us to a safer location. I’m not sure where yet. I just want this to be over.”

“We all do,” Sophie texted. “I have some potentially good news. Owen and I are closing in on one of Wilson’s associates—the guy who doctored that video Wilson had Mason show Helen.”

“Sam95?” Julia asked, remembering the information they’d been able to gather on this guy so far.

“Right. If we can get our hands on SAM95’s original files, I’ll bet we can bust criminal activity all over this city.” Julia felt a burst of worry for her friend. Sophie loved her job as an investigative reporter, but she was always wading into dangerous situations.

“That’s great,” Julia typed, “but you need to be careful. People aren’t going to like having their secrets exposed.”

“That’s their problem.” Sophie’s tough-girl persona was firmly in place.

Julia promised to send them updates in the morning, before wishing them both a good night. Feeling better, she joined in the game with the kids. After another half hour, the kids started losing steam. It wasn’t long until they’d both dropped off to sleep.

“Past their bedtimes,” Julia said in a low voice to Sean. He took another turn, working his way through a series of back roads. She had no idea where they were, but he seemed to have some sort of internal compass to guide them to their destination—one that he had yet to reveal to her. She sat in silence for a few minutes and then couldn’t take the not knowing any longer. “Where are we going?”

There was a slight hesitation before he spoke. “My family owns a horse ranch out in the center of the state. They raise thoroughbreds and board horses. It’s a good-sized operation with four or five full-time employees. More importantly, it’s a secure location with lots of responsible adults around.”

“So your parents live there?” she asked. She’d been surprised that there were no family photos in his home. Most people had at least a few.

“My entire family does.” He seemed uncomfortable admitting that. “My parents, my sisters, Tara and Emmy, and Tara’s three daughters. Her husband is in the army and she’s a horse trainer, so living at the farm works for her.”

“What about Emmy?”

He hesitated before answering. “She was at art school until…until she dropped out and went home. I don’t know what she’s doing now.”

Julia suspected that there was a whole lot more to the story, but Sean seemed so reluctant to talk about his family that she let it slide. Besides, she’d meet them all herself by morning. She had one question that had to be addressed, however.

“What will you tell them about me? I doubt if they’d be okay with harboring a suspected kidnapper.”

“We’re going to tell them part of the truth,” he said as if he’d already thought this through. “You’re running from a dangerous man that you lived with. Nothing false in that statement, and it gives them plausible deniability if something goes wrong.”

“That’ll work. I wouldn’t want your family to get in trouble over me.”

“They wouldn’t mind.” His tone had taken on a brusque quality. She wondered about his relationship with them all. He’d claimed to never see his nieces, but he was seeking help from his family for her, and he didn’t seem to doubt that they’d be welcomed. The situation seemed like it had many complicated layers, like a mixed composition in which she had to decide where to focus her camera lens.

“The kids are good travelers,” he commented while she was still mentally rearranging what she knew of the dynamics of his family in her head.

“They are. They enjoy games, and I prefer that to them staring at a screen.”

“That’s all I see when I pass families on the roads—kids watching a phone or tablet and not looking around.”

“They miss so much. I’m glad I grew up the old-fashioned way. My mom traveled for her work, so we were always going to different places when I was a kid.” Maybe talking about her family would make him feel at ease with bringing up his. “Mira and I learned to entertain ourselves in the car, and a lot of that was playing games and making up stories. I think the longest drive was this one time when we went cross-country, from northern California to Florida. It was like 2,500 miles. Some of it scenic, some not.” She stopped herself. Maybe he didn’t want to hear all this ancient history. “Sorry, I tend to babble when I’m tired.”

“Happy to listen. Helps keep me sharp for driving. Where did you go after Florida?”

“Oh, geez. Let me think.” She paused, her mind going back. “North Carolina was next, and then we worked our way up the coast. I remember being in Portland, Maine, at Christmastime that year. It was beautiful. My sister and I got to ice skate and sled. That was a treat.” She laughed. “I must have crisscrossed the country a dozen times before I graduated from high school.”

“Did you like that way of growing up?”

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