Page 60 of Reaper Released

“Okay, let me start from the beginning then. I was a Navy SEAL, me, my buddies, Cade and Sebastian, we were in our twenties. We did a mission combining our unit with the British SAS, and that’s when we met Daniel, Ray's dad, Steven, and John. The six of us hit it off. We became brothers and remained really close. Sebastian and his wife Julie had a kid, a boy named Daniel-Cade Miller. He would have been about six-ish when Ray’s mum finally became pregnant with her and her brother Bas.

“Daniel had decided he wanted to retire and start his own business before having kids. We’d been talking about it for years, putting money away, so we had already set retirement in motion. That was when the Adventure Centre started. We all talked about it and decided we would all join forces and create something from all our training. We were getting ready to open, just doing the finishing touches, when Marie and I found out we were pregnant with Bran. It was perfect; the Adventure Centre was ready. Sebastian was supposed to come with us but decided he needed some more money to set him up, so he took another tour before retiring. Anyway, partway through his tour, something happened. We still don’t know what. Most of the files are redacted, and we can’t get a straight answer.

“So anyway, he got sent home early, medically discharged. He was injured while on tour, but not severely, according to the information we managed to acquire. It didn’t make much sense! After he got home, Julie called us and said he was totally different. Something was wrong with Sebastian. She said his behaviour was irrational, erratic and almost like he had PTSD. We told her to take Daniel-Cade to a hotel and stay there till we got there. The Adventure Centre wasn’t quite open yet, and Marie and Ray’s mum weren’t ready to have the kids for months yet, so we headed to the States.

“When we got to the hotel, Julie never checked in. We headed to their house, and it was already a crime scene. According to the police, some other woman had turned up at the house as Julie was ready to leave, saying she was pregnant with Sebastian’s baby but didn’t know he was married until he came back from tour and was behaving weirdly. After talking it all out, they decided to confront Sebastian together.

“Daniel-Cade was in his room, and when Sebastian came home, it all went to shit. He had some kind of episode and attacked Julie and the other woman. We never did find out her name. The neighbours heard the shouting and called the police. By the time the police got there, all hell had broke loose. Sebastian had Julie by the throat with a gun to her head on the porch, and the other woman was holding Daniel-Cade behind her in the front garden, begging Sebastian to let Julie go, but he wanted to swap Julie for Daniel-Cade. He couldn’t bear to be parted from his son.

“They think a policeman got too close, and Sebastian freaked, shot Julie, then shot himself. The woman was taken into protective custody with Daniel-Cade until everything was sorted. When we arrived, they wouldn’t tell us anything. We contacted CPS, but they wouldn’t give us any information because we weren't technically family.

“After three weeks of contacting every military contact we had, we found out that the woman had taken custody of Daniel-Cade as she was the closest thing to a family the state could find, which is bullshit. We were his family. He knew us. He didn’t know her from fucking Adam. Anyway, she was carrying his half-sibling. Because of the nature of the case, a judge signed off on it and also allowed her to change his name and seal his records. We’ve been unable to find him even with all our contacts we tried for years. After a few years of no new leads, we decided that every year, we would try another PI and pay them for a month to see if they could uncover anything else. It was like he just vanished.

“We still don’t have any information. We don’t even know if the other woman had a boy, a girl, or even who she is.”

“So is this what you need me for, to try and locate this kid who will be what… thirty-ish now?” Dice asks, puzzled.

“Well, not exactly. See, we know who the judge is who sorted this all out, but we’ve been unable to crack him over the years. Anyway, the other day, he contacted our security firm. He has no idea it’s me, but he needs a security detail for a charity event. It’s high profile, and he has a lot of enemies. The event is in nearly five weeks.”

“Okay, so why do you need me and Dice?”

“I thought if he had a male security guard, he would leave them standing outside doors, keep them away from his laptop, maybe. But as a girl, we could pass you off as an escort. He would be more likely to write you off as less of a threat and let you into his office so you can snoop around.”

“So where do I come in? You want me to be the security too?”

“No, I was hoping you would have a device or something that Ray could plug into his laptop or something to take control or download or something, I don’t know. I’ve not really figured it out yet, but if we can find Daniel-Cade, we can bring him home. He was meant to grow up with us, to be with us, and this is the newest way we've had in years!”

After brainstorming for the majority of the night, we come up with a plan. Dice is gonna create a device that will download the contents of the laptop but also plant a virus that will give him access to the servers that hold the information so we can break in that way, too. It should give us access to things that aren’t on the laptop. I’m gonna be the pretty little distraction. That way, I can turn up at his office and poke around a little before heading to the event as his chambers will be locked down, and it will be difficult to even get into the building normally, but under the guise of taking him to the event, we can waltz right through the front fucking doors.

As we leave Pa Bernie’s, Dice turns to me. “Fuck, that shit’s bad! I mean, I hope someone would have fought this hard for me.”

“Yeah, we grew up hearing about Pa Sebastian. That's where my brother got his name from, we called him Bas, but his full name was Sebastian, and obviously, his son was Daniel after my dad and Cade after my pa. I wonder if he had a brother or a sister, and I hope he was happy growing up. I know my dad and my pa split the business, so Pa Sebastian’s portion has been going into a separate bank account all these years.”

“Fuck, that’s gotta be worth a fair bit.”

I shrug. “I would think so, that place is a gold mine, and we have other businesses, too. I know it gets split six ways. I now get my dad’s portion.”

“Anyway, before we can figure all this out, we need to get you married. Only a few more days. How're those feet doing?”

“Feet?”

“Yeah, are they getting cold?” He grins.

“Nope, my feet are toasty, Dice. I’ve never been happier, and it’s nearly a week!”

“BLURGH!” He spits out, making puking noises. “You broke Steel, you know that, don’t you?”

“What the fuck do you mean, I broke him?”

“He was tough, stabby, and non-smiling, and now look at him. He smiles, laughs, jokes, and is all mushy!”

“Dice, I hate to break it to you, but in that case, I’ve broken you, Viking, Tank, Blade and Priest too. Tank only spoke in grunts and now makes full conversations. Viking is fucking Carmen, so maybe his behaviour is down to Carmen, but you’ve all mellowed and are influenced by my magnetic personality!”

He barks out a laugh. “Yeah, right!”

“Ah, Dice, that laugh just proves my point!”

“Dammit!” It's now my turn to laugh at him.

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