by Violet Duke
Lia winced. She really had thought she was doing the right thing for the Spencers. “I didn’t want you to feel obligated to take care of me.”
“We thought you were trying to drop hints—of the giant fireball variety—that you didn’t want us to adopt you.”
“Honestly, I would’ve if it would’ve helped you with finances…but no, that wasn’t what I was trying to do. Because…” She took a deep breath. One of the bravest breaths she’d ever had to take. “I’ve always wanted you to adopt me. Always. Even before I’d started talking again, and probably even before I’d fully gotten over my parents’ death.” A single wayward tear slid down her cheek. “Every single one of my ‘first-star-of-the-night’ wishes throughout high school used to be that one day, you’d ask me to be a Spencer. For real. Forever.”
At Grace’s stunned look, Lia quickly shot her hand out. “But it’s okay. I get it now. And now I’ll always know that—”
“Jack!” Grace called out, in what sounded like alarm…but also, not.
“I’m on it!” he called back from the next room.
On what?
And when had he left the dining room?
“Sweetie, we had the adoption papers drawn up a month after you moved in with us and to this day, I have never ripped them up.” Grace gave her a fierce mama bear look. “I think in my heart, I always knew. Always believed.”
“I got his voicemail; trying his home phone next,” hollered Jack. “The old guy better not be asleep already.”
In wonder, Lia watched her foster dad pace back and forth. “Who is he calling?” She’d never seen him so on edge.
“Jack can get our lawyers to draw up the papers again in a snap. He’s probably trying to get them delivered here tonight.”
“What? No.” Lia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You guys can’t adopt me now. I’m twenty-seven years old.”
“I wouldn’t care if you were fifty years old, young lady,” asserted Jack as he popped his head back in. “As far as I’m concerned, you’ve been our daughter since the minute Caine brought you to us and we’re damn well going to have the papers that make it official.”
She looked around to see her whole family grinning at her.
This couldn’t possibly be happening.
Then she turned to see Hudson gazing at her with such quiet, but deafeningly irrepressible alpha male happiness and suddenly, the reality of the situation hit her square in the heart.
Her ‘first-star-of-the-night’ wish was actually, finally coming true.
And the man she was quickly starting to see as the man of her dreams was holding her hand throughout it all.
CHAPTER TEN
THE NEXT MORNING, Hudson cracked his eyelids open to find post-dawn sunlight filtering through Lia’s apartment blinds.
He’d actually slept in late. For the first time in…he couldn’t recall when.
Feeling the warm, sexy body beside him in the bed, he remembered why he was only just now waking up. They’d been at it till nearly dawn, pushing the boundaries of second base in every unique way he’d been able to come up with.
In fact, the only reason he wasn’t still asleep was because his phone was ringing away.
With a yawn, he leaned over to grab his phone, careful not to wake Lia.
“H’lo?”
“Reyes? It’s Clint. Is now a good time?”
His former commanding officer’s voice always like a cracked whip.
And Hudson fell back to old habits at the same speed. “Yes, sir.”
“Good call on forwarding that info to us a few weeks ago. Turns out your informant’s intel was dead-on. We’ve found remains from Private Lawson’s missing unit.”
Clint’s words echoed in Hudson’s ears, his brain bouncing them back out as if unable to process them. But then he looked over and saw Lia pause and look at him in concern. Sweet, beautiful Lia tilting her head, silently asking if he was okay.
That’s all it took for his brain to start functioning again, for his gut to twist into knots, and for hope to build for her, despite everything. Because this was Lia’s past and future they were talking about here. Everything she’d lost, everything the universe had taken from her.
Now possibly found.
But he’d be lying to himself if he didn’t acknowledge that his heart was in his throat. Because now he was possibly going to lose everything, have everything he was starting to be unable to live without, get ripped from him in the process.
A win-lose situation.
Damn, the universe had a sick and twisted sense of entertainment.
“Reyes. You hearing me, man?”
He blinked and shook himself back to the phone conversation. “Sorry, sir. Negative. Please repeat.”
Distance. That’s what he needed. The soldier in him stepped up to claim that distance when the man in him faltered as he looked down and saw Lia’s hand gripping his.
Clint’s voice faded for a bit just as all the busy noise coming through with radio echo on the sat-phone muted away. “That better? Can you hear me now?”
Hudson reached for her with the hand that could feel. “Affirmative, sir. What did you find?”
“The intel your informant provided led us to triangulate our search down to four possible mountainous locations in the western region of Ghazni. He was right. The searches done for Private Lawson and the other four MIA soldiers and servicemen were nowhere near these sites.”
“Lieutenant,” interrupted Hudson, clearing his throat with loaded meaning, “I’m here with Lia, Private Lawson’s wife. If anything you’re about to tell me is classified, please advise.”
There was a brief pause on the other end. “Understood. Back to the intel. This kid you got in contact with us, Drew Lawson, what he managed to cull from his years of data finding is nothing short of amazing. He has records of local hospital reports, analyzed photos of the area, underground reportings, coded messages from local informants, and translated correspondences between individuals in the area that I don’t even want to know how he obtained.”
Hudson quietly repeated the highlights for Lia when Clint muffled out for a moment to talk to another officer. Lia whispered back the first thought in her mind.
“Lieutenant? Lia would like to know if you’ve contacted Private Lawson’s brother, Drew, about all this yet. She wants to be sure that after all his hard work, he’s also notified of these developments asap.”
At that, Clint barked out a laugh.
The absolute rarity of the sound made Hudson glance down at his phone to check the number one more time.
“No, please inform Lia that I did not contact the kid because he contacted me. These hackers on their computers nowadays, I tell you. My cell phone number is pretty brand new, too.”
Lia clearly overheard at least part of that through the receiver as she rolled her eyes immediately after and mouthed, “I’m sorry!”
Hudson smiled and summarized more of what Clint was relaying. “The guys are pretty sure that Drew has hacked into the JPAC—Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command—recovery team’s correspondence somehow. But apparently, he played the whole thing smart. Gave them intel that he obtained legally first. When they started finding evidence, they offered him immunity for the rest, which they do for their anonymous informants.” Hudson listened some more and shook his head in admiration. “Smart kid. Apparently, there were a few things Drew has done that they weren’t able to turn a blind eye to but he was already lawyered up with a ball-busting attorney who has—and I quote—’made their own lawyer her bitch’. End quote.”
His smile faded to seriousness when he listened to the rest of the findings. “The recovery team was granted entrance for a full sweep of the area and Clint took a few of his men to accompany the team as a part of the agreement,” Hudson paraphrased quickly. “Bad news is that each of the locations were hundreds of miles apart from each other.”
At her questioning look, he explained, “They’re worried that the scope of
their search isn’t big enough given what they’ve already found. A recovery site of this magnitude increases not just the possibility of more scattered remains but also more possible scenarios involving any survivors.”
Lia paled slightly, but nodded in understanding.
“Reyes? I think you should hear the rest of this first and then tell Lia what she needs to know afterward.”
“Understood.” He gestured to Lia that he needed a pen and paper to jot notes down. “Go ahead. She’s out of earshot.” His inner soldier faded back. It was just him at the helm again, the man who would do anything to protect Lia. “Tell me everything.”
“As I mentioned earlier, remains were found in four sites. Two bodies were found at the northern most point, and according to initial assessment of the forensic anthropologist with the JPAC team, those deaths appear to a direct or eventual result of the crash itself. There were dog tags with those two, and though they need to do DNA testing to confirm, the current status is that Private Lawson was not among those identified at that site. Next, the body found on the southernmost site was actually found with no tags or clothing. The team determined that the body was a Caucasian male in the right age range for one of our soldiers, but definitely older than Private Lawson. He had at minimum, three GSWs and additional indications of an intense struggle. Those remains need to go to a base lab for more analysis.”
Hudson didn’t really need the pen and paper Lia returned with to remember the details but he jotted notes down anyway, being careful not to be too graphic about the third body found. Lia was sitting across from him, seemingly lost in thought and it tore at him to know what must be going on in her head.
“And this is where it gets murky, Reyes,” continued Clint over the phone. “At the third site, they found parachute and military uniform remnants. Since this was eight years ago, the physical site didn’t offer any more conclusive insight as to what happened to the soldier, but given the timeline of hostile activity in the area at the time, according to both our intel and Drew’s, we might be looking at possible capture.”
Shit. A worst case scenario, for sure. He kept his reaction silent.
“So what about at the last site?” he queried next, writing nothing but question marks on the paper regarding the third site finding.
“That one, the team was lucky enough to find evidence that suggests a local may have intervened and provided aid to the soldier. Strips of fabric commonly worn by the local women were found near the military artifacts recovered. And among the things dug up was a large metal panel that the team has ID’d as part of a U.S. military aircraft.” Clint paused and Hudson braced himself for what was coming next.
“Not only are we looking at a possible survivor here, but there’s also a brief note scratched into the metal paneling. By a pocket knife or some other sharp metal object. It wasn’t very long but it was clearly written to a loved one. And…well, it was initialed with a letter L.”
Hudson took a moment, then asked the first thing that came to mind, “Where are the remains going to be sent? Delaware or Hawai‘i?”
“That was the team’s call but the anthropologist believes they’ll be able to extract DNA from the marrow, so they’re sending everything to Dover for processing.”
“Is the metal panel going there also?” If it went straight to a non-biological lab, he wasn’t sure he could get Lia clearance. But he knew at least a half dozen military families who’d been allowed to meet their loved ones’ remains in Dover.
“Sorry, man. That one’s going to non-biological forensics. I can find out which base lab, but I’m almost positive we can’t get your woman clearance until afterward.”
His woman.
For a moment, that was all Hudson could focus on.
On Lia being his.
But he came crashing back to reality shortly after with Clint’s ill-timed, “If the note does end up being from her husband, then she’d of course get access.”
Right.
Her husband. Possibly alive.
Hudson looked up and saw that Lia was no longer in the living room. He watched as she stood silently in the kitchen, gripping the counter with one hand, fiddling with her necklace with the other.
“Say, Clint.” His voice was a rusty rumble as he pushed out his suggestion, “Remember that time they needed us to ID some personal effects of Specialist Thompson?”
“Yeah. Weird case. They had us do it over the internet, didn’t they? It was us and—” Clint’s tone took on a new level of respect. “Shit. Good idea, man. I’ll make the suggestion for a video forensics analysis and a video conference call. According to the detailed reports Drew provided in the last hour, it looks like the note on the panel could have been written to Lia or one other surviving wife from the men missing.
So there was a fifty-fifty chance.
The sound of increased activity over the phone line put a pin in that math equation from hell. “Look, Clint, I really appreciate all you’re doing with this. You’re moving mountains out there and…it just means a lot. I know this is supposed to be your team’s downtime right now.”
“Don’t sweat it. I made it voluntary for anyone who wanted to come. Which is why practically everyone is here. Even the newbies you haven’t met yet.”
Some days it was harder than others to be away from that life. Today was quickly climbing the charts. Feeling helpless and pointless wasn’t a good color on him.
Clint cleared his throat then, and made a half-grunt like he wanted to say something. But didn’t. Another novelty. Then: “We all miss seeing your old mug out here. It hasn’t been the same.”
Definitely one of the hardest days.
“These new guys here could learn a lot from you.”
“Not much I can teach ‘em these days.” Hudson flexed his fists. “Not with these bum hands.”
“I’m not talking about guns and fighting. These guys are all good soldiers but a few of the young ones still have a lot to learn about being a good man. Not everyone would fight this hard to find the missing husband of a woman he was clearly falling in love with.”
Hudson almost dropped the phone. “Wait a minute. Lia and I—”
“Save it, Reyes. I’ve known you for over ten years. You can deny it, fight it, or just damn well accept it. From personal experience, I can tell you the first two routes are just big ole time-sucks that will lead you right back to the third route anyway.”
Ah, yes. He remembered when Clint had fallen in love a few years back.
“How is Jenni, by the way?” asked Hudson, the doom and gloom of the situation lifting momentarily and the thought of the goofy, lovesick look that would be on his CO’s face at the mere mention of her name.
“She’s great. And the boys are doing great here too.”
As much as he wanted to catch up with Clint, he didn’t want to keep Lia waiting. “Clint, sorry to cut this call short, but I want to make sure to debrief Lia on everything.”
“Of course. Understood. I’ll email you about the video analysis.”
“I don’t know how I can thank you, man. Again, you went above and beyond here.”
“No thanks needed. We were able to send three of our men home today, and gather new answers for two more families. Not a bad week’s work at all. You keep me updated, you hear?”
“Will do.”
After hanging up, he turned to see Lia standing beside the couch, breathing spaced evenly, fingers rubbing over the two rings on her necklace.
“Did they find his remains?” she asked in a wobbly, unreadable voice.
Christ, he couldn’t imagine what she was going through. “No, Leo wasn’t among the bodies found. Two sets of remains were ID’d via their dog tags and they determined that the third set belonged to someone older than Leo.”
She looked up at him and locked her gaze on his. “I saw the look on your face before you stopped taking notes earlier. What else did they find?”
“At one site, there was some inconclusive evidence
of a possible capture.” The small gasp she couldn’t hold back ripped a jagged hole out of his heart. In recent years they’d seen how the reality of war time torture could be far worse than the imagination could conjure. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves with that one. There’s still a lot of investigation that needs to be done there.” He took a deep breath. “And actually, the last site has the evidence that we should be focusing on right now. There was positive evidence that a local woman may have provided aid to the soldier.”
Lia’s breathing stopped completely.
“Honey, it’s possible Leo survived...”
If she hadn’t already been sitting, Hudson had a strong suspicion Lia’s legs would’ve given out under her just then.
“And that’s not all. They also found a note, initialed with a letter L.” Unconsciously, he took a step toward her to try and comfort her. But her shuttered expression stopped him in his tracks. “I asked Clint to arrange a video forensic analysis online so you could view the letter—to see if it was from Leo.”
Suddenly, her apartment exploded in a symphony of sounds. Her cell phone started ringing in stereo with her landline. Her laptop began pinging like crazy with instant message and incoming email alerts. A string of musical beeps from her work cell alerted them to awaiting texts and tweets also.
The ringing of his cell phone was the last to join the bunch.
He hazarded a wild guess as to which of her brothers were calling. A glance at the caller ID confirmed it.
Phoenix Police Department
“Hi, Caine.”
“Is Lia okay?” The level of stricken concern in Caine’s voice told Hudson that Lia’s rigged watch probably didn’t activate the Spencer brother phone tree at this level of alarm very often. If ever.
Hudson gazed over and saw her talking calmly on her cell phone.
“She’s on the line with one of your brothers. Bottom line, she’s safe, just a little shaken. We just got some new evidence on Leo so she’s processing that right now. I know you’re worried but honestly, Drew can fill you in with what’s going on probably better than I can. I’m going to stay off the phone so I can be there for her. You good with that?”