Disengaged (Terms of Engagement Book 3)

by Melissa R. L. Simonin

  “I need to be alone for a while,” she said, wiping tears from her cheeks, with the sleeve of her robe. She saw the helpless anxiety in Rob’s eyes, and more tears pushed to the surface. If he didn’t ask for mercy, she might not feel sorry for him, at all. She’d probably still be telling him he valued that woman, more than he did her, and backing it up with his actions, and the lack thereof. But, that plea for mercy took the wind out of those sails. “Rob, I just need some time. I need a chance to be by myself, and think for a while.”

  He wasn’t sure which was worse; being by herself, or thinking. Neither was likely to go in his favor. His shoulders slumped slightly and he nodded, but before Rob could bring himself to get up and leave, Samantha was on her feet.

  “It’s fine, you can stay. I’ll just… be out here,” she said, and with that, and another swipe at the tears on her cheek, she left.

  The door latched behind her, and Rob fell back in bed.

  The only thing worse than being out there by himself, was being in here! He gripped his head in his hands as he closed his eyes, and prayed.

  God had to want them together, he reminded himself. Nothing else made sense. Why else would He reunite them? They did reconcile. Then… a demon from the past surfaced, and made things look way worse than they were, he scowled. But God hated divorce, and He was on Rob’s side. His, and Samantha’s, and what was best for both of them, was to be together. It looked bad right now, but… it would be alright. It would.

  Rob repeated that over to himself, until he was almost convinced.

  As he lay there, he became aware of a faint hum. His eyebrows knit for a moment, then he realized it was the bathroom’s exhaust fan. He rubbed his face, and sighed. She was probably on the phone with her mom, right now. The thought filled him with anxiety, and made him feel restless.

  He checked the radar app. As long as his erstwhile friends went straight back where they came from, they’d probably make it. If they tried coming back and got stuck, they’d be out of luck. They weren’t staying with Rob and Samantha, that was for certain.

  Who knew how long Samantha would be on the phone. His Bible was in the living room, and if he was going to be stuck in the bedroom by himself for an indefinite period of time, he wanted it. Since she wasn’t in the main part of the cabin right now, Rob got up and opened the door. As he gathered the Bible from the end table, and turned back toward the bedroom, the dwindling woodpile caught his eye. He veered, and pressed his ear to the bathroom door. On the other side, he heard the hum of the fan, and Samantha’s voice, too faint to decipher.

  Rob returned his Bible to the bedroom, then pulled on his snow pants, boots, coat, and other cold-weather necessities. As he did so, he eyed the bathroom door again, and considered whether or not he should knock, and tell Samantha where he was going. He knew she didn’t want him going out… or did she care, anymore?

  He brushed aside that depressing thought, and looked at the few logs that remained. He wanted her to have more, since it was almost certain he’d have to make the trip to the lodge, soon. Not only did he want her to have a fire for the comfort, if he had difficulty finding his way back, he would need the smoke to lead the way. If she ended up mad at him for going out to get firewood… at least he’d know she still cared.

  Rob left through the backdoor, and locked it behind him.

  ERIK and Amber carried their plates back down the hall, to the kitchen. Through the arched doorway leading to the family room, the changing light of a widescreen TV was visible, and the sounds of a football game could be heard.

  “The sink is fine,” Amber said, with a glance at the dishwasher, which was busy running the dishes from dinner.

  “Or we could wash them,” Erik eyed the bottle of dish soap, and the empty drying tray.

  “What on earth for?” Amber raised an eyebrow. She took his plate from him, and added it to the small pile currently residing on one side of the double-sink, then took him by the arm. “Come on. We need to clear something up.”

  “Such as?” he wondered, as she led him to the doorway. On the other side, her mom and dad sat watching the game. They both looked up, as Erik and Amber entered.

  “Hi, you two,” her mom greeted them.

  “Hi,” Amber replied. “How old are you and dad?”

  “Old enough,” her dad replied, giving her a funny look. “Why do you ask?”

  “Fine. How much older are you, than Mom?” Amber queried.

  “A little more than five years,” her mom answered.

  “And again, why do you ask?” her dad wondered.

  “So if a guy that was five years older than me, wanted to ask me out, you wouldn’t care,” Amber stated. Insisted. Informed them. Erik wasn’t exactly sure, but it didn’t sound like a question.

  “That would all depend on the guy,” her dad replied. “That might be enough of a head-start for him to keep up with you. Then again, it might not.”

  Amber was inclined to be pleased with that answer, but she caught the teasing gleam in her dad’s eyes, so she took a swipe at him with a nearby throw pillow.

  “I’m serious,” she declared, as her dad easily caught it, and smiled.

  “And I am, too, when I say I’d like to date your daughter,” Erik interjected. Who knew where this would go, or how long it would drag out, otherwise. “If it helps my case any, I am five years older than she is. I’m pretty sure I can keep up with her.”

  “I’ll slow down, if I have to,” Amber promised, giving him a sideways glance. “Pushing and pulling, are also options I’m willing to employ.”

  “If that’s what it takes,” Erik smiled. “But I don’t think it will.”

  Her mom fought the inclination to appear as thrilled as she actually was. Amber’s dad wasn’t fighting tears of joy like her mother, but he was pleased, nonetheless. He assumed a look of thoughtful consideration and shrugged slightly, then smiled.

  “You have our blessing,” he decreed.

  “Thank you,” Erik smiled back, and the two shook hands.

  “Told you they’d be fine with it,” Amber said with satisfaction.

  “The game’s not over, if you want to join us,” her dad said.

  “Maybe later,” Amber replied, as she tugged on Erik’s arm to get him moving back toward the door, again. Either she really didn’t like football, or… “We’ve got a little more investigating to do, before we call it quits.”

  “You’ve reached a dead end?” her mom asked.

  “We’ve got one more phone call to make,” Erik answered.

  “Then we’ll know,” Amber finished.

  Her parents got back to the game, and Amber and Erik returned to the sitting room.

  “Feel better?” Amber asked, as they settled on the couch.

  “Much. I’m not afraid of getting banned, being shown the door, and having my heart broken, now,” he smiled.

  “As long as you like me, you won’t get your heart broke. If you like someone else… might as well go into acting. Or hiding,” she warned him, and Erik laughed.

  “I like you,” he smiled.

  “Then your legs—and the rest of you—are safe,” she smiled back, and he laughed again.

  “I couldn’t be safer. Are you ready to make this call, and wrap up our investigation?”

  “Yes,” she answered, and they reached for their respective phones. While she referred to the image of the business card on the screen of his cellphone, she entered the number into her own. The area code told them the number was local, and a brief internet search indicated it was cellular related, rather than landline. And that, was all they knew.

  The other end of the line began to ring. Amber put the call on speaker, and gripped Erik’s hand tightly, as they waited.

  “This is Joe,” a guy—presumably Joe—answered.

  “Hi,” Amber replied, her heart beating faster. “This is Joe Abernathy?”

  “No, this is Joe Randall.”

  “Oh,” Amber said. She sounded surprised. “
Is Joe Abernathy there?”

  “No, I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong number,” Joe Randall replied.

  “Okay, thanks, sorry,” Amber said, and hung up. Erik was already entering the name Joe Randall in the iPad’s search engine. She watched eagerly, as the results appeared on the screen. “There, try Facebook. We can narrow the search to local.”

  “That narrowed the entries significantly,” Erik commented, as Amber gasped, and grabbed his very muscular arm, which she was just as impressed with as she was the night before, and he was now her boyfriend, but—

  “There! That! That’s Joe!” she exclaimed.

  “From Conner’s office,” Erik acknowledged. He was inclined to feel relief that it was Joe’s personal cell number, rather than Conner’s.

  “This could make sense,” Amber said, her mind racing. “Joe claimed Burns told him to let him know, if he needed another team. He may have made that up, though. Then Joe laughed it off, when talking to Conner.”

  “It’s possible he intended to try and talk Conner into hiring Burns and his team,” Erik considered. “Or… I have no idea how much responsibility Joe has...”

  “Maybe he intended to hire Burns, himself,” Amber suggested. “Assuming he could do that. But—Pine Mountain is a way bigger project than the condominium contract Conner mentioned getting, right?”

  “I’m sure you’re correct.”

  “Then Joe wouldn’t have as much to offer, and Burns wouldn’t have as much to gain. So either Burns gave Joe problems and he killed him, or Joe killed him as a preemptive measure, since their other two henchmen were already dead.”

  “That makes sense,” Erik said, much preferring that alternative.

  “It does,” she said with enthusiasm. “But. In spite of how nicely this fits, it’s still circumstantial.”

  “Agreed. It does make sense, though. Either way, we need to step out of the investigation, now. When I talk to Conner tomorrow, I’ll tell him we’ve reached a dead-end, and that we’ve given up. In the meantime, we know to avoid contact with Joe.”

  “Avoid Joe, got it. And the rest of them, because we don’t know if we’re right or not,” Amber cautioned.

  “I should call Rob, and let him know what we’ve learned,” Erik said.

  The baby monitor on the end table lit, as it broadcast the sound of Caleb, crying sleepily for his mama. Sympathy filled Erik’s eyes, and Amber’s, as she hopped to her feet.

  “You do that, while I take care of Caleb,” she said, switching off the monitor on her way out.

  “Alright,” Erik agreed. Even with the receiver turned off, their nephew’s faint voice could be heard from down the hall. Erik listened, as Amber comforted him. The toddler’s cries subsided, and Erik felt relief. The poor guy was missing his mom. He had to be so confused.

  Erik sighed. For so many reasons, the storm needed to end. As he prayed that it would, he called his brother. After several rings, Rob answered.

  “Yeah?” Rob said. He sounded a little out of breath.

  “Is this a bad time?” Erik questioned.

  “It’s fine,” Rob decided. Samantha was talking to her mother, he might as well talk to his brother. Maybe Erik could put in a good word for him, he was probably at the Fields’ house, right now. He could pray, anyway, and Rob needed that more than anything. “Did you turn up something?”

  “The number on the back of the card belongs to Joe Randall, the Joe in Conner’s office when Amber and I were there, yesterday,” Erik answered.

  Rob took that in, as he waded through drifted snow, on his way to the nearest cabin.

  “You think it’s him? That makes sense, I guess.”

  “It’s a lot more likely to be him, than Conner. I plan to call Conner tomorrow, and tell him we hit a dead-end, and are done investigating.”

  “Are you planning to tell him you suspect one of his employees?” Rob questioned.

  “No. I’ll tell him Amber’s getting back to her classes, and I’m getting back to work. No actual damage was done to our development, and since we’ve hired security, none will be. We’re through investigating. I don’t intend to mention Joe, at all.”

  “Let’s hope Conner passes along that information.”

  “I’ll find a way to encourage him, that doesn’t involve accusing one of his employees. What are you doing, anyway? You sound like you’re climbing a mountain.”

  “I’m hiking to cabin six,” Rob replied. “I want Samantha to have more firewood, before I try making it to the lodge, and back. If there’s an opportunity sometime during the next forty-eight hours, I’m taking it.”

  “You’re running out of supplies?” Erik asked, his eyebrows knitting with concern.

  “The cabins weren’t fully stocked, after all. Most weren’t, at all. So yes,” Rob answered.

  “I wish there was a way to get up there,” Erik said, as he tried to come up with one.

  “If you were at Alpine Run, you could snow mobile over here,” Rob replied ruefully.

  “The road up there was blocked just yesterday, but I’ll check again,” Erik assured him.

  “Yeah. Too bad cross-country from Alpine Run to Pine Mountain, isn’t,” Rob said shortly.

  “What do you mean?” Erik frowned a little.

  “Before the storm hit, that’s where I planned to spend the rest of Thanksgiving break.”

  Erik’s stomach sank.

  “And… they found you? How did they even know where to look?”

  “Monday night, Meredith called. I thought it was you, so I answered by saying I was still at the models, and would head to the cabins soon. After seeing Samantha, I realized I never should’ve let Meredith worm back into my life, so I hung up and blocked her. I don’t need pressure to go back to being the same, when what I want, is to be different. I basically told Dan that, before I blocked him, and all the rest of them, too.”

  “And of course they refused to accept that,” Erik replied grimly.

  “Yeah. I think Meredith thought Dan and Pete could force me to go with them,” Rob said in disgust. “They brought two snowmobiles. They knew I was with Samantha, but there was only room for one other passenger.”

  “Unbelievable,” Erik replied shortly. “What happened after that?”

  “I told them off, and they left. But not before Meredith made things between us sound a lot different than they were,” Rob said, as pain and anxiety joined the anger he felt.

  “How is Samantha?”

  “She’s upset. She wants to be alone. I think she wanted to call her mom, is more like it,” he said ruefully. “I hope she’ll forgive me. Again. It’s not like I did anything new, but… I never should’ve had anything to do with Meredith after Samantha left. Or before, but she forgave me for that. Finding out Meredith was part of the group I hung out with, hit her hard. She doesn’t trust me, now. I’m giving her the space she wants, and praying she’ll change her mind.”

  “I’ll be praying too,” Erik said, his heart hurting for his brother, and for Samantha.

  “Good, thanks. I want that. I feel like everything will be alright, though,” Rob said, and his mood lightened somewhat. “God wants us together. It can’t be coincidence that you and I got the Pine Mountain project, and then Samantha was here the day of the storm, and we both got caught in it. I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I think it all happened so we’d have a chance to start over. I was finally willing to hear what you had to say about Jesus, and now I believe, and when Samantha forgives me again, I’ll tell her about Jesus, and I think she’ll believe, too.”

  “I hope you’re right. And you may be. It’s what I’m praying for, too. But… what will it mean to your relationship with God, if that’s not what happens?”

  “Why wouldn’t it?” Rob asked sharply, as his nerves prickled with impatience. “It’s the only thing that makes sense!”

  “I see that, but Samantha’s point of view is the one that matters, not mine. She has the freedom to decide for herself whether or not to
trust you again, and move past this.”

  “Then pray she does,” Rob said forcefully. “I thought God was all powerful, and He can do anything.”

  “He is. He also allows us to make choices, and those choices affect other people. While on the receiving end, we sometimes see a benefit to a lack of freewill when it comes to others, but that’s not how He’s chosen to create us. We each have the ability to choose. Choosing God, and choosing to put our faith in Him, is the most important decision we can make in life. You’ve done that, so now I’m asking… if Samantha isn’t willing to reconcile again, how will that affect your relationship with God? How will that affect your attitude toward Him, and your trust in Him?”

  Rob was silent, as he grappled with the intense emotions that now flooded him. Erik listened as Rob clomped up the steps of the next cabin. He heard the jingle of the key, the rasp as it was inserted in the lock, and the bolt as it slid. The door opened, then closed. Rob stomped his feet, his coat rustled, Velcro tore, and there was a zip. He removed his jacket and tossed it on the table, then sat in one of the chairs. The thermostat was set to sixty, but it felt toasty compared to outside.

  “I don’t know,” Rob answered at last. “If she won’t give me another chance… then what’s the point? It’s—cruel. I had her back! I actually had her back. We were going to rent the apartment down the hall from hers and her sister’s. We were talking about having kids, she wanted that, a lot. And now… And I didn’t even do anything, this time! She’s upset about what I did in the past, and the way Meredith made it sound. She said things that weren’t true, and Samantha bought it. Erik, I don’t know what to do.”

  Erik’s heart hurt for his older brother, and he sighed.

  “It is cruel, on Meredith’s part. It’s also unfair, and a lot of other things. It feels all wrong, and it is. Is there anything else you haven’t told Samantha? Is there anything that can come back later, to shake her trust in you?”