He walked into the kitchen as his mom set a platter of bacon on the table.
"Jake, honey," she said with a happy smile. "I'm so glad you came for breakfast. I've got pancakes and eggs warming in the oven."
"You went all out." He sat down in what had always been his chair, noting that Alicia and Danielle had done the same. Old habits died hard. His mom would take her chair, and his dad's chair would stay empty, unless…
He turned to Alicia. "Where's Michael?"
"He went for a run. Unlike me, who reaches for coffee to get the day started, Michael likes the endorphin rush of exercise. I also think he wanted to give me some time alone with the family. There was quite a crowd here last night. It was hard for us to talk to each other."
"Yeah, I was surprised so many people turned up to say good-bye to you, Dani," he teased his sister. "I didn't think you had that many friends."
She made a face at him. "I'm very popular. I always have been."
Since Danielle had always made popularity a priority in her life, he wasn't surprised to hear her defend her status now. In high school, she'd been a cheerleader and part of the in crowd, and now she was going to be part of the inner circle of a very powerful man. Only one thing bothered him about that. She always seemed to be the one who was following someone else.
"You know," he began. "You don't have to orbit the moon. You can be the moon."
Danielle shot him a wary look. "What the hell does that mean?"
"Yes, what does that mean?" Alicia added.
"It means you should think about running for office yourself, Dani, instead of putting someone else into power," he replied.
"That's down the road. I'm paying my dues and I'm making political connections for when I do decide to put myself into power."
"Maybe you'll be the first female president," Alicia said.
Dani shrugged. "I have a feeling someone may get there before me, but I don't expect we'll have only one female president in our lifetimes." She turned her gaze back on him, a questioning look in her eyes. "Since when do you care what I'm doing, Jake?"
"Since always."
"Yeah, right," she scoffed.
"It's true. I care about both of you, and I try to look out for you. Someone obviously needs to. Alicia almost got herself killed last month."
"But I survived, and I helped solve a triple homicide," Alicia said with pride in her voice. "So you don't need to worry about me, Jake."
"Or me," Dani put in. "I can take care of myself."
"Let's talk about something happier," his mother said, joining them at the table. "Alicia, when are you and Michael getting married?"
Jake laughed at the sudden look of discomfort on Alicia's face. His youngest sister and his mom rarely saw eye-to-eye on anything, and while Danielle would probably love to plan a big wedding bash with his mom's help, Alicia would no doubt walk to her own beat, the way she always did.
"We haven't set a date yet," Alicia said carefully. "It's all really new, but you'll be the first to know when we start making plans."
"I want you to have a real wedding." Joanna shook a warning finger in Alicia's direction. "No running off somewhere and doing it on your own. Your father isn't here to walk you down the aisle, but Jake will do it, and I want to see Danielle stand up next to you. I want it to be a family affair."
"Don't worry, Mom. There's time to figure it all out," Alicia said.
"Well, I know how stubborn and independent you can be," Joanna said pointedly. "And while I do like Michael very much, I feel a little jealous that you'll be living near his family and so far from your own."
"I'm planning to come home more often," Alicia said. "I miss you guys."
His mother dabbed at her eyes with her napkin. "You never ever say that."
"Well, I'm sorry that I haven't said it more often, because I've thought it a lot. Maybe I just needed some distance to appreciate home."
"You could always move back," Jake suggested. "We have plenty of lightning storms here."
"I won't rule it out," Alicia said. "But at the moment, it's better for both Michael and me to be on the East Coast."
"Just promise to keep me involved in the wedding plans and to come home more often," Joanna said.
"I promise."
As Alicia made her vow, Jake found himself wondering if some of his sister's newfound motivation to come home more often was because of what she'd discovered about one of his father's best friends and what she believed to be a mystery surrounding his father's death. But he didn't want to bring that up now. His father's death was always a painful and disconnecting topic.
"I've been meaning to ask you, Mom," Alicia said. "How is Mrs. Barrett doing? When Jake and I went over there last month, she was not doing well."
"She has round-the-clock caregivers now," Joanna said. "TJ does his best, but he works long hours, and he doesn't want to leave her alone. We still have a neighborhood group that's helping to fill in by making sure she has healthy meals."
"How does TJ afford so much help?" Danielle asked. "That has to be expensive."
"I'm not sure," his mother replied. "He said he's been working extra projects to bring in more money. I'm sure Katherine is helping."
Jake wondered about that. "Are you sure?" he asked. "When was she last home?"
"I don't know," his mother said, giving him a speculative look. "She's not on vacation, Jake; she's completing her residency."
"And that's more important than her mother?" He didn't know why he'd asked the question because he knew firsthand that nothing was more important to Katherine than her medical career.
"I don't think it's more important, but she has put a lot of time in; I'm sure she wants to finish," his mom replied.
He shrugged. "All right. Whatever." He was sorry he'd brought up Katherine. "So, what's happening today?"
"Michael and I will hang out with Mom and Danielle today, then fly back to Miami tomorrow," Alicia said.
"And I have to pack so I can leave for Washington tonight," Danielle added.
Joanna's sigh enveloped the room. "I'm going to miss you both so much."
"Hey, I'm still here," he reminded her.
"I know, Jake, and I love that one of my children wants to live by me, but I miss mornings like these, having all my kids in one room, knowing you're all safe." Her gaze drifted to the empty chair.
He thought for a moment she might say something about missing his dad, but she didn't.
His phone buzzed, and he glanced down at the text. It was the dispatch center at the airfield. Someone wanted to talk to him about a charter flight that needed to happen today. "I'm going to have to run," he said. "Work calls."
"Where are you flying this time?" Danielle asked. "Is it for medical intervention?"
"I don't know. I don't think so, but I'll see when I get to the airport." The charter service he worked for had been flying medical evacuation flights in addition to corporate charters the last year, but he flew wherever he was told to fly.
"I'll walk you out," Alicia said, surprising him with the offer.
"Okay." He paused on his way out of the room to give Dani a hug. "If I don't see you before you go, knock 'em dead in DC."
"I plan to."
"Mom, I'll catch you later."
"Be safe, Jake," his mom said.
Alicia led the way to the front door and then paused. "Before you go, we still need to talk about what Jerry told me about Dad's death not being an accident."
"He didn't say that exactly, did he?"
"Well, he said we didn't know everything about it, and I want to find out what we don't know."
He let out a sigh. Last month, Alicia had gotten involved in a terrible situation involving murder and treason, and his father's former friend, Jerry Caldwell, had tried to kill her. Jerry hadn't been able to accomplish that, but he had managed to leave a tormenting thought in Alicia's head before taking his last breath.
Alicia had tried to talk to him about it before, but he'd a
lways brushed her off. Now that she was here in person, he could see that wasn't an option.
"What do you want to do?" he asked.
"I've spoken to a private investigator, Colin Kenner, and he has agreed to help me look into the crash and also Jerry's relationship with Dad around the time of the accident. I talked to Dani about it last night. She said she'd pitch in on the cost, but she can't get any more involved, not with all she has going on. Plus, she doesn't want to be associated with any kind of criminal investigation. You know how she is about keeping her reputation squeaky clean."
"It will be hard for her to do that in politics," he said dryly. "What about Mom? Did you speak to her?"
"I tried to tell her, but she shut me down. She said it doesn't matter anymore what happened. We can't bring him back."
"She's right about that, Alicia."
"I'm not trying to bring him back. I'm trying to find out what happened, and if justice needs to be served, then someone needs to make sure that happens, and if that's me, then it's me."
He frowned at the intensity of her words. "Alicia, you just got out of a bad situation—are you sure you want to jump into another one?"
"I don't have a choice. I know what I heard. I can't forget it. And unlike just about everyone else, I don't believe Jerry's death was the end of anything. I think it was just the tip of an iceberg. But I can't force the FBI or Homeland Security or MDT to work with me on that, so I'm going to concentrate on the piece of the puzzle that means the most to me."
"Look, I get it, but Jerry could have been trying to torture you. You'd gotten the best of him, and he wanted to pay you back. Why are you so sure he told you the truth before he died? He lied about so many other things. It's clear we had no idea who he really was."
"True. But I've thought there was a mystery surrounding Dad's death long before Jerry brought it up. It's not just that I want your money, Jake; I want you to think it's the right thing to do," she said, meeting his gaze. "I know you don't share my belief that the lightning I chase is trying to tell us something, but we have more than weather to go on now."
He looked into her earnest dark-brown eyes that reminded him so much of his father and knew that he couldn't say no. "I can't imagine what you'll be able to find out, but I'm in."
Relief filled her gaze. "Good. I'll keep you posted."
The front door opened, and Alicia's fiancé Michael Cordero walked into the house. He wore track pants and a T-shirt, and there was a gleam of sweat on his face.
"Hey," Michael said, shaking Jake's hand. "Are you leaving?"
"On my way to work. There's still plenty of pancakes and bacon."
"Good. Will we see you later?"
"I'm not sure. But if I can get back before you leave, I will. Congratulations again on your engagement. It's going to be nice to add another male to the family. I've been outnumbered for far too long."
"As if Mom doesn't treat you like the king," Alicia teased. "Your life is not that hard, Jake."
He laughed. "Well, I am the oldest, so that does make me the most important."
Alicia rolled her eyes. "In your mind, maybe."
"You two take care. See if you can keep her out of trouble," he added to Michael.
Michael gave a shrug. "I'm not sure I can, but I will try. Your sister can be very stubborn."
"It's a family trait," Alicia said, giving him a pointed look. "Which is why we work better when we're on the same team."
"We are," Jake said. "I'll see you around."
As he left the house, he wondered if he was making a mistake supporting Alicia's desire to search for answers to a decade-old-tragedy.
Were they going to stir up more trouble?
On the other hand, as Alicia had said, if someone had deliberately sent his father's plane crashing into the Gulf of Mexico, that person needed to pay.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, Jake parked his car in the lot at the Culverson Field Airport, the home base of Culverson Air Charters. As he walked toward the two-story building that housed airport operations, the business offices, a lounge for waiting passengers and a smaller break room for pilots, his thoughts were on his father.
His dad had worked for Culverson after leaving the Navy, and Jake had followed in his footsteps. He didn't want to believe that there was anything mysterious about his dad's death, mostly because he didn't want to relive all that pain again. But he couldn't think of himself; he had to consider Alicia and Dani and his mom, and most of all, his father. If there was a truth to be found, he needed to help Alicia find it.
His dad would have been impressed with how the charter service had grown in the past ten years, he thought, eying the mixed fleet of sleek jets including Citations, Mustangs, and Hawkeyes on the tarmac.
Business had been good in the private aviation industry the last few years, especially in Corpus Christi. The city was the second biggest in south Texas and home to the US Navy as well as several important corporations including MDT, one of the largest defense technology companies in the world. Flying corporate executives and political operatives out of Culverson had given him some solid job security doing work that he loved. Because, like his dad, he'd never wanted to do anything but fly.
He'd grown up at this airfield. His dad had taught him to fly before he'd learned how to drive. They'd made a lot of amazing memories over the years, and he treasured the time they'd had together. He just wished it had been longer.
Stepping into an empty lobby, he made his way to the business office, prepared to find his boss, Rusty Sampson, grumbling about the fact that he'd taken his sweet time to get there, but there was no sign of the burly six-foot-three manager, who had run Culverson Air Charters since Jake had been a teenager. There was, however, another person in the room—a woman wearing dark jeans and a brown leather jacket over a cream-colored sweater, a floral scarf around her neck. Her golden blonde hair swung halfway down her back in thick waves and her steel-blue eyes touched a deep, painful nerve.
His heart came to a crashing halt.
Katherine!
It had been years since he'd seen her in person, but she'd haunted his memories for a decade.
As she stared back at him, it occurred to him that she didn't look as surprised to see him as he was to see her.
"What are you doing here?" he bit out.
"Looking for you."
For years he'd imagined those words coming from her lips. Now, they seemed impossible to believe. "You're the one who wants to charter a plane? Why?"
She drew in a breath as if it hurt to say whatever was coming next. "I need a favor, Jake."
Of course she needed something from him. There was no way she would have come here just to see him. "You think I want to do you a favor?" He was somewhat amazed by that thought. "Have we spoken in the last ten years? Did I miss some texts, some emails, an Instagram?"
"You're not going to make this easy, are you?"
"Why should I? You walked out on me. You told me you didn't love me, and you never wanted to see me again."
"I was twenty years old, Jake. I was angry and confused, and so were you."
He wanted to deny that, but he couldn't.
"Look, I wouldn't be here if I had another choice," she added with determination in her eyes. "I need to go to Mexico to find my brother."
He didn't know what he'd been expecting her to say, but it hadn't been that. "TJ is in Mexico?"
She nodded. "Yes, and he's in trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
"I'm not exactly sure."
"So take a commercial flight."
"I can't do that, for a couple of reasons."
"What reasons?"
She hesitated, as if not sure how much she wanted to tell him. "TJ called me last night. He's in danger and on the run in Mexico. I don't know the circumstances, except that several people he worked with at his company, MDT, were killed recently. I don't know what those people have to do with him, but he said something about thinking he migh
t be next, and that he wasn't going to let that happen."
His body tightened at her words, at the idea that Alicia was right—that Jerry's death was just the tip of an iceberg. "Go on."
"TJ told me that he's going to disappear to a place where time stands still and people can get lost forever. Does that sound familiar, Jake? All those stories you told TJ about your great-grandmother and your Mayan ancestors apparently stuck in his head."
"That's crazy. Why doesn't he just go to the police?"
"In Mexico?" she challenged.
She had a point. "If not there, then back here."
"He said he doesn't know who he can trust. I wish I knew more, but I have no idea what he's talking about."
"I probably have a better idea than you do," he muttered.
"What does that mean?" she asked sharply.
"My sister Alicia helped unravel the mystery surrounding the murders TJ told you about. She spoke to TJ about the professor he worked for last month. I was with her when she went to see him and your mom."
Surprise widened her eyes. "You went to my house?"
"Yes. I saw your mom. TJ wasn't there, but Alicia spoke to him later." He paused. "Your mother is in bad shape, Katherine. Where the hell have you been? Why aren't you taking care of her?"
"I'm very aware of my mother's illness," she snapped. "I'm doing the best I can."
"Your best doesn't impress me."
"Well, I'm not trying to impress you," she said, anger in her eyes. "This was a mistake."
"Hell, yes, it was a mistake."
She bit down on her bottom lip, and the action took him back to when she was a teenager struggling to contain her emotion. For some reason, she'd always seen tears as a sign of weakness, and Katherine Barrett hated to be weak.
"Okay, look, this isn't about us," she said, taking a breath. "This is about my brother. I'll pay you whatever you want to fly me to Mexico."
Lightning Lingers Page 3