Retreat to Woodhaven (The Hills of Burlington Book 2)

by Jacie Middlemann

  "They love their Mama."

  "They do, yes." She turned, leaned against the window. Bracing herself for the conversation she came to have. The one that made her mother's dictate to bring him to breakfast more of a Godsend than an order. "They also drive her batty with their controlling concern which I can understand most the time." She shrugged. "They see it as taking care of her but they can and often do go too far."

  "It's a good thing she has you close by to run interference."

  Carrie laughed, she simply couldn't help it. She laughed freely and felt the worry drop away with it. "I think it's the main reason she's didn't buck at my moving here. It puts something, me specifically, between her and them."

  Jake just shook his head. And waited.

  "Jake," Carrie started, gathered her thoughts and her words. "I know Casey is going to talk to you at breakfast or shortly after about the call she got from Mark and Terry early this morning." She watched his eyes widen and hastened to limit his expectations of her own knowledge about the case. "I don't know much about it and haven't checked out the internet yet today. I know Casey has so she can probably answer just about any question you might have about anything out there in regards to Jacob Kyle." She rolled her shoulders, knew she was putting it off, wasn't even certain she wanted to know. "And she's got her own questions about it, they all do, but I wanted to ask you this one in private." She looked at him. "I could say it's because I don't want to worry Mom," she paused, "there would be some truth to that but it's not all of it." She took a deep breath, looked at him, hated that she even still cared enough one way or another to have this deep seated need to ask.

  "I didn't find anything on Nick," Jake said quietly, anticipating her. He had figured out from her expression it had to be this. "That doesn't mean he's not somehow involved, or was as some point, but I didn't find anything at all specific pointing to him." He ran back over in his head some of what he'd heard, there had been some vague insinuations that could have pointed to Nick but could have just as easily pointed to a dozen or more other senators as well. "Carrie, I didn't dig down into every allegation I heard but I did check into the big ones and his name never came up."

  "Okay." She let out the breath she'd been holding. "Okay."

  "Did it bother you more to ask me or that you felt the need to?" He asked, curious more than anything else.

  "Unlike your sister I don't have a problem asking you anything." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, saw her statement hit its mark. "I do have a problem with Nick," she admitted with no little amount of frustration.

  "Because you don't care and that bothers you," he’d thought about it. "Or because you do and don't want to."

  "A little bit of all of the above," she sighed. If you couldn't gripe to family who could you gripe to? "I filed for divorce." She walked around the room, opening and closing cupboard doors, remembering what they'd held decades ago. "He never called, never bothered to pick up the phone and ask why, never anything. I did get an email though from one of his many Administrative Assistants letting me know how it was being parceled for the press." She glanced at him, "Those were the exact words, how our divorce was being parceled for the press," she sighed. "Prick."

  Jake couldn't help the small smile at the sound of that particular word coming from his classy cousin. He'd always seen her as the Grace Kelly type. He couldn't imagine the once famed actress who had been a favorite of his mother's saying that particular word either. But he fully understood the sentiment. "I'm sorry Carrie."

  "Oh, Jake. So am I." She sat heavily into the chair she was eternally grateful just happened to be there. At the movement to her side, she looked up and saw the concern and worry. Understood the latter before he had a chance to pass her the box of tissues. "I'm not going to cry," she assured him even as he sat in the chair he'd pulled up next to hers and laid his arm around her in a comforting way that had no measure. His simple concern almost started the flow of tears she'd promised she wouldn't shed. "I've done that already, buckets of it," she sighed again. "But not for Nick, not that way. I think it's been ending for years. I care but not like that. Not like I should have."

  "Then what?" There was something else. He could hear it.

  "It's like I've wasted so much of my life." She leaned back, took his hands even as she moved away. "My marriage is ending and my husband is primarily concerned with how it looks in the press." She took a deep breath, told herself confession really was good for the soul. "That really doesn't surprise me but I expected him to battle back somehow. If for no other reason out of spite. He's not contesting anything and believe me I'd know with Casey and Mary double checking every word his lawyer wrote up. And there's plenty there for him to contest."

  Jake made a mental note to call in a few of the many favors he had floating out there in the wonderland of lawyers. He wanted to know exactly what the good Senator was up to. "Maybe he just wants you to be happy." And ducks can sing lullabies in perfect key he thought dryly to himself.

  "Please." She almost laughed. And suddenly felt hungry. Hunger pains hadn't been something she'd dealt with lately, mostly the only things she felt were nerves. "Let's go eat." She walked towards the front door with the same determination she'd walked through it on her arrival.

  Jake followed, locked the door behind them. He'd lived in the big cities too long not to. "Carrie." He waited for her to turn back towards him even as they walked.

  "I'm okay, Jake." She touched his arm, grateful for his concern. "Really, I am."

  "I know you're okay. But I'd like you to tell me what else is worrying you."

  She caught her breath. That was the risk of family, she realized. They knew you well. Often better than you might know yourself. "Besides feeling like I've wasted a whole lot of my life?" She tried to joke it aside.

  "You didn't waste it, you just haven't found what you really want. And yeah...beyond that."

  She sighed, as they rounded the corner to Marshall Street. "Nick doesn't ever agree to everything on anything."

  Jake heard her worry, understood it completely. He didn't know the man well but had heard enough to know she was right. He wasn't the type to agree to everything no matter what he thought of it. It was his nature to control a situation, not allow it to control him. He'd be calling in those favors later that day. With luck it wouldn't take long to find out what was going on in the Senator's little world.

  

  "Okay," Casey sat back from the table. "We've completely stuffed ourselves to the point we'll all need some type of workout just to be able to keep from falling asleep within the next couple of hours."

  "As far as food fests go, this ranks right up there," Jake agreed. He couldn't count the number of muffins he'd eaten, at least one of each and multiples of a couple of them.

  Mary stood, as comfortable in this kitchen as she was in her own and walked over to the counter to start the coffee she'd put together ahead of time before they sat down to eat. They'd made a place here, their place, she thought, looking around the large kitchen, to the table overflowing with family. Just like those who had come here before them, they had found their place here. A place for all of them.

  Casey leaned forward, she'd been chewing her tongue to keep from spilling out all she'd learned in her early morning phone call. "Do you want to talk now then check out the house or check out the house then talk?" She addressed her brother directly.

  "Talk first." Jake eyed his sister with a mix of amusement and pleasant surprise. Though there were only five years between them it had always seemed like more. During their childhood he could look back and understand it. He’d been the oldest and she the youngest. He had spent most his time keeping his brothers out of trouble and by the time either of them had any real interest in knowing the other he was gone, first to college then carving out a career for himself. But especially over the past years of their adulthood the age difference might as easily have been twenty years for all the distance Casey had placed between them. He knew t
he root of it. What he didn't know was how to close it or if it was even possible to.

  "Terry called me this morning. Actually, I talked to Mark first. He told me what was coming out today in his usual quick and condensed manner."

  "Makes sense." Jake felt compelled to defend the man who might soon become a business partner.

  "To you and your kind perhaps." She speared him with a look she wouldn't have had the nerve to until recently. "Anyway, since none of this is completely clear, I hope you'll provide us with some details so we can better understand all this."

  Jake motioned with a wave of the hand and a nod for her to continue.

  "At some point today," Casey began with a flourish, "a story will run on WNO that confirms with specific details and interviews at least one and possibly two of the allegations put forth in your article."

  "That sounds like Mark." Jake pointed out.

  "Almost verbatim," Casey confirmed. "Terry said that he got a call in the middle of the night from whoever he's got digging on this. Apparently their fact-checking yielded not just positive results but even more information than what was included in your story. Sounds like it had Mark up and doing some digging on the internet on his own through what was left of the night because of the expansion of the scope of their coverage. As of this morning he decided to go forward with the one that’s for certain and the second if they can fill in a few more of the holes that he's not totally comfortable with until they do." She looked at her brother expectantly. Waiting.

  Mary looked back and forth at the two. There had been a whole lot more that Terry had said on other issues but she understood that Casey wanted this concluded before she went further. She also saw Jake in his thinking mode. Weighing where and how he wanted to go forward with what he had done and why. If he was even willing to.

  She took the fresh pot of coffee with her to the table, pouring herself a cup before filling that of her aunt's then set it down on the hot plate in the middle of the table for anyone else who might want some. "Mallie, there's some tea in the fridge if you'd rather have that." She looked at Casey not at all surprised to see the stubborn set of her chin. "Casey, why don't you tell him what Mark and Terry got in the mail first thing this morning?" That much at least would give Jake the time he obviously wanted and give him something else to consider as well.

  Casey stared at her cousin blankly for the moment it took her to click in to what she was talking about. "Oh, you mean the stuff from Pete."

  "What stuff from Pete?" Jake asked. "The Pete we're having dinner with tonight?"

  "That Pete," Casey confirmed. "And the package was on the real estate here in town including some that Terry specifically requested because she wanted to look at them when they're here."

  "It sounds like it had some other information about the city too, didn't it honey?" Charlie spoke up as she sipped the hot coffee. She was trying desperately to cut back on her caffeine but she so dearly loved a good cup of hot coffee in the morning.

  "Probably the same as what the Chamber sends out." Carrie was eyeing another muffin. If nothing else she wanted to set them aside for later as she took the last two of her favorites and set them on her plate. She looked up to find just about everyone smiling at her knowingly. She just shook her head. Busted.

  "Terry was excited and looking through all the stuff, especially the stuff Pete sent her on a couple of the houses." Casey leaned back. Waited. She didn't say anything. She didn't need to.

  Jake looked around the table, a larger version of where he'd sat the night before at Mary's. He saw patient expectation in each one of their faces beginning with his Aunt Charlie around to the youngest, Mallie. And it was in those two faces he saw the greatest level of excitement. In Mallie he expected it whereas in his aunt he was surprised but he'd grown up around the woman and looking back probably shouldn't be. And it was that woman, the one he'd grown up around, who was sitting at the table with them this morning...not the one that they'd all worried about for the last ten years.

  "It's a bit confusing if not outright convoluted." He'd known this conversation couldn't be avoided and had already worked out in his mind how much he could give them without compromising any of his sources. If he'd been discussing it with any other group, especially one that didn't include his sister...the ace reporter, he wouldn't have had to be as concerned. As it was there was the worry she'd figure out who they were anyway but that was a risk he'd have to take. And even if she did who was she going to tell even if she wanted to...something he knew she would never do regardless.

  Almost as if she could read his mind, Casey reached over from where she sat, placed her hand lightly on his where it rested next to his cup of coffee. "I'm not ever going back there. Literally or figuratively," she added for emphasis just in case he needed the assurance.

  "It wouldn't matter if you did. I know you wouldn't say anything anyway."

  She nodded slightly. There was no way she could express to him then or any other time how much that unconditional belief in her meant.

  "Several months ago I was approached by a source I've dealt with in the past," he began. "I was skeptical even though this individual has always been unquestionably reliable because the information was..." he raised his hands palms up and out as if to signal the vastness of what he'd heard. "It was huge. Unbelievably so." He shook his head wearily at the memory in that moment believing there was no way this could possibly be true. "This person turned out to be the first of many I ended up talking with before I really started digging into it on my own." He took a sip of the hot coffee Mary had just topped off for him from the fresh pot she'd quietly brewed and brought over to the table. He thought about it now in a way he hadn't really been able to when he was in the thick of it. "I went into it believing my search would be fruitless. No way would something like this go undetected for the length of time this allegedly had. But the more I looked, the more questions I came up with that needed answering. By the time I found all the answers it was obvious my source had been as reliable as always." He looked around the table to see he had everyone's complete attention. "In all honesty I almost walked away from it."

  "I can think of far more people who would have done just that without a second thought," Casey said quietly.

  "It was a temptation." He sighed heavily. "I might have except..." He simply stopped.

  "The uprising in Pakistan a couple of months ago that seemed to come out of nowhere." Casey filled in for him, having already worked out much of it for herself after their conversation the night before. "Always a volatile place under the best of circumstances. But this was odd."

  "What do you mean by odd?" Mallie asked.

  Casey took a breath before answering her young cousin's innocent question. "It's not unusual on its own for there to be violence in the country, it's been that way for centuries. But this instance was out of place...I can't put an exact finger on it...it just never seemed right to be as they claimed and how it was reported out of the region."

  "I might not have ever seen it for anything other than what was being reported on the ground," Jake said.

  "By the few who were left alive to do so," Carrie spoke softly into the quiet that had fallen around the table.

  "Lizzie and Jett weren't the only news media to die that day." Jake thought of the others who had also been in the wrong place at the wrong time. "If it weren't for what I had learned on my own in the weeks before it happened I wouldn't have questioned it. Would have accepted it like everyone else as the cost of covering war...or war torn areas which that entire area of the world has been since long before any of us were born."

  "But it wasn't." Casey stood, walked over to look out the window, her expression pensive.

  "No. I flew over there and was able to find a couple of the guys that had been around just before the bombing."

  "That must have been under the cover of darkness," Casey muttered. "I never heard a word of it."

  "No one heard a word of it. That's how you find out all those thi
ngs people don't want you to know." Jake tossed back at her.

  "And did you?" Mary asked. "Find out what people didn't want you to know." She clarified just in case there was any question.

  "I did," Jake confirmed. "Neither of them were there at the time. But one had gotten a call from another reporter before the bombing. Told him he was suspicious about one of their own being a bit too cozy with some of the known radicals who had showed up for an alleged exclusive interview. It wasn't an hour after that they found out about the bombing that killed almost everyone in the hotel at the time."

  "Including any media in the building."

  Jake nodded at his sister's terse statement.

  "What about the reporter cozying up to the bad guys?" Casey asked, skepticism in every word.

  "He broke the story," Jake told her. He eyed his sister, recognized the steam in her eyes. "No doubt about it, Casey. He's one of the bad guys. And somewhere down the line he'll pay for his part in this. But for every bad reporter there are a hundred great ones. Try to remember that."

  "How do you?" Carrie asked gently.

  Jake sighed. Rubbed his hands over his tired eyes. It wasn't even noon yet and he was exhausted. "The two guys I found in Pakistan who got the call before the bombing. That guy who called was their friend and then he was dead. On some level they knew everyone who died there just like I did. They helped dig up information I might not have found on my own. They sat on it, their outlet sat on it, not to give me the story but because they wanted the story told. They knew I'd been working on it before the bombing. And they knew they'd have their role in it once mine came out. I wouldn't be surprised if they're not planning the same as Mark is. Except in their case they had a lot more on the ready before this hit the stands.”