Jarrett glanced at him, slight surprise on his face. “Tonight?” Thayne nodded. “Tell him okay. We’ll be there in about an hour and a half if we leave now.”
Thayne nodded. “We’ll be there in about an hour and a half, sir.”
“Good. See you then,” Mark said. He disconnected the call and Thayne turned to his partner.
“That was unexpected.”
“Yeah. Well, my daddy always was a spur of the moment kind of guy.”
“You’d think that men who hold positions of authority like your father would have to be working all the time.”
Jarrett turned his eyes away from the road and smiled at him. “He gets his work done no matter where he was. When I was younger, he worked a lot at Langley but once technology improved, he was able to leave the office. He takes his job with him wherever he lands anyway. Can’t get away from it.”
“I can imagine. His job is military intelligence right?”
“He’s the big kahuna at the CIA when it comes to military intelligence but unless there’s a crisis, he ain’t called into the situation room that often.”
“Isn’t there always a crisis somewhere in the world?”
Jarrett smiled. “Yeah. I suppose there is.”
“Is there something you’re not telling me? I’m getting that impression.” Thayne eyed his partner skeptically.
Jarrett chuckled. “There’s always gonna be somethin’ I ain’t telling you, darlin’. Don’t mean it’s a deep, dark, classified secret.”
Thayne nodded. “Okay.”
Jarrett glanced at him again. His expression was serious. “Look, my daddy don’t get much time off at all. He spends most of his time out at Langley or DC but everyone gets vacations now and then, even the head of military operations for the CIA or the president.”
Thayne was satisfied with that. He supposed that because there was so much of what Jarrett kept to himself, it meant that everything was a secret. He was trying his damnedest to put himself in the mindset of being more understanding about the secrets Jarrett had to keep. Having to do the same with Jarrett’s father was a whole different thing. Thayne knew he was just going to have to accept Jarrett with all his secrets and be understanding about it if he was going to be with him and the way his feelings for the man were growing, he was becoming resigned to that fate. Sometimes it just rubbed him the wrong way, though. He reached to take hold of Jarrett’s hand and Jarrett turned to smile at him.
“Okay, Jarrett.”
Jarrett stopped the truck at a light and glanced over, tugging on his hand. Thayne leaned close and kissed him. Jarrett’s lips were soft and as always, when they touched Thayne’s, a shiver of desire flooded through him. He was deeply in love with this man. They separated and Thayne noticed how Jarrett’s ice-blue eyes twinkled. Thayne swallowed hard as he sat back in his seat. Jarrett turned back to the road with the tiniest of smiles on his face.
Chapter Ten
Auntie Edie opened the door for them when they got there. As soon as they entered the one-story ranch house, the sound of music hit Thayne’s ears. Edie kissed them both and gave them a squeeze.
“The boys and your father are in the family room, Jarrett. They been waitin’ for ya.” Thayne watched a wide grin split Jarrett’s face as he glanced at him.
“Come on. This will be fun for you.” Jarrett headed for the back of the house and Thayne followed him into a large room with high ceilings and natural wood beams.
It was warm and inviting like the rest of the house and as soon as they entered the family room, Thayne’s jaw nearly dropped. Mark was sitting and watching his sons, Elijah and Steel, play guitar. Jase was standing beside them, playing a fiddle. The song was a lilting country ballad and it was beautiful. When Steel opened his mouth and began to sing, Thayne was even more surprised. He had a beautiful deep voice and hearing it come out of that bearded face was more of a shock than anything. When Elijah and Jase joined in, the sound was even richer. The family sings. Huh.
Jarrett’s father smiled when they walked in and he stood, coming over to greet them with handshakes. He nodded his head, indicating the couch and Thayne followed Jarrett to the sectional and sat down. Edie came to sit beside Thayne and poured him an iced tea, handing it to him before patting him on the thigh, giving him a sweet smile before turning back to the boys to listen to their song. When they finished, the four of them applauded and the brothers set down their instruments and came over to greet them with handshakes.
“You gonna play with us, Jarrett?” Jase asked.
Thayne turned to look at his lover with more surprise as Jarrett stood with his hands on his hips. He shook his head.
“Haven’t played in years.”
Jase walked over to the wall where a banjo was propped up and picked it up, returning to hand it to Jarrett. Thayne watched as Jarrett hefted the instrument and plucked a few strings. Thayne had to admit, he’d never found much use for the banjo but seeing Jarrett holding it was not only surprising but it explained so much… like how Jarrett loved listening to that shitty Bluegrass music he’d played all the way back from San Diego while they worked the fireworks case.
“I don’t know if I remember how,” Jarrett said.
“No way are you going to leave here without showing me how you play, Jarrett,” Thayne said.
Jarrett chuckled. “You hate Bluegrass.”
Thayne nodded and grinned. “Change my mind for me.”
Edie tugged on his sleeve and he turned to find her grinning at him also. “Come on. Let him play. Yer gonna be surprised.”
Thayne followed her back to the sofa and sat down while the boys picked up their instruments, giving Jarrett center stage as he stood beside them putting steel thumb and finger pics on. He plucked the strings slowly at first as the others waited. Then, almost as if someone had turned on a CD, Jarrett started to play.
Within seconds, Thayne’s jaw had dropped again as Jarrett’s fingers flew over the banjo’s strings and a Bluegrass tune began. The brothers watched and then joined in. Jase on the fiddle and Jarrett on the banjo were magical together. The other men, on guitars, played in the background, leaving Jarrett and Jase to play solos as the foot-tapping song commenced. Thayne had no idea what the song was but he found himself utterly entranced with it, feeling the music as it sank all the way down into his soul. Jarrett was laughing and he suddenly appeared ten years younger. Thayne was thunderstruck.
He stared at Jarrett, watching him play but when he opened his mouth and began to sing, Thayne almost lost his mind. Jarrett’s voice was beautiful, deep and haunting, and watching him tap his foot and his eyes dance with delight was probably the most fun of all of it. Thayne was utterly mesmerized and when the song ended, he stood up and applauded like a fool. Once more, Jarrett had managed to surprise the hell out of him. He never thought he’d see this side to his lover and it shocked him to his very core.
They all took a bow as Jarrett’s father and aunt stood and clapped right along with Thayne. Jarrett finally set down the banjo and glanced at him. His cheeks were flushed with color and Thayne wondered whether it was from embarrassment or happiness. The one thing about Bluegrass was that it was really hard not to have fun when you were listening to it. It was literally toe-tapping and raucous fun and after tonight, Thayne knew he was going to have a hell of a lot more tolerance when he was forced to listen to it in the future.
Edie went off to the kitchen to make coffee and the others drifted out to the back porch. Thayne followed them out, staying close to Jarrett who still seemed to be buzzing with energy after his performance. Steel walked up and hugged his brother, then turned to Thayne and shook his hand, smiling broadly. Thayne couldn’t get over how handsome the bearded artist was. He possessed the same blue eyes as his brothers and the dimples appeared when he smiled, though his were covered with whiskers. The white
streak down the center of his hair was still surprising to Thayne. All the men were exceptionally handsome but there was something special about Steel. Thayne was attracted to the guy’s cheerful personality, so different from Elijah who was stoic almost to the point of being standoffish. Thayne cold see that Elijah was making an effort to be friendly, though, speaking to Jarrett and laughing with him.
“I’d like to show you my studio, Thayne,” Steel said, bringing his attention back to the bearded face.
“I’d like that.”
Jarrett grabbed Thayne’s arm and grinned. “Come on. This’ll be fun for ya.”
They followed Steel deeper into the yard and headed toward one of the property’s outbuildings he had noticed before. The building looked like a cabin but nailed to the tall door was a large copper-colored sunburst about two feet in diameter. It was beautiful, polished and burnished around the edges, giving the art piece a three-dimensional look. The center of the sun was a lifelike face with wide lips and crescent-shaped eyes that seemed to smile. A long straight nose, reminiscent of a Roman statue gave the art piece life. Steel was a truly gifted artist. He opened the door and they walked into the cabin. Thayne was surprised to see everything inside. Three long wooden work benches were set up in the room and they were covered with metal-working paraphernalia. Steel began to walk down the bench in the center of the room, showing off a piece he was currently working on.
Steel explained that it was commissioned by one of his patrons, a wealthy businessman who’d retired to Lewisburg, had seen Steele’s statue in the park, and hunted him down. It was made of metal in varying colors, worked with copper wire soldered around the edges of squares cut in different sizes. They were arranged in abstract patterns and turned at various angles, making the piece eye-catching. Steel had used different finishes on the metal from what looked like brush work to various circular designs punched into the metal with some sort of tool. He’d applied copper circles to other squares in various patterns and the overall look of the piece was gorgeous. It was also very large and he explained that it would hang on a wall and be about three by four feet when completed. He’d started at the middle and added squares, overlapping in places, as he worked his way out to the edges. Thayne was fascinated by the intricate details of the punch work and the varying colors of metals that he used.
“This is amazing, Steel,” Thayne said, bending to look closer.
“Thank you.”
“Did I tell you my little brother was talented?” Jarrett asked with pride clear in his voice.
Thayne nodded. “Extremely.”
They walked the length of the table as Steel explained what the various metal working tools were. Hawk-billed snips, straight-cut aviation snips, ripping shears, and metal punches in various sizes were lined up along with several variations in hammers Thayne hadn’t seen before. At the end of the table was a large vise grip which showed years of wear and tear. One of the two tables that lined opposite walls was covered in pieces of colored glass. They were lying loose in a half circle frame in a gorgeous flower garden design complete with hummingbirds made out of brightly colored glass. The whole thing looked as though Steel was ready to apply lead strips to make a leaded glass window.
“When did you start making windows?” Jarrett asked, running his fingers over the frame.
Steel smiled beneath the beard. “I took a class down at the senior center in town after bein’ asked to demonstrate some of my metal workin’ techniques. I liked it so I started out with this.” He walked over to a finished piece of glasswork. It was a sun catcher that hung from a golden chain in one of the south facing windows in the cabin. During the day when the sun shone into the building, Thayne imagined how it would spread colored light into the room. It was beautiful. Not large, the square frame probably only measured twelve by eighteen inches, showing off a hummingbird design.
“It’s beautiful,” Thayne remarked.
“Thank you. I’m learnin’,” Steel said, his smile back in place.
Thayne really liked this brother. In fact, he liked all of them. Elijah seemed to be relaxing a bit more with Jarrett and he could see the delight in Jarrett when Elijah was close. Even though the man wasn’t overly friendly with him, he’d been a lot more pleasant than Thayne expected he’d be so that was a win as far as he was concerned. As long as the guy wasn’t gonna be a dickhead, Thayne would relax around him. He’d expected the absolute worst from him so anything was better than that, even the slight standoffish nature of the guy.
Thayne hadn’t realized until he’d seen him that night just how much he’d been worried about Elijah, but watching Jarrett play that fucking banjo beside his brothers and how much he’d enjoyed himself doing it, was worth any anxiety Thayne had been feeling in coming here again.
Edie was a sweetheart and Mark had turned out to be an unexpectedly gracious host, nothing like Thayne had expected to face. The impression Jarrett had left with him when he first talked about his homophobic father had worried him more than he was willing to admit. Punching out a former highly-ranked Marine who was the CIA’s top military advisor hadn’t been high on Thayne’s to-do list but if it had come down to it, he was more than ready to make it happen. Seeing how he loved his sons was clear though. It seemed he and Jarrett had come to an understanding. The door opened behind them and Mark walked in. As soon as he spotted Jarrett, he nodded to him.
“Can I talk to you, boy?”
“Yes, sir,” Jarrett said, quickly. He turned and glanced at Thayne, offering him a little smile before reaching out to give his arm a squeeze. “I’ll be back.”
“Edie’s got some peach cobbler and coffee if you’re ready for it, Thayne,” Mark said.
“Thank you, sir.”
“I told you to call me Mark,” the man said with a slight smile. He had such a rigid look to him it was always a surprise to Thayne when he saw him smile.
“Okay, Mark. Thank you.” He watched as Jarrett and his father left the cabin and then turned back to Steel, offering him a small smile.
“They’ll be a while,” Steel drawled. “Come on. I want to show ya the sculpture I’m workin’ on. It’s out back.”
Thayne gave the door where Jarrett and his father had exited one last glance before following Steel to a door in the opposite wall. He truly hoped whatever Mark had to talk to Jarrett about wasn’t serious.
****
Jarrett followed his father over to the two Adirondack chairs in the yard where they could talk and not be overheard by anyone. He was only a bit surprised that his father had wanted to talk to him away from Thayne and he really hoped he wasn’t going to bring up the past again. He hoped the homophobic barbs were behind him but it didn’t make him any less nervous.
“Can you tell me more about Roberto Virgil Romero, Jarrett?”
“Is that important?” Jarrett was more than a little puzzled why he’d brought up the guy whom Mills Lang had hired to kill Thayne before his trial on gun charges and murder.
“Yeah, it’s important. Humor me, boy.”
“We served in the Corps together but the last time I saw him prior to nearly being killed by him in Turlock was when we were pulled for a guard detail in 2007.”
“A guard detail? What were you guarding?”
“A shipping container. It was being shipped to the States.”
His father looked around the yard, side to side as if searching for someone who might overhear. The yard was empty and no one was around. When he began speaking, his tone of voice was very low.
“Jarrett, I need you to tell me what you know about that guard detail and everyone involved.”
Jarrett hadn’t thought about that mission for a long time and even then, it was only a blip on his radar. Nothing had happened to warrant this level of his father’s interest and there was something he was quite obviously keeping from him.
&
nbsp; “Okay, I was called off a mountainside in Tajikistan by my sergeant. The next thing I knew, I was in a transport headed out to an undisclosed location.”
“They didn’t tell you where you were going?” Mark’s eyebrows climbed in surprise.
“No, but when we landed only an hour later, we knew it was in the Gulf. The trip was too short for it to be Europe or elsewhere. When I got off the transport, we learned that we were in Muscat.”
“In the Gulf of Oman?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Okay, go on. What happened there?”
“I found out that I was part of an elite group of Marines tapped to provide security for a shipping container bein’ sent back to the States.”
“How’d you get word of the mission? You said it was your sergeant?” Mark asked.
“Sergeant Heston gave me my orders. He told me I was being loaned out for special duty and I was flown out on a transport the next day. That was nine years ago. What’s this all about?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out. Who’d you report to and who else was on that detail besides you and Virgil?”
“I reported to a Captain Frances and the other men on the detail were Gabriel Roukin, Arnold Kim, Emanuel White, and Seeley Jones. It was just the six of us. Now you wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“Do you know what was in that container, Jarrett?” his father asked.
“No.” Jarrett shook his head. “We weren’t told a damn thing. It was gravy work. I got a bonus in my next pay for standing around and doing nothing for twenty-four hours before they loaded the container onto a ship. Afterward, I got shipped back to my unit. I don’t get why it should matter though. I couldn’t care less what was in the container. You know the US was always sending supply containers back and forth. It was usually aid of some sort and it was almost ten years ago now. You think that container had something to do with who’s trying to kill me?”
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