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STEVE WAITED UNTIL the boys settled in their rooms before crossing into the gym. Jennifer was still going on the elliptical, flipping the pages of the script, her lips moving silently as she read. He took a sip from his scotch and leaned on the doorjamb, waiting for her to look up. Sweat beads dripped down her face like sprinkles on a windowpane and he smiled.
Jennifer flipped the page and her gaze bounced to his, her expression transitioning from concentration to surprise and she reached up, pulling the buds from her ears. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Just a few minutes,” he said and pointed to the script. “Are you reconsidering?”
Jennifer’s gaze dropped to the pages in front of her and back. “No. I just needed something to take my mind off everything.”
Steve’s smile soured, and he nodded, raising the glass. “Me, too.”
Jennifer sighed and slowed her pace. “You shouldn’t be drinking.”
“I’m not on duty,” he said and refrained from adding he probably wouldn’t be on duty ever again after all this settled, but he didn’t want to see the relief cross over her features. She hated his job, and always had, especially since it put him in the path of danger.
Bitterness swept through him at the full realization that his career was over. There was no way he’d be allowed to continue in the FBI with felony charges on his record, even if it never went anywhere. He drained his glass to quell the budding frustration.
Her lips thinned in response, pressing together in that look of disapproval that always irked him. He cocked his head in a silent challenge and wiped his lips with his shirtsleeve.
“So, you’re choosing to get drunk?”
“Seems like the best option right now,” he said.
The elliptical stopped and Jennifer leveled a glare at him. “What kind of message is that sending to the boys?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Look, I need to blow off some steam,” he started and when she opened her mouth to counter his logic, he put his hand up. “My career is over. Tom may go to jail for the rest of his life, and CJ wants to play cat and mouse with the killer by confessing and drawing the media attention to him instead of his brother. So right now, my option is to drink, otherwise, I’m going to lose it. And it isn’t pretty when I lose it these days.”
Voicing his frustrations left his blood boiling and he clenched his teeth, storming out of the room and onto the terrace. He wanted nothing more than to catch the Windwalker and throw the bastard in jail for life, but now, he’d have to sit on the sidelines and watch while others figured it out. Anger bloomed, lancing his skin, pooling in his stomach, and he needed to let the coiled beast out, otherwise, he would self-destruct.
His gaze landed on their Olympic size heated pool and he allowed a fraction of power to escape, aimed at the pristine pool. The water burst into a boiling mass, pushing gales of steam toward the sky.
The release of power did more than the drink had, and the burn of frustration lessened into a dull ache. He closed his eyes, reining the power back in and sending a counter command for the water to cool back to the balmy one hundred degrees they set for the winter. When the hissing stopped, he opened his eyes.
More than half the pool had evaporated under his flash of anger and he sighed, crossing to the controls and turning on the faucet to fill up the pool via underground water lines.
“Are you finished with your little temper tantrum?” Ty’s voice echoed in his head.
“Yeah. I’m done,” Steve muttered. In more ways than one, he thought.
If you tell them the truth, will they go easy on you? Ty’s voice filled his head.
Steve scoffed and flipped the water off. “The truth? You really think the truth will help me?” Steve laughed, and the bitter edge filled the night. “Which truth are you talking about, Ty? Let’s see...that I knew exactly who you were for a good couple weeks, or that I blackmailed you into helping me? Or that I decided it would be better to utilize your skills to catch Kyle instead of bringing you in. Wow, yeah, thank you for your insight,” he snarled at the air over his shoulder.
No need to get sarcastic. Ty’s wings fluttered.
“I should have hauled your ass in the moment I got Eric’s memories,” Steve said.
“I wouldn’t have let you.”
Steve spun and stared at CJ. “I thought you were in bed.”
CJ shrugged. “You haven’t done a good job of keeping your thoughts under wraps tonight. I don’t know if it’s the alcohol or what, but dude, your anger is pelting me like a hailstorm. You need to chill.”
The alcohol definitely had an effect on his tongue and brought his sarcasm to the surface, but this time, he was entitled. “If your father hadn’t been such an idiot, we wouldn’t be facing this predicament.”
CJ smiled. “I can’t argue with you there.”
I wanted something to remember my brother, considering I was the one who got him killed. The ruffle of feathers accompanied Ty’s voice.
Steve paused and the heat in his face dissolved. “What exactly is on those video’s Ty?” he asked instead of trying to filter through the man’s memories embedded in his mind.
There are only a couple videos with Chris, but they are damning enough. One shows the first time I bet on Jessica and she didn’t disappoint me and the second is Chris’s death. The rest are Jess and I. I couldn’t erase any of them, even after Jess and I got married, so I just hid them away.
“So, you’re telling me the real truth is about to blow wide on this, not just that your brother was involved?”
Yes.
“Fuck,” Steve muttered and met CJ’s stare wondering what the whole truth would do to both CJ and Tom.
“I already know what my father did. He denied killing for sport like his step-brother did, but he was the one who orchestrated the explosions that convinced the world the people they kidnapped were dead.” CJ sighed. “He isn’t innocent by any stretch of the imagination, and if I had been a little older when you came into our lives, I might have felt differently, but at that time, there was no way I was letting my father go to jail.”
“He really tried to atone for his sins,” Steve said, coming to the criminal’s defense.
CJ nodded and offered a smile even though his eyes misted over. “I know, but that’s only because of my mother.”
“Just so we’re on the same page. I’m going to be under the gun for this,” he said. “And if they ask me if I knew who your father really was, I’m going to tell the truth.”
“I’ll back you up if you need me to. I know you didn’t blackmail him for money.”
Steve smiled at his naivety. “Thanks, but...”
I made provisions for that. Ty’s voice interrupted.
Steve cocked his head. “What?”
Contact Lynn Trueman. She’s got a few legal documents that will help.
“Why didn’t you pipe up sooner?” Steve asked, looking at the sky while irritation snaked over his skin. The chuckle from the great beyond set another fire in his stomach.
“It’s because he’s still an asshole,” CJ said, his jaw tense with aggravation and he turned, stomping back into the house, leaving Steve alone with his father’s ghost.