Chapter 25

“This ring is seriously gorgeous.” Savi held Beckett’s hand in her own and stared at the glittering jewelry. “You did good, Murph. Damn good.”

Beckett laughed and used her free hand to take a bite of pizza. “I think it’s the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever owned.”

“Totally. As soon as all this is over, we’ll get to start wedding planning. You said spring, right?”

Beckett nodded. “We haven’t gotten any further than that, so don’t get too excited yet.” She pulled her hand free to pick up her glass of wine. “Everything is on hold until this shit with Ryan gets figured out. Christmas is next week, so something has to come to a head soon.”

Smoothly, Jax changed the subject to one more appropriate for dinner. “So, Savi, any desire to go through wedding bells and engagement rings yourself? You seem pretty excited about Beck and Murphy tying the knot.”

Grinning back at him, Savi saluted Jax with her pizza. “Anytime you’re ready, honey, we’ll just head on up to the courthouse and enslave ourselves to one another. You’re awfully pretty to look at. I might not get tired of that for five or ten years on its own.”

Snorting, Jax leaned over and bit a chunk off the pizza she held in the air. “Seriously, though, has it not occurred to you that we don’t know much about you? We know the basics, we know we like you and you’re a part of this whole shit-storm, but you don’t talk about you very much. Tell us something interesting.”

Savi leaned back in her seat and settled in. “Well, when I was two, my parents abandoned me in the jungle and I was raised by an orangutan. When I was twelve, I decided I didn’t want to be Tarzan anymore, so I trekked across thousands of miles of jungle, risking life and limb every day and found my way to the United States where I found a rich long-lost uncle who raised me, put me through college, and bought me my first bakery. Unfortunately, for him to give me all the money, I had to agree to never get married.”

Laughing, Caleb leaned over and slung one arm around her in a friendly hug. “That’s the way. Don’t let Jax bully you into anything you don’t want to tell. The details are none of our business if you don’t want them to be.”

Beckett noticed the forced expression on Savi’s face and the way she tensed at the contact. Within seconds, she watched Savi force herself to relax and reach for her wine, a tense smile on her face.

“The problem is you assume I’m lying.”

Relief flashing across her face when Caleb removed his arms, Savi took a deep drink. When she spoke, her voice was light and casual, though she gave too few details for Beckett to believe she had told the whole truth.

“Seriously, though, there’s not much to tell. Elaina and I had not-great parents who didn’t want any measure of creativity or rebellion. She took off one direction, I went to boarding school and complied for a while. When they started pushing eligible bachelors on me, I moved to Chicago and married the first man who looked at me twice.”

Interrupting, Jax chuckled. “Which must have been the first man to lay eyes on you.”

“Naturally.” Continuing, Savi offered him a grin. “It lasted three years, we divorced, my sister died, and here I am. My story isn’t very interesting.”

Beckett swiftly changed the subject before any more focus could be put on Savi and the finer details of her life before arriving in Trenton. “So, Caleb, assuming we survive to the new year, are you still thinking of applying for professorship down at Trenton University?”

Caleb shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure yet. The pay is better for sure, but I’d have to give up the football team, which I don’t know if I’m ready to do. I put in the application just to gauge their interest, so I won’t have to make a decision unless they offer me the position. We’ll see.” Chuckling, he glanced between his brothers. “Most days I wish I could just give it up and hop on the boat with Jax or spend my days under cars with Murphy. I love teaching, but it doesn’t give me any of the freedom you two have. I miss being able to call my own shots and make my own hours.”

Savi laughed. “It seems you’re a family of entrepreneurs. American dream and all.”

Murphy snorted. “You’re talking to a mechanic, a fisherman, a teacher, a stylist, and a baker. We’re not exactly a group of rich doctors and lawyers.”

“No, but you own your own shop, which appears to be successful. Jax has his own boat and makes his own living. Beckett now owns a huge business that is super successful and I work at that business by running the café. It may not be glamorous, but it’s more than most people have.”

Beckett sipped her wine thoughtfully. “It’s more than I ever thought I’d get. When I married into this family, I was heaving trays full of drinks and sandwiches for a living. As long as I survive the next few weeks, I’ll consider my life to be a success. Great kids, great family and friends, a job I love. There are a lot worse ways to go.” She finished the slice of pizza on her plate and reached for another. “On a happier note, I’m getting to talk to the kids tomorrow. Clint is arranging for a phone call from wherever they are. Anyone who wants to talk to them needs to be there by noon.”

Savi nodded. “I’ll definitely be there to talk to Lyla. She sounds like she’s having a decent time in the letters, but I hate not being there with her. Cassie and Allen wouldn’t let anything happen to her and I know that, but I worry because she doesn’t know them very well. I’d just prefer to have her with me.”

Caleb reached out and covered her hand with his own. “So would we all.” Laying his pizza down on his plate, he folded his hands. “There’s one thing about this entire ordeal that’s bugging me.”

Murphy laughed. “Just one?”

“Oh, shut up.” Caleb rolled his eyes and kicked his brother’s chair playfully. “Seriously, if Ryan was under investigation by the Army for his role in this Malatoa thing and was going to be court-martialed, why in the hell didn’t anyone from the Army tell Beckett about it? Or us? They buried what we thought was him with full honors and offered him a spot in Arlington. I can’t imagine why they did that if they knew what he was doing.”

Beckett mulled it over as she chewed a bite. “Because they didn’t want me to know about it. I’m sure something like this isn’t something they would want getting out. It would be embarrassing for the Army at best, and at worst it would involve lots of press, media, trials, so on and so forth. So I get why they kept it quiet. And if he was under investigation, he was still considered to be innocent. I’m guessing they didn’t think I had anything to do with it or else they would’ve interrogated me about it.”

Pushing back from the table, Jax lifted the empty pizza box and crushed it, folding the cardboard into the trashcan. “I don’t think it matters. All that matters is finding Ryan and getting all this shit over with. Christmas will be here soon, and I don’t think the Malatoas are going to take no for an answer.”

****

Beckett lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Murphy slept next to her, his even breathing lulling her toward sleep, but her racing mind rendered it just out of reach. She thought back over every moment of her marriage she could recall, trying to focus on any details that would shed light on where Ryan would be or where he’d have hidden things. The Sheriff’s office had gone through the storage unit meticulously, logging every pair of socks into evidence and documenting it, so she knew there was nothing in there.

There was nothing she’d kept that had been remotely related to the situation they were in. She’d never found drugs or money that was out of place. There hadn’t been any overt warning signs, and yet, in order for him to have disappeared, he would have made plans for hiding the drugs and money before faking his death. Which meant there was a paper trail. Somewhere. She just had to find it.

Scolding herself for believing she could solve the puzzle when not even the FBI had managed to find any solid proof, Beckett sighed and sat up, giving up on sleep. Pulling her robe on over her pajamas, she slipped from the bedroom and crept down the hall, passing the rooms where Savi and Caleb slept. She started to descend the stairs to the main floor, then changed her mind and opened the door leading up to the attic, ascending the steps and pulling the cord to turn on the bare light bulb in the middle of the room.

Surveying the boxes of Christmas decorations and old clothes, she tapped her fingers on her thigh, mentally sorting out what she’d gathered since moving to Maine and what she’d had while married to Ryan. Starting on one end of the attic, she dragged the boxes and totes of stuff from their life together to one side, putting the boxes that were mixed in the middle and the items she knew had been purchased after his death on the other.

In deference to the chill from the lack of heat in her attic, she pulled on an old hoodie from one of the boxes and spread out three old baby blankets on the floor to sit on. Dropping onto her makeshift mat, she reached for the first box and ripped the tape loose, opening the lid and beginning the process of going through the contents.

She sorted through piles of clothing, checking every pocket and seam for anything useful. Two boxes were filled with photo albums, which she set aside to inspect later, not wanting to damage any of the old photographs by ripping them from the pages. Smiling over Christmas ornaments, she picked up the one Ryan had gotten her for their first anniversary and turned it over in her hands, the smile fading to a frown when she saw a crack in the porcelain.

She had no memory of the ornament ever having been broken. Curious, she emptied out a small tote to catch the pieces and retrieved a hammer from the long-forgotten toolkit she’d found beneath her wedding dress. Holding the ornament in one hand and the hammer in the other, she rapped the porcelain smartly with metal and watched as pieces dropped into the plastic bin. In the midst of the pieces was a slip of paper.

Her heart pounding in her chest, Beckett picked up the paper and unfolded it, finding the key to a lock and a series of numbers written in what she immediately recognized as Ryan’s handwriting. Tucking the two items into the pocket of her robe, she pushed up her sleeves and reached for the next ornament, making peace with destroying all of her Christmas decorations in the pursuit of her erstwhile husband.