Page 71 of Open Secrets
Chuckling, I ask, “What were you even doing there anyway?”
But the laugh dies when silence answers me.
“…Oh.”
“Lyle,” she says gently, warning in her voice.
“Listen, I gotta go. I’m here.”
I hang up before she can press, shoving the phone into my pocket.
And then I just stand there. On the sidewalk. Staring at the dull lights of the barracks down the block.
I should go in. Sleep. Pretend this night never happened.
But my feet don’t move.
Not forward.
Not home.
After a long moment—too long—I turn around.
And start walking back toward the bar.
Maria — Present
“And that was the first night I spent with her,” Lyle finishes.
I purse my lips. “Not that I don’t appreciate this sudden andunwantedburst of information, but why are you telling me this now?”
He clears his throat. “Well… CeCe—”
“Oh, it has a name.”
“—CeCe and I had a kind of… friends-with-benefits situation,” he says quickly.
My glare snaps to him, sharp enough to cut steel.
He lifts his hands in surrender then grabs the staring wheel again. “I ended it a year ago. I swear. But now she’s pregnant and threatening to go to command and say it’s mine if I don’t pay her off.”
I take a deep breath, blowing it out through my nose. My fingers drum against my thigh. “And why do we care if she goes to command? Not like it’ll stand if it isn’t yours.”
“It’s not,” he says instantly. “I swear it’s not. But if command finds out I slept with someone else while being married—and officially on duty—they can pull my benefits. The pension, the insurance… everything.”
My stomach drops.
“We need that,” I whisper.
He nods grimly. “Especially since we’re gonna have a mortgage soon.”
“Let’s worry about one thing right now.” My voice comes out clipped, tight. “When did this CeCe make the threat?”
Lyle’s hands tighten on the wheel. “Yesterday.”
“Yesterday,” I repeat, my jaw locking.
He nods, guilty as a teenager caught sneaking in past curfew. “She… she came by the house.”
