Page 35 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity
“I’m not upset, Land. I’m relieved, actually. It’s like that weird ball of nerves that he might show up in our lives is gone. I always assumed he was dead, but with no proof, there was always a lingering worry. That’s gone now. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
He kept stroking her cheek with his thumb, all his attention focused on her. “He was still your brother. It’s okay to grieve the innocence that was lost.”
“Trust me, that happened a long time ago. Seriously, I’m solidly relieved, Land. The only hard part will be telling my parents, but that can wait until this is all figured out and I can see them in person. Please, make sure no one from Secure Watch tells them.”
“It has already been said,” he assured her with a smile. “I’m proud of you.”
“Why? Because I’m so inspirational?” Her eye roll was hard and practiced but also defensive. If she could keep him focused on her anger with life, he’d learn he didn’t want any part of hers.
“I see through your defenses, angel. Your walls aren’t hard for me to scale when I know you as well as I do, even fourteen years later. I’m proud of you for the way you’re plowing through this situation. Losing your identity is difficult, but you’re hanging in there and working through it with us. Not everyone can do that. I’ve dealt with people who curl up in a ball and shut out the world. We can solve this if you can hang in a bit longer.”
“I want to be part of the solution. My life already involves enough situations where people have to do things for me. I can help with this and want to do that, so you don’t have to treat me with kid gloves.”
His laughter was soft when it filled the room. “Oh, thatis the last thing I would ever do. There’s never been a situation you haven’t tackled head-on. We can do this together as long as we’re honest with each other.”
Land leaned down and planted a kiss on her forehead, his lips soft and warm as they hesitated there for a moment, as though he was thinking about doing so much more. Instead, he pulled back and shut off the small lamp on the bedside table, plunging the room into darkness. This was one time she was grateful for darkness. It gave her time to stuff all those feelings she had for this man back into the box where she kept them so she could live without crying every single day he was missing from her life.
Then he rolled over and cupped her shoulder, his face just inches from hers as he snuggled into his pillow. It felt like they were an old married couple who had slept this way for years. The tears leaked from her eyes, because he remembered how she liked to be touched. She could feel her shoulders and had told him early on that when she needed to feel human touch, that was the best place to hold her. He’d done it ever since. God, how she loved the sensation of his protective hand on her as he relaxed into sleep.
Carefully, she swiped at the tears while trying not to disturb him in his sleep. Those tears represented loss. Losing her future after the accident, losing Land and now, losing another piece of her family. However, she wasn’t upset by Silas’s loss. She was upset about losing the chance to face him again and tell him how he’d hurt her. Her therapist had told her that if she ever got that chance, she should take it. She needed to put all the negativity back on his shoulders to be free of them. That was no longer possible. She thought about the letter she’d written. Had they ever found him, she’d planned to mail it to him, but now, eventhat option was gone. When this was over, she’d fold it into a paper boat and set it free on Lake Superior, where it could disintegrate and sink to the depths, never to be seen again, just like Silas.
With a deep breath in, she knew that was the right decision. Then he feathered his thumb across her cheek to wipe a tear, shattering her heart into a million little pieces with that slight touch. Making the right decision about Land would be the hardest decision of her life.
Chapter Eighteen
Cal walked into the meeting with his jaw ticking. Immediately, Reece knew whatever he had to say wouldn’t be good.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Cal said to Mina, who motioned at him to take the floor. “There’s been a development.” He glanced down at the paper in his hand. “Around 2:00 a.m., a body was found on the Lakewalk in Duluth. When the police arrived, they identified the victim as Miles Bradshaw, age thirty-five.”
Sky’s gasp was loud in the quiet room. “No. No. That’s not true—no. It can’t be.”
Sliding his arm around Sky’s shoulders, Reece scooted closer to her chair, hating that the wheel got in the way of them connecting hip to hip. “My assumption is the cause of death wasn’t natural.”
“Not unless you call blunt-force trauma natural.”
“Nope,” Reece answered, popping theP. “No one saw anything?”
“Whoever left him there did so while avoiding all the cameras.”
“Wait, left him there?” Reece asked with a brow raised.
“That was also my second question. My police contactsays there wasn’t enough blood or splatter when compared to his injuries for it to have happened there.”
“What is going on?” Sky asked, mournful and angry. “Do you think this is connected to my case?” She was starting to recover from the shock, so he rubbed her back a bit before releasing her.
“It could be a coincidence,” Cal said slowly.
“And you know what I say about coincidences,” Mina said with a snort.
“Coincidences are easily manufactured,” Iris, Cal and Reece said in unison, playing to Mina’s mantra.
“She’s right, though,” Iris said. “There is no way his death isn’t related to this whole mess.”
“But there’s no way Camille is capable of killing him,” Sky insisted. “She’s smaller than me, and Miles was a big guy.”
“There is always a way,” Cal said with a brow raised. “And one of those ways is to hire someone to do it for you. Not always the smartest regarding the trust factor, but it happens more than anyone thinks.”
“What are the police saying? They can’t possibly think Skylar had anything to do with this?” Reece asked.
