Page 61 of Clear Blue Sky

Taking in a long, slow breath, she did her damnedest to calm her nerves. She squared her shoulders and smiled, painfully aware she’d not had the chance to shower and didn’t have a stitch of makeup on.

“This must be Brandi.” With style and grace, his mom rose from her seat at the kitchen table. “I’m Dina and this is my husband, Louis.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”

Nelson pulled out a chair and she settled into it, wondering if everyone could hear her heart thumping like a raging river smashing against the rocks. “My parents brought food.”

“I’m starving.” She helped herself to one of the egg sandwiches, hoping that picking at it would help calm her nerves.

“Why don’t we get right down to business.” Louis tapped his fingers on the tablet. “The first thing you both should know is that there has been an investigation into Nelson’s mission and near death—”

“I did die, Dad.”

“Yes, we’re all very well aware of that fact,” Dina said. “We don’t like to be reminded of it.”

“Anyway, the Army and Navy have been investigating the events leading up to Seth’s SEAL team becoming compromised and subsequently captured and the events that followed. We’ve both been stonewalled every time I’ve asked or your mom has. That’s standard because we’re your parents.” Louis pulled up a document with a top secret and confidential stamp.

“At one point, I was told that the case was wrapped up and all accounts had been fact-checked and the government’s stance on the incident was bad intel and that you did nothing wrong,” Dina said.

“I know I didn’t.” Nelson slammed his cup on the table. A splash of coffee flew over the rim and landed on his hand. “Fuck.” He grabbed a napkin and cleaned himself off. “Sorry, Mom, but the way some people tried to spin what happened, making it sound like my decisions were reckless…”

“The good news is that the military knows you acted appropriately based on the situation and the intel you were given.” Louis turned the tablet toward Nelson.

Brandi leaned closer, resting her hand on his shoulder, doing her best to follow the conversation.

“What we didn’t know until Mom pushed harder with her contacts is that the Army has an open investigation into Marcus,” Louis said. “The Navy has been looking into a connection between Seth and this man.”

Brandi’s heart dropped to her toes. “That’s Ethan.”

Nelson jerked his head. “Your ex-boyfriend?”

She nodded. “I told you he was in the Navy.”

“Did you know Seth Baxter?” Dina asked.

“I don’t believe so.” Brandi pulled the tablet closer, widening the picture on the screen. “Ethan did four years at the Naval Academy and then served two years after that. He didn’t like it and didn’t talk about it much other than he was grateful for the degree and the experience.”

“He was at the Naval Academy at the same time as Seth,” Louis said.

“What does that have to do with our current situation?” Nelson asked.

“Ethan’s company is well known for data security.”

“We use EMS Security for our data protection at Grant Publishing,” Brandi said.

Dina leaned over the table and scrolled to another document. “The Department of Defense was in discussions with him a few years ago to safeguard military secrets and data. Two months before Seth’s team was deployed on their last mission, I voted to pull the plug on the contract with EMS Security.” Dina leaned back in her chair.

“Why?” Brandi asked.

“I’d been given information that Ethan was known for putting in backdoors in many of his programs. We can’t have any of that bullshit going on when it comes to national security,” Dina said.

“Where’d you get the information?” Brandi struggled to believe that Ethan would do something like that when it came to the government. However, she did know he’d done it with other companies. When questioned about it, his response was always the same.

He did it to protect the data. That only he and his team could find the backdoor and that in the event of a breach, they had a way of hacking back into the system.

It made sense when he explained it. But what the hell did she know?

“That’s the interesting part.” Louis stood, taking his mug with him as he casually strolled across the room.

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