The Current Between Us (38 page)

“
Why have you been crying?” Gage asked.

“
I haven’t, Gage. I have two children at the end of the school year. I have a business that’s struggling, and the anniversary of my sister’s death.”
And a boyfriend, who isn’t my boyfriend, like I knew he wouldn’t be! And I fucking told you I loved you. How pathetic am I?
Trent averted his eyes again.

“
Trent,” Gage said, his voice pleading. Gage stepped in closer, if it were even possible for him to do so. Trent dodged the move and put distance between them by sidestepping Gage and walking into the living room. He needed space… Actually he just needed Gage to leave and let him get back to recovering his life.

“
Gage, please say what you came to say. It’s late, I could use an early night.”

“
Well, I’m afraid that’s the one thing that’s probably not going to happen tonight, Trent. Can we go to your kitchen? I need to show you some things. I need the room,” Gage said, coming to stand in the living room. Trent retreated back with every step Gage made toward him. It seemed Gage wanted to have every conversation with only a couple of inches between them. So much for those best laid plans. Trent couldn’t bear to stand so close, breathing in Gage’s cologne, watching those lips move, knowing he would never kiss them again.

Trent extended his arm as pain again shot through his heart at the thought of never again kissing Gage. The dull ache remained constant, but the painful sharp stabs kept coming, over and over, since Gage entered his house. He checked the urge to rub his heart.

Trent stepped back as Gage walked forward. He averted his eyes as Gage finally walked past him. Trent was done with the meaningful looks and the almost touches. As Gage placed his things on the kitchen table, Trent bypassed the table and went to the cabinet for a glass to get a drink of water. He didn’t offer Gage anything. He watched the water from the faucet fill the glass, and drank it down like the shot of whiskey he wanted it to be. He stood at the sink until he heard the chair scrap across the floor.

Gage didn
’t say another word until he opened his laptop and placed a folder down in Trent’s normal seat. Trent came to the table, but stayed standing until Gage finally spoke. “I understand I’ve hurt you, Trent, but please take a seat and let me explain. You’ve followed my career. You understand the reports I do. They aren’t pretty and they aren’t kind. I’ve been working this one, in this folder, for almost six years. It’s the one I’m retiring on. You and I have talked about it. It’s my last report, but what I haven’t said to you… it’s designed to be a going-out-in-a-blaze-of-glory kind of report.”

Trent listened to him, let the words sink in, but he didn
’t sit. His focus stayed on Gage’s nose or on the red file folder sitting in front of him, never back on Gage’s face. For some reason, Gage felt the need to talk about his last project, when he’d guarded its secrecy to this point… Maybe Gage changed his mind about giving up his career, wanting to stay in the industry, but that didn’t explain the intense anger or the lack of communication over the last few days. It didn’t explain anything at all, because none of it had to do with Trent.

Trent let his eyes lift to the laptop sitting open, but the screen showed the desktop, nothing for him to see. Trent resisted the urge to run his hands over his face. With every passing second Gage stayed in his house, Trent
’s resolve weakened. He fought the desire to drop to his knees and beg Gage to give him one more chance. But Trent couldn’t fix an undefined problem. Finally, Gage did something more than just look at him and reached forward to open the file in front of Trent.

“
I need to warn you, some of these images are graphic, but they’re necessary. And, Trent, I have never shared any of my cases with another outside of my employment since I started doing this. I’m asking for your confidence. I know it’s not deserved, but please,” Gage said, laying a hand on top of the open file.

“
Is all this really necessary, right now? I get your career is important. I was a big fan, but it’s not really a good time for me to go through all this,” Trent said, hoping to get Gage out of his house sooner rather than later. Because the need to pick up Gage’s hand and bring it to his lips nearly overwhelmed him.

“
Baby, please just let me start from the beginning. You’ll see soon enough.” Gage scooted in closer to the table and began by turning over the first sheet of paper in the folder. A photo lay underneath. Trent saw several dead men lying around an exploded tank of some sort. Gage took the picture off the top and began to explain.

“
This was the start of the Afghan war. I was there documenting everything, it’s where I got my start. I took photos of everything I saw back then. I took this shot.” He pointed to one photograph, and then moved it aside to point to another. “And then took this shot, all within a matter of an hour or so. You can see the time stamp documentation at the bottom of the photo. We were the first ones to come up on this scene. It was me and my crew. We didn’t stay with field operations the way we were supposed to. Now look here, Trent. In this photo, you see six pair of downed boots. In this one, you see five. Not too abnormal, really, apparently someone didn’t die, and escaped the scene. The problem, look at the wider view, there is no evidence that anyone with this degree of injury left the site.”

Gage flipped photos as he spoke, every once in a while pulling a photo out, laying it above the red folder on the table. No explanation he gave was more than a bullet-pointed version and thankfully Gage kept this fast moving. Trent
’s mind was a little fried, but he followed, finally sitting down at the table, watching the things Gage pointed out for him to see.

“
Now look at this one. Here I’m in Pakistan and it’s the same type thing. Seventeen pairs of downed boots, and here in this photo, there are sixteen. Now look at this one, here I’m in Bosnia; it’s the same thing. Now look back at these. Specifically at the soles of the boots gone missing in each shot they are different than the soles of the standard issue boots these soldiers were required to wear. This got me interested, so I began to dig. I looked at thousands of military photographer’s photos taken all over the world. I found this same situation in twenty-three different photos and in every single case the boots that went missing were different than all the other boots in the photo… Make sense so far?” Gage asked.

“
The one boot sole in all these pictures had the same tread design, but different than anyone else in the photo,” Trent said, not looking away from the pictures, pretty amazed Gage found the pattern to begin with. Who would even think to scrutinize the photos that closely?

“
Correct and I started to dig more. I found the design and maker of the boot. I found no government agency in the world bought this boot. This boot’s an expensive, custom built boot. It’s designed for hard wear and tear over any terrain. So what’s it doing in each of these varied situations, every time there were casualties?” Gage asked.

“
Now, Trent, before I turn this, let me tell you I got super lucky. I found a small photographer in the West Indies who had a similar photo as mine, but she took the shot with their faces up. It’s gruesome, but look at the face I point out,” Gage warned. Trent nodded before he turned the photo over. It showed several mutilated bodies and one which was whole, the body sprayed in blood. As Gage’s finger moved to the whole man’s face, Trent focused in on it, recognition instantaneous. His heart dropped to his feet. That man couldn’t be Em’s and Hunter’s father. There had to be another explanation.

“
Now based on these pictures, here and here, this man is wearing these boots,” Gage said, and left it right there, not saying anything more.

“
This looks like my children’s father,” Trent said, voluntarily lifting his eyes to Gage’s for the first time that night.

“
I know… that’s why I freaked out on you on Sunday night,” Gage said and sat back a little, giving Trent time to process everything. Trent took the time, looking at every picture again, then back at the face of the last photo. The time and date stamp at the bottom of the picture showed two years ago. Not possible. Aaron died four years ago.

“
Gage, this can’t be him. He’s dead. Could it be a brother or relative?” Trent asked, lifting his eyes back to Gage’s. Gage’s silence said he had more to share.

“
So he’s not dead?” Trent asked; dread coursed through Trent’s veins. Trent couldn’t even fully wrap his mind around it all.

“
Let me finish,” Gage said, not answering any of Trent’s questions.

“
Then give me the more bullet-pointed version.”

“
After I identified him, I began searching for him. I found civilians who knew him in some of the worst parts of the world. Then I got lucky, one night in New Orleans, I stumbled on a drunk, talking a bunch of crap, but he knew this guy, a supposed family connection. I got a story and it’s held together, but worse than I ever imagined at the time. He’s a paid assassin, hired by just about anyone to kill just about anything. He’s killed hundreds to thousands of innocent people, trafficked in drugs, sex, women, children, whatever the highest bidder needed, and he would change course in the middle of a job if someone paid him better.”

“
Trent, I’ve found him in Mexico. He’s alive, but in hiding. His every movement is being tracked,” Gage said. He turned over more pictures of the kid’s dad, dressed as a monk with a large dark robe covering his head, but the eyes were there. Hunter looked so much like his father. Trent couldn’t look at them anymore and lifted his eyes to the laptop in front of him. As he stared at it, the screen saver popped up with a picture of him in his tux at the grand opening. His brain struggled to digest it all and the slow steady pound of his heart wasn’t helping his brain absorb everything fast enough. This wasn’t the breakup speech he thought he was getting tonight. Though, it was that and so much more.

“
So you’re saying their dad is still alive and a paid assassin?” Trent finally asked, but his head rejected it just as quickly.

“
Yes,” Gage said. He leaned across the table, closer to Trent, getting back into his personal space again, and Trent sat back in his seat. Keeping a distance grew critical at this point if for no other reason than to ensure enough oxygen actually got to his brain.

“
And you’re sure it’s the same person? He could have had a brother?” Trent asked.

“
No, it’s the same. I’ve spent the last two days researching, investigating, and testing the hypothesis. I didn’t have this alias on him—the one he used with Lynn—but I have men there with him now. I have DNA on him and it matches the DNA found in a hairbrush on Em’s dresser,” Gage said.

“
How accurate?” Trent asked. Gage flipped the DNA report over and the gravity of the situation fell in his lap with the numbers at the top of the page that screamed, ‘
Match!
’. There were pictures of him, his kids, and their father at different stages of their lives in the DNA report.

“
Over ninety-nine percent accurate, Trent,” Gage said.

“
On both the kids?” Trent asked.

“
Yes.”

“
Fuck, Gage, what does this mean?” Confusion clouded his mind. Nothing he came up with made any sense. But it all boiled down to his family being totally fucked. Gone was his need to save his self-respect. Now the biggest emotion pouring through called for him to protect Em and Hunter at all cost, and he wasn’t sure it could be done or how to go about it.

“
I don’t know, I was hoping you could fill some of this in,” Gage said, and he reached out to take his hand, but Trent shrugged it off, pushing back in his chair.

“
I didn’t know any of this,” Trent said and began to absently run his hand over his chest, above his heart.

“
How did your sister meet him?” Gage finally sat back some in his chair, giving him more room.

“
Shit, Gage, I don’t know. On a vacation I think. He was from here, but stationed in another country. He’s of Middle Eastern decent I think, or one his parents were. Something like that… They met when Lynn and Sophia were on vacation during spring break, I think.” Trent stumbled over his words trying to remember.

“
Sophia was there when they met?” Gage asked.

“
Yeah, I think so,” Trent said.

“
Did they live around here after they got together?” Gage asked.

“
No, well Lynn did, but not in the beginning. I don’t know all the details. I never liked him at all. I actually never met him face to face. I know they married right away after meeting each other. He didn’t come home a lot. She got tired of being alone. When he did come home, he wasn’t here more than a week. Maybe not even more than a week a year… Wait a minute, are you telling me you didn’t know any of this when you met me? Or is this how I got the job in your gallery? Did you fucking come in my home, meet my kids, and fuck me to gather this information?” As he spoke, anger built inside him, his voice began to increase with each word.