Page 46 of Her Forever SEAL

“Dan?”

Peggy shook her head. “I told him there were PTA politics. He bought it.”

“Okay.” Sophia folded her hands on the table. “Because the moment Tom and Dan know, they have to report it up the chain, and the moment they do that, we lose control of how this gets handled.” She looked at them both. “Right now, the only people who know what's actually happening are in this kitchen, and soon three more women I trust with not just my life, but my children’s lives. That's an advantage. I need you to help me keep it.”

Lettie looked at the shot glass. Then she picked it up and held it out across the table.

“Get rid of it,” she said. “The bottle too.”

Sophia took both and set them on the counter behind her.

Then they waited.

Angie came in first, reading the house in one long sweep the way she always did. Rylie followed behind her, quiet and contained, already watching. Lydia came last, tablet under her arm, her face giving nothing away.

Sophia introduced the women, and Peggy poured coffee for everyone and sat down at the table with everyone else. It was Rylie who got down to things, in her easy, friendly manner.

“Peggy, why don’t you go first? Start from the beginning,” she said. Her voice was easy. Conversational. Like they had all the time in the world. “Don't leave anything out because you think it's too small. The small things are usually the ones that matter most.”

Lettie looked at Sophia.

Sophia nodded.

And Lettie started talking.

When it was Lettie’s turn, she was more comfortable, until she started talking about the day Bree went missing.

“Bree goes to Mathnasium on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You know the one, it’s on Laurel Avenue near Anna’s Nails. I was waiting for her to come out. I was early. I watched as everyone in her group came out, but not her, which was weird, because she was usually first to leave.”

“This past Tuesday, right?” Rylie clarified.

Lettie nodded. Her hands were trembling, so she laid them flat on the table.

“The class ends at seven-thirty. When she wasn’t out by seven-forty, I went in. I asked the receptionist, I don’t know her name, if Bree was in the back. I thought she could be talking to her teacher or in the bathroom or something. She looked confused. She said Bree had left at seven after a woman called into the front desk saying she was outside waiting for her.”

Lettie looked around at all of them. “The receptionist looked scared. She started apologizing, she said she had assumed it had been me on the phone.”

The hair on Sophia’s neck rose.

“I called Bree’s cell phone. It rang and rang. I called it again. It finally just went straight to voicemail, like it had been turned off. I was about to call the police when a text came in. All it said was, If you want to see Bree again, wait for instructions. Tell no one.”

She gulped and looked over at Peggy. She grasped Lettie’s hand. Lettie looked back up at Rylie.

“I don’t remember getting into my car. I tried texting back but it said undeliverable.”

“It would,” Lydia said.

“I went to the coffee shop, but Mary wasn’t there. I asked for her phone number, but it was against store policy to give it out. I got another text telling me to go home.”

“They had you under surveillance,” Angie said. “Or maybe the coffee shop.”

“Then what happened?” Rylie asked.

“I was at the coffee shop before it opened. Mary must have come in the back, because when they opened it, she was behind the counter. I went straight to her. She told me to stop. She said she would talk to me at her break.”

Lettie started to cry. When she got herself under control, she continued. “Two hours later, Mary and I sat at the table in a far corner. That’s when she gave me that bottle and told me I had taken too long to get them the information. She told me I had forty-eight hours to get them the pictures they needed.”

“I told her that was impossible. I had no way of knowing when Tom would bring home work. Sometimes he would go a week without bringing anything home, he’d just stay at the base until after midnight.”