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Hunter thought about the day before. His mind spun. “Yesterday, I … I went to the lighthouse and I put my gun in my mouth, and I almost pulled the trigger.” He sucked in a long breath, feeling stupid and better at the same time by confessing this to his siblings.
“No,” Kensi said, leaning into him, tears on her cheeks. “I’m so glad you didn’t do it.”
Hunter sniffed. “The only thing that made me stop was thinking about dad’s stupid lectures.”
Instantly, all of them started to laugh.
Kensi pointed at him. “The one on who is in charge of when we live or die.”
Hunter sat back on the floor. “Yeah.”
His siblings sat too. Silence fell as they all gathered themselves, occasionally smiling at each other.
Trey touched Hunter’s shoulder again. “We’re going to get through this, dude.” His voice cracked. “We will. Together. We are all here. We all loved Trent, and we all love you.”
Hunter sucked in a long breath, feeling like he might be done crying. For now. “I love you guys.”
“That’s enough then,” Marshall said, standing and putting out a hand to him to help him up. Hunter took it, and Marshall pulled him into a hug. “Look, bro, I know this is rough. I know you were closest to Trent.” He pulled back but kept one hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “I don’t know if you will go back out there and be a SEAL again, or if you want to be done. Whatever you do will be the right thing. But you know I’m opening my motorcycle shop soon; you have a place there if you want it.”
Before all the insanity of Trent, Hunter and Marshall had shared a conversation about how excited Marshall was to finally be done with the military and come back to South Port to open up his motorcycle shop. Kat was pregnant, and they were ready to be home.
Marshall continued, “You’re an excellent mechanic, and I’d be happy to have you.”
“No.” Hunter said the word immediately and abruptly. And he meant it. He didn’t want to work for his brother. Even though he was in a terrible mental place, living in South Port and working for his brother couldn’t be good for him. In fact, right then, he made the decision he’d been uncertain about. “I’m a SEAL. That’s the only thing I know. I’ll go back if they’ll have me.”
All of them made some type of gesture of acknowledgment. This was how it was for the Stones. They served their country, no matter what. Everyone else stood.
Trey cleared his throat. “Well, you good? Anything about Amy you want to talk about?”
One thing Hunter liked best about his brothers and sister was that they didn’t believe in drama. Usually, if it was bad news, they told it straight and worked through it.
He and Amy had dated for two years in Virginia Beach. She was five years younger than him. Her family actually lived close to his house, and they had run into each other while jogging separately on the beach. She’d gotten hurt, and he’d helped her. Over time, he’d fallen in love with her and decided that she might be the woman he wanted to spend his life with—until she’d cheated on him.
“Nope,” was all Hunter said. “She took an Uber and left.”
Brooks hesitated, giving him that FBI profiler up-and-down look. “If you want to talk, my door is always open. I’m not saying that to be annoying.”
“Thanks.”
Brooks held up a key. The last time Hunter had seen it, it’d been hanging around Trent’s neck. “It’s yours now,” Brooks told Hunter. “As you know, the past six months my team has analyzed it six ways from Sunday and has had no luck. Trent and I spent a long time trying to figure out what it could go to, but we couldn’t figure it out. We tried all over South Port and we did searches with my FBI team’s software throughout the world. Nothing.”
Hunter nodded. He knew that. He stared at the key, then clenched it in his hand as he made a fist.
Brooks nodded, then pulled a letter out of his back pocket. “I didn’t want to tell you all this, and I didn’t know when the right time would be, but … I guess there’s no time like the present. I got this letter from Mr. Banks.”
Every part of Hunter tensed.
“What?” Marshall reached for it.
Brooks was faster, holding it out of reach. He handed it to Trey instead. “I thought you could read it, bro.”
Trey was clearly caught off guard. He took the letter and opened it. “‘Dear Stone children,’” he read aloud. “‘I know that you’ve been through so much losing Trent. I want to tell you how sorry I am about that. Because of my respect for you all and your brother, I won’t try to find the key he hid around his neck. And I’m giving you a year off to recoup from this horrible loss. Sincerely, M. Banks.’”
Hunter couldn’t believe the gall of that man. Marshall cursed. Trey gave Brooks a confused look, then returned the letter to him.
“Howkindof him,” Kensi said sarcastically.
Hunter shook his head, feeling like he would combust. “That jerk.”
