A Soldier's Honour

Unless the information wound up on one of those notorious leaks pages and his mother heard about it there before he had a chance to tell her. Matt swore.

His first call should be to his mom. She didn’t deserve to hear she had a grandchild from a hacker leak. That was the kind of error that could get him benched for the next few Riley-family flag football scrimmages. Again, not the end of the world, but not something his siblings would let him live down.

He unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it into the laundry hamper, and then toed off his shoes. He flopped back on the bed and just stared at the ceiling for a few minutes. It was too late to call his mom tonight and he should probably give Bethany a warning call first, in case his mother insisted on learning more about the grandson Matt had kept hidden from her.

Briefly, he entertained the idea of riding it out. Wait and hope to maintain the status quo or come clean and hurt the people he loved most? The odds were in his favor that news of their son wouldn’t come out at all.

Too bad he couldn’t be sure if that was denial, logic or wishful thinking.

Troubled and restless, Matt went back to the kitchen and poured a glass of cold water. As he leaned back on the counter, he drank it down and set the glass aside. He should call his dad and tell him about Bethany and Caleb. His dad’s wisdom and calm insight had been the underpinning throughout his life. Maybe his dad would dredge up a little pity for his oldest son and help him break the news to Matt’s mom and help him find the words to explain that she couldn’t contact the kid.

Now that was wishful thinking.

General Benjamin Riley, US Army, retired, believed choices and actions had consequences, good and bad. When Ben found the love of his life, Patricia, he’d married her, and together they’d raised their five children into adulthood with that core principle as a cornerstone of character. Life as the family of a career officer had been more than strict rules and high expectations. There had been plenty of love, laughter, bickering and tears to round things out.

Despite that vast, wonderful, messy experience to draw from, he’d never been able to convince Bethany to give them a chance to grow as a family. That was the piece of this puzzle that would disappoint his father.

When he stopped to think about it, the security breach was less daunting than the Riley family consequences of keeping such a big secret for the better part of fifteen years. Recently his mother had been dropping hints as subtle as carpet bombs about the potential delights of becoming a grandmother. She would be furious when she discovered he’d been holding out on her.

After loading his empty glass into the dishwasher, he headed back to bed. He supposed it was too much to hope that one of his four siblings was ready to confess a character flaw as significant as a child floating around in the periphery of their lives.

He was being an idiot, he decided, waffling and overthinking the ramifications. The situation—the secret—would have to change in light of the security breach. Since Bethany had sent the first picture and their son’s birth stats to the JAG office almost fifteen years ago, he’d known this day would come. It was really a miracle it had taken this long.

This had to come out, and better if they got ahead of it. First they needed to give Caleb the full, big picture of his family tree. He pressed his hands to his eyes as the first step kept shifting on him. Figuring this out was like walking across loose sand. One footprint changed both the previous and subsequent steps. Regardless, Caleb came first. After that, he and Bethany could figure out how he and his parents could be woven into Caleb’s life.

He rolled his shoulders, trying to sort out what was relief and what was more stress. Countless times through the years, Matt had been tempted to unload this burden on one of his siblings or a good friend. Somehow he’d always managed to keep his mouth shut. According to Bethany’s updates, Caleb was pretty awesome and growing more so every year. The way things stood, Matt couldn’t share school pictures or sports heroics with anyone other than the JAG office.

No, his family and friends wouldn’t be happy he’d lied by omission, but they would come around. “They will come around.” Matt stated the affirmation to the empty condo.

He had his phone in hand and had started to dial before he remembered what time it was and dropped it back on the nightstand. Bethany had been a night owl once. Most likely a career and a kid had revised those habits. He missed that quirk and so much more. The bone-deep longing for her and his son seemed to be the one wound time couldn’t heal.

He stripped off his jeans and socks and tossed them into the hamper and crawled into bed. As he set his alarm for the morning, his cell phone vibrated and rang with an incoming call. Matt gawked at Bethany’s smiling face filling the display. He’d pulled the picture from a post on social media. Maybe she was still a night owl after all. “Hello?”

“We have a problem.” The abrupt statement aside, Bethany’s voice was like silk brushing over his skin. He wanted to wallow in it.

“Yeah, the security breach is inconvenient,” he began, pulling himself together. “But it’s not the end of the world. The odds are a million-to-one they’ll connect the two of us. We have some time to develop a strategy.”

“It’s already happened,” she said, her voice flat.

“What?” He couldn’t have heard her correctly. “What do you mean?”

“I received a creepy, handwritten threat today on official letterhead.”

Those two things didn’t mesh. “I’m not following,” Matt said.

Her soft sigh came over the phone, reminding him of the stolen moments they’d shared when they were younger. Moments that eventually became a wedge between them when she wound up pregnant.

How many times had he dreamed about convincing her to marry him? He hadn’t expected it to be a smooth road, but he’d been willing to navigate every pothole and speed bump with her. With her soft breath in his ear, he could imagine them in this bed right now, together, doing something far more fun than talking about a security breach.

“Matt? Are you there?”

“Yeah.” He sat up and pinched the bridge of his nose. Focus on the reality. “What kind of creepy threat?”

“Instead of the letter I expected about the security breach, this is handwritten. Two lines. The gist is someone has done the math and decided I’m banking more than I make. The threat is that my secret will become common knowledge.”

“On the agency letterhead?” That was as strange as sending a threat via baseball. “Weird.”

“Yes,” she agreed.

He could tell she expected him to say something more profound. “Legally, you’re good.”

“I know that,” she said. “I’m not worried about the job or the clearance—I’m worried about Caleb.” She paused and he could so easily picture her teeth nipping into her full bottom lip. “I’m worried about your mom.”

“That makes two of us,” he admitted.

“You’ve never told her?” Bethany asked.

Was she joking? “If I had, you would’ve known.”

“True enough,” she said.

His parents had a reputation for their unflagging emphasis on maintaining family and balance within the Military framework. “I got my breach letter today, too. Mine was standard issue,” he added. “I figured I’d make time to speak to my parents tomorrow. After I spoke with you. I didn’t feel right saying anything until we talked.”

“Thanks.”

“I would’ve called sooner, except I just got home about an hour ago and thought you’d be happier if I called in the morning.”

“Oh.” The single syllable stretched out. “I couldn’t sleep and just wanted to make a plan,” she said briskly. “I’d like to tell Caleb before you tell anyone else.”

Was she asking for his permission or advice on breaking this news to their son? “Of course. How is he doing?” The last real-time conversation they’d had about Caleb was over three years ago, when he’d broken his wrist during a soccer game. Otherwise, she kept things vague, only sending Matt his school picture and occasional noteworthy updates about his grades or sporting successes.

Those small glimpses of Caleb had never been enough for him, yet he respected her wishes, her rules, because she’d given up everything to protect his place at West Point and, subsequently, his Army career. Time and again, he capitulated to the limits she set, because anything else made him feel grasping and whiny.

“He’s great,” she was saying. “I just don’t want him hearing this from anyone else. I’m not entirely sure how he’ll react,” she added.

“Has something changed?” The worry in her words felt like a knife twisting in his gut. This was only the second time he’d heard anything less than full confidence out of her. The first was when she’d been debating how best to be a mom and fulfill her career goals. “What’s going on with him?”

“Nothing,” she said a little too quickly. “Nothing’s changed. It’s still soccer and school, school and soccer. He’s a teenager, that’s all.”

Matt opened his mouth to push her, to make demands, but bit back the hard words. Instead he changed the subject. “Is he driving yet?” The query was a transparent attempt to learn if there was anything of him in his son.

“He’s studying for his learner’s permit. We’ll take care of that next week, while he’s on fall break.”

Matt remembered how excited he’d been for that same day as a kid. “Has he had any experience behind the wheel?” he asked, wondering if Caleb would have any interest or appreciation for the restored Camaro. Assuming they met.

“My dad has let him drive the four-wheeler on camping trips, and he’s let him drive the tractor on their property. I’m told he’s still pretty rough on the manual transmission, but he’s improving.”

“That’s good. It takes time,” he said. “You have enough set aside to buy him a car? I can send more money—”

“When that time comes, we’ll talk about it,” she said in a stern voice that bore a striking resemblance to Patricia Riley’s mom voice. “It’s still a good year or more away.”

He’d always believed the two women would get along well. They’d met once during a family day at West Point and seemed to hit it off, though his mom hadn’t known how vital Bethany was to him at the time. If she hadn’t forced him to keep Caleb a secret...well, now Matt had no idea what his mom might say or do when they met again.

And they would meet. Once Patricia learned about Caleb, she would be adamant about welcoming him into the Riley clan.

“Look, Matt, I called to make you aware of the creep-factor in this note,” she said. “I’ll report it to the security team at my office tomorrow.”

“Good.”

“Matt, I’d like you to be here.”

“At your office?” He held the phone back from his face as if that would clear up his confusion. “Huh?”

“When I tell Caleb, I would like you to be here with me. Us.”

His hand tightened around the phone. “You mean it?”

“Yes. I think it will help him understand if we’re telling him together. Help him feel valued and that we’ve always wanted what was best for him.”

He was going to meet his son. His heart hammered against his ribs. “Sure.” He had to find some real words. After all these years of wishing and wondering, he’d get to look his kid in the eyes, maybe even hug him or shake his hand. “Tell me when and where,” he managed at last. Too many emotions were warring for dominance. “I’ll be there.”

“Here, please. He’ll be home from practice around six and we could eat at seven.”

Matt was already doing the mental juggling over the drive time from Washington to her place in New Jersey, calculating how early he might need to leave work. He’d speak to General Knudson first thing in the morning, but there was no way he was missing that invitation.

“Once Caleb knows, you’ll be okay with me telling my parents?” he asked.

“I have to be, don’t I?”

He would have preferred the catalyst for meeting his son wasn’t her feeling cornered by some vague threat in a letter. Bethany didn’t have enemies, not like General Knudson or even his dad had. In careers as long and storied as theirs, enemies of several varieties began to stack up, from disgruntled soldiers to politicians, both local and abroad. He sighed. He could hear the conflict and misery in her voice. As much as he hated to give her a pass on this, he felt obligated.

“I can’t think of any reason anyone would target the three of us,” he said. “If you’d like to ride it out, we can. Whoever sent that threat will know soon enough there’s nothing to be gained. If you want to wait a bit before we have these conversations, I will respect that.”

“No.” Her voice was calm and steady, if not delighted by the prospect of tomorrow’s family dinner. “I’ve put this off long enough. I won’t risk him learning about this from another source.”

“All right.” Once more, he gave her full control, let her dictate how this played out. “I’ll be there at seven.”

“Thanks, Matt.”

“Thanks for the invitation.” She could have handled this mess alone and told Matt after it was done. She’d made it clear through the years that she could manage this parenting gig on her own.

He thought he heard a sniffle, but when she spoke, her voice was steady, if quiet. “I know this will change everything,” she began. “I only ask that it doesn’t change everything immediately. Caleb will need time to process this.”

“I understand.” She was warning him away from any abrupt changes over their custody agreement. “I’ve only ever wanted you and Caleb to be safe and happy.”

“Thanks for that,” she said, ending the call.

Matt held the phone to his chest. When he closed his eyes and thought of her, he still saw the athletic young woman he’d met when they were new cadets at West Point. Her big brown eyes had been full of nerves and excitement and eagerness for the challenges ahead. Like every cadet before him, he’d entered West Point with nothing more than his career on his mind.

Bethany had changed that. Success took on more meaning than simple pride in doing a job well for the sake of reaching his goals. She made him want to set and accomplish goals for the good of the team. Meeting her had made him a better person and student from that first day forward, though it hadn’t yet made him good enough for her to keep.

Matt reached up and turned out the light, but he couldn’t sleep. His mind flipped back and forth between the baseball lobbed at General Knudson and the creepy letter sent to Bethany. For both of them to get direct threats in the same twenty-four hour period made him question the motive behind the breach of the personnel records and who was buying the information.

Who would gain from exerting that kind of pressure? And how many other Military personnel and families were suddenly feeling exposed and vulnerable tonight?

He read the reports as they came in with cautious optimism and rising confidence. His first warnings had been successfully delivered. Shots over the bow, so to speak, and now he waited to watch their response.

He imagined them scrambling, racing about in circles and jumping at shadows. They would chase the leads he gave them all the way to inevitable dead ends, only to start over on another path of his choosing. Having the world’s best Army dancing to his tune was an excellent feeling.

His plans were finally coming together. Years in the making, he found a delicious irony in using the security breach to his advantage. His team had been handpicked and painstakingly groomed to the tasks ahead. He’d deliberately given them a cause they could understand and support as he moved both key players and pawns into place for his ultimate revenge.

His charisma was a skill his superiors had consistently undervalued. The pompous fools had been unwilling to blur their clear vision and mission parameters to improve the overall morale in a way that would practically guarantee success on any field of battle.

Their loss.

The skills they didn’t value, he would now use to wreak havoc at both the individual and institutional levels. This was going to be phenomenal fun, as well as a just reward for everything they’d taken from him.

He swiveled his chair away from his desk until he could gaze out at the gathering night through the floor-to-ceiling window. At this end of the compound, there wasn’t another person for miles. Not another soul from here to the horizon. He’d earned the solitude, worked alongside the others to carve this quiet, impenetrable place out of the desert.

Now it was merely a matter of time before his first target came out into the open.

Once he had Matt Riley centered in the crosshairs, the first shot in this war would be fired, with brutal, irrevocable accuracy.

Chapter 2

Nervous energy plagued Bethany all through the night. First she couldn’t sleep, and when she’d finally dozed off, her dreams had quickly turned to nightmares. Centered on change and loss and the unknown, it was easy to figure out the trigger. In the last one, she’d been listening to Caleb tell a judge all the reasons he didn’t want to live with her anymore. The judge had been giving his ruling that Caleb should spend the next fifteen years with his dad, denying her all visitation and contact, when her alarm had interrupted.

Eyes gritty, a knot of dread in her stomach, she dragged herself out of bed and tried to remember dreams and nightmares weren’t real as she showered and dressed for work. Matt wanted what was best for Caleb, and he was too honorable to play dirty and steal her son with the aid of family court.

Downstairs, she sipped tea while Caleb scarfed down his breakfast. No matter what she did, she couldn’t quell the notion that this was their last normal day as a family of two. Tonight, when he met his father, he would look at her differently, judge her through the lens of his teenage values and find her lacking. They were close, but suddenly she wasn’t sure their relationship could survive the turmoil ahead.

“You okay, Mom?”

“Sure.” She waved off his concern with a smile. “Didn’t sleep well—that’s all.” That was an understatement bordering on a lie. Clearly every conversation today would be guilt-inducing no matter how unrelated it might be to the revelations in store for Caleb tonight.

Without the usual reminder, he cleared his place and rinsed his dishes before loading them into the dishwasher. She found it refreshing and counted it as the first happy spot in her gloomy morning.

She double-checked her purse while he shrugged into his backpack. “How does Greek chicken sound for dinner?”

He paused and aimed a speculative look at her. “That’s company food.”

“Not always,” she said. “I’m just in the mood. It doesn’t sound good?”

“It’s fine.” He picked up his soccer bag. “Coach said practice ends with an endurance run. I might be a little late getting home.”

She glanced toward the calendar over the kitchen desk. “When did he add that?”

“There’s the bus,” Caleb said.

“Here.” She dashed over and gave him a quick hug. “Have a great day. Love you.”

“Love you, too,” Caleb said on his way out the door.

She watched him jog to meet the bus rumbling toward the stop on the corner, one hand pressed to her queasy stomach. She didn’t want Caleb home late. That would mean time alone in the same room with Matt, a situation she’d successfully avoided since she’d told him the pregnancy test had come back positive.

She could call the coach and ask him to give Caleb a pass on the run, but that would also mean picking him up and dodging her astute son’s inevitable questions. The better option would be calling Matt and pushing dinner back by half an hour. Feeling good about that decision, she headed out to the office.

Her discussion with her supervisor went almost as smoothly as she’d expected. She showed him the letter, a little surprised by how seriously he handled the implied threat and her explanation that the source of the discrepancy was the child support she received from a closed agreement. He called security and they joined her in his office so she could relate the incident again and give them the doctored letter and envelope for further analysis.

She didn’t think they’d get much from it, but she agreed it was best to try. It was midmorning when she was finally able to get to her desk, only to find the department assistant had left two messages on her desk that were both from Caleb’s school. Bethany pulled her cell phone from her purse and found two more voice-mail messages from the school, as well. She listened to them quickly and they all amounted to brief requests to return the call as soon as possible.

Worried now, she dialed the school and waited for someone in the office to pick up. “This is Bethany Trent,” she said when the school’s secretary answered. “I received—”

“Yes, Ms. Trent. The principal asked me to put you right through. Hold just a moment.”

In place of hold music, a chipper voice recited the upcoming school events. Bethany tapped a pencil against a notepad on her desk until, at last, the line clicked and Principal Andrea Ingle’s voice greeted her.

“Bethany?”

“Yes.” She’d met Andrea long before Caleb became a student in her school, back when they’d first moved into the neighborhood. She counted the principal as one of her closest friends. “Has something happened?”

Andrea mumbled an oath. “I take it Caleb isn’t home with you?”

Her skin chilled and her heart kicked hard in her chest. “No. I’m at work. I saw him get on the bus.” She heard the desperate note in her voice and stopped to take a breath.

“Right, okay. We do have him checking in at homeroom, but he didn’t make it to Spanish class this morning.”

Bethany glanced at the clock over her desk that Caleb had made during an art project in second grade. Spanish class had started almost two hours ago, while she’d been in her supervisor’s office.

“Per your instructions, we’ve been trying to reach you while doing all we can to find him. I’ve spoken with the school resource officer. We haven’t yet called in the police.”

“Thank you, Andrea.” She forced herself to keep breathing. Panic wouldn’t help anyone find Caleb. “He’s not in the building?”

“No. I think he left on his own after his homeroom teacher took attendance.”

He was safe. He had to be. And when they found him, she’d wring his neck and ground him for the rest of his life. “Is there a camera or anything to verify that?”

“Unfortunately, all I have is a hunch. There are only cameras at the main doors and he didn’t use either of those. We’ve walked the building and grounds twice. Do you want me to call the police?”

Her heart dropped at the suggestion. “Not yet. I have an app installed on his phone. Let me check that first. Are his friends in class?”

“Yes,” Andrea said. “I thought of that too and I’ve spoken with each of them. They don’t know where Matt is or why he might have left. Keep us posted and let us know how we can help.”

“I will,” Bethany promised. She replaced the handset in the cradle on her desk phone and immediately brought up the app on her cell phone. Her hands trembled as the app showed Caleb’s phone was somewhere near Philly.

She called him immediately, but he didn’t pick up. She sent a text, and as she waited for a reply, she struggled to find a logical explanation for his behavior. Had Caleb overheard her conversation with Matt last night? Had he been in more trouble or more upset than she’d thought?

She wasn’t buying into those scenarios. He’d been himself over spaghetti last night and in a good mood this morning. She groaned, reviewing his behavior in her mind. He’d been planning this.

Still waiting for a reply from Caleb on her cell phone, she used the office phone to call his soccer coach. Dread and fear were an icky congealed mess in her stomach when the coach said there was no practice at all tonight. Caleb had been lying about being home late.

She sat back. Anger and hurt quickly burned away her initial worry. What was he up to?

The standard school policy when a child was absent was an automated call after 6:00 p.m. Because of her unique situation with Caleb, she’d had a standing request at every school that she be notified immediately if anyone other than her or her parents asked about Caleb or tried to pick him up from school.

She wasn’t so paranoid that she thought Matt would try something as outrageous as taking him right out of school; she just needed the extra layer of confidence and support. Fortunately school administrators had been cooperative and, until today, her precautions hadn’t been necessary. Thank goodness she’d never shared that particular safety detail with her son.

Whatever Caleb was up to, she had to assume he thought he’d have an entire day to himself. Why did he have to do this today? And why run off to Philadelphia?

Her head pounded from lack of sleep and a resurgence of worry. Matt was coming today. Lovely that Caleb would pull this kind of stunt on the day she wanted to introduce him to his father.

On a hunch, she checked his bank account. She’d opened a checking account for him and started teaching him about personal finance as soon as he’d started mowing lawns in the neighborhood for extra cash. Reviewing his recent activity, she gaped at the screen. Despite the evidence in front of her, she resisted the truth.

Once more, she picked up her desk phone, this time dialing the Pentagon’s switchboard. “Major Matthew Riley, please. He’s currently the adjutant for General Knudson.”

It took some time for the call to reach Matt, but when he picked up the call, she wasted no time. “Dinner’s off.”

“Bethany?”

“Yes. It’s me.” Her heart was pounding and everything in her was urging her to leap into action, to chase down her son. “I’m sorry to be so abrupt. I think Caleb is on his way to see you.”

“What? Did you tell him already?”

“No.” They’d come up with a plan, and she intended to honor it. “He’s skipped school, Matt. First time ever.” She forced herself to slow down and relay the facts. “I’m looking at his bank account. He purchased a train ticket to DC two days ago. He’s not answering my calls or texts. The app I have is showing that he’s close to Philly.”

“You have a tracking app on his phone?”

The censure only sparked another flash of temper. “Pardon me,” she snapped. “How many busy and bright teenagers have you raised?”

“None,” he admitted. “Though I recall volunteering for the task plenty of times.”

She took a deep breath. “That was rude. Sorry,” she repeated, this time meaning it. “I’m just worried.”

“And mad.”

Was that anger in his voice, as well? “Yes, and mad,” she admitted.

“You think he skipped school and put himself on a train to Washington in order to find or meet me.”

“That’s as much logic as I can make of his actions,” she said. “He’s not skipping with any of his friends.”

“All right. If he’s in Philly now, it won’t be long before he reaches Union Station. I’ll get down there and find him.”

“Thank you.” Relief coursed through her at his confidence.

“I’ll have him call right away. I’ll bring him back home, and we can all have dinner as planned.”

“Oh.” She couldn’t come up with a reason why they shouldn’t go ahead with dinner. “You don’t have to do that.” Caleb had purchased a round-trip ticket.

“Would you rather come to DC and have dinner at my place?” he queried.

“No.” She heard the reply came out more like a question.

“Well, I’m not dumping him back on the train.”

“Matt, you really don’t have to—”

“Bethany, I was planning to drive up anyway. This is exactly what I want to do. Caleb and I will be there by seven.”

“Okay.” What option did she have? She couldn’t get to DC ahead of Caleb. Rushing after him, having this conversation on Matt’s turf, wasn’t her idea of a good time, either. “Let me know when he arrives, okay?”

“I promise.”

“One more thing.” She closed her eyes against a sudden rush of tears. “Let him know he’s grounded.”

Matt tried to disguise his bark of laughter as a cough. She wasn’t fooled. “That’s not funny.”

“It is,” he said. “My first parenting milestone is discipline.”

His humor in the situation lifted the burden, eased the sadness a little. “I wanted us to tell him together.”

“I know. I’ll do what I can to save the hard questions for you.”

“Again, not funny.” So why did she want to laugh? She plucked up a pen and started doodling on her pad of sticky notes.

“Any idea how he found me?” Matt asked. “Or why he came looking today of all days?”

“None. Hopefully he’ll confide in you.” It seemed an odd thing to sincerely wish for under the circumstances. Clearly they’d entered new and uncharted territory. “I’ll text you his cell number. Thanks for your help,” she said. “I know this is an inconvenience.”

“Don’t say that.”

His voice, low and kind, rumbled across her senses. She blamed the resulting shiver on stress. “I need to notify the school that we think we’ve found him. I don’t want them to worry any more than I have been.”

“All right.”

And yet, long minutes after the call ended, she still sat there, paralyzed by fear of how the evening would go and how her relationship with Caleb would change. She was his mother, not his friend, but they’d been an unbreakable team since day one. Honest with each other, candid and clear, she’d made every effort to give him a stable life, while assuring him that his father was a good man, doing good work in the Army.

On top of that nonnegotiable stability, she’d given Caleb roots and tradition with her side of the family, let him know he was loved and valued. She’d created opportunities to explore various interests, while fostering an appreciation for history that matched hers and Matt’s.