chapter
thirty-six
EVIE
Evie was grading tests in her office while she waited for Dash. Cross-country practice wasn’t over yet, but the light outside was already fading. Autumn was always a sad time of year for her—the days so short, and still getting shorter.
But whenever she was feeling blue, she reminded herself of all there was to be thankful for. And there really was a lot. First was Dash, of course. Her beautiful boy had become a handsome teenager, with athletic gifts he had inherited from his father more than from her, thank God. He was only in eighth grade but had made the high school cross-country team. The coach wanted him for the 101 weight class on the high school team when wrestling season started, too. And while baseball was his favorite, and Evie knew there was a good chance he’d make that team a year early, too, Dash was nervous. She didn’t think that was a bad thing. Of course, after the meningitis, the deafness, and the divorce, she wanted everything to come easily for him. But she knew it was better that he had to work for it, that he didn’t take anything for granted.
And while teaching high school math at Dash’s school and computer science at Mount St. Mary’s wasn’t as cutting-edge as what she had been doing at NSA, she was relieved to be clear of her former employer. What had happened there, what Anders and his goon, Delgado, had tried to do to her, still gave her occasional nightmares.
The saving grace, of course, was Marvin.
She had never thought of herself as particularly bold in bed, but there was something he brought out in her that she loved to indulge. She didn’t know what caused it. She was attracted to him, no doubt—had been since the first time she’d seen him—but the alchemy had more to do with the effect she had on him. There were times he would look at her, and there was something so primally . . . hungry in his eyes, so beyond his control, that it thrilled her, and filled her with a confidence she’d never known with anyone else.
And he was so good with Dash. So good for him. Watching him teach Dash how to use tools, how to help build their house, had sometimes moved her so much that she’d had to look away and wipe her eyes. And of course Marvin had taught her, too, and she’d helped out, as well. Which was fun and gratifying. But it was nothing compared to watching the two of them together, experiencing the bond they had. And not just for how much it did for Dash. For what it meant to Marvin, too. She knew the horrible things he had done in the past. She was glad he was different now, glad he was done with that part of himself. With everything about that life. These days, he sometimes felt to her like a giant bear who harbored no ill will toward anyone, and wanted no more than to be left alone.
But God help anyone who might try to hurt his cub. And she had no problem with that. No problem at all.
Her phone beeped. She glanced at it, expecting a text from Dash. Instead, it was an alert from the camera network she had installed around the house.
She was surprised. She’d tested the system, of course, but its AI had been trained to ignore her face, Dash’s, and Marvin’s, and it had never picked up anything else.
She tapped in her passcode. In the dying light, she saw a man in a UPS uniform standing at the gate to the driveway, holding a package, looking at the house. He checked a tablet as though confirming an address. Behind him was the familiar brown truck. It all looked completely normal. Except that the house was owned by a corporate front a lawyer had helped them set up, and she used the school to receive all their mail and packages. You didn’t have to be former NSA to understand that the first rule of privacy was to ruthlessly separate your residence from your mailing address.
The man looked around. Anyone who might have been watching would think he was just trying to figure out how to get to the house to drop off the package. But it was doubtful anyone was watching. The property was on five acres at the end of a cul-de-sac. There were only two other driveways, each of which led to houses set back as far as theirs. The rest of the area was surrounded by woods.
Alongside their driveway was a sign declaring LIBERTY TOWNSHIP CRIME WATCH IN EFFECT. The UPS guy put out a hand and leaned against it, as though trying to see through the trees to the house. Then he shrugged, went back to his truck, and drove away.