Hunt worked at the house the rest of the day, but it was hard to focus. He felt the adrenaline rush of the emergency, and then being back in a chopper had made him long to be in the air again. He kept thinking about being with Ava, too, so there was that distraction as well.

He was in the boys’ old bedroom, moving the furniture around to check the flooring for loose boards or wood rot. The hardwood was in bad shape, but he thought it could be sanded down and refinished.

He’d taken down the pictures when he was scraping the walls to get ready for painters and had tossed them on the bed out of the way. But as he was moving the furniture back in place, one of them slid off the bed. And when it did, the frame broke, leaving the print and the piece of cardboard backing loose within it.

“Dammit,” Hunt muttered, but as he bent down to pick up the pieces, a piece of paper fell out.

It was lined paper, torn out of a school notebook and folded in half. Curious, he unfolded it and read.

I swear on Marjorie and Birdie Knox’s lives never to tell why Hunt’s money was taken.

Signed:

Parnell Knox

Emma Knox

Parnell Knox, Jr.

Raymond Knox

Hunt was in shock. He recognized his daddy’s handwriting, as well as his brothers’ and sister’s handwriting. Whatever the hell had happened, his daddy had written this and made them sign it.

It didn’t tell him any more than he already knew, but the fact that his daddy went so far as to make them sign what amounted to a written oath, sworn on the lives of their mother and sister, was shocking.

Hunt folded the paper back up and put it in his wallet, then gathered up the broken pieces and carried them out to the garbage.

But he couldn’t get past the fact that his daddy had seen fit to make them do this. His mother was gone now, and Birdie had known nothing about any of this. And the others weren’t talking. It was the nightmare that wouldn’t end.

He was relieved when it was time to go get Ava. The sun appeared to be as tired of this day as Hunt was as it sank toward the horizon.

He pulled up in her driveway, and before he could get out, she came bouncing out of her house with a smile on her face, her dark hair swinging with every step that she took.

“Hi!” she said as she climbed in the truck.

Hunt grinned. “Hello to you, too, pretty girl. You must have had a good day.”

“Not really, but it’s over. The good part of my day is you, and it’s just now starting.”

She leaned over and kissed him square on the mouth.