Mad, Bad and Blonde - Cathie Linz [51]
“But you’re out of the Marines now.”
Yuri nodded. “I know. But old habits are hard to break.”
“Tell me about it. I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking I’m back in Iraq.” Caine didn’t say more, and Yuri didn’t ask. There was an unspoken code between most Marines that you never referred to the bloody horror of war, but instead you sucked it up and kept going. Because sometimes the realities were just too damn difficult. Sharing emotions was not a Marine Corps thing.
Improve, adapt, overcome. Those were Marine Corps rules.
“Pain is only temporary. Pride is forever,” Yuri said. “I’ve got the T-shirt.”
“Yeah.” The demons of war weren’t the only things haunting Caine. His father had e-mailed him, begging him to come home. Caine had e-mailed back, saying that being a Marine wasn’t a nine-to-five job. He’d made a commitment, and he had to honor that.
His dad committed suicide a few days later. December had always been a rough time for his father because it marked the anniversary of Caine’s mother’s death on December 7, Pearl Harbor day. “A day that shall live in infamy,” President Franklin Roosevelt said. Caine’s dad said the same thing every year around December 7. Caine could only imagine the demons that haunted his dad, who had never remarried nor had another woman in his life.
“She was my soul mate,” he’d tell Caine, who decided at a young age that he didn’t want a freaking soul mate if they could cause you such pain. Better to keep things casual. Mating for sex—okay. Mating of souls—definitely not okay. It was a code he’d followed his entire adult life.
“So you and Faith are working together. Does this mean that Faith is going to let you into the building now?”
“I have no idea,” Caine said. “My focus is on the case, not on her.”
Yuri just laughed and shook his head. “You keep saying that often enough, you might start believing it.”
Caine sure hoped so. Because he had no intention of having his heart yanked out and stomped on. He knew better.
“Thanks for meeting with me tonight,” Sara said so formally that Faith was immediately worried as she guided her mom into the condo and motioned for her to sit on the couch. “I know you’re busy.”
“You’re my mom, of course I’d meet with you. I’m never too busy for you.” Faith hugged her, but her mother didn’t reciprocate. “What’s wrong? Is it Aunt Lorraine? Is she still staying with you? What has the Duchess of Grimness done now?”
“No, it’s not Aunt Lorraine. It’s something your father has done.”
“If this is about my taking the job at West I nvestigations—”
Sara cut her off. “It’s not. Not directly.”
“Are you angry with him for hiring me?”
“No, I’m angry with him for having an affair.”
Chapter Eleven
Faith was speechless. Her father? Having an affair?
Faith had been raised to do all the right things: to tell the truth, to be nice to others and to respect her parents. Not to think of her father having an affair. In fact, she didn’t like to think of her parents as ever having sex at all except for the one time she was conceived.
“At least I think he’s having an affair,” Sara said. “I’m not sure. I just know that something isn’t right. He’s done all the things that raise a red flag in cases like this—like an increase in the number of late nights when he says he’s working, him not being where he says he is, a new secrecy about his actions. He’s clearly hiding something.”
“Well, I know he’s got this war going on with Vince.”
“Vince is the one who told me about the affair.”
Faith heaved a sigh of relief. “Well, there you go then. If Vince told you, then you know it’s a lie. Since when has Vince King been talking to you anyway?”
“I ran into him at a charity function I was attending on my own because your father canceled at the last minute. I was there to help the Anti-Cruelty Society.”
“And Vince was there to drive you crazy by telling you that your husband is having an affair. I can’t believe that you actually gave his lie any credence at all.”
“I wouldn’t have under normal circumstances. But things haven’t been normal between your father