Dante's Decision E-Book

Mayer Dale

• Herausgeber: Dale Mayer
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

At Levi’s request, Dante, with misgivings, returns to the one place he swore he never would come back to—Billings, Montana. The place where he lost his wife and daughter many years ago. If returning gives him a sense of peace or at least a way to reconcile what happened so he can move on, then fine. As it is, he finds more surprises in that department than he expected.

Laura needed a job. She had rent to pay and a teenager to feed. After being summarily ejected from her government-sensitive position, she was forced into teaching. But, when she sees something beyond odd in the high school website code, she knows someone has found her. Even worse, it’s likely to be the same person who messed up her life the last time.

Maybe Dante can help her out, but it seems like he has bigger problems than she has, … until her world flips completely out of control, and she needs him more than ever.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

About This Book

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Epilogue

About Steven’s Solace

Excerpt from Ryland’s Reach

Excerpt from Damon’s Deal

Author’s Note

Complimentary Download

About the Author

Copyright Page

About This Book

At Levi’s request, Dante, with misgivings, returns to the one place he swore he never would come back to—Billings, Montana. The place where he lost his wife and daughter many years ago. If returning gives him a sense of peace or at least a way to reconcile what happened so he can move on, then fine. As it is, he finds more surprises in that department than he expected.

Deborah needed a job. She had rent to pay and a teenager to feed. After being summarily ejected from her government-sensitive position, she was forced into teaching. But, when she sees something beyond odd in the high school website code, she knows someone has found her. Even worse, it’s likely to be the same person who messed up her life the last time.

Maybe Dante can help her out, but it seems like he has bigger problems than she has, … until her world flips completely out of control, and she needs him more than ever.

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Prologue

Levi sat in the kitchen of his compound with Alfred at his side, as they pondered work and life. “We’re running at 100 percent,” Levi noted. “Is that something we should be concerned about?”

“I have no idea.” Alfred laughed. “But since everybody is happy and seems to have fulfilled some major dreams in their lives, I would say, no.”

“Well, it’s weird,” Levi said. “We’re still hiring men.”

“But things are changing, families are happening, and guys want to stay home more,” Alfred noted. “So that is to be expected.”

“I get that,” Levi agreed, “but it’s also kind of weird because, once again, it’s change.”

“And you don’t like change so much, do you?”

“Nope, I sure don’t,” he admitted, with a smile, “but obviously it’ll happen sometimes.”

“It sure does, and you’re doing great adapting to it all.” Alfred looked over at Levi and smiled. “Are you having any thoughts about retiring?”

“God no,” Levi declared. “The more babies who come along, the more I’m in this for the long run.”

“And that’s a hell of a good thing, at least from my point of view,” Alfred replied. As he looked at the stack of employment records in front of them, he asked, “So, Levi, who will you try next?”

“I hate to say it, but a part of me looks at this from the perspective of who’ll keep my record going,” he shared, with a laugh.

“I’m sure lots of guys are out there, searching for that right person to fill a hiring gap,” Alfred stated, “but you can’t be expected to find the right one out of the gate every time.”

“No, I know that,” Levi muttered sadly. “But when there’s one who’s single, my mind tends to go to—”

“What? You’re thinking about—”

“Yep.” Levi nodded. “I’ve known that man for a decade. He’s been to hell and back, and maybe he needs a second chance.”

“Everybody needs a second chance,” Alfred agreed. “That doesn’t mean he wants one though.”

“Maybe not, but he can’t sit there punishing himself forever.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, with a knowing smile.

Levi nodded. “I’m pretty sure he would be the one who would say he should. However, just because his wife and child died while he was off in the military, that doesn’t mean he’s responsible for their deaths.”

Alfred nodded. “I don’t know that he has necessarily solved that one either. It’s a cold case.”

“It’s also a cold case in his hometown.”

“Which is?”

“Billings, Montana,” he noted, with a tilt of his head.

“Interesting that it is in Billings, huh?”

“Yeah, just where our new case is too.” Levi smiled broadly.

“Who are you sending with him?”

“I was thinking about one of the more experienced guys, like maybe Tyson.”

Alfred nodded. “You know what? That’s not a bad idea, and he would at least understand the same level of grief.”

“Yeah.” Levi looked at his phone, picked it up, and called Dante. When an exasperated voice answered at the other end, Levi smiled. “Sorry, am I catching you at a bad time?”

“Hey, Levi. It’s never a bad time for you,” he said. “I’m just dealing with my nephew here. This kid is like a hacking king.”

“Well, I don’t want to pull you away from family time,” Levi began, “but I was wondering if I could get you to do a job for us.”

“Huh,” he replied instantly. “Not sure I’m interested.”

“I know. And it’s not like you’ve asked for work either.”

“Nope, and that’s because I’m not certain I’m ready to go in that direction yet,” he stated. “But, if you actually need my help, that’s a whole different story.”

Levi smiled. “That’s kind of why I’m calling.”

“Is it something that I’m even capable of doing?” Dante asked.

“Well, there’s a reason why you’re helping your nephew with computers.”

“That’s definitely my specialty,” he admitted, “but you’ve got a lot of good people on staff.”

“Yeah, but most of them have families or babies coming or something like that, and they don’t necessarily want to travel so much anymore. So I’ve got to keep a larger pool to get the jobs done.”

“Well, I don’t have a problem helping you out, if it won’t take too long.”

“Most of these jobs don’t tend to, but I can’t be sure.”

“So what’s going on?” Dante asked.

“We’ve got a schoolteacher,” Levi said.

“Oh, great, stick me with a prissy sixty-five-year-old, who’ll tell me to mind my Ps and Qs,” Dante complained. “That sounds like a great combination.”

“On the other hand,” Levi countered, “it might take your mind off everything else going on in your world.”

He snorted. “And of course you know about everything going on in my world.”

“Hard not to in this field,” he noted.

“Well, I walked out of the military because it was time,” he snapped. “No other reason.”

“And you’ll stick to that, no matter what, right?” Levi laughed.

“Damn right,” he said, a hint of laughter in his tone. “So what’s this schoolmarm having trouble with?”

“She seems to think that somebody is hacking the student website,” Levi explained.

“And that is of national security?” Dante asked. “What kind of jobs are you taking on these days?”

“She’s a bit of a hacker herself,” he added. “And she recognizes the signature but says it doesn’t make any sense.”

“And you know her how?”

“Let’s just say that Mason’s wife, Tesla, put us on this one.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. Is she one of Tesla’s friends?” he asked, a spark of interest entering his voice.

“Ah, so that gives it more validity?”

“Well, Tesla is incredible at what she does, and God knows she’s done plenty for us, so, if she’s got a friend in need, I guess I’d sign up to help out,” he decided. “But what the hell, Levi? You got me a schoolmarm?”

“I wouldn’t worry about that so much. Times have been tough for her, and she’s been trying to stay on the straight and narrow and to keep her head above water.”

“If she’s got serious hacking skills, what’s she doing in front of a chalkboard?”

“I may just try to convince her to come work for me,” Levi shared, “but first she wants to solve this mystery. I think it’s been a pet peeve of hers for a while. I don’t know how much you want to know about it beforehand, but there was that hacking incident some years back, and she got blamed for it. She wasn’t charged, but it damaged her reputation, and she lost her job at the time.”

“So … she’s always maintained her innocence but still had bills to pay, so she went to work at whatever she could get, I assume. She’s probably been hot on that trail ever since too, so she can clear her name.”

“Of course,” Levi stated.

“So Tesla knows all about it?”

“Yeah, but Tesla is pregnant and can’t really go to her friend’s rescue right now.”

“No, of course not,” Dante agreed. “I can head out and lend a hand. So where am I going?”

“Billings,” Levi replied innocently.

At that came a shocked silence through the phone. “Damn you, Levi,” Dante murmured. “Billings fucking Montana? Are you kidding me?”

“Is that a problem?” he asked, trying to interject just the right amount of curiosity.

“No, no problem,” he muttered, with a dark tone. “Just the way my luck runs.”

“Well, if you can’t do the job, it—”

“I can do the job,” he gritted out in disgust. “Just seems like the universe thinks I’ve got a target on my back.”

“Maybe it’s a good time to get rid of that target,” Levi suggested.

“Well, screw it,” Dante said. “I’ll do the job. When do I leave?”

“Yesterday.”

Chapter 1

Dante Langston looked around at the Great Falls, Montana airport. He felt a heaviness in his heart and almost an awareness that, every time he looked anywhere, he would be searching for something, for someone. He’d been expecting and dreading this very thing throughout the whole flight.

Yet, as he stood here, nothing was familiar. A lot of upgrades had surely evolved over the last few years, but, even then, he noted just an odd sense of detachment instead of that sense of familiarity. It was strange, yet, maybe at the same time, it was lifesaving. It was too early to tell.

He frowned as he studied the crowd rushing from one place to the next. He didn’t even know why he’d agreed to come. Everything he’d done over the last eight years had been to avoid this place. How did one ever come to terms with what had happened?

Yet he was here.

And still wasn’t ready to face his past. So why had he agreed to this? He didn’t even need to work for Levi. In a way, he didn’t need to work at all. He’d been good with his money over the years. He’d been careful.

So he could have declined. The job itself wasn’t something that he even particularly wanted to do.

So what had been the draw?

He couldn’t answer that. He also hadn’t heard about the location until the end of their conversation, when he’d already agreed. So two things here didn’t make sense. One, that he’d agreed in the first place, and, two, that he hadn’t flat-out refused, after he’d heard it was here.

He didn’t think anybody would blame him for not wanting to return, nobody but himself. The knowledge that this location had such a strong hold on him was definitely disconcerting. If not so much water being under that bridge, he probably wouldn’t be here. Yet, even now, as he stood in the midst of a crowd rushing around him, he wondered if he was strong enough.

When a shout came in his direction, he gave himself a mental headshake and turned to see an old friend. It was Tyson. The two men greeted each other, with almost a little more care than people would expect. However, these two men had been to hell and back. At different times and different locations, yes, but both knew exactly what had occurred in each other’s lives and exactly how difficult it had been to move on.

Dante’s situation was different than what Tyson had been through, yet, at the same time, it was similar enough to make him ache. The two navy buddies remained friends from a distance, but now? Seeing each other in person brought back all the pain. As Dante stepped away and looked at his old friend, he smiled. “You’re looking better than I am.”

“Yeah, finding someone to share my life with has really made a lot of difference in my world,” Tyson said bluntly.

“Good for you, for being able to move on.”

“You’ll do it too, one day,” he murmured.

Dante shrugged at that. “Everybody says that, but I guess I’m just not there yet.”

“That’s because a lot of anger still blocks you.”

“With good reason,” he snapped.

At that, Tyson snorted and smiled. “Absolutely. No argument there.”

Hearing him say it made Dante groan. “Is it possible to move on?” he asked.

“You never forget,” Tyson replied softly. “You just never forget. Don’t even think that, but you learn to make peace with it. Then you learn to move on.”

Dante stared at him for a long moment, then shrugged. “I guess that reality hasn’t happened then. Not sure it will.”

“To be honest,” Tyson replied, “I didn’t think it would happen in my case either.”

“What, until Kai came along?” he asked, teasing.

“Exactly. I already knew her, of course, but I hadn’t ever seen her in that light before.”

“Does it make it better or worse that she knows all about what happened?”

Tyson thought about it before answering. “I’m not sure. I would hope that it wouldn’t have made any difference in my relationship with Kai, but it was definitely easier that I didn’t have to explain the loss. Even now, when I’m caught staring into space, with an odd look on my face, she understands.”

“She doesn’t hold it against you?” Dante asked quietly.

“No. And, not only that, Kai was her best friend. Sometimes I think she misses her as much as I do. So, in many ways, I think we help each other, you know?”

Dante nodded. “Yeah, I can see that.”

Tyson went on. “In your case, there are some very different circumstances, and, until some of that gets settled, you might find it difficult to get past it.”

“I keep using that as an excuse. I’ve talked to counselors and various pros, all kinds of people really. But, so far, even after all this time, it’s just a yearning emptiness. No answers, no closure, no way to move forward.”

“Exactly,” Tyson agreed. “So, while we’re at it, we might as well move forward on the business end and do this job, and hopefully, with some time, we’ll find closure on the other issues. Let’s just take it one step at a time, huh? No pressure.”

“Maybe,” Dante murmured, “but it’s not easy.”

“I know,” Tyson acknowledged. “Nothing is easy about any of it, but that can’t stop us from doing the job.”

“Agreed,” Dante replied, as he looked around, “but why the hell did we have to come here to do it?”

“I thought it was interesting that this is the one job that Levi thought about for you.”

“Is that why you’re here too?”

“Maybe,” Tyson noted. “I was a little at loose ends myself, and, when I heard you needed a partner, I was more than happy to come help out. Just not that many people who really get it, you know?”

“Yeah, I do. So is this a two-person job? I mean, does it scream danger?” he asked, with a wry look.

“This is Tesla’s friend, and honestly, considering what I know about Tesla, all her friends are dangerous,” he stated, with a big laugh. “They are never who or what they appear to be, and they always have some pretty mad skills to go along with it.”

“So, why is she teaching school then?”

“I guess that’s for us to figure out,” Tyson murmured. “Come on. I’ve got a truck over here.”

“You have a truck?” Dante asked, with a laugh.

“You know trucks are way better than anything else. Even at home, I have both a truck and a car, but here? A truck just seemed like the vehicle of choice.”

“It is and always had been,” Dante murmured. “That’s not likely to change anytime soon.”

“We’ve also got a hotel booked.”

“Good, I don’t even know this town anymore,” he admitted.

“It’s bigger than it was when you left. I know that much.”

“Oh God, isn’t it ever,” he noted, looking around. “And yet look at it. It’s almost timeless in a lot of ways.”

“Some places are like that,” Tyson agreed.

Dante looked over at him and hesitated a moment before speaking. “Kai’s pregnant, huh?”

“Yeah, and her due date is coming like a freight train,” he admitted.

“Terrified?”

Tyson caught his breath, in the span of one heartbeat, then nodded slowly. “You can’t lose a child and not look at a baby coming without worrying,” he shared. “I know I’ll be incredibly overprotective. Yet, deep down, I know it won’t make a damn bit of difference because life will happen regardless. I can only do my best. I just go back and forth. I feel great one day, looking forward to the baby coming, then freaking out and terrified the next.”

“I hear you, man.”

“Believe me, Dante. I think about your family a lot. I try to move forward in my own life and still end up getting down on myself. Then I admit that it’s not that easy and with good reason. But, when I think about you, it’s got to be all that and so much more. No point in comparing these things. It’s all devastating, and it’s hard to move forward for many reasons. Then I come back to you, and it’s a gut punch. You have so much unfinished business because you don’t know who, how, or why.”

“I know the how,” he replied, “but you’re right. I don’t know the why, and I have no idea who. And you can bet that is still a driving force in my world.”

“Yet you’ve lost how many years of your life trying to find answers?”

“Too many,” he noted, “but, if I find the answers, they wouldn’t have been lost years.”

“No, but you haven’t found any yet.” Tyson’s expression changed. “Dang. Is that why you came on this job?” He shot him a hard look.

“I didn’t even know this was the location, until after I’d already agreed to the job. I told Levi that I’d do it. Then he not-so-innocently told me the job was in Billings.” Dante shook his head. “The trouble is, now that I’m here, the only thing on my mind is checking in on old sources to see if there’s any new answers.”

“Surely you’re not saying you haven’t checked over the years.”

His friend knew him too well. Dante nodded slowly. “I do keep an eye on it all,” he confirmed, “but you also know how information slips through the cracks.”

“I also know,” Tyson added, “after some time has gone by—as people have either forgotten about it or have lost the fear that may have stopped them from talking before—answers have a way of emerging.”

“I never understood that myself,” Dante said. “How is it that you can be afraid back then, but now, all of a sudden, you’re not?”

“I think in some cases the situation has changed. Like women are no longer with the same men, people have died, accusations have started, people have forgotten about something, something triggers it, then they remember more.”

“I guess,” he muttered, “but I hounded everybody back then.”

“Too much maybe?” Tyson asked, with a wry look.

“Maybe, but, at the same time, … I don’t know. Back then I thought that, if I could just find the right rock to overturn, I could get the right answers.”

“And yet you never did, right?”

“No, I never did,” he said, “and that feels like defeat. It’s a failure I really struggle to live with.”

“I get it,” Tyson replied. “And who knows? Maybe while we’re here, something will pop up.”

“Maybe so,” he hedged.

“Think of it this way. It’s quite possible that people were too scared of you to talk to you. You don’t come off as friendly as you may think you do.”

Dante looked at him and shrugged. “Maybe. … I was pretty determined.”

“And you in a pretty determined mood can be pretty scary,” Tyson noted.

He shrugged. “I really didn’t give a damn.”

At that, Tyson laughed. “No, I hear you there. And for damn good reasons. But it doesn’t change the fact that things are different now. It’s just a case of whether they’re different enough.”

“And we won’t know that until we get there and see.”

With that, they drove to the hotel.

*

Laura Thompson looked around her empty classroom, a frown forming between her brows. She knew from Tesla that, via Levi, somebody was coming today to give her a hand. She hated asking for help, but she was determined to stay on the straight and narrow and hopefully get back into her field.

It mattered that she’d picked up teaching again and had worked her way from a substitute into a full-time position. Yet, at the same time, it wasn’t where her heart was. She had her reasons for coming back to teaching, but it’s not where she wanted to stay. As soon as she could work through this problem, then it would be a whole different story.

When a knock came on her open door, she looked up at two strangers, both lean, dark, capable-looking, wearing a no-nonsense expression. They looked straight-up military. She frowned at them, and they frowned right back.

She groaned. “Don’t tell me. Levi sent you?”

The one man flashed a bright grin for a moment. She found herself relaxing ever-so-slightly, but the second guy? Instead of smiling at her, he seemed to be glaring even more, and she glared right back.

“So, is that a yes or a no?”

The friendly one stepped forward and held up his credentials. “Before we say anything else, you better call Levi.”

She nodded and pulled out her cell phone, standing before these men to have this exchange within their hearing. “Describe who is before me,” she began.

“Two men …”

As she listened to Levi’s description, she tagged Tyson as the one who had smiled and had offered his credentials. She was having trouble matching the other man to the description she got. “If you say so. Tyson checks. But number two doesn’t match fully.”

Levi had commented on Dante as being friendly, capable, and there to give her a hand.

“The physical description matches. And he seems capable,” she amended.

He did look quite capable, but friendly was a very long way away from what she would have described him. Something was off about him, yet she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. There was almost an anger to him, simmering under the surface, and she didn’t know why or what she possibly could have done to set it off. “Why is he angry?” she asked Levi, staring directly at Dante. “What have I done?”

“Nothing,” Levi replied, “and that will subside.”

She stared down at the phone. “Says you,” she muttered. “I sure hope this works.” With that, she hung up. She wasn’t terribly thrilled with her decision to ask for help, but this situation had taken a turn that was bound to get her into even bigger trouble than she could really handle at the moment.

She nodded at Tyson. “Levi has confirmed who you are, but I’m still wondering about this one,” she stated, with a nod toward Dante.

At that, Tyson chuckled. “He’s fine.”

“So said the wolf to Goldilocks,” she muttered under her breath. But apparently she didn’t keep it quiet enough because Dante raised an eyebrow and asked her, “So are you the wolf, or are you Goldilocks?”

She glared at him again. “Too annoyed to tell you.” She returned to the business at hand and faced Tyson. “I have an odd situation.”

“It is odd,” Tyson agreed, “but we don’t have the full story, so why don’t you tell us.”

She hesitated, not wanting to go through everything. “Did Levi brief you?

“He did,” Tyson confirmed, stepping forward, “but he didn’t explain the details.”

“Maybe that’s because I didn’t want all the details out,” she declared, “especially since I’m already regretting the decision to get help.”

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re having second thoughts or not. You need to tell us what you’re doing,” Tyson shared. “We have to know what’s going on and why this is so important.”

She rubbed her temples. “So, I was … I, uh, …” Finally she raised her hands in frustration. “Whatever,” she said, with a big exhale. “I don’t give a shit how you feel about my life, but, at this point in time, I’m not responsible for all the crap that’s coming down on me.”

“Okay,” Tyson noted. “We’ll need you to help us by clarifying some of that.”

“Look. I was a hacker. I’m a very talented hacker, as Tesla would tell you. I was working for the government and came under suspicion for breaking into some government databases, stealing information, and selling it.”

She stopped to take a breath. “Which I did not do,” she stated succinctly. “It was that job that got me out of bed every morning. It was that job that gave me a purpose and kept me on the straight and narrow. I should back up for a moment. When I was younger, I had an awful lot of opportunities to go on the wrong side of life, with my particular skills, but I chose not to,” she murmured.

“Fast-forwarding again, accusations were made that I was stealing and selling government information, and I was fired from my position. Rather than trying to regain my reputation and protest my innocence, I just walked out of the scenario.” Pacing a bit, she continued. “It didn’t go down well with me, but they had made it very clear that I needed to walk away quietly, or they would charge me.”

“Did they have anything to charge you with?” Tyson asked.

She nodded. “Way too much actually, way too much. Even for a stupid cyberattack or somebody doing something dumb, there was far too much ‘evidence’ against me,” she noted, making the air quote gesture.

“So you think you were set up?” Tyson asked.

“I know I was,” she snapped, her tone harsh. “Now before you ask, yes, I have been working on it on the side, but some things take time.”

“What brought you here, being a teacher and all?” Tyson asked.

“I like teaching computer science for one thing, which is something I can do blindfolded. Plus I ended up … This really doesn’t pertain to the threat of charges against me, and I’m only telling you as a bit of background. I have a much younger brother who came to my parents very late in life. He was following in my footsteps and getting into trouble, so I came back here to try and help him stay on the straight and narrow.”

Tyson nodded. “Which he probably doesn’t respect or appreciate. I can imagine he’s challenging everything you say because you were set up and got fired.”

“Exactly,” she agreed. “Not to do something that I already did myself. But the reality is, I didn’t do it, and he’s not willing to believe me.”

“How old is he?” Tyson asked.

“Seventeen. A few times he could have gotten himself sent away, and I’ve managed to barely keep him out of serious trouble, but, if he doesn’t smarten up and fast, I won’t be able to keep doing it.”

“He might have to learn the hard way,” Tyson suggested.

Laura winced. “Maybe, but I believe that I owe it to my parents to do the best I can to keep him from following in my footsteps.”

“Why’s that?” Tyson asked.

She flushed. “Because I think he got into hacking because of me, and that has led to its own problems.”

“Of course,” Tyson said. “Yet, at the same time, you’re not responsible for him. At seventeen, he’s plenty old enough to understand right from wrong.”

“He doesn’t understand the implications of what life in prison would be,” she added, her tone harsh. “And I really don’t want him to find out.”

Tyson added, “He still probably has that feeling that the world is at his feet, so maybe he thinks he can do whatever he wants. And he won’t get caught.”

“God, yes,” she confirmed, with a groan. “Even though I keep warning him that it’s not that simple, he won’t budge.”

“You can’t save him from everything,” Tyson stated, shaking his head.

“No, I sure can’t,” she murmured, “but I was hoping.”