His Revenge by Charlene Raquel

Chapter Twenty

 

 

“Oh, damn. I forgot.” Rip jumped up from his seat at the dining room table and jogged out of the room. He was back a minute later with a maroon backpack that he handed to Drew.

“What’s this?” Drew was only mildly interested. He hadn’t talked to Gwen in nearly a week, and he missed her like crazy. He’d seen her nearly every day, but only from afar.

“Some kid dropped it off earlier today. He said that he found it in the back of his closet and had no idea it was there.”

Drew frowned at the bag, not recognizing it. It was heavy with whatever items were inside. He unzipped the main compartment and dumped the contents on the table.

A soccer jersey, three notebooks, a large Manilla folder that was tied closed, a memory stick, a cardboard box, several pens, and a gun. A gun?

“Who’s that belong to?” Boomer leaned closer to examine the stuff.

Drew swallowed the lump forming in his throat. “My brother.” Drew recognized the doodles on the cover of the first notebook and ran his hand over the artwork. His brother loved to draw cartoons, and those were some of his favorites. He even had one that was supposed to be Drew.

Pulling the shoebox in front of him, Drew flipped open the lid and looked inside. He smiled sadly at the array of items. It was a memory box. Drew used to tease him when they were little about keeping that kind of stuff. Landon always took the teasing well but would reply that some memories were meant to be kept. Landon had no idea how right he was.

Drew pushed it to the side to go through later. He was not strong enough to sift through Landon’s memories in front of the Special Forces team.

The jersey was a surprise that made his heart stutter. It was Drew’s jersey from when he played soccer at University of Maryland. He had sent it to Landon his first year on the team. Drew couldn’t believe that his brother had kept it with him all this time and brought it to college with him. Folding it nicely, Drew placed it on the top of the shoebox.

“Did you know your brother had a gun?” Jeff asked, picking it up to examine it.

Drew shook his head. “No, but it could be from home. Dad had several guns in the house, and we all were trained from an early age on how to handle one.”

Drew appreciated the guys giving him space to go through his brother’s stuff, but he could tell they were anxious to see if there was any usable information inside the pack.

He handed the notebooks to Boomer, Crash, and Rip to flip through. “Maybe you guys can find something in these.” Jeff looked over Rip’s shoulder.

Drew motioned to Dean to come closer. “Let’s see what’s in this thick folder.” Drew unwrapped the red string and turned the envelope over to dump the contents.

Dean crinkled his forehead. “There’s a lot in here. Receipts, lines of numbers, random photos, newspaper clippings, and oh wait, police reports.”

Rip held up one of the notebook pages. “There are dates and times here with other numbers that don’t make sense.”

Drew leaned over to see. “It’s a code. Landon was obsessed with codes when we were growing up. Some were letter replacement, some words in a particular book, and some were his own made-up system. We may never figure it out.”

Jeff wiggled his fingers. “Let me see those. I have a few programs that can identify codes.”

Dean held up a small object. “Have any idea what this goes to?”

Drew shook his head. “I have no idea.” He fingered the small key. “It could go to anything. Is there any way to find out?” Drew slid the key to Boomer.

Boomer put it under the light. “I’ll research it.”

Crash grabbed the stash of photos. “You mentioned that your brother was artistic, but these are just weird.”

The photos were close ups of random objects such as a piece of a fire hydrant, part of a mailbox, a street sign, several other restaurant or business signs, a bicycle, and a fan.

The other notebooks held similar dates, times, and number combinations. There was nothing to explain it all. Drew rubbed his neck. “I’ll ask his girlfriend. She might want some of the stuff in the memory box.”

“That could be a clue too, so maybe you shouldn’t give it to her yet until we figure this all out.” Seeing all of the stuff Landon collected heaped on the table made Jeff think that anything in the pile could be important.

 

~*~*~

 

Gwen had high hopes for whacking the crap out of tennis balls, but it was not as satisfying as she had hoped it would be. The only good thing that came out of practice was that Clarissa was paired up with someone else. Gwen was thankfully left alone for the rest of the afternoon. The mean girl posse directed their nasty attention to someone else.

Not bothering to take a shower or change, Gwen grabbed her clothes from her locker, shoved it in her bag, and practically ran from the locker room. There was no way she was going to be caught off guard again. She’d had enough of Clarissa and her venom.

Head down, she trudged along to her car, only to stop abruptly. Someone was leaning against her vehicle. She couldn’t contain the groan from escaping. Just when she didn’t think her day could get any worse, Parker chose to wait for her.

“Hey, beautiful, why the sad face?” Parker’s sandy brown hair was a little blonder than Gwen remembered it from before, and styled a little differently. It was longer on the top than it had been, in a similar but neater version of Drew’s hair. Ugh, why was she thinking of Drew?

“Hi, Parker.” Gwen had thought he was good looking before, but now he held no appeal. Or maybe it was no guy would hold any appeal at the moment. You couldn’t find something attractive when you are broken inside.

“It’s a good thing I’m here to cheer you up then.” Parker continued as if Gwen had actually answered him. “You must be starved after your practice. How about I take you to get something to eat?”

“No, thank you. I’m really tired and just want to go home.” Gwen wanted to push him out of the way so she could get into her Jetta and drive away.

“I’m not going to take no for an answer. You look like you could use some cheering up and I’m just the man to do that.” Parker reached his hand out for her to take it.

Gwen didn’t want to go anywhere, and she sure didn’t want to go with Parker. “I’m really not in the mood.”

Parker stood planted in front of her car. “You need to eat and so do I.”

Gwen wanted to roll her eyes but refrained. A screech came from behind her. The mean girl group was heading her way. “Please move.”

Parker’s eyes narrowed at the trio coming toward them. “If you won’t go to dinner, how about I buy you a cup of coffee? The shop’s right across the street. We could walk over and be right back. Ten minutes tops. I’ll be a gentleman. Promise.” He crossed his heart with his fingers.

Her shoulders slumped. “Okay. I need to stash my stuff in the car first.”

Parker’s triumphant grin almost made her change her mind. “Allow me.” He held out his hand for her car key.

Thankfully, Gwen could click her key fob to open the door, so she didn’t have to go through the motion of refusing to give him her key. She didn’t need to see him to know he wasn’t happy. She opened the back door and threw in her backpack and tennis bag. Closing the door, she headed across the street, not waiting for him. She knew he would hurry after her.

Parker walked so close he kept rubbing her arm with his. “This place has fairly good pastries. Of course, not like the French bakery in town.”

Every time he brushed against her, Gwen added more room between them, and he’d move closer to her again. If it was any farther to the coffee shop, they would have had to make a correction in their direction, since she kept sidestepping away from him.

“I bet you are a chocolate hazelnut type of girl.”

If that was the kind of coffee she usually drank, she would have changed it. Gwen liked her coffee strong with just a little creamer. The stronger it was, the better. Jet fuel was what Drew called it. Eck. Why did everything come back to him?

“I bet you like a lot of whipped cream too, right? So sweet, just like you are.”

Eww. How did she ever except a date from him before? He was way too smooth and polished, and he thought she was stupidly falling for his charm. Getting coffee with him was a really bad idea.

There was not much of a line at the counter, so Gwen marched to the front of the store. She wanted to order her drink before he got her something undrinkable. She also wanted to pay for her own caffeinated beverage. He would probably expect something in return.

When Gwen ordered her drink, Parker seemed irritated. “I wouldn’t have thought a girl like you would drink plain coffee.”

He said it like that was a character flaw.  Gwen couldn’t wait to get her beverage and go back to her car, but of course, Parker had other ideas. When the girl called Gwen’s name, Parker rushed up, grabbed the two cups and headed to a back table. Ugh. She was going to have to sit down with him.

She mumbled, “Thanks,” when he handed her the cardboard cup.

Parker didn’t even take a sip of his girly coffee. He ordered a nonfat, skinny cinnamon latte. Yuck. “I loved watching you play today. You have an excellent back swing. Perfect form.”

Gwen took her time taking a large swallow of her drink so she didn’t have to answer. She watched him push the coffee away from him, and she would bet money he didn’t drink coffee at all.

“I took a few photos of your match today. Even my phone was able to capture your talent on the court.” He pulled out his phone and turned it on the table so she could see it. “Look at your racket. It’s at the perfect angle to wallop the ball back over the net and out of your opponent’s reach.”

Gwen had to admit it was a pretty good shot. She worked so hard to perfect her technique, so it was nice to see it showed. “It’s a good shot.”

Parker beamed. “Oh, I have a few more. Let me show you.” He began to slide his finger across the screen, but instead of more photos of Gwen, he stopped on one of a couple with their lips locked.

Gwen’s breath left her. There, on Parker’s phone, was a photo of Drew and Clarissa kissing. She hadn’t been making it up. Clarissa had been telling the horrible, sickening truth. She had been with Drew.

Gwen thought she might become sick and vomit all over his phone.

“Oh, whoops. I meant to go the other way.” He hurriedly swiped his finger in the other direction, but Gwen could no longer see anything on the screen.

Her vision clouded and narrowed to the point where she wondered if she was going to pass out.

“Are you feeling okay, Gwen? Maybe you need to eat something. You’re looking a little pale.” Parker reached over to cover Gwen’s hand with his.

“I’m, uh, I’m just tired. I—I need to go home.” She pushed back from the table.

“Of course. I’ll walk you to your car. Do you need me to follow you home?”

“No. I’m… fine.” She wasn’t fine. She was not fine at all. Gwen had thought she was devastated before, but she had no idea what devastation felt like until she saw Drew with his mouth on the evil, rotten, nasty bitch.