Someone Who Loves You: SKULL Book Two

Chapter Two: A Funeral

Chapter 2

Argent, New Mexico

May 20, 2019

    IT BEGAN with a death. A death that Riley Lewis had never, in a million years, expected.

    And, so, she sat here, at the funeral of her cousin, Mia Lewis, and sat in shock.

    She sat in the pew of one of Argent, New Mexico’s three churches. This one just happened to be adjacent to the Argent Memorial Gardens, an easy pick for the service.

    Not that Riley cared. Right then, she felt numb. Numb to sound, numb to her surroundings, numb to the people who came to offer condolences. Numb to everything. It was all she could do to at least stay alert, or pretend she was alert. What she really wanted to do was scream, rant, stomp, kick, anything that didn’t involve sitting there and staring at a coffin.

    Mia’s coffin.

    Mia, who should not be dead.

    Mia, who was the perkiest of the three cousins, the one who kept things happy.

    Mia, who was thirty-three years old, and dead.

    She had now managed to make things sad.

    Riley, Mia and their other cousin, Gemma Rose, grew up together in Argent.  Raised in the large family home of the family farmlands. Each girl was an only child, but were more like sisters than cousins. In fact, the parents of all three girls were siblings. Joel, James and Jillian.  The Lewis family owned a working farm, so the family lived together in the family home.  Gemma’s father, Alwyn Kenn, was Welsh, and Jillian’s husband, so Gemma and her parents split their time between her father’s native Wales and Argent. But for the most part the family stayed together. The girls had gone to school together, college together, they even owned a portrait studio together in Albuquerque, NM.  

    Now, Riley was sitting here, staring at a coffin.

    Beside her, she heard Gemma telling people that they needed some time alone. Tears trailed down her cheeks the minute Gemma ushered people out. This funeral was only the beginning. Tomorrow, the funeral of James, Riley and Gemma’s uncle, Mia’s father. He’d suffered a massive heart-attack upon hearing of his only daughter’s death.

    Yeah, this whole week was going to suck.  Big time.    

    Riley looked up the moment she saw movement.

    Two, tall, dark haired men stood over Mia’s casket, speaking quietly to one another.  One nodded to the other and left. The one who remained was casually dressed in black; a short sleeved, crew neck shirt and black jeans that hugged his ass nicely. The shirt seemed to strain over the hard muscles of his back. Riley was about to chastise herself for ogling a man when a familiar scent drifted to her nose; the scent of patchouli and a hint of spice.

    Her eyes scrutinized him as he leaned over and placed a single flower on Mia’s chest.  He let out a sad sigh and ran a strong hand over his close-cropped dark hair. His arm moved to reveal a gun at his left hip, secured in its holster. The left bicep bore a tattoo, an emblem of some kind, graced with a tribal design surrounding it. His right arm also held a tattoo of an eagle holding the American flag.

    Riley’s eyes widened when he turned to face her. “Hey, RiRi,” his masculine voice intoned softly.

    She blinked, recognition hitting her at his voice. “Jace!” she cried, leaping up to face him.

    “Yeah, baby.” He gave her that ever-present lopsided grin. “It’s me, hon. I’m here.”  He opened his muscled arms for her.

    She stepped into his embrace, and the minute his arms went around her, she let the tears go. His strong arms held her so gently, his hand rubbed up and down her back, his voice soothed.  “It’s okay, babe.  Let it go. Let it go.”

    After a minute or two, Jace guided her back to the pew. He wiped her tears away with his thumb, rubbed her shoulders and arms, and held her hands. She gazed up into his eyes, those gorgeous hazel eyes with  flecks of gold in them, and found comfort there. And love?  His eyes still held that sparkle, that same glow they always had.  But he was different now. She could tell he had distanced himself somewhat.

    True, she had known he wouldn’t be that nineteen year-old boy anymore, but she also knew he’d had a lot of hardships to overcome.  

    Fourteen years had passed.  

    Fourteen years since his father had killed his mother.  After which,  Jace had joined the Marines.  

    Many things had happened since then. 

    To him.  

    To her.

    Now, looking into his eyes, she could see the Jace she had known. But, now, she saw a stronger, more confident Jace. Not a nineteen year-old boy.

    A man.

    And his eyes held everything. His trials, his triumphs, his past, his future and his emotions.

    She shook herself, coming back to the present. She leaned her head on his shoulder. Sighed heavily.

    “Tell me, Ri,” he said, breaking the silence. “What’s going on? Tell me? Gabbie said you needed our help.”

    Gabbie, or Gabrielle Armijo, was an old college friend of Riley and Gemma’s. Riley had been distraught over Mia’s death, and had called Gabrielle to talk. Riley had voiced her thoughts about the wrongness of Mia’s death, Gabrielle had suggested her boss at SKULL could help.  Riley was nearly dumbfounded when she found out who ran the SKULL Team.

    “When did you get here?” Riley asked instead. “I thought you wouldn’t be here until tomorrow?”

    Jace shrugged. “Yeah, well, we wanted to be here for the funeral. I wanted to be here.”

    Riley looked at his face.  A light stubble graced his jaw and cheeks, and that dimple in his chin was still there.  She touched his cheek.  “Oh, Jace, thank you for coming.  It means a lot.”

    He smiled that smile, the one that put a twinkle in his eye.  “No problem, baby. Anything you need, if I can help, I’ll do it.” He lifted her chin with his finger. “Now, tell me what is wrong.”

    She inclined her head towards the body in the casket, the side-sweep of her bangs brushing her forehead. “You saw?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

    Jace nodded. “And I was told a drunk driver hit her.”

    Riley gave a small, sharp laugh, slightly bitter. “Oh, yeah. That’s the official report,” she grumbled. Standing, she walked to the casket “Want to know why there is a scarf around her neck?” When Jace nodded, she continued,  “It’s to hide the fact that Aaron had to sew her head back on.”

    Jace’s eyes widened. He glanced at the pall.  “Jesus,” he swore “How- How did -?”

    Riley snorted bitterly again. “The ME tried to pass it off as the windshield decapitating Mia. But apparently, she had already stated that Mia had been dead before the wreck.” She looked pointedly at Jace.  “Ask Aaron.  He’ll tell you.”

    “Wait… What now?”

    “We know better,” came Gemma’s voice, her throaty Welsh accent floated into the room. Jace looked up to see her approaching with his twin brother, Jordan “That’s why we asked you here.”

    “Know better how?” Jace asked.

    “The windshield on that car was not reported broken,” Gemma said flatly. “And she wasn’t even in her own car.”

    Jace looked at his brother, whose eyes narrowed at that bit of information. Then, Riley said, “Mia was going to Santa Fe, to do some shopping. Only… she never made it.”

    “Never got there?” Jordan asked. “So it all happened before she got to Santa Fe?”

    “Something else?” Jace caught the expression on Riley’s face.

    It was Gemma who spoke. “We started to worry when Mia didn’t call, didn’t come home.  We both called her cell phone, no answer.”

    “No one knew where she had gone,” Riley finished, her eyes pleading with Jace’s. “We knew the police wouldn’t look for her until she had been missing for forty-eight hours.”  Tears trailed down her face. She flinched slightly when Jace’s thumb wiped the tears away.

    “Then we got a call the next day,” Gemma said, taking Riley’s hand. “They found her dead. In a ditch, and in a car that was not hers.”

    “And the drunk?” Jordan asked.

    “Dead as well,” Gemma grumbled. “So there was no way to ask the bugger what had happened.” She let out a heavy sigh, irritation blowing out as well.

    Riley hugged Gemma, and the two women held on to each other for several moments before Riley turned back to Jace. “We asked if an autopsy had been done. We were told yes, and that it was an open and shut case, Mia was killed by a drunk driver.” She fixed a gaze on Jace. “Even Aaron said she looked like she had been dead longer than reported.”

    Gemma nodded, lips pursed.

    “Jace,” Riley began, voice trembling. “I know I have no right to ask anything of you after all these years.” She took his hands – those strong, calloused hands from war –and gave him a pleading look. “But could you please look into this? There is something wrong with this whole situation. Gemma and I need answers. For us. For James.”  She hated to beg, but they wanted to know. She needed to understand. “Please?”

    “Where is James?” Jordan asked, suddenly realizing the uncle of the two women was not there.

    “He’s…gone.”  Riley whispered.  “Died of a heart attack upon hearing the news.”

    “f**k…” Jordan mumbled.

    Jace knew what she meant.  James Lewis was dead. “Oh… Ri, I’m…”

    She stopped him. “Please, Jace? Do this for me?”

    “We can’t guarantee anything,” Jordan stated when Jace looked hesitant.

    Riley looked up into Jace’s hazel eyes.  “Look, I know she isn’t missing, and her body has obviously been found. I know this isn’t what you usually do.  But…we need to know. Please help us learn the truth.”

    Jace looked into her green eyes. He was silent for a long time and Riley wondered what was going on in his head. Finally, he sighed and said, “Okay, Jord and I will look into this. Just know that whatever we may find won’t be pretty. And as Jord said, we can’t promise anything.”

    Riley felt her heart leap in her chest. He’s going to help! Her arms flew up around his neck and she hugged him fiercely. “That’s all I ask!”  she replied tearfully.

    And, while he was there, perhaps she could tell him what happened after he left for basic training. Perhaps she could convince him to stay.