blames me. For having Drew get taken away from her in the first place. Leo and Drew’s mother was—is—an alcoholic; she had been their entire lives. Leo basically raised Drew. For a while there, he was actually considering not enlisting for another four or five years, until after Drew was at least halfway through high school. But their mom had seemingly turned a new leaf Leo’s senior year. She’d been sober for over ten months, going to her meetings, holding down a job, making them meals every night—the whole nine yards. She knew how important this was to Leo so she told him not to worry about them. So Leo enlisted.”
“According to Drew, the day we found out Leo’s chopper went down was the day their mom started drinking again. It got pretty bad. And since Drew was only twelve at the time, I asked Caine to step in and within a month, Drew was officially the Spencer’s newest foster child, living in my old room all the way until last year, when he graduated from high school with honors.” She smiled. “He received his pick of cyber security undergraduate programs, and ended up in Texas on a full ride scholarship.”
Hudson marveled again at the power of a good family like the Spencers. Drew’s mom could’ve easily ruined Drew’s life with her downward spiral. “You said you ‘had’ believed her intentions were honorable. You don’t believe it anymore?”
“We—and by we, I mean Drew—found out later that she’d apparently had some sort of check-the-box-now-and-figure-it-out-later company life insurance benefit on Leo back when Leo had been an only child and she’d been sober with a good-paying desk job. Even after she’d left the job, this financial advisor guy she’d been dating at the time apparently helped her roll it over somehow. According to her emails—don’t ask—she thought she’d been paying for just her own life insurance this whole time. When she’d tried to cancel it to save some money, evidently, that’s when she found out she could get paid out if she declared Leo dead.”
A flash of bitterness mixed with supreme disappointment darkened her gaze. “She applied for the money the very day the death certificate was issued.”
Even though Lia seemed less than comfortable about Drew’s hacking abilities, Hudson knew how valuable an asset it was. “You mentioned Drew had some evidence that Leo might have possibly survived—did he report his findings to the military liaison in charge of Leo’s case?”
She shook her head sadly. “He tried a few years ago. But they didn’t follow-up and honestly, I can’t really blame them. He was a high school kid telling them that their intel from years prior had been wrong. That he had strong evidence suggesting some of those men’s remains are there waiting to come home. That at least two might have survived, if they hadn’t been captured and tortured afterward. And that he’d obtained his information by hacking into multiple government-secured sites along with sources in the Middle East that he couldn’t disclose. I actually think they specifically didn’t say anything to protect him from himself.”
Hudson slid his hand over hers. “Do you believe him?”
Glancing up to meet his gaze, she nodded. “Yes.”
“And I also believe that whether Leo’s alive or not, Drew is prepared to spend his entire life finding some way to bring him home one day.”
CHAPTER FIVE
HUDSON TOOK OUT his phone. “Give me Drew’s information. I can’t make any promises, but I’ll contact folks on my end and see what I can do. Back then, it was a lot tougher to follow-up on casualties but the climate of the war has changed. I’ll make some calls. You said it was only a few months after he deployed?” He typed some notes to himself on his phone, grimacing at his left hand’s inability to cooperate fully.
“Yes, but he entered with JROTC from high school.”
“So he was a Private First
“According to Drew, the day we found out Leo’s chopper went down was the day their mom started drinking again. It got pretty bad. And since Drew was only twelve at the time, I asked Caine to step in and within a month, Drew was officially the Spencer’s newest foster child, living in my old room all the way until last year, when he graduated from high school with honors.” She smiled. “He received his pick of cyber security undergraduate programs, and ended up in Texas on a full ride scholarship.”
Hudson marveled again at the power of a good family like the Spencers. Drew’s mom could’ve easily ruined Drew’s life with her downward spiral. “You said you ‘had’ believed her intentions were honorable. You don’t believe it anymore?”
“We—and by we, I mean Drew—found out later that she’d apparently had some sort of check-the-box-now-and-figure-it-out-later company life insurance benefit on Leo back when Leo had been an only child and she’d been sober with a good-paying desk job. Even after she’d left the job, this financial advisor guy she’d been dating at the time apparently helped her roll it over somehow. According to her emails—don’t ask—she thought she’d been paying for just her own life insurance this whole time. When she’d tried to cancel it to save some money, evidently, that’s when she found out she could get paid out if she declared Leo dead.”
A flash of bitterness mixed with supreme disappointment darkened her gaze. “She applied for the money the very day the death certificate was issued.”
Even though Lia seemed less than comfortable about Drew’s hacking abilities, Hudson knew how valuable an asset it was. “You mentioned Drew had some evidence that Leo might have possibly survived—did he report his findings to the military liaison in charge of Leo’s case?”
She shook her head sadly. “He tried a few years ago. But they didn’t follow-up and honestly, I can’t really blame them. He was a high school kid telling them that their intel from years prior had been wrong. That he had strong evidence suggesting some of those men’s remains are there waiting to come home. That at least two might have survived, if they hadn’t been captured and tortured afterward. And that he’d obtained his information by hacking into multiple government-secured sites along with sources in the Middle East that he couldn’t disclose. I actually think they specifically didn’t say anything to protect him from himself.”
Hudson slid his hand over hers. “Do you believe him?”
Glancing up to meet his gaze, she nodded. “Yes.”
“And I also believe that whether Leo’s alive or not, Drew is prepared to spend his entire life finding some way to bring him home one day.”
CHAPTER FIVE
HUDSON TOOK OUT his phone. “Give me Drew’s information. I can’t make any promises, but I’ll contact folks on my end and see what I can do. Back then, it was a lot tougher to follow-up on casualties but the climate of the war has changed. I’ll make some calls. You said it was only a few months after he deployed?” He typed some notes to himself on his phone, grimacing at his left hand’s inability to cooperate fully.
“Yes, but he entered with JROTC from high school.”
“So he was a Private First
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