Avenge Thy Brother

Chapter 10: Old Wounds

            I wasn't expecting our cabin to be as therapeutic to me as it was. I truly felt at peace the moment I stepped inside of it after being released from the hospital. We were deep in the woods of the Savage River State Forest area of northwestern Maryland. The beautiful sounds of nature could be heard all throughout the quiet forest. Our two-story cabin was located in the heart of the forest near a beautiful lake. There was a long path just wide enough for one car that ran two miles from our cabin to the main road.

After nearly two hours of lovemaking, I fell into a deep sleep and awakened late in the afternoon to see a fully nude Byron staring out of the big bedroom window that overlooked a part of the forest and the lake. I quietly climbed out of bed, stepped up behind him and wrapped my arms around him from behind. He didn't flinch at all as he gently tilted his head back so that our heads would touch.

Keeping his stare out of the window, he said to me, "We should consider moving here forever."

"Yes," I agreed. "That view is breathtaking."

He turned to face me and said, "I already did what you asked me to do. Your train leaves in three hours."

"Great. I'll only be in Philadelphia for a little while. I really hope Gilmore wasn't toying with me. If he was, I'll desecrate his grave."

"I know you can't tell me what he told you, but what does it have to do with you going to Philadelphia?"

"You'll know everything in due time, baby. Did you get what else I needed?"

"It's all downstairs. I got the special glasses to record video and sound and I got your GPS watch. You have no idea how bad I'm gonna have to repay Agent Paxton for getting all of that stuff here earlier."

"But he was able to get it all out of the evidence locker without being seen?"

"Yes, and he set everything up for us. He even got a fresh warrant so everything you capture will be usable in any federal court in this country. Don't worry, we can trust him. He's saved my black ass plenty of times over the years."

"Okay, we need to test everything out before I leave."

"Baby, we have plenty of time for that. Right now, can we just relax and spend the next couple of hours loving on each other?" He put his arms around me and said, "I haven't seen you naked like this since before you left for Atlanta weeks ago." He began kissing on my neck while holding me tightly.

After making love for a second time that day, we went into the master bathroom and took a long and hot bath together. While in there, I began thinking about Cox and Saunders again. It had been a little over a week since their deaths and I was still in somewhat of a shock. During that week, I'd learned the bomb that was attached to the underside of Cox's car was designed to explode by detonator. There was another one attached to the underside of Saunders's car. The range on that type of device was only two hundred and fifty feet; meaning, whoever detonated the bomb was in close proximity to us that night since they were able to detonate the bomb using the detonator. As upset as I was about Cox and Saunders' untimely deaths, I couldn't bring myself to go to their funerals.

"I caused their last argument," I said while resting my head on Byron's chest in the tub.

"What?" he asked.

"I caused their last argument, Byron. They wouldn't have run out to Cox's car had I not caused that argument."

"There was a bomb under his car, too, Cam. Whoever did this was still going to kill them both. Didn't you say the second bomb has been deactivated?"