Free Return (Matt Turner Series Book 3) by Michael Siemsen

familiar with his involvement in cases continued to protect the secret. They certainly didn’t want to alienate the greatest, irreplaceable resource at their disposal , n or would their objectives be aided if even a single leak slipped through the cracks.
    It’d been a long day, and Joss was exhausted. However, she didn’t detect the same fatigue from the siblings seated across from her, and she refused to be the one who called it a night. One of them had to give her a ride, after all.
    “You look tired,” Iris said to Joss, interrupting Matt. “You about ready to wrap it up, continue the discussion tomorrow?”
    “Not tomorrow,” Matt corrected. “I’ll be back maybe Wednesday or Thursday.”
    Iris sneered at him. “Oh, yeah. So you’re leaving tomorrow ? Guessing I need to figure out flights and such? You know tomorrow’s Sunday, right?”
    Matt nodded to her and stood up. “Yep. And yes, please, to Belgorod.”
    “Ukraine?”
    “Russia. I’ve got a ride from there. Thanks. You’re the best.” He turned back to Joss. “C’mon, I’ll give you a ride. You have a car at your house?”
    Joss stood. “Sure do.”
    “No, no, no,” Iris said to Matt. “You need to pack. I’ll take her home. And check your messages on the cork board. Pete Sharma’s been relentless since last night. Would you call him back, please?”
    Matt ignored his sister, instead holding out a hand to Joss. “Again, it’s great to have you onboard.” She shook his hand. “We’ll get into details or whatever when I get back. Enjoy a week to yourself. I.T. will backdate your payroll to today, so it’ll be like a paid vacation.”
    A few minutes later, in Iris’s car, Joss listened as Iris revealed why she was so eager to give her the ride.
    Joss said, “And you want me to …”
    “Just another set of eyes, you know? Look out for him. He doesn’t take care of himself by himself. I mean, I don’t expect you to go in his room when he’s gone to sleep and check him for artifacts.”
    “Is that what you do?”
    Iris glanced at her, maybe a little embarrassed. “Sometimes … Okay, yeah, every night. He doesn’t get real sleep when he’s reading! It’s not like dreaming, you know? His brain is as active as the person he’s experiencing. It’s why he was so deteriorated after Cuba.”
    “And you pulled him out of that?”
    “No, he did that himself. I mean, I was taking care of him as best I could—groceries and bills and whatnot—but one day something clicked in him and everything just stopped. It turned out he could turn it off, after all. Great, right? Phew! But, no, instead of rejoicing at this, he only twisted it to fit into his depression. Instead of thinking, ‘Wow, now I can live a normal life,’ he thought, ‘Wow, if I’d realized this sooner, so many things would be different.’ Like our dad, and Matt’s old ex, for instance, maybe would’ve worked out different if he hadn’t been at the mercy of his ability.”
    “And you disagree?” Joss wondered aloud.
    “No, but it doesn’t matter.” Iris turned onto Joss’s street, pulling in front of the unlit house Joss pointed toward. “Who says he could’ve turned it off way back when? If he’d just tried harder? No reason to believe that. Anyway, I hope you don’t feel like I’m piling all this crazy responsibility on you.”
    “No, no. Not at all.”
    “Good. ‘Cause I need to pile some heavy responsibility on you.” Iris smiled.
    Joss tried to match Iris’s face as she stifled an uh-oh .
    Iris looked at her earnestly and said, “I know we don’t know each other … You can absolutely say no. It’s just—there’s only me, you know? I can only do so much. All these trips he’s been going on, I have to stay back and manage the work. He knows it. Half of me thinks he’s not on some big mission, but just going places to escape from me —the one yanking the damned needles out of his arm.”
    Big mission?
    Joss waited for her to go on, but