Tidal Falls (Wounded Hearts Book 1) (11 page)

On
that parting shot Frank turned and grabbed the doorknob just as it opened from the other side. Jared walked in followed by the rookie cop, whose mouth dropped at the sight of Ms. Holt. Frank could sympathize with the man, that’d been his first reaction too. It was too bad she’d turned out to be a fed, definitely on his to-be-avoided list.

“Hey
, Franco, my man, you came. Thanks, bud. I thought I was going to be spending the night in the crowbar hotel.” Jared grinned past the swollen lip and black eye he was sporting, no doubt courtesy of The Golden Ring Casino. The man never learned. Frank was relieved to see the damage was minimal. His ugly mug would heal.

“Wow, who’s the babe? You’
ve been holding out on me, old man. Hello, pretty lady, I’m Frank’s better-looking and much more charming partner.”

Frank shook his head. Jare
never knew when to keep his big trap shut, which is how he always got himself into shit. “She’s got way more class than to hang out with the likes of you, now let’s get out of here. I could use a beer.” With a last look at the woman sure to be occupying his dreams that night, Frank etched a salute at the shadow behind the glass and pushed his friend out of the room.

“What
the fuck was that about?” Jared griped, and sent the young officer a back-off stare, his humor disintegrating now that they were almost alone. His aggressiveness was so out of character that Frank took a better look. Other than the bruising, he looked wrung out, his green eyes murky, hiding his true thoughts. Frank didn’t like it, not at all.

“
They wasted a shitload of time down in holding with the release papers. At first they didn’t even want to give me my phone call, until they found out I was calling you, then they couldn’t move fast enough. I thought they were just being jackasses, but now I’m guessing there was another agenda. This whole thing stinks. I didn’t do anything wrong. Well, not much at any rate.” He let loose a mischievous grin. “Those guys over at the Ring need to get a sense of humor. They are way too serious. That’ll give a guy lines, you know?” He pointed to Frank’s less than smooth forehead. “Case in point.”

The idiot
was a giant pain in his ass, but Frank thanked his lucky stars every day for putting him into that barracks room with Jared all those years ago. After Cameron had disappeared from home, Frank had gone near crazy looking for him. He’d always taken care of his younger, frailer brother. Cam was special. Ever since he opened those green eyes and looked up into Frank’s misty ones, they’d been inseparable, or at least that’s how his mama liked to tell the story.

Their
father, Frank Sr., had been the rock in the family, strong and silent but always there to lean on. He’d died in a freak accident out on the range not long after the incident with the Muldoon boys and Cam. Cameron blamed himself, and no one could change his mind about it. It festered until one day he just up and disappeared, breaking their Mother’s heart. Bad enough she’d lost her husband, but now her baby was gone too.

“Come on
, buddy, I owe you a couple for coming all this way to bail me out. Who’s watching the spread?” Jared asked, slinging an arm over Frank’s shoulders, jarring him back to the present.

“Spencer’s there, he can handle it. Ma’ll keep him in line.” Frank answ
ered, shrugging Jared’s arm off. The ass knew he wasn’t a touchy-feely sort of guy.

“Spence get her to agree to marry him yet? That old codger’s had a thing for your Mom pretty well ever since I’ve known you.” Jared laughed.

“Not yet, not for a lack of trying though. The old bugger’s persistent, I’ll give him that.” Spencer was as reliable as the day was long. He’d been Frank Senior’s foreman, and was an invaluable help to Frank when he had to pick up the reins and carry on in the wake of the family’s double tragedy.

T
hanks to Spence’s urging after his father died, he’d been able to continue his career as a SEAL for a couple more years. Actually, it had been both his and Cam’s dream. Cam was all Army though, and the boys had often argued good-naturedly about the perceived values of one over the other. Frank often wondered if his little bro’ had gone there when he’d disappeared, but had never found any trace.

Spencer had been in love with Emily, Frank’s mom, for years. Af
ter Frank Sr. died he’d stayed on at the ranch to help the Steins out in any way that he could. If his deepest desire was to have Emily finally take note of him, Frank couldn’t blame the man. His mother was a fine woman, one who deserved a second chance. She was too young to be burying herself along with her husband.

Leaving the
coolness of the precinct behind, the two men ambled across the hot-enough-to-roast-a-chicken parking lot towards Frank’s car, a beige four-door sedan.

“Vegas and you rent this piece of crap? What were you thinking, man? This isn’t a chick car; it’s
barely a step up from a walker,” Jared complained when he caught sight of the wheels.

“I was
thinking
that I might need my hard earned cash to pull you out of the clink, asshole. I’m not here to go joyriding.”

“Take it easy, I was joshin’ ya. It’s
cool, lots of leg room, see?” He pushed the front seat all the way back and stretched out his long legs. Tipping the mirror down, Jared looked at his beat up face in the glass. “Those creeps did a bang up job of messing with my pretty face. So what do you think that Fed wanted?”

“How’d you know she wa
s a Fed? DEA by the way. What did you get yourself into this time?” Frank put the key in the ignition and wound down the windows, the wind a dubious relief. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d come to Jared’s rescue. The man was a walking trouble magnet.

“Me? They were asking you all the questions.
Of course she’s a Fed, didn’t you notice her eyes? Cold, man, ice cold. What were they after, anyway?”

Cold?
No. Intelligent, yes. Frank knew there was no way Jared would knowingly get himself tangled up in smuggling of any kind. However, unknowingly? That was a whole other ballgame. He was more than a little worried about what kind of trouble his friend might have gotten himself into.

“Besides yo
ur friends at the Casino, who’ve you been hanging with? Someone out there is setting one of us up for a big dive and we need to figure out who it is, quick like. If the DEA is in on this, you can best believe we’re soon to have the whole friggin’ alphabet soup up our asses, and I don’t know about you but that makes me a wee bit edgy.”

“I haven’t been up to anything
, Frankie. I swear it on my father’s grave. Since I saw you last year out at the ranch I’ve just been bouncing around, playing a few games here and there, to keep the cash flowing, you know. Until the meet and greet with those goons the other night things have been pretty copasetic for a change.”

“Wel
l, that agent thinks differently. We’re going to have to come up with a game plan, and fast. There’s some serious shit going down, and apparently, we’re right in the middle of it. She said something about drug smuggling, cathinones. Also, gunrunning and human trafficking. This is bad Jare, very bad,” Frank said grimly. “She believes it’s someone from the team. We need to find them ASAP, and find out what the hell’s going on.”

Franks’ phone let out a
little burst,
you are my Sunshine
. Looking over at Jared’s grinning face he growled, “Not a word, not one single word.” He couldn’t believe his mom had messed with his phone, and now he couldn’t figure out how to change the blasted thing.

“Stein,” Frank barked, putting a stop to the offensive sound.

“Chief, how are you, sir? It’s, Nick. Nickolaus Kelley.”

Funny how that worked, he couldn’t count the number of times he’d thought of someone he hadn’t heard from in forever and wham, there they were.
“Kelley, no kidding. Jared and I were just talking about you. Yeah, he’s here. I had to come rescue his sorry ass out of the slammer for messing with a casino in Vegas. Their mainframe computer no less, same old Jared.” Turning sideways, he smirked at the sour grimace on his friend’s kisser.

“It’s great to hear your voice, Chief. It’s been too
long, I should have kept in touch. Fact is I’ve got a situation brewing here. I’m in Tidal Falls, Washington. I could use a hand, if you can spare the time?” Nick’s deep voice carried through the cell phone’s receiver and reverberated in the air between them.

“
No shit. Yeah, we can be there by tomorrow. Funny you should call. I was just getting ready to look you up for the same thing. I’m looking forward to seeing your sorry ass, Kelley, and it’s Frank now.”

As Frank closed h
is phone down and drove towards the nearest gas station, thoughts of the team ran through his mind. It would be good to see Nick again. He’d better give the ranch a call though, make sure his mom and Spencer had everything under control. He didn’t like to be away for very long, though truthfully, Spence didn’t really need him there. He handled the men and day-to-day stuff fine without Frank around. Shit, he’d been the one that had taught Frank most of what he knew in the first place.

“Well
, how’s that for fate stepping in and giving us a big high five?” Jared chuckled. “Guess we’re going on a road trip, hey buddy?”

Rolling his eyes he turned his attention to the road while a flare of adrenalin flowed
through his body, electrifying the air and exciting the thrill-seeker inside him. He loved his home and enjoyed making a success of the farm, but it couldn’t compare to the do or die of day to day in the SEALs.

Now
, if he could only find some duct tape wide enough to tape yappy’s mouth shut.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Nick jogged
through the early morning streets, Jake trotting by his side, enjoying the peace and quiet before the town woke for the day. Little songbirds greeted him as he passed a cedar hedge on his way to the park. The air was fresh and cool at this hour. He was glad his strength had returned, his breathing even and stride long. It’d been an uphill battle. For a while after the ambush he’d shut down. Closed everyone out. He wished now he’d made it his business to keep in touch with all his old teammates. The faint sounds of a dog’s bark had Nick looking down at Jake, loping alongside. He’d healed up well, and only flinched at sudden loud noises these days. His hip had taken the brunt of the damage. When the explosion had thrown them, Nick worried he’d need to put him down, but he’d pulled through. Tough mutt.

After his run, he would head over to Sara’s and have a look at those files, see what they were looking at here. Nick had a bad feeling that Tommy boy was into some heavy shit. They needed to solve that first, before there could be a chance for him and Sara.

A sudden sharp pain stabbed him behind the eyes, causing him to falter. Jake whined, sensing his distress. Squinting through slit eyes he spotted a nearby bench, and slumped onto the seat. He pushed a shaky hand through his hair, and then using his thumb and middle finger squeezed in towards his nose, relieving the pressure. “It’s okay, boy. I’m fine. Let’s just take a little break, hmm.” The doctor had explained in excruciating detail while he lay in that hospital in Germany, how lucky he was. The explosion had hit him and sent him flying right up against the stone wall of a nearby house. Shrapnel had gouged a deep line on his forehead, right above his old bullet wound. A centimeter farther to the left and it would have been lights out, of the forever kind. Unfortunately, it’d taken his short-term memory away from him. He’d been told it would come back in dribbles, or one big slam––or maybe not ever. Nice. It angered him that he couldn’t break through the fog to discover the truth of what happened to him and his team. There was something there he could feel it.

He suppos
ed he should be grateful he could remember his childhood, though those memories he could have lived without. Years of mental and physical abuse at the hands of his old man had sent him down nothing but a path of trouble during his high school years. Alcohol, substance abuse, vagrancy, you name it he tried it. His motto had been
if you’re not living on the edge, you’re just taking up space.

Then
he’d met Kendra in one of the few classes he’d decided to show up for and they’d fallen in love. She’d been the only child of lawyer parents, sweet and innocent. The odds had gone against him when they’d had unprotected sex on a hot summer’s night. She’d gotten pregnant. At least he’d done the right thing and proposed. And though her parents of course hated him, they agreed the marriage should take place. Maybe if they’d stopped it, or if he’d just walked away, Kendra and his son would still be alive today.

T
hey’d been too young, and in the end it tore them apart. He couldn’t even recall what the fight had been about––no doubt his lack of a ‘respectable’ job. He’d been working at a local garage at the time––all he did remember was getting up to answer the door, only to see two uniforms on the other side. Devastated, blaming himself, he spent the next couple of months shit-faced drunk. Coming out of an alcohol-induced daze one day he saw a poster for enlisting in the marines. Not caring much whether he lived or died at that point, he’d signed up. They sent him to Lackland Airforce Base in San Antonio, where he met Jake. They’d been inseparable ever since.

The searing pressure eased
enough for him to open his eyes. Jake sat with his head cocked to the side, his ears laid back in commiseration. Nick nudged him with his knee and gave his sides a good hard rub, Jake groaning his thanks. “Okay, big guy, what do you say to finishing our run?” He’d learned a long time ago that pushing through the pain was often the best medicine.

He had that in common with
Sara. She’d gone through both a physical and a mental trauma that would have crushed most. She was doing great, but he bet a violation like that was something from which no woman ever fully recovered.

It humbled
him that she had trusted him enough to allow him to make love to her last night. Nick would never hurt a hair on her head, but there was no real way for her to be sure of that. He hoped and prayed no one would ever crush her again, and swore to do everything in his power to make sure of that, starting with Sheridan. If those files contained half of what Sara had intimated they did, he’d need some help. Checking to make sure no one was around, he pulled his cell out of his sweats and made the call.

“Hey
, Chief, how are you? It’s Nick, Nickolaus Kelley. Long time, sir, too long. Shit, I’ve missed the team. How’s the whizz kid?” A big grin split his face as he listened to Frank describing Jared’s latest and greatest.

“
No kidding, trust Ford to take the term,
Land of opportunity
, to a whole new level right?” He laughed. Man it was good to talk to the chief again. Why did people always let the important ones in their lives fall to the wayside, while they went about the business of life?

He could well believe Jared had
almost shut down the strip; the man was scary good with electronics. “I understand that you’re out of the loop these days, sir, but I was hoping I could ask you, and Jared if he’s still with you, for a helping hand. I have a situation here and could really use your input.”

Relief coursed through his veins at the quick response to his plea. “
I’ll tell you all about it when you arrive. Tomorrow then, and thanks—Frank.”

***

After their breakfast of champions, fresh grilled cinnamon buns and hot, black coffee, Grace left Sara’s to get the restaurant up and running and Tess said she was going over to her sister’s. No doubt to try and get the dirt on last night from Ty. Shaking her head, Sara picked up the cups and carried them over to the sink. Glancing out the back window to check on Jess, she was surprised to see Nick still there. He and Jessica were tossing the baseball.

Nick was
pointing out her in painstaking detail, how to grip the ball, and then the correct posture to take before making that all-important throw. Sara’s heart swelled until she could barely contain it watching the two of them playing together. The dog ran in circles while the sun shone down, banishing shadows and seemingly placing a protective shield around them.

This
. This is how a family should be. Tom had certainly never taken time out of his precious days to stop and play ball with his little girl, and although that was his loss, in a very real way it was also Jessica’s.

Even though they had only known Nick for a few
short weeks, he’d become more of a father to Jess than her own ever was. Listening to their joined laughter, Sara wished things could be different. He hadn’t said, but she had the sense that it hadn’t been easy for him as a child, either. As if he sensed her gaze upon him he stilled in the middle of all the chaos that was child and dog, and turning toward her dropped the ball he’d been holding to stride across the green grass toward the back door, followed by his entourage. A sunbeam infused him in a warm glow, and though he was certainly no angel, to her he was undoubtedly divine.

Turning
away, Sara dabbed at her eyes and fixed a welcoming smile upon her lips just as Jess burst through the doorway talking a mile a minute.

“Mom, guess what? Nick show
ed me how to throw a curve ball. He said that I could strike anybody out with it. Can I join a baseball team?”

“We’ll see
, honey. Now go wash up, and I’ll make us all some breakfast.” Sara wished more than anything that Jessica could join a ball team. Be like other normal kids. She knew they couldn’t keep running. It was hurting them just as much, in its own way, as staying in that monolith of a house with Tom had ever done.

Nick
came through the doorway and raised his brow upon seeing Jessica’s little shoulders hunched over as she headed down the hall. Sara shrugged and gave him a reassuring smile.

“What’s up?”

“It’s nothing, she’ll be fine. Want some of my world famous waffles?” As he came close, she breathed in the fresh, clean, spicy scent radiating off his skin, and almost moaned. It took her straight back to his darkened living room of the night before. All she’d done. To him.

Suddenly shy, she
turned toward the stove but he caught her chin in his sun-warmed fingers and lifted her head to his.

“Hi.” His beautiful voice rumbled a soft greeting.

“Hi, back,” she whispered just before he sealed their lips together. He kept the kiss tender, sweet. Her eyes slid closed, her arms wrapped around his neck and she hung on for dear life as the world spun on its axis.

A
giggle had them lifting their heads, to look into Jessica’s grinning face.

“Mommy and Nick, sitting in a tree, K I S
S I N G, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Nick pushing a baby carriage!” She laughed and danced around the small room, Jake trailing behind her, barking his joy with the world.

Sara smiled somewhat ruefully, and
shrugged her shoulders before turning to her daughter. “Okay, brat, settle down. Nick and I were only saying hello. How about blueberry waffles for breakfast?”

“That’s not how Nick said hello to me,” Jess snickered.

“You know what, munchkin, you’re right. I knew I forgot something this morning, come here.” With that, he chased her around the house, dragging his leg, and scrunching up his shoulders in an imitation of the
Hunchback of Notre Dame
, as Jessica went squealing away.

Sara
turned back to the stove to begin the promised meal, her heart overflowing with tenderness and warmth. She couldn’t remember the last time there had been this much laughter in their home, it filled every corner of the room, chasing away the shadows.

After sitting down together
for breakfast and knowing Nick wanted answers for why she’d left the way she had the night before, Sara called Annie to see if Jessica could spend some time with Chris. As she expected, Annie was quick to agree, and drove right over.

Hugging Sara, she said, “This is perfect.
Chris has been driving me crazy, he’s so bored with it being spring break and all. Jessica can stay for the day if you want, then we can both get a break!” She laughed.

“Thank you so much, Annie.
I’ll repay the favor soon, okay? Jess, you listen to what Ms. Campbell tells you, and be a good girl. I’ll see you later.”

Jessica was already skipping down the sidewalk towards
Chris waving from the back of Annie’s minivan. “I will, Mom, don’t worry. Chris and me are going to make a fort in the back with a bunch of old blankets. Then we can tell ghost stories. It’s going to be fun.” Jess smiled back over her shoulder before sliding the van door open and hopping in.

“Those were the days, eh
, Mom?” Annie chuckled. “Okay, gotta go. See you tonight,” She looked behind Sara at Nick who’d come to stand behind her, before grinning cheekily, “or maybe tomorrow?”

Sara could feel the heat stealing into
her cheeks as she glared at her friend. “Tonight, I’ll see you tonight.”

Annie laughed
and gave a quick wave as she sprinted down the stairs, following in Jess’s tracks. “Whatever.”

Sara
gazed after them until they drove out of sight, more than aware of the large male warming her back. She closed the door and began re-engaging locks, her nerves clenching at the thought of sharing what she knew. Nick’s large hands rested upon her shoulders, turning her to face him. “Guess you want to talk, right?”

He moved closer,
sandwiching her between him and the door. “Yeah, we could talk.” His hands slipped down her arms and intertwined with her fingers. He slowly lifted them to bracket her head as she leaned back against the smooth wood. “Later.”