Tunnel Vision (35 page)

“Just to talk. How is Brodie?”

“Not that you give a shit.” She took a deep breath and cast her eyes down to the floor. “She has broken ribs and nearly bled to death from the shoulder wound. I’m sure you’ll be disappointed to know she will survive.”

Looking uncomfortable, Tim motioned toward a chair. “Can we sit? Please.”

Maggie shrugged and sat down, stretching her legs in front of her, crossing them at the ankles and waited for her father to make the first move.

“Fred Donaldson called me yesterday,” Weston began awkwardly. Clearing his throat, he continued,

“We had a long talk.”

“About what? Getting me re-assigned? I won’t accept that.”

“No, it wasn’t about your training. Brodie is doing a…fine job with that,” he said looking at his hands.

“She’s an excellent officer and always has been,”

Maggie said flatly.

“Yes, yes she is. Listen, Maggie, I’m sorry about what happened, you know…before.”

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to. You didn’t try to destroy my career.”

“You’re my daughter, Maggie. Stan Wheeler was my best friend. I was angry when he died because of a stupid mistake. And I was angry because I

couldn’t…accept who you were. I had to blame someone.”

“And Royce just got in the way both times, I suppose.”

“Look, Mag, I won’t try to say I understand the choices you’ve made about your life. I probably never will. But you were only twenty-three. I’d heard lots of rumors about Brodie during the ten years I was her commander, not all of them good. She was fifteen years older than you and had, well…been around. Of course, I questioned her motives. I didn’t want my daughter to wind up another notch on her belt.”

“She’s still fifteen years older, Dad. She has never treated me with anything but respect. When I was hurt eight years ago, you were the one who pushed her into it with the way you were riding her,” Maggie said forcefully. “She almost lost her life to save me and bring a killer in. She would have done the same for Stan if she could have.”

Maggie stood up and straightened her jeans. Tim looked at his daughter and pushed himself out of his chair. “Donaldson also told me you’re going to make an excellent detective.”

“I hope so,” Maggie smiled slightly in spite of herself.

“Just pay attention to what your training officer tells you,” Tim said as they began walking out of the waiting room.

Stopping him, Maggie looked at Tim. “I don’t expect you to understand me or my life, Dad. I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you and Mom, but this is who I am.”

“You’re a strong woman, Maggie,” he nodded.

“Always have been. I want you to be happy. I’m proud of what you’ve accomplished in spite of my interference.”

When they reached Brodie’s room, Tim turned to Maggie. “I’d like to speak to her alone, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Maggie frowned, but finally shrugged and leaned against the wall outside the room. “She knows how to take care of herself.”

Fifteen minutes later, Tim left the room and kissed Maggie on the forehead. “I better get home before your mother reports me as a missing person.”

Maggie found Brodie lying partially inclined on the bed. She smiled when she saw Maggie, “I’m glad you’re back. I missed you,” she said, extending her hand.

Maggie stepped forward and took Brodie’s hand, lifting it to her lips. “I was only gone an hour.”

“It was an eternity.”

Leaning closer, Maggie’s fingers caressed Brodie’s face.

“Maggie, I…,” Brodie began softly.

“Don’t talk, baby,” Maggie said as their lips met. Deepening their kiss longingly, they were both breathless when their lips finally parted.

“You’re in some serious trouble when I get out of here,” Brodie said huskily.

“I think I can handle it, Lieutenant,” Maggie grinned. “Right after you tell me about Kara.”

More Brenda Adcock titles:

Redress of Grievances

In the first of a series of psychological thrillers, Harriett Markham is a defense attorney in Austin, Texas, who lost everything eleven years earlier. She had been an associate with a Dallas firm and involved in an affair with a senior partner, Alexis Dunne. Harriett represented a rape/murder client named Jared Wilkes and got the charges dismissed on a technicality. When Wilkes committed a rape and murder after his release, Harriett was devastated. She resigned and moved to Austin, leaving everything behind, including her lover.

Despite lingering feelings for Alexis, Harriet becomes involved with a sex-offense investigator, Jessie Rains, a woman struggling with secrets of her own. Harriet thinks she might finally be happy, but then Alexis re-enters her life. She refers a case of multiple homicide allegedly committed by Sharon Taggart, a woman with no motive for the crimes. Harriett is creeped out by the brutal murders, but reluctantly agrees to handle the defense.

As Harriett's team prepares for trial, disturbing information comes to light. Sharon denies any involvement in the crimes, but the evidence against her seems overwhelming. Harriett is plunged into a case rife with twisty psychological motives, questionable sanity, and a client with a complex and disturbing life. Is she guilty or not? And will Harriet's legal defense bring about justice—or another Wilkes case?

ISBN 978-1-932300-86-4

Reiko’s Garden

Hatred…like love…knows no boundaries.

How much impact can one person have on a life?

When sixty-five-year old Callie Owen returns to her rural childhood home in Eastern Tennessee to attend the funeral of a woman she hasn’t seen in twenty years, she’s forced to face the fears, heartache, and turbulent events that scarred both her body and her mind. Drawing strength from Jean, her partner of thirty years, and from their two grown children, Callie stays in the valley longer than she had anticipated and relives the years that changed her life forever.

In 1949, Japanese war bride Reiko Sanders came to Frost Valley, Tennessee with her soldier husband and infant son. Callie Owen was an inquisitive ten-yearold whose curiosity about the stranger drove her to disobey her father for just one peek at the woman who had become the subject of so much speculation. Despite Callie’s fears, she soon finds that the exoticlooking woman is kind and caring, and the two forge a tentative, but secret friendship.

When Callie and her five brothers and sisters were left orphaned, Reiko provided emotional support to Callie. The bond between them continued to grow stronger until Callie left Frost Valley as a teenager, emotionally and physically scarred, vowing never to return and never to forgive.

It’s not until Callie goes “home” that she allows herself to remember how Reiko influenced her life. Once and for all, can she face the terrible events of her past? Or will they come back to destroy all that she loves?

ISBN 978-1-932300-77-2

The Sea Hawk

Dr. Julia Blanchard, a marine archaeologist, and her team of divers have spent almost eighteen months excavating the remains of a ship found a few miles off the coast of Georgia. Although they learn quite a bit about the nineteenth century sailing vessel, they have found nothing that would reveal the identity of the ship they have nicknamed “The Georgia Peach.”

Consumed by the excavation of the mysterious ship, Julia’s relationship with her partner, Amy, has deteriorated. When she forgets Amy’s birthday and finds her celebrating in the arms of another woman, Julia returns alone to the Peach site. Caught in a violent storm, she finds herself separated from her boat and adrift on the vast Atlantic Ocean. Her rescue at sea leads her on an unexpected journey into the true identity of the Peach and the captain and crew who called it their home. Her travels take her to the island of Martinique, the eastern Caribbean islands, the Louisiana German Coast and New Orleans at the close of the War of 1812. How had the Peach come to rest in the waters off the Georgia coast? What had become of her alluring and enigmatic captain, Simone Moreau? Can love conquer everything, even time? On a voyage that lifts her spirits and eventually breaks her heart, Julia discovers the identity of the ship she had been excavating and the fate of its crew. Along the way she also discovers the true meaning of love which can be as boundless and unpredictable as the ocean itself. ISBN 978-1-935053-10-1

Pipeline

What do you do when the mistakes you made in the past come back to slap you in the face with a vengeance? Joanna Carlisle, a fifty-seven year old photojournalist, has only begun to adjust to retirement on her small ranch outside Kerrville, Texas, when she finds herself unwillingly sucked into an investigation of illegal aliens being smuggled into the United States to fill the ranks of cheap labor needed to increase corporate profits.

Joanna is a woman who has always lived life her way and on her own terms, enjoying a career that had given her everything she thought she ever wanted or needed. An unexpected visit by her former lover, Cate Hammond, and the attempted murder of their son, forces Jo to finally face what she had given up. Although she hasn't seen Cate or their son for fifteen years, she finds that the feelings she had for Cate had only been dormant, but had never died. No matter how much she fights her attraction to Cate, Jo cannot help but wonder whether she had made the right decision when she chose career and independence over love.

Jo comes to understand the true meaning of friendship and love only when her investigation endangers not only her life, but also the lives of the people around her.

ISBN 978-1-932300-64-2

.

Soiled Dove

In 1872, sixteen-year-old Loretta Digby fled her home in Indiana to escape an abusive step-father. Rescued from the streets of St. Joseph, Missouri by brothel owner Jack Coulter, she turns to the only work available. By twenty she became a much sought after prostitute catering to St. Jo's most influential men and dreaming of the day she can leave her past behind and start her life anew. Jack is enraged when he discovers his favorite employee's plan to leave. Bloody and beaten, Loretta is rescued by a young prostitute, Amelia Benson, and customer Reverend Cyrus Langford. Working with teacher, Hettie Tobias, who is traveling west for a teaching position in Trinidad, Colorado, Loretta and Amelia leave their former lives behind.

In the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains outside Trinidad, Clare McIlhenney has been struggling for years to make her father's dream of owning a cattle ranch in the west come true. Working with a few ranch hands and her foreman, Ino Valdez, Clare has slowly built the ranch over the last twenty years while overcoming everything that should have stopped her.

In the spring of 1876 Loretta and her friends arrive in the dusty Colorado town. Her first meeting with Clare McIlhenney is less than inspiring. When Clare is injured, over her strenuous objections, Ino hires Loretta as a temporary cook and housekeeper for the ranch. Over the next few months, Clare struggles with her unwanted attraction to the much younger woman, unable to forget the events of her past that led to the deaths of everyone she had been close to. Determined to never lose anyone else, Clare closed off her emotions and became a distant and disliked stranger to everyone around her.

Will Loretta be able to keep her past a secret and find a new life? Will Clare open herself up to loss yet again and put her own prejudices behind her? In a story of the struggles in a harsh and unforgiving time will the two women find peace at last?

ISBN 978-1-935053-35-4

About the Author

Originally from the Appalachian region of Eastern Tennessee, Brenda now lives in Central Texas, near Austin. She began writing in junior high school where she wrote an admittedly hokey western serial to entertain her friends. Completing her graduate studies in Eastern European history in 1971, she worked as a graphic artist, a public relations specialist for the military and a display advertising specialist until she finally had to admit that her mother might have been right and earned her teaching certification. For the last twenty-plus years she has taught world history and political science. Brenda and her partner of fourteen years, Cheryl, are the parents of four grown children, as well as three grandchildren. Rounding out their home are three temperamental cats and a poodle mix of suspicious parentage.

She may be contacted at [email protected] and welcomes all comments.

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