Turn the Tide

by Ruggle, Katie

  Stunned, she lay there a moment, blinking up at the sky. A quick check of her limbs confirmed nothing was broken but then panic hit, hard. “The insulin.” She rolled onto all fours, swallowing a moan as her body protested, and checked the padded bag. She confirmed the vials were intact and let out a sigh of relief.

  She heard a humming sound and looked over the top of the ditch. A motor of some kind, but not a car. Dirt bike? The sound got closer. More than one.

  Thank you, God. Maybe she could sweet-talk someone into giving her a ride to Mama T’s.

  Afraid the riders wouldn’t see her, she scrambled to her feet and waved her arms as four ATVs came into view.

  Seconds later, she yanked her hands down, muttering, “You are an idiot!” as she realized flagging down strangers might not be a good idea. By then it was too late.

  She’d been spotted.

  She tightened her grip on the can of Mace attached to her key ring and waited as the ATVs pulled up beside her, three men and a woman. She relaxed slightly when she spotted the FWC logos on their shirts and the utility belts they wore. Okay, friends. Not foes.

  But when the first man took off his helmet and ran a hand through his dark hair, Sarah decided maybe she’d been wrong about that. She blinked rapidly as she stared, sure her eyes were deceiving her. He wore his dark hair shorter now and sported a shadow of beard that made a woman itch to touch. But if her pounding heart was any indication, it really was Marco Sanchez, the one man she’d never expected to see again. Ever. Especially in Ocala.

  The same man who’d broken her heart and disappeared without a word a decade ago.

  He appeared equally shocked but recovered first. Before everyone else had dismounted, he walked over and stuck his hand out, posture stiff, formal. “Hello, Sarah. Good to see you again.” His voice had deepened since high school and ran over her like a warm caress.

  Still trying to process that it was really him, Sarah reacted on autopilot when she saw his outstretched hand. She stuck hers out, too, and the can of Mace fell from her limp fingers and landed in the sand at his feet. Oh no! The photo! She swooped down to snatch up the key ring at the same time he did, and their heads smacked together as they crashed into each other.

  “Ow!” Sarah rubbed her forehead with one hand and reached for the key ring with the other. But she was a split second too late. Marco already had it in his palm, and she watched him freeze as though he’d turned to stone. He lightly fingered the plastic-encased photo attached to her key ring as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  Sarah couldn’t quite believe he was seeing it either. A red flush spread over her face, but she put her hand out and casually said, “I’ll take that.” Thankfully, her voice sounded calmer than she felt.

  Marco turned to her, his stunned expression filled with confusion. And questions. So many questions she didn’t know the answers to herself.

  While her brain scrambled to formulate some response, her gaze roamed over him, cataloging the changes. He was Marco, but not. Gone was the gangly, defensive, always-protective son of migrant workers she remembered. In his place was an extremely attractive, muscled, confident man. But when she dared to face him, she realized his dark eyes still had the ability to see right into her heart.

  “I can’t believe you kept this all these years.”

  His fingers brushed hers as he placed the key ring in her palm, and Sarah felt like she had at seventeen, dragging the most incredible guy she’d ever met into the photo booth at the school carnival. He’d protested that someone might see them, but she told him she didn’t care. Not then or any other time he warned her they had to keep their relationship a secret. In the darkened booth, they’d finally quit fighting their mutual attraction, and his lips had found hers right before the flash went off.

  Afterward, Marco had pulled her into the shadows behind the food tent and kissed her like he’d never get enough, until Sarah thought nothing could ever separate them.

  She’d been wrong. Weeks later, after he’d disappeared, she had tried to throw the photo away, but she’d always fished it back out of the trash. She’d finally had it made into a key chain, telling herself it was a reminder not to be stupid about men, but the way her hands trembled said she’d been fooling herself.

  She shoved the keys in her bag and stood, brushing the sand off her scrubs. “How are you, Marco?”

  He stood, too, cleared his throat. “What are you doing out here? Or even in Ocala, for that matter?”

  “Trying to get to Mama T’s.” Now wasn’t the time to get into the second part of his question.

  “Sarah Dutton! Good to see you again.” Charlee Tanner removed her helmet and walked over, pulling Sarah into an unexpected hug. Sarah stiffened in surprise. Her family wasn’t affectionate, never had been. “You picked one heck of a day to be out here.”

  “Is she okay?” Marco ignored Charlee as he asked the question, hands propped on his hips, his FWC uniform shirt stretched taut over his hard chest, emphasizing the weapon on his hip.

  “I don’t know. We haven’t been able to reach her.”

  “Who are we talking about?” Another handsome, dark-haired FWC officer stepped up beside them.

  “Mama T,” Marco said. “Hunter, meet Sarah Dutton. We all went to school together. Sarah, this is Hunter Boudreau of FWC.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” he said, and his smile indicated he meant it.

  “Hi, Sarah. Long time no see. What’s going on with Mama T?” Sarah turned to see Charlee’s brother Josh. Several years ahead of her in school, he’d always looked like he just stepped off the pages of a sports magazine and had a smile that lit up the world. The one he sent her now was a shadow of its former self, and Sarah briefly wondered what had happened in the intervening years.

  “She didn’t come by the clinic to pick up her insulin yesterday.” The community center and medical clinic were pretty far out in the Forest, but they were housed in the same building to make it easier for those who lived in the area to get access to services.

  Sarah watched the four of them exchange concerned glances. “You working out there now?” Marco asked, eyeing the dirt on her scrubs.

  “Yes, I started yesterday. The staff said she’s regular as clockwork, comes by with her grandson, Donny.” They’d told her that Mama T’s daughter and Donny lived with her and monitored her diabetes. In return, Mama T kept watch over Donny after school. “I decided to take a quick drive out there, deliver the meds, and make sure her blood sugar is okay. The last time she ran out of insulin, she almost went into a diabetic coma.”

  Sarah felt her own tension ramp up as they exchanged worried looks.

  “You tried to call her?” Josh asked.

  “Yes. No answer.”

  “She has a landline but doesn’t know how to use the answering machine,” Hunter said. “She might have been outside in her vegetable garden and didn’t hear the phone.”

  Sarah appreciated their attempts to reassure her, but her instincts were screaming that she make sure. “Maybe, but I still need to go.”

  Marco stepped closer, arms crossed over his chest. “If you’re working out here, you need a four-wheel drive, not a Mercedes.”

  Sarah lifted her chin at his tone. “This is what I have.” She started to explain that her grandmother had given her the car for her college graduation but stopped herself in time. Marco had spent much of high school using her family’s wealth against her. “Could someone give me a ride out there?” Sarah glanced at everyone but Marco, hoping one of them would offer, but no one did. His friends were all looking to him to make a decision.

  When the awkward silence lengthened, Marco scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck, then nodded. “I’ll take you.” He turned to the rest of the group. “You guys head over to the community center without me. I’ll give you a hand battening things down after I drop Sarah back in
town.”

  Sarah felt a moment’s panic at being alone with him. Not because she was afraid of him. Just the opposite. What if she spent time with him, and the walls around her heart started to crumble? “Look, Marco—”

  “Everyone calls me Sanchez. And don’t be stubborn, Princess. Take it or leave it.”

  Sarah’s head snapped up at his surprising use of her old nickname. In high school, he’d only called her that when he was trying to be condescending, to keep distance between them and point out how they came from different worlds.

  The others had been watching the exchange with a little too much interest.

  Sarah felt another flush race over her skin and bit back the words struggling to get out. She had more important things to worry about today than his attitude. She looked from Hunter to Josh to Charlee, then back at Marco’s stiff posture. “You sure you don’t mind taking me out there…Marco?”

  Despite the tension radiating off him, he shook his head. “It’s no problem. Mama T is a sweet lady. I’ll feel better knowing she’s okay.”

  Hunter nodded. “We all will. We need to go check on a few more people. Let us know how she is.”

  Marco turned back toward his ATV. “Then let’s get moving before the weather turns to complete crap.”

  Sarah followed him, determined to keep her focus where it belonged, on Mama T. But knowing it’d be just the two of them, it wouldn’t be easy.

  Chapter 3

  Josh patted Marco’s back as he walked past, and Sanchez scowled. Was he really that transparent? He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that Sarah Dutton was back in town. She looked better than ever. She’d always been beautiful enough to make his throat go dry, but her biggest draw had always been her heart. Sarah was all about caring for people and fighting for the underdog, and apparently, that hadn’t changed.

  When they became friends, and later more than that, some part of him had always wondered if she saw him as another project, another stray to take care of. He stiffened, just as he had in high school. He might be the son of migrant workers, but their family had worked hard, had looked out for each other and never taken handouts, no matter how bad things got. And they got plenty bad with his father’s drinking away what little they made in the fields.

  She’d kept the photo.

  Marco pushed that thought aside as he grabbed his helmet and handed it to her. “It might be big, but it should work.”

  She gingerly placed it on her head, then fumbled with the straps. He brushed her hands aside and quickly secured it in place. The faster they got moving, the faster they’d get back. He figured they were all thinking the same thing, since everyone was unusually subdued as they checked gear and got ready to go. He’d have to deal with the mind-boggling fact that Sarah was back in town later.

  He swung onto the ATV, motioned her up behind him. “Climb on and hold tight.” As she did, he scanned the sky again, felt the wind picking up, angry clouds moving faster, pressure changing. The weather was about to get ugly.

  He glanced over his shoulder to where Sarah sat on the seat, a good foot of space between them. He reached back and tugged her closer. “Wrap your arms around my waist and hang on, or you’ll bounce off at the first pothole.”

  He watched her eyes widen and her throat move as she swallowed. He realized she was nervous, but he wasn’t sure if it was about him or the weather. At least she was wearing tennis shoes with her scrubs. “Shouldn’t take long to get there. Hold tight and try to enjoy the ride. With the storm coming, lots of wildlife will be out feeding in preparation. It’s not the country club, but there’s some beautiful scenery between here and there.”

  She rolled her eyes as he fired up the engine, and he warned himself to stop acting like the adolescent idiot he’d been all those years ago.

  Sarah Dutton was back in town.

  ***

  Despite what Marco had said, Sarah vowed to keep a respectable distance between them. That lasted until he gunned the engine and she almost slid off the back of the ATV. She grabbed the sides of his uniform shirt, slid forward to plaster herself against his hard back, and held on for dear life.

  Ahead of them, Hunter, Charlee, and Josh, each on their own ATVs, took off like rockets, and despite the impending storm, they bantered back and forth as they raced through the Forest, dodging trees and acting like they were having a ball. Once she felt reasonably confident she wouldn’t fall off, she watched Charlee, envious of her skill and confidence on the big machine. Even though she grew up on a horse farm, Sarah had never really been a country girl. She preferred the energy of a big city: the museums and coffee shops, concerts and street fairs, going out for drinks with friends. Out here in the Forest, she felt oddly exposed, unsettled. Never mind that her body had decided it really liked rubbing against Marco’s hard back. Despite her conflicted feelings, he made her feel safe.

  When he looked over his shoulder and grinned, she couldn’t help grinning back.

  But then she remembered how he’d treated her in high school and her smile vanished. He’d broken her heart once. She wasn’t about to give him the chance to do it again.

  ***

  Freddie loved the terror on the driver’s face.

  “Please,” the man stammered. “Just let me out. You can have the car.”

  Freddie laughed. “I already have the car.” He waved the gun and watched the man pale even more. He leaned closer and held the barrel against the man’s neck. “Shut up and keep driving.”

  “Where are we going?”

  Freddie cuffed the man with the gun, delighted by the thin line of blood that ran down the side of his face. “I told you to shut up and drive.”

  As they headed east on SR 40, he thought about getting his hands on Patty, and suddenly, the perfect plan occurred to him. “When we get to Joe’s Diner, you’re going to park the car, go inside, and ask for Patty Thomas. She’s a waitress. Tell her to come outside. A friend wants to talk to her.”

  The man nodded, white knuckles gripping the wheel.

  Freddie pressed the gun into the man’s neck. “If you say anything else, to anyone else, I’ll shoot her. And then I’ll shoot you. Understood?”

  The man gave one quick nod.

  “Good. Keep driving. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  His smile widened as he pictured the shock on Patty’s face when she realized he’d come back to finish what he’d started. Just thinking about her hot little body writhing under him made him grin. He hadn’t had a woman in way too long, and it was all her fault. He’d get what he wanted and make her pay for that, too, both at the same time.

  Life was looking better and better.

  Chapter 4

  As they raced through the Forest, Marco tried to ignore the way Sarah’s arms felt wrapped around his middle, her breasts pressed against his back. He couldn’t let his mind go back to all his teenage fantasies of the rich horse-farm owner’s daughter. That had netted him nothing but heartache in high school. She’d been everything he’d ever wanted—and everything he couldn’t have.

  He was so focused on not thinking about Sarah that he almost ran into the back of Hunter’s ATV when the other man suddenly held up his hand in a signal to stop.

  Marco veered sharply left and slid to a stop as Josh and Charlee did the same. He waited until Sarah slid off before he dismounted.

  Hunter had his phone to his ear. When he hung up, his expression was grim. “That was Lieutenant Abrams. Our old friend Freddie Marshall escaped from the sheriff’s work-farm van this morning.”

  Marco bit back a curse, as did Josh.

  Charlee propped her fists on her hips. “The work farm? How does a lowlife in for attempted murder and sexual battery get on the farm crew? That makes no sense.”

  “Abrams didn’t have details yet, but Pete told him the sheriff’s department is scrambling to find out, s
ince only misdemeanors are allowed on the crew.” Josh and Charlee’s older brother, Pete Tanner, worked for the sheriff’s department, and both agencies frequently worked together.

  “He’s going after Patty and Donny,” Marco said. From the looks on everyone’s faces, they were thinking the same thing.

  Josh nodded as he put his helmet back on. “We need to split up and find that lowlife before he finds them. I’ll head to the school and get Donny.”

  Marco rubbed the back of his neck, weighing his options. He couldn’t take a civilian along to chase down an escaped fugitive, but he didn’t have time to take her back to town. And Mama T needed her insulin. “Sarah and I will head to Mama T’s to deliver her meds. Then I’ll take her back to town and catch up to you guys.” He nodded to Josh. “After you get Donny stashed somewhere safe, head back to Mama T’s, in case Freddie goes that way. I’ll meet you there.”

  Josh nodded. “Let’s hope Pete and the sheriff’s department nab him before he disappears into the Forest.”

  Hunter nodded, then turned to Charlee. “Do you mind running by the community center on your own, cher? I’ll head to the Corner Café and find Patty.” He turned back to Josh and Marco. “Once I make sure Patty’s safe, I’ll meet up with you guys and we’ll throw a net over this guy.” He relayed their plan to dispatch and Lieutenant Abrams.

  By the time he finished talking, Charlee already had her ATV running. “I called the new director, told him what he should secure before the worst hits. You are not going after Marshall on your own, Hunter. I’ll be right behind you.”

  Marco had expected that response and figured Hunter had, too. Charlee had been an FWC officer until last year, when her mom had a stroke. She had resigned and taken over running Tanner’s Outpost so her dad could take care of her mom.

  Hunter scowled. “Look, cher, I know you want to—”

  Sarah’s face was pale above her light-blue scrubs as she turned back to Marco. “You’re talking about Donny, as in Mama T’s grandson?” she asked.