Adam grinned back, “Good to be alive, Chief, more than you know. And don’t worry about Mags, she’s heard plenty worse.” He reached over and gave her thigh a squeeze. Frank turned back to the front, and pealed out of the parking lot with more zeal than warranted.
“So, do you want to explain where you’ve been for the last five fricken years?” Jared asked, still uncharacteristically acrimonious, slouched in his corner of the car; a pair of dark sunglasses covering his eyes. Something was eating at Jare’s insides. It was past time he confided in someone.
One thing at a time though. “Yes, I think you better share with us what happened. And how do you come to be part of the DEA team which happens to be in on the same case that we find ourselves neck deep in?’ Frank stopped at a red light and glance over his shoulder.
“You’re right, it’s not a coincidence. Maggie and I have been working this case for years. We’d catch a break at one end and everything would unravel from the other end. It’s been a real clusterfuck, but Sheridan is the key. I’m sure you guys noticed I spent a fair amount of time keeping an eye on that prick. The DEA had already tagged me. Before I decided to try my luck on the Teams, I’d looked into joining the Drug Enforcement Association. When I happened to be on the SEAL team assigned to safeguarding Sheridan, they asked me to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. He was on their watch-list for connections to some, shall we say, unsavory characters.”
Other than the whistle of wind through Jared’s partially open window and the muted roar of thousands of motorists trying to beat the afternoon rush home, silence reigned. How the hell did someone the Feds already have their eye on manage to get appointed to a hotspot, with a team of SEALs no less, watching his six? Jared was right. It was bullshit.
“Obviously they caught on to what I was doing, hence the attempt to have me killed. If not for you two that night, I probably wouldn’t have made it. Believe me, I’ve wanted nothing more than to catch up and let you know I was alive and to thank you for saving my sorry ass. But the higher-ups decided that I had to stay dead, both for my family’s safety and for the case.”
“So you’re telling us that you getting shot, and presumably killed, then subsequently disappearing for the last five fricken years, were all due to Sheridan? Fuck man, why didn’t you talk to us about it? You know we would have had your back. Maybe then we wouldn’t have had to spend all this time feeling as if we failed you that night.” Jared flung the words at Adam, his eyes shooting daggers into the back seat.
“Jare, it’s all right. The man was following orders, you need to respect that.” Frank knew most of Jared’s anger was self-directed. Hell, they’d both had trouble getting over watching their friend shot down right in front of them. He had to live every day with the responsibility. His commands had placed them behind the town well. He’d never forgiven himself. One of many fucked up decisions that had cost the people he cared for.
Shaking off the darkness of his thoughts, Frank glanced into his rear-view mirror, his attention absorbed by the beauticious Ms. Holt seated directly behind him. Her scent, a bouquet of lilac, vanilla, and old-fashioned roses drifted around him, amping his awareness of her. She sat gazing out the side window, her profile full of mystery, the shadows created by the swiftly passing trees flirting with the dips and planes of her body. She and Adam seemed pretty close, sharing the comfort of long time partners. But there was more. He’d caught the meditative looks Adam kept sending her way. Just then as if sensing his regard, Maggie brought her gaze to his in the mirror, and awareness flashed to life. Not good, not good at all. He didn’t poach. Especially on newly returned from the dead friends.
“No, I get it, I really do.” Adam’s voice jerked Frank’s attention forward, breaking the connection. “If there were any way I could have done things different, believe me I would have. It’s not exactly been a picnic for me either. I hated having to let my family, my friends, believe I’d died. But in order to stop the person at the head of this organization, the DEA needed me to go undercover. Sheridan was—is, our link to this person.” At the zero response from Jared, Adam’s voice rose, “He’s also a human smuggling, drug pushing, gunrunner who we’ve been doing our Goddamn best to take down. So you can stay annoyed with me for as long as you want, but none of this was my idea. When it first began I figured okay, cool, I’ll play spymaster, catch me a bad guy and then get back to doing what SEALs do best, blow shit up.” He grinned and slapped Jared’s tense shoulder. “Seriously, we all took a vow to defend our country no matter what that entailed. The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday, remember?”
Again the hum of tires as the car ate up the miles and they all acknowledged the motto and their pledge to protect with their lives if needs be.
The smooth, silky contralto of Maggie’s voice broke the silence. “Listen, I think we’re all forgetting the important thing here. Sheridan. I’m sure by now you must have realized the game we’re playing is high stakes—you should like that, Ford.” Jared accepted her little dig with a shrug. “I think it’s in all our best interests to set aside our differences until we catch this creep.”
Frank nodded his agreement. “She’s right, boys. We need to team up and take care of business. We can hash the rest out later. With that in mind, how about a sit-rep on what you have compiled so far?”
Chancing a backward glance, Frank caught Adam waving his hand toward Maggie, giving her the floor. “Okay, here is our bullet list so far, 1) Sheridan somehow pulls strings, and joins SEAL Team 5 right after they are deployed to Iraq.
2) He makes contact with a known group of smugglers hidden under the guise of the Peshmerga militia.
3) He uses his ships, magically clearing all security checks, in the conveyance of drugs, arms and humans to Europe and Africa.
4) Sheridan finds out that O’Connor is a little too curious and shoots him.
5) Back in good old U.S.A Sheridan continues his lucrative career as a lawyer and has the suspiciously good luck to fall into a relationship with none other than Ramos Guerra, right hand man of El Chapo, head of the Sinaloa Cartel.
6) Everything is coming up rosy for our boy. The drug trade is booming, he has a beautiful wife, Sara Wilcox, a daughter, and reaps the rewards of becoming Massachusetts next U.S. Attorney.
7) Rumors abound, is he beating his spouse? He pulls her out for a variety of functions; see perfect couple, no problems. Then a couple of years pass, he’s preparing to run for governor and we hear he has a big reward out for his missing wife and daughter.
8) One day I’m out with vice, chasing leads on a bunch of missing hookers that seem to track back to Sheridan, and I hear word on the street about a multimillion-dollar deal in the pipeline between the Cartel and our man.
9) A week later Ford here, manages to get himself arrested. Adam convinces me, against my better judgment, to make contact. Find out what you know. But I have to say, I figured you to be in on it.”
Jared swung around in his seat, a WTF look on his face. “Relax buddy, I told her she was wrong, there was no way.” Adam reassured him.
“Why would you even think Jare would be involved in this sort of thing? I don’t get it.” Frank asked the question bugging him ever since that day in the interrogation room.
Maggie answered, “We knew Sheridan was dirty, but there had to be someone else helping him. Where was he getting his info? How did he keep avoiding our attempts to nab him? Ford fit the bill. He has a gambling problem and has had for years, yet he always has the cash to play. His family is estranged. And most importantly, he is a genius when it comes to electronics and surveillance. It would have been child-play for him to watch our frequencies, warn Sheridan of any nets.” She sighed and it curled under Frank’s guard like smoke under a closed door. Dangerous, but nearly impossible to resist.
“That brings us to ten. Adam convinced me to break silence and make contact with you two and so now we hopefully, have evidence to lock that asshole away and if it’s as good as you say, maybe we can h
ook the whole organization.”
Digesting all the new Intel, Frank was embarrassed by how much had gone down right under his nose. His job was to know everything about his men. It’s how you stay alive out there. He’d failed.
Jared, as usual seemed to sense his turmoil and snapped him a quick punch. “Don’t. Don’t you dare start blaming yourself for shit that had nothing to do with you. I was proud to be under your command. We all were.” He shot a step up glance to the back.
Adam agreed. “He’s right, Senior Chief, don’t blame yourself. Sheridan had us all snowed. We knew he was a jerk, but not how big of a horse’s ass he was, that’s all.”
While Frank appreciated his friends support, it still didn’t change the fact he had seriously slipped in his duties as an officer. He thought of how it had been him who told his brother to cut through the field that day, he would catch up. He thought of the day his father died. How he hadn’t been there for him. Now this, where he had failed his unit by missing something of such importance it had almost gotten two of his men killed.
It all piled up like a big car wreck in his chest. He was tired of it. Tired of always feeling to blame for things he had no control over. His fingers whitened as he strangled the steering wheel. His foot pressing down on the gas shot the car forward with a satisfying rumble. It was time to correct some of those transgressions, and it was going to begin with Sheridan. The man had made himself a deal with the devil. Now he had to pay.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Sara pulled up in front of her house and turned the key off on Mirabelle to hear the chirp of contented little birds, the joyful barks of playful puppies, and the clinking groan of the old car as it settled down as if for a much needed rest. She and Nick sat for a couple of minutes listening to the breeze play a song with the leaves through their lowered windows, neither one anxious to disrupt the peaceful moment.
“Is Jessica staying with your friend Annie for a couple of days?” Nick’s quiet voice blended with the breeze drifting across Sara’s cheek.
She sighed, soothed by the harmony between them. “Yes, she insisted. I explained some of what was going on, not all of it, but she figured it out, I think. Anyway, she said Jess would be no problem at all.”
“Good, that’s good. She’ll be safe with her, there’s no way he’ll trace her to Annie.”
Sara rolled her head on the backrest toward Nick, only to see he’d done the same. They stared at each other, and the poignancy of the moment made her throat clench with suppressed longing.
Nick raised his hand and gently brushed her hair back from her cheek, his calloused fingers against her ear sending little zaps of electricity throughout her body.
“I want you in my life, Sara. I’m not ready to give up what’s happening between us, are you?”
Mesmerized by his gentle touch and soft words, she viewed him with sleepy eyes as those sensual lips moved gradually closer. Her breath suspended as everything around them seemed to hush, the animals, the click-clacking motor, her heartbeat, all poised for the connection.
Nick’s warm mouth touched hers, and her eyes drifted shut, soaking up the sensation like a starving bird. Her lips parted, inviting him in as he kissed first one side of her mouth and then the other. Soft, gentle, butterfly kisses that soon had her craving more. She brought her hand up and wrapped it around his neck. Her fingers delved into his mink soft hair to pull him closer, little mewling sounds escaping from her throat, but she didn’t even care. This man was her other half. It didn’t matter anymore that he’d hurt her. She’d hurt him too, she knew that. What they had was worth fighting for. Desperation clawed her gut thinking how close they’d come to losing each other.
The kisses became anything but tender as they both surrendered to the passion between them. Nick slid his hand down her neck and around to her jaw, raising her face ever closer to his as his tongue licked into her mouth, and tangled with hers.
Her left hand traced his pectoral muscles through his shirt, their firmness tempting her to trace ever lower, until she could pull the soft cotton of his top out of his jeans and delve beneath. The skin on skin contact drove a ragged groan out of him, filling Sara with feminine satisfaction. She’d brought this strong, proud man pleasure. He needed her.
Soon all she could do was feel. Nick’s hand dropped from her jawline and trailed down the line of her neck to the tops of her breasts swelling out of her favorite bra. Her nipples tightened into hard little nubs and as his palm cupped one and squeezed, she broke away from his lips, needing to draw air, and maybe some sanity. They were making out in the front seat of her car like a couple of teenagers, in broad daylight no less.
“Nick.” She moaned as his dislodged mouth nibbled and sucked her earlobe, causing comets to fly behind her eyelids. “Nick, we have to stop.”
Her eyes fluttered open and Sara gazed into the hot sapphire depths of his. She was so tempted to ask him into her bed—but that wouldn’t solve anything between them. In fact, it could only muddy already dirty waters, so she kept silent.
***
Nick eased back, rubbing a shaky hand across the back of his neck in a bid to calm himself down. He’d only meant to give her a gentle kiss. She looked so beguiling, her golden eyes glowing in the ambient light filtering through the leaves of the Aspen above them.
The citrus of her shampoo and the rose scent that was pure Sara made his muscles tense in response. There were distinct signs of arousal in her flushed cheeks, quickened breathing, and swollen breasts. It took every ounce of control he had to sit back onto his own side of her dinky little car, giving her back her space. His eyes narrowed as she tried to straighten her rumpled shirt and smooth her messed-from-his-hands hair, causing her breasts to thrust forward with the motion, and his heart to want to leap out of his chest.
“I’m not going to apologize because we’re combustible together. I for one, am damned happy to keep that fuse lit. I know we have more pressing concerns right now than how bad I want to pull you from your seat and finish what we started, but sooner or later…” His voice came out husky, thinking of passion-filled nights spent slaking their thirst for each other. He hoped this was a sign she was willing to forgive if not forget, otherwise he wasn’t sure what he would do.
She gripped the steering wheel and stared out the window for a long moment before turning to him, and what he saw in her face made his heart lurch. “You’re right, Nick. What we had was pretty special, which is why you need to understand how hurt I am because you weren’t honest with me. I had the right to know you’re an old acquaintance of Tom’s, apparently close enough that he thinks you’re willing to work…”
“Yeah, well he’s wrong, and if you honestly believe I would do such a thing, you don’t know me at all.” He interrupted, pissed off at the whole situation. When was she going to get it through her thick skull he’d never do anything to deliberately hurt her? When he got his hands on Sheridan they were going to have to pull him off the son-of-a-bitch.
“Pardon me, but in all the time you spent getting to know us, you never thought to say, “Hey, by the way, funny story.” Didn’t you think I had a right to know, Nick?”
“Of course you had a right to know, but what in the hell did you want me to do? Oh wait, no, we can’t have mind-blowing sex right now, I have to tell you something first. Give me a break, Sara, I’m a man and sometimes my little head wins out over my big head, so sue me.” Her attitude frustrated him so much his fist slammed down on the dash of the car, causing a rattle, bang and clang as it protested the abuse. And since he’d been staring daggers at her when it happened, he couldn’t help but see her flinch away.
I’m a dumb asshole.
He wanted to gain her trust, not scare the shit out of her.
“Sara.” He sighed, this wasn’t getting them anywhere. “Honey, I’m sorry. I was angry. No not even angry, frustrated. But I would never, ever raise a hand to hurt you, swear to God.”
After a moment of tense silence, her shoulders slu
mped and she stretched her hand to rest on his forearm. “Look, Nick, I know you wouldn’t hurt me physically, but there’s still a lot more than sex to building a relationship and I’m not sure I can. I would have to be able to fully trust in the other person, and right now I’m just not there.”
While he wanted to argue the point, he could see he wouldn’t get anywhere with her right now. She felt her marriage had damaged her for a real relationship, and even though he knew if she’d only give him half a chance they could overcome it together, he wasn’t sure how to make her realize that.
“I suggest we take a step back. We’ll go into the house, make some coffee and work on your negotiation skills, and let this rest for now, how does that sound?”
Sara nodded, pushing open Mirabelle’s creaky door, and leading the way to her front door. She waved, as Tess called out a hello from where she’d been attending to her front flowerbeds, and then turned a bright pink, right up to the tips of her dainty ears.
She was so cute.
The house was cool and silent as they moved towards the kitchen and Nick was surprised to find himself missing Jessica’s noisy chatter.
“Where’s Jake?” She asked, searching her handbag for keys.
“I left him at home this morning. He was sure happy to see the guys again though, we both were.” He couldn’t resist, he reached over and planted a tender kiss on the back of her bared neck.
“I meant to ask you, Jess was worried about him.” She smiled over her shoulder. “She’s really attached to the great brute. I’m glad you showed up with him that day.”
Tidal Falls (Wounded Hearts Book 1) Page 17