Expired Hero

by Lisa Phillips

  “Did you find your dad yet?” Stuart knew Ted had been actively looking for the man. He was a founder of the town of Last Chance, and as such, a possible suspect in the police’s active search and investigation into a local bad guy known as “West.”

  Ted winced. “I’ll tell you about that later.”

  Stuart figured that was fair enough. They were all guilty of the same thing—deflecting. Saving the pain for later.

  Too bad that wasn’t a tactic that would produce good results.

  As much as they might all want to avoid the past encroaching on their future, the truth was that it needed to come out. And it wasn’t until that happened that they’d be able to deal with the fallout.

  “You’ll find him.”

  Ted scrunched up his nose like a shrug.

  Basuto said, “Let’s figure out a safe house for Kaylee. Ted, can you have Savannah set that up? She needs to work up a schedule for who is going to stay with Kaylee and keep her safe.”

  “That’d be me.” Stuart stood up, needing to go see her now. He didn’t like that she was out of sight, considering all that had happened. But could he convince himself that she would be safer with him?

  He wanted her to be. Still, would Stuart’s skills put her in more danger? Not to mention his history and the trauma he lived with. Kaylee might be better off with cops watching out for her. But he couldn’t help wanting to wade into it.

  Help out.

  Basuto said, “You want in on the protective detail, that’s one thing. After we clear you for that duty. You’ve forgotten we don’t know squat about who you are. Just that Dean vouched for you, and Ted is one of your roommates. But for all we know, you could be working for the same people as these men.”

  “I’m not.” Stuart folded his arms across his chest. “Kaylee is safe with me. No one knows these guys, and how they think, like I do.”

  Because he’d been one of them. Different teams, maybe. Different entity signing their paychecks, yes. But Stuart knew their kind, and he was the only one who’d be able to stop Kaylee from being hurt next.

  And she would be a target until she gave him the package—whatever it was Brad had sent her.

  He had to get her to trust him, so that she would give it to him as she’d said she would. And if she found out too soon what he suspected had happened with Brad, she wouldn’t give him anything. She would probably try and kill him. Or kick him out and run to the cops for protection.

  Maybe that was for the best.

  She was a downhome, small-town woman. He was an international criminal on paper and worse underneath all the official stuff. Too many people wanted to question him. Those who could vouch for him had discarded both Stuart and Brad like yesterday’s party trash.

  If what she had in her possession could point him to the source—the root cause of Brad’s suffering—then he would do what he needed to.

  Find justice for his friend.

  Answers for a woman who had suffered enough already. Who wasn’t equipped to deal with undue attention, let alone snipers, fake federal agents, and broken-down clandestine agents.

  She was never going to trust him.

  He went to find the woman herself. Hopefully she would just hand it over straight away, and he could get on with this latest mission. Not an official one, just the most important one he’d ever undertaken.

  The person Stuart had been, up until the day he showed up in Last Chance, was a man with no honor. A man who did whatever was necessary for the right amount of money. It was who he’d been brought up to be. Raised. Trained. Honed. He hadn’t known any other way of being.

  Until he saw her at the grocery store that one day. She’d spotted a bundle of cash in the parking lot and chased down a young woman with two little kids just to give it back to the rightful owner.

  That kind of person would never be able to handle the man he had been.

  Unless Stuart finished the work he’d been doing to become the man he wanted to be now. A man who did the right thing, despite what had gone before. Kind of like the new creation that the pastor had been talking about a few weeks ago. The idea had stuck with him. It made him want to be one of the good guys.

  Someone worth caring for.

  “Hey.”

  She started and looked up from the file she was reading at her spot. Her smile was tentative.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” That was what a good man would say.

  “It’s okay. I just got sucked into this case.” She lifted the file. “It’s a missing person’s from right after I moved here.”

  “You aren’t supposed to be…writing a statement, or something?”

  A guarded look came over her face. “I don’t want to talk about that. Not until we know Conroy is going to be okay. I just can’t do it.”

  Stuart had held her hand before. But something told him if he tried to touch her now, she’d only shrug him off.

  He had an idea and said, “How about a slice of pie and some ice cream?”

  One eyebrow rose, and he saw a glint of humor. “Are you trying to butter me up?”

  “You have no idea.” He did need her in a good mood. Trusting him, when he asked for the package. Willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, when he told her what he thought he might’ve done.

  “Okay, so it’s working.” She grabbed her purse and stood.

  Stuart felt a smile curl his lips. Probably it looked scary, but she seemed to appreciate it. “Let’s see if Hollis will deliver. Until we know you’re safe, I think it’s best if you stay here.”

  She looked at him with such trust. It nearly broke his heart.

  The way he was going to break hers.

  Twelve

  Kaylee opened the to-go carton and looked inside. “Did you get this from the restaurant on the highway?”

  “No, I called Hollis’s diner. She sent it over.”

  “Oh.”

  “Problem?”

  Kaylee shook her head. She picked up a plastic fork and sat back in the conference room chair so she could dig into what looked like cherry pie with ice cream and whipped cream. There was even a cherry perched on the whipped cream.

  Basuto had cleared out and was now behind the chief’s desk in his office. They still hadn’t heard a word about Conroy’s surgery.

  “I hope he’s okay.”

  Stuart swallowed a bite of his ice cream. “The chief?”

  She nodded and dug in. Most of the time she embraced distractions, looking for any way to deny her mind the chance to spiral down into despair and fear. But things had become entirely too real. Even if she wanted to read a book right now, she doubted she’d be able to concentrate enough to get into the story.

  Which was why she’d been reading the case file and had brought it in here with her.

  She flipped open to the first page.

  “What’s that?”

  A distraction. Because you’re a distraction. Reading the dry notes in the file was better than staring at Stuart’s profile while he ate pie. He had nice features, though they were rough and rugged. She also didn’t need to think about how he could use a haircut. The curls of his dark hair had fallen over his forehead and covered his ears.

  “Kaylee?”

  Right. She slid the file over so he could read it as well. “Not long after I moved to town, this young woman went missing. I was staying in the motel, and she was a couple of rooms down from me.” Kaylee didn’t want to think about the past, but it was always right there. “I guess it just hit close to home. I always wondered what happened to her.”

  “She just disappeared?”

  Kaylee nodded. “I heard her door slam and then voices. No one ever saw Gina again.”

  “Has there been a new development?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “Since I started working here, I asked. Conroy said I can read whatever cold case files I want. Just in case a fresh pair of eyes is what’s needed. If I have an idea, they look into it.” She shrugged. “Probabl
y they’re just indulging me, and I shouldn’t waste police resources with random ideas.”

  “Unless you come up with something that might solve a case.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Who knows?”

  Kaylee stared at him. Then she realized what she was doing and concentrated instead on eating her dessert without dropping any on her shirt or her lap.

  Stuart pointed to a piece of notepaper she’d inserted. “These are your notes?”

  Mostly it was a list of questions she wanted answers to. “Just a couple of ideas I was going to ask Savannah.”

  “They’re good ones.” He traced his finger down the paper.

  “The police department doesn’t have time for unsubstantiated hunches. Not when they have so many open cases, and now they’re trying to identify West so they can stop the flow of drugs into town.” There were other crimes involved, but those were things she didn’t like to think about. Who wanted to be sucked under by the tide of evil that people insisted on perpetrating against one another.

  Selfish people with their selfish actions. Most folks didn’t hurt anyone, so their selfishness often went unnoticed. Others bought and sold destructive substances. Weapons. Drugs. Then there were those who sold innocent people just to make money.

  The whole industry made her want to vomit. Kaylee didn’t want anywhere near it.

  “Are you okay?”

  Kaylee set her fork in the container. “Trina told me I’m burying my head in the sand not wanting to hear about all the details. That I need to be informed about what’s happening in the world.”

  “But you’d rather have strong, healthy boundaries.”

  She wanted to collapse against him and weep out of relief. “Yes! I know what I can handle, and what I can’t.”

  “Do you want to tell me about your parents?”

  “I do.” And that was the truth. She realized it after she said it. “I just don’t know if I can.”

  Stuart laid his hand on hers. “That’s okay, Kaylee. It was a painful experience?”

  She nodded.

  “I’ve had enough of those to know that reliving it isn’t always the best way to move forward. Unless, like me—” He seemed almost hesitant. “—you’re trying to remember what happened.”

  “You’ve forgotten?”

  “I was with your brother.” Stuart poked at his pie, not meeting her gaze. “We were betrayed and captured. The whole thing was a setup.” He looked at her then. “What is in the package he sent you?”

  “You don’t know?”

  He shook his head.

  “If you’re the one I’m supposed to give it to, then you’re supposed to know the code word. Otherwise, I have to hide it. Until the right person comes along.”

  Or until her brother showed up.

  She said, “Where is he?”

  Stuart squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Is he dead?”

  His chest jerked as though he’d been punched. It was like the bubble popped. Any tension, good or bad, between them dissipated. Stuart got up. He paced the length of the room and then turned, facing her from across the table. The farthest distance apart they could be with him still in the room.

  “Stuart, is he dead?”

  “I don’t know.” He hung his head. “Brad was there with me. When I escaped, he was gone. I don’t remember what happened. Yet.” The last word was squeezed out, an awful secret. A determined promise.

  “You don’t remember.” Her heart sank. If her brother was alive, he’d have contacted her.

  Kaylee closed the lid of her container, her appetite gone now. Sickness rolled through her stomach instead. He’s dead. Her brother. A hero, a protector. He hadn’t been able to save their parents any more than she had. A fact which tore him up. Then one day, he’d shown up at her doorstep, blood on his cheek.

  It’s done.

  He never told her what happened exactly. Not in so many words. But instantly she’d known he’d killed the man who had taken their parent’s lives, as she stood helplessly watching. From that day, things had been strained between them. She knew he’d thought the tension was because he hadn’t protected their parents in the first place. The truth was, she was almost as scared of her brother as she had been of the man who’d murdered a loving couple in front of their sixteen-year-old daughter.

  A tear rolled down her cheek. Kaylee swiped it away, trying to get rid of both the droplet and the emotion that came with it. Like she could just flick it from existence. Dismiss it forever.

  “You should have told me earlier.”

  He straightened. “I didn’t want to do that to you. The only reason I’m telling you now is because I want to keep you safe.”

  So he’d kept it from her to protect her. Considered her so fragile, he couldn’t possibly tell her the truth about her brother. She’d even gone to Dean to ask him to inquire around to find people who might know where Brad might be.

  Kaylee didn’t want to feel like a fool, but it was inevitable. He’d kept the truth from her. Because he was trying to spare her feelings? It wasn’t like she liked the way she was. It was the way she had to be, and how she needed to order her life.

  His memories were fractured. Because of what he’d been through when he was captured? And now she knew her brother had been through it as well. Her mind could barely handle the global problems she heard about in the news, let alone what she or someone she cared about experienced firsthand. So what if she lived most of her life buried in a novel? What was so bad about that when she liked her life?

  “You don’t need to baby me.” She stood, needing to be on the same level as he was. “I want the truth about my brother, even if it’s hard.”

  She might not be able to handle the awful things strangers went through—though she did often pray for innocents. But this was her brother they were talking about. She had to be strong enough to hear about her brother. Even if it was hard to hear.

  “You don’t need to protect me from that.”

  Stuart winced. He didn’t agree with her. That much was plain to see on his face. He thought he needed to protect her.

  It could be he was telling the truth and honestly didn’t remember anything. But she suspected he would continue to withhold the whole truth from her. Which was basically lying.

  “I guess now we know you’re not the one I’m supposed to give the flash drive to.”

  His eyes flared.

  “Because you would have said so before now.” And he’d never have kept her brother’s fate from her, the way he was doing now.

  He knew what happened to Brad. She just knew it. He just didn’t want to tell her.

  Kaylee took her pie container and tossed it in the trash. She’d been so close to sharing something meaningful. Developing affection for someone she could’ve seen herself being friends with. Probably growing feelings for, if attraction was anything to go by.

  That wasn’t going to happen now.

  “Kaylee.”

  She turned back, already halfway out the door.

  “I am sorry.” To his credit, he looked genuinely broken. In spirit and, as he’d said, in his mind. Maybe it was true he couldn’t remember all of it.

  “I know.” She walked out, praying he’d find a way to get better. That Dean would be able to help him.

  At least now she’d answered the question of why they were being dragged into this together. The men who’d come here for the package obviously knew of Stuart’s connection to her brother. Kaylee didn’t think he was part of their crew. But, then again, maybe he’d forgotten that as well.

  It could be he was the one who’d betrayed Brad, and he simply didn’t remember.

  Yes, she was right to not give him the flash drive.

  One day, someone would show up. She would know to give it to them so the wrong could be made right. Justice could be served.

  But it wouldn’t be Stuart.

  The second she entered the main office area of the police department, the conversation died down. Tate stood
beside Savannah. Both of them turned to look at her.

  Kaylee lifted a hand and headed for her desk. She didn’t need anyone asking her if she was okay. She’d rather be alone with her thoughts while they worked. “If there isn’t any news about Conroy, I’m going to go to the break room and sit down.”

  Savannah’s expression softened.

  Tate said, “Is Stuart back there?”

  “I’m right here.” He stood at the end of the hall.

  Kaylee went to her desk.

  “Wanna tell me why I got an email from you instructing me to get the man who shot Conroy out of holding, take him to a secluded spot, and put a bullet in his head?”

  She spun back.

  Tate’s expression was thunderous, red-faced and frowning. She’d never seen him so angry. Savannah didn’t look much happier, and neither did Basuto who stood at the door to Conroy’s office. Other cops in the room had stopped what they were doing.

  Kaylee wanted to run, not stay and hear what this was about.

  “There’s also a nice ten grand that was just deposited into my account.” Tate folded his arms. “Came from you. I’m guessing, payment for the job you wanted to hire me to do.”

  “I’d like to say I know what you’re talking about,” Stuart said. “But I have no idea.”

  “Revenge. That’s what I’m talking about.” Tate looked ready to explode. “You want that guy in custody murdered.”

  Thirteen

  Stuart stared down the private investigator. Tate tended to be a law unto himself, and despite his recent relationship with Savannah, still had that renegade air about him.

  Stuart said, “You’re gonna have to explain this to me.”

  Tate was talking like Stuart understood any of this.

  “Agreed.” Basuto stepped out of Conroy’s office and waved an arm inside. “Both of you, step in here.”

  Stuart moved when Tate did, both of them headed toward the sergeant. Basuto didn’t have authority over them—neither were cops. But the sergeant had earned their respect. He was a good guy, one Stuart saw at church on occasion. He didn’t throw his weight around or fly off the handle.