Hooked (A Romance on the Edge Novel)

by Tiffinie Helmer

  She raised a brow. “Never?”

  “Never again.” Frustration shown clearly in his expression. “How long are you going to make me pay for that?”

  “Name it, Aidan. Name what you did to me.” Hell, she didn’t want to go down this path. She was tired. Tired of crap drifting her way. Tired of men complicating her life. Getting into it with Aidan wasn’t something she wanted to face right now. Especially considering the answers she might get.

  “Believe it or not, the night I hit you scared me to death.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I saw the monster inside me clearly that day. I’d watched Earl beat my mother time and time again. I hated him for it. Still do. But when I couldn’t get you to do what I wanted, I turned and did the same to you.” He grasped her shoulders. “To the woman I loved. Seeing what I was becoming scared the shit out of me. I got help, and I will continue to get help. There is no way I’ll let that ever happen again. I refuse to be my father. Sonya, I love you. Give us another chance. We were good for each other.” He dropped his forehead to hers, his arms inching around her waist. “Don’t believe the worst of me anymore. Please.”

  “Aidan.” She felt tears tease behind her eyes. She’d believed in them once. Believed that they could be happy together, that they’d marry, have a family. They had so much in common, made sense where she and Garrett didn’t, but she couldn’t go back. She was either too frightened or too obstinate to try. At some point, her feelings had changed. Whether it was that night he’d shown her a side of him she had no idea existed or later, but something inside her refused to change.

  “I don’t believe the worst of you, Aidan.” She placed her hands on the sides of his face. She’d loved this face. The strong jaw, the warm brown eyes, the sexy tilt of his lips when he smiled at her. She reached up and softly placed her lips against his one last time. Stepping back, she gazed at him with remorse. “I’m sorry. I can’t go back.”

  He pulled her to him and desperately took her mouth. She let him kiss her, tried to even feel what she’d felt with him before. There was nothing. What she felt with Garrett was so much more than she’d ever felt with Aidan. It saddened and scared her at the same time. Aidan’s grip loosened, turned gentle as he tried to coax a response from her that she didn’t have in her to give. Finally he set her back from him, and let her go. His expression one of resignation.

  “It’s Hunt, isn’t it?”

  “No. Yes. Hell, I don’t know.” She shook her head. “He’s not the best choice of man for me to become involved with, but I did…at least, I think we are…involved that is.” She bit her lip.

  “You barely know the guy.”

  “How long you know a person doesn’t really mean anything. Does it?”

  The stain of humiliation colored his face. He slowly shook of his head. “We’re never going to get past this, are we?”

  “Yes, we will. But we’ll never be more than friends, Aidan. You need to understand that and move on.”

  His heartbroken gaze met hers. “I don’t think I can live with that, Sonya.”

  “You and Sonya looked cozy,” Earl commented from the shadows of the porch. The red butt of his cigarette flared to life as he took a long draw. When he exhaled, smoke curled around his head like a crown of death. Aidan had seen this vision many times in his life, even drew one of his seedy characters in his graphic novel after his dad. Not that Earl ever caught on. He’d have to read one of Aidan’s novels to see it and that was one thing he knew Earl would never do.

  “We were saying good-bye to each other.” Or at least good-bye to what they could have been.

  “What do you mean good-bye?” Earl’s bushy brows hunched over beady eyes. “You going somewhere?”

  “She doesn’t care about me the way I need her to. We’re over. Finished.”

  “Change her mind. What kind of a sissy-boy are you?” Earl stood and ground the butt of his cigarette under the heel of his boot. “In my day, you wanted something, you went after it until you got it. Show some backbone, boy, and go and get what’s yours.”

  “She isn’t mine to get. Besides, she cares for someone else.”

  “Women are fickle. They change their mind like they change their outfits. Get him out of the picture and chances are she’d be wantin’ to wear you.”

  Aidan gave a humorless laugh. “Right, like what? Bump him off?”

  A smile cracked Earl’s yellowed, leathered face. “Now you’re thinking like a Harte.”

  The last thing he wanted to do was think like a Harte. It hadn’t gotten him anywhere positive in the past. “I’m not going down that road.”

  Though it would be nice to see the last of the fish cop.

  Sonya had spent most of the evening catching up her grandparents on the happenings of the last twenty-four hours. Who knew life could change so much in that length of time? As she had expected, they scolded her for brawling with Kendrick at the Pitt. Peter had given her a heads up over this, but he needn’t have bothered. She knew she’d get called on the mat over her actions as soon as they saw her. The news of Kendrick’s death went better than she’d hoped, though they were shocked and dismayed over their family having to be a part of something so tragic. The point that they focused on was the development between Garrett and her. Sonya really hadn’t wanted to tell them that she’d slept with the fish cop, but figured she needed to prepare them in case the news had to come out. They also took this much, much better than she’d hoped.

  “I knew you and Garrett would hit it off the first time I laid eyes on him,” Gramps said, nudging Grams. “Didn’t I tell you, Maggie May?”

  “Yes, dear, you did indeed.” Grams gave Sonya a look that said there would be no living with the man now that he considered himself a master matchmaker.

  “We need something to celebrate with. Is there any of that German chocolate cake left?”

  Grams served them all a slice along with powdered milk to drink. When she joined them at the table, Gramps hit Sonya with the big questions. “So, when you two getting hitched?”

  “What? No, no, Gramps. Don’t go there. Garrett doesn’t seem to be the marrying kind, and I’m not ready for that kind of commitment.” Being married would be nice, though, if she turned up pregnant.

  “Poppycock. Fear of commitment flies right out the window when you fall in love.” He winked at Grams. “Right, Maggie May?”

  She reached over and squeezed his good hand. “You’re so right.” They shared a look that pulled on Sonya’s heartstrings. Could she be in love with Garrett? She’d thought she’d been in love with Aidan, but had she really? One thing she did know, she was definitely confused.

  They heard an engine pull up outside below the cabin. “I’ll see who it is. You two stay there.” Sonya opened the door and found Garrett climbing up the path, still dressed in uniform. It didn’t look that bad on him, if she were to be honest. What did it mean that the uniform seemed to be growing on her? Somehow she’d known she’d see him again tonight. Was the jumping of her heart due to joy or fear? Or both?

  “Sonya.” Garrett nodded. “Mind if I come in?”

  She opened the door farther for him to enter and indicated that he take a seat at the table. Garrett shook Gramps’s good hand first and gave Grams a nod and asked after their health.

  Grams offered him a piece of cake that he turned down. “This isn’t a social visit,” he said, though he gazed at Sonya like he very much wished it were. “We found the Albatross earlier this evening.”

  “Where?” As of this afternoon no one had seen the Albatross since the night before. Hopefully there would be some evidence onboard that pointed in another direction besides hers.

  He cocked a half smile. “She actually sailed right up to the dock of the cannery. Her crewmen seemed really surprised when they heard what had happened.”

  “I don’t understand. Didn’t they question not having their captain onboard?”

  “Apparently, they were very inebriated when they returned to the boat. Sh
e was still dry when they boarded. They went to bed, and when they finally woke, they found themselves drifting upriver halfway to King Salmon. By then the tide started heading out, and with neither one of them competent enough to pilot Kendrick’s boat, they ran aground on a sandbar. They had to wait until the tide came in again to navigate their way back to the cannery. They were expecting to get filleted alive by their captain and seemed relieved that he was in no condition to do that.”

  “Why wasn’t the Albatross at anchor?”

  “They both swear the anchor had been set before they hit their bunks. I think whoever attacked Kendrick, pulled the anchor. The timeline is a little fuzzy with the temperature of the water being so cold. According to the crew, they left the Pitt, having stayed after Kendrick stormed off not long after you left. They drank, played pool, and drank some more. They left when the Pitt closed, boarding the Albatross soon after. ”

  “So Kendrick’s whereabouts from the time he left the Pitt, until he fell into the water are unaccounted for,” Sonya said.

  Garrett smiled. “You’re sounding like a cop.”

  “Sorry.”

  “I like it.”

  Gramps cleared his throat. “Does anyone know where Kendrick went into the water?”

  Grams shook her head. “I know he wasn’t liked by many, but no one deserves to die the way he did.” She shivered.

  “Actually we don’t know the way he died for sure,” Garrett said. “Not until the medical examiner has a chance to exam the body. There was evidence aboard the Albatross that Kendrick was set upon there.” He reached into the inside pocket of his trooper jacket and pulled out another evidence bag, this one considerably smaller than the one that held the gaff earlier. “We also found these.” He handed the bag to Sonya. “How long have you been missing your sunglasses?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Sonya slowly reached out for the evidence-wrapped sunglasses from Garrett and looked them over.

  Yep, they were hers, but then she’d known they were the moment he pulled them out of his jacket. There was something dark staining the bottom of the lenses. Blood. She dropped the glasses as though they’d bitten her.

  “How long have they been missing, Sonya?” Garrett asked again.

  She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the glasses lying there on the table next to her plate of German Chocolate cake crumbs. The eaten cake threatened to make a reappearance. She swallowed, imagining her sunglasses lying on the deck of Kendrick’s boat in a pool of his blood. She slid the evidence bag across the tabletop toward Garrett, not wanting to see the sunglasses ever again.

  “Sonya.”

  She ran a shaky hand over her face, closed her eyes for a moment, and then met Garrett’s steady stare. “I don’t know for sure. I searched the boat this morning when they weren’t on the counter where I usually keep them. I’d planned on looking here at the cabin tonight.”

  He covered her hand with his. “It’s really important that you try and remember the last time you wore your sunglasses.”

  The shock was wearing off, and anger blessedly took its place. “Someone stole my sunglasses and planted them at a murder scene, didn’t they?”

  Garrett nodded. “That’s my theory. So think, when was the last time?”

  She leaned back against the wall of the cabin and rubbed her temples. “I had them when we took Gramps to see Wanda. I remember taking them off when Peter and I were in the waiting room.”

  “What about later that day?”

  “You had them when you returned with Nikky,” Grams said, lacing her fingers together. “You grabbed them off the table when you headed next door to see Aidan. Remember, you knocked over the card tower I’d been building.”

  “She’s right,” Sonya said.

  “Were you wearing them when you entered the Pitt to confront Kendrick?” Garrett asked.

  “Yes. I remember taking them off when I entered the bar and hooking them into the collar of my t-shirt.”

  “You didn’t have them when we left the Pitt.” A knowing gleam entered his eyes.

  Sonya felt like the temperature in the room had suddenly increased twenty degrees. Of course, he’d know if she had them on her as he helped to disarm and then undress her later that evening.

  “I think it’s safe to assume you lost them in the tussle with Kendrick. Now we need to figure out who picked them up and planted them on the Albatross. Whoever it is has something against you and against Kendrick. Or was Kendrick just a pawn to frame you?”

  “Who would go through all that trouble? I admit I’ve offended people out here, but no more than anyone else. We can be enemies out there on water but when fishing’s over, we can also share drinks or a meal and laugh it off.”

  “Someone isn’t laughing.” Garrett leaned his elbows on the table. “We need a list of everyone who was in the Pitt that night and whoever has threatened, gotten angry with, or insulted you in some way. I don’t care how slight, I want names.”

  “Okay, kids, I need to lie down some,” Gramps interrupted, indicating his bandaged hand. “Why don’t you two take a walk and let me rest a bit? I’ll think on that list, Garrett. Maybe I can come up with something.”

  “That would be appreciated.” Garrett rose to his feet and offered his hand to Sonya.

  She felt strange placing her palm in his with her grandparents as witnesses. She thought she caught a twinkle in Gramps’ eye before he covered it with a grimace of pain. Was the man still matchmaking? Or was his hand actually paining him enough that he needed to rest? He was getting up there in years, but she’d seen younger men give out before her grandfather would call it quits.

  Sonya was silent as she followed Garrett outside. He led the way around the cabin onto the tundra. The dusk of evening painted red and gold streaks across the sky. The breeze was brisk but not cold, blowing from the southeast, which meant they’d probably get rain by morning. Unfortunately wind from that direction would also blow the fish into deeper water. Set netting tomorrow wouldn’t fare well. If this kept up, her season would be more bust than bumper.

  Garrett came to a stop amongst a meadow of spongy tundra and low-lying wildflowers. Alder bushes dotted areas around them where the plants could get their roots into deeper soil, while the tundra survived on a small amount of loam over ice that never thawed.

  “What are you thinking about?” Garrett asked as he turned to face her.

  “The cost of Peter’s college tuition.”

  He laughed. “Way to build a man’s ego. Here I was hoping you were remembering last night. Why tuition?”

  She was glad that he focused on her comment rather than their one night together. She’d been doing her damndest not to think about it, but every few minutes it would sneak into her thoughts. “Well, with everything that has gone down this season, fishing keeps getting interrupted, and to date, I’ve haven’t made much more than expenses. I’d hoped to catch more this summer than what I’ve caught.”

  “The season isn’t over, yet. It could be worse.”

  He was right. Here she was concerned over how much money she hadn’t made, and Kendrick had lost his life.

  “Hey.” Garrett cupped her face. “I didn’t say that to make you sad. I meant, at least you’ve made expenses.”

  “I know. I just couldn’t help thinking about Kendrick.”

  “Why? From all accounts, he made life hell for everyone around him. You included.”

  “True, but what was he like when he wasn’t fishing? We all change a bit out here, become more barbaric, less civilized.” A sudden thought struck her. “Do you know if he had a wife, kids? Did he leave a family behind?”

  “From what his crewman shared, Kendrick led a solitary life. He preferred it that way.”

  “Well, that’s good.” She flushed when Garrett raised a brow. “I mean, it would be tragic if there was a son at home, or a grieving widow. I guess it’s even sadder that there isn’t, right?”

  Garrett smoothed a lock of hair behind
her ear that the wind had teased free of her ponytail. “You are something special, you know that. No wonder I can’t resist you.” He slowly pulled her toward him as though waiting to see if she’d baulk. Instead, she willingly came into his arms, her own snaking tight around his waist. All day she’d had to act competent and convincing while everything fell apart around her. It felt so good to rest her head on Garrett’s capable shoulders. Something inside her chest swelled.

  “I was proud of you today, Sonya. Not many men could have handled your situation with as much poise or restraint.”

  She leaned back. “I take it you didn’t see me flip off the Intrepid or toss my cookies over the side of the boat.”

  He smiled, and her heartbeat quickened. “It all makes you that much more irresistible to me.” He lowered his head, his eyes at half-mast, watching her. Hers fluttered, and she found herself breathless as he brushed his lips softly against hers.

  “Wait a minute.” Sonya pulled back as a thought struck her and before all reason left her. “According to everything you said earlier, Kendrick’s crew had to be onboard when Kendrick was attacked.”

  “I’m kissing you, and all you can think about is Kendrick?” He gave a crooked grin. “I must not be doing this right.”

  “I’m serious. You said the boat was dry when Kendrick’s crew boarded and went to bed. If Kendrick was attacked on his boat before the crewmen boarded, how did he get in the water?”

  “We don’t know. His crew didn’t notice if he was onboard when they boarded.”

  “The boat isn’t that big, thirty-two-footer just like mine. You’ve seen my sleeping quarters, not much room. They would have noticed.”

  “Not if they were too drunk, which also answers your next question. If Kendrick was attacked when the boat was floating, why didn’t his crewmen hear anything? Too drunk.”

  “Kind of convenient, don’t you think? What if Kendrick was attacked before they got to the boat? Instead of being pushed into the water, he was pushed over the side of his boat into the mud?”