This was one of those things that made her sad about heading home. “I guess we’ll find out if it’s possible for us to keep this going between us long distance. Is it really possible for a blogger and a guy who holds a doctorate, to find common ground?”
“I think we already have.”
And that was the painful truth. “Do you intend to tell your parents about your suspicions?”
“I think for now I’ll keep it just between the two of us, mainly because my parents have had to deal with quite a bit lately. And then there’s Mitch, who’ll likely go off the deep end at hearing Livvy would stray. In case you haven’t noticed, Mitch holds Livvy up there on a pedestal.”
“I don’t know, Jackson. I think it’s better to be one hundred percent upfront in all this with everyone. I know it might be painful to absorb, but I think they’d prefer to hear the truth now instead of down the road, that includes Mitch.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to figure it out as I go, pick the best time to land the blow.” He looked off in the distance as if contemplating life, like he was trying to figure out how to frame his next words.
The Nissan Titan screeched to a stop in front of the Toyota. It was Walsh Kingston behind the wheel. The crew chief got out and ran up to the car window. “Jackson, where’s Mitch?”
“I don’t know. We just got here. Why? What’s up?”
“I tried calling him, left several messages, but Mitch isn’t picking up his cell. Someone planted explosives aboard The Black Rum.”
While Walsh had been anxious to find him, Mitch had detoured to the public library and shut himself off in the corner to do his own research on Werner Dietrich and his arrival in Argentina. He’d discovered that during the aftermath of the Second World War, Werner Dietrich’s father had been suspected of smuggling millions in gold out of Germany before the fall of the Third Reich.
Up to 1945, the elite SS unit had spent years plundering the property and possessions of millions in order to bankroll the war effort. That included yanking out fillings from the mouths of victims who’d lost their lives during the Holocaust and whatever else the Nazis fancied. They’d looted everything they could from French, Czech, and Polish banks—bags of gold, coins, silver, and platinum. Although suspicions were rampant the proof of such transactions were left vague and remained elusive, leaving one burning question. Where had all that pillaged loot ended up?
Mitch had been so wrapped up in finding out how many of the U-boats had been suspected of carrying bullion that he’d missed his cell phone igniting in a series of texts and calls.
By the time he reached the harbor he found The Black Rum still anchored and looking no worse for wear. Jackson and Garret were already on the scene going over every inch of the boat with the crew making sure all the devices had been located.
But as soon Mitch reached the deck, he grilled Walsh for answers. “You’re telling me someone got close enough to leave plastic explosives on board my ship? How could that happen? The crew has always been vigilant about posting guards whenever we’re in port. Those are the rules. When did we abandon that process?”
Walsh pushed back. “No one left this ship unattended. I guarantee it. We’ve taken leave together as a unit only once since we got here and even then we assigned a guard. That was the night we went to the bar.”
“Then one of the crew fell asleep on lookout.”
Walsh shook his head and fired back. “You know these men. I’m telling you that isn’t the case.”
“Then tell me how it happened?”
“Whoever did this swam up to the side of the boat and tossed several devices over the railing, fast and quick. The IEDs landed on deck near the helm but didn’t detonate.”
“And you’re saying no one heard that? Scary thought. Who was on guard duty?”
“Prentiss was on the starboard side.”
“Are you certain he never left his post?”
“I’ve asked him. He swears he didn’t even take a break to go to the bathroom.”
“Then how’d you find it?”
“After eating supper I went up on deck for a smoke and to take Prentiss a plate of food. I almost stumbled over one of the damn things. We managed to find two more about ten feet apart.”
Mitch scrubbed his hands over his face at the thought of it. “Thank God no one was hurt. I want to talk to Prentiss myself. From now on we make sure each side is covered. If morale is a problem, double their pay.”
When Walsh continued to eye him with curiosity, Mitch returned the gaze. “What now?”
“What exactly have we gotten into here, Mitch? We’ve been a team for almost ten years. We’ve been in some pretty tight scrapes, from the shores off Morocco to the waters in the Congo, even had to draw our guns on another boat in the West Indies in a standoff once. But no one’s ever tried to blow us out of the water until now.”
Mitch blew out a breath. “I have no idea. If I knew, I’d let you in on it. Is the crew ready to bolt?”
“No, no, they’re sticking. But I’d be lying if I said they weren’t nervous.”
“They have every right to be,” Jackson tossed out, as he came around the port side, and stood next to his brother. “Maybe that’s why I’m having second thoughts about leaving for North Carolina with Tessa. I think I should stay here.”
“I’ll leave you two to hash this out in private,” Walsh said sending his captain a mock salute and turned on his heels.
Mitch did his best to put on a brave front. “If you’re considering disappointing Tessa because of this little incident, my advice would be not to. When the time comes Tessa will need you there with her. You’re sleeping with the woman. That should mean supporting her through one of the toughest times of her life.”
Jackson wasn’t buying the bravado. Mainly because his brother gripped the railing so tight his knuckles were white. “I know that. But she could fly up with Mom and Dad so she wouldn’t be alone. I could take another flight in time to make the funeral, be gone no longer than overnight. You don’t fool me, little brother. The Black Rum and all on board could’ve ended up toast this evening. Using C-4 is a serious indication someone is worried about us. And for whatever reason, they’re scared. We keep pissing these people off. Maybe Anniston’s right, we’re getting closer than we think to the answers.”
“I’m beginning to believe that. I’m sure Garret and I should be able to handle whatever comes up here.”
“Okay then, I’m counting on y’all to solve this thing while I’m gone.”
For the first time in hours, Mitch’s lips bowed into a grin. “We’ll do our best.” When Jackson started to walk away, Mitch grunted in that direction. “But Jackson…”
“What?”
“I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to cut the trip a couple of days shorter that what you’d planned.”
Jackson chuckled, gave his brother a salute of his own. “No problem. That sounds like a plan I can keep to.”
Later that evening after things had settled down, Jackson took Tessa for a walk around the bay. It seemed like a romantic stroll but it was also a decent vantage point where he could scan the harbor and keep an eye on The Black Rum. From this point forward, they’d need to be extra vigilant. But right now his focus had to be on the woman walking beside him. Not ten minutes earlier, she’d finally received that call from the medical examiner she’d been dreading.
“You let your dad know?”
“It broke my heart, but yeah. Dad’s taking care of the funeral arrangements.” She stopped to look up at Jackson. “You know, I had a long talk with Raine and Anniston about what happened on Mitch’s boat. The three of us are aware the situation has changed dramatically. Obviously someone thinks we’ve hit a nerve.” She tightened her hold on Jackson’s hand. “Enough that someone wants us dead. They shot at us out at the preserve. Now they’re trying to scare us with explosives.”
She had such worry in her eyes he tried to downplay the whole thing. “But no Indigos were on board t
he boat tonight.”
“That just means they were sloppy. Tonight. My point is, if you should decide to stay here and not go with me to Nags Head, if you need to stay behind and be with your brothers, I totally understand.”
He tucked several strands of copper hair behind her ear. “That’s good to know. But I’m still going with you. The thing is, before heading back to North Carolina, I have a favor to ask. I’ll go with you back to Ryan’s funeral. But when it’s over and you’ve spent a few days with your family, I want you to come back here with me. Come back with me to Indigo Key, Tessa. You still haven’t found out how Ryan died. The answers you want are right here within these shores.”
“Is that the only reason you want me to come back with you, Jackson, to find out who killed Ryan?”
He cupped her neck, brought her closer. “No. I want you here with me, back where all this started, where I started.” An almost needy emotion landed in the pit of his stomach. “I’d like you here with me to be with me, for me. We aren’t opposites, Tessa.”
That made her smile. “No, we aren’t. Are you asking me to come back because you feel sorry for me? Because of the lousy situation I have with my stepmother? Because once I go back home to my empty apartment, I’ll miss you like mad.”
She was going to make him say it. “I’ve fallen in love with you. Through all this madness, you and I seemed to be the only thing that makes any sense at all around here. I’m not sure how it went down. I come back home to a crisis like this and end up finding the best thing that’s ever happened to me right here. But that’s how upside down things are right now. Go figure.”
She threw her arms around his neck, covered his throat with kisses. “I fell in love with you that night on the dance floor, the night we made love in your grandmother’s cottage.”
He framed her face with his hands. “I’m glad to hear it because I bought it, the cottage. I figure whatever happens, the house will stay in the family. But what I’d like, what I’m hoping for, is that you’ll move out of Raine’s place and stay with me at the bungalow. It already has a bed and furniture and you seem to like it there.”
“I adore it. I adore you.”
“Then I’m hoping we’ll figure this thing out. Together.”
Anticipation rose in her chest replacing the despair of recent weeks. “It’s hard to believe I’m feeling this elated with so much sadness around us.”
“Don’t think about the sadness, not tonight. You and I deserve this, Tessa.”
“We do. I want happiness again, Jackson.”
They bumped bodies, pressed their lips together—the promise of faith and hope on the horizon. They had to believe better days were yet to come.
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Don't miss these other exciting titles by bestselling author
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Indigo Fire is Vickie McKeehan’s sixteenth novel.
She writes romantic suspense and makes her
home in Southern California.
You can find Vickie online at
https://www.facebook.com/VickieMcKeehan
http://www.vickiemckeehan.com/
https://vickiemckeehan.wordpress.com
also by Vickie McKeehan
The Evil Secrets Trilogy
JUST EVIL Book One
DEEPER EVIL Book Two
ENDING EVIL Book Three
The Pelican Pointe Series
PROMISE COVE
HIDDEN MOON BAY
DANCING TIDES
LIGHTHOUSE REEF
STARLIGHT DUNES
LAST CHANCE HARBOR
SEA GLASS COTTAGE
LAVENDER BEACH
BENEATH WINTER SAND
(summer 2016)
The Skye Cree Novels
THE BONES OF OTHERS
THE BONES WILL TELL
THE BOX OF BONES
TRUTH IN THE BONES
(summer 2016)
The Indigo Brothers Trilogy
INDIGO FIRE Book One
INDIGO HEAT Book Two
INDIGO JUSTICE Book Three
INDIGO HEAT
Indigo Brothers Trilogy
Published by Beachdevils Press
Copyright © 2016 Vickie McKeehan
All rights reserved.
Indigo Heat
Indigo Brothers Trilogy
Copyright © 2016 Vickie McKeehan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic format without written permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, locales, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, businesses or companies, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from Indigo Justice copyright © 2016 by Vickie McKeehan.
ISBN-10: 0692685057
ISBN-13: 978-0692685051
Published by
Beachdevils Press
Printed in the USA
All Titles Available at Amazon
Cover designed by artist, Jess Johnson
You can visit the author at:
www.vickiemckeehan.com
www.facebook.com/VickieMcKeehan
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For Hans, gone but not forgotten
…they see the light when they feel the heat…
~ ERIC HOFFER
1898 - 1983
The First Warrior looked out on the land and his Home.
He saw the hills
And the stars
And he was happy.
For giving him his home, the first warrior told the Great Spirit
That he would fight and win many battles in His honor.
But the Great Spirit said, “No, do not fight for me.
Fight for your tribe,
Fight for the family born to you,
Fight for the brothers you find.
“Fight for them,” the Great Spirit said, “for they are your Home.”
~ HENRY STANDING BEAR
Longmire TV Series
INDIGO HEAT
Book Two
by
VICKIE McKEEHAN
Part Two
Garret
Prologue - Heat
Skeeter Bronson loved the ocean. All he’d ever wanted to do in his life was become a shrimper like his daddy. As a child, during the summers and on weekends from the time he’d turned eight, he’d worked on his father’s boat.
So when he somehow managed t
o scrape enough money together to buy his own shrimp boat, it was the happiest day of his life. Of course, he would never admit that to his wife, Adele.
Skeeter named his pride and joy the Southern Star, painted the name on her himself. The first time Skeeter had laid eyes on her, she was a beat-up old beauty, a double-rigged trawler with a two hundred horsepower engine. It took him almost two months of hard work to get her in seaworthy condition.
In thirty years of shrimping, she’d always been good to him, always brought him back to port in one piece, no matter how bad the weather.
The years had come and gone, some good, some not so good, but his home away from home would always be the sea. And God help him he loved the Southern Star almost as much as he did Adele.
During the good years he would upgrade the trawler with new engines, rigging, and every piece of equipment he could afford, including the latest and greatest fish-finding echo sounders. It had taken him forever to learn to read the damn thing and all the instrumentation that came with it.
In those early months with the modern technology, he’d felt like a blind man with his first guide dog. He’d been the first to install state of the art gear and immediately became the butt of jokes from the other shrimpers. For about two months he endured the ribbing. That is, until he was able to bring in twice the catch other shrimpers brought in.
These days, he could tell if the shrimp were large or small or where they schooled in massive quantities at the precise location on the bottom of the sea floor. With his knowledge of the ocean, he rarely bothered with tide charts because he knew the area around the Keys like an old familiar lover. No one was better at it than Skeeter Bronson. He’d shrimped in the west in the cooler Atlantic, but preferred the warmer waters to the east in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Indigo Brothers Trilogy Boxed Set Page 33