by Honor James
Chewing her lower lip, she paced and then placed a phone call she never wanted to place. She dialed up a number that a friend of a friend gave her for a new security and private detective firm that catered to people in the service, had been in the service or those of their immediate families.
When the woman answered the phone, Sadie made an appointment to see a couple of the owners of the company the following day. She hadn’t been told who she was meeting and honestly didn’t care. As long as they could figure out who had been in her home and who kept sending her the nasty letters, she would be fine. She would be happy. She just hoped that they were good at their jobs.
Instead of going to bed, Sadie called in the police as well as her security firm to make a report, and stayed up all night dealing with that.
* * * *
The next morning couldn’t come soon enough, in Sadie’s mind, so as she got out of the car in front of the large building she took in a deep breath. “I hope this isn’t a waste of time.” She talked to herself. It was something she had always done and likely always would. Bryce had always enjoyed it, saying that it made her unique and different, and said he liked it because he would always know what she was thinking and feeling at any given moment in time.
With purposeful strides, she walked into the agency and after giving her name, settled onto one of the plush seats with a magazine in front of her and began to read and kill time while waiting on the partners to meet with her.
Chapter Two
“You have a visitor,” Michael said from the doorway.
Squinting up at his former commanding officer, and now boss, Keagan Bradley frowned. He didn’t remember any appointments on the books. Technically, he wasn’t even supposed to be working. Given he and Bryce Harker had only gotten back in country seventy-two hours prior, he wasn’t supposed to be near their new office.
Leaning back in his chair, he shook his head. “Who the hell would even know I’m here?” he asked.
“Apparently the young lady knows,” Michael told him. The man had a smug little smirk on his face, never a good sign, and had Bradley wondering if this was some form of payback.
He raced through his brain, scraping together anything that he might possibly have done to anyone of late, and came up blank. He was practically a boy scout in their group, so damn good that shit slid off without leaving even a trace as one of his teammates liked to say. While he wasn’t that good, he knew how to hide how bad he could be easily enough.
Shoving the chair back, he got up, covering a painful wince as he put weight on the busted-up leg while he grabbed his crutches. “Where’s she at?”
“Reception,” Michael told him.
“You planning on telling me who it is?”
“Nope, but I intend to watch this fiasco in the making happen.”
Fucking awesome. Throwing the man a dirty look, Bradley began to make his way through the hall, to the elevator. Thank God for the elevators in the three-story structure, or he’d have been out of the place a lot longer than the week he’d been given for downtime and reorientation with real life.
Michael followed him into the car, whistling softly under his breath. A chill went down his spine as he recognized the tune. Taps, something that was played at military funerals. Not a good sign.
He shot his friend a look, hoping his bewilderment came across. All he got in return was a grin as Michael kept whistling the song.
On the ground floor, he swung out of the elevators and made his way to reception. Michael, helpful little shit that he was, swiped his key card so the door swung open, and Bradley didn’t need to slow his momentum. Usually a good thing.
Except when it was her waiting.
Slamming to a halt, he felt Michael crash into his back. Only a hand on his shoulder from the other man kept him from doing a face plant. Sadie Green, tormentor of his dreams, seductress who taunted and then left him each and every night, and the one woman he’d never been able to get out of his head.
He’d had one night with her, back when she was barely legal, and then heard nothing more. For all intents and purposes, she’d dropped off the face of the planet. Harker wasn’t going to fucking believe him when he told his friend about this later. Thank God they had video surveillance covering every square inch of the property. He’d have proof.
“I take it you know her?” Michael asked.
His tone suggested he knew who Sadie was, and the quick peek at his expression confirmed it. Michael Burnett knew exactly who Sadie Green was. Bradley didn’t even question how the man knew. Given he was tapped into the General’s pocket, the man who now ran the Department of Defense, and his older brother who was a spook for all intents and purposes, Michael likely knew a shit load more than Bradley ever could about Sadie.
Fucking Sadie Green. She was older, but more beautiful than the last time he’d seen her. She’d matured, grown into a beautiful woman, and into her own body. She looked tired though, stressed, he could see the signs of strain from where he stood out of her line of sight easily enough. Something was bothering her, in a big way.
“Michael, you know I love you, brother, more than I can ever express. But I need you to fuck off now, please,” he said softly.
He felt the weight of the look he got from the other man before a hand landed on and squeezed his shoulder. “I won’t be far if you need me,” Michael said quietly.
Giving a jerky nod, Bradley sucked in a shaky breath. She was a vision even in her apparent distress, and here he was a beaten-up mess. A shattered femur, bullet holes down his side, scrapes, bruises covering most of his body, and more cracked bones than he cared to remember.
Yet, in that moment, not a single one of them mattered. All that mattered, beyond the steady throb of pain he was purposefully ignoring, was Sadie. Sweet, amazing, gorgeous Sadie.
Tightening his hold on the crutches, he told himself to get moving. To go and say hi, to find out why she was there, to go and find out if she’d married some asshole that could never be good enough for her.
But really, would she want to see him? She’d made it clear back when they’d redeployed that she wasn’t interested in more. Hell, she’d made it abundantly clear when they’d written to her care of her father that she’d rather forget their amazing night together. Her father had come to them, with apologies, and pain in his eyes to tell them in person that she’d asked him to tell both he and Harker to back the fuck off.
To stop writing, to leave her the hell alone, and to never contact her again. So they hadn’t. But that didn’t mean that both of them had forgotten about her. Hell, on a pretty regular basis they would get drunk and reminisce about that night. Then they would clam up until the next time they got so shit faced their guards would drop enough to talk about her.
Shaking his head, he pushed all that to the back. She was here for a reason, time to man the fuck up and go figure out what it was.
Taking another breath, he held it for a moment, absorbing the pain his body shot up into his brain, and then started moving toward her. The squeak on the crutches reached her finally and she turned to look his way.
He kept going until he was no more than five feet from her. Keep it professional, keep it polite, do not fucking ask her why the hell she hated them so much back then, and yet was in their place of business now.
Yeah, cause he was going to manage that somehow.
“Sadie,” he said with a nod. “Long time no see. How can I help you?” he asked quietly as he watched her face. Every flicker of emotion that swept over her features he absorbed, catalogued, and tucked away to dissect later. And he would, much, much later.
If only his body wasn’t remembering how good it had been between them. His fucking cock was all ready to forgive, and forget if the sudden stirring in his jeans was any proof.
Don’t think with your dick, you dick, he reminded himself. Especially not around this woman.
Sadie didn’t speak for a moment. Finally when she did it was a breathless gust of words.
Torment hung to every syllable she spoke. “Keagan.” His name came out of her mouth in a breathless pant. “I—” She rose and shook her head. Grabbing her purse, she said, “This is a mistake.” She couldn’t deal, it was clear on her face, she was spooked and ready to run. “I can’t.” Her tearful words were torn from her mouth. “I didn’t know it was you.” It was clear by that statement that had she known that he was there she wouldn’t have come.
“Sadie, stop,” he called when she took a couple of stumbling steps away from him. “Damn it, I will chase you down if I need to. Come back here and talk to me.” He moved a few steps closer to her, slowly. She was terrified, of him of all people, which didn’t sit right with him. “Come on, let’s go to the conference room. You can tell me what’s going on, and I can sit my exhausted ass down. It’s a win-win for everyone. Please?” he added, figuring it couldn’t hurt.
He could see the indecision on her face, and when she finally relented it was with a weak and soft “okay” from her lips. She moved to the conference room with him, slowly, however. Finally he heard her asking, “What happened to you? Are you going to be okay?” Even though there was fear, there was worry for him clear in her voice.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. Closing the door, he threw the lock and punched a couple of buttons on the pad by the door. It would ensure that no surveillance was taken, and that no one could interrupt them. Moving to a chair, he waved her to another before he fell back with a groan. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I paid the price. Spent the last days of my tour in a hospital bed where I got a lot of pins and shit stuffed into my leg. Then they shipped me back home.”
She winced at his words, and then he saw her taking a deep breath. “I didn’t know that you were in this company or I wouldn’t have come,” she admitted, and he could see the pain on her face at the admission. “The last thing that I want to do is pull you into my nightmares, especially when I know that you and Bryce would rather never see me again.” She shrugged. “Which I understand. The things that I did to you, after all how many women sleep with the boy she grew up with and his best friend at once? I understand why you are angry and wouldn’t want to ever talk to me again.” She shifted and pulled out a thick stack of files and passed them over. “But if you are here, then I guess that means that I’m hiring you to do a job for me.” Professional and all business. “I need for you to find who’s been sending me these threats. I’ve made police reports of all of the threats, all of the break ins, and hired private security but so far no one can figure out what’s going on. I figured that it was time to bring in another firm to see if they can find something that the original missed.”
Chapter Three
Across the table Keagan stared at her, a blank and dumbfounded expression on his face. “Excuse me?” he asked. She wasn’t exactly clear on what part of what she’d said he didn’t understand, which he obviously clued into. “First things first, why the hell would you think we’d be angry at you, Sadie? You’re the one that cut things off with us, never writing, never responding to anything we sent, and then siccing your dad on us to tell us to back the fuck off. We respected your decision, and left well enough alone. Angry, no. Hurt, fuck yeah, especially after that amazing night we spent together. We got it though, you were young, exploring your sexuality, and didn’t want a reminder of that wild night, so we left it be.”
She just looked at him. There was no way she heard him right. “Excuse me?” She felt her temper beginning to flare but held onto it. “What do you mean?” She counted to ten and then back again. “I didn’t cut things off with you. I wrote you both every single day.” She felt the telltale signs of tears but forced herself not to cry. She wouldn’t give in and cry. Not now. “Father was the one who came to me and demanded that I leave you both alone. He’s the one who told me that you were heartbroken because I was so easy and slept with you both. He—” She stopped and shook her head. “It’s the past.” She couldn’t reopen those wounds, they hurt too damn much. “Will your firm be able to take the job or do I need to hire another one?” She was being a bitch and knew it, but the previous day had been a terrible day for her, a day where her babies should have been turning seven and she was more than a little raw and chaffed from that pain.
“I’ll take the damn job, Sadie. But we are going to hash this out, because that’s a fucking lie. We never said anything to him. We wrote you every damn chance we could. I still have the receipts for the deliveries if you want to see them. I kept everything, because I hoped that you’d change your mind. Harker figured you didn’t want to deal with us being in the service, that it was too painful, and too much worry. I prayed, nightly, he was wrong and you’d damn well answer just one of the letters. You never did,” he said.
She just looked at him. She didn’t say a word. How could she? Nothing she said would make a difference at this point. That was then and this was now. She had the letters that had finally been returned to her, all unopened. She had the packages she had sent to them, well, the slips from mailing them, but none of it made a difference. The past was just that, the past. She was a different woman now, one that couldn’t let herself be swept up by the promise of a possibility. No, that girl that she was had long ago died and the woman that she was now was barely surviving. “Thank you for taking the job,” she said coolly. She had to keep her distance, needed to ensure that she didn’t fall into the same trap she had so long ago because she knew just from seeing him again that falling in love with him wasn’t anything she had to work at. Not when she had never fallen out of love with him. “Everything you need should be in the files.” She wasn’t touching the part about hashing out the past because if she had to dwell upon the past it would destroy her.
She watched as his jaw clenched before he nodded. “Right, sure,” he said. Getting to his feet, he made his way to the door. Unlocking it, he threw it open. “I’m sure you can find your way out. Someone will be by your place this afternoon to look around, get a lay of the land, and determine what materials we’ll need. Leave the files. I’ll have someone collect them later. But so you know, I’m damn well going to find your father, hogtie his ass, and beat him until he gives me the truth you won’t. Have a wonderful day, Sadie.” He snapped her a salute, or as much of one as he could given his condition, and left the room.
Sadie sat there for several minutes. She rubbed her hands over her arms that ached and rose on shaky feet. It wouldn’t take him much to find her father. He had been the one to bring her to the offices after all She just prayed that he didn’t dig too deeply. All the papers ran for weeks were the images of the tragedy of her accident and the loss of her children. The papers had chronicled her fall into depression and the multiple times she attempted suicide. She could be hopeful that he wouldn’t find that. If she were lucky.
Standing on shaky legs, she walked toward the door, head held high and determination in her stride. She refused to break down, wouldn’t break down until she was home and could do so on her own time and without others watching her as she gave in to the welling sorrow that plagued her.
When she exited the building, she saw a lot of men surrounding her father’s car. Her dad was on the ground cradling a bloody nose, and someone she didn’t recognize was holding Keagan back. His crutches were on the ground, and he was beyond pissed off. He was livid. “You fucking lying sack of shit! Why the fuck would you do it? Why?” Keagan demanded in a tone she’d never heard from him. It was chilling and actually sent shivers over her body.
Sadie stepped between the men and looked up at Keagan. “What are you doing?” She wanted to know. Her voice was far calmer than she would have expected it to be. When her father went to speak, she glared at him. “I suggest you do not speak to me at this moment in time. I’m far more angry with you than you can possibly ever begin to understand.” She was hurt and angry, and she couldn’t understand why her father had done all that he had in order to keep her from seeing Keagan and Bryce again, even knowing how she felt about t
hem. No, he needed to remain silent.
“Getting answers from this piece of shit,” Keagan said. He shook off the guy holding onto him, and with a wince, took the crutches from someone else. “Ask him where all our letters went. Actually, better yet, don’t. Go and check his safe. Apparently he was ensuring that we didn’t corrupt you any more than we had. All the letters you got back, check the postal outlet markings. Not a single one of them made it out of the States. He ensured we didn’t have contact. He ensured you had the life he deemed you should have,” he said.
“You should go and sit down, Bradley. You look like you’re about to keel over,” someone commented.
Shrugging off the hand of the man who’d just spoken, Keagan looked at her. “When you figure out the truth, you know where I am,” he said. Moving slower, and with a lot more obvious pain, he began to make his way back to the building.
Someone stepped in closer to her, and she looked up to meet a pair of bright blue eyes. “I’d also ask him about your accident,” blue eyes said softly, with a set of air quotes. “Amazing the lengths some people will go to when they feel the need to control those they feel aren’t living up to their potential. Guys, inside,” he ordered the other men.
Sadie just looked at her father. She didn’t have to ask him anything, she saw it on his face. Her tears fell, she couldn’t stop them. “You knew I was pregnant and you did that. You knew how much I wanted my babies and you did that. You killed your grandchildren.” She held a hand up when he went to speak and shook her head. “No, you are dead to me.” She stepped around her father and got into her car. Without another word, she drove away from the man that had destroyed her life, sobs wracking her body as she cried for all that had been lost to her, and to the men she had loved with all her heart and soul. When the tears got to be too much, she pulled over and cried until she had nothing left.