by Chloe Lang
“Tell me about your parents. What were they like?”
“Mom was the most selfless person I’ve ever known. Whenever she saw someone who needed help, she was there ready to lend a hand. Our two dads were so in love with her.”
“Two dads? That’s unusual.”
“Not here in Destiny. It’s quite common. Actually, it’s the norm. Our dads were opposite on so many levels,” Sawyer continued. “Reed is a lot like Dad Gene.”
“A smart-ass,” she said, smiling.
“I mean quiet, hard for him to open up.”
“Yeah. I can feel that in him,” she said. “What about your other dad? How are you like him?”
“Dad Gilbert was always accused of being able to read minds.”
Her cheeks flared red. “And you have that ability, too?”
“Some say I do.”
“What am I thinking right now then?”
He closed his eyes and made a humming sound to add to the show. “You are thinking how lucky you are to be with such a good-looking cowboy.” He opened his eyes and laughed. “Right?”
Her jaw dropped and then snapped shut. “You should take your act on the road.”
“And leave all this?” He motioned to the cabin. “Not a chance.” Time to test the waters and see if he could turn this conversation around to learn more about her. “What about your loss, Nicole? Talk to me.”
“I want to, cowboy.” She released her hold on his wrists. “I just can’t. You asked me about the case. What if I tell you about that first?”
It would have to do, for now. “Yes. I want to hear about it. You know we’ve had several killings in Destiny of late. One, just a couple of months ago at TBK.”
“TBK?”
“Two Black Knights. It’s a high-tech company owned by two local billionaires in Destiny.”
Her jaw dropped. “Billionaires live in Destiny?”
“Actually, we have more than a few. Eric and Scott Knight are friends of ours. The Stone brothers—Emmett, Bryant, and Cody—aren’t billionaires but aren’t too far from it. I think Mrs. Steele is a billionaire, too, but I’m not sure. Gold, the owner of the club we met at, he’s rumored to have over a million in cash under his mattress.”
“Seriously?”
He nodded. “Then there are the O’Learys. They could buy and sell everyone in town, including all the other billionaires.”
“That’s an impressive demographic for any city but even more so for such a small town as Destiny.”
He shrugged. “I suppose so. Growing up here, it seems quite normal to me.”
He watched her eyes dart around the cabin. “You and your brother aren’t part of that rich crowd, are you?”
“Nope. But they are friends. The Knights’ and Stones’ parents died in the same plane crash as ours. The entire town, but especially the O’Learys, were there for us.”
“I’d like to meet your sister.”
That was music to his ears. That had to mean Nicole might be convincible if not entirely open to staying yet. He felt light and hopeful. “You two will get along great.” Taking a risk, he leaned forward and brushed the hair out of her eyes.
She rewarded him with a smile. “Phase Four seems out of place in such a small town, don’t you think?”
Again, he shrugged. “Gold opened the club after his wife died years ago. He’s got the money to keep it going, but nearly every citizen in town is a member. Besides, there’s a big list of celebs that don’t live here but come at least once or twice a year.
“No kidding.”
“One thing about Destiny, we believe in discretion. The BDSM-Poly community is tight. The world may see our ways as fringe and eccentric, but we see it as the only way to live and love.”
The door opened and out came Reed, yawning. He’d also put on jeans like Sawyer, but nothing else. “I’m starving. What do we have to eat?”
“Good morning to you, too, cowboy,” Nicole said, shaking her head.
“Hey, beautiful. How are you this morning?”
Sawyer turned to their gorgeous guest. Her face was flushed. One thing about Reed, he always knew just what to say to get the response he wanted.
“I’m hungry, too, actually. What do you have?”
“Unfortunately, we only have beans and bread.” Sawyer felt his own stomach rumble. “We were supposed to get groceries yesterday but got sidetracked.”
Reed stepped up to Nicole and cupped her chin. “I’d starve any time to be sidetracked by you, Chicago.”
Nicole raised one eyebrow. “You sure do have the lines, cowboy. Lots of them. Don’t forget, I’m a cop. I know when someone is holding back.”
Reed frowned but kept his hand on her chin. He didn’t say a word for a bit. Reed was clearly trying to wrestle with his feelings for her. “Maybe we should get dressed and head to town to eat. We’ve got a diner, a Chinese restaurant, and a burger shop. What would you like?”
“I love Chinese.”
“Deal.”
An idea came into Sawyer’s mind. These two needed time alone. “I think it would be better for me to get takeout. Jason wanted us to keep her here for two days, right?”
“True,” Reed said.
She sighed. “I swear this area is fifty years behind the times. I suppose men here still like their women barefoot in the kitchen and pregnant, right?”
The image materialized in his head of her in just that condition, carrying their baby. He knew answering her would not win him any points. “What dish would you like from Phong’s, Nicole?” he asked instead.
Chapter Ten
Nicole sat in a chair opposite Reed. The chairs were on the porch that she’d taken a bath on shortly after her arrival here. Had that only been yesterday? God, it seemed like a lifetime ago.
She looked up into the pale blue sky and thought there couldn’t be a more beautiful place on the planet than right here.
Sawyer had been gone only ten minutes to head to town to get them Chinese food. Her mouth watered thinking about the sesame chicken he would bring back.
“What do you think of our Blue Arrow Peak?” Reed asked, pointing to the tallest snowcapped mountain off in the horizon.
She looked over at the cowboy, who was still wearing nothing but his jeans. She, on the other hand, had decided to dress. After, Reed had suggested they come out here to enjoy the morning. The idea had suited her fine.
“It’s amazing. How long does the snow stay up there?”
“Year round. Most of the other tops melt off, but not Blue Arrow.” His eyes seemed to sparkle with pride. Reed clearly loved where he lived, and she could understand why since the area was breathtaking. “Not the highest or biggest in the Rockies, but she’s one in a million to me.”
“The open air is something I don’t get back home,” she confessed. “It’s quite nice.” But it felt like more than that to her in truth. There was a peacefulness here that got into Nicole’s bones and warmed every part of her. How long had she felt like the walls had been closing in on her? Years. Nicole sighed, feeling more relaxed than she had in ages and ages. “You know I can’t stay here much longer, no matter what your sheriff says.”
Reed brushed the hair out of her eyes. She was growing accustomed to his tender touch. “Tell me more about this investigation, Chicago. It’s got a hold on you in ways you haven’t told us yet, doesn’t it?”
She shrugged, trying her best to put her poker face back on but having a difficult time of it. “It’s something I want to do. Police work is my life.”
“You seem to be a twenty-four-seven cop. Why so serious all the time? Do you ever do anything fun, Nicole?”
Nicole, not Chicago, this time? God, why couldn’t she seem to keep her head straight around Reed or his brother? And when both were present? Forget about it. “Tell me about your sister,” she said, hoping the change in subject would keep the topic off of her.
Reed smiled and took her hand and squeezed. “Sawyer told you about Erica?”
She nodded. “Is she like you or him?”
“A bit of both, but she’s more like our mom actually.” His face darkened but he didn’t release his hold of her hand.
Reed evidently carried a lot of grief still, even though it had been quite a while since the tragedy. Sawyer had told her about losing their parents in a plane crash. She shouldn’t have brought up family to Reed. Always putting your foot in your mouth, Nicole, aren’t you? “Sorry, cowboy. My badge isn’t on. It’s off. Tell me about the club in Destiny. You guys are members?”
“We are.” The tight lines that had appeared on his face a moment ago softened. “What do you know about BDSM, Chicago? You’ve got more than a couple of clubs there that cater to the life, right?”
“I know very little, though I have heard of the clubs you’re talking about. Quite racy.”
“Do you want to know about the life?” His question seemed to hold a challenge.
What was the correct answer he wanted from her? She wasn’t sure, but felt like there were more wrong ones than right. “I do. Please, fill me in. I want to know more.”
He released her hand and leaned back in the chair, looking out at the vista in front of them. “‘Want’ is a powerful word, sweetheart. I want a lot of things, too, but I’ve learned that most of those will never be.”
“That sounds so sad, Reed. I didn’t take you for a pessimist.”
“Realist.” The hard edge in his tone flattened her.
She wished Sawyer were here now. He had the intuition she lacked. He would know how to handle Reed to get him back to the playful, mischievous cowboy she’d known of him so far. But Sawyer wasn’t here. Reed was. She felt empathy for him. On the outside, she’d chosen to be closed off by retreating from the world to block her pain. Reed had clearly built his walls differently. His were made of lightheartedness, playfulness, and wicked flirtation. Not a retreat at all but a full-on frontal assault which worked the same to keep people from the real truth—that he carried his suffering every second of every day like her. He seemed open, but he was obviously as closed as she was.
“I’m sorry, Reed. Let’s talk about something else. BDSM and the plane crash can be off-limits, okay?”
“No. They’re on the table. What do you want to know about the plane crash?” His lips thinned into a sharp line.
“I can’t even imagine what you went through when that happened.” Her heart was breaking seeing the pain on his face. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. Sawyer told me a little, but that’s his version to tell. I don’t need to know anything. I swear. Tell me about the mountain lion or anything else you want to talk about. Or we don’t have to talk at all. Let’s just wait until Sawyer gets back. Okay?”
He touched her cheek. “Shh, Chicago. It’s okay. Erica and Sawyer have told me I should talk about it more, but I’ve never had a reason to—”
“That’s why I shouldn’t have brought it up, Reed.” Tears of understanding brimmed in her eyes. Talking about his loss reminded her of her own and of her grandfather. She knew what it meant to lose someone you loved, someone you counted on, someone you failed. She hadn’t been able to talk to anyone about her pain either. Though she admired his courage to delve so deep, this was getting too close to her own dark grief. She shouldn’t push this. “Change of subject is in order.”
He frowned. “You interrupted me, sweetheart, before I finished my sentence.”
“I’m sorry, Reed.”
“You keep saying that. Stop. Okay?”
She nodded.
“Damn, you’re something else, Chicago. Destiny isn’t quite ready for you I’m betting.” His lips curled into a slight smile, but the pain on his face remained. “What I was going to say was I’ve never had a reason to talk about my parents’ accident until you showed up.”
She felt her eyes widen in surprise. “What do you mean? I’m not anyone special.”
“You calling me a liar?”
“God, no.”
“Then don’t doubt me when I say this is the first time I’ve ever wanted to talk about this with anyone. You’re special”
“I won’t, but I’m not sure about how you see me.” She’d ventured into this and wasn’t going to back out now.
“That’s better.” He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I was fifteen when it happened. Not really a boy anymore but not quite a man either. Mom was so excited that the Stones and Knights had included them on the vacation trip to Barbados. So were our dads. They were ranch hands, like Sawyer and me. They lived a simple life but a loving life. The Stones and Knights had always treated them as equals, though that was clearly not the case monetarily speaking. I suppose it had, as it does now, something to do with how Destiny ticks. We’re quirky but loyal folk.”
“I’ve seen that already about your town. Sheriff Wolfe is quite loyal in fact.”
He opened his eyes and began stroking her hair. “Too ethical, also, if you ask me, but that’s another story for another day. There’s so much more to see and to know, Chicago. Destiny is simple but also complicated, easygoing but quick to blows, conservative about some things but quite liberal about others. We argue with each other like cats and dogs sometimes. You should see us around election time. Sweet little old ladies have been known to pull out their pistols and fire warning shots into the air over an ongoing issue about renaming Destiny’s park.”
She grinned. “Not quite Norman Rockwall is it.”
“Not even close, but it’s home. Always will be for me. My dads grew up here, too.”
“So you’re third generation. Do you call yourselves Destonites or Destiners?”
“Destonians is what most say,” he informed.
“Has a nice ring to it. Are your grandparents still here?”
“No. They died before I was born. The O’Learys are like grandparents to us and to the others. Did Sawyer tell you about the other orphans?”
“He did. You all are close, right?”
“Like brothers.”
“And I guess the Knights and Stones think of Erica as a sister, too.”
“They do. She complains about having seven big brothers but I think she actually likes it. What about you, Chicago? Brothers or sisters?”
“Just me.” Nicole felt her tension return as her dark past clawed at the back of her mind. “Fifteen is young to lose parents, Reed. Really young.” She could relate. She’d never known her father. Her mother had vanished after dropping her off at school when she was only eight.
“I survived, sweetheart. That’s what you have to do.”
“I know, but it doesn’t always make it any easier, does it?”
He sighed. “No. The world changed that day I lost my parents.”
“It was in September, right?”
“Yes. The twenty-eighth, seventeen days after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington on nine-eleven.”
“I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Mom had. She was worried. You know they grounded all civilian aircraft until the thirteenth. I wish they’d done it for longer.” His grief seemed to fill the air. “Dad Gene was the pilot. Did Sawyer tell you that?”
“No.”
“Dad had several thousand hours in the air. He was in the Air Force and had flown fighter jets. Dad Gilbert had his license, too. Since he’d been in the Army on the ground, not as many hours in his logbook as Dad Gene, but still a few hundred. The plane was brand new. The weather was ideal.”
“What happened to cause the crash?”
“The FAA ruled it pilot error, but none of us believe that.” He stood up and Nicole saw that his hands were balled up into big fists. “Shit happens, Chicago. That’s life.”
She left her chair and came up to the giant cowboy and hugged him. “It shouldn’t be that way, Reed.” She felt her tears stream down her cheeks as his pain, his suffering, his loss filled her mind and mingled with her own sadness. “I’ve always had to be the responsible one, the self-reliant
one no matter what the challenge.”
She felt his arms come around her and pull her in tight.
“Me, too,” he said in a tone softer and more serious than she’d ever heard from him.
She had to tell him. The words had to come out. “Maybe life has been harder for us because we hold everything in. I know it was the reason for my downfall.” She closed her eyes and let the memories out that she’d shoved deep down. As ugly as her sins were, she wanted him to know all of it. She looked up into the blue eyes of the man that had once been a boy forced to grow up too fast. “You know I’m a cop. My whole family has deep roots in the department, several generations of police officers. What you don’t know is my mother broke my grandparents’ hearts. She was a drug addict. Heroin. My grandmother had a stroke and died after learning the truth about her daughter, my mother. My grandfather was too tough, but it changed him. The pride of Chicago’s men in uniform, he never said it but I always knew he felt like a failure for my mother.”
“Her shortfalls aren’t yours, baby.” He squeezed her a little tighter into him.
“I know. I have plenty of my own. My mother abandoned me when I was in the second grade. Eight years old. My grandfather took me in and became a single parent at the ripe old age of fifty-nine. God, he was so thrilled when I joined the force. It seemed to erase his guilt some.”
“I can only imagine how happy you must’ve made him,” he said, his voice low.
“Then? Yes. Later? No. I became his second disappointment. Shortly into my service he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It took his mind fast. I wasn’t quite a rookie but I was still new to the force. I had to start caring for him and keep pulling my shifts. The pressure got to me. I couldn’t sleep after he started calling me by my mother’s name—Helen. It wasn’t long before he started shouting at me as if I were her, his biggest failure.” Nicole closed her eyes and sobbed. “I was so angry at him. I knew in my head that it was the illness, but I couldn’t get my heart around the fact that he could confuse me for my mother.”
“Chicago, that’s normal. Anyone would have felt that way. You’re too hard on yourself, sweetheart.”