by Karen Anders
Stunned, Vin sat there and stared at his father. It was a revelation to him that Sky was right. There was something to honoring his family, and the offer his father had just made suited him just fine. Touched by his dad’s speech, he could only nod his head.
* * *
Vin pulled into the driveway of his parents’ home. His side twinged as he got out of the car and headed for the front door. His father, mother and sister had gone out to lunch, but he was more interested in getting changed, packing his suitcase and going after Sky. It was a relief that his father had accepted retirement. Vin wanted to talk to Sky in person and tell her that he understood what she was talking about. Maybe they could stop arguing and really talk about their differences and the similarities. But if she wasn’t willing to change to accept him, he would have to figure out how he was going to live his life without her. His thoughts trailed off as he saw a woman standing at the front door with long, dark hair. His heart leaped in his chest. It couldn’t be...Sky.
She turned and her gaze caught and held his. Her features softened and she smiled. His heart skipped a beat as he walked up the stairs.
“I was just about to jump on a plane and fly back to D.C. to find you.”
“You were? I came here hoping you’d tell me it’s not too late.” She stood there looking scared and hopeful at the same time.
His voice wobbled a bit, his throat constricted and his chest tight. “Here I was, trying to figure out how I was going to get through the rest of my life without you.”
Her face crumpled and she lunged into his arms.
He held her close. “I love you. But you have to explain to me what happened. What changed?”
She raised her head, her eyes warm and alive. “I went to my aunt, and she had all these letters from my father. You were right. I misinterpreted their meaning. They never wanted me to sacrifice anything. They wanted me to live, and all this time I haven’t. I’ve been marking time just like you said. So, to fulfill my family’s honor, I must live. I choose to live with you. I love you, Vin.”
He crushed her to him. “Then it’s time to live, Sky.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted her face up to his. He dropped his mouth down onto hers, making a soft moan of relief as she kissed him back.
When he broke the kiss, she said, “It is important to honor your family. The thing is, we all have to decide what that honoring consists of. I realized that I needed to trust your judgment about what was right for your family. It isn’t up to me to say how involved you should be. I misjudged my own father’s wishes, so I shouldn’t presume to know what you should do, either. I was wrong to insist that you follow my path, which ended up being so misguided. I don’t care what you do, Vin. NCIS agent, CEO, just as long as that is what makes you happy and fulfilled. You wanted acceptance. You have it unconditionally.”
“I just needed you to let me in. We’ll do great together now. And I’m going to be both NCIS agent and work for the family business when I can. My sister is now the CEO and is going to run the company, but I’m going to be involved with major decision-making.”
“Well, that’s good news because I have to let you know that I’m unemployed.”
He tilted his head. “Are you? Well, then, that gives you a chance for a new beginning.”
“Yeah, I could scope out suitable yoga studios by myself, but it wouldn’t be as much fun as having a friend and a lover along with me.”
“Is that an invitation?”
“Do you need it engraved?”
He chuckled and opened the door, pulling her inside. “My parents aren’t going to be home for a while. They and my sister are having lunch.”
“Oh, is that so? Then I guess we could get down to the business of living.”
“I have some business I want to share with you.”
He pulled her into his arms and picked her up. Heading for the stairs, he climbed them two at a time, their laughter echoing all the way to the ceiling.
Epilogue
Sky caught her breath as Vin kissed her neck. She cuddled up to him as the boat they were on traversed down the Donsol River, not far from the sleepy fishing village where her father had been born. It was stunning here, simply paradise. Located in the province of Sorsogon, the village was a place of pristine beaches, stunning waterfalls and unexplored caves; their days had been all about exploration and their nights had been more of the same, only on a much more intimate level. A level they wouldn’t have attempted in public. Well, except for his soft lips on her skin right now. Luckily they were the only ones on this particular trip. She suspected that Vin had arranged it.
The boat meandered as she took in the palm and mangrove trees. They stopped and the boat left them off.
As it putted away, she looked at Vin.
“Don’t worry. He’s coming back for us.”
He bent down and lifted her foot to slip off her sandal, and she caught herself on his stooped shoulder, balancing on one foot, then the other. He slipped off his shoes and gathered both in his hands. He curled his free hand around hers, and they walked a little ways along the beach, the lazy waves lapping at her bare feet. She stopped when she spied the double wide hammock, the table and chairs all set up in a copse of palms as if it was waiting for them.
He pulled her toward it, festooned with bright pillows in hot tropical colors and a couple of comfortable throw blankets to match.
He dropped their shoes and pulled her down onto the hammock with him.
“What is this?” She met his twinkling eyes.
He pressed his mouth down on hers, and she gave herself up to his kiss, making room for him between her thighs; she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“This is a secluded island that we have all day and all night. Just the two of us.”
“We’re going to sleep outside under the stars?”
“Yeah. How do you feel about that?”
“Oh, my God, Vin, that’s so romantic and so spontaneous.”
They sunned and swam in the warm water, then ate and dozed on the hammock. As the sun went down, Sky woke to a million sparkling fireflies lighting up the night sky.
She reveled in the decadence of lying with Vin on the comfortable hammock as the soft ocean breeze blew across her bare skin. The day before they had swum with whale sharks, and the day before that they’d participated in catching shrimp in nets for their dinner.
“I can’t believe my father would have ever wanted to leave here,” she said as she smoothed her hand over Vin’s bare chest. “Thank you for this. For coming with me to the Philippines to this village where my father was born.”
“It is beautiful, but he must have had ambition. Wanted to be a mechanical engineer and not a fisherman.”
She was content to nod. She’d started up her yoga studio and named it Espiritu like her company name. It fit so well: Espiritu was Tagalog for soul—mind, feeling, body. She loved teaching yoga and doing several consulting projects when the mood struck her.
She loved loving Vin every day and night while he saved the world. The navy had nominated her for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Before they had left on the trip, she’d been notified she would receive it and the president of the United States was going to present it to her. Vin had been so proud of her and she already knew her parents would have been so proud of her. Vin would receive the Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award and a Commendation for Meritorious Civilian Service for his part in keeping Stingray out of enemy hands.
He turned toward her, propping his head with his hand, giving her a sultry look, and then glanced down to where her hands were playing with the ridges of his abdomen. “You going to keep that up?”
She grinned at him. “Why? You got somewhere to be?”
He chuckled. “Um...no... Could you do it a
little lower?”
“I could.” She slipped her fingers between his waistband and his hard-muscled waist, teasing his skin, and then she slipped her hand into his swim trunks to wrap around him. His eyes drifted closed on a groan. Then he kissed her and moved his hips forward, thrusting into her hand.
“Sky,” he murmured between kisses on her mouth, and her cheek, and her ear, and that very sensitive spot on the side of her neck, “we met under the craziest of circumstances.”
“We sure did, and you saved my life in more ways than one.” She was melting under all those kisses and the very gentle exploration he was making with his fingers between her legs. Then with two pulls he had her bikini bottom off.
Her body overloaded with wonderful sensations. “So, what are we going to do for excitement without bullets flying and adrenaline rushing?” she whispered, running her hand over his chest all the way to the hardest part of him.
He kissed her, a sweet stunning kiss that had her melting all over again.
“How about this for starters?” He pulled something out of his pocket, and her breath caught when he held it up to the torchlight. A ring box right in the middle of making love. A very spontaneous marriage proposal.
“Will you marry me?” he said, his voice rough-edged with emotion.
She rolled to face him, and he lifted his head to meet her gaze. Her hands went over the scar on his shoulder and the two on his side. He shucked off his shorts and slid all that sun-warmed muscle over her, the hot and welcome pressure of his body seeking entrance into hers. She could see it in the darkening of his eyes and in the not-so-innocent curve of his smile.
He opened the box, and her breath caught at the beautiful, square-cut sparkler inside as the shine of it vied with the moonlight.
She lifted her head and whispered in his ear and he shivered. When she lowered her head and met his eyes, she plucked the ring out of the box, handing it to him. Then she offered up the ring finger of her left hand. “It’s yes to infinity, and I can tell you how long that is.”
“Oh, you can?” he said, his eyes moist and so, so green as he slid the ring all the way to her knuckle. “How long?”
“Oh, Vin, my gorgeous love.” She lifted her hips and accepted him deep inside. “That’s easy. Forever.”
* * * * *
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Chapter 1
Chief of Police Flint Colton jammed on the brakes of his patrol car and with a quick flip of the steering wheel, squealed to a halt along the side of the gravel road.
He slapped his black cowboy hat more firmly on his head and jumped out of the car, closing the door as quietly as possible behind him. He pulled his gun and headed into the woods that formed a perimeter on one side of the small town of Dead River, Wyoming.
He entered the heavily wooded area with his adrenaline pulsing through him. He’d seen something moving among the nearly bare trees...not just something, but rather someone on two legs, someone who definitely didn’t belong there.
It could be either one of two people, a cold-blooded killer who was on the loose or the stupid kid who had left Flint’s cousin, Molly, at the altar, but not before he’d cleaned out her bank accounts and stolen Flint’s grandmother’s heirloom ring.
Right now he didn’t much care which man it might be; he only knew he’d seen the flash of a red jacket running through the woods that might mean an arrest, and he was desperate for something positive to happen.
He’d lost sight of his prey, but raced in the direction he’d last seen the person running. All of his senses were acutely alive. The scent of November surrounded him with smells of withering leaves and the pleasant odor of a wood-burning fireplace coming from somewhere in the distance.
He not only heard the snap and crackle of dead tree limbs and the crunching of leaves ahead of him, but he also heard the nearby scurry of wildlife disturbed by his presence in their home.
A desperate need drove Flint forward. The town needed something good to happen after the past month of nothing but bad news and abject fear. He hoped the man he chased was Hank Bittard, a murderer who had nearly killed a deputy when he’d escaped from custody last week. Getting that man back behind bars would at least ease some of the worries of the people of the small town.
He muttered a curse as he tripped over an exposed root, nearly going down on one knee. He straightened up and then paused and listened.
Nothing. He didn’t hear the noise of somebody crashing over dried brush or the snapping of twigs as anyone ran away. He heard nothing to indicate that he wasn’t completely alone in the woods.
Had Flint only imagined the flash of red, the motion of a person running in the woods? Or was the person he pursued also standing perfectly still now as well, waiting for Flint to make a move and give away his position?
He tightened his grip on his gun, hearing his own heartbeat echoing in his head. Bittard wouldn’t think twice about putting a bullet through Flint’s heart. He was a ruthless killer who had initially been arrested for the murder of his boss. Flint would love to get him back into custody. But Flint also didn’t know for sure if the man had a weapon or not.
He moved forward once again, a dose of reality taking the edge off the initial adrenaline rush that had gripped him. He had to admit that whoever he might have been chasing was gone now, and he had no idea in what direction to proceed.
He continued walking and veered slightly to his left, attempting to move as quietly as possible. His breath caught in his chest as he came gun to gun with a man in a white HAZMAT suit.
Flint instantly raised his hands and slowly backed away, grateful that he was clad in his black police uniform and that the sun caught and glinted off his badge.
Flint knew there was only one reason the man in the HAZMAT suit would shoot him and that was if Flint tried to get by him and step out of the perimeters the CDC had set up. Whoever Flint had been chasing wouldn’t have a way out of town, not with the quarantine in place.
“Did anyone come this way before me?” Flint asked.
The man in the suit shook his head.
Discouraged, he slowly continued to back away from the man and then turned and headed to his car. The opportunity to catch the person in the woods had been lost this time.
It was just after noon. He’d check in with his men at the station and then head to the diner for some lunch. He still believed that Hank was hiding out in the woods, a place where he’d often go with his buddies for target shooting. The woods would continue to be a focal point for Flint to hunt for Hank.
As he drove onto Main Street and into the center of town, he was disheartened by the lack of people on the streets, the eerily deserted air of what had been a thriving little town until the mysterious disease had struck.
He clenched his hands around the steering wheel, acknowledging that at the moment there was nothing that could be done about the quarantine preventing people from entering or leaving the town.
The entire town of Dead River was trapped by a deadly disease with no cure so far and shut in with a desperate killer who had no place to run and had yet to be apprehended.
The police station was in the middle of town, a
one-story brick building with two small jail cells in the basement and a larger general holding cell. The two cells had seemed adequate for such a small town when Flint had been voted in as chief of police, but he wondered now if, because of the quarantine, they’d have to figure out a way to cobble together more cells as tensions rose and tempers flared. Already occupying the general holding cell was Doug Gasper, a stalker who’d recently been apprehended at his brother Theo’s ranch.
The pair of cells in the basement were reserved for the likes of of Hank Bittard and Jimmy Johnson, the young man who had taken advantage of sweet Molly, and it was anyone’s guess who might go around the bend and become a danger to others due to the stress and anxiety of the quarantine.
He parked his car and got out, hoping that one of his deputies might have some news about the two missing men, or perhaps an update about the mystery illness that had struck and forced the CDC to quarantine the town.
Kendra Walker greeted him from behind her desk in the small reception area. She worked during the day as both receptionist and dispatcher.
“Hey, Chief,” she said and then the phone rang, taking her attention away from him.
He gave her a wave and pushed through the doors that led into the area where the officers had their desks. His private office was at the back of the room, along with a single room that was used for interrogations or staff meetings.
Flint was thirty-two years old but at the moment he felt closer to sixty. The weight of the events of the past month sat heavily on his shoulders, and even heavier in his heart.
“Have you been rolling around in the woods?” Officer Patrick Carter stepped in front of Flint and picked out a twig that had been trapped beneath his collar. He tossed it in a nearby trash can and then turned back and looked at Flint expectantly.