by Tara Thomas
“I’m so sorry,” she said and wiped her nose. “I never meant for you to get or see those divorce papers. I honestly forgot all about them. Forget that I’d even asked for them to be drawn up. I was so busy with all the other stuff going on. The threats and everything surrounding them nearly consumed me. I worked so hard to stay away from you, the fact I’d actually requested them left my mind. I’m sorry if it hurt you when you saw them. That was never my intent.”
She was babbling. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her in such a state before. He stroked her hand with his thumb. “Bea,” he said softly.
She stopped talking and sniffled again, but didn’t say anything.
“I’m not upset about the divorce papers,” he said, as she looked at him in shock. “I understand why you had them drawn up. I don’t like it, but understand it. I know that you are looking out for me, trying to keep me safe.”
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“But I don’t want our first instinct to be to walk out when things get tough. We have to be honest with one another and work through the issues. Talk about them.” He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “I love you too much for anything less.”
“I love you, too.” She sniffled. “And I need some tissue before I get snot all over you.”
He laughed. “I’m sure there’s some around here.”
She found the tissues on a tray near his bed and wiped her nose. “I also really want to hug you, but I’m afraid I’m going to hurt your shoulder.”
“I’ll risk it,” he said. He lifted his good arm and stretched it out toward her. “Come here.”
She went willingly into his embrace and though it was awkward, they managed to hug without disturbing his injured arm.
“I can’t wait to get you out of here,” she said. “Get you back to Benedict House. Pamper you all day. And night.”
The beachfront property he had bought and never told her about came to mind. “About that,” he said, “I have a surprise for you when I get out of here.”
“To be honest, I’ve had enough presents for one lifetime.”
He laughed. “True. But you haven’t seen this prize yet and I guarantee you’re going to love it.”
She looked at him skeptically. “I’ll take your word for it, and when you get out of here, you can give me your surprise.”
“Oh no,” he said, taking note of the bewildered look she gave him. “This isn’t a surprise I can just give you. We have to travel there.”
“In that case, color me intrigued.” She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss, right when the door opened and a nurse walked in.
“I heard someone was awake,” she said.
“Yes, and ready to get out of here,” Knox said.
“Let’s see what we can do to make that happen.”
Two weeks later, Bea sat in Knox’s car while he drove her to the surprise he’d brought up in the hospital. She still didn’t know what kind of surprise it was or why they had to get in the car and drive to it. Knox had practically been bouncing up and down all day in excitement. She had to admit, seeing him so excited made her that way, too.
Or at least she was excited until he pulled a blindfold out.
* * *
“No thanks.” She crossed her arms, deciding to tease him. “I’m not into that kinky shit.”
He held the blindfold out by the strap to show her. “This isn’t kinky shit. I just don’t want you to see where we’re going before we get there.”
She smiled beneath the fabric covering her eyes. Honestly. It was just a figure of speech. But deep inside, she loved the possessive way he was around her.
For a time after they’d got in the car and started driving, she tried to keep up with where they were. She totally sucked at directions though, so after the first few turns, she’d given up and just leaned back to enjoy the ride.
“Are we there yet?” she said, more to annoy him than anything.
“Not yet,” he replied.
She counted to ten before asking, “How about now?”
“You’re incorrigible,” he said with a laugh.
“Coming from you, I take that as a compliment.” She fingered the edge of the blindfold. “Just a quick peek?”
“No.”
“A tiny little one?”
“No.”
“How about a hint, is it bigger than a bread box?”
“Who uses a bread box anymore? But yes, it’s much, much bigger than a bread box.”
Much, much bigger. That was certainly a surprise in and of itself. She’d thought maybe he’d bought her some jewelry or something. But that theory ceased to make sense as soon as they got into his car.
They turned off the main road. She could tell by the bumping. Wherever they were didn’t have paved roads. That made even less sense.
“Where are we?” she said, mostly to herself.
“Almost there,” Knox said, and she could tell he had a smile on his face. He was thoroughly enjoying this. That made her happy. She told herself no matter what the surprise was, she was going to love it.
Knox stopped the car and she swore she could feel his excitement radiate off him. Knowing he enjoyed this so much, made her enjoy it as well.
“Stay there,” he said when she attempted to open the door.
“Can I take it off now?”
“Not yet, Mrs. Impatient.”
She gave a mock groan and a long drawn-out sigh. But Knox would have none of it.
“You only have to be patient a few minutes more.” He helped her out of the car and the sound of waves crashing welcomed her.
“We’re at the beach?” she asked, but Knox obviously wasn’t answering any more questions.
“Come on,” he said, walking slowly beside her. She shuffled her feet to make sure she didn’t trip over anything. They weren’t on sand yet, she still had gravel under her feet. But she could hear the ocean and, even better, she could smell it.
“Just a few more steps.” He led her onto what she thought to be grass. She held the arm he didn’t have hold of out to her side to help with balance.
True to his word, they came to a halt a few steps later. He didn’t immediately remove the blindfold, but stood there. Bea took the time to listen to her surroundings. Wherever they were, it wasn’t crowded with people. In fact, she would almost say they were the only two people around. She could still hear the faint crash of waves, but it seemed almost out of place with the smell of freshly cut grass.
Knox reached behind her to untie the blindfold and she wasn’t one hundred percent, but she thought she felt his hands shake.
The blindfold fell away and the bright sunlight blinded her momentarily. She blinked a few times, trying to speed up the adjustment of her vision. Little by little it cleared to show a house in front of her.
It was a bit rundown. The wraparound porch looked like it needed to be replaced, one of the front windows was broken, and the entire structure needed painting. But with a bit of work, it would look incredible. The acreage was impressive, she could barely see the neighbors.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I think if you fixed it up, it could become quite the head turner.”
Beside her, he nodded in agreement. “That’s what I thought. When I bought it.”
She wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. He bought it? Like bought it, bought it? “You what?” she asked.
He reached between them and took her hand. “Before I proposed, I saw it and knew it was our house, though I didn’t put an offer on it until after. With your sense of style, it’ll be amazing when we finish with it.”
But her mind couldn’t get there yet. She was still stuck on the fact that he’d bought them a house. “You bought a house.”
“Yes.” His answer was a bit hesitant and she feared he’d gotten the wrong impression and thought she was mad. “I was going to tell you sooner, bring you out here, but then all that happened with the threats, and your father and I…”
His voice trailed off.
“Knox,” she said, turning to face him.
“Yes?”
“I love it.” She threw her arms around him. “I mean, living at Benedict House isn’t as stifling as I thought it would be. I like your brothers and Tilly’s a lot of fun, but we’re still living in a place that isn’t completely ours. This place, it feels right.”
He looked at her with such passion she felt it down to her toes. “I’m so glad you like it. I just knew when I saw it that it was the perfect place for us. We’ll still have to stay at Benedict House while renovations are being completed.”
Yes, but at the end, this house and land would be theirs. “I don’t mind, it’ll be worth it when it’s all said and done.”
“Do you want to go look inside?” he asked.
“Of course.” She could hardly believe they were standing in front of their house. She couldn’t wait to go inside. She somehow knew it would be perfect.
“Before we go inside,” he said, “there’s one more thing I want to ask you.” He waited for her to nod before he continued. “Since we were kind of evil and got married without telling anybody, what do you think of having a vow renewal ceremony? We can invite everybody, all of our family and friends. Then maybe they’ll finally get off our backs for not telling anyone about our wedding.”
It was truly a wonderful idea, Bea felt a bit perturbed she hadn’t thought of it first. She rested her hand against his chest. “I think it’s perfect. I would like to have it here, but I don’t think we’ll have it ready in time. Frankly, I don’t want to wait too long to marry you again.”
He grabbed her hand and held it tight to him, not letting go, as he dropped his head and gave her a claiming kiss. She wrapped her free arm around him, digging her fingers into his hair and being so very thankful that the neighbors couldn’t see them from where they were.
When they finally broke apart, he continued to hold her hand and led her to the front door. “Just wait until you see the master bedroom. It’s covered with windows and has a huge balcony. You can see the ocean and at night we can leave the door open and hear the waves crash as we go to sleep.”
They stepped inside and even though she knew she was looking at everything through rose-colored glasses, she didn’t think the house could be more perfect. Or at least it would be perfect when they finish with it.
They went from room to room, talking in excited whispers about what they would change and how it would look when they finished. Just as he had mentioned, she loved the master bedroom. It was so easy to imagine them having breakfast and drinking coffee on the balcony overlooking the ocean.
And she loved the closet space and was surprised that he didn’t bring it up, especially since she was always complaining about how small hers was. This one was huge. She joked they could have a party in the closet, or least make it into a guest bedroom. They went back downstairs to the kitchen, and she started planning how she would lay out the countertops.
The only appliance in the kitchen was a stove. It was electric, but she thought they could switch it over to gas during the renovations. It was a shame for the oven to go to waste though. She pulled open the door to look inside, thinking that if it was nice enough and still worked, she could give it to a homeless shelter. She frowned as she looked inside. What was an envelope doing in the oven?
“What in the world?” she asked and held it up for Knox to see.
“That was in the oven?” he asked. “I looked in there the last time I was here and I didn’t see it.”
Her heart began to pound and she felt clammy. That meant somebody had been inside the house. Someone Knox had not invited that he did know about. He walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Let’s not assume it’s a bad thing.” His words were meant to comfort her, but they did not. Not after everything they had been through.
“What else could it be? No one’s going to send us a housewarming gift and leave it in the oven.”
He took the envelope from her hands. “Let me open it.”
There was no writing on the outside, no indication of who it was from, or where it came from, or how long it’d been there. He opened it and took out a single sheet of paper.
“It’s another birth certificate,” he said.
She waited for him to say something else, but he didn’t. He just stood there, looking at the paper, but now his expression had gone pale. It freaked her out.
“Knox?” she asked, but he didn’t respond. “What is it?”
He didn’t say a word, but handed her the sheet of paper and mumbled something about needing to sit down. Concerned, she took the paper and looked down.
It was very similar to the last certificate Knox had been sent. Except this one had more than “Baby girl” listed as the name.
“This can’t be right,” she said, turning it over as if expecting to find an explanation on the other side.
“It looks pretty official to me.”
It did to her as well, which was even more concerning. She ran her finger over the raised seal. “How is this even possible? Wouldn’t you have found out before now?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “But unless she’s lying and that’s a fake, our sister is very much alive.”
“And I think in a whole lot of danger as well.”
“Damnit. Why didn’t she tell us? Why all the secrecy? It doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense.”
Bea didn’t know how to answer any of his questions. He probably wasn’t looking for her to respond anyway. Right now he was in shock. And with good reason. Besides, how could she answer any of his questions when she had ten thousand of her own? Not the least of which was what they were going to do with this information.
Without waiting for her to say anything, he took his phone out of his pocket and dialed someone.
“Kipling,” he said. “We have a problem. I need you to pull every string you have, turn over every rock, call in every favor.” He took a deep breath as his brother replied. “It’s urgent. It’s about our sister. She’s alive. And it’s Jade.”
WANT MORE SONS OF BROAD?
Read on for the second novella in this swoon-worthy series
HIDDEN FATE
CHAPTER 1
Brent Taylor considered himself an easygoing man. However, he knew that if he could get his hands on whoever sent his girlfriend roses, he’d rip them from limb to limb. It wasn’t that he was overly possessive. Though the thought of anybody other than himself sending Janie Roberts flowers would upset him, it was the note attached to the flowers currently sitting on her dining room table that had the potential to send him into a murderous rage. The note that indicated her life was in danger.
“I should call this in.” Janie looked at him, her face was pale, but there was a firm resolve in her voice. Her gaze shifted to the note she’d put on the table.
Rose are red.
Violets are blue.
These roses will die.
Just like you.
“Is this in relation to the case you were working?” Brent’s half sister, Bea Jacobs, asked.
Janie had asked Brent to bring Bea to dinner. This was the first time both women were meeting.
“I can’t imagine it not being about the case I was working,” Janie said. “But why now? I’ve been fired.”
She’d been fired because she had been dating him. The unsolved mystery of kidnapped women had escalated into a murder a few weeks ago. Janie had been working as an undercover bartender at the club where several of the women had worked. That’s where Brent had met her.
He’d been considered a suspect at the time and her boss had put her on administrative leave after finding out they were involved. Brent had actually been cleared by then, thanks to DNA evidence. Skin scrapings from underneath the fingernails of the victim were believed to be from the killer and had not matched to Brent. But Janie, being Janie, had not been able to leave the case alone and was fired when her boss caught he
r investigating in the club.
“It could be several reasons.” Brent walked over and sat beside her, putting his arm around her as he answered her question. “He may think that you’re more vulnerable now. Or he may think you know something.”
“How could I know something?” She was trembling, which only made him more upset. “Alyssa and I don’t even talk about the case anymore.”
Alyssa Adams was her best friend and work colleague. According to Janie, she had recently been placed on the case.
“I don’t know. And whoever is doing this isn’t going to know what you and Alyssa talk about.” Brent said. “Either way, I was just thinking out loud.”
Janie nodded. “I’m going to call Alyssa.”
* * *
Janie walked to the far end of the room. If Brent had to guess, she was working hard to get her anger under control. Bea raised an eyebrow.
“Not quite what we had in mind for dinner.” Brent scratched his head. “I suppose they’ll have to fingerprint us. We all touched the box.”
“A small price to pay to find who’s doing this.” Bea was watching Janie with careful eyes. His sister was a lawyer, and she didn’t miss much. “You’re not going to let her stay here by yourself, are you?”
No, he didn’t want to. He wanted her to come back to his house and stay with him. But he knew Janie was very hardheaded, and as a cop, she often felt herself above protection. Yep, she would argue with him.
He looked up as she walked over to them.
“They’re on their way. She’s off duty and was having dinner with Mac. He’s coming, too.”
Brent had met Alyssa before, but he’d never met her boyfriend. According to Janie, Mac was a good guy, and had proposed to Alyssa repeatedly. Janie had joked that Alyssa had an aversion to wedding gowns, and that’s why she wasn’t accepting his proposal. Alyssa just told her she wasn’t ready yet, but Janie was starting to think more and more that there was something with Mac. But then as soon as she thought that, she’d change her mind. She had no proof and had never witnessed anything strange about him.
“Janie,” Brent said. “Want to pack a bag and stay with me tonight?” She didn’t say anything, but he could see the struggle on her face. The tough cop who wanted to prove she was fine and the scared woman who’d just had her life threatened and only wanted to be held.