A Reason To Live (Reason #3)

by CP Smith

  Heller had found me.

  I bit down hard on his hand.

  “It’s me,” Shane hissed in my ear as I kicked back, aiming for his balls.

  I froze in relief.

  Then I got angry.

  “It was you in the trees, wasn’t it?” I shouted, struggling to break free. “You were trying to scare us on purpose.”

  “Tryin’ to teach you a lesson is more like it.”

  I froze again.

  They knew we were here, which meant he knew at the restaurant. Jenn was right; he was testing me to see if I’d break.

  “You were trying to kiss a confession out of me, weren’t you?”

  He didn’t answer.

  Grrr.

  “I suppose all that talk about hearing my heart beating from across the room was just a lie to get me to confess.”

  Shane grew rigid and his hold on me tightened, then he put his mouth to my ear and hissed, “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what? Don’t point out you whispered sweet nothings in my ear in an attempt to weaken my defenses?”

  “Don’t throw my words back in my face just to get out of trouble. You know I fuckin’ meant every word.”

  Shit.

  Guilty.

  “You’re right . . . I’m sorry.”

  “I know you are. I also know you changed your mind after you got here and wanted to call me.”

  “How did you—Oh. My. God. You were listening to the radio weren’t you?”

  “Yeah. And for your information, owls don’t foreshadow shit. You don’t need to worry about Heller. Not as long as I’m alive. No force in this world can stop me from protectin’ you from him.”

  I spun in his arms and plastered my body to his, taking comfort in his warmth. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

  Shane’s armed tightened and he whispered, “Not as sorry as you’re gonna be when I get you home.”

  I shuddered and he chuckled low, the rumble causing my nipples to tingle.

  I had it bad for this man.

  “Hello? Anyone out there? A clumsy woman in a hole here.”

  Jack and Max emerged from the darkness carrying a baseball bat and lantern and looked down into the grave.

  Max crossed his arms and shook his head. “Baby, we’ve got to get you another source of light.”

  “Max,” she gasped, “How the heck did you find us?”

  “It’s my job to know where the hell you are so I can save you from yourself.”

  If Maxine had been standing here, she would have mhm’d like a fool.

  Shane released me and grabbed my hand, pulling me forward so we could see what was creating the colorful glow.

  “Is that a glowing cock?” Jack asked.

  I leaned in and found Mia was indeed holding a multi-colored vibrator. She held it aloft as it buzzed in her hand.

  “It’s not as bright as the green willie,” Max pointed out.

  Jack’s head jerked back and he turned to Max. “I’m not sure I want to know why you know this.”

  “Hey, don’t knock glowing vibrators until you’ve tried them. They make an excellent light source in case of emergencies,” Mia called out. “Now get me out of this hole.”

  Max bent and put out his hand. Mia grabbed hold and he pulled her out. Then he crossed his arms again and glared at her.

  Light broke through the darkness, the beam bobbing and weaving as Jenn and Maxine made their way toward us.

  Jenn came to a halt and mumbled, “Shit,” when she saw Jack. “Fancy meeting you here.” She tried for coy, but Jack held up his hand, silencing her.

  “I got no patience for cute right now.”

  “Sorry,” she answered contritely.

  His face grew tighter at her answer and he narrowed his eyes. “What’d I say about saying sorry?”

  Jenn rolled her lips between her teeth for a moment, then she grinned.

  “Well, that was a bust,” Maxine complained, looking into the open grave. “I had my heart set on findin’ a ghost.”

  “Not exactly,” I answered. “The guy who was just here with the shovel and ladder, he was digging up this grave. I think he’s a grave robber.”

  Jenn immediately turned to me. “Grave robber? That could be an even bigger story than—”

  “Not in this lifetime,” Jack vowed. “You are not hangin’ out in old cemeteries waiting for some unknown man to show up.”

  “But, Jack, this could be . . .” she stopped mid-sentence and looked at Maxine. Maxine raised a brow. “All right,” she sighed. “I’ll let you handle this. Would you mind giving me an exclusive when you’re done investigating, though?”

  Jack looked back and forth between Maxine and Jenn. “Just like that?”

  His tone said he didn’t believe her in the least.

  Jenn nodded.

  “All right, what’s the catch?”

  Jenn shrugged. “No catch. You don’t want me hanging out in a cemetery because you would worry, so I won’t.”

  He narrowed his eyes further then walked over and grabbed hold of her hand and kept right on walking, mumbling, “The day you give in is the day hell freezes over.”

  Shane and Max both grunted in agreement.

  Hearing that, Mia turned to Max and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m sorry we lied to you about what we were doing tonight. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

  Both brows shot up on his face.

  “What did you do?”

  “What do you mean?’

  “You’re up to something.”

  “Max, honestly, I’m not up to anything.”

  He looked at his mother then back at Mia. Concern etched on his face.

  “I’ll get it out of you when we get home,” he vowed, then picked her up and started heading toward the Jeep. Maxine followed with an enormous grin on her face.

  When I took a step in the same direction, Shane grabbed my hand and tugged me back against his chest. He trailed his lips down the side of my neck, his teeth grazing the skin. “Are you gonna promise me you won’t get into any more trouble?”

  “Would you believe me if I said yes?”

  “Not any more than Jack or Max.”

  I was a little incensed since we hadn’t been a couple long enough for him to have this opinion of me.

  “I don’t exactly have a proven track record of causing trouble. I think it’s unfair for you to judge me on one night out.”

  At my protest, Shane bent at the waist and threw me over his shoulder. “You’re livin’ in Trails End permanently when we get home, which means you’ll be hangin’ out with Mia. That’s all I need to know,” he answered with a sharp whack to my ass. I sucked in a deep breath at the burn and tried to hold back a groan.

  I wasn’t successful.

  Shane stopped dead in his tracks. “Jesus, are you turned on?”

  “Maybe,” I replied in a breathless, not-fooling-anyone voice.

  “Fuck . . .”

  Shane picked up his pace and my body hummed with anticipation.

  I thought we were heading home, which meant we’d be alone. When we reached the parking lot, Jack had Jenn pinned against her driver’s door while Max pinned Mia to the passenger side.

  “Let’s roll,” Shane barked out, lowering me to my feet.

  “Wait, you’re leaving me here?”

  Shane grabbed my neck and slammed his mouth over mine. The kiss was quick but wet.

  “Jack’s still on duty,” he mumbled against my lips, “and I need to leave before I take you against a headstone.”

  I giggled, “Eww,” and shoved him back.

  Shane grabbed my waist and pulled me back to him, grinning. “You’d only think eww until my hand found your ass.”

  “Arrogant,” I scoffed.

  “Accurate,” he smirked. “Get in the Jeep before I leave.” He opened the back door and I climbed in.

  “Bossy too,” I mumbled.

  Leaning in, Shane kissed me one last time, murmuring, “Y
ou love that about me.”

  I scoffed, snorted, and rolled my eyes.

  He winked, then pulled the seatbelt across my lap and buckled me in.

  “Be good.” The words were said in a whisper, a caress against my ear as his finger traced the side of my neck.

  My nipples tingled again.

  “I will,” I breathed out.

  “That’s my girl,” he purred smooth as honey and just as sweet.

  I sighed like a schoolgirl. Every time he said, that’s my girl, I grew giddy.

  Totally putty in his hands!

  Jenn and the others climbed in after Shane shut my door, grinning like fools.

  “Did you see Jack’s face when I said I wouldn’t investigate if he didn’t want me to?” Jenn laughed as she started the Jeep and pulled out.

  “You missed Max’s reaction. He didn’t believe me for a second.”

  Laughter rang out at a deafening level as Jenn turned left toward town and Jack turned right, heading further into the mountains.

  “You need to remember to keep them on their toes, though. Mix it up a bit. Give in from time to time and stand your ground on others. They fell in love with your independence, so don’t lose that. In the end, you’ll be the one with all the power and they won’t even know it. Be strong women. Fight for your rights. However, do it with the understanding you’re married to men who are fiercely protective and deserve to be respected for who they are as much as you deserve respect. It’s a balance between independence and loyalty, to both your rights as women and your promise to partner with them as their wives,” Maxine advised.

  “I agree,” Mia said, wiggling her brows. “And keeping Max off balance has its own rewards.”

  “It worked like a charm with my Tom,” Maxine exclaimed.

  The radio crackled to life and Jack’s voice filled the cab. “Straight home, sweetness.”

  “Jeez, we haven’t been out of their presence five minutes,” Mia said, shaking her head.

  Jenn giggled, “Yes, sir, sheriff,” as she picked up the radio and hit talk. “What’ll you do if I don’t?” she asked. She was waiting for a reply when headlights blinded us from behind.

  I turned in my seat and looked out that back window.

  “Is that Jack?”

  ***

  Bitter coffee sat like lead in Agent Dane Parker’s gut. After a six-hour flight, he’d been holed up for the past three hours in an Anchorage PD interrogation room with his team, scanning printouts of airline passenger lists. When they were done, they had hours of security footage to watch. His gut told him if Heller escaped Alaska, it would be by sea or air. He was looking for a needle in a haystack. One who didn’t want to be found.

  Experience told him Heller would use a name he was familiar with. A variation of both parents usually tripped up felons on the run, but in Heller’s case, he shared his father’s first name. Parker figured after years in law enforcement, Heller wouldn’t be that stupid. So he’d scanned Heller’s file, dug deep looking for names he might use, then made a list of possible variables. His team each had a copy of the files and they were ass deep in printouts and bad coffee, their night looming ahead of them.

  “I’m too old for this shit,” Agent John Trask, a veteran agent who was close to retirement, sighed. “I need to get my eyes checked. These names are all running together.”

  “There are worse things in life than needing glasses,” Agent Juan Cortez replied.

  “Cancer?” Agent Erin Johnson asked.

  Cortez wiggled his eyebrows at the only female agent on Parker’s team. He was half Latino on his mother’s side and played the Latin lover card to the hilt. Johnson seemed immune, though. Parker knew it was because her tastes ran towards him.

  They’d had a brief relationship, centered around sex, before she joined his team. Parker had ended it six months prior to her applying because he knew it wouldn’t go anywhere, but he caught her looking at him often, desire written across her face. She was on a trial basis because of this. He wouldn’t commit to her being permanent until she proved to him their past relationship wouldn’t affect her job. So far, she was failing miserably, but he needed an IT expert, and no others were chomping at the bit to be on his team. Flying out at a moment’s notice, missing holidays and birthdays with family, didn’t appeal to most in IT. They preferred working in the comfort of Quantico.

  “Erectile dysfunction,” Cortez grinned.

  “Is that all you think about,” Trask grunted.

  “The question isn’t, is that all I think about,” Cortez mocked, “it’s why isn’t it all you think about, old man.”

  “Head back in the printouts,” Parker admonished, not looking up from his sheet.

  “How’d you meet Gunnison?” Cortez asked, ignoring Parker’s order. “You said he was a friend, but you didn’t say how you met.”

  “He had a serial killer on the loose a few years back. His contact was Agent Rowe, but he was on assignment when it all came to a head. I flew in a month later to follow up and stayed with him and his now wife.”

  “And he still calls you friend?”

  Parker grinned.

  “I wasn’t stupid enough to flirt with his wife. The man has a possessive streak a mile wide.”

  “So does Vaughn, but that didn’t stop you from flirting with the romance author.”

  “Dallas is less likely to shoot me,” Parker mumbled, flipping the page, still scanning names. “Jack, on the other hand, doesn’t hold me in high esteem for saving his woman, and he has an itchy trigger finger when it comes—”

  Parker paused on a name.

  Eric Sloan. Age fifty-three.

  “Do we have a list of Sage Sloan’s family members?”

  “You got something?” Trask asked.

  “Maybe.”

  Johnson reached over his shoulder, her breast brushing against his arm as she went, and grabbed the Sloan file.

  Parker clenched his jaw.

  He’d have to have a word with her in private. Three more months was all he was giving her to control herself, or she was gone.

  “Mother, one Judith Heller. Her sister is Emma Jane Sloan, but she’s deceased. There’s a Sharon Doak in Anchorage, her Aunt. Husbands name is Henry.”

  “What about her father?”

  Johnson flipped through the file.

  “No mention.”

  “Do we have a number for the mother?”

  Johnson scanned the file and found the contact information for Sage’s mother. Parker pulled out his cell and dialed, it went to voice mail so he left a message.

  His gut told him he didn’t have time to wait. A sixth sense had kept him safe the past ten years with the Bureau and he wouldn’t ignore it now.

  Turning to Johnson, he ordered, “Do your thing. Fire up your computer and get me Sloan’s father’s name.” Then he turned to Cortez. “Call the airlines and find out where this passenger headed after arriving in the US.”

  He highlighted Eric Sloan’s name and tossed the sheet to Cortez.

  Standing, Parker grabbed his mug and moved to the coffee pot. After pouring another bitter cup, he decided sugar and creamer might help the bite. As he stirred, Johnson barked out, “Got it. One Eric Sloan died nineteen ninety-six. Car accident. He was ejected from the car. Is it a match?” she asked, looking up from her computer.

  Parker nodded. The son of a bitch had assumed his wife’s dead husband’s identity.

  “You’re sure?” Cortez bit out, his attention shooting to Parker. “Roger that,” he called off. “Eric Sloan arrived in Seattle at eight this morning. He then took a flight from Seattle to Denver International. He arrived at eleven.”

  Parker pulled out his phone, every cell in his body on high alert. “He was on the ground in Colorado as we left the state. This bastard’s had all day to get into position.”

  “FPD has to have a leak. How else would he know where they went?” Trask stated as Parker listened to Jack’s voice mail greeting.

  “J
ack’s not picking up; he must be busy.”

  “Or Heller’s got him occupied,” Johnson replied grimly.

  Grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair, Parker ordered, “Wheels up in twenty. Trask, find out who’s in Denver and send them to Gunnison. Tell them we’re en route. Cortez, call the station in Gunnison and see if they can find Jack. Tell them to send a squad to his house.”

  The room was a flurry of activity as each agent gathered their belongings and made the necessary calls.

  This was the kind of situation that they were trained for, maybe even lived for. But in this instance, Parker only cared that his friend wasn’t picking up his phone.

  Thirteen

  Reckoning Day

  “Are you trying to blind me?” Jenn asked through the radio.

  Shane’s brows pulled into a sharp line and he looked at Jack and saw the same confusion on his face.

  “What do you mean ‘tryin’ to blind you?’”

  “Turn off your brights, Jack, they’re making it hard to see,” Jenn bit out.

  “Baby, is someone behind you?”

  There was a pause on the connection, then the radio jumped to life again. “You’re not behind me?” she asked.

  Jack punched the brakes hard, sending the back end fishtailing, then he executed a U-turn and gunned the engine.

  “I want you to head straight into town. Do not slow down for this person. No matter what they do.”

  “Jack,” she sounded rattled, “do you think it’s—”

  The report of gunfire stopped her mid-sentence and the sound of four women’s screams echoed through the radio. Raw fear shot through Shane and he roared, “Sonofabitch!”

  “Jenn? Baby, answer me!” Jack shouted as he flew down the road.

  Nothing.

  He pushed the pedal to the floor.

  The radio crackled again and Mia could be heard shrieking, “Don’t you die on me!”

  “JENN! Answer me right fuckin’ now!” Jack thundered.

  Shane’s blood froze and he stopped breathing.

  If he needed any more evidence of his feelings for Sage, he had it. The crushing thought Heller’s bullet had found its mark caused a knot to form in his chest that would have debilitated him in a firefight

  Reaching out, Shane grabbed hold of the radio and swallowed hard, “Mia . . . tell me who’s been shot?”