by Mary Calmes
When Sam joined the US Marshals, nothing changed; they all still saw each other constantly. So it made sense when I was freaking out to turn to Pat or Chaz. Since Chaz was before Pat in my phone, he was the one who got woken up.
He answered on the fifth ring. “Whoever the fuck this is, it’s two the fuck o’clock in the morning here, just so you fuckin’ know.”
“Sam’s missing,” I said instead of hello.
“Jory?” he said and sounded a little clearer, less gravelly, even that fast.
“I can’t find him and I’m freaking out. He was supposed to come see me, but he also came here tracking a witness, and maybe that witness—”
“Where are you?”
“I’m in Arizona.”
“No, I know that. I mean are you at the hotel or somewhere else?”
“I’m at the hotel, but how did you know Sam and I were in Arizona?”
“Because friends fuckin’ talk, Jory, how the fuck ya think?”
All three of them swore too much, that’s what I thought.
“So you’re at the hotel and Sam’s missing.”
“Yes.”
“How long has he been gone?”
“Three hours.”
“And no word from him?”
“No word.”
“Shit,” he groaned, and his concern sent a surge of gratitude through me. Chaz and Pat knew Sam Kage just like I did. They knew that him being gone without telling anyone where he was going, if he was not specifically undercover, was cause for concern. There was no second-guessing; Chaz was simply right there with me, taking the situation seriously. I would have gushed at him, but I knew, to him, it was unnecessary. It simply was.
“Okay, J, stay on the line,” he ordered me before he was gone.
I took the time to text Dane that I needed him to come to Phoenix to pick up the kids. As soon as he woke up and read the message, I was sure I would be getting a call.
“Jory,” Milton began, sliding his arm around my shoulder, trying to offer me comfort. It wasn’t what I needed.
“J?”
“Chaz,” I said, shrugging off Milton’s arm as I walked a few feet away from him.
“Okay, so the ping off his phone tells us that his last location was at some place called The Ram, west of Scottsdale where you are, close to Peoria. I punched up the club, and it looks like it has drugs and a whole lot of other shit running through it. Do not go there alone.”
“Okay.”
“I repeat. Do not go there alone. Wait for me and Pat, we’ll be there by—”
“We both know I’m going there like right now.”
There was a long-drawn-out sigh. “Yeah, I figured,” he grumbled.
“So there’s a guy I know from our department who’s on vacation out there, and Pat called him, and he’s gonna pick you up at your hotel and drive you there.”
“Who?”
“Duncan Stiel. You remember ever meeting him?”
Vaguely. “I dunno.”
“Listen, just….” He took a breath. “Don’t go anywhere without him, all right?”
“What is he doing here?” I asked as I started for the front of the hotel. I needed to be where Duncan Stiel could easily find me.
“He’s been on vacation. First he was in California for a while, and now he’s driving back to Chicago, taking the scenic route home.
Sam had called Duncan already about backing him up if he needed help while he was there.”
“He did?”
“Course. You know Sam. When have you ever seen him not prepared?”
And it was true, but God, did the man need to learn how to communicate! “Okay.”
“So he’ll be there soon, but I need you to wait for him, you understand?”
“And you’re still coming? You and Pat?”
“Yeah, we’ll be there. Pat is seeing what flight we can get on, but just listen to Duncan, all right? He’s a good guy, and he’ll take care of you.”
“Okay.”
He cleared his throat. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to just stay at your hotel and let Duncan take care of this.”
“Yeah, no.”
“Shit. I knew I shouldn’t have told you the name of the club, but Pat said that if we kept it from you and you ever found out—”
“I’d sic both your wives on you,” I told him seriously.
“Yeah, I know, and that’s what he said.”
There were big-time perks to having such close friends.
“Okay, so Duncan will be there shortly. Listen to him, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I agreed quickly. “But how will I know him?”
“He’s as big as Sam, blond hair—no, wait, maybe it’s brown, I’ve never really noticed. He’s got gray eyes, I think, but ya know—most important he’s big, right?”
“Got it.”
“Do not—”
“Go without him, yeah, I heard you the first time.”
“Good.”
“You know Sam won’t—”
“Anything happens to you on my watch and Sam Kage will put his foot up my ass, so let’s not debate what he will and will not do. Just wait for fuckin’ Stiel, all right?”
“I promise.”
He took a breath, and I told him I’d see him soon and hung up.
I was outside waiting when Milton found me.
“Jory, where—”
“I’m going to get Sam,” I told him.
“Yeah, but who’s with your kids?”
“Regina,” I told him. “I asked her to go to the room and relieve Rachel’s kids of their babysitting duty.”
“So where are you going?”
I explained about where Sam’s phone was and that it was the best lead I had.
“Jesus, who are you, James Bond?”
“Hardly.” I smiled at him.
“But you’re so calm about this. I mean, he could be in real trouble, right?”
“Yes.”
He gestured at me. “And you’re going to do what?”
“Get him out of whatever he’s in.”
“Yeah, but—”
The car horn startled us both—stunned, more like it.
There, in a Jeep Wrangler that had just pulled up, was Sam.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he roared at me as he got out of the car and came charging across the driveway.
“Me?” I yelled back. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Goddamn, Jory, what the hell are you doing out here?” He was seething, he was loud, and his body language was murderous. He scared the crap out of poor Milton, who scurried backward.
I just put my hands on my hips, planted my feet, and held my ground. When he reached me, I had to tilt my head all the way back to meet his glare. “You better fuckin’ call everybody, because I scrambled the damn Marines,” I announced angrily, my own volume nothing to scoff at.
“Who the fuck did you call?”
“I called everybody, Sam! I was this close to getting ahold of your FBI buddy Agent Calhoun, even though I fuckin’ hate him. But Duncan Stiel is supposed to be meeting me here in—”
“Duncan? How the fuck do you know about—”
“Because I called Chaz and he called Pat and Pat called him!”
“Jory, do the words ‘secret meeting’ mean—”
“You were supposed to meet me for drinks!”
“I know that! That’s why I sent you a text when I—”
“I got no text, Sam! I got shit!”
He pulled his phone from his back pocket as mine started ringing.
“Fuck,” I swore when I answered it, turning away from Sam.
“I’m sorry. Never mind.”
“You’re sorry?” my brother Dane rasped at me. “Never mind?”
“No, I—”
“You will be at the hotel when I arrive.”
“No, Dane, you don’t have to—”
“I will hear about whatever you have gotten yourself into then.”
He hung up, and when I tried him back, he didn’t answer.
“Fuck!” I yelled.
“Jory!”
I whirled on Sam, and his scowl could have peeled paint off the walls.
“So I sent the text to the house,” he said matter-of-factly and not sounding repentant even one bit.
“And then you put your phone on silent.” I smirked at him.
“Yes,” he said through gritted teeth.
I growled at him.
“Okay, so I’m a dick and I messed up, but—”
“Tell it to Duncan. He’s on his way.”
“Shit,” he groaned, taking a step toward me.
I took one back. “You better take a fucking shower because you smell like really gross perfume and cigarette smoke, and you have lipstick on your jaw.”
He let his head loll back on his shoulders in the “Lord, give me strength” posture that I really hated.
“That’s bullshit, Sam!” I railed at him. “You scared the shit out of me, and you know better, and you were obviously not very concerned that I was worried, or you would have done a better job communicating with me!”
“You should trust me to take care of myself,” he thundered. “I’ve been taking care of myself a whole helluva lot longer than you’ve been taking care of me!”
I could feel my face get hot, felt a tremble run through me. “Is that so?”
“Yeah,” he said flatly. “Between the two of us, J, I am so not the one who needs saving. You get in more trouble than ten people combined!”
I was nodding fast, so pissed but just letting him get it all out, vent.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get everyone to stand down from the clusterfuck that you created.”
I pivoted and stalked back into the lobby.
“Jory!” Milton called my name as he ran to catch up with me and joined me in the elevator.
I was silent as we rode up together.
“Are you okay?”
“I will be,” I assured him.
“I guess being married to a marshal can be hard sometimes, huh?”
Yes, it could.
I RELIEVED Regina, sent her back to her room, and watched her from my door until she went inside and I heard the door lock behind her. I bothered only with taking off my shoes before I crawled into bed between Kola and Hannah, who were as usual, sleeping together. I needed to calm down before I did anything else, but at the moment I thought I would lie there all night, fuming.
The anger didn’t last; I was much too relieved. The man had reappeared, unscathed, and I was so very thankful. Not that he wasn’t in trouble. He’d texted the wrong phone after all and not even bothered to check, but… he’d tried to do the right thing. His intention had been good. Of course I was still going to rip him a new one, especially because the display downstairs hadn’t been fair, but I could possibly let him live until the morning.
Maybe.
I let out a deep breath, releasing the last of the tension, until I saw something move on the balcony.
Shadows didn’t shift without cause. There was no wind, and it was a cloudless night, so there was really only one conclusion to draw.
With my kids on either side of me, I was suddenly freezing, my whole body flushed with cold. I had never been so terrified in my whole life.
Fear for my children was like nothing I had ever imagined.
Slowly, carefully, I muted the phone so the buttons would make no sound, keeping it tilted so the light would not be a dead giveaway, and then sent Sam the 911 call for help—or for us, what translated to it.
I texted his name to him and then put down my phone and tried to breathe.
Trying to think of what I would do, I narrowed my eyes even as I heard the glass door open and saw a man step inside the room.
“I know you’re not asleep, Mr. Harcourt.”
I didn’t move.
“Please don’t make me hurt your—”
“Freeze!” Sam yelled as he kicked the door open and charged into the room.
It was so fast. Kola and Hannah both screamed as they were woken up and saw the man aim his gun at us in the light that had spilled in from the outer room with Sam.
Everything happened at once. I grabbed both kids and shoved their faces against my chest so neither of them saw their father fire the gun. The sound of the shot was loud in the small room, but it was instantaneous and followed by silence. My children’s crying lasted longer, but I was thankful that they needed comfort, needed me, because if they didn’t, if I had been allowed even a moment to think—I would have come apart myself.
SAM gave Duncan’s gun back to him when he joined Sam over the dead man. I had taken the kids into our room, put them under the covers after they both went to the bathroom, and was thankful when they dropped off after Sam came in and kissed them good night. We shared a look, and then he left to join Duncan. I had left the kids and was back in the living room of the suite when I heard another gunshot.
“Sorry,” Duncan said as he came in from the kids’ room where the dead man was.
I went back to look in on the kids in our room, to make sure that they had not been roused from sleep for the second time that night and was thankful when I opened the door to find them both still passed out.
Returning again to the living room, I found Sam there with Duncan.
“What’s going on?” I asked both men.
“I needed to have gun residue on my hands,” he told me, replacing the weapon that Sam had used in the holster under his leather jacket. “Ah, shit.”
“What?” Sam asked.
“I need to go back to my car and get another bullet for this gun, and you need to call this in while I’m gone.”
Sam nodded. “They’ll take that off you. You got a spare?”
“Oh sure, I have two. You want one?”
“Yeah, I better,” Sam told him. “Where did you discharge the gun?”
“In the tree,” Duncan told him. “They won’t be looking, since I’m taking responsibility, but I gotta go get the bullet.”
“Lucky the walls are nice and thick in here.”
“Yeah, it’s a nice hotel you’ve brought your bullshit to, Kage.”
Sam flipped him off as Duncan left quickly.
When we were alone, Sam turned to me. “You did very well.”
I was silent.
“You protected the kids, and you didn’t get yourself hurt in the process.”
My eyes went down to my socked feet.
“I was mad, I was pissed, you scared the fuck out of me because you would have been eaten alive if you stepped foot in that damn bar.
You can’t be the one riding to my rescue, J. You have to depend on other people now. You have kids.”
“So do you,” I breathed out.
He stepped in close to me, and his hands went to my face, gently, tenderly, and when he lifted my head so I would look at him, I saw how scared he was.
“Sam?”
He took a shaky breath as my hands closed over his wrists. “I didn’t think I’d get here in time. I thought… and you and Kola and Hannah….” He squinted, but I saw how red his eyes suddenly were. “I can’t lose any of you, it would kill me. Just… I’d be done.”
“I feel the same about you.”
I was grabbed so tight, crushed against the mountain of muscle that was Sam Kage. He didn’t even let me go when he called the police.
Sam held my hand when Duncan came back, and I met him again.
He was tall, the same six four that Sam was, and built with a similarly powerful physique, but whereas Sam moved fluidly, Duncan Stiel moved like a bull. I remembered him once I was looking at the short dark-blond hair and dark-gray eyes. They were not Dane’s gray, not charcoal and flecked with silver, but more gunmetal, and ringed in black. We had met once, before Sam had left the Chicago PD.
Duncan, it turned out, was gay as well. You could have knocked me over with a feather when Sam whispered that new
s as I watched Duncan hand over his gun to the Scottsdale PD. They were all over the hotel room and in the hall, but since it was close to one in the morning, there weren’t many people out there anyway.
As I stood beside Sam—he was still holding my hand—he quietly related Duncan’s story to me. It was a sad one, about how he couldn’t come out, not at work, not to his family, how his last relationship with an English professor had ended because Duncan was in the closet, and how he was currently cruising bars and picking up one-night stands. I felt bad for him, but by the same token, Sam Kage had come out to everyone he knew, both personally and professionally. It had been hard for him, and friends had been lost along the way, but for him, it was all he could do. Sam was not the kind of man who lived closeted for anyone, and the fact that Duncan was made me respect him less. But as Sam quietly cautioned me, I had no right to judge Duncan Stiel. Never had I been in either his or Sam’s situation.
I nodded as Sam’s hand closed around the back of my neck. “Go check on the kids. We’ll have detectives here when you get back.”
After quietly opening the door and closing it, I found my two little people snuggled under the blankets together in our bed. It was cute how both Hannah’s arms were wrapped around her brother’s one.
He didn’t seem to mind, as his chin was resting on top of her head.
I had checked the room once already but did it again just because I had seen way too many horror movies in my life. The closet was empty but for clothes, I had locked the balcony door and wedged a chair against it for good measure. The only way in or out was the door I had just come through. They were safe, and I had even checked the ceiling and the bathroom for ninjas. You never knew.
When I returned, my living room was, in fact, now filled with detectives in suits as well as the uniformed officers who had been there when I left. I was immediately asked if I could answer questions.
So I stood there and lied, explaining how Detective Stiel had kicked the door down, yelled out for the man to freeze, and when he didn’t, he had fired and killed the intruder.
It all made perfect sense.
The police detectives—there were too many to even consider remembering names—liked that my story matched Sam’s and Sam’s version matched Duncan’s. It was ruled a robbery attempt gone wrong, as there could be no other reason for the break-in. Sam had no open cases, and he and Detective Stiel were just catching up, having drinks together away from the hotel, when they had returned and then come running after I had texted Sam. There were no holes, and until they found out the identity of the man, there was nothing to go on.