by Reina Torres
A moment later the air conditioning in the car was on full blast.
A lump swelled in his throat, making it hard to breathe. Still, he managed to get a word out. “Windows.”
The windows went down. All four. He could hear the whir of the machinery in the doors and the windows were open.
Blyss started to move her hand and he tensed.
He wanted to bring his free hand down on hers and keep her hand on him, but he didn’t want to hurt her. He’d done enough of that with his words. He knew exactly how strong he was. And even though Blyss was a strong woman herself, he could easily bruise her skin, or cause her pain.
Her hand never left his arm, but instead of her palm on his forearm, he felt it on his wrist. Her fingers curled around him, but loose enough that he could pull free whenever he wanted.
Even though it was the last thing he wanted.
Turning slightly in the seat, he looked at Blyss and saw the open concern in her eyes. It was better than the anger, or the distrust he’d seen so recently. Those slayed him.
Flayed him open.
Just like Chauncy had almost done to him during the demonstration.
And he got what she’d seen.
Reckless behavior. It wouldn’t matter to her that he’d been distracted because she looked so damn good standing there close by. In fact, it would probably make her mad.
Or she’d see it as a reason to stay away from him.
He understood.
How could he not?
When he’d come home from the Army, retired from his unit in the Rangers, he hadn’t known what to expect from Blyss’ life.
No, that was a lie.
He’d told himself that by the time he got home Blyss would be married with a car full of gorgeous babies.
He’d have to shake the hand of her husband and congratulate him.
And secretly wish it had been him all along.
But that hadn’t been the case. He’d come home to find Blyss working as a Game Warden, devoting herself to the community. No babies. No ridiculously amazing husband.
That wasn’t going to last forever. She was a beautiful woman and more importantly, she had a beautiful soul.
She was too good for him by far.
Too good to be sucked into the mess that he’d become.
Even though he wasn’t good enough for her.
Even though he couldn’t have her for himself, he couldn’t just walk away from her entirely. She was already close to his family, and he wanted to be something to her. So, he could be her friend. Would that be enough?
Owen met her curious gaze with his own hesitant one.
“If I promise to keep my hands safely inside the car,” he offered her a tentative smile, “can I take you out to eat?”
That earned him a raised eyebrow and a quirky smile. “You think food’s going to make it better?”
“Food and drinks? Beer?”
She set a hand on the steering wheel and laughed. “I’m driving.”
“I could drive,” he felt the tightness in his chest ease, “I’m a good driver.”
Blyss narrowed her eyes at him. “You could be a Stunt Driver for the movies, but this is my baby. And the only one putting hands on this steering wheel is me.”
He was one heartbeat away from telling her exactly where he wanted her hands and managed to reel it in out of the need for self-preservation. Rather, preserving this lighter mood between them.
“Okay then. You drive, and I’ll owe you the bottle of wine of your choice for another night in the future.”
She looked him over and it was his turn to feel she was sizing him up. Finally, she smiled and shook her head with a tentative laugh. “You must really want to go out to eat to push this so hard. Where are we headed?”
Sitting up in his seat, he racked his brain for a good place to relax and came up empty. “You choose.”
“Wow, leaving it up to me?” Blyss turned to face the wheel and buckled herself in. “What if you don’t like where I take you?”
“You won’t find me complaining about it.”
Blyss pulled out of the parking space and made her way out onto the main road, merging as carefully as he expected from his old friend. Once they were on the road, she cast a look along her shoulder at him.
When she smiled, he did too, and felt a warmth spread through him.
“I’m glad we’re doing this,” she told him. “I want to make sure we stay friends, Owen. You’re my oldest friend, and I want to make sure we don’t mess it up.”
It was a struggle to keep the smile on his face.
Friend-zoned.
Just perfect.
He couldn’t help but feel like it was all his fault anyway.
He’d been a mess since he left the Army, so maybe it was for the best. Blyss didn’t need him hanging around her neck like an albatross.
They slowed to a stop at a stop sign and while Blyss leaned forward to look down both sides of the road, he had a moment to just sit back and stare.
Blyss may have relegated him to the friend zone, but it wouldn’t stop him from wishing he could be the one to make her happy as more.
Maybe this was his chance.
Chapter 3
The basic rule that Blyss had always stood by was patience and respect when she spoke to people on the job. A lot of times, patience was the harder of the two. When some people are caught doing something wrong, they will acknowledge it and realize that it was their own actions which brought them negative attention. And in Blyss’ line of work, that usually meant a ticket or sometimes a warning. The Game Wardens had the ability to use their discretion at those times. If they felt a warning suited the situation, they could hold off on a ticket.
Then again, if she had already spoken to the person before or if they showed no remorse… then a ticket was the appropriate response.
And really, she never knew what to expect. In Texas, it was always a toss-up. She would walk up to a sweet ol’ grandma hunting dove, and the moment she told her the shotgun wasn’t legal because it was missing the necessary plug, that sweet granny could turn into a hissing tabby cat spouting foul words and curses on her ancestors.
Or a man scowling out at the sea, hunched over as he sat on his cooler could turn his head in her direction and say ‘please, ma’am’ and ‘sorry, ma’am’ and offer her a bottle of water.
Kind of like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, sometimes the ones with the prettiest outsides could be sour and icky inside.
That was exactly what happened when she was checking the catch of some folks fishing at the river. A few of the regulars greeted her with smiles and held out their licenses and ID cards ready for her to check their catch.
It wasn’t until she was over halfway done with her checks that she came face to face with one of those interactions that went south fast.
The family was laughing and joking around and maybe that’s why they didn’t see her working her way down the line, but they sure noticed her as she finished up with Thom and his old friend Mike. The two elderly men were regulars along the river and always good for a laugh and what they called ‘grandpa jokes.’ Which were like dad jokes, but a little racy. As soon as she said goodbye, she turned and saw one of the men from the group toddle off with a big Igloo cooler.
Even though the group quickly tried to wave her over, she caught up to the man and waited until he set the cooler on the tailgate of his truck. “Oh, that sounded heavy. Caught a lot of fish?”
He shrugged and looked over her head.
Yes, he was that big. Like mountain big. But that meant that she didn’t miss the worry in his gaze.
“Go ahead and get out your identification and your fishing license, and I’ll start to measure your fish.”
There was a tension in his body that told her he was trying to hide something. Once she flipped the top up, she realized why. “So,” she leaned a hand on the tailgate of his truck, “want to tell me where the rest of the fishes went?” A wo
man from his group came over and Blyss was treated to a stammering explanation. There might have been something to the ‘we didn’t know’ about the rules, because there was only one person in the group with a fishing license and they’d already filleted the fish. The only way she could count them up was two fillets for each fish. There was no way to tell if they were under or oversized, but there was enough evidence for her to issue half a dozen tickets and give the whole group a warning as she explained the need for the law.
Only a few of the people seemed to listen to her, but she had to hold onto that. If she passed on even a little bit of information that would make them think twice before breaking the law again, she would count herself happy.
Of course, they didn’t agree with her confiscating the fish, but the rules were the rules. They loaded the fillets into the cooler in the back of her work SUV, and she hoped she had enough ice to keep the cut fish fresh until she could deliver the fish to a few of the families in the community who were struggling.
One foot into the SUV and her phone rang. The ringer told her it was Conor.
She tapped the speaker and answered. “Hardy.”
“Blyss, think you can head over in my direction?”
Turning over the engine, she quickly pulled onto the road and looked over at her phone. A pop-up window showed her his location. He was just a few minutes away.
“I’ll be right there. What’s going on?”
The fact that he hesitated put her nerves on edge.
“We’re pretty sure we’re looking for a body.”
Her mood shifted on a dime and she pressed her foot down on the gas pedal. “I’ll be right there.”
When she pulled up, there were four other vehicles parked in a group just off the access road. As she stepped out, she saw another vehicle turning off the road behind her.
Conor saw her and waved her over. “Come on!”
She got up beside him and listened in while Conor continued with the briefing. “A couple of tourists were driving by on the road,” he indicated the road that she’d just turned from, “when they saw the bottom of the inflatable floating in the water. They didn’t know what it was, but they pulled off and came over to the side here.” Turning his shoulder toward the water, he nodded over the edge. “They saw a man struggling to swim to shore. The husband climbed down about halfway and offered him a hand.
“He said the swimmer was heavier than he looked and nearly pulled his rescuer in with him. What bothered him was whenever his wife started to call for help, the swimmer got loud, angry.”
Conor met Blyss’ eyes. “They thought that maybe the man was crossing illegally and didn’t want to make a fuss, but when they finally got him on the side of the river, that’s when they noticed the bag.
“The man that he’d just saved tossed a heavy duffle bag onto the top of the berm. And when he’d scrambled up to the top, he brandished a knife at the woman.”
There was an added edge to Conor’s voice. None of them wanted anyone threatened with violence, but Conor was a gentleman through and through. A man threatening a woman, especially using a weapon to threaten her, was something that got his goat but good.
“The woman, who had the keys on her, handed them over quick and he was gone. Now we just have to see if there’s someone else down there. At one point the man in the water said there had been someone else in the boat.”
Blyss shook her head. Given the time frame of the complaint, if the other person hadn’t surfaced yet, or nearby, chances are the man had lied, or there was a body to recover. They wouldn’t know until they searched and as law enforcement officers, they had a duty to search.
“I’ve got my canoe on my trailer. I can help search.”
The voice behind her was unmistakable. Owen. And he sounded like he was close enough that if she turned, she’d bump right into him. So, she stayed right where she was.
Conor cast a look at her before he addressed Owen. “Glad you were nearby.”
Owen stepped up beside her, and she let go of a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
“I was planning to go out to the lake, but I had a snake call this morning.”
Snakes. Blyss shuddered. She loved nature, but not all of its creatures made her feel warm and cuddly. She really couldn’t stand the idea of touching snakes. She’d done it as part of her education to work with animals, but it wasn’t by choice.
“Just dropped off a couple of copperheads, and I was headed back out when I got your message. It won’t take me more than a moment or two to unload and put it in the water.”
When Owen’s attention turned straight on her she couldn’t help the way she straightened her posture. She just couldn’t stop herself, dang it.
“Blyss? You want to come into the water with me?”
There wasn’t any reason to say no. Being in the canoe with Owen meant she didn’t have to look at him. Those dark grey eyes were crazy distracting on their own, but when he turned them on her, they were devastating.
She was glad when Owen didn’t make a comment about her helping lift the canoe off the trailer. It wasn’t all that easy for her because he was taller and definitely stronger, but he didn’t make it into an issue.
He just adjusted the way he carried it and made it easier.
A gentleman for sure.
Maybe it was because she had her gun on her.
The canoe went in the water easily enough and Owen pushed them away from the bank and they were on the hunt.
“Where to, bébé?”
At least they were far enough away from the others that they wouldn’t be heard. “Which way do you suppose they were heading?”
“I figure they were heading the same direction we’re pointed.”
“Okay, let’s go that way and look for any signs of someone hiding in the brush.”
There was a moment of silence behind her as he moved them slowly along with the current.
“You think they’re still alive, just hiding?”
She held gently onto the edge of the canoe. “If there is someone, that’s the best outcome. I’d rather not think about the alternative.”
They continued on and Blyss felt the skin on the back of her neck heat with the sun.
Her phone rang, and she picked it up. “Hardy.”
“It’s Conor. Any sign?”
She shook her head. “No. Nothing yet.”
“How far down are you?”
She paused, realizing that she’d been so busy looking through the brush and shadows, she’d lost track of where she was.
“Hand me the phone, Blyss.”
Leaning back away from the bow of the canoe, she held out the phone.
Owen took it from her, and she wasn’t all that surprised when he brushed his fingers over hers before he took it in hand, but he answered Conor quickly. Giving the other warden an approximation of how far they’d gone.
He must have put the phone on speaker because she heard Conor’s voice clearly. “Any signs?”
It was a bittersweet answer. “Nothing. I’m hoping he was lying when he told the couple that there was someone with him.”
Conor’s sigh sounded like it echoed off the berm to their right. “We got the craft out of the water. Nothing was left inside to tell us how many people were in it.”
“That bag they said he was dragging with him?” She hated to ask. “Are you thinking it was something illegal?”
She heard Conor’s laughter. It wasn’t that he thought it was funny, just frustrated, like they all were at times like this.
“Well, I don’t know where they think they were taking it to, but yeah, based on his actions alone, he was certainly carrying something he doesn’t want people to find. We got one of the other wardens to come by with his kayak, and he’s gone upriver. He’s only been in for about twenty minutes or so, but if there is someone else. I bet they floated down in your direction.”
Blyss gripped the sides of the canoe and leaned down to look under a bush that had gr
own out of the bank of the river.
She lifted her arm out behind her, palm open in a silent gesture.
The canoe jerked, but stopped abruptly.
Leaning out over the edge, Blyss reached for the closest branch.
“Be careful, Blyss.”
She nodded, but her gaze and attention were focused on the large shadow she saw under the bush.
“Owen?” Conor’s voice came through the speaker. “What’s going on?”
“She’s spotted something, give us a minute.”
When she felt the side of the canoe brush against her belly she sat back even before she heard Owen’s growl. “Sit your butt down before I spank it.”
“Excuse me?”
Blyss listened as Owen told Conor to mind his own business, she had her own to do.
“A little closer please.”
The canoe moved forward about half a foot and she reached her hand under the bush and made a grab for the shadow she saw. As soon as her hand closed around it, she felt her heart drop into her stomach.
There were plenty of things that could be hung up on a branch in the water, but there was no mistaking the feel of a lifeless human arm.
She bit back a sob as tears watered her eyes.
A life lost was a tragedy.
“Blyss?” Owen’s voice was full of concern instead of his normal joking tone and that made it even harder to hold herself together. The only thing that helped her hold onto her composure was that her back was to him. If she had to look at him it would have been worse. If she saw any show of concern in his eyes she would break down in tears. “You okay?”
Taking in one deep breath she held it for a moment and then let it go. “Conor?”
There was only a slight hesitation before he answered back. “You found someone?”
“Yeah,” she shook her head, “there’s a body hung up under the bush. He’s got a pack or something on his back. I can probably get the pack off first. After that, it might be easier to get him into the canoe.” She took a fortifying breath and turned to look at Owen over her shoulder. “What do you think?”
“Might be good to get a third person down here. Don’t want to tip this over.”