Cherishing Brianna [Fate Harbor 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)
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Fate Harbor 5
Cherishing Brianna
Brianna has chosen to live the last eight years of her life alone, hoping to prevent the inevitable. When she finally realizes how little time she has left to live a full and productive life, she stops off to visit her foster family before permanently moving to California. Spending one last month with the people she loves and values in Fate Harbor Washington, she meets Sheriff Charlie Meade and the town vet, Zac Carmichael. Both men are loving, caring, and think the world of her. Brianna is horrified to realize she has deceived them. She knows the truth, she’s unworthy of their love. Brianna decides to quickly leave town. Despite the adamant entreaties of her family, she’s determined to go before things unravel even more and she becomes a burden. Can Zac, Charlie, and her family make one last ditch effort to make Brianna realize how much they want to cherish her no matter what the future might hold?
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 84,730 words
CHERISHING BRIANNA
Fate Harbor 5
Caitlyn O’Leary
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
CHERISHING BRIANNA
Copyright © 2015 by Caitlyn O’Leary
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-978-1
First E-book Publication: February 2015
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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DEDICATION
I would like to thank Susan Foulkes and Cecile Tellier for their valuable input and support they help was immeasurable. I would also like to thank my friend Chuck Metzger for providing some inspiration for this book!
This book is dedicated in loving memory to my mom, Vicki. She was an awesome lady who did a fantastic job raising five rambunctious children. In later years she struggled with bi-polar disorder that made for funny and heartbreaking episodes for herself and her family. I learned a lot about mental illness. I learned that it is a disease like any other, and it can often be managed through lifestyle and appropriate medical treatment, and people can live normal, happy and highly productive lives. I had the greatest mother in the world, so this book was written in her honor.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
About the Author
CHERISHING BRIANNA
Fate Harbor 5
CAITLYN O’LEARY
Copyright © 2015
Chapter 1
“I’ve got you this time, you little bastard.” Charlie looked at his deputy’s report with disgust. He wasn’t sure what upset him the most, that fact that he was malicious, a liar, or stupid. Arnold Lesman was definitely a triple threat. He’d gotten him as a transfer from Seattle, with excellent references. Turned out the other sheriff had just wanted to get rid of trash, and now Charlie was left holding the bag.
Charlie rolled down the window of his sheriff’s car window and took a deep breath of the fresh evergreen trees. Soothed, he was able to look down and scroll further through the report that Arnold had hand-filed. He continued to take deep, calming breaths of the clean northwest scent, or he might have just thrown the computer pad through the windshield. Sure, he was happy that he could finally prove that Arnold had used excessive force and lied on a county sheriff’s report, but that didn’t make up for the fact that he had been duped. Charlie had actually brought someone into his office, his town, who was supposed to watch out for his people, and instead Arnold had actually used his badge to do harm.
“Damn it!” he slammed his hand into his steering wheel. He hadn’t just looked at Lesman’s records, or taken the other sheriff’s word, he had reached out to a friend in that department. That man had vouched for Arnold, and that made the whole thing even worse. Betrayal lurked around every corner of this situation. Charlie had been betrayed by someone who was supposed to be his friend, and Charlie had betrayed the town of Fate Harbor by bringing in a deputy that had actually harmed one of their own. He picked up his cell phone and called Leo Ryan who owned the pub in town.
“About fucking time you called.” Charlie winced at Leo’s tone of voice, but he couldn’t blame the man for being so angry.
“I’m
sorry, Leo, Arnie had twelve hours to file his report, and he took all twelve.” He waited and when there was no response, he continued. “I went to the hospital and saw Jack earlier. He said they were going to release him tomorrow.”
“I know about Jack. Tell me what that fucker Arnold wrote on his report. Did he lie?”
“Yep, we’ve got him.” Charlie rubbed the back of his neck.
“What are the next steps?”
“I wanted to make sure that he out and out lied on his official county document, so that we had that as evidence when we go to trial. He actually states in the report that Jack came at him from behind.”
“Jack would never do that. That deputy is such a stupid weasel.” Leo’s voice was thick with disgust.
“Yeah, he’ll have a hell of a time explaining how he said Jack came up from behind when we have video showing he’s the one who came up from behind Jack and hit him over the head with the nightstick.”
“Jack’s just lucky he has the hardest head in Kitsap County, otherwise that asshat could have cracked his skull, instead of just giving him a concussion.” Even though Leo was trying to make light of it, Charlie heard the real worry in the man’s voice about his brother.
“When did you have those cameras installed?”
“Last year. I was worried that one of the new bartenders was sexually harassing Tessa, but she wouldn’t say so. I needed to have them hidden so even the employees couldn’t detect them. I was right, he was. The bastard was so fucking out of line.”
“What did you do?”
“I fired him.”
“You didn’t just leave it at that.” Charlie knew that nobody was going to get away with harming Tessa and just get fired.
“You know you really don’t want to know anything more than that, Charlie.” Damn, Leo was sort of right. Charlie couldn’t really afford to know anything more, even though he wanted to.
“Fine.” His displeasure must have made its way through the phone line, because Leo laughed.
“You were always Jack’s and my favorite babysitter. Half the time you were willing to get into trouble right along with us.” Charlie barked out a laugh. All of the high school girls in town had refused to babysit the Ryan brothers, so in desperation their mom had called Charlie’s. He’d made some good coin watching those boys his junior and senior years of high school.
“Hey Leo, e-mail me the video footage. Tomorrow I’ll have my tech come inspect your equipment to ensure that nothing has been tampered with. Right now I’m going to hang up so I can send over Amy and Doug to pick up Arnold. He’ll be calmer with the two of them, because he’ll be able to bitch about the injustice and call his union rep and they’ll commiserate.” Charlie really wanted to go pick up the little pissant himself, but it was more important that things went smoothly and by the book.
“I know you’ll take care of everything, Charlie. It couldn’t be in better hands.”
“If that were true, Leo, the little shit would never have had worked as a police officer in Fate Harbor.”
“Charlie, nobody in this town expects you to be omnipotent, but all of us trust that you will take out the trash. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Charlie looked at the silent phone in his hand and realized he had just received one of the best compliments of his life. Obviously Rye had been dipping into Jack’s pain medication.
He glanced at the police radio, and then decided to use his phone to call Doug about the issue with Arnold. He really didn’t need this going over the radio, in case Arnie was listening in on his night off. He was just finishing his call with Doug, reiterating that he wanted all procedures followed to the T. If there were any questions, he and Amy should err on the side of caution. That was when he heard a loud roar.
“Gotta go.” Charlie tossed the phone on the passenger seat, and turned the keys in the ignition. Somebody was coming down Highway 521 fast. Real fast. He still couldn’t see them, but he didn’t expect to. He was stationed right after the bend in the road to catch speeders, but normally he didn’t hear them this clearly. Some kid obviously had a souped-up hotrod. But it didn’t really sound like some monster engine. He leaned out his window, trying to discern what kind of car it was. It had both a growl and a bit of a high-pitched whine. He pulled his head back into the car and eased out of the gravel, onto the shoulder, so he would have enough purchase to easily follow the speeder.
His foot had slammed the accelerator to the floor before he even thought about it, as the motorcycle flew by.
“Fuck.” He hit his flashers, hoping that the kid would notice the blue and red lights before he hit the next bend in the road. Charlie was already at fifty before he had his second hand back on the wheel. The kid wasn’t doing too bad, but he was going at least twenty miles over the speed limit, and Charlie had a bad feeling. He’d spent too long in law enforcement to ignore those kinds of feelings. As he turned the bend the rider faltered, just a little, but then he started slowing down and pulled over to side of the road, and Charlie let out a sigh of relief. Charlie eased up behind him, thankful that tonight was not one where he to make one of those notifications to parents that their kid had died. That was the absolute worst part of the job.
He got out of his patrol car and walked up to the motorcycle. The boy was young, he wasn’t very broad in the shoulders, but then Charlie’s eyes were drawn to the lines of the bike. He breathed in. There was no way he’d be caught dead riding something like that, but no wonder it was called a monster. One of his good friends, Jace Hart, rode motorcycles. He remembered when he had purchased some kind of Honda, but his dream bike had been a Ducati Monster. Charlie didn’t think he’d ever seen one in Fate Harbor, and it’d soon be in their impound lot. Jace could come drool in person.
He kept one eye on boy balanced in his seat, even while he admired the machine. When he got to the front of the bike, the rider was beginning to get off the bike.
“Please stay where you are.” He wanted to make sure the kid’s hands stayed where he could see them.
There was a moment of hesitation, and then the boy put his hands back on the handle bars, realizing that was what Charlie was really saying. Smart.
After circling the bike and seeing there didn’t seem to be any sign of a weapon, Charlie motioned for him to take off his helmet. Charlie watched as he bent over, pulled it off, shook out an abundance of long red curls, and then raised his head to look at him. It took more than a moment for it to register that he was looking at a girl—woman, he corrected. She didn’t say anything to him, just sat there, her shoulders slumped.
Charlie moved closer, his training kicking in. “License and registration please.”
She managed a wan smile. “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot. I was speeding wasn’t I.” She looked at attempted to her unzip her leather jacket, but fumbled while holding her helmet with her gloves. She looked up at him. “Umm.” And then, as if a switch was flipped, her shoulders straightened and she looked him dead in the eye. “Officer, may I get off my bike and put my helmet down so that I can open my jacket?” Charlie wasn’t sure which woman turned him on more, the waif who seemed to need him, or this take-charge woman who could stand toe-to-toe with him. He grinned.
“Why don’t you hand me the helmet,” he said as he reached out. She all but shoved it at him, and then pulled her gloves off with teeth that gleamed white in the night. She unzipped her jacket and pulled out a slim wallet. She competently took her license and registration and handed it to him. He used his flashlight to check them. That was three questions answered. Her name was Brianna Spencer, her eyes were green, and she was twenty-five.
“You were going seventy in a fifty-mile-an-hour zone.” He kept his voice hard. She could have been killed. He watched as her eyes got wide. She looked shocked. Good she hadn’t been purposefully speeding, but then maybe that wasn’t good.
“I need you to get off your bike now.” He watched her carefully as she disembarked, and she looked shaky, really shaky.
“Have you been
drinking?” he barked out.
“I don’t drink,” she all but shouted back.
“Drugs?” Another bark.
“Never!”
“How long have you been on the road?”
He watched as she bit her lip. Her full lip. Her brow crinkled.
“I stopped for gas a couple of times.”
“Where did you start this morning?” Shit, he had a bad feeling.
“I was in Billings.” Her arms were having trouble holding her bike, and when she tried to deploy the kickstand, she couldn’t. He grabbed the bike, and her arm, holding up both. She tried to shake him off, but he outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds.
“Can you stand?” He eyed her carefully. How the hell had she kept the bike upright? Billings, Montana had to be at least fourteen hours from Fate Harbor. Maybe she had taken the ferry? If she had she would have gotten a rest.
“Did you drive around south, or did you take the ferry?”
“I missed the last ferry, so I rode around.” He let go of her arm, and she took a step back to keep her balance. He flipped the kickstand and eyed her leathers. She was dead on her feet, but when he put an arm around her to guide her to his patrol car she jerked away.
“I can walk just fine.” He let go. Okay, she was trying not to be the waif, but he walked close, ready to help her if she stumbled. They made it to the front of his car.
“Ms. Spencer, I’m going to have to pat you down before you can get into the car.” She gave him an assessing look and then nodded. He gave her a quick pat down, opened the backseat, and she got in smoothly.