“Sara, honey, come and meet two of the best guys you could ever have on your side. Chief, Jare, this is Sara. She and her little girl need your help; she’s up to her beautiful neck in some heavy shit.”
These men looked what they were, fully capable of creating some major chaos on those that crossed them and theirs. As she went about the business of making enough food to fill an army, the men sat at the table with big mugs of strong black coffee, looking over that ugly file and strategizing their next move. She placed a plate piled high with the roast beef she had started earlier in the day, a mountain of mashed potatoes with a bowl of thick, rich gravy, and the requisite green vegetable, beans, on the table in front of them.
Nick caught her hand as she pulled back, and turning it over, kissed the inside of her wrist as he gazed up into her eyes. The sudden flare of awareness between them spiked her blood and if it were not for Jared’s smart aleck voice reminding her of their company, she knew Nick would have liked nothing more than to lay her out on the table as his own personal banquet.
“What do you see in that ugly face gorgeous? Come run away with me, I’m way more fun than old Mr. Responsibility there.” He began to sing in a horribly off-key but compelling voice, “sweet dreams are made of the year, who are we to disagree. Come on sugar; I’ll be your sweet dream.” He wagged his eyebrows, Groucho Marx style and his turquoise eyes highlighted by glasses and a dark tan were quite mesmerizing.
Sara laughed at his silly antics, sitting beside Nick who retained a firm hold on her hand as if she might actually go, silly man. Her heart already belonged to him, no matter how cute his friends were. Not that she’d told him yet, she was still adjusting to it herself. She was almost sure Nick felt the same way about her too, after the way he had held her and made love to her this afternoon. His eyes glowed whenever they landed on her and he touched her often, as if he could not get enough of her.
“This is roast beef the way my mama does it, tender and juicy, thank-you for the nice meal, ma’am.” Frank frowned at Jared before sending a careful look her way, taking note of their linked hands.
So he wasn’t as ready as his friend to accept her into their little fold yet. That’s okay, she was a little overwhelmed by them also. “Sara, please, and you’re more than welcome Mr. Stein. I cannot tell you how deeply I appreciate Mr. Ford and yourself coming all this way to help my daughter and myself. When we began this journey, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I guess I thought that Tom would conclude that it would be easier to let us live our lives. I should have recognized, especially after seeing the contents of his file he would never give up until he found us.”
“Why did you take it ma’am, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“No I don’t mind. When I copied that folder, all I was looking for was a little advantage, something to make him leave us alone. I knew it was a record of his transactions, but I never guessed it was full of names and dates. Important names. Now that I’ve read it, I understand it was the worst possible thing I could have done. He’ll never stop now, he can’t afford to. And I haven’t been able to stop running because whom would I trust this to? The names listed in there are some of the highest-ranking officials in our country.” Frustrated and angry with the whole situation, she jumped to her feet.
“I know you’re wondering how I could have been married to the man for nine years and not known what he was involved with. The only thing I can say in my defense is the man I married who was gentle and caring, changed. He became secretive, stayed late at the office, went on business trips without me. At first, I thought he was having an affair. My marriage was floundering when I found out I was pregnant but I was optimistic this would bring us closer together again, however when I shared the news with Tom, he was distressed. He began to drink excessively and turned into someone I didn’t know or like very much.”
Gazing soberly at each of the men around her table, Sara admitted, “Things got bad, bad enough that I felt I had no choice but to run. Tom was once a good man, Mr. Stein. I don’t think I can say that anymore.” She patted Nick on the shoulder to assure him she was fine, and began clearing plates from the table.
An awkward silence filled the room punctuated by the dripping of the tap from the old sink and Jake noisily slurping up the gravy from Nick’s discarded meal. She could practically slice the tension in the room. Each one of them were going over as much of what she hadn’t said as what she had.
“I guess that explains why the dipshit liked to spend all that time with the locals over there, and it wasn’t to be a good citizen. What an asshole,” came Jared’s blistering proclamation.
“Wait until you get a load of what our old pal Sheridan has been up to, you won’t believe it,” Nick said as she came and slid under his arm. Then it sunk in.
Old pal.
Shock had her standing frozen as the men laughed and talked over her head. They knew Tom. Betrayal rose up her throat, ugly and corrosive. How could she have missed it? She’d trusted him. Loved him. How stupid could she possibly get?
Her cell phone rang out from where she’d left it on the coffee table when her and Nick…stopping that thought in its tracks, she escaped his hold to answer. It was probably Annie calling to let Jessica say goodnight.
Swallowing rapidly to conceal her tears, she picked up, “Hello, peanut.”
“You still care, how refreshing.” Her husband’s pompous tone in her ear had her sliding in a boneless heap onto the sofa behind her.
“What do you want, Tom? How did you get this number?” The sudden silence in her home was deafening. Unable to help herself, her gaze locked on Nick, begging for support. He hurried over and sank down beside her, his warm palm settling over her thigh. She turned the phone to speaker with shaking fingers, and tried to regulate the tremor in her tone. “I would have thought you’d have figured out by now I want nothing to do with you. It’s over between us. Leave us alone. Please, Tom.” She couldn’t help it. Entreaty filled her voice. Even after being away from him for this long, the sound of his silky voice still brought frissons of anxiety skating over her skin.
“I think you must be confused, my dear. Since when do you get to give any commands in this relationship? I’ve missed you, Sara. It’s time for you to quit this insanity and come home.”
“That’s not going to happen. The only thing you’ve missed is your precious file. I’ve read it, Tom. If I turn it over to the authorities, you’re going to jail. You and I both know it. All I want is for you to give me custody of Jessica, and a divorce. In return, I’ll give you back your precious flash drive. Take the deal; you won’t like the alternative.” Her teeth threatened to chatter themselves right out of her head as shock began to set in. She wrapped her arms around her body. She was cold, so very cold.
“Au contraire, I think the best would be if you did as I God-damn asked for once in your stupid, insipid little life.” The octaves rose, his power indisputable even through the airwaves, had Sara shrinking back as if he were right there before her. “I’ve asked you nice, but as per usual, you aren’t listening, so I’ll let someone else convince you to pay attention. I plan to win, Sara.”
“Don’t tell him anything, I’m so sor…”
“Oh my God, Fiona. Are you okay? Fiona!” Sara sobbed. Then in the background they heard a slap, and a choked off cry along with the wounded screech of a chair overturning and hitting the floor. Hard.
Tom’s manic laugh rang through the room. “Sorry my dear, she’s temporarily incapacitated. Your pretty friend was very forthcoming with your number when she realized just how much I’ve been missing you. We’ve been spending a little time together, getting to know each other. She’s quite the firebrand, must be all that red hair.”
“What have you done? You monster. Fiona did nothing to you. Let her go, Tom, right now. If you’ve hurt her in any way—”
“You’ll what? Snivel and cry. That’s about the only thing you’re any good at. I’m tired of the childish games you’ve been playing.
They have gone on long enough. I need that file back and I mean to get it. You get your ass back here within the next twenty-four hours or Ms. Radcliffe here will have to pay the price for your tardiness.”
“That would be a very grave mistake on your part, Sheridan. The police don’t look too kindly at kidnapping.” Nick squeezed her thigh in reassurance, and she almost forgave him. Almost.
“Ah, Nick Kelley, is that you, my old friend? I’d heard you were out. It’s been a while. Return her to me and you will be well compensated. I always knew I could count on you.”
Shit, shit, shit, Nick knew as soon as Tom uttered the words, how Sara would construe them. He felt her stiffen within his arms, the shudder that ran through her body, and then she pushed away, regarding him through hurt-filled eyes, as if he were ten times worse than her prick of a husband.
“You win, Tom; it seems you hold all the cards.” Sara spoke in an eerily empty voice, her expression as she stared at Nick, frozen with betrayal. “Your lackey here can call you back with the travel plans. Don’t hurt Fiona; I swear to God, I will make you pay if you do.”
“I don’t believe you are in a position to swear anything my dear. Well played, Nick, well played. I will see you soon, wife. We have a lot of catching up to do.” She could hear his sickening chuckle as he closed the line, and then there was nothing but the loud ringtone reverberating through the room.
Nick stared at her with entreating eyes, as if begging her to understand. “Honey, I know that sounded bad, but it’s not what you’re thinking.”
“Really, Nick, because I’m thinking that sounded like my ex-husband just hired you to bring us back. It sounds like you came here and introduced yourself under false pretenses.” Her voice rose with each sentence, shaking with hurt and anger. “And then you insinuated yourself into our lives, made us care about you. All for what? How much did he offer you Nick? How much did he God-damn offer you?”
* * *
Before he had a chance to explain the misunderstanding, Sara jumped to her feet and dashed down the hall to her room, slamming the door as she entered. Nick could barely grasp how this had gone from being the best day of his life to the foulest, all in the space of twenty-four hours.
He didn’t regret speaking up, but he was sorrier than he could ever say that he hadn’t explained the situation to Sara sooner. Though to be fair, how could he have known fate would play such a huge cosmic joke? Nick wanted to follow her, make her listen, but he had a feeling that she would discount anything he had to say right now. Better to give her some time to calm down. He hoped she would realize if he’d been here to turn them in, he could have done that weeks ago.
Avoiding the sympathy in the eyes of his friends, he went back to the kitchen and the still open file. “Have a look at this. You’re not going to believe who Sara’s ex is, I can hardly believe it myself.”
Jared shook his head as he read the top pages. “Well, looky here. Tommy’s joined the big leagues. You were right man, this is some heavy shit. There are names in here that are going to stir things up but good.”
“Seems so,” Frank replied. “This explains a lot. Look how far back this goes, six years at least. A man has to wonder how many assholes he’s helped keep out of jail in all that time. He’s been courting the system as he climbed the ladder on the backs of every cop out there trying to do his job. This kind of bullshit is exactly what is wrong with almost every country out there. Power and corruption, it’s an ugly fact of life.”
“Way to be positive, big guy. Always looking at the bright side. You should tone that down some.” Jared said drolly, ducking when Frank’s big fist came at his nose. “You’re slowing down, old man. Better quit lazing around on the back of your horse and hit the gym once in a while.”
Nick had to snicker; there wasn’t an ounce of spare flesh anywhere on that huge frame. Both men had hearts the size of Frank’s home state. It felt amazing to see them again. He’d forgotten how well they clicked together, like pieces of an oversized puzzle. Well except for Sheridan, he was the piece they wished they’d lost.
Right from the first day when he’d shown up in the mess tent and made clear he was there under special orders from General Baker, an old family friend. When he’d demanded his own quarters the chief informed him as long as he remained under the protection of SEAL team five he would stay where he was told to stay, and the animosity between the two men grew. Frank, for the most part, remained his stoical self. In a couple of memorable instances, Sheridan went his own way, ended up with a sharp reprimand and landed himself KP duties. He lodged a complaint and the higher ups informed him that the Chief was, well, the Chief, and he needed to follow all direct orders or find himself on a long flight home, general or no general.
Tom began spending more and more down time with the locals. Which worked well for them, as none of them, especially Adam, who’d drawn the short straw and shared his tent, liked the guy. Guess he was the smart one, and if he were here in this room, right now, they all would have bowed before his brilliance. He would have liked that, the bugger.
Right from deployment he and Adam were inseparable. Adam’s golden movie star looks had the women flocking, and his rakish smile charmed them out of their panties. Nick had always done okay for himself in the women department also, but Adam had that special thing, catnip for the female species. He missed the asshole.
“We need to find out exactly how far up the ladder Sheridan has gone and then we need a way to bring all the players together. There are a number of familiar names on that list. People we had under surveillance while on ops. I’m not sure how far this goes but we have to assume, going by the fact that Guerra is involved in this, the Sinaloa Cartel has a stake in getting this file back. It could cause them a serious headache if the DEA gets a hold of it.”
“This explains why they held you until I arrived; they were on a fishing expedition.” Frank said, and then for Nick’s benefit, “a member of the DEA grilled me when I arrived in Vegas to pay numb-nut’s bail. She fed me some cockamamie story about one of my men supposedly trafficking everything from drugs to humans back in Iraq. I thought she was pointing a finger at Jare and pretty much told her to kiss my ass but now it’s making a whole lot more sense.” Frank’s voice roughened with anger. “I can’t believe Sheridan played us right under our noses, and we never picked up on anything other than what an asshole he was.”
“Wait, this could work in our favor. If the DEA’s already looking into this, why don’t we turn the whole thing over to them and let them chase after Sheridan and company?”
“Yeah, we could do that. Except once they get involved they’re going to tear into every aspect of all our lives, including Sheridan’s, do you want that, Jared? What about what they will do to Sara and Jessica? I don’t want their lives dissected by the feds just as they’re getting back on their feet.”
“Fair enough, buddy, I don’t blame you for wanting to protect your family, but then we need to come up with a way to round them up ourselves. Anyone have any ideas? Woohoo good times, you sure know how to liven things up, Nick, my man.” Jared chortled.
“Don’t get too excited, this isn’t going to be a walk in the park. These guys are big league. We’re going to have to strategize for every contingent because there is no way in hell that I want Sara or Jessica anywhere near that asshole again.” Frustrated, he combed rough fingers through his hair.
“I agree with Nick. We need a strong plan in place. But I think that it would be better for us if we did a little, you show yours, I’ll show mine, with the DEA. We could keep it controlled. Tell them we’ll only deal with the agent and her partner I talked to in Vegas, and it has to stay under wraps, or no deal. The more I think it over, the more I believe we’re going to need all the help we can land, especially if we end up with the Cartel up our asses.”
“Are you sure you don’t just want to get the uber-hot Ms. Holt back in your orbit where you can woo her with your staidness?” Jared teased, ducking another har
d fist.
“I’m going to go check on Sara while you two lovebirds twitter away. Be back in a few. If we put our collective brains together, we should be able to come up with one good idea. I hope.” Nick said as he came to his feet. Jake startled awake, jumped up also, his nails scrabbling on the faded green linoleum. “Maybe between us and the DEA, we can drop a net over their ugly asses and be done with this shit. I want Sheridan behind bars for a very long time gentlemen. Now how are we going to accomplish that?”
Chapter Fourteen
A tornado of emotions whipped through Sara. She’d opened her arms and her heart to Nick, trusted him with the safety and wellbeing of herself and her child, and look where it landed her. Betrayal was a living, breathing entity in her chest. She wanted, needed, to avenge it.
Swiping angry tears from her face, she spun away from the sight of her bed with its recently messed covers, locked her door with a satisfying snap, and flung open her closet doors. Dropping to her knees her shaking fingers peeled back the thick old wallpaper to reveal the loosened wallboard. Sara pulled out the stash of money she’d hidden there, along with their fake ID’s and passports.
She grabbed the go bag from the floor filled with their essentials and stuffed everything inside before stopping to make sure Nick wasn’t on his way down the hall. Déjà vu, a bad habit, listening at doors. Nick’s deep tones mixed with the low rumble of voices coming from the kitchen.
He’s not coming.
Her breath stalled in her chest. Fine.
I don’t want him to anyway.
She pushed away, crossed to the window, and lifted, glad she’d kept the frame well oiled. Sliding the fire escape rope ladder from beneath the bed, she threw it out the opening, making sure it landed noiselessly against the side of the house. With a last, sad look around the room she’d grown to love, Sara breeched the windowsill and began the short climb down, pulling the go bag along with her.
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