Cold Heat (Seasons of the Heart #1)

by LeeAnne White

  Nodding her head in reluctant agreement, Kaylie turned back to her room. Out of habit more than conscious thought, she plugged in her cell to charge before closing herself in the bathroom. Kaylie stripped, keeping her back to the mirror to put off seeing the colorful evidence of her day. Turning on the shower to a temperature that she could handle, she stepped beneath the spray, sighing with pleasure.

  Chapter 4

  Drake finished cleaning the kitchen, keeping an ear out for any sounds from the bathroom. When he had finished in the kitchen, he walked over to the junk drawer, opened it and pulled out a deck of cards to keep him busy while he waited. He was into his third game of solitaire when the bathroom door opened with a billow of steam as Kaylie stepped out and into the hall.

  She walked towards him, looking a bit self-conscious but comfortable in a pair of black and blue plaid flannel pajama pants, a blue sweatshirt, and pink fuzzy socks. She walked shyly to the table, and sat down opposite of him, studying him as he finished his game. She nodded her agreement when he gestured to her with the cards.

  Drake was shuffling the deck when he spoke, asking his question with one word, “Blackjack?” He dealt them both a hand when she smiled and nodded.

  Kaylie looked down at her cards, peeking at the bottom card to see what he had dealt her when she spoke, “So I’ve shared part of my story with you, and thank you, by the way, for listening.” She could feel the question in his gaze, “You didn’t judge me, at least not out loud. Can you do me another favor and tell me something about you? I’m at an unfair disadvantage now.”

  “I guess you have a point, and you did partly answer my question. Okay, let’s see. I was determined to leave Texas as soon as I could when I graduated from high school. I had sent out college applications to anywhere and everywhere.” He watched her, dealing her another card when she signaled for a hit. “I was a good student, an honor student who worked hard and I held my own, I had been playing baseball since little league and wanted to close out my schooling with the sport. I didn’t have the athletic talent that could take me through college, so I knew I had to find another way to pay for it. I did some research and decided that I would look into the military. I was accepted to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, double majored in Arabic and Chemistry, and decided to challenge myself further.”

  Kaylie frowned at her hand, knowing that she had absolutely no poker face. “What, like Arabic and chemistry weren’t challenging enough for you? What were you, some sort of a machine?” She swiped her hand over her cards.

  Chuckling, he said, “Not hardly, but for some reason, what I was doing just seemed to click with me. It wasn’t easy, not by a long shot, and I needed a physical outlet with all of the studying that I was doing.” Frowning, he dealt himself three more cards, “I pushed myself and I was noticed, I spent twenty-one years in the Navy until I retired eight months ago. Dealer has 18.”

  She sat there so quiet and still frowning at her cards before flipping them over to reveal her winning twenty. “It’s no wonder you keep insisting that I’m safe with you, but the next question that pops into my head is how’d you end up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains? Aren’t you a long way from a naval base?”

  “Son of a bitch, you beat me? Glad we’re not playing for money.” Drake said with a grin as he offered her the deck to deal, but she just shook her head. “I bought this place a few years ago, used it as my refuge between deployments, when I could have long weekends or leave, and then I decided I liked it up here enough to make it my home after my retirement.”

  He dealt them each another hand, her stand signal causing him to narrow his eyes at her before hitting his own. “I like the solitude, the quiet that this area gives me. It’s not always convenient to get to places, that’s why I go into town every few weeks to stock up on what I need and to get some time around people.” He raised his eyes when she flipped her cards to show nineteen, before he showed his own nineteen. “Push. I knew there were storm advisories, so I called a friend of mine, who lives a few miles down the road from me, to keep Jenny.” At the sound of her name, Jenny’s tail began thumping happily from the front of the fireplace where she had laid down, “I hate leaving her in the house, and who knew what would happen with this weather. I dropped her off at Rafe’s house yesterday, and he brought her back over this evening while you were resting. The rest, you already know.”

  Kaylie pushed back from the table, restless. Walking over to the windows that looked out into the woods, she stood staring at the carpet of white that spread out before her. Snowflakes were dancing in the air, making her think of magic and fairy tales. The world was white and soft through the windows. She reached out and put her palms on the glass, the cold chilling her palms. Wishing so much that things were different. All she wanted when she set out that morning was escape. She had managed that, but at what cost?

  “When I left Las Vegas,” she started in little more than a whisper, “I left for so many reasons. There are things I have lost over the last few years, pieces of myself. Things that I wanted to do with my future.” Kaylie rested her forehead against the icy glass for a moment before turning to Drake again. “I’m sorry, Drake. I’m suddenly exhausted. Do you mind if I go on to bed?”

  “Of course not,” he answered. “I’ll keep my door open in case you need anything tonight. Sleep well, Kaylie.” He watched as she walked Into her room and closed her door most of the way, leaving it cracked open a little bit.

  Chapter 5

  An unusual sense of unease settled around Drake as he and his men finished checking their weapons and com devices, mentally going over all stages of the extraction they were to complete. Something was off, he thought as he listened to the roaring whomp -whomp- whomp of the rotor blades. The moonless night was to their advantage, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something about the mission was wrong. He shook his head to clear away the edginess that enveloped him before exiting the helo.

  Drake could hear the screams through the walls, the sounds of torture; the thick black smoke billowing out of the few high and thin windows along the compound. He had to make it inside before it was too late. He knew his mission, and the target was inside. He and his team entered the building swiftly, and after securing the area they fanned out, their objective clear: rescue the downed pilot who had been shot down by insurgents.

  He and his team were just setting off down another corridor when the muzzle flash in front of him alerted him that the enemy was engaging them. The white hot burn of the bullet searing into his side after piercing the seam on his body armor knocked him back a few steps, it was the only thing, other than his grunt at the impact, that alerted his teammates to his being hit. His team responded immediately, trying their best to pull him back within their perimeter, but he took four more shots to his body armor before Cal was able to stop the gunman with a bullet. The blaze from the first bullet transformed into a forest fire of heat and pain while Zach patched him up as best as he could. Breathing deep through the pain, he held his ground and covered the three other men as they rushed the room for their target.

  Drake was running on instinct and training as the team secured the target, double-timing it back to the arranged extraction point while relaying that they had two casualties. Drake stumbled suddenly in his run, catching himself just before face planting it in the dirt. Cal, who had been running just behind him, lifted Drake in a fireman’s carry, Drakes lungs burning with the effort to breathe as he hung draped across his teammates shoulders before losing consciousness due to blood loss.

  Drake jerked awake in his bed, the bedding twisted around his legs and clenched in his fist as he regulated his breathing. He staggered into the bathroom, splashing cold water on his face to rinse off the dregs of the nightmare and sweat that had woken him. After making his way into the kitchen and setting the coffeepot to brew, he bundled up and went outside with Jenny while she went bounding and frolicking in the snow.

  The tightness in his chest and head eased up whi
le he watched his dog playing in the still falling snow. He let out a loud laugh when Jenny disappeared into a drift that was deeper than she was tall, and popped back out with a happy bark and doggy smile of her own, her tail scattering snow as she leapt around, searching for the perfect spot to do her morning business. Taking a deep breath of the cold, crisp air, He turned and went in search of his shovel to clear a path around the cabin to the woodpile. A little physical activity would do him good, and maybe take his mind off of Kaylie.

  While he was shoveling, his mind drifted back to the men in his dream, his brothers in arms. The best friends a man could ever have. Zach Douglas, a no nonsense SOB from Boston and the groups medic who patched him up and made it possible to get back to the extraction point for pick up after they completed their mission and captured their target. Cal Fletcher, the other Texan in his team. All American, laid back, country boy and football star that decided his future would be with the military. Rafe Piñon, Californian all the way, a lover and leaver of the ladies, and always ready to knock heads with someone. Snapping out of his thoughts, he called to Jenny, ready to warm up with a fire and his coffee.

  Kaylie woke to the sensuous aroma of coffee, stretching and groaning as she looked around the room before making a beeline for the bathroom to freshen up. Seeing the dark bruise that surrounded the lump on her head, she shook her head, nothing I can do about it now. She found more bruises across her chest and shoulder while she was changing into some clean jeans and a warm sweater. After pulling on a pair of warm socks, she went into the kitchen, finding the coffee mugs, she poured herself a cup of coffee, and opened the refrigerator for some milk. Noting the bacon and eggs in the fridge, she wondered where Drake had gone when she heard Jenny’s happy barking outside. She walked around and saw the man and his dog, him shoveling snow and Jenny leaping excitedly around him. She turned back with a smile and started searching for what she would need to make a hot breakfast for them.

  When Drake and Jenny came back in the house, he was expecting the house to smell of the coffee he had turned on before stepping outside with Jenny, but instead, he was greeted with the homey aromas of bacon, eggs, and biscuits, and the sight of Kaylie in his kitchen, setting the table for their breakfast. “I was hoping you would sleep later, but I am not going to complain about coming in to a hot breakfast. You didn’t have to do this, you know.”

  “I know, but when I came in and saw you shoveling the snow while Jenny played around you, I figured it was the very least I could do to repay you for helping me.”

  Turning to take off his outer gear and boots, he grinned. “Not arguing over here; I’ll be right back.”

  “That’s fine, it’s just about ready. How do you take your coffee, and I’ll fix you a cup?”

  “Black is fine, thanks,” he commented as he walked toward the bathroom, pausing to turn the music on.

  Kaylie turned to take the biscuits out of the oven and put them on a plate, heaping it with some eggs and bacon for Drake, and after pouring his coffee, set it on the table for him, and fixed herself a plate.

  Drake eyeballed the plate full of food that she set in front of him and the meager amount of food on hers. “Surely you’re going to eat more than that, aren’t you?”

  “No, this is fine for me. I rarely eat more than this.”

  “Why?”

  “What do you mean, ‘Why?’”

  “I mean, you need more food for energy to keep you warm right now. You fixed a huge breakfast and I’m the only one eating it, why?”

  She wouldn’t look up at him. “I don’t need the weight, I’ve too much I need to lose as it is.”

  “Bullshit,” he interrupted, sitting back from his meal. “I’m sitting here looking at you, I lifted you out of your car yesterday,” he watched as her eyes got wide and an attractive blush spread across her cheeks, “and I call bullshit on that.”

  Kaylie could feel the heat of the blush on her face from Drake’s words. Embarrassed, she waved her hand in from of her face as if to erase his last statement. “You did wha… you shouldn't have… anyway,” she stammered, “despite what you say, I don’t need more than this. Besides, you were outside working it off in this cold. Please eat before your breakfast gets any colder.”

  Drake squinted his eyes at her, “You eat, I eat.”

  “Oh, for the love of… that’s ridiculous! You’re going to sit her and let this food go to waste because I’m not hungry?” Her stomach started to grumble, and she pressed her hand to it, as if to muffle the sound where he wouldn’t hear it. Why was there never a hole in the ground to crawl into when you needed it, she thought?

  “Ha! See, you need to eat, your body knows what it wants and needs, and you need to feed it,” he told her.

  When she realized her hands had started nervously playing with the handle on her coffee cup, one of her tells that she was distressed; she pushed away from the table and walked over to get more coffee for the two of them. She stood looking out of the window, looking at the white world just beyond the glass, but seeing nothing,

  “Can we please just drop this?”

  He could see the tension in the lines of her body, and while he was not one who was known for quitting an argument, he decided to let it rest for now, but he was not done with this discussion. He let the silence settle as he picked up his fork and began eating his breakfast, watching as she struggled to visibly relax her shoulders before turning back with the coffee pot to refill his cup, and then hers.

  “There is not much to do up here with this weather. I’ve a radio, a TV and some movies we can watch, plus there’s the Internet,” he said as he was finishing his meal.

  Kaylie only nodded her head as she got up to clean her dishes and the kitchen.

  Drakes chair scraped against the floor when he got up, but she still startled when he placed his hand on her arm and Kaylie looked over at him in surprise. “You cooked, I’ll clean the kitchen this time. Thank you for breakfast.”

  “We made a deal last night, that I’d clean the kitchen today. I need to do something to feel useful, Drake. So, I’ll clean the kitchen, if you don’t mind, while I finish answering your questions. It’ll give me something mindless to do while I talk.”

  Drake simply nodded and sat back down with his coffee to listen.

  “Where had I stopped?”

  “You and your ex, this Brian, eloped.”

  “That’s right.” She began filling the sink with warm soapy water to wash the dishes in. “I didn’t notice much at first. What I did notice was his temper was quicker to fire than before we got married. He would get mad and blow up over the smallest of things,” she started scrubbing the bowls and plates in the sink as if her life depended on it. “It sounds ridiculous when I listen to myself talk about it now. They say hindsight is crystal clear, and they are right. All of the signs were there before they escalated.” She shrugged, “Anyhow, as I was saying, it started with small things igniting his temper. I learned pretty quickly to walk on eggshells around him, and to keep my thoughts and opinions to myself. Anything would set him off: work, money, me. How I looked. How I acted. What I did or what I said. What I ate.” She gave a quiet snort. “Nothing mattered. No matter how hard I tried, I could never make him happy.”

  While she was talking, Drake sat quietly, watching and listening to her. He was certain he knew where this was headed, and was giving her the steam to say what she needed to say now. He knew he loosened the lid on this last night with his question. He learned long ago in his career that the more intel you had going in, the better the odds at the outcome.

  “The verbal and emotional abuse? Yeah, I recognize it now; it became more constant, continuous, really, between our second and third anniversary. I began to lose sight of who I was, my identity was slowly and effectively being taken from me, along with any choices I had in everyday living.” Kaylie paused, took a deep breath, and rested her palms on the counter top before wiping them down as if she were preparing for a general’s inspection. �
��The first time he hit me, really hit me, was on our tenth anniversary. Before that it was ‘playing around’ or ‘wrestling’ that would always go too far. I had bruises, big purple and black ones, but I rationalized it as playing.” Shaking her head as if to erase that line of thinking, she barreled on, “But that first time? I don’t remember what the catalyst was, not sure it really mattered at that point. It was my fault, whatever it was, and he punched me, here.” She turned and faced Drake with tears in her eyes, rubbing her sternum.

  Drake knew that he had to keep his face neutral, keep his own emotions in check while she was talking. He already knew that if he ever had the pleasure of coming face to face with her ex, he’d take great joy in making certain that he got what was due to him, even if it happened while in jail.

  “I remember being so stunned and scared that I couldn’t move. I didn’t know what to do, who I could call. By this point, business and money had turned around for us, and Brian was now a man of wealth and power. I was just his wife, a nobody, in the grand scheme of things. He, Brian, walked out that night, took the keys to both cars and sped off. He left me home, blessedly alone. I fell asleep in a spare bedroom that night. He didn’t bother me when he got home. The next morning he was all about the apology. How sorry he was. How he’d never do it again. Blah blah blah. Stupid me! I believed him.”

  Kaylie shook her head, before continuing, “It got better for a little while. Then, after a few weeks, he was suddenly,” she held up her hands and made air quotes with them before lowering them again “busy with work, staying late or working on projects. But he was more like the man I had fallen in love with so many years before, and so I overlooked a lot. It was the nights he came in early that I learned to be wary. Those were the nights that I couldn't do anything right, I couldn’t move out of his way fast enough.” She angrily wiped her cheek where a tear had fallen.