by J. L. Drake
A glance at the clock shows it’s two a.m. Sleep just doesn’t seem to be happening for me. My bags are packed with everything Abigail got for me when I arrived at the house, and they are already loaded in the SUV. I’m not supposed to leave until tomorrow afternoon, but I need to get out now. Cole won’t speak or even look at me, and the pain is becoming too much to bear. I just want to leave now. Yes, I’m running, but this time I can’t help it. Dressing quickly and making the bed, I take one last look around my room, remembering the first day I arrived here. How scared I was, how lonely I felt. I didn’t think I was going to make it. I remember the first time Cole touched me, kissed me, and made love to me in the shower. A small smile comes to my lips saying goodbye, because if I don’t smile, I’ll cry, and I’m not ready to yet.
My boots seem loud as I walk down the hallway. I grab a pair of car keys out of John’s jacket but quickly tuck them back in when I see headlights light up the entryway. I step outside just as the passenger window rolls down. I know who it is; he must have been waiting. I climb in the front seat, giving Keith a guilty smile.
“I knew you’d leave in the night.” He turns the heated seats up and heads for the first gate. I watch as the massive cabin that was once my safe house grows smaller in the mirror. A part of my heart wants to run back…but it wants Cole, not the house. But he doesn’t want me.
“Say something funny,” I mutter to Keith, who squints as he tries to figure my headspace.
“Umm,” he moves his eyes back and forth while he tries to think, “like what?”
I stare at the woods whipping by the window, and suddenly it comes to me.
“Is Code Forty-Five a real code?”
Keith chuckles quietly. “A few years ago, we had a case where we were retrieving five women out of a drug mule container just over the border of Texas and Mexico. We had a meet-up with one of our teams that’s mainly stationed in TJ. They had a new recruit with them, and, well, three days camping out on a mountain ridge will make you go a little squirrely.” He moves his gaze to the mirror and makes sure I’m still listening.
“The kid thought he knew everything about being on our teams. By now, you should how well Cole likes cocky people.” He turns with a shit-eating grin. “So, we messed with him a little. When we headed back to Washington to give our statements and whatnot, Frank tested what he learned out in the field.” Keith pauses to laugh. “It took everything in our power not to burst out in laughter as he explained to Frank that he Code Forty-Fived one of the women.”
“What did Frank do?”
“He asked him to explain what the hell he was talking about, and the kid just went on and on about all these codes he was taught.” He drops his head forward and hits the steering wheel as the memory lives on inside him. I smirk a little. If this story was told any other time, I’m sure I would see the full humor in it.
“But I guess the joke is on us.” Keith clears his throat to regain his composure. “We used it so much for a laugh that now we use it as an actual code.”
I fold my arms, slightly unamused with his story. “Have you used it on anyone else besides me?”
I can see his cheeks puff out like he is grinning.
“You guys suck.”
“Maybe,” he catches my gaze in the mirror again, “but it made you laugh, so…” He shrugs.
True. We settle back into our silence, and I let my mind move back to my heartbreak.
I force my eyes to look forward. I must move forward and not look back.
Cole
Cole sits on the edge of the bed, gripping the unopened letter from Christina. He knows what it says, what they always say. She wants him back, they are perfect for one another, and she can’t live without him. The fact that she gave it to Savannah makes him uneasy. He doesn’t trust Christina, and her behavior is becoming more aggressive. No doubt she was hoping Savannah would read the letter. She’d fed her a fake dinner story as it was. He wants to toss it in the fire and watch those memories of her burn away, but something stops him, and he decides to keep it along with all the others as evidence in case she tries to pull something later.
“Knock, knock,” his mother whispers at his open door. She is wearing her robe. “May I?”
“Sure.” He watches her as she makes her way across the room and takes a seat in his leather chair next to the fire, warming her hands with a little sigh.
“Please don’t be upset with me for helping Savannah find an apartment.”
Cole tosses the letter on his nightstand and leans back against his headboard. “I’m not angry. I’m just hurt that she wants to leave me. We worked so hard to stay together, and the first moment she gets a chance to leave, she takes it.”
“You think that’s what happened?” she asks, shaking her head. “Dear, she didn’t want to leave, she had to leave.”
Cole makes a face, not following.
“We had a long talk over lunch today. She loves you more than anything, Cole. She left because she was feeling lost within herself. She left so she could make herself stronger so both of you could work as a couple. Don’t be selfish with her. She needs this time to find out who she is.”
Cole closes his eyes; he’s such an asshole. This is the second time he’s let his emotions get the better of him, and he lashed out at her. “I thought she was breaking up with me earlier, so I did it first,” he says softly, covering his face in shame. Fuck.
“Well, that explains it. Oh, dear, you have so much to learn about women.” She whistles and leans back in the seat.
Cole swings his legs off the bed. “Explains what?”
“Why she left in the middle of the night.”
“What?” he nearly shouts. “She’s gone?”
His mother moves to sit next to him. “Keith took her.” She places her hand on his knee, stopping him before he interrupts. “Give her a few days, Cole. Let her settle in, then go make it up to her. She’s not going anywhere. Remember, we have eyes and ears all over that town. She’ll be all right.”
Cole stares at the fire, listening to his mother and knowing she is right, but his gut is telling him to run to her, wanting to hold her tight and keep her safe.
“Your father and I are incredibly proud of the man you’ve become, Cole, but love is fragile, and sometimes you need to leave it alone before you can hold it again.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing, Mom.”
“I know, but that’s why we’re here to help.” She gently rubs his back like she used to do when he was a boy. They sit for a long time, listening to the fire pop as he slowly relaxes and lets the realization settle that Savannah needs space from the house, from the guys, from him.
“She’s my everything,” he finally says with a catch in his voice. “I love her, Mom.”
“I know you do, son.” She kisses his cheek softly. “And you’ll get her back.”
“Yeah, I will.”
The End
Want to read the next installment of the
Broken Trilogy?
Click HERE.
Mended
J.L. Drake
Acknowledgments
A huge thank you to Corporal George Myatte and Officer Darcy Wood.
For the rewrite of this book, I want to give a special thanks to the following:
Kim Kelchner
Vanessa Webb
Shauna Casey
Jill Chamness
Steve Chamness
Elizabeth Clark
Shannan Sanders
Katherine Losavio
Melissa Cooke
Tammy Abercromby
Elissa Nelson
Rhiannon Lambert
Donna Latham
and so many others…
About the Author
J.L. Drake was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, later moving to Southern California where she now lives with her husband and two children.
When she is not writing, she loves to spend time with her family, traveling or just enjoying a night
at home. One thing you might notice in her books is her love of the four seasons. Growing up on the east coast of Canada, the change in the seasons is in her blood and is often mentioned in her writing.
An avid reader of James Patterson, J.L. Drake has frequently found herself inspired by his many stories of mystery and intrigue. She hopes you will enjoy her books as much as she has enjoyed writing them.
Social Media Links
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Goodreads
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8300313.J_L_Drake
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Novels by the Author
Broken (Book One, Broken Trilogy)
Shattered (Book Two, Broken Trilogy)
Mended (Book Three, Broken Trilogy)
Honor (Book 1, Blackstone Series)
Escape (Book 2, Blackstone Series)
Freedom (Book 3, Blackstone Series)
Trigger (Book 1, Devil’s Reach Trilogy)
Demons (Book 2, Devil’s Reach Trilogy)
Unleashed (Book 3, Devil’s Reach Trilogy)
Darkness Lurks (Book One, Darkness Trilogy)
Darkness Follows (Book Two, Darkness Trilogy)
Darkness Falls (Book Three, Darkness Trilogy)
Bunker 219 (Unleash the Undead, Anthology)
Code Of Silence (My Mobster)
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