Retaliate

by Kristin Harte

  I was back in the kitchen making another cup of tea when the feeling of being watched washed over me. I glanced at my phone on the counter, remembering how Bishop had said to call him if anything seemed wrong, but I didn’t reach for it. Not yet, at least. I was an independent woman who’d lived on her own for years in a bigger, meaner city than Justice would ever be. So instead, I walked over to the windows, looking out into the rainy gloom of the early evening.

  Nothing to see but water.

  “Stupid, silly girl.” Still, the feeling refused to let me go. Anxious, scattered, and slightly jumpy, I nearly screamed when the kettle began to whistle. I rushed to the stove to turn the water off. Instead of feeding into the silly fear making my heart pound, I poured the water into my tea press, watching the leaves dance over the little filter. Starting to count to get just the right brew. When I reached the two-minute mark, I poured the tea into my mug before turning around. The deck of tarot cards called to me, sitting there all neat and tidy. Waiting for me to pull and read them.

  “Just one,” I said, reaching for the deck and giving myself over to my instincts. I pulled a single card, one that sent a shiver up my spine, before turning it around.

  Death.

  I never liked pulling the death card during a reading, but most people reacted to the name and didn’t listen to the truth behind it. The death card didn’t signify a loss of life—it meant an end to something. A phase of transition. In the picture on the face, the sky was not completely black but gray, and the sun had not yet set. It was a card that spoke of a definite ending and an elimination of much of the past. It signified the death of the way things had been.

  The only thought in my head as I stared at that card was Bishop. My relationship with him. Our past. I’d never told him why I left. Maybe that’s what the card meant. An opening up of my soul for Bishop to judge. An ending to missing him and wanting him back.

  A true ending to our relationship.

  That thought had me tossing the card toward the rest of the deck and stepping away from the counter…

  And promptly spilling hot tea all over myself when I saw a man’s face staring back at me through the kitchen window.

  Chapter Eight

  Bishop

  The planning session for how we’d handle Miss’ funeral and the grand opening at The Baker’s Cottage ran a lot longer than I’d expected. Alder had wanted Camden involved, even though his drinking had gotten a bit out of control. I figured my brother assumed keeping a solid eye on Camden would help him somehow. I also figured Camden showed up to make Alder happy, but that he didn’t want to be there. He sat at the back of the room, silent, curled in on himself. Not interacting with anyone. The man was a walking train wreck, and I didn’t know how to help him. If we could at all.

  “What about the rain?” Jackson, the mill’s lead silviculturist—the guy who made sure we left the forests we harvested healthier than when we started working there—hollered from the back after Alder had laid out plans for coverage, protection, and shift changes.

  Every eye in the room locked in on my brother. The rain, and the possibility of flooding, seemed to be a much bigger worry to the town than the Soul Suckers, something I normally would have agreed with…except there was a red-haired woman I couldn’t keep my mind off of. One who lived all alone in a house on a ridge right in the middle of the shitstorm the Soul Suckers had started. Even though she wanted nothing from me, she had somehow become my biggest worry.

  “Wear protective gear and watch for cars or trucks you don’t recognize at either site. These guys won’t be driving in on bikes. I also want eyes watching for the sheriff. We need to know if he crosses into town as well,” Alder said, his voice leaving no room for argument. “I know we’ve got issues right now with the rain, guys. But Anabeth and Katie need this, so we’re going to pull through for them. Once we put Miss Hansen in the ground tomorrow and get through this grand opening thing the next night, we can focus on the flooding. Because it will flood—there’s no doubt. Two creeks have already spilled over.”

  The guys all mumbled agreements, talking softly to one another as Alder ended the meeting and sent us on our way. My way happened to overlap with Gage’s, seeing as he was staying at my house. I hadn’t talked to him much in the last few days, though. Somewhat intentionally.

  “You never told me about Anabeth,” Gage said as we reached my truck. Starting the conversation I knew he’d want to have. He hopped into the passenger side, Rex jumping in right after him to settle at his feet. The beast brought quite the aroma of wet dog with him. My truck would reek of that for days. A small irritation in comparison to how I felt talking about Anabeth to anyone, including my best friend.

  “Wasn’t much to tell.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Totally. “She was my girlfriend when I was in college.”

  “Finn said you wanted to marry her.”

  I’d bought a ring and everything, but that wasn’t anyone’s business. And I was going to kill my brother. “I did. At one time. But that didn’t work out.”

  “Too bad. She’s got killer legs.”

  The truck lurched to the side as I spun toward him, thankfully not sending us careening off the road. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  If that bastard thought for one second he could make a play for my girl…

  “Nothing,” he said, shrugging and looking like he’d just pulled one over on me. Which he likely had. “I just really wanted to comment on her legs.”

  To get a rise out of me. The asshole. Not that I wouldn’t have done the same thing to him. “That mutt is going to make my truck stink.”

  “Don’t take out your anger on Rex, man. It’s not his fault you can’t climb between those long, soft legs again.”

  Without taking my eyes off the road, I punched him in the shoulder. He just grunted and laughed. He didn’t push, though. Didn’t poke or prod me for more information. He accepted what I said and what I didn’t without judgment. Like a good friend would.

  We made it to my place quickly enough, each jumping out of the truck and walking the perimeter of the house once I’d parked. We didn’t need directions or plans—we’d done this a million times while serving together and since he’d moved to Justice. Verifying a location’s security was practically habit.

  Once we’d met back up at the front porch, I took my phone out of my pocket and followed Gage as he opened the door. I still needed to check my work emails before I could call it a day, and I had a serious need to call Anabeth. Just to check on her. Make sure she was okay. Because I was a huge sucker when it came to that girl. Maybe I’d do that last so I wouldn’t feel like such a needy little prick. Maybe I’d do it first to get it over with.

  Fuck, when did dealing with women get so difficult?

  The text alert on my phone went off as I stepped inside. I nearly smiled when I saw Anabeth’s name on my screen. Maybe she’d been thinking of me as much as I’d been thinking of her. She’d reached out—that had to be a good sign. More than the nothing she’d claimed to have wanted from me.

  I swiped faster than normal, annoyingly excited at the thought that she’d missed me. But the moment I read her message, the roaring of my blood pounding in my ears nearly drowned out everything else. Not a good sign. Not at all.

  “What is it?” Gage asked, looking more than just a little concerned. I tossed him the phone as I rushed to the closet where I’d been keeping a small bag of supplies—night vision goggles, a few select guns, ammunition, and a couple of grenades—in case I needed to go hard and fast.

  Anabeth’s short, simple message of there’s a man outside watching me meant I needed to go as hard and fast as possible.

  “Motherfucker,” Gage said with a growl in his voice. I felt no need to respond—that was an understatement, and he knew it.

  “You carrying?” I sighted down my favorite pistol—a Colt M1911 semiautomatic—and tucked it into my shoulder holster before tossing the bag over my sho
ulder.

  “Always. Let’s go.” Gage whistled to Rex as I raced out into the rain, slamming the door closed behind him and following me to my truck. We were back inside the cab and screaming down the road within seconds, but it still wasn’t fast enough. Nothing would have been fast enough, considering. And the fucking rain making the roads slick and the drive more treacherous than usual certainly wasn’t helping.

  “She’s all alone up there,” I said before slamming my fist against the wheel as I once again had to slow down for a curve.

  Gage stared out the windshield, focused and solid. “We’ll get there.”

  My heart leaped as I curled my hand into a fist again. Yeah, we’d get there. Except he’d said the same thing when we’d heard Camden’s house was burning and were trying hard to get there in time. That hadn’t turned out so well for the woman inside the house…or the man who loved her.

  “Plan?” Gage asked as I made the turn onto the road leading to Widow’s Ridge. Water from the creek flowed over part of it, but I flew through the mess, gripping the wheel tight as I lost traction. Another couple inches, and that section would likely be impassible. But not yet. Didn’t matter if I hydroplaned up the fucking mountain—I would be getting up that fucking road.

  Once my tires gripped hard ground again, I hit the gas and roared up the steep, gravel path to the Hansen place. “I’ll secure Anabeth. You watch my back and do a preliminary perimeter check in case I need to pull her out.” I shook my head, unable to stop thinking of the worst. Of Leah and that fire. Of Anabeth burning. “I’m going in no matter what.”

  Gage grunted, probably thinking the same thoughts I was. Remembering the same night. And knowing, no matter how hot things were about to get, I was going after my girl.

  “We’ll get her out,” he said roughly before thumping the dashboard with his fist. “No matter what, we’ll get her out of there.”

  Yeah, we would. The only question was if she would be alive and whole when we pulled her out or not.

  But as we crested the last hill before her place, I spotted the house through the trees. No smoke. No fire. The relief at that fact was almost enough to make me relax.

  Almost.

  “Get ready,” I told Gage, not that I needed to. He’d already taken off his seat belt and was sitting almost sideways on the seat, hand on the door handle, ready to rush into the fight.

  As soon as I came to a stop in Anabeth’s driveway, I threw my door open and jumped out of the truck, not even bothering to pull my keys from the ignition. My feet slipped in the mud on my way to her door, but I pushed through. Running hard, racing toward the porch and praying with everything I had that she was okay. That the house was still secure and she was inside alone.

  Anabeth opened the door as I hit the porch, looking pale and shaky. Terrified. And in that moment, something broke inside of me. Something that had been holding me back. Something that made me understand how much this woman still meant to me and always would.

  I lifted her up in a hug as I rushed inside, pulling her right off her feet and holding her tightly to my chest. “You okay?”

  She clung to me, trembling. “Yeah, just…uneasy.”

  Thank the fucking stars. I set her down on her feet again, knowing I needed to get to work. “All right, then. We’re going to check things out. Where’d you see him?”

  “Through the kitchen window.”

  Backside of the house. That would help us narrow our search. “Stay right here and lock up after me.”

  But the blatant fear on her face killed me. I couldn’t leave her that way. Without a second thought, I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers, sliding my tongue into her mouth when she gasped and kissing her with everything I had. Everything I needed. Everything I’d fucking missed for the last fourteen years. I kissed her with my heart and soul on my sleeve, and she responded just as strong. As deep. Wrapping her arms around my neck and holding me against her. Slipping her tongue against mine and moaning softly when I grabbed her ass to get a better hold on her. To change my angle so I could own that damn kiss.

  She’d initiated the kiss in her driveway, but this time, it was all me. All my needs and wants. I laid everything out with that kiss. Bared my soul through action and not words. But I had to break the connection, had to get to work. Because someone had been stupid enough to come for my girl, and that couldn’t be ignored.

  “I have to go,” I murmured against her lips, stealing one more peck before letting her go. “Stay inside and lock the fucking door. Gage and I will be back as soon as we check the perimeter.”

  Anabeth nodded, her lips dark pink and swollen from my kiss. Her eyes a little more hooded and a lot less afraid. Good. Just what I wanted.

  Anxious to get this over with, I grabbed my pistol from my shoulder holster and ran back outside to find and kill the fucker who had dared to threaten her with his presence. Gage stood on the front steps, looking out into the rain with his gun drawn and ready.

  “We good?” he asked, not looking over his shoulder at me. Not needing to.

  “She saw him through the kitchen window, which is at the back. Let’s do this.”

  I followed Gage off the porch and into the rain. We crept around the house quickly, our guns drawn and Rex slinking along at our heels. The evening had fallen fast, the clouds blocking out the last of the sunlight, so there wasn’t much to see. Shadows upon shadows—no footprints, no trespasser, no sign of anything wrong. At least, not until we hit the back porch.

  “Mud,” Gage said, pointing his gun at the spots leading to the kitchen window…and then past it to the back door. The screen sat open an inch or so, and there was what looked like a wet handprint on the glass in the door itself. I stared at that print, seeing exactly what had happened—right hand on the glass to push, left working the knob to release the latch. The old door wasn’t steel or reinforced, and the lockset had definitely seen better days. One good shoulder bump was all it would have taken. And my guess was, the fucker knew it.

  “He tried to get in.” My blood roiled, crashing into my heart with every pump.

  Gage grunted. “But he didn’t force it. Why not? A woman home alone would have been easy prey. What made him stop?”

  Prey. My girl as prey. I stared at that door, at that handprint, trying to work it out myself. Trying to think like a sick, soulless criminal.

  Like the kind of bastards who would set a house on fire knowing a woman slept inside it.

  “Orders,” I said, the pieces falling together in my mind. “He wasn’t here for her. He had other orders.”

  “Even orders won’t stop someone forever.” Gage looked out past the porch into the dark, rainy night. “We need to search the woods.”

  “We need to get a team up here first. We can’t search and keep Anabeth safe.”

  He didn’t challenge me, knowing I was right. Probably also knowing there was no fucking way I was leaving her alone right then. The need to protect her overrode my desire to find the bastard who’d been watching. Who’d had an opportunity to do some serious damage but didn’t take it.

  We wouldn’t get that lucky twice.

  I led the way back around the house, getting wetter by the second. I stopped and checked every window for any signs of tampering, hoping like hell this guy would pop out of the dark so I could take care of him. No dice, though. Fucking coward had probably either run or hidden when he saw us pull up, if he’d still been on the property at all. A thought which sent my mind spinning. How long had he watched Anabeth? How many windows had he peeped through? And how likely was he to come back and disobey whatever orders he’d been following?

  Likely, was my guess. Very likely. Which meant we couldn’t just let him disappear into the woods without a chase.

  We reached the front porch in almost no time, both of us soaked to the skin and probably looking like drowned rats. Not that it mattered—even the cold couldn’t get to me in that moment. I had enough rage and fear running through my body to keep me warm. I a
lso had a woman on the other side of the door who needed me to protect her. A little water wouldn’t stop me from that, but we definitely needed backup.

  “Call my brother. Get his ass up here,” I said to Gage as I knocked on the front door. Anabeth opened it slowly, looking behind me before pulling it wide. Smart girl. “He was on your back porch. We’re calling for backup before we go into the woods to track him. Have you been out there today?”

  Her hands shook, and she seemed to grow even paler. “I never go into those woods.”

  That struck me as off—she used to. Back when we were together, we’d spent many an afternoon out in those woods. We’d had our first kiss out there, had lost our virginity to each other out there. She’d loved exploring them then. And me. And us. Something had changed, but I didn’t have the time to figure out what just then.

  “Good. Stay out of them unless I’m with you, okay?”

  She looked us up and down, her eyes going wide as she took a step back. “You’re soaked. Get in here and warm up.”

  I shook my head. “We’ll make a mess if we—”

  “Bishop Kennard, get your ass in this house and out of the rain. You too, Gage. Please.”

  The two of us stepped inside as she disappeared down the hall. She came back a few seconds later holding a towel in each hand.

  “Here,” she said. “I don’t have any clothes that might fit you, but you can at least dry off a little.”

  “Thanks.” I ran the towel over my hair, scrubbing hard to pull as much water out as possible. Gage did the same, though he had a lot more hair to deal with.

  “Bishop,” Anabeth whispered once I dropped my arm, her eyes locked on me. Her hands clasped together. She nearly vibrated with tension, with a need for something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. At least not until she inched forward. Staring at my chest. At my arms.

  “I’m soaked. I’ll make you wet and cold if I hold you right now.”

  Anabeth shook her head, still unable to meet my eyes. “I don’t care.”