Fool Me Once

by Ash, Nikki

  Keegan

  “She’s gone!” Sierra yells. “She told me she’d wait for me right outside of the bathroom and she wasn’t there. I called her phone and she didn’t answer. Where is she?” The panic in her voice has me jumping to my feet. My first instinct is to call her. When she doesn’t answer, I check the GPS I still have on her phone. It shows her traveling away from the club. There’s no way she would leave without us.

  “Let’s go!” I yell, already running for the door to my truck. I don’t know how long the GPS is going to work, how long whoever took her will go without realizing she still has her phone, and I’m not going to wait around here to find out. We jump into my truck and I take off in the direction the vehicle is going.

  “She’s still not answering,” Sierra says.

  “Don’t call her!” I shout a bit too loud. “Don’t call her,” I repeat again. “If it goes off, even a vibration, whoever took her will get rid of it and then I won’t have any way to find her.”

  “I’ll call Dad,” Kolton says.

  “Tell him to send someone over to Brenton’s place. The GPS says she’s going north. And tell him to put someone on Mom and Zane. Make sure they’re okay.”

  “Brenton lives south,” Kolton states.

  “I know, but if he’s home, it will rule out him taking her.”

  “Who else would’ve taken her?” Sierra asks.

  “Miguel Sanchez and Maxwell Travers are both locked up. Either of them could’ve had someone pick her up to send a message.” I slam my fist against the steering wheel. “Fuck! I should’ve had someone watching her tonight. I thought she’d be okay because she was with me.”

  “Bro,” Kolton says, “don’t go there.” But it’s too late because I’ve already gone there.

  Kolton explains to our dad what’s happened and he says he’ll call back once he knows anything. With me doing over a hundred, I’m catching up, but whoever has her must be flying as well because I’m not catching up fast enough.

  We drive in silence for a few minutes, none of us having a clue what to say, until Kolton’s phone rings. He puts it on speaker phone.

  “Your mom and Zane are okay. Duncan is with them now. Brenton’s apartment is empty, though. The furniture is all there, but it’s been completely cleaned out of his possessions.”

  “He has her,” I say out loud. “I’m only about a quarter of a mile behind her phone.” And then a thought hits me that if I wasn’t sitting, would knock me down. “What if he set up a decoy? What if I’m following her phone but not her?”

  “Son…” Dad starts, but his words are cut off by Sierra screaming.

  “Oh my God! Look!” Our eyes fly to the side as a small vehicle swerves off the road and hits the ditch. It flips a few times and then lands in the water. It takes a second for my brain to catch up to what I already know.

  “That’s Brenton’s car. Dad! We need an ambulance stat!” I glance down at the GPS and read off our location before tossing the phone to Sierra. “Stay on the phone with him.” I pull over on the side of the road, grab my Life Hammer, and jump out of my truck. Kolton and I run straight over to where the car is submerged under the water. We had a bad storm last week and the ditches are all full. Luckily, when it flipped, it landed upright, so even though I can see there’s water leaking in, part of the windows are still visible.

  We both jump into the water and head to the vehicle. Figuring he more than likely put her in the back, I smash out the back window. Sure enough, she’s in the car and in the back seat. Because the car isn’t completely submerged yet, her head is bobbing just over the top of the water. Her eyes are wide with fear, and her mouth… holy fuck! Her mouth is taped up.

  I rip the tape off her mouth and she lets out a loud cry. “Keegan!”

  “I got you, baby.” I can’t open the door, though, because of how much the car is already filled with water. “Can you climb through the window?”

  “My-my hands.” She cries. “They’re tied up, but I was able to undo my seat belt.” Her hair is drenched and matted to her face. “I almost drowned.” Her words have me wanting to find Brenton and kill him… which reminds me. “Kolton, you need to get Brenton out.”

  “What?” he asks like he didn’t hear me.

  “Go help him,” I demand. I took an oath when I became a police officer, and that oath means something to me. Which means, even though I would like nothing more than to see that asshole die, it’s not my place to let it happen.

  Reaching into the window, I use my Life Hammer to cut the rope on Blakely’s wrists so she’s free, and then I remove my shirt and place it over the broken window so I can help her climb out. Once she’s out, I pick her up and carry her to a dry piece of land, where Sierra is waiting.

  “Keegan!” Kolton screams, and I look over at him. “He’s not here!”

  “What?” I yell back.

  “He’s not in the car.”

  “You sure?” I consider going to check for myself, but there’s no way I’m leaving Blakely and Sierra.

  And then I hear something behind me. I turn slowly, a feeling of dread hitting me like a semi going a hundred in the wrong lane, right at me.

  “Don’t move!” Brenton yells. He’s holding my gun in his hands, pointing it at me. His clothes are drenched, and there’s a huge gash on his forehead.

  Blakely gasps, and Sierra yells.

  And then a gunshot goes off.

  Brenton hits the ground, and the gun he was holding flies through the air, landing a few feet away from him.

  I run over and grab the gun as Kolton joins me.

  “I didn’t know you had your gun on you,” I tell Kolton.

  “Always. My brother taught me that.”

  I check out where he hit Brenton to see if he’s alive and unconscious, or if he’s dead. The bullet went straight through his heart. “He’s dead.”

  Keegan

  One Month Later

  “Daddy! It’s him!” Zane yells, pointing his finger to the massive rectangular yellow sponge-looking thing. We’ve spent the last week in Orlando, visiting every park at Disney and then making our way through Universal. Of course, the SpongeBob area is the last thing to be seen, so Zane has been asking every thirty seconds all day long if it’s time yet. We probably should’ve walked the other way around the park, but Blakely wanted to make sure we hit all the rides before the wait became too long. Next time, we’ll start with the big sponge guy.

  “That’s him, bud,” I agree. Zane stops in his place and Blakely snorts out a laugh. We both thought for sure Zane would run straight for the big guy, but he’s not. He’s standing in his spot, frozen in place. “You want to get in line to meet him?”

  Zane looks up at me with wide eyes and nods slowly. The kid is starstruck. “Yes,” he whispers. “Will you go with me?” He raises his hand to hold mine and I take it. Being a father is without a doubt the best job I could ever have.

  We get in line and when it’s our turn, Zane walks up to SpongeBob and gives him the most adorable hug. Blakely snaps a million pictures while I stand next to Zane, holding his autograph book for him until he’s ready for it.

  “I love you so much,” he tells SpongeBob. Of course, the guy can’t talk, so he just pats his back and poses for some pictures.

  Zane takes the book from me and SpongeBob stamps his signature on the page. Zane’s grin is so bright it could light up the dark sky.

  “It’s the best day ever!” Zane sings, trying to sound like SpongeBob does when he sings the song, as we walk out of the park and toward the parking garage.

  Blakely thinks we’re going home, but she doesn’t know we’re really heading back to where everything began. When we arrive she gives me a curious look. “I thought we could stop here for dinner. Go back to where it all started.”

  Blakely smiles. “Sounds good.” Holding my hand, while Zane runs ahead, we head down to the beach.

  “I got into the master’s program,” Blakely says. I already know this since I
saw the papers on her desk. I also already paid for her first semester. I saw the options she requested, such as working on campus and taking out loans. That’s not happening.

  “Congratulations, Jailbird.” I pull her into my side and kiss her temple. “You’re going to make a great guidance counselor.”

  “Look, there’s Auntie Sierra and Uncle Kolton!” Zane yells. Blakely moves away from my side to find them since she wasn’t aware our family would be here, and I use that moment to take the ring box out of my pocket.

  “I didn’t know you’d be here!” Blakely hugs her sister. Kolton nods once and walks around the girls to stand beside me. I look around the women to make sure our parents are also here. They are, and my mom is recording on her phone.

  Kolton and I each get down on one knee and wait for the girls to notice. Blakely turns around first to look for me, and when she sees what’s happening, her hands fly up to her face. Tears trickle down her beautiful cheeks. Sierra hears her sister sniffle and turns around as well, mimicking Blakely’s reaction.

  “Jailbird,” I begin. “I knew from the moment my football knocked your book into the water right here on this beach you were the one for me.” She laughs at my words through her cries. “This has been four years in the making. The football, the faulty condom.” I wink and everyone laughs. “Losing your number. Running into you on campus. We’ve been through a lot to get here, but I believe everything we went through brought us to this moment, so I could ask you to become my wife and spend your life with me.”

  I stop speaking, so Kolton can continue.

  “Sierra,” he begins. “Unlike my brother, fate wasn’t what brought us together. It was you in that sexy outfit, refusing to give me the time of day at Orange Sunrise.”

  Sierra cracks up laughing.

  “I walked in to grab lunch and the moment I saw you I knew I had to have you. You blew me off several times, but I knew if I kept trying, you’d give in.” He smiles wide, making everyone laugh. “And you did.”

  Sierra rolls her eyes, and Blakely giggles.

  Kolton continues. “My brother and I are two of the luckiest fucking guys…”

  “Ohhh, Uncle Kolton cursed!” Zane yells.

  Kolton shakes his head. “Sorry, little man. We’re the luckiest guys in the world to have you two by our sides and we’d be fools not to make sure you’re ours forever. So, Sierra Jacobs, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

  “Blakely Jacobs, will you marry me?” I ask Blakely right after Kolton finishes.

  Both girls nod and screech at the same time. We open our ring boxes and stand. I slide Blakely’s on her ring finger and Kolton does the same.

  “Yes,” Blakely whispers. “Yes, I will marry you. And it’s a good thing too because I’m pregnant.” I don’t think she means for everyone to hear, but Sierra gasps.

  “You’re pregnant?” I glance down at her flat stomach.

  “Yep, only a month along.”

  “I am too!” Sierra admits out loud. “I’m a month along.”

  The two girls throw themselves at each other, hugging and crying and laughing as my parents walk over and congratulate all of us on our engagements and baby news.

  Eventually Blakely makes her way back over to me. She wraps her arms around my neck and presses her lips to mine. “Thank you, Keegan. For loving me and finding your way back to me. For giving me a family. I love you.”

  “It wasn’t me, Jailbird. It was fate.”

  The End!

  Other Books by Nikki Ash

  The Fighting Series

  Fighting for a Second Chance (Secret baby)

  Fighting with Faith (Secret baby)

  Fighting for Your Touch

  Fighting for Your Love (Single mom)

  Fighting ‘round the Christmas Tree: A Fighting Series Novel

  Fighting Love Series

  Tapping Out (Secret baby)

  Clinched (Single dad)

  Takedown (Single mom)

  Imperfect Love Series

  The Pickup (Secret baby)

  Going Deep (Enemies to Lovers)

  On the Surface (Second chance, single dad)

  Stand-alone Novels

  Bordello (Mob romance)

  Knocked Down (Single dad)

  Unbroken Promises (Friends to lovers)

  Through His Eyes (Single mom, age gap)

  Clutch Player

  Fool Me Once

  Co-written novels

  Heath (Modern telling)

  Hidden Truths (Romantic suspense)

  Stolen Lies (Romantic suspense)

  Acknowledgements

  First and foremost, I need to thank my children. For being my biggest fans. For supporting my love and need to write. For talking plot with me and helping to approve every cover. I wouldn’t be able to do this without you two. A huge thank you to everyone involved in making this book the amazing story that it is—thank you for taking this journey with me! Ashley, Stacy, Brittany, Andrea, Lisa, Laurie, and Nancy, thank you! Juliana, thank you for making another gorgeous cover and for making the inside just as gorgeous! Emily, thank you for making this book perfect. Taylor, thanking for capturing the beautiful pictures for the cover. Kristi, thank you for listening to me every single day. For showing me what true friendship means. A huge thank you to the bloggers, who continue to take a chance on me. There are thousands of authors, and it means the world to me that you choose to read and review and share my work. Thank you to my Fight Club peeps! You are my safe place. Thank you for riding along on this journey with me. And last but not least, a huge thank you to my readers, you are the reason I get to continue to write books. Thank you!

  About the Author

  Nikki Ash resides in South Florida where she is an English teacher by day and a writer by night. When she’s not writing, you can find her with a book in her hand. From the Boxcar Children, to Wuthering Heights, to the latest single parent romance, she has lived and breathed every type of book. While reading and writing are her passions, her two children are her entire world. You can probably find them at a Disney park before you would find them at home on the weekends!

  Reading is like breathing in, writing is like breathing out.– Pam Allyn

  Contact Nikki Ash

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  Amazon * Website * Nikki Ash’s reader group

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