Forever Devoted

by Kathleen Brooks

  “Ah, here we go, Dr. Davies. You’re tomorrow morning’s keynote speaker. Be here by eight-thirty; you go on at nine. You’ll be in the main room right there.” The woman pointed to a set of doors and then handed her a tote bag filled with all the materials she’d need for the conference.

  “Thank you.” Layne smiled as she stepped out of line and dug into the bag for her nametag. Yup, time to get used to answering to Dr. Davies. She had completed her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree years ago, or DPT as everyone called her degree, around the same time her cousin Piper received her Ph.D. Only Piper liked to play with viruses and nanotechnology while Layne liked to play with muscles and bones.

  “Dr. Davies!”

  Layne turned as she heard her name called. A group of men walked quickly toward her. Three were around her dad’s age and the one waving was somewhere in his early thirties.

  “I’m so glad we ran into you here. We were just on our way to meet you for brunch. We can walk over together. I’m Dr. Luke Benningford,” the younger man said, holding out his hand.

  “Oh! Well, thank you so much for suggesting me for the keynote. I’m interested to hear what you military doctors are seeing as areas we could work together on,” Layne said, suddenly glad she’d worn one of the new dresses her mom picked out. Hello, Mister Conference Fun. And by the way Luke was checking her out, Layne thought this may be the best conference she’d ever attended.

  * * *

  Walker shook Captain Kyrkos’s hand as Costa smiled and moved in for a hug. Walker wrapped his arms around the little man whom he’d spent the last thirteen days teaching English, and who had kept the infection at bay long enough for Walker to get home.

  “Thank you, both, for saving my life.”

  With one last nod of thanks, Walker limped to the rail, swung a leg over, and climbed down toward the warm waters of Charleston Harbor. With a splash, Walker disappeared into the water before the captain docked his container ship for customs to board.

  It felt good to be home, even if that meant swimming up the Cooper River. He’d grown up swimming these waters. And he knew where weekenders kept their boats. But it wasn’t a boat he was after. Those would be noticed if he took one. No, it was one of those plastic kayaks he wanted.

  Walker kept his stroke steady as he made his way across the river toward the apartments he knew many people stayed at on the weekends. When Walker he dragged himself out of the water, he realized how hurt he’d been, and despite the regimen he’d kept himself on, how out of shape this wound had made him.

  Staggering up the sandy beach, Walker kept his eyes peeled, but no one was around at midnight on a weekday. It was easy to reach the cabana that housed the kayaks and took only seconds to pick the lock—thank you, U.S. Navy, for teaching him that trick. He picked out a dark red boat, and in less than three minutes, was back in the water, happily paddling toward home.

  Walker spent an hour and a half winding his way up the Cooper River until he turned onto a small branch of the river. Shadows Landing wasn’t far at that point. The small offshoot was wide and deep and meandered back to join the Cooper River farther up. That’s what had made it perfect for bootlegging in the old days. Shadows Landing may might be small, but it had a colorful history. More importantly, Gavin’s office and house were located right on the river.

  Walker sniffed the air. He was home. No, it wasn’t the smell of the woods that gave it away, it was the smell of barbeque. The town had a barbeque rivalry to end all rivalries. Walker smiled at the scent. It had been two years since he was last home to visit. His life was in Virginia Beach now, but that hadn’t stopped him from hanging out with Gavin. They met once a month at different beaches along the coast to surf or play golf and get caught up on all the hometown gossip.

  Walker paddled harder as Gavin’s dock came into view. He coasted up to it and reached for the ladder. As soon as his feet were on a rung, he kicked the kayak as hard as he could. The currents would take it back to Charleston.

  Silently, Walker climbed the dock, unscrewed the light in the post to better hide in the shadows, and walked through the dark night to the house. Gavin kept a spare key hidden behind a surfboard bolted to the house with FAULKNER written across it. Reaching under the surfboard, Walker felt around until he found the key.

  Gavin wasn’t married, so that made breaking in easier. No pets. No wife. No problems. Walker closed and locked the door leading into the kitchen before creeping through the house. He found Gavin asleep on the couch with a movie’s credits rolling on the television.

  “Gavin,” Walker hissed, looking around to make sure they really were alone. “Wake up.”

  “Do I have a patient?” Gavin muttered, pulling a blanket tighter around him.

  “No, it’s me, Walker. Wake up. There’s an emergency.”

  Emergency was any doctor’s trigger word. Gavin’s moss green eyes popped open. “Walker? What the hell are you doing here? Alive? In my living room? In the middle of the night?”

  “I’m in trouble,” Walker said. Relief filled him as he sat in his friend’s leather armchair. He finally had someone he could talk to.

  “No shit. There’ve been guys here, looking for you. And the news has been reporting you’re dead for weeks,” Gavin said, jumping up.

  “It took that long to swim the freaking Atlantic Ocean,” Walker said as he closed his eyes and winced as he adjusted his leg.

  “You’re hurt.” Gavin was already heading toward Walker’s leg to examine it.

  “Shot. Weeks ago. By that son of a bitch claiming to be a hero.”

  “Jud Melville shot you?” Gavin exclaimed as he motioned Walker to follow him into his adjoining office.

  “Wait until you hear what else he did.” Walker filled him in on the mission, the rescue, and his time on the Greek boat. By the time Walker was done, so was Gavin. He’d numbed the wound, cleaned it, debrided the lingering infection, and removed the shrapnel lodged in his leg.

  “This Costa did a good job keeping it clean and feeding you antibiotics. Good thing he gave you a tetanus shot, too. Now let’s feed you and think about how to handle this,” Gavin said, holding out his arm to help Walker from the surgical table. What had been a dining room and a formal sitting room had been converted into his offices. The formal sitting room was an exam room and the dining room was a space for performing small surgical procedures. Gavin’s cousin, Ridge, was a builder and had added a reception room on the side of the house, which led into the exam room.

  They hobbled through the door connecting the surgery room to the rest of the house. The morning sunlight warmed the kitchen as Gavin brewed coffee and reheated some leftover pulled pork. “Can I stay here for a while? I need to heal before I can go after Jud and fix all the wrongs he committed.”

  “Of course. Have you called Edie yet?”

  “Not yet. I thought I better be somewhere she could get to me before telling her I was alive.”

  Gavin smiled at that. “She’s a force of nature, that’s for sure. She’d have found a way to helicopter out to you.” His smile slipped. “She called me. She was being pressured to have a service for you—to legally declare you dead. She wouldn’t do it.”

  Walker smiled as the doorbell to the doctor’s office buzzed through the house.

  “I better get that. I’ll be right back.” Gavin wound his way through the house as Walker grabbed a fork and took a big bite of pulled pork.

  “I’m telling you, you have no right to be here and if you don’t leave this instant I’ll call the sheriff.”

  Walker didn’t freeze. He was already moving. He slipped silently into the garage and under Gavin’s sports convertible before he even heard the footsteps he knew would be coming.

  He didn’t have to wait long. Three minutes later the door opened and booted steps stopped near him as the man opened the car door. “I told you, no one is here. The sheriff is on the way.”

  “The sheriff has no jurisdiction here. This is a military matter. You wil
l notify me immediately if you hear anything from Walker Greene,” a voice commanded.

  “Walker Greene is dead. He died a hero. Why are you here?” Gavin demanded.

  “I just need to make sure he’s dead so he can be buried. You never know when there’s a traitor in your midst. This isn’t public, but Walker Greene died a traitor.”

  4

  “We need to get you out of here,” Gavin said ten minutes later while pacing the kitchen.

  “Just give me some supplies. I can hike out and steal a car a couple towns away,” Walker said as he ate quickly.

  “Not with your leg. You need—” Gavin paused and ran to the counter. He shoved some papers around and pulled out a booklet of some kind. “You need someone who specializes in rehabilitating wounds. Someone like this.”

  Gavin slammed the open booklet in front of Walker. He looked at a picture of a striking woman with black hair loosely curled around her shoulders, hazel eyes, and a girl-next-door smile. Under her picture it read, Dr. Layne Davies, DPT.

  “This is the medical conference I’m going to this morning. She’s speaking in two hours.”

  “And you think she’ll help me? Do you know her?”

  “Um,” Gavin stalled. “Not technically. Hold on, I need to call the group.”

  “What do your sister and cousins have to do with this?”

  “Everything,” Gavin said before sending a group text.

  * * *

  “Davies, as in our cousin?” Gavin’s sister, Harper, asked twenty minutes later. Everyone was there except Ryker Faulkner, who worked in Charleston and usually only came home on weekends.

  “That’s what you’re most surprised about after hearing this whole thing?” Wade asked his cousin as he messed with his short, buzzed hair. Trent, Wade’s brother, similarly shook his head at their cousin. “I’ve been asked by the Navy to search all incoming ships for stowaways. Now I know I was looking for my own friend.” Wade was part of the Coast Guard, which was how Gavin knew when he needed to get off the container ship and where to swim to avoid detection.

  “You poor thing,” Tinsley said, squeezing his hand.

  “What can we do?” Tinsley’s brother, Ridge, asked.

  Harper crossed her arms and looked worriedly at her family as Gavin pulled out the family scrapbook. “I know Great-aunt Marcy Faulkner, now Davies, doesn’t want anything to do with us, but maybe this feud she had with our grandfathers and Great-Grammy won’t matter to cousin Layne.”

  “Doesn’t matter to me,” Trent shrugged.

  “Well, it matters to me. Great-Grammy said Marcy chose her husband over her family and didn’t want anything to do with us. Why would this cousin of ours help our friend, someone in a very dangerous situation, when they’ve ignored us our whole lives?” Harped demanded.

  Ridge let out a sigh. “Look, Harper, you’re the youngest and were only ten when Great-Grammy died. She was the only one who made a big deal about it. I asked both my Grandpa Kevin and your Grandpa Scott decades ago, and they said it was just one of those things that happened over time. Marcy was happier in Kentucky and had her own life.”

  “Let’s call them,” Harper insisted.

  “Harper, come on,” Trent snapped. “You know both of them are at the nursing home and don’t need this kind of stress.”

  “The way I see it,” Tinsley said softly, “this isn’t about Layne Davies, our cousin. This is about Dr. Layne Davies, the top doctor of physical therapy for veterans in the country. The real question remains—is there anyone better to take care of Walker?”

  The room was silent. Walker didn’t want to get into the middle of a family feud, but he needed help, and he needed it now. Further, Charleston sounded a lot safer than hanging around here. And, if he were honest, having someone as beautiful as Layne Davies nurse him back to health wasn’t lost on him.

  “She’s the best,” Gavin said simply.

  “Then there’s your answer,” Wade said simply. “I have to go back to the base. You want me to take Walker?”

  Gavin shook his head. “No. I’m scheduled to attend the conference, so no one will question me heading there or talking to Layne.”

  Ridge got up and walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. He picked up a book and headed back into the kitchen. “That guy is still out there.”

  Gavin grimaced and Walker knew what he was going to say before he said it. “How do you feel about riding in the trunk?”

  “No problem. I’ll climb in while you all say a very public goodbye. Thanks for all your help.”

  Tinsley was the first to hug him. “Stay safe. I’ll be thinking of you.”

  “Me too,” Harper said, joining in the hug.

  Wade, Trent, and Ridge shook hands with him as they all walked slowly to the front door. The local anesthesia was wearing off and Walker’s leg throbbed as he made his way to the garage. He hobbled to the trunk and sighed. It was so small. He opened it and shoved things aside before curling up on his side. He had to tuck his knees to his chest to fit. He closed the trunk and sat in the darkness trying not to concentrate on his wound. He heard people talking and then the garage door open from the outside.

  Gavin was still calling out to his family as he got into the convertible and backed out of the garage. He pulled onto the street and then stopped again.

  “Seriously? I’d like to see some identification,” Walker heard Gavin say, his voice tight with barely controlled anger.

  “Where are you going today, Dr. Faulkner?” the same man from before asked.

  “Medical conference. Or maybe I just wear this annoying badge for fun.”

  “Come on, I need to get to the base!” Walker heard Wade yell before honking his horn.

  “Keep a look out for Walker Greene and call me if you see him.”

  “Why would I look for a dead man?” Gavin asked again but didn’t wait for an answer. He gunned his convertible, and at this speed, they’d be in Charleston in no time.

  * * *

  Layne folded up her notes as she answered questions from the doctors surrounding the podium. Her speech had gone very well and the response was better than she’d hoped. Dr. Benningford, or Luke, as he wanted Layne to call him, was beaming proudly beside her.

  Speaking of proud . . . Excellent speech! You nailed it. And who is Luke? Dad! He’d activated the microphone again on her phone, only this time she was glad her parents listened to her speech. But now they had to go. Layne continued to answer questions as she reprogrammed her phone and set new passwords. It wouldn’t keep her dad out forever, but it should hold him the rest of her trip.

  “Let’s get brunch and celebrate,” Luke smiled at her as he placed his hand at the small of her back and guided her around the crowd.

  “I’ll be in the lobby during the break if anyone has any more questions. And my contact info is in the program,” Layne told those still waiting to talk to her.

  “I’d like to join you for brunch if you don’t mind.”

  Layne looked up from resetting the final password on her phone to find a pair of green eyes looking at her. Layne was five foot eight, and this man had to be six foot two. His dark brown hair looked windblown, and unlike Luke, his body was muscled in a natural way that indicated he exercised outside of a gym. God, she loved Charleston. And the accent! That slow seduction sent her stomach flipping.

  “Sure,” Layne smiled as Luke frowned. Competition was good for him. “Layne Davies,” she said, holding out her hand.

  “Dr. Gavin Faulkner. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “You too.” Layne grinned.

  “I don’t know if we can get a table for three,” Luke said, suddenly sounding immature to Layne.

  “I won’t take much of your time. I actually have a case I’d like to discuss with Dr. Davies privately.”

  “Layne, please. My cousin Piper is the doctor in the family,” she said, giving her best flirty smile.

  “Medical?” Gavin asked, seeming to relax.

/>   “PhD. She works with viruses and nanotechnology.”

  “Our table—”

  Layne tried not to snap at Luke so instead she smiled sugar-sweet. He was a southern man. He should get the warning. “Why don’t you get the table, and I’ll be right there after I hear about this case Dr. Faulkner needs my help on.” Luke tightened his jaw, but turned away without complaint. If only he’d chosen to flirt instead of pout, she would have acted on his interest. Now he seemed boyish compared to Gavin.

  “Interesting family you have. A DPT and a PhD,” Gavin said, leading her to a quiet corner of the lobby.

  “Yes. And a big one.” Layne rested her hand on Dr. Hottie’s arm. “But it was really my dad who inspired my work. See, he was in Special Forces when he was younger and taught me firsthand how the injuries soldiers receive are very different than from what a normal ER would see. It really shaped me growing up, and that’s why I do what I do. So, Dr. Faulkner . . . you know, I think I have family around here named that.” She laughed as Gavin paled slightly. No! Oh, no, this couldn’t be happening.

  “Um,” Gavin hedged.

  “Do you have a Marcy Faulkner in your family tree? I can’t remember what her brothers’ names were, but I recall Grandma telling us they were in the Navy.”

  Gavin took a deep breath and Layne felt her stomach preparing to drop. “Actually, I’m your cousin. My Grandpa Scott is your grandmother’s brother.”

  “Shit,” Layne cursed as she felt her stomach plummet.

  Gavin’s face got red as he put his hands on his hips. “Just because you want nothing to do with us doesn’t mean we’re bad people. And I have someone who needs serious help, so I won’t let this stupid feud prevent him from getting the help he needs.”

  Layne stopped shaking her head and held up her hand to stop his rant. “Wait, what? Grandma always hoped to know you. She made my uncles look you up online. It was your grandfather, great-uncle, and especially our great-grandmother, who didn’t want to have anything to do with my grandmother.”