by Melody Anne
“Paul, my friend, I’m innocent. I was hurt and upset when this all began, upset that someone would accuse me of ever putting my team at risk, but I think I will be cleared of all wrongdoing,” Nick said.
Paul’s frown deepened.
“Nick, you aren’t a stupid man, so pull your head out of your ass,” Paul snapped. His words took Nick slightly aback and his smile dimmed.
“It’s not that I don’t realize how serious this all is,” Nick assured him. “It’s just that I know when it comes down to it, my commanders, my peers, my friends, and my family will all testify to my ethics. There is one person saying they saw me drinking. I can bring in a thousand who will say that would never happen.”
Paul sighed. “The judge has it out for you,” he said.
That stopped what Nick had been about to say. He frowned at Paul as he searched his mind for a possible enemy working in the JAG system. He had no clue.
“What’s his name?” Nick asked.
“Judge Robert Williams.”
“I don’t understand. I don’t recognize the name,” Nick said.
“From what I’ve found, he has a vendetta against your family. I have also been told―but can’t prove this―that he does whatever he’s told by Mitch Reynolds.”
That stopped Nick in his tracks. The name was too much of a coincidence. “Reynolds?” Nick questioned.
“Yes, and from what I’ve heard, neither of them like you,” Paul said.
“Why?” Nick asked. None of this made sense.
“I don’t know what the vendetta is about. Maybe you can speak to your family about this and figure it out, but when we met last week, Judge Williams made it abundantly clear to me that this would go to trial, that your name wasn’t going to get you out of this one,” Paul said.
“My name?” Nick felt as if he were in an alternate universe. “What in the hell does my name have to do with anything?”
“You need to talk to your family. We might be able to get this thrown out if it’s a witch hunt,” Paul said.
Nick was silent for several minutes as he sat back and tried to fit the pieces of this puzzle together. He had no idea what was going on. He didn’t like the feeling.
“Paul, does this Reynolds man have family?” Nick didn’t want to ask the question. He was sure it was nothing more than a coincidence. It couldn’t be anything else. Even he wasn’t that unlucky.
Paul looked at his notes. He didn’t show surprise by the question. Nick must be modulating his voice well enough. That was good.
“Yes, he’s married, has one daughter, and looks like a son, but his name isn’t listed,” Paul said.
The back of Nick’s neck was tingling, and he felt a cold sweat break out on his brow. He didn’t like the feeling at all―not one little bit. He also didn’t want to ask the next question. But he knew ignorance wasn’t an escape. It might work for a short time, but it wouldn’t last forever.
“What’s the daughter’s name?” Now Paul gave him a quizzical look.
“Why?”
“Please just give me the name?” Nick said. He found his perfect little world beginning to unravel again. He didn’t like it.
“Chloe Reynolds,” Paul said.
Nick felt the color leaving his cheeks. The smile that had been on him almost permanently for the past few days might never come back again. Nick believed in things like fate. He even believed in accidents. This was just too much of a coincidence for him to ignore, though. This was bad.
There was a judge who hated him, and he had a friend pulling on his coat strings who wanted to see him go down―and that man’s daughter had been in his house for nearly a month where she could snoop through his things, spy on him, report back to the enemy. But after what had happened at the party a few days ago he especially didn’t want to believe the worst. That man had hit Chloe. But had that all been an act for him to witness? He was terrified to believe it was the case.
Nick ran through his life during the past month. There was nothing Chloe would have found that even remotely indicted him. But that wasn’t the point. He’d trusted her―had been falling for her. He’d been thinking she might just be the one he couldn’t let get away.
Was it all nothing but a lie? Nick felt worse than he had while waiting to be rescued from the tumultuous sea that had been trying so desperately to pull him under the night of the crash. He felt a pang in his chest he didn’t at all understand. He’d trusted her.
“What is going on, Nick?” Paul asked. He’d given Nick several minutes to process whatever it was he was trying to process, but the attorney was now growing restless.
“She’s my physical therapist,” Nick said quietly.
Paul didn’t often react to things, but at Nick’s words, his friend and attorney leaned back, his face a mask of shock. It was taking the man a few moments to form words. Now the man knew minutely how Nick was feeling.
“You’re sure it’s the same person?” Paul questioned.
“Yeah, I have no doubt. I knew before you said the name, I just didn’t want to admit it to myself,” Nick said.
“How involved with her are you?” Paul asked him.
Nick sighed. “We’re sleeping together―I’d say that’s pretty involved.”
Paul sighed, and then the confusion evaporated and a little gleam entered the attorney’s eyes. Nick had no idea what the man was thinking, but Nick was sure he’d want nothing to do with it.
“No,” Nick said as he sent a glare the man’s way.
“You have no idea what I’m about to say,” Paul complained.
“I don’t like the expression on your face,” Nick told him.
“Well, too damn bad. I’ve been fighting a losing battle from the moment your case came up. We finally just got the upper hand,” Paul said.
“How in the hell do you figure that?” Nick snapped.
“Because she doesn’t know that you know exactly who she is. You can get information from her. Don’t lovers have pillow talk after doing the deed?” Paul crudely asked.
“You’re disgusting,” Nick snapped.
“I’m also costing you a lot of money, so you should heed my advice.”
Nick glared at the man. “I’m not going to continue sleeping with her, so there won’t be any damn pillow talk,” Nick pointed out.
“Yeah, I have a feeling you will. Don’t tell her you know anything. Let it ride, and let’s see if the judge will incriminate himself. This could go so much farther than a charge. This might reveal corruption in the JAG offices,” Paul said, his voice a bit too excited at the prospect.
“I’m not playing this game, Paul,” Nick threatened.
“Don’t you feel a bit used?” Paul pointed out, hitting Nick right where it hurt. He wanted to throttle the attorney. Paul smiled. “This can be your chance for revenge.”
“I don’t want revenge. I want answers,” Nick thundered.
“You can get both,” Paul told him.
As pissed as Nick was, the seed was planted. And now that Paul had put the idea there, he wasn’t going to be able to push it away. His chair scraped back as he shoved away from Paul’s desk and stood. He turned to walk away.
“Think about it, Nick. If you blow this, we lose the opportunity.”
Nick wanted to tell the man to go to hell. Instead, he paused in the doorway. He couldn’t speak, but he finally nodded his head before exiting the office. Nick wasn’t sure where he was heading, but he knew he couldn’t go back home―not yet. If he went anywhere near Chloe while he was so pissed off, he might do something he would surely regret. Nick felt gutted. There was no other word for it.
He also felt achingly alone. Yes, he could turn to his brothers―to anyone in his family, but the one person he really wanted to go to was the woman he couldn’t. His heart ached.
Turning, he began walking to the beach. At least that was a constant in his life. The sea would never let him down. He understood the sea. He knew better than most that she was unpredictable
and moody. He knew she would be honest with him. She could lure him in with her beauty and lulling waves. And then at the first moment she could, and she would, pull him down.
Knowing that about his beloved sea made him realize that he understood something about Chloe as well. She had managed to get to him and then she’d sucked him under. He hadn’t been expecting her to turn on him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
It was late in the evening when Nick felt calm enough to go back home. He’d been gone a lot longer than he’d told Chloe he was going to be, and he knew she would be wondering what was going on. He didn’t care. Let her wonder. She’d lied to him and he’d been nothing but good to her.
One thing Nick knew for sure was that he wouldn’t be able to pull off the act of pretending there was nothing wrong. He’d never been a man who could openly lie. If there was a problem, he’d much rather face it head on. That was just who he was. He didn’t want to allow a woman to change that about himself. He wouldn’t let that happen.
When he pulled up to his place, though, he found himself sitting in his old Ford pickup truck wondering what he was going to say to her. Was she going to have a smile on her face, her arms open wide to him? Could he resist her if she did?
Somehow he didn’t think that would be a problem. Sure, she’d stopped fighting him―for the most part―about their . . . relationship. He couldn’t even call it that. They hadn’t agreed to anything formal. Hell, she’d barely agreed to sleep with him without a fight. But they were involved. He wondered how much of it had been an act.
The thought made him want to put his fist through the worn dashboard of his truck. That almost brought a smile to his lips. His brothers made fun of him all the time, that he chose to drive the outdated truck when he had enough money to buy out a car dealership. He didn’t care. There were some things a man just didn’t mess with―his transportation being the top of that list.
Finally, he decided he needed to look at her face, needed to figure out what she was thinking―feeling. She’d known he was meeting with his attorney that day. Had she been afraid? Had she worried he’d figure out who was behind the accusations sooner, rather than later? Had she realized that he eventually would put the pieces together? Had she been hoping she’d be gone when that happened?
She really should have been out of his home already. He didn’t really need her services anymore. He’d just been afraid that the moment he freed her, she would run away and what they had together would be forgotten, so he’d been the one to delay letting her go. Maybe he was just as big a liar as she was. That thought didn’t sit too well in his already aching stomach. Walking into the house, he didn’t find her. Moving through the large space, he found himself beginning to worry. Had she left? Was she going to be gone before he got a chance to get an explanation from her? He was owed something. But if she were proven a liar, what good would having her around really be?
She was nowhere in the house. He went to her room, and didn’t take his first full breath until he saw her clothes hanging in the closet, her toiletries sitting neatly on the bathroom counter. She hadn’t left. The only place she could be was the dock. She often went there.
Walking much more quickly than he had when he’d made the first trek down to the dock with her by his side, he glided along the trail. He stopped when he turned the corner, his chest pounding when he saw her there, sitting on the end of the dock, her feet dangling over the edge, drifting in the water.
He wished the sight of her didn’t take his breath away―wished she didn’t affect him as much as she did. The woman had proven she couldn’t be trusted, and though his brain was quite aware of that fact, the rest of his body, though, wasn’t quite catching on. He had better pull it together.
Moving again, he saw her shoulders tighten up as he drew near. She was very aware of his presence, just as he always knew when she was near him. It was a blessing and a curse―far more of a curse now that he knew she was connected to his accuser.
Nick sat down next to her. His shoes came off, he rolled his pants up, and he dipped his feet in the water. He didn’t say a word. He wanted to know what she was thinking . . . what she knew of his meeting that day.
He might not be able to pull off a deception easily, but he certainly could keep quiet for extended periods of time. Long moments passed with both of them looking out at the sun setting on the smooth water. She didn’t reach for him, and surprisingly he didn’t reach for her.
What frustrated him more than ever was how much he wanted to touch her―how much he wanted to feel the silky smoothness of her skin. What did she know? That thought repeated through his brain, thundered with every beat of his heart. How much of this was all a joke to her? Had she cared about him at all?
“You were out a lot longer than you thought,” she finally said.
He heard the distance in her tone, the voice she used when she wanted to keep a wall up between them. It was the voice she used during his physical therapy sessions, the voice she used when he was flirting and she was trying to keep it professional―it was the voice he wanted to remove from their “relationship.”
“Yeah, the meeting didn’t go as I expected,” he told her. He kept his tone calm, but he felt her stiffen next to him. He wasn’t normally guarded. He really had no idea what she might be hearing in his tone. At the moment he didn’t care all that much either.
“I don’t want to draw this out . . .” she began.
Fury so hot he could actually see a red haze flash before his eyes ran through Nick. He wasn’t normally easy to rile up, but after what he’d learned today, this woman who had deceived him was going to try to give him another speech about why they shouldn’t be together. Instead of unleashing on her, he held his tongue and waited. She was silent as if she’d expected him to interrupt. He wasn’t going to give her the pleasure of doing that. He waited, not touching her.
Nick felt Chloe’s eyes on him before she looked away, her gaze focused somewhere out at sea. The moment stretched uncomfortably long.
“I’m not going to lie to you and say I haven’t wanted to sleep with you, Nick. What we’ve been doing together is unlike anything I’ve ever done before―unlike anything I even knew was possible.” She again went silent.
Nick absolutely hated how her words quickened his heartbeat. Paul had suggested she was a liar . . . and who knew what else. He shouldn’t be affected by anything she said or did. He shouldn’t even allow this conversation to continue. For some reason he did. He was curious. He’d thought he was getting to know her, at least enough to know she was a good person.
“Spit it out, Chloe.” Again his words were calm, maintained. She didn’t turn to look at him this time. Maybe it was easier for her to face herself if she wasn’t looking at him, maybe looking him in the eyes was too much like glancing in a mirror and not liking the reflection gazing back at her.
“We both know this can’t go anywhere. Of course in the heat of the moment we both lose our heads, we both forget the roles we’ve been assigned in life. But the harsh reality of the morning light tells me this is a mistake. No matter how much I might be enjoying our time together, it has to stop. We’re in opposite places in our lives and there isn’t anything good that will come out of this.”
She took a shuddering breath, and Nick wondered if she truly was that good of an actress or if she had broken the rules by engaging with the enemy. He probably wouldn’t ever know because, even if he asked her, he wouldn’t be sure she’d give him the correct answer―the truth.
“Do you think I’m a snob or that I’m not good enough for you? I’m really confused by your so-called explanation,” he said, this time unable to control the frustration and anger from leaking through. She seemed to shrink the smallest bit as she pulled farther away from him.
Nick tried not to care.
“I don’t think either of those things,” she said with a resigned sigh. “It is what it is. Just because someone might wish for a different outcome, that doesn’t mean
it will happen. “I wanted to ride unicorns over a rainbow when I was a toddler, but no matter how many nights I wished upon a star, that dream didn’t come true.” She went silent.
Nick waited for her to continue, confused by her cryptic words. When she didn’t speak further, he felt confused and his anger grew. He turned to her, even more furious when she refused to look at him.
“Did you seriously just compare sleeping with me to riding a damn unicorn over a rainbow?” he finally gasped. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me. Good-bye is easy. You simply say good-bye, but your words are tangled in knots I can’t comprehend.”
Nick wished the lighting was better―wished he could see the light in her eyes, try to figure out what she was thinking, what she was feeling. But even if he were gazing directly at her, he had a feeling he would never get the answers he wanted. He was afraid he just couldn’t trust her.
What Nick didn’t know was what he was going to do with the information he had. He should kick her out of his house right now, go to her father―and the damn judge―and demand retribution. Even knowing this was exactly what he should do, Nick couldn’t find himself saying the words that needed to be said.
For some reason, her ridiculous explanation of why she didn’t plan on sleeping with him again was like a slap to the face. And since he’d already been kicked in the gut earlier that day, he had little tolerance for it.
Though Nick didn’t want to admit it, he’d fallen for this girl. He’d given her a piece of him he’d never before given to anyone. He’d actually started to . . . like her. He wouldn’t say it was love. Nick had never been in love before. He didn’t really understand what it would feel like. He knew his brothers were in love with the women they’d married, but he’d never asked them how they’d known. Now, none of that mattered anyway. How could he give his heart to Chloe?
“It’s getting cold outside. We should get back to the house,” he said.
Nick stood up and waited. He didn’t hold out his hand to assist her, though he had to shove both hands in his pockets to keep from doing so. He’d been raised to help a lady. And no matter how much Paul had implied that Chloe had proven she wasn’t worthy of that title, he still saw her as a woman in need.
