Vendetta

by Lisa Harris

  “Jonah.”

  Nikki laughed. “Well, that’s . . . appropriate.”

  “Feeling rested yet?” Tyler walked up to her with two plates of raspberry cheesecake.

  “Hey . . . Yeah, I am, actually. I’m feeling much better. Partly thanks to you and your movie therapy last night.”

  A week later, and she was still treading on thin ice with no idea how to sort out her feelings. Or how to move forward to the place her heart wanted to take her.

  “I grabbed two slices of cake. One for me and one for you. Your mom says it’s going fast.”

  She laughed as she took one of the plates. “I haven’t eaten lunch yet.”

  “So start with dessert.”

  She smiled at him, then took a bite. “How’d you know this was my absolute favorite?”

  Tyler winked at her. “Ryan isn’t the only one who knows your favorites.”

  “Nikki.”

  Nikki turned around, then cleared her throat as Ryan walked across the room toward her. With his refined plaid shirt, jacket, and hint of a five-o’clock shadow, Jamie was right about one thing. He was a hunk. But she also knew she had to find a way to tell him the truth.

  “Ryan. Hi. I didn’t know you were going to be able to come. You know Tyler Grant, don’t you?”

  “Actually I don’t think we’ve met.” Tyler shook Ryan’s hand, clearly sizing him up. “But I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “Really?” Ryan said.

  “Tyler’s a longtime friend of mine, and his son, Liam . . . well, Liam’s probably back at the dessert table.”

  “Then Liam must be a boy after my own heart.”

  Nikki shot Tyler a you-better-behave look, then smiled back at Ryan. Somehow she hadn’t imagined feeling quite so . . . awkward when the two of them finally met.

  “Have you seen the view from my parents’ balcony?” She needed to get the two of them apart before things got even more awkward. “I could show it to you, then you can grab some of my dad’s barbeque. It’s the best you’ll find this side of the Mississippi.”

  “If it tastes half as good as it smells, I won’t be disappointed.”

  She told Tyler they’d be back, then grabbed Ryan’s arm and pulled him toward the balcony door. “Just tell my father that after you’ve tried it. The whole southern barbeque thing is my daddy’s baby. He might end up talking with you the rest of the night, but you’ll be his friend for life.”

  “Not a bad idea.”

  They stepped outside and she waited for the reaction that always came.

  “Wow. The view is stunning.”

  “It was what sold my mom on the property. Dad was looking for a place closer to the restaurant with all the kids gone. She finally decided not having a garden to worry about wasn’t such a bad idea after all.”

  He ran his hand down her arm, then pulled back. “Listen, I know these past few days must have been horrible for you. I saw the local news report covering the story. What a nightmare. You should have called me. Let me know what was going on. Let me know that you’re okay.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t communicate more.” She caught the disappointment in his eyes and fiddled with the drawstring of her red tie-dyed maxi dress. “But you’re right, it was a tough week.”

  She hadn’t purposely avoided his calls. She’d just needed time to sort things out. Not just about Cooper and everything that had happened inside the park, but about her own feelings toward Ryan and Tyler that she was still trying to sort through.

  “Everything happened so fast, and then when I got back, I took a few days off.”

  “But you’re okay. That man didn’t hurt you?”

  “Physically, no, though I can’t say the experience didn’t affect me. But I’m okay. Really.”

  She’d had nightmares the past few nights but knew they’d eventually fade. Hopefully the memory of Randall Cooper would fade as well.

  “And the girl you were looking for, she’s okay?”

  “She will be. It was extremely traumatic for her, but her friends and family are rallying around her.”

  Ryan shook his head. “All I know is that I used to think it would be fun to trade in my desk job for some high-adrenaline career, but honestly, after hearing about some of the things you’ve had to face, I don’t know how you do it. I think running my slice of the world from behind a computer screen is more than enough adventure for me.”

  “I’ll admit I thought about switching careers a few times over the past few days.” She felt the awkwardness that passed between them and looked down. She was still holding the uneaten cake Tyler had brought her. “You ready for some barbeque?”

  She tried to steady her emotions. It was the wrong thing to say. She needed to tell him the truth, but had no idea how.

  “Yes, but first . . .” Ryan hesitated for a moment. “I have no idea what you’re going to think about this, but my parents called last night. They plan to be in town for Memorial Day, and while I know it’s a bit early in our relationship, they’d really like to meet you.”

  Nikki felt her pulse quicken. She looked up at him, knowing she had to tell him the truth. Everyone was after her to get engaged. Get married. Have a couple babies and live happily ever after. That was how it worked in the fairy tales and the romance novels. Why was real life so messy and complicated?

  “I’d like to meet your family, but . . .”

  She turned and looked back inside the condo to where Tyler stood talking with her mother. Liam stood beside him eating what had to be at least seconds on desserts. There was no denying it anymore.

  “Listen, if you’re not ready, I understand. And I’m sure this past week must have been completely unsettling. Forget I asked, okay?” He started toward the door, then paused. “Though I do have one other question for you.”

  She needed to tell him the truth.

  “He’s in love with you, isn’t he?”

  Nikki felt her heart tremor at the question. “I’m sorry . . . who’s in love with me?”

  He couldn’t be talking about Tyler. Tyler was still in love with Katie. And it was going to take time before he was ready to move on.

  “Tyler. Your friend. The man I just met inside.”

  “No . . . he’s always been like a brother. Even a best friend, but he’s not in love with me. His wife died a year ago. She was my best friend since college. We’ve been through a lot together, especially this past year.”

  “Then you’re in love with him.”

  Nikki paused. She wasn’t ready to confess her feelings toward anyone—especially not to Ryan—but neither could she deny it. “I think I am. I didn’t even know until last week when we were up there in the mountains. I thought I was going to die and I realized . . . I realized I was in love with him. I’m so sorry, Ryan.”

  Disappointment shone through his smile. “So I wasn’t just imagining that look in your eyes when you were with him. It’s the same look I always hoped you’d give me one day.”

  She shook her head. “I never meant to hurt you, or—”

  “Fall in love?” He dropped his hands to his sides. “Sometimes we don’t have control over what our heart feels, do we?”

  “I really am sorry.”

  “Don’t be. You’re still quite a catch, Nikki Boyd.” His gaze shifted inside where Tyler was still talking to her mother. “Once he realizes—what I’m pretty certain he already feels—he’s going to be one very lucky guy.”

  “Ryan—”

  He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I had just hoped that you might be the one.”

  Jamie had been right. He was ready to put a ring on her finger.

  He kissed her cheek. “If you do happen to realize you picked the wrong guy, call me, okay?”

  She laughed, blinking back the tears threatening to spill. “Okay.”

  “I’ll see you around, Special Agent Nikki Boyd.”

  Nikki nodded, then watched Ryan go back into the house, say goodbye to her mother, then head towa
rd the front door. She turned back to the railing and stared out over the city. Confessing her feelings toward Tyler had only managed to make them seem all that more real. She’d never meant to hurt Ryan. Never meant to fall in love with Tyler. But she had. And now she had no idea what to do about it.

  “Hey.” Tyler walked up beside her.

  “I didn’t even hear you come out,” she said, shooting him a nervous smile.

  “Everything okay?”

  “It will be.”

  “Why is Mr. Perfect leaving?”

  “We’re not going to be seeing each other anymore.”

  “Was it something I said?”

  “No. You were fine, for once.” She glanced down at the tiled flooring, wondering if she’d somehow gone completely crazy letting Ryan walk away. But knew it would be more of a mistake to lead him on.

  “So everything isn’t okay.”

  Nikki looked up at him, then brushed an imaginary piece of lint off the collar of his striped shirt and hesitated. “I think he’s nice, and we have a lot in common, but . . . I don’t know . . . we’re at different places in life. He thought . . .” She paused.

  “Thought what, Nikki?”

  He thought you were in love with me.

  But she knew he wasn’t. Still, Tyler was everything she wanted in a man. More perfect even than Mr. Perfect. But he’d belonged to her best friend and was still nursing a broken heart.

  “Nothing,” she said, turning away. “He’s just . . . he’s not the right one for me.”

  “I’m sorry.” He reached down and brushed a kiss across her forehead, making her heart swoon. “I know I teased you about him, but only because he seemed to make you happy. If you want to talk . . .”

  “No, I’m fine.” She flashed him a smile and slipped her hand into the crook of his arm, wondering if Ryan was right about Tyler. Wondering if he’d suddenly realize, like she had, that he was in love with her. And willing, in the meantime, to wait for him. “I’m okay, because I’m here with the people I love and care about the most. My friends and family . . . and you.”

  A Note to My Readers

  I loved researching this book! Over the past few months, I’ve read a firsthand account of hiking the Appalachian Trail and another book written by a ranger who worked in the Smoky Mountains. I devoured information on the park and surrounding area and turned to a couple of experts in hiking and rappelling and police work for their input into my story. I also tackled the more difficult side of research about what happens when a child goes missing, and how families and friends often respond, along with local authorities.

  While this book is a work of fiction, I have tried to realistically show the heartache that goes along with having someone you love disappear, both from the point of view of the family and from the response of the law.

  I have also taken some liberties, including creating the newly instated Missing Persons Task Force team for the sake of the story. Those who are familiar with this part of Tennessee will be able to recognize many of the beautiful landmarks I’ve included, like the stunning Smoky Mountains Park, but will also notice that I have created certain settings as needed for the story as well as characters—rangers included—who don’t exist in real life.

  During the writing of this book, I came to greatly admire the rangers and law officers who work diligently to make our world a better place. They put their own lives at risk for the sake of saving others. To them, I salute you for your hard, tireless work!

  1

  8:25 am

  Nashville suburb

  Nikki Boyd slid out of her white Mini Cooper as two bagged bodies were being wheeled from the one-story house nestled in one of Nashville’s nicer suburbs. Her stomach clenched. Even after nine years on the force, the emotional challenges of the job had yet to make her completely calloused. It was impossible not to personalize some of what she saw. The cases she couldn’t solve. The brokenness she couldn’t fix.

  Tamping down those thoughts, she started down the walk where half a dozen police cars and the local medical examiner had parked in front of the taped-off crime scene, allowing both uniformed and plainclothes officers to take over the sleepy, tree-lined street. One of her teammates, Jack Spencer, stood waiting for her on the curb in a gray jacket and a white dress shirt paired with a trendy blue and orange paisley tie.

  “Morning,” she said, holding up a takeaway box from her parents’ BBQ restaurant. “I was having breakfast with my mom and sister-in-law when the call came in. Thought you might like a couple of my mom’s homemade cinnamon rolls to celebrate your first day back to work.”

  Five weeks ago, he’d gotten shot in the middle of a hostage situation that had almost gotten both of them killed.

  “You can’t imagine how happy I am to be back on the job,” Jack said. “Though next time, you might want to remind me to duck when someone decides to take a shot at me.” He laughed, then took the offered takeaway box and dropped it into the backseat of his car. He slammed the door shut. “I love your mom’s cinnamon rolls.”

  “I know.”

  “How’s that little niece of yours?” he asked.

  Nikki smiled at the question. “Five weeks old tomorrow and a perfect little angel.”

  She started for the house beside him, then stopped, noticing the red marks around his wrist and the fact that his face looked a bit . . . chalky. She pulled up the sleeve of his jacket a couple inches, revealing a line of ugly splotches. “What in the world happened to you?”

  He frowned, then moved his arm away in order to pull down the jacket sleeve. “It’s nothing.”

  “Nothing? Are you kidding me?” she asked. “That looks horrible.”

  “I was in the middle of a session with my allergist when we got the call to come in.”

  Nikki pressed her lips together in an attempt not to smile. It hadn’t take long for her to discover that not only was Jack a magnet to anything that stung, bit, or floated in the air, he was also a bit of a hypochondriac.

  “It’s not funny,” he said, heading toward the crime scene.

  “I didn’t say it was funny. I’m just curious as to why you got retested. I thought you went through that a few months ago.”

  “The previous tests were . . . inconclusive.”

  Nikki matched his stride as they walked down the sidewalk toward the house, waiting for him to elaborate. When he didn’t, she decided to change the subject. “Any clue as to why we are getting involved in a double homicide?”

  Homicide detectives handled murder cases. They typically did not.

  “You know as much as I do at this point,” he said as his phone went off. He pulled it out of his pocket. Checked the caller ID, then put it back in his pocket without answering.

  “What about Gwen?” she asked.

  “Boss asked her to go to the precinct. We’ll meet her there when we’re done here.” Jack flashed his badge at one of the officers. “We’re here to see Sergeant Dillard.”

  The officer nodded. “He’s expecting you. He’s there at the front door talking with the ME.”

  Jack nodded. “Thanks.”

  Sergeant Dillard stepped away from the ME as they walked up the sidewalk. The older man stood a couple inches shorter than Jack’s six foot two, with a slight pudge around the middle.

  He shot them both a friendly smile before shaking their hands. “You two are with the missing persons task force?”

  “Yes. We were told to report to you, but . . .” She caught the flashing lights of the ME’s vehicle as they finished loading the bodies into the back of the van. “I’m still not sure why we’re here.”

  “I opted to call your team in because I’ve got two dead bodies and two missing persons. This house belongs to Mac and Lucy Hudson, but those two men in body bags aren’t the homeowners.”

  Jack’s brow furrowed. “Then who are they?”

  “Haven’t been able to ID the bodies yet, so at this point, your guess is as good as mine. We’ve been here over two hours proce
ssing the scene, and my team’s still trying to come up with a timeline of what happened. If you want to come inside with me, you can see for yourselves.”

  Nikki slipped on the offered gloves and booties, then stepped into a ransacked living room behind Jack. She sucked in her breath at the scene surrounding her. The scent of death permeated the space. Dozens of yellow markers had been set up in the aftermath of whatever had happened in the house. Bullet fragments, shell casings, and fluid samples were being recorded by CSU. Blood pooled on the hardwood flooring and had seeped onto a rug in the center of the room. A couple of slugs had hit the far wall and splattered blood against its creamy beige finish.

  A shiver shot through her. Things like this weren’t supposed to happen on a quiet street in the suburbs.

  But they did.

  “As you might have guessed,” the sergeant said, “both men presumably died from gunshot wounds.”

  Nikki’s gaze scanned the rest of the room that had been completely trashed. “Do you have any idea when the shootings took place?”

  “Rigor mortis was completely set in on the two bodies we just took out,” the sergeant said. “The ME said we’re probably looking at sometime yesterday evening, though we’ll have to wait to hear back from him after the autopsies.”

  “Yesterday?” Nikki glanced at Jack and then back at the sergeant. “At least a half a dozen shots are fired in a sleepy suburb and the authorities are just showing up now? You can’t tell me no one heard a disturbance.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Our initial findings show there were at least three weapons involved, including that of the homeowner, Mac Hudson.”

  “So Mr. Hudson was defending himself?” Jack said.

  “That’s my best guess. According to the records we pulled, he owned two handguns, and one of neighbors said he spends a lot of his free time down at a local shooting range.”

  “So what are you thinking?” Jack asked. “The homeowner shoots the intruders, killing them, and then what? Panics and runs?”

  “That’s one of theories we’re looking at,” the sergeant said. “But here’s why we brought you in. A call came through to 911 last night, and we’ve finally been able to identify the caller as Mac Hudson.”