Coming Altered: Welcome to Carson, Book Four

by Renee Harless

  In a recently cleared area about three miles from town Austin pulls up to a newly remodeled craftsman. The dark green siding matched with the rock façade and crisp white trim and shutters sets Cassidy’s heart ablaze.

  She watches as Austin helps Nikki down from the truck, but she sits frozen in her seat staring at the house in front of her.

  “Cassidy?” her brother asks as he opens her door.

  “This is it. Austin, I want this house.”

  Her brother chuckles and helps her jump down from the crew cab of his truck.

  “Don’t you want to see the inside before you jump the gun?”

  “Well, yes I want to see the inside, but I know that this is it. I can feel it.”

  Austin nods his head and leads them into the house, showcasing the spacious open floor plan and three large bedrooms.

  “How could you think I wouldn’t like the inside?”

  “I didn’t,” he replies. “I just wasn’t sure if New York turned you into a modern glass and concrete girl or if you still loved the farmhouse look, like when you were a kid.”

  Looking at her brother with a new set of eyes she reads the underlying message in his statement. Cassidy walks up to her big brother and surprising both of them she wraps her arms around his trim waist and squeezes him tight.

  “I may have lived in New York, but I’m still me. That’s why I need to come home. I don’t want to lose myself.”

  Her big brother finally reciprocates her embrace and whispers into her hair, “I know and I’m sorry. I’m glad you’re home pip-squeak.”

  The name Austin had called her when she followed him around like a lost puppy until she was enrolled in school makes Cassidy’s heart tighten.

  “Don’t call me that!” she jokes.

  As Austin pulls away he adds, “You know you love it. Now, if you’re sure about this, we can draw up the papers and work with a bank for a loan.”

  “Please work up the papers, but I don’t need a loan, I can pay in cash,” she says excitedly as she opens and closes multiple cabinets in the newly remodeled kitchen.

  “You know he worked on this for you.”

  Halting her movements, she turns her interest towards Nikki who stands leaning against a wall with a brilliant smile on her petite face.

  “What do you mean?”

  “When you came home for The Grill’s grand opening you had mentioned moving back home. Well, Austin took that notice and found this cottage he thought would be perfect for you. He has spent almost every day here with some help from Logan, Dylan, and Jameson on the weekends to fix this up the way he thought you would want it.”

  “What would have happened if I didn’t like it?”

  Nikki shrugs her shoulders and replies, “He would have sold it. The market for cottages in this area is booming, or so he tells me.”

  “Wow. I just…I can’t believe he did this all for me.”

  “He loves you, Cassidy. We all do. We’re glad to see you come home.”

  In the strongest effort imaginable, Cassidy works to maintain her sniffle, not just due to Nikki’s words, but because this moment would have meant so much more if Harlan was by her side to share in the love.

  As Austin walks back into the kitchen with the papers to place an offer on the house, Cassidy can’t help but use the moment to tease her brother.

  “I think I’ve changed my mind. The kitchen isn’t quite right,” she claims as she shuts the last cabinet door, eyeing Austin’s blanched expression out of the corner of her eyes.

  “Well…uh…we can keep on looking,” he assures as his hands brace the edge of the island counter, knuckles turning white.

  Giggling Cassidy strolls over to him and places a kiss on his cheek, causing the confused expression on Austin’s face to grow.

  “I’m just kidding. I love it. And thank you, Austin. It’s everything I ever wanted.”

  He bows his head in defeat and Cassidy can’t help but laugh a little more.

  “She told you, didn’t she? That woman…”

  “Of course, she did. It’s girl code. And you love her, so be quiet.”

  Austin sighs as he shakes a hand through his growing hair, which had been buzzed short a few months prior when a crazy ex-girlfriend bombed his demolition site.

  Cassidy signs over the papers and then asks Austin to stop by the bank in town.

  “Why?”

  “Because I know you own the house and I want to pay for it right now. I don’t think I can spend another night in my old bedroom.”

  Austin chuckles as he ushers everyone back to the truck.

  “Things don’t usually happen too quickly, there is insurance and other things before the title can be switched over, but it can be done by the end of the week. But you are welcome to move in tonight. I happen to know the landlord,” he says with a smile.

  “Well I hope that the landlord has some strong men to help me carry everything inside. Because all of my stuff from New York was just delivered into storage this morning,” she says teasingly.

  Chiming in Nikki adds, “I’m sure we can find a few good men to help us.”

  Cassidy can’t stop the laughter flowing through her and barely hears Austin grumble as he says something about the girls teaming up.

  After a quick trip to the bank and a signed check handed off to her brother, Cassidy stands at the doorway to her bedroom, the small white box burning a hole through her as she repacks a few of her boxes before her brothers are scheduled to arrive in a few hours.

  She walks over to the delicate box and shakes it gently, listening to the soft rattle in her hand.

  Cassidy heaves a deep breath as she tugs her phone from her back pocket and realizes that she hasn’t heard from Harlan yet today, something unlike him since he usually wakes her up with a text at six AM.

  “I miss you, baby,” she whispers into the air as the excitement of today begins to wear off and texts him the same notion.

  Taking a deep breath, she opens the lid to the box and finds a USB drive sitting atop a flimsy piece of folded paper. She sets the box back on her desk and plugs the USB drive into her computer and a list of songs populate onto the screen.

  Cassidy clicks on the first song title – Cassidy, listen to me first.

  “Always so demanding,” she murmurs.

  Just as Harlan’s voice deeply vibrates through her speakers, her phone rings and she hits pause before answering the call.

  Glancing down she sees Anthony’s name flash across her screen.

  “Anthony?” she answers.

  “Ms. Connelly, have you heard from Mr. Jax recently?” he asks in a frantic voice so unlike what she has heard from him before, even when her bus was ransacked.

  “No, Anthony. Is everything alright?” she asks as her heart begins to pound in her chest.

  “He missed sound check and the band is trying to prepare for an early meet and greet and I can’t seem to locate him. His phone is off so I can’t use the tracker.”

  Oh, God, Cassidy thinks to herself as her heart pounds in her ears, the pressure building in her chest threatening to suffocate her.

  Taking a deep breath, Cassidy works to push aside her fear and think logically.

  “Ok, Anthony. If Harlan went anywhere outside of the arena he would have taken his guitar. It’s his most prized possession. Go see if it’s with his things. I’ll stay on the line.”

  The usually calm and collected security guard breathes heavily into the phone as the stomping of his boots echo into the phone.

  “I just entered the backstage area and…”

  “And what, Anthony?”

  “His guitar is here, but it has a broken neck. The base is covered in blood. Shit.”

  Cassidy’s breath leaves her lungs and she curls over herself as she sits helplessly at her desk.

  He can’t be hurt, I’m not ready to exist without him. Why did I wait so long to be with him? What can I do? Is he hurt? Cassidy ponders as thoughts and questions flit throu
gh her mind.

  She startles as her mother rushes into the room.

  “Are you alright, sweetie? I heard you scream,” her mother asks gently.

  I screamed? she questions herself.

  “Mom. Harlan. Gone,” she gasps through anguished filled moans as she wraps herself around her mother for a sense of comfort, for an anchor.

  Her despair grows with every minute, every second, and for a moment she feels as if she is having an out of body experience. Every sense is heightened, every emotion exposed.

  Her mother gently grabs the phone from her grip and speaks with Anthony on the other line.

  “Ok, this is what we’re going to do,” her mother says with a conviction Cassidy has never heard before. “First, I want everyone to convene here in Carson; Nashville is only a four-and-a-half-hour drive. I’m certain your team can make it quicker. Second, my son Jameson is going to hack into Harlan’s phone to enable the tracker.” She pauses for a moment listening to Anthony speak before continuing, “My son is a computer genius, believe me, hacking into phones is nothing new. Third, I’m going to get my soon to be son-in-law to call in some reinforcements. He’s FBI. And finally, I’m going to need his mother’s number, this is something she should hear from the people who love him most.”

  Cassidy stares stunned at her mother, at the instant authoritative demeanor she is able to portray in a phone call with a man probably twice her size. Her mother, Amy, stands at five-foot two on a good day, and with her crisp cardigans and chin length blonde bob hairstyle she is more schoolmarm than badass.

  “Mom?” Cassidy questions in awe.

  Her mother returns her phone into her open palm and smirks secretively.

  “Don’t look at me like that. There are a lot of things about the people in this town that you’ll never know. I am very good at gaining intel,” she implies with a devilish glint in her eyes. “But I suppose considering the circumstances it’s a good thing your brothers just arrived. So, pull yourself together. Harlan is going to need you working on all synapses.”

  Reaching out a shaking hand, she grasps her mother’s wrist as she works to stand. Cassidy grabs the leather jacket on the back of her chair and turns to leave the bedroom before spinning around and grabbing the white box to place in the interior pocket.

  “Do you…do you think he’s ok?”

  “Oh, I know he’s going to be ok. We have special ones watching over us. But, his condition is going to be the least of your worries in the next few minutes.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, sweetie. We have to call his mother…”

  GLEAM OF LIGHT shines through the sheen of sweat covering his eyes. The room is spinning in a blurry haze while his skin smolders as it tries to wrench away from his body. The typical beat that sounds in his mind is off kilter, breaking the measure every so often as an unfamiliar silence threatens to overwhelm him.

  He tries to twist in an attempt to relieve some of his pain, but his arms seem pinned, shackled, to something hard against his hands.

  If only I could open my eyes, he thinks to himself, yearning and pleading for his muscles to work.

  A noise crackles in the distance and his body goes on high alert. A soft hum, barely noticeable over a distinct rumbling noise of a highway fills his ears. He listens, concentrates, focuses, until the hum becomes something familiar. A sound he’s heard before. A voice that calls to him on a daily basis.

  Francesca?

  A pungent smell stings his nose before he feels a cloth press against his face, pulling him in, suffocating him, spinning his world into a deep black abyss.

  And then silence. The melodic beat that constantly strums through his veins quiets, the beat of his heart slows, the lyrical harmony that steadily builds in his mind calms.

  For the first time since he was a child Harlan feels an unfamiliar emotion, a sensation quietly strangling him until it overpowers him completely – panic.

  HE BLACKNESS OF THE night surrounds her as she sits on the front steps of her parent’s porch. Cassidy feels herself transported to that night she first met Harlan in the dive bar.

  He had been so calm and collected as he approached her that night, but she was strung so tightly as their electricity vibrated across the room, filling the air with a song of their own.

  Cassidy feels herself smiling as she remembers how he had made her feel so protected and safe that night in his arms as they made love. Even if it had begun as a one night stand, he had given her a calmness with the control that she craved.

  “What are you doing out here?” her father asks as the screen door clatters shut behind him and he crouches down to sit on the steps beside her.

  “I just feel sort of… useless right now, so I came outside to get some air.”

  Her father wraps an arm around her shoulder and she tucks herself against his body. Her father has always been a massive man with muscles upon muscles. His work as the Chief of the Carson Fire Department helps see to him always needing to stay in shape. But beneath the tough exterior, her father has a heart of gold and would give someone the shirt off his back.

  “Well, you shouldn’t feel that way. We can’t do a whole lot until everyone arrives in a bit. Your mother cooks when she’s anxious, you know this. And anytime her children are upset she gets anxious.”

  “I know. I just wish there was more I could do right now.”

  Her father squeezes her shoulder gently before pointing out, “Harlan is going to need you safe and alert. Taking a breather is the best thing you can do for him right now. And don’t you worry; Dylan has his team geared up and ready to go. So much stuff has gone on with my family in the past few months I feel as if Alexis and Heath should move here so I can adopt them.”

  Cassidy nods as she remembers Dylan’s team members from the FBI that helped to capture Austin’s ex and business partner who were embezzling money from his company, and then the drug kingpin determined to catch Sydney’s ex by kidnapping her.

  Thinking of everything that has gone on, Cassidy chimes in, “They could do a reality series about this town with all the drama we’ve seen recently.”

  Her father laughs and Cassidy joins in.

  “You’re probably right. And now we have the best of the best residing in our town: a FBI agent, pro baseball player, Special Forces sniper, royalty, billionaires, tech geniuses, maybe a rock star or two,” her father Joseph adds as he nudges her shoulder.

  “You’re just naming off people in our family and their friends. And I don’t know if Harlan can handle a small town like Carson.”

  In the distance headlights shine, breaking through the darkness of the night. Rumbles of bikes and car engines pound loudly in the air and Cassidy’s body goes on high alert.

  “Hey, Cassidy?” her father commands as he stands. “Don’t underestimate people. That’s including your man.”

  She nods in response, no words needing to be said, she hears the underlying tone of her father’s dictation in his voice.

  “Here we go,” she whispers to the air as she stands from her perch on the steps wanting to welcome the group to her home.

  AN HOUR LATER, CASSIDY sits at the large dining table in her parent’s kitchen surrounded by her family, Harlan’s parents, Harlan’s band mates, Anthony, and roughly the majority of the town. Some of the older townspeople sit on the couch, shot guns propped up between their legs, ready to take aim, and defend their own.

  The vision before her warms her heart knowing that they’re all there to stand with her, fight with her, to save her love.

  Dylan, Heath, and Alexis have been working with her brother Jameson and Anthony to hack into Harlan’s phone to turn on the tracking device. The trio of FBI agents worked on it for about thirty minutes before Jameson took over and had hacked the device within two minutes. Cassidy had to hold back a laugh at their shocked expressions.

  Beside her, she watches Harlan’s mom intently listening to Dylan go over their plan. The woman beside her gave Cassid
y a surprise when she pulled up on the back of her husband’s Harley. Her crisp black trousers and pale pink shirt seemed uncharacteristic of the woman Harlan had described as unloving. His father looked exactly how Cassidy imagined though -- tall, muscular, clad in leather from head to toe, an imposing figure to all around him. Harlan didn’t favor one parent or the other; he is a pure mixture of each; dark hair from his mother, green eyes from his father. A handsome mashup of his parents.

  Cassidy watches as Nan, Harlan’s mother, swirls her fingers through the dark hair cascading over her shoulder in a low ponytail.

  She leans in and whispers into Nan’s ear, “Everything is going to be fine. I trust everyone here with my life.”

  As Harlan’s mother turns towards her, she witnesses for the first time the sheen of wetness coating the woman’s eyes.

  “I know, I just…if you hadn’t called me then I wouldn’t know that my son is in danger. Or that he has surrounded himself with such wonderful people. So, I’m scared for him, yes, but I know everyone here is going to do their best to save my son and that is more than any mother could ask for in a situation like this.” Cassidy watches as the resilient woman wipes away the tears beneath her eyes with a tissue she extracts from the pocket of her pants. “I think I’ll go see if your mother needs any help. And, Cassidy?” she addresses with a soft hand on her shoulder. “I’m really thrilled to have you as part of my family. I’ve made mistakes with Harlan, but I’m working on changing that.”

  As the woman moves with a dancer-like gracefulness Cassidy slouches in her chair in wonder.

  Part of their family?

  “Cassidy, you’re going to ride with me,” Dylan clarifies, staring in her direction from the head of the table.

  Her eyes widen in alarm.

  “I’m sorry, what? I missed all of that,” she says sheepishly.

  Dylan chuckles and repeats himself explaining how he has submitted the coordinates to the local police forces in Chattanooga where the phone is pinging its location. She and Dylan will lead the convoy of two SWAT vehicles piloted by Heath and Alexis followed by Cliff, the town’s tattoo artist and resident sniper and Preston -- Dylan’s ex-partner, Sydney’s ex-boyfriend, and the town’s new Chief of Police -- in his cruiser. Upon much insistence, and despite the turmoil between the two, the Brass Sparrows will join up in Knoxville where Harlan’s family resides.