by Gracie Guy
Copyright© 2017, Gracie Guy
A Fragmented Journey
Books > Fiction Romance > Romance Novels
Keywords: romance, suspense, dogs, police, search-and-rescue
Digital ISBN:
Digital Release: April 2017
Editing and Interior Format by Deelylah Mullin
Cover Design by Kris Norris
All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work, in whole or part, by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, is illegal and forbidden.
This is a work of fiction. The characters have spent years living in the author’s head, until she pushed the freeloaders out and onto the printed page. They are the product of the author’s imagination and bear no resemblance to any actual person, living or dead. The names of cities and towns are factual, but none of the addresses or any occurrences in this story, are. Any similarities to reality are purely coincidental.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to my writing group, Writing Women’s Minds (Jean, Debbi, Maggie and Posey). Over the years we have shared laughter, tears, weddings, deaths and household moves. Your friendship, encouragement and constructive criticism have help me beyond words. Thank you ladies!
To my editor, Deelylah Mullin, thank you for making me a better writer.
To my beta reader and all around best woman, Sue, thank you for pushing me along.
And, to my siblings and their families, my siblings-in-law and their families and my extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins – I love you all beyond words!
Dedication
To GMR Sr.—by my side for every keystroke—thank you for all you do so that I am able to keep my butt in the chair, writing!
To SCP—even though you’ve been gone over ten years, your mother’s love is with me always. Thank you Mom for all of the strength you gave me, I love you.
Kara felt her face chill in an incredible rush of fear. Her frozen mind kept her from forming words to answer the deep timbre of the stranger asking her questions. Who is this man? Why is he asking me these questions?
“Mrs. Elliott, are you there?”
Kara willed her tongue and brain to synchronize themselves.
“Mrs. Elliott?”
“Yes, I’m here,” Kara stammered. “I’m sorry, my brain just sort of halted for a second there. What is it I can do for you Sergeant?”
“Please confirm you are the wife of Daniel Elliott.”
“Yes Sergeant, I am. You’re scaring me sir, please tell me what this is about.”
“I’m afraid I have bad news for you Mrs. Elliott. It’s regarding your husband.”
Kara forced herself to breathe. What is happening here? The stranger was still talking and Kara felt as if she was in the spin cycle of her washing machine when the load was unbalanced.
Chapter One
Her heels created a rapid-fire staccato matching her mood as she crossed the airport lobby, back erect and temper flaring. She’d arrived from Atlanta over an hour before, expecting him to pick her up as promised. What she did not plan on was searching out a rental car and driving well over one hundred miles by herself because he dropped the proverbial eight-ball. She couldn’t fathom what had been so important he wasn’t there to get her. She checked her voice mail as soon as the plane landed—no missed calls, no messages. Flat-out, nothing explaining his absence.
As she threw her purse, laptop case, and green carry-on in the back seat of a Ford Focus, she managed to snag her stockings in her haste. Swearing profusely, she started the car, put it in gear, and pulled out into the pouring rain. At what point could my day get worse? Not only was she exhausted, she was driving through lousy weather, late at night, in a tuna can for a car. Really? They rent out cars with a stick shift? Don’t most people drive automatics? Man, did she miss her truck now.
Why did I leave Atlanta? I could have flown home tomorrow. It would have been wonderful to spend more time with her cousin, Carolyn, and heaven knows the company wouldn’t have cared either way. Why did I feed the nagging suspicion there is something wrong at home? She couldn’t quite put her finger on it—but she knew she was worried about something.
Such anger screaming in her head. When will I learn my lesson? When will I give up on him and make some sensible choices? The more she thought about the years she had given to him, the angrier she became. And then it dawned on her, she wasn’t angry. She was sad, disappointed, and, just maybe, feeling a bit guilty. Flirting with that cowboy had been fun; he made her feel special, something her own man rarely did these days.
Kara glanced at the speedometer as her rental car whined its way up I-87. “Sixty-eight!” she shouted at the car. “That’s all you can manage is sixty-eight miles an hour?”
She pushed the pedal to the floor and watched the needle slowly climb to seventy-two. She considered forcing the car to do eighty, but it dawned on her she would have to return it in a few days. It was bad enough she was going to be soaked for the rental cost for three days; she didn’t want to buy a new engine to top it off.
Just as she looked back at the highway, a deer bounded across the southbound side of 87 and headed straight for her lane on the northbound side.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” she yelled to her audience of steel and plastic. “I thought those things were supposed to find a nice cozy spot in the woods in rain like this!”
Defying all logical driving rules, Kara slammed on the brakes. As the front wheels struggled not to lock up, the car started to slide sideways. She felt her bags slam into her seatback.
Within seconds, the car came to a full stop across both northbound lanes. As she silently praised the inventors of ABS brakes, Kara also thanked her late flight for providing her with an empty highway with no other cars to crash into. Of course, this also meant she was now totally alone, in the pouring rain, with a stalled car because she panicked and didn’t push in the clutch when she’d hit the brakes.
She sat for a minute while the inevitable jelly-like sensation took over her knees and hands. It’s always so weird how she can handle a near-death experience as it’s happening and once she’s safe, pow, on comes the wimpy side. She glanced to her left to make sure there were no headlights bearing down on her yet, turned the key in the ignition, and hoped for the best. As the little engine came to life, she once again looked favorably toward modern technology. Ever since the advent of fuel injected engines, people really didn’t have to worry about car engines flooding. Of course, only a greaser chick would have these thoughts.
Most women would still be at the airport waiting for their knight in shining armor to show up. Or maybe they would have sensibly found a warm hotel room to wait out a wet and dreary September night. But she wasn’t other women. Instead, she was in a rental car, which seemed to have attracted the only deer moving about in tonight’s storm. All because she, Kara Maloney-Elliott, wanted to get home to see her man, and maybe—just maybe—get some lovin’.
Heading north again, at a pace more suited to the rain-slicked highway, Kara turned on the radio. As she flipped through the stations, she mentally reviewed her trip. This was a very successful conference for her, and the prospective clients she met were sure to please her bosses at Avion Technology. The company experienced sizeable growth in the past six years—and much of the increase was due to Kara’s own creativity, hard work, and intense dedication.
She hadn’t known a thing about computers or, to use the industry buzzword of the week, information technology, when she’d first signed on with Avion; she wasn’t even sure why she considered the job in the first place. At the time, her formal edu
cation was only in communications. Worse than that, her professional experience was a cockeyed combination of radio jobs and construction. But Avion’s founders were visionary, and they liked what they saw in Kara.
Over the years, there were some rough times with her husband because of her job. Come to think of it, Danny always complained when it came to how she earned a living. He could not comprehend Kara’s insatiable need to conquer her environment. Her perpetual drive for personal improvement was a threat to him—even from the beginning when he was the one with the superior work experience.
Long before they were married, in the days of Levis, pipe wrenches, and hard hats, Danny was convinced every man on the job site wanted to get in Kara’s pants. He never seemed to understand she didn’t want every man—she only wanted him.
Despite Danny’s reluctance to embrace her passion about work, Kara couldn’t wait to get home and tell him all about the conference. She’d bring him up-to-date on all the business gains she made. But, she wouldn’t include the nightlife in her discussion. She wasn’t sure Danny would view the after-hours networking as business-like. Kara was sure her husband was proud of her and all she’d done, but she was equally sure he lacked self-confidence around electronic technology and would never admit it.
Chapter Two
Kara turned left off Exit 30, headed west on Route 73. Unless she encountered more deer or washed-out spots due to the downpour, she’d be home and unpacked by midnight. She passed through St. Huberts and Keene and was finally able to relax for the rest of her drive. She’d be home, warm, and dry within the hour.
She and Danny moved to the Lake Placid area shortly after he decided to work as an independent contractor. It seemed like a great location choice at the time. He could be in his beloved Adirondack Mountains; it was during a period when property was affordable and they both could go skiing all winter long. But after two long years commuting to Albany, Kara was tired of living up north. She couldn’t even justify flying through Montreal because Avion was in the Albany area and they booked all business flights through that airport.
Their driveway was nearly a quarter mile long, winding its way through the dense pines. As she neared the end, the motion detector triggered the outdoor floodlights, bathing the entire area and side yard in clarity. Instinctively Kara knew something was wrong; there were few lights on in the house and Danny’s truck was gone.
She parked the rental car near her own truck and turned off the engine. She got out, stood near the driver’s rear door, and listened carefully. The horses were in the barn munching contentedly on this year’s alfalfa. Where are the dogs? They should be going ballistic over a strange car parking in the driveway—and I don’t hear so much as a whimper.
Fighting the apprehension beginning to overwhelm her, Kara grabbed her bags from the backseat of the rental and fished her house keys out of her purse. Driving from the airport, she’d convinced herself Danny simply forgot her flight and she’d find him waiting for her. Is it possible he drove all the way to Albany and been late? Can we truly have crossed paths? Well, if he ever answered his flipping cell phone none of this would have happened.
Kara shook her head. Not only was the airport too small to miss someone, but she’d waited nearly an hour for Danny. If she hadn’t gotten the rental car before the counter closed for the night, she’d be sleeping at the airport like some displaced traveler at Thanksgiving.
Her nerves and overactive imagination were working double time. With trembling hands, she inserted the key in the door’s lock. As the dead bolt turned to grant entrance to her home, Kara saw a note on the kitchen counter, and then it hit her.
“Oh, please, God, no!” Kara murmured to herself. “Please tell me he didn’t go to Albany and he’s not here now because there’s been an accident.” As the words escaped her lips, she knew it made no sense. Why would he leave a note if he went to get me?
Kara felt frozen in place standing in her open doorway—holding her luggage, laptop and purse, with the wind and rain blowing leaves into the kitchen—staring at a piece of paper six feet away. Suddenly a bright flash of lightning filled the sky and snapped her back to reality. After setting her bags on the ceramic tile floor, she closed the door securely and flipped the dead bolt into place. Only then did she approach the note. She immediately recognized Danny’s handwriting, yet she still couldn’t relax.
Hey, good-looking!
Sorry I missed your flight. First I tried the hotel in Atlanta but you’d
already checked out. Then, I tried your cell but you didn’t answer. Anyway, I
promised a friend I’d be a Lake George tour guide—I’ll be back tomorrow.
Love- Dan
PS I fed the horses.
PPS I’ve got the dogs!
As she stood in their empty house, looking around at all of their belongings, holding his note in one hand, she fumbled with the buttons on her trench coat with the other. Shaking her head, berating herself for worrying.
So he was fine, probably asleep right now at their camp on the north end of Lake George in Ticonderoga. I’ll bet he’s snoozing on the couch while the dogs are keeping watch from in front of the fireplace.
The sound of her heels on the ceramic tile as she walked to the hallway closet made her lonesome. Being in the house by herself was fine, when she planned it. But when she’d expected to find a warm fire, two German shepherds and her man, her home seemed cold and lonely. At least she didn’t have to venture back out into the rain to feed the animals since Dan fed them before he left.
Kara hung up her coat, grabbed her carry-on, and headed to the master bedroom. If she’d gotten home earlier she would have taken advantage of the solitude by enjoying a leisurely bath. But the many hours of travel were catching up with her and she just wanted a quick shower and her bed. Tomorrow she would empty her suitcase and take care of her laundry. She would also review and organize all the professional material stuffed in the case with her laptop. It was very important for her to identify and highlight the best contacts right away, while everything was fresh in her mind.
Kara crossed the bedroom and stood on the left side of the bed she shared with Danny. She slipped off her black patent-leather heels and began one of her favorite past-times…stripping herself of all the trappings of her professional life. First the jacket and matching skirt of her tailored suit, then the requisite cream colored blouse with tiny pearl buttons. Free of those, she placed her fingers under the waistband of her hose and gently slid them over her hips and thighs, then sat on the bed to slip them the rest of the way down her calves, then her ankles, and off her painted toes. Kara gleefully massaged her bare feet. I never skimp on quality when it comes to shoes, but even the priciest designer wear runs low on comfort when you’ve been wearing them for over nineteen hours. As she stood up, her feet instinctively reveled in the plush decadence of the Wedgewood blue rug under the bed in the master bedroom.
She stepped out of her black lace panties and finally, at long last, unhooked her matching underwire bra, divesting her breasts of all man-made materials. Kara ran her hands along the underside to soothe the skin where her bra left marks. With her hands fully splayed, she gently lifted and massaged the soft flesh. As her thumbs brushed over her nipples, the sensation nearly floored her. A little light-headed, Kara sat down on the bed and lay back. With the warmth and richness of the carpet teasing her toes, her hands left her chest to meander slowly over her body. Her fingertips unconsciously stroked the soft skin of her clean-shaven mound. She closed her eyes as the sensation of fire filled her hips and threatened to consume her.
“Whoa, old girl! Been a long week away from Dan?” she mocked herself. The truth, yeah it was. She always found Danny to be intensely sexy and thrived on their intimacy. Despite her Catholic upbringing, Kara liked to pleasure herself before she met Danny. Of course, there had been lovers before she met him. None of those men, or her own ministrations, compared to the sexual prowess and lovemaking skill of her husband. A we
ek away from Danny’s touch seemed like a year in a convent.
Before she got carried away in her fantasy, Kara left the bed to take a shower. She turned the water on full blast and stepped into the icy torrent before it warmed up. Ten minutes later she was lying in bed with a book, on the brink of oblivious sleep. With what was left of her conscious thinking, she dog-eared her page and put her book on the shelf in the headboard behind her. She turned off the light, drifting into a deep and peaceful slumber.
Chapter Three
The next morning Kara awoke disoriented as the last vestiges of sleep cleared from her cloudy mind. She snaked her hand under the covers, reaching over for Danny, which landed on a cold pillow. Instantly she sat up, startled and perplexed, until her sleep-induced fuzzy mind managed to grab the edges of why she was alone. Stretching luxuriously in the king-sized bed, she smiled as she watched the sun’s rays dance, refracted through the prism hanging on her east window.
Last night’s storm left her a beautiful fall weekend to play with her animals and finish any garden projects needed to prepare for winter. Stretching again, Kara peeked at the alarm clock. Much to her surprise, it was nearly nine o’clock—at least two hours later than she regularly slept. As she lay there, Kara could hear the sweet singing of swallows and mourning doves. They always congregated in the stand of pine trees between the house and barn. When the weather started showing signs of winter, Kara or Dan would restock the birdfeeder off the back deck daily. Kara could also hear the faint shuffling noises the horses made. They were never in the barn this late and must be going crazy by now.
Kara reluctantly climbed from the warmth of her bed. Instantly, goose bumps covered her naked body. She made a mental note to at least turn the heat on, even if it was only September. I probably should have done it before I went to bed.
