Page 14 of Return to Laurel Valley

He paused and turned off the engine, the silence deafening as he gathered his thoughts. “We managed to regroup and stick together until the backup units came to lay down cover so we could get out. But we watched as the ones firing at us began to seek out the fallen soldiers and gather their bodies in a pile. They doused them with gasoline and set them on fire while we stayed hidden—helpless to do anything about it.” His breath was controlled as he let it out softly. “Make sure your men survive and leave no one behind. I failed on both accounts.”

She reached out hesitantly and took his hand, squeezing it gently. “I understand what you’re saying, and I know this wasn’t easy for you to tell me. Why did you?”

“Because I understand what it’s like to feel like you didn’t do enough. And I understand what it feels like to have no one to share it with when the nightmares wake you up at night. I have more family than you could ever imagine, and Colt has been my best friend for a lifetime. But there are some things you can’t share with the people you love, because they could never hope to understand. But I can share with you. Not only because I love you, but because I know you do understand.

“After the mission in Kandahar was finished and I’d turned in my retirement papers, I pretty much roamed aimlessly for an entire year, living off my pension and traveling the world. I didn’t call home often, and I know my family was worried about me. But then one day I found myself back in Laurel Valley and I met a guy in the gym who was a recruiter for the DEA.

“We talked and became friends of a sort,” Blaze said. “It turned out he wasn’t just a recruiter for the DEA, but he was also a federal psychologist. He’s the only person I ever told about what happened on that mission, and it freed something in me I didn’t know I needed. It also turned out that I had a special set of skills that the feds needed for a very specific mission. I hadn’t realized the drugs and trafficking had become such a problem.

“Law enforcement was a good fit for me,” he said. “And I found myself back in a position of command after Sheriff Cole decided to retire and appointed me in his place. But what I’ve also found is the guilt of surviving doesn’t weigh quite as heavily as it once did.”

“What are you saying?” she asked, her voice raspy with emotion.

“I’m saying it doesn’t hurt to lean on someone every once in a while. And I’d love to be that person for you.”

Chapter Seven

Blaze’s words ate at her while they worked to unhitch the boat and get it into the water. The police-issue rain jacket and boots that he’d given her hadn’t helped much. They were both soaked to the skin by the time they got into the boat and Blaze started the engine.

She didn’t have the luxury of coming from a place that provided an instant family. Blaze was right—he had more family than he knew what to do with. Her time in Laurel Valley was limited, but she’d been tripping over O’Haras since she first stepped foot there. What would the O’Haras—pillars of the community and the original founders of the town—think when Blaze introduced her as his wife?

She was a bounty hunter. She was good at her job, but money came and went depending on how high bonds were set for her skips. She’d learned to be frugal and stretch out her pay so she could have a roof over her head. Sometimes the money was very very good. And sometimes it wasn’t. What kind of prospect was she to bring home? Her brother was in prison and her parents were dead.

But he was the only person she’d ever felt this connection with. A soul connection that was so deep she couldn’t shake it if she tried. Her great-grandmother’s words were always in the back of her mind. Lily recognized Blaze as her equal, her perfect match, and even if she tried they wouldn’t be kept apart. And she’d tried over the last year. But fate had crossed their paths once more, and she was back in Laurel Valley. And back with him.

Maybe what Blaze said was right. Maybe the dreams wouldn’t be so hard to bear if there was someone to hold her when she woke from them.

Blaze steered the boat with expertise, and she had to admit she was glad he’d come along. She wouldn’t have gotten very far in unfamiliar territory in these kinds of conditions. Limbs swirled in the fast-moving brown water where the road had once been.

“Look there,” she said, pointing through the trees some distance away. It was hard to be sure of the color, but a vehicle had been overturned by the water and only the tail end was visible.

“Let me see if I can get closer. There are too many trees to maneuver through.” Limbs scraped along the bottom of the boat, and Lily pulled her hood around her face to keep the rain out so her vision was clear.

“Could be it. I think it’s dark blue, but it could be black.”

“Close enough for us to check it out. The first cabin is just up the way.”

He put the boat in reverse and headed back to the main road, and Lily dug in her bag for her extra cuffs and the homemade weapon she used to stop the skips who wanted to run.

“Whoa! What is that?” Blaze asked.

Lily grinned and held up the modified sawed-off shotgun. “It shoots sandbags,” she explained. “It doesn’t hurt the skips too bad, but it doesn’t feel real good either when one hits them in the chest with that much force.”

“I can imagine. I’ll pretend I didn’t see that. I’m almost positive it’s not legal.”

“Sure it is. And pretty effective too. I only have to shoot once and it knocks them down. Then all I have to do is slap on the cuffs.”

They almost missed the cabin because of a tree that had been knocked over, blocking it from sight.

“Well, I don’t think he’s staying there.” Blaze idled the boat a few feet away. “This is residual from the lake runoff. This is a hunting cabin and not residential, but it’s in the flood zone. Which is why no one uses it anymore. What you see is what you get.”

Water rushed through broken-out windows and the door hung on one hinge, banging back and forth against the cabin as the water pushed past it.

“Let’s head to the next one,” she said, starting to feel the prickle of unease at the base of her neck. She gripped her weapon tightly as Blaze nodded and drove the boat farther up the road.

“We’ll have to get out here and walk to land level,” he said, docking by a tree. “The next cabin is on higher ground.”

Lily was glad Blaze had loaned her the boots when she rolled out of the boat and into water that hit just below her knees. The temperature had dropped steadily and it didn’t help that her jeans were soaking wet and her hair plastered to her head, snaking beads of frigid water down the collar of her shirt.

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