Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
Bowie slipped from the bed and hiked up his jeans. The sun had yet to show. He glanced over his shoulder. Moana peeked open her eyes. “What time is it?”
“A little after six,” he whispered. “Go back to sleep.”
“Have you heard anything?”
He waved his cell. “Carter texted. I was about to go outside and call him back.”
She shifted to a sitting position. “Would you do that inside and put it on speaker so I can listen?”
“Sure.” He sat on the edge of the bed and tapped Carter’s contact information. It rang twice.
“Hey, man, sorry if I woke you,” Carter said.
“Wasn’t really sleeping.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Any news?”
“Yeah. Lots of it,” Carter said. “Where’s Moana?”
“She’s right here.” He held her gaze. “Listening.”
“Rosco left the RV at one in the morning. Lane and I followed him to a house on the other side of the marina. All the curtains are drawn. We can’t see in. We gave the address to Waylen and he learned it’s a seasonal rental in Parker’s name for four months.”
“Why the fuck is he staying at an RV park?” Bowie asked.
“No idea, but they were rented at the same time,” Carter said. “Lane saw joggers go out about twenty minutes ago. He stopped them and asked them about who had rented the house. All they had to say was they didn’t see much movement and thought it was weird that it was so dark. But occasionally, Parker would show up with groceries. Or a man fitting Rosco’s description. Outside of that, nothing.”
“We need to see what’s going on inside that house.”
“We’re working on that,” Carter said. “In the meantime, you should know that according to Quinn, Parker is at the top of the street, sitting on the bench outside the park. From that angle, he can see Moana’s front porch.”
“Perhaps Moana and I should go to that little place inside the marina for breakfast.”
“That might draw both Parker and Rosco there, giving us a chance to go inside that house.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Bowie said. “We’ll head out in about a half hour. I’ll text everyone when we do. I’ll want Flint and Quinn on my six and Kian can go check out that RV that Parker rented.”
“Talk to you soon.”
Bowie tapped his cell and took Moana’s hand. “We’ll know shortly exactly what we’re dealing with.”
“Do you believe he’s kidnapped my sister?” Moana clutched the covers to her chin.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense.” He palmed her cheek. “I can’t imagine what Rosco thought he was going to accomplish by doing this. Maybe he believed he could come in and pretend to be your hero and you’d fall in love with him or you’d lean on him, and then he’d release her.” Bowie let out a long breath. “I really don’t know. But with him renting two places and being here on Big Island and the timing of your sister’s disappearance, that’s what I’m going with. We also don’t know if the doctor is working with him or collateral damage.” He leaned in and brushed his lips over hers. “However, until we have confirmation of any of these details, we can’t go rushing in. We also don’t know if he has anyone else helping him or how unhinged he really is and what kind of weapon power he might have. I don’t want anyone getting hurt, so we have to play this smart.”
“Thank you for letting me hear that conversation with Carter.” She pulled back the covers, exposing her gloriously naked body.
He groaned. “Anyone ever tell you how perfect you are? How utterly beautiful you are?”
“You just did.” She snagged her robe and pulled it across her body. “And you’re so sweet to say so, even though it’s not really true.” She tugged a shirt over her head.
“Yes, it is.” He stood, heaving her to his chest. “Did someone or something happen to make you believe otherwise?”
“Besides years of being teased by both sexes about being vertically challenged and being as flat as a twelve-year-old boy?” She cocked her head. “No. Not really.”
He glided his fingers through her long dark hair. “You’re not that short.”
“I’m barely five-four and you’re what, six-two?” She rose up on her tiptoes as if to make a point.
He chuckled.
She scowled.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed and it wasn’t your height that made me do that. It was the idea that you think it would bother me in the least.” He cupped her breasts. “And the amount of time I spend playing with these, I would think you’d understand how much I enjoy them.”
She rolled her eyes. “Someone once told me that as soon as I turned eighteen, I should consider implants. That has stuck with me my entire adult life.”
“Please don’t ever do that.” He fanned his thumb over her nipple. She sucked in a deep breath, arching into his body. “I personally wouldn’t want you to change a single thing about you. I adore you just the way you are. Your body is beautiful. Your mind is incredible. I could listen to you sing every day and never get bored. I?—”
She covered his mouth. “You can be incredibly overwhelming at times.”
“I mean every word.” He kissed her nose. “When this is over, I’d like us to spend some time together so we can really get to know each other.”
She wrapped her arms around his middle and rested her head on his chest and sighed. “It’s obvious I like you. A lot. Even when we do find my sister, that doesn’t change the circumstances. My father is still in bad shape. His stroke isn’t his only problem. He’s diabetic and needs dialysis. He’s got a bad heart. The doctors don’t believe he’ll live to see the new year. And you’re most likely leaving within the month. Whoever said distance makes the heart grow fonder didn’t have to live through a long-distance relationship compounded with deployments.”
Pressing his lips against her temple, he closed his eyes. The first part of her argument he had an answer for. That was the easy part. If he were to step up and be a boyfriend, he could support her and her family. He could be there and hold her hand as well as her mother and sister.
It was the second part of her statement that ripped his soul from his body. He no longer felt a strong pull to the Navy. Or even being a SEAL. He knew without a shadow of a doubt his career aspirations could easily be filled through the Brotherhood Protectors.
However, he had more than a strong sense of loyalty toward his team. Quinn, Carter, and Flint were as much brothers to him as his own flesh and blood brother, Anderson. He owed it to them to see this thing through to the end.
He lifted her chin. “I’m going to have a talk with my team about the job offer that Waylen and Hawk have offered us. We’re all tired. The last mission we were on nearly destroyed us.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t get into the details,” he said. “What I can tell you is that both Carter and Flint, if I told them I wanted to toss the re-enlistment papers in the trash, would do it too.”
“And Quinn?” She chomped down on her lower lip, which quivered.
It warmed his heart that she even thought to ask what his buddy wanted, because that meant she thought about him staying long-term.
But that also scared him.
He cared for her in ways he’d never expected. He’d been attracted to her from the moment he laid eyes on her, but attraction didn’t mean shit. That wasn’t an emotion. That was purely physical.
Everything that flowed through his system now was exactly what his parents and sisters told him would happen someday.
It was an overwhelming connection. A sense of belonging, similar to what he had with his siblings, but more intense. It was as if her heart beat with his and the idea of them being separated would mean his heart would bleed out on the floor.
“He’s conflicted and honestly, it hinges on what our CO can find out about what happened on our last mission. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait this one out. I want to say screw it. I’m staying here no matter what because I want to see where this takes us.” He traced his finger across her lower lip. “And if push comes to shove, I might just do that. But you have to understand, those three men have saved my life more times than I can count. It’s not even that I feel like I owe them anything. It’s that we’ve been a team for a long time and what happened on that mission was life-changing and if we don’t see it through, what almost happened to us, could happen to someone else, and we couldn’t live with ourselves if innocent lives were lost.”
She palmed his cheek. “That sounds so very ominous.”
“Unfortunately, it is, and I’ve told you too much, so please, keep all that to yourself.” He patted her bottom. “Go get dressed. We need to draw him out. I want this over by the end of the day.” Hopefully, he’d be able to keep her out of the line of fire.
Moana fiddled with her food at the diner inside of the marina. Normally, she’d be scarfing down the chocolate chip pancakes, but this morning, her appetite had left the building.
The man who had been following her since she’d come back to Big Island had perched himself at a table on the other side of the restaurant. Currently, he sipped coffee and read the newspaper. She shivered. The idea that someone had been watching her and she’d had no idea made her skin crawl.
Bowie said that his entire team, plus Kian, Lane, and Raider were all in the area, but she couldn’t see them. Waylen had hung back at the ranch to work his intelligence and high-tech magic while Mano was off running down a few other leads.
She should feel safe, and the reality was, she was as safe as she could be with these men. They were the best of the best. The most elite group of ex-Special Forces known to man. Hawk only hired the best and she knew that. She might not have been around when Presley and Blake had gone through some serious shit, but she’d heard about it. Waylen, Kian, and their team had saved the day. She had no doubt that Bowie and his men would do the same.
But it didn’t settle her nerves.
Her sister had most likely been held in captivity for a couple of weeks and by a man Moana knew. Possibly by Liko Akoni, a man her sister could have trusted. Or maybe the good doctor was being held captive as well. An unknown that had Bowie concerned, and that fact made her even more nervous.
Bowie leaned closer, resting his hand over hers. “I know it’s hard but try to relax.”
“I can’t. All this waiting around is driving me crazy.”
“This, unfortunately, is ninety-five percent of my job. We call it hurry-up-and-wait. Sometimes we get dropped into enemy territory and we sit there all day and night waiting for something bad to happen, only nothing happens and we pack up and go home, only to do it all again the next day.”
She groaned. “I will not survive if we have to do this again.”
“I’m going to do my best…” He let the words trail off and glanced toward the ceiling.
“What is it?” she asked with her heart in her throat.
He blew out a puff of air and turned, catching her gaze. “I’ve been trying to avoid using you as bait outside of you being by my side at all times so I can protect you. But he might not come out and play that way. If I’m always around, he might assume my friends will be too.”
“Are you planning on leaving me alone?” Her voice cracked. She hated that sound. It reminded her of when she missed a note onstage, which was always a singer’s worst nightmare and one of the biggest reasons she never wanted to command center stage. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. When she’d been younger, she did dream of making it big. Of being a country and western superstar. But three things happened.
When she’d been eight, she got stage fright so bad and she got booed so badly at the county fair by half her class that it took two years before she sang onstage again. For three months, everything was fine, until she missed a high note in the school play.
Kids could be so cruel.
However, she had some awesome teachers who helped her through it.
Until high school when one of those teachers made a pass at her, informing her that her sister had been all too willing.
Gross.
The man was in his fifties.
And her sister, who was actually her mother, was sixteen years older. It was just the worst feeling ever and Moana decided writing songs made her just as happy.
And the reality was, it did.
She’d never looked back. She was thrilled with her successes. And she still sang on the stage. Just small ones. And songs she wouldn’t fuck up.
“No. Or at least I’m not going to be very far away. I’ll always be able to see you, as will my team,” he said.
“I don’t like the sound of this.”
“Trust me. It’s leaving a bad taste in my mouth. But Waylen suggested a little while ago that maybe you should text Rosco after causing a bit of a scene here with me.”
“I’m not following.” She cocked her head.
“We fight. A good one. One where you tell me to take a hike,” he said softly. “That it’s over. That you are done with me and my controlling, overbearing ways. That you liked your life before I came into it and that you should have never listened to me about the people back in Nashville. That they were your friends.” He cupped her mouth when she opened it. “You can even toss Mano under the bus. And Jaden if you want. Just don’t mention Rosco’s name. That would be too much of a setup and he’d know it.”
“Seriously? You want me to start yelling at you in a public place.”
“Yes.” He leaned back and folded his arms across his chest.
“And then what?”
“I’ll toss some money on the table and leave. I’ll go up to the house, get in my car, and drive a little ways away, making sure I’m not being followed, then double back to my team, who will be watching you the entire time. You will then sit here for a little bit. Maybe a half hour. Or until you get a text from me or Waylen. It will look like it’s coming from someone else and it will give you instructions on what to do.”
“So, I’m a sitting duck.”
“We don’t have to do it this way, but I think it’s the fastest way to get him to come out of the woodwork,” he said.
“You’re an asshole.” She made sure she raised her voice two octaves. She hated the plan. Despised it. But she couldn’t sit there a second longer and do nothing. She needed to get back to helping her mother with her dad. The poor woman was going out of her mind. Between worry over her husband and his condition and then the concern for her oldest child, the lady was about to lose her shit. “I can’t believe I could even think for one second you’d be different.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” He narrowed his stare.
“For weeks I’ve been listening to you tell me what to do. Who to hang out with. How to act. Even how to dress.” She waved a hand over her shirt. “You controlled my trip to Nashville. I didn’t get to see my friends. Hang out with any of them because you’re a jealous prick,” she said so loudly that half the restaurant glanced in her direction.
He jerked his head. “Excuse me for wanting you to be safe.”
“Safe? That’s what you call it?” She pushed her plate away. “You asked me to change my outfit three times because you thought men would look at me for all the wrong reasons. That’s so ridiculous. I don’t tell you to change your jeans because they hug your ass too tightly. Or to take off that ridiculous cowboy hat.” She reached across the table and snagged it, waving it in the air. “You’re from Southern California. Not freaking Texas.”
“Come on, babe. Some of the clothing you wear onstage is a little revealing. I just don’t want strange men ogling my girl.”
“Are you freaking kidding me? The only thing you want me wearing is a nun’s outfit.” She shook her head. She couldn’t believe she was having this stupid made-up fight. The only thing Bowie had ever said about anything she’d ever worn was how beautiful she’d looked in it. Not once had he ever made a comment that anything was inappropriate or not fit for the stage. Nor was he ever concerned about the way men looked at her, except maybe Rosco, but that was different. “And it’s not even the clothes that’s pissing me off this morning. It’s the fact that you didn’t want me to go surfing with my girlfriends. What the hell is wrong with them?” She held her hand up. “You can’t control my life. You can’t tell me who or what I can do. You certainly can’t tell me when I can go back to Nashville, which I have to do for work. And guess what. Next time I’m going alone and I will see my friends. If you don’t like it, we’re done.” Shit. She needed to be done with him now. Not in the future.
“You know why I don’t like you surfing,” he said with a dark voice. “As far as Nashville goes, I will not allow you to go without me.”
“Allow? That’s it. Whatever this is between us, it’s over. I don’t ever want to see you again.” She pointed toward the exit. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” She snagged his cowboy hat and aggressively smashed it onto his head.
He snarled. “Sweetheart?—”
“I’m not your sweetheart. Now leave and if you come near me again, I’ll call the military. I know they take this kind of stuff very seriously.” She hoped that was a good thing to say.
His eyes went wide and it appeared he cracked a slight smile. “You’re making a big mistake.”
“Only mistake I made was being with you.” She pulled her plate closer.
He stood, tossing a few bills on the table, and strolled to the front door.
Stabbing the pancakes, she lifted a large bite into her mouth. Even though it was all fake, tears burned in her eyes. She’d come to care about Bowie. Watching him get up and leave had torn her heart in half. She swallowed a guttural sob that bubbled up from deep in her gut.
She loved Bowie.
There was no other explanation.
What the hell was she going to do now?
Her cell buzzed.
She jumped.
Turning her phone over, she gasped.
Rosco: I know I’m not supposed to be contacting you. But I don’t like the way we left things. We’ve been friends for a while and I miss that. I hope we can find a way back. Please text or call. I just want to talk.
She stared at the message, unsure of what to do. This was not one of the possible outcomes Bowie had discussed. Not a single man from his team was inside the diner. Texting someone, with Parker watching, might not be a smart idea, especially if he was in communication with Rosco. If Parker told Rosco that she was fiddling with her phone, that might blow the entire plan. She couldn’t have that.
But she could go outside, make a phone call, and hope someone was listening.
Including Parker.
She gathered her things, paid the bill, and stepped outside. She made her way into the parking lot, doing her best not to look around for Bowie’s team. Making her way across the gravel, she stopped at the edge of the docks and leaned against the railing, staring out at all the boats. She tapped Bowie’s contact information. It rang once.
She turned and Parker was now strolling in her direction with something in his hand. Her heart raced. A thick lump formed in the center of her throat.
“Are you okay?” Bowie asked without saying hello.
“Hey, ,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay. I’ll roll with this.”
“I told Bowie to go fuck himself. He’s an arrogant prick.”
“I am not.” Bowie had the nerve to chuckle.
“Yeah. I know,” she said. “I think once I get my dad settled with this new regimen, I’m going to move back to Nashville. It was a mistake to come back here.”
“I’m not sure what this conversation has to do with anything.”
“My sister is a lost cause. She’ll never change. I’ve given up,” she said.
“Is Parker close by?”
She watched as Parker stood about twenty feet away, three docks over, and fed the fish. Thank God it was fish food in his hands and not a gun. “Yeah. I’m sure she’s off using somewhere. It’s what she does.”
“What about Rosco? Do you see him?”
“No,” she said. “But I did hear from an old friend from Nashville. It just reminded me that’s the city where I belong. I left this place because I don’t fit in and honestly, Bowie just reminded me of all the things I gave up. Or screwed up. I can’t believe I couldn’t see what was right in front of me.”
“Okay, now that’s laying it on a little thick,” Bowie said. “So, did Rosco call?”
“I don’t think you understand, .”
“Okay, it was a text,” Bowie said. “Interesting and honestly, I’m really impressed by how good you are at this.”
“Don’t be sorry for introducing me to Bowie. I should have seen what kind of jerk he was the second he showed up on the plane to Nashville. He wasn’t invited and he almost ruined everything,” Moana said. “I’m thinking I should call my friend.”
“Yeah. But I want you to walk home and do it there. Flint was able to bug your house.”
She did not like the sound of that.
“Once you get home, make the call, but make sure it’s on speaker. Don’t be super nice to him. Don’t easily forgive him. We don’t want to get his hackles up, so act like you’re still mad, but willing to consider having a conversation once back in Nashville. I’m hoping he’ll show his face or better yet, tell you he’s here, but we won’t know until we play a few cards,” Bowie said. “And Moana, don’t worry. I can see you right now. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Once we get Rosco out of that house, Lane and Kian will go in and get your sister out.”
“Thanks, . I don’t know what I’d do without your friendship.”
“Babe, it’s more than friendship. I’m falling head over heels for you.” The line went dead.
She dropped her cell in her purse and made her way toward the road.
If Bowie ended up re-enlisting, she’d figure out a way to make their relationship work.
She had to.