Stolen, p.1
Stolen, page 1
STOLEN
Unlikely Heroes Book 1
Leslie Georgeson
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2014 Leslie Georgeson
This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author.
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This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite e-book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
PART TWO
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
PART THREE
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
About Leslie Georgeson
Other Titles by Leslie Georgeson
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PART ONE
PROLOGUE
Missoula, Montana
Friday, 2:30 a.m.
She was cheating!
John gasped. He stared out the open bedroom window as she darted across the night-darkened yard and slipped between the lilac bushes separating his house from David’s.
No. He didn’t want to believe it. But his eyes told him what he didn’t want to accept.
Tonight had been the third night in a week he’d woken to find Karen’s side of the bed empty. But tonight he’d heard the back door click shut. Tonight he’d woken in time to see what she was up to.
Before he could change his mind, he slipped out the back door after her. He paused on the back step. Karen hid in the lilacs, her dark head facing away from him as she stooped down between the branches. She stared at David’s house. John scurried off the porch and ducked behind the evergreen shrubs lining the back of the house.
The full moon slipped behind a cluster of clouds, shrouding the night in near-total darkness. An owl hooted, taking advantage of its temporary cover. It swooped down from a nearby tree. Moments later a rabbit screeched, snared within the bird’s talons.
He watched from behind the bushes as the owl hauled off its prey, disappearing into the night. He felt like the rabbit as he crouched by the house, shocked and afraid, waiting for Karen to move from where she knelt between a gap in the lilacs. Following her had been a mistake, just as venturing out from under the brush had been a deadly mistake for the rabbit. He should have stayed in the house.
Karen rose to her feet. She tiptoed across the lawn toward David’s back door. John followed. She reached the back porch and glanced behind her, searching the area where he hid in the lilacs in the exact spot she’d just hidden in.
John froze. Did she suspect he was there? Did she know she’d been caught?
She turned away, rapped her knuckles against the front door.
Oh God, she really was cheating. John’s throat closed up.
No.
Pain sliced through his chest. He struggled to draw air into his lungs. How could she do this? How could he?
But now he knew.
The clouds drifted away. The moon reappeared. Moments later, the door swung open. Karen disappeared inside the house. John waited a few more seconds, then followed. He paused. Stooping beneath the open window, he waited. Listened. Voices floated out the window, swirling down to where he knelt by the juniper hedge. Taunting him. Tormenting him. He heard every word.
“Everything’s ready. We’ll meet you tomorrow at midnight like we planned.” Karen’s soft voice, a mixture of urgency and excitement, made his gut clench. “He doesn’t suspect a thing. We’ll be long gone before he even realizes what happened.”
“I knew you could pull it off.”
John’s heart clenched. Hearing David’s voice confirmed his suspicion. His little brother, his only family, had stolen his wife. John struggled to draw air into his lungs.
“Where’s the baby now?” David asked.
“She’s in bed sleeping. John was sound asleep when I snuck out.”
“You did good, Babe. Tomorrow our life together can begin. Just the three of us.”
“Yes. Oh, I love you, David!”
John sucked in a breath. The two people he trusted most in the world had deceived him. Bile rose in his throat. He forced it back down.
The voices trailed into silence. Moments later a light flicked on at the back of the house.
John rose to his feet. He slipped around to the back of the house and hunkered down beneath the bedroom window. Sounds of intense lovemaking drifted out the window. Soft sighs. Groans. Whispered words. Moans...
Tormented, yet unable to leave, he remained beneath the window, each panted breath, each sigh tearing at his heart like a jagged knife. He doubled over with the pain, gasped for breath.
How dare they do this to him!
He jerked upright as anger surged through him.
How dare they!
He glanced into the house through the crack in the blinds. Karen lay naked on the bed, her face filled with ecstasy, while his brother made love to her. Slut! Whore! How could she do this to him? He was going to strangle the bitch, squeeze the deceit right out of her.
He’d lost the only woman he’d ever loved to his own brother!
The breath whooshed back out of his lungs. He sank onto the ground as despair slithered in. How could they do this to him? Why? His chest tightened. The pain nearly crippled him. He groaned.
He turned away from the window before the sight and sounds of their deceit could torture him further. What should he do now? Should he confront them? Just pretend he didn’t know?
Something they’d said clicked in his brain. John halted his retreat. He turned back toward the house.
Not only had they planned to run away together, but they’d made arrangements to take his daughter—his sweet, darling little girl—with them.
The hell they were! His skin heated. His limbs stiffened. His head pounded. A fierce swirling of rage consumed him. John stalked across the yard, thundered up the porch steps. He reached for the doorknob…turned it. They hadn’t locked the door. Idiots! They should have. Now they were going to regret it.
He shoved the door open.
It banged against the wall.
How dare they! No one took his little girl away! No one!
He marched down the hallway, their startled gasps fueling him on. He reached the master bedroom. Flung open the door.
It slammed against the wall.
They sprang apart, their sweat-slicked bodies glistening in the overhead light. David grabbed a blanket from the bed. He tossed it over Karen.
“John!” Her eyes widened. “What are you doing here?”
“What the hell you covering her for?” John reached for the blanket, snatched it aside. “It’s not like I’ve never seen her naked before!”
“Take it easy, John.” David glanced at Karen where she hovered on the bed, trying to cover herself with her hands. His gaze jerked back to John. “She wanted to tell you, she just didn’t know how.”
“She wanted to tell me?” John echoed. “What about you? You son-of-a-bitch!” He lunged at his brother, tackling him backward. They slammed into a nightstand, sent a lamp crashing to the hardwood floor as they grappled beside the bed. Karen let out a shriek. She leaned over the side of the bed to watch.
David stumbled to his feet, eyeing John warily. John charged again, his fist sailing through the air.
A loud crunch resounded through the room as John’s fist struck home, smashing David square in the jaw. David stumbled backward. He lost his footing and fell. His head struck the corner of the nightstand with a loud crack. David crumpled to the floor and didn’t move. Blood gushed from the wound, soaking the carpet beneath his head.
Karen let out another screech. “You killed him, you bastard!” She leapt off the bed. Her foot got tangled in the blankets, tripping her. She went down in a tangle of sheets and blankets.
John glanced to where David lay, unmoving. Karen cursed and fought her way free of the sheets.
Sh
“Shit!” What have I done? He’d never struck anyone before in his entire life. He glanced again at his brother’s unmoving form.
A sob escaped him. Then another.
He leaned over David’s body. Felt for a pulse.
Nothing.
Blood seeped into the carpet around David’s head.
John lowered his ear to David’s nose. Listened for sounds of breathing.
Nothing.
He checked for a pulse again.
Still nothing.
John stumbled back, fell hard on his ass. He stared at his brother’s body. Another sob erupted from his throat. He lunged to his feet, scrambling toward the door.
He’d just killed his little brother!
Karen finally untangled herself. She crawled across the room to lean over David’s body. “David?” She patted his cheek. “David?”
John bolted from the room.
For a moment, he stood in the hallway in indecision. He couldn’t go to jail. He’d never see his daughter again. His sweet baby girl.
A plan took shape in his mind. If he hurried, he could rush home, scoop up his beloved April, and disappear into the night.
John sprinted across the yard to his house, panic urging him on. He crashed through the lilacs, scraping his arms on the branches, then stumbled in the back door. He raced to the nursery. Pausing in the doorway, he stared in at his six-month-old daughter asleep in the crib. She sucked on a thumb, her expression peaceful in sleep.
Love consumed him, brought tears to his eyes. She was the most precious thing in the world. He’d die before he let anyone take her away from him. He refused to believe April might not even be his. Hell, if she wasn’t his, then he was stealing her.
No! He wouldn’t think that. April was his.
“Daddy’s sorry he left you alone.” He stared down at his beautiful little girl. His life. His everything. He reminded himself if he hadn’t followed Karen, he would never have discovered her scheme to run away and take April with her.
“I’ll never leave you alone again, Sweetie.” It was a promise he intended to keep.
He turned from the room.
John raced down the hallway to the master bedroom. He grabbed a duffle bag from the closet, stuffed clothes into it. He ran back down the hallway and dropped it outside the nursery door. He hurried into the room with another bag. He emptied the baby’s dresser, shoving her frilly little clothes into the bag. The bag now bursting with April’s baby clothes—pinks, reds, yellows, pastel blues and greens, white lace and ribbons—he set it next to the other bag. He rushed to the baby’s closet, yanked out the basket full of diapers. He dropped it in the hallway with the rest of the bags. John bent over the crib and smiled down at his precious baby.
He scooped her into his arms.
April turned into his warmth, snuggled against his chest. Shame washed over him. He couldn’t believe what he was about to do. But it was the only way. The only way.
He paused once again outside the nursery door, bent to retrieve the bags of clothes. John slung one bag over each shoulder, gently cradling his daughter against him, then hefted the diaper basket into his free arm. Juggling baby, diaper basket, and bags of clothes, he wobbled from the house and out to the car parked in the driveway. He had to hurry. Karen could come out of David’s house at any second.
He tossed the clothes and diapers into the backseat of his Chevy, then gently laid April in her car seat. He belted her in, tucking a pink baby blanket beneath her chin. Her eyes opened. She made a soft cooing sound, then went back to sleep.
John raced around to the driver’s seat, climbed in. He started the engine and took a deep breath. He glanced next door at David’s house. Still no sign of Karen.
He leaned over and peered into the rear-facing car seat at April. Tears blurred his vision.
“It’s just you and me now, darling.” He trailed a finger down his baby’s soft cheek. His hand shook. He turned away.
Moments later they traveled down the street in the old blue Chevy, away from a life of pain and deceit and into a future filled with uncertainties. Fleeing would offer nothing but a life on the run. A life of living in fear. He was a murderer. He would be a wanted man before morning. They would hunt him down.
He let out a sob. Murderer.
He’d killed his own brother.
John glanced down at April, his entire world, sleeping peacefully in her car seat. They would have to create new identities, possibly alter their appearances. But when weighed with the odds of never seeing his sweet baby girl again, it was the only life he could choose.
As he turned the car onto Interstate 90 and headed east, John’s eyes were intent on the road. His decision was made.
He never looked back.
CHAPTER ONE
Tucson, Arizona
Fourteen years later
Nick Miller was not having a good day.
First, Daisy stepped on his foot in the wash area and he was almost positive she’d broken his baby toe. Then she had the audacity to trip him in the show ring. The stupid cow should have been named Crazy Beast.
As Nick lay sprawled on the ground with a mouthful of dirt and laughter surrounding him, Daisy further humiliated him by slamming a hind leg rudely onto his stomach. Nick gasped in pain and rolled into a ball. Daisy took that as a cue to continue her misbehavior. She lunged out of line, dragging him around the arena. She rammed into the other cattle and their handlers, turning the show into a disaster. Daisy had to be the first cow in the history of the fair to single-handedly turn the Junior Dairy Cattle Show into a stampede. If Nick had been smart enough to let go of Daisy’s lead rope when she first tripped him, he wouldn’t have been trampled. But once he was lying face-down in the dirt, he couldn’t release Daisy. He was afraid to let go of her lead rope. She didn’t have the best temperament and he feared someone else might be hurt if she got loose. Crazy Beast! His prized, two-year-old Guernsey 4-H cow he’d spent hours working with was going on the market as soon as possible. He was done. He refused to show another cow after this. No matter what his parents said.
Chaos rained down upon the arena. Stampeding cattle. Screaming spectators. Satisfied now that she’d set the arena into an uproar, Daisy dragged Nick to the fence. She paused to nibble at a lone weed. There would be no ribbon for Daisy today. Nick wouldn’t be surprised if they banned him from ever showing another cow at the fair. Not that he cared anymore. Stupid cow!
He rolled over onto his back, gingerly sat up. He was covered with dirt. And fresh cow shit. The disgusting smell wafted up from his jeans, stung his nostrils. Crap. He stunk.
His glasses hung askew from one ear.
A shadow fell over him.
“You okay?” It was a girl’s voice.
Huh? No one cared about him. Except maybe his parents. He removed his glasses and wiped them on his shirt, smearing mud across one of the lenses. He readjusted them on his face, then looked up. He could see out of the one side, but the other was blurry with mud.
Small and skinny, with wild, unruly black hair and the lightest eyes Nick had ever seen, the girl had extraordinarily pretty features. He stared. He guessed her age at about twelve or thirteen. Crap! The last thing he needed was a skinny little girl hanging around, getting in his way.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” His stomach roiled. Daisy’s foot had worked him over good. He’d have an ugly bruise tomorrow. If he didn’t die from internal injuries first.
His stomach heaved. Nick puked all over the ground near the girl’s feet.
She stepped aside while he retched. She placed a hand on his shoulder.
Nick shrugged her away. “I said I was fine!” He grabbed a fence rail and pulled himself to his feet. Daisy had made quick work of the weed and sniffed along the fence for another one, oblivious to what she’d done.
“Stupid cow!” He glared at the dumbest, meanest cow he’d ever had the misfortune of showing. “I hate you!”
“Hate’s a harsh word. You shouldn’t say it unless you really mean it.”
Nick swung his gaze toward the girl, the non-blurred eye focusing on her tanned face. “Yeah, what do you know? You’re just a kid.”
