Cold Heat (Seasons of the Heart #1) (11 page)

Rafe met her gaze and nodded his head in acknowledgement. “It seems your ex was under surveillance by the FBI before you sent him to jail.”
He watched her face pale before she turned around, motioning for him to continue, his curiosity growing when she wouldn’t look at them. “The feds were interested in how he acquired his wealth so quickly, out of nothing, and they began watching him, but they could never quite pin him down with enough to take him in for the drug trafficking he was suspected of. Everything they had on him was circumstantial. When he was sentenced to jail, it effectively put their investigation on hold, or so they thought.”

Kaylie was listening as she browned up some meat, adding in sauces and seasonings until the kitchen smelled like spicy sandwich meat. Setting the top on for it to simmer, she sat at the table, her hands clenched tightly together as Rafe continued on.

“It seems your ex had a frequent visitor whom the feds were very aware of, a man known to work with a cartel, trafficking drugs from Mexico into the US and up to Las Vegas. Now that Brian has been released, the good guys are hoping to get enough evidence and information to shut it down.”

Swallowing had, she took a deep breath. “How could I be married to him for so long and not see this? How could I have been so stupid? So unbelievably naïve to the truth?”
Her voice getting louder with each question she asked. Standing suddenly, her chair sliding backwards across the floor with the force of her emotions. “Answer me that! I was never a stupid woman; I was never a quiet, mousey coward growing up! I was opinionated; I was a fighter for and of myself! How did I give up so much of myself to him that I was left little more than a shell of a woman?”
Crossing to the front door and grabbing a jacket, she went outside, slamming the door behind her.

Chapter 16

Las Vegas

Brian could not stop himself from relaxing in the warmed leather seat of the black Land Rover that Manuel had driven to pick him up in. After eighteen months of jail time for spousal abuse, Brian was again a man free to walk out and live his life again: well, as free as he could get with parole hanging over his head, but he was sure he could persuade his parole officer to cooperate. Even if there was a cost. How anyone could be so stupid to think that he abused his wife, when in reality all he had done was discipline her, was beyond him, he thought to himself. A man of his wealth and power deserved obedience and loyalty from his wife, and that bitch had failed at both. Smiling to himself, he imagined all of the ways he would make her pay for her failures.

“Did you get what I needed before you came to pick me up, Manuel?”

“Yes, Sir, I did. There is a suit in the trunk for you, and I have an appointment for you with your tailor this afternoon, it’s where we are headed now. If you look in the glove box, you will find the credit cards that you had me store for you, along with both your old cell, and a new cell and number. Everything is as you requested it.”

“And Kaylie?”
Brian asked as he opened the compartment that Manuel indicated, removing the phones and checking his wallet. His eyes began to gleam when he spotted the squared off look of his .40 caliber handgun and pulled it out. “Have you managed to track her down for me? There is a heavy price she needs to pay, and lessons she must learn for her unacceptable behaviors and her accusations against me. She not only tarnished my reputation, but she cost me millions in business. None of these can be tolerated,”
he said as he held the gun comfortably in his hand.

“Her phone and her car have not been in the same place, but they are only separated by a couple of miles.”

“You’ve yet to tell me, specifically, where she’s disappeared to. The roads here are fine, yet you told me they were impassable, which is the truth, Manuel?”

“Mrs. Peterson’s car and phone are in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the roads have been closed since the last storm.
I’ve found someone useful up there who is more than willing to help us keep tabs on her, and he’s in the perfect position to do it without drawing notice
.
I also have men waiting for the instruction tha
t they’ve been cleared to go find your wife.”

“Well, well. It seems to me that she wants to play a game of cat and mouse if she’s headed to the mountains. Far be it from me to not entertain her. Change of plans, Manuel. Tomorrow I want to head up the mountain to see what my lovely wife is up to, and who she’s with.”

“Sir, Señor Ruvalcaba has requested a call with you tomorrow morning. He indicated to me he was eager to discuss business options with you now that you are out.”

Brian gritted his teeth. He knew he needed to re-establish himself within the organization if he wanted to keep the lifestyle he had worked too hard for, but he was ready to find Kaylie, to bring his wife home with him where she belonged. “Call the men you have up there and have them start their search immediately, use the coordinates you’ve gotten off her phone and her car, and instruct the men to notify us if they find her, but they are not to touch her; she’s mine; and you need to have everything ready to leave at the first available opportunity, so as soon as I’m finished with Ruvalcaba, we can go.”

Manuel nodded his head as they wound their way through the Las Vegas traffic on their way to the first of many stops that Brian had asked him to arrange.

Several hours later, Manuel pulled the SUV up the drive to the front of the Peterson’s large, two-storied, stucco house, putting the truck in park before Brian stepped out of the passenger seat and walked to his front door, taking the keys from Manuel’s hand, Brian unlocked and walked into his home for the first time in eighteen months.

His eyes moved from the large carpeted staircase bisecting the cream colored wall on his right just beyond the entryway, to the twin pillars across the terra cotta tiled floor which lead to a formal dining room on his left. Ignoring the stairs that led to the bedrooms, Brian walked to his left, down the step into the dining room and formal living room, following the flow into the large professionally equipped kitchen. Golden toned wood cabinets lined two walls; the granite counter top shining as he flicked on the overhead recessed lighting. The kitchen, separated from the breakfast area by a long cream colored bar, adjoined smaller, more relaxed family den where he knew Kaylie had enjoyed sitting and reading in the overstuffed olive toned sofa and chairs, his large flat screen TV was mounted on the wall over a gas fireplace. The large picture windows lining the wall looked out over their back patio and heated pool.

Brian could feel the anger in him growing as he took in his surroundings, looking for anything that was out of place, and knowing that Kaylie had stupidly thought she could walk away from him? She failed to understand that she was his, as much as the house and everything in it was, and he despised giving any of his possessions away.

He turned, ignoring the downstairs guest suite where she had taken to spending many of her nights after he disciplined her. Brian headed for the stairs, pausing when noticed that a trio of pictures of her family were missing. Brian narrowed his eyes before continuing into the master suite. Walking in, he first noticed the carefully made bed, Kaylie’s pillows still in their spot. Walking over to her dresser, the rage began to take over seeing the dresser’s top still displaying their framed wedding picture, it intensified as he pulled drawers open, one by one, the
empty
drawers where her things should be, the things that
he
had bought and paid for? The
bitch,
his mind screamed as he yanked a drawer out and threw it against the far wall, destroying it. He stormed into their en-suite bathroom, again taking in the empty spots where her makeup and perfume had once sat. Yanking open the closet door he growled at her side of the closet, clothes she decided she didn’t want still hanging on the closet rails. Knowing he had one last thing to check, he shoved his shirts aside to access their wall safe. Pulling it open after he keyed in the combination, he saw her wedding rings lying atop a stack of cash.

Anger like he had never experienced before blinded him to everything except revenge as he turned back to her clothes, yanking them from their hangers, and ripping them apart with this hands. The destruction of Kaylie’s clothes was absolute once the fury had run its course, and Brian left the pile of destroyed silks, and designer brands laying in a shredded mess, waiting for Kaylie to come home and see what she had done.

Chapter 17

Drake and Rafe sat in a stunned silence after Kaylie slammed the door behind her, before Drake stood, and walked over and opened the door, motioning for Jenny to go out with Kaylie.

“Well,”
Rafe started, “I’m not sure what you were expecting when she found out the truth man, but I wasn’t expecting that.”

Drake turned and looked at his friend with the type of smile men wore only when they knew they were going to win a battle, “It’s exactly what I was hoping for from her. Man, if you’d seen her even just a couple of days ago when I found her car wrapped around that tree, she was a woman who had been through hell, but she’s finding the strength to take care of herself. Its like there’s an inner magnet pulling all the broken pieces of herself back together, fusing them into a stronger person than she started. That,”
he said, gesturing to Kaylie through the window, “is a thing of beauty.”

Rafe was quiet for a minute, looking at his former Captain, shaking his head at Drake’s statement. “She’s not your usual type, man.”

“What? What the hell are you talking about, Rafe?”

“Her,”
Rafe answered, angling his head toward the windows. “Whenever we’d hang during down time, whenever the urge for the taste of a woman would hit you, that’s not the type you’d ever take. It was always the smaller women that drew your eye for the night, never someone who looked like her.”
Rafe shrugged his shoulder at the hot glare Drake was aiming at him. “There’s nothing wrong with her, I’m just making an observation and stating facts as I know them, and I know that’s not what you used to run to for a quick release.”

“She’s different,”
Drake heard himself saying. “I don’t even know what it is, but there is something about her that has a grip on me; maybe I’m tired of going in for a taste every once in a while. Somehow she relaxes me, and tests me.”
He shook his head, “I know something’s coming, that she’s not out of the woods yet, but I’ll be damned if I let her go before I know she’s safe,
if I
can
let her go.”
He walked to the burner, stirred the meat sauce that
Kaylie had whipped together, and pulled out plates, ending the conversation on his part.

“I’ll drop it for now, and I’ll be an extra set of eyes and ears while you need them because, yeah, I have a bad feeling that trouble’s coming, too.”
Rafe saw Kaylie heading back toward the house with Jenny, “I’ll call the Sheriff and fill him in, get more eyes up here because we’ll need them. We should be able to go get her car, today, if we use your truck, at least get it off the side of the road and away from the tree.”

Kaylie walked in as Drake was answering Rafe, “That’ll work. We can head out after lunch.”
He turned his attention to Kaylie, “You okay now?”

“Better, thanks. I’d like to…“

“If you even think about apologizing, remember what I told you about it,”
Drake warned her.

Rafe’s eyebrows rose as he watched Kaylies face blush as she looked at Drake. She cleared her throat before continuing; “I’ll just finish getting everything for lunch together for you guys. It sounds like you’re going somewhere…”
she trailed off.

“The roads are pretty clear right now so we’re going to try and get your car and bring it back here, get it off the main road while we find a mechanic to look at it,”
Rafe answered her.

Kaylie’s eyes widened, “Are you serious? You’re going to go and get it? You can bring it back here? Why didn’t you say so?”

“Kaylie,”
Drake began, “this doesn’t necessarily mean you can leave right away, but we know a couple of guys who can fix damn near anything. We’ll call them and see if they can come take a look, see if it’s something they can fix, but don’t forget how you got so banged up to begin with. Your car is currently against a tree.”

“I know, but if there’s a chance I can get out of your hair…“

“You won't be going anywhere yet, Kaylie,”
he interrupted her,
“
not until I know that you’ll be safe. We know that Brian is out of jail, after serving a sentence from charges
you
pressed, he’s been associating with known traffickers. Rafe and I agree that it may not be safe for you to be on your own yet.”

“You and Rafe decided? What about my decision? If I am still in danger, if he can find me, he can find me here just as easily as anywhere else. I’ve already
fallen into your lap, Drake, and now you expect me to sit back if there’s a chance that Brian could come after me here? I don’t see how he could, by the way, since no one in Vegas
knows where I was going, remember?”