Chapter Fifteen

For the entire drive back to the shack, Laia had stewed over what Smoke had discovered in her former house. In hers and Josh’s former house. By the time they turned onto Jamie’s street, the temperature of her blood had reached the boiling point.

Beneath her crossed arms, her hands were tightly fisted. If her mother hadn’t brought her up with strict rules of decorum, she seriously would have considered punching out the SUV’s window.

“How could he have done that? How could Josh have brought illegal drugs into our home?” Both rhetorical questions, but recklessness was unforgivable. “What if Rosa had found that cocaine? I don’t know who was more horrified when you pulled out that baggie, Jennifer Sanderson or me.”

Kade slowed before turning into the driveway. “I know it’s a shock, but it doesn’t mean he was using in the sense of being an addict, and I don’t think there’s any way Rosa could have pried off that grating. I had to use a knife to do it.”

“That’s not the point,” she snapped, then realized he was only trying to make her feel better. “I’m sorry, I’m just so…so…pissed.” And with no possible way to vent her fury on the man responsible because he was dead. “What will you do with that baggie?”

“Incinerate it.” He put the gear shift in park but didn’t shut off the engine.

After using a test kit he had in the back of the SUV to confirm the drugs were indeed cocaine, Kade had assured Jennifer Sanderson that the baggie had probably been hidden there long ago by one of the previous owners. Josh.

Smoke shoved his head through the opening between them, and Laia absently began stroking his ears, letting the soothing comfort of petting a dog ease some of the tension and anger that had been whipping up inside her head. “I feel like an ignorant idiot. A wife who didn’t know a thing about her own husband until it was too late.”

Kade unbuckled his seat belt and turned to face her. “My brother was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. If I had a dime for every secret he kept from our parents, I’d be a rich man. Trust me, if Josh didn’t want you to know what he was doing, there was no way you would ever find out. Don’t beat yourself up over it.” His expression darkened. “Everyone has secrets.”

Laia had to look away, so great was the mammoth-size lump in her throat. Everyone did have secrets. The only question was what would happen when hers was revealed.

“C’mon.” He shut off the engine. “We’ve got company, and I want to log in and run the tag on the cable company van.”

Another SUV sat in the driveway, one with a Colorado license plate. She’d been so thoroughly distracted she hadn’t even noticed it until now. “Who’s here?”

“Deck, the DEA agent you met yesterday. He and Thor must have some down time on their schedule.”

“Oh, right.” The tall, handsome agent with the warm brown eyes, and his huge Belgian Malinois.

Laia followed Kade and Smoke to the front door. As soon as he pushed it open, the alarm began beeping. Smoke bounded inside while Kade punched in the code.

“Why would they set the alarm if they’re home?” she asked. A sliver of apprehension crept up her spine as Kade’s brows bunched. Aside from Smoke slurping water in the kitchen, the house was eerily silent. No TV blaring. No music from Rosa’s karaoke microphone. For that matter, no Rosa and no Jamie.

Her worry ratcheted up tenfold. “Kade?” She grabbed his forearm, the muscles of which were as taut as a bowstring.

“Stay behind me,” he whispered and pulled his gun from the holster hidden beneath his shirt.

Oh God, no. How could they have found them again? And how could they have gotten past Jamie and Deck?

Even the slurping sounds from the kitchen had stopped.

With the muzzle of his gun aimed at the floor, Kade moved through the kitchen. Smoke wasn’t there.

Laia put her hand at the small of his back, then his shirt, twisting the fabric in her fingers—the only way she could think to keep from screaming her panic at the top of her lungs because neither Rosa, Jamie, nor Deck were anywhere in sight.

Slowly, step by step, they moved into the living room to find Smoke standing at the door leading to the beach, his thick black tail whipping back and forth.

To her shock, Kade chuckled. Actually chuckled. Then he tugged the holster from his belt and stuffed the gun inside before placing it on top of the high shelf.

“There they are.” He pointed at one of the large picture windows.

Laia rushed to the window, the breath whooshing from her lungs in a giant gust of relief. Jamie and Rosa stood next to a seriously complex-looking sandcastle compound, but their attention was focused on the water.

She squinted, trying to understand what she was seeing. A man was bodysurfing and next to him, doing the same, was Thor.

Kade fist-pumped. “Surf’s up.” Grinning, he tugged a black wallet from his back pocket and tossed it on the TV console. He whipped off his shirt, giving her a look at his gloriously wide, magnificently male, and muscled bare back. “C’mon, Laia. It’ll put you in a better mood. Smoke! Let’s do this!”

Smoke barked and danced in circles as Kade opened the door. The two of them charged down the steps onto the beach with Smoke barking the entire time. They tore at break-neck speed into the surf, then dove in.

Laia kicked off her sandals, then made her way down to the beach where Jamie and Rosa stood cheering on the men and dogs as they swam out to catch a wave. The dogs paddled furiously to hit the crest like trained surfers. In the distance, the bells and whistles from the nearby carnival carried over on the wind.

When she reached Rosa and Jamie, Jamie hitched his head to the water. “Do you mind?”

“Go for it.”

“Yesss.” Jamie, who already had his shirt off, revealing more cut muscles than she could count, raced into the surf and dove in.

For the first time all day, Laia smiled. And what was it with these K-9 guys? She guessed being gorgeous, well-mannered, and hunky must be a prerequisite for the job.

“Mommy, Mommy! Did you see Smoke and Thor body surfing?” Rosa continued jumping up and down in the sand, clapping her little hands together. “Can I go body surfing, too?”

“How about you give me a big hug first?” Because she sorely needed it, and because even though Rosa could swim, she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to see her five-year-old baby girl “catching a wave.” She knelt on the warm sand, then held open her arms. Rosa flew into her embrace, and Laia inhaled the scents of sand, salt, and ocean air in her daughter’s hair.

Rosa wriggled from Laia’s arms. “I want to go body surfing with Smoke and Thor and Uncle Kade and Jamie and Deck.”

Holding on to Rosa’s hand, Laia eyed the sizable waves rolling onto the beach. Kade and Smoke had just “surfed” in and were running toward them. There was no way she’d let Rosa out in that surf. Wading in the shallows, sure.

Smoke loped up the beach, then shook, sending water droplets flying in every direction.

Laia covered her face in the nick of time. When she dropped her hand, Rosa threw her arms around the wet dog, smiling and giggling and letting Smoke drown her in slobber.

Again, Laia smiled. Kade was right. This had put her in a better mood.

There was no doubting her problems were still out there, lurking and waiting to be dealt with, but for now this was an oasis in the midst of the storm she felt certain was yet to come.

At Kade’s approach, Rosa ran to him and held up her arms. “Up. Up!”

As if she weighed no more than a seagull feather, he easily lifted her up and onto his shoulders. “Did you bring a bathing suit?”

“Uh,” was the only word Laia could manage.

Every square inch of Kade’s body glistened with water, his muscles flexing as he held her daughter securely on his shoulders. Wet khaki shorts stuck to his body, revealing a sizeable mound at the juncture of his thighs.

So much for cold water shrinkage.

Quickly, she hid her eyes by pretending to shield them from the blazing afternoon sun. “No, but I have shorts and a tank top.”

“Go ahead and change.” Kade began bouncing Rosa on his shoulders. “I’ll watch Rosa for you.”

“Mo-mmeee. I want to go in the water.” Rosa’s face scrunched up in the most adorable little frown it was all Laia could do not to laugh.

But mommies didn’t laugh when doling out orders. “Wait here. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She turned to head into the house to change when laughter and barking drew her attention back to the water. “You know what, sweetie?” She looked at her daughter. “You’re absolutely right. Let’s do this!”

Without waiting, and without returning to the house to change, she charged down the beach to the water. Because this was all part of the new and improved Laia Velez, the one who embraced life to its fullest and didn’t let anyone tell her what to wear or how to just…be.

“Hot damn!” she heard Kade exclaim.

“Hot damn!” Rosa squealed, loudly enough for Laia to hear.

Apparently, Kade had forgotten that children excelled at parroting taboo adult phrases. Chastising him for that transgression would have to wait.

Smoke loped past, running into the water ahead of her. Rosa’s giggling grew louder as Kade caught up to them.

Laia dove in, sundress and all. Cool ocean water hit her skin, enveloping her body and instantly washing away the tension faster than someone snapping their fingers. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized just how tight her muscles had been. Since discovering Josh’s hidden stash of coke, she’d been wound tighter than a yo-yo.

When she surfaced, she saw Smoke wade into the shallows next to Kade, who leaned over to set Rosa on her feet. When he looked up, he grinned. As his gaze dipped, the grin faded and his jaw went hard.

There was no need for her to look to understand what he was staring at. The cool Atlantic Ocean hadn’t had any effect on him, but her nipples had hardened into tight little buds. She could feel them pressing against the wet fabric of her dress.

The intensity of Kade’s scrutiny stole the air from her lungs. Finally, she released the pent-up breath she’d been holding. “I think I’ll go inside and change after all.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she headed back to the beach. “Only body surfing in the shallow water,” she warned both of them.

Rosa giggled. “Okay, Mommy.”

Kade merely arched a brow.

As she trudged up the sand to the shack, she noticed two small red boats beneath the deck, one a kayak and the other a canoe. At the top of the stairs, she pulled open the door, unable to keep from checking again on Rosa, but she needn’t have worried.

Kade hovered protectively at Rosa’s side while she dog paddled in the shallows, kicking and splashing like a future Olympic freestyler. Smoke dutifully took up position on Rosa’s other side, allowing her to periodically rest her hand on his back for balance.

Not wanting to drip all over the house, she twisted the hem of her dress, squeezing out as much water as possible. The hot sun had already dried most of her skin. After grabbing a towel someone had left hanging over the deck railing, she went in, then closed the door behind her.

This was how it should have been with Josh, enjoying time together with family and friends. It was on the tip of her tongue to once again blame Josh for everything. For how he’d slowly but surely detached from her and Rosa as a family.

For laundering money for a drug cartel.

And for getting murdered.

But as she stood there, watching Kade with Rosa, the truth was a painful pill to swallow. There’d never been a chance of them being a real family because she’d never given their marriage a chance. Not really, and that made her just as responsible for all that had taken place since then.

She’d gone into the marriage with good intentions, but that spark—that elusive chemistry between two people needed to make a marriage work from the day they said I do right up to their golden wedding anniversary and, hopefully, beyond—had never existed between them, and she’d known that from the start.

Jamie, Deck, and Thor joined Kade, Rosa, and Smoke, and she snorted when all of them began doggie paddling side by side. That was another thing Josh hadn’t been there to do. Teach Rosa how to swim. Having been born in Puerto Rico, Laia had loved the sparkling blue Caribbean water and had insisted that Rosa learn to swim at an early age. Someday she’d take Rosa to Puerto Rico to experience the beauty and culture of the island.

Laia had never doubted Josh’s love for Rosa, but he’d never even taken her to the beach. He’d never had the time. As soon as the full impact of marrying for the wrong reasons had finally sunk in, his ardor had dwindled like an ebbing tide and he’d begun working late, traveling nearly every week to God knew where.

If she’d made a different decision six years ago, Kade could have been in her life. Kade and the children they might have had. Then again, she could never know for sure if things would even have worked out between them.

Her heart squeezed painfully at all the mistakes she’d made, the mounting pile of regrets.

And that’s my fault.

No matter how much she blamed Josh, it wasn’t fair to lay it all at his feet. It was finally time to grow up and take responsibility for contributing to who and what Josh had become. By cowing to her mother’s pressure, she’d done them both a disservice. She should have been stronger, should have stood up to Millie’s unwavering belief that marrying Josh was the right thing to do.

A phone beeped from somewhere inside the house. Laia turned from the door and dug her phone from her handbag where she’d left it on the kitchen counter. Three calls and two voicemail messages from her mother. Millie didn’t believe in texting.

She cued up the messages, the gist of which were all pretty much the same.

When are you and Rosa coming to see me? was the message that kept repeating in her mother’s perfectly enunciated English.

They’d left Puerto Rico over twenty years ago, and while her mother’s voice still retained its beautiful Spanish inflection, Laia’s had long ago disappeared.

She took a fortifying breath, then draped the towel over one of the kitchen stools and sat down to return Millie’s call. She loved her mother to tears, she really did, but Millie had been raised a strict Catholic and had tried to raise Laia the same way, which, to Millie’s eternal chagrin, hadn’t gone exactly to plan. Another reason why her mother had been so adamant that she marry Josh.

“Laia, where have you been? Why haven’t you answered my calls?” came her mother’s worried voice.

“I’m sorry, Mama. I’ve been busy.” What with evading a drug cartel and all.

“When are you and Rosa coming to see me? You didn’t come yesterday after church, and you know I don’t like my schedule being disrupted.”

Laia did know that. In fact, being a total micromanager, anything that didn’t fit into Millie’s perfectly executed plans drove her mother completely nuts. “I think we can come—”

“I made flan for you, and Rosa’s favorite—quesito—and it will all go to waste if it’s not eaten soon.”

Millie’s flan was restaurant quality, and Rosa’s favorite sweet was quesito, puff pastry filled with cream cheese and guava. “We can try to come—”

“I miss it when Rosa doesn’t read to me,” her mother interrupted, yet again. “You have to keep up with her reading skills, you know that.”

“Yes, Mama. I know.” That was the last thing in her daughter’s life her mother needed to worry about. Rosa loved reading.

Laia breathed a frustrated sigh, then plunked her elbow on the counter and her chin in her hand while her mother proceeded to tell her how to live not only her life, but how to micromanage Rosa’s life, too.

Before she knew it, fifteen minutes had gone by, and the hand holding the phone was cramped. “Mama,” she tried breaking in.

“Maybe you should enroll Rosa in one of those private summer daycare places where they teach children at a very young age all about history, art, and—”

“Mama.”

“—politics.”

“Mama, please!” Laia let her head fall back, then stared at the light fixture over the kitchen island. “Rosa is five years old. Trust me, she can wait a few more years before worrying about politics.” Before Millie cut her off again, Laia blurted, “I have to go now, but we’ll come and see you soon. I promise. And I look forward to your flan.”

“But—”

“I’m sorry, but I really have to go. Have a good evening.” She ended the call, then groaned. Was there anything stronger in the house than beer?

She went into the living room and looked out the enormous picture window to see Kade toweling off Rosa. At the bottom of the stairs, Deck and Jamie were hosing off the dogs. She returned to the kitchen, then opened the refrigerator door. One of the door racks had been replenished with River Horse Ale. She reached for one, then stopped.

On the lower shelf was a tall metal can. Whipped cream. Well, why not?

She lifted the can from the rack and was about to grab a spoon, but as she began shaking the can up and down, she found it was nearly empty. After popping off the red cap, she tilted the can, put the nozzle to her mouth, and pressed it with her finger.

Gurgling came from the can as the sweet cream shot into her mouth. She swallowed, then uttered a moan of satisfaction. Kade and Rosa were on to something.

Tilting the can again, she pressed the nozzle, emptying the can and continuing to apply pressure to eke out what little cream remained. But all that came out was air.

“Did you just do a whippet?”

Laia spun to find Kade and his friends, along with Rosa and the two dogs, staring at her. She swallowed, then hiccupped. Humming from the refrigerator sounded like a foghorn, and she had to reach out to the counter to steady herself.

Kade grinned. The other men chuckled.

Rosa scrunched up her face. “Uncle Kade, what’s a whippet?”

“Uh.” His expression quickly morphed from one of humor to seriousness. “It’s a dog. Remember, we read about them in the dog encyclopedia.”

Rosa’s tiny brows met over her nose before she smiled. “Oh, yeah.” Then she sauntered back into the living room with the dogs in tow.

Deck chuckled. “Nice save.”

Oh. My. God. She’d inadvertently given herself a high from the residual nitrous oxide in the can of whipped cream, and all in front of three federal agents and her five-year-old daughter.

Wonderful.