Teaser Chapters - Wild Reckoning Prequel

WARNING - These chapters are the IN BETWEEN chapters between Wild Country Hearts and Wild Reckoning. They are NOT found in the books. They are exclusively here! Read them while you can!

Bobby’s most terrifying dream always started the same way. Trying not to scratch his hated beard.

Staring out the side window of the Humvee as it sped along in the blistering desert sun, he thought about how they only had to get through the next six months before he could quit trying to blend in with the locals and see Cassidy again.

The sunlight dancing off the sand reminded him of the way her blonde curls danced around her head, framing her pixie face. He could almost picture her cherry-red lips grinning at him as they’d danced the night before he’d shipped out almost two years ago.

The night he’d asked her to wait for him, and she’d promised she would.

“I don’t know exactly when I’ll be home,” he’d said, as they slow danced in Joe’s Bar, oblivious to the other couples.

“Bobby, you’re it for me.” Her arms circled his neck as he looked down into her earnest green eyes. “I’ll wait as long as it takes.”

“Guys, you’re almost there,” Roy’s voice in his earpiece jolted Bobby’s thoughts back to the mission at hand.

“Enjoying the air conditioning?” Bobby snorted back. “I’m sweating my balls off out here.”

“Whatever man, nice try,” he could almost see Roy rolling his eyes. There wasn’t any air conditioning in the secure location where he was, but that wasn’t the point. “Just keep an eye out for the village. Should be around the next curve.”

“Hear that, Nick?” Bobby called up to their driver. “Keep your eyes peeled.”

“Yeah, yeah, you know what they say about backseat drivers,” Nick tossed over his shoulder, not taking his eyes off the vehicle in front of them.

The sun was relentless, causing heat waves on the remote desert road as they traveled toward a town that had lost one of its own to a senseless tragedy. His squad’s mission was to bring restitution after a local village family’s eldest son had been caught in the crossfire of a battle between the Americans and Iraqi rebels about a week ago. Uncle Sam had decided that since his death was their fault, the United States Government would pay the family restitution money to help with their loss.

Seemed dicey to Bobby. The money wasn’t going to make up for not having their son.

“What’s that fucking beeping sound?” Bobby growled to his seatmate Ted since it seemed to be coming from him.

“Dude shut off that fucking alarm,” Bobby frowned at Ted, who seemed oblivious.

“Hey, answer your phone,” Roy’s voice sounded in his ear.

“What?”

They didn’t carry phones on missions for security reasons.

“Your phone,” this time it was Nick.

That’s when Bobby realized that he was dreaming and woke up with a jolt. Reality smacked him in the face like a dead fish. The knowledge that Cassidy hated him, she wasn’t waiting for him to come home, and that was his fault, too.

Fumbling around on his bedside table, he managed to locate his phone.

“Sargent Cabot here,” he answered, his voice thick with sleep and unresolved trauma.

“Bobby, thank god.” It was Peter Lexington, the last person whose voice he expected to hear at . . . holy shit, it’s 3 am.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Kristina just shot an intruder,” Peter’s voice sounded understandably shaky. “You’d better get over here and bring the cavalry. Oh, and don’t forget the bomb squad.”

“Shit. Is the intruder dead?”

“Yeah,” he heard Peter gulp. “It’s not pretty.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Bobby hung up on Peter and dialed dispatch as he stumbled around trying to wake up and get dressed. Yanking on the pants he’d dropped on the floor last night, he padded into the bathroom and stuck a toothbrush in his mouth.

“What’s up, Bobby? I thought you were off duty tonight?”

Carlene, the pretty night dispatcher, was always flirting with him. This time, she seemed to know this was business. He paused brushing his teeth to tell her.

“There’s been a shooting at the Cartwright Stable, and we’re going to need to put a call into Augusta because apparently there’s another bomb.”

“Shit! Okay, I’m on it,” Carlene hung up, and Bobby finished brushing his teeth.

It was totally unprofessional, but as he shrugged into his uniform shirt and buckled on his gun, he kept thinking about how this was all going to affect Cassidy.

Cassidy will never forgive me if I don’t call and tell her that Kristina needs her.

The thought kept pestering him as he finished dressing, grabbed a stale bagel, and ran out the door to jump into his unmarked cruiser. Obviously, he couldn’t contact her. There was the minor issue of confidentiality. As part of his job as a police officer in the small town of Springfield, Maine, he couldn’t talk about work to his family and friends.

Normally, he’d jump at any chance to call her, but this was a little different. Cops don’t just call their ex-girlfriends in the middle of the night to tell them about a murder at their cousin’s house.

But how could she ever forgive him if he didn’t show he was trying to win her back? Show her how much he still cared about her and, in some way, put her needs first. Calling her now and giving her the chance to be there for her best friend and cousin would make him look like a hero in her eyes.

He wanted her back.

Needed her.

Desperately.

He had scars on his body, but not as deep as the ones in his soul, and there were moments when he knew she’d be better without him. Better off without living with him, and the way the war had broken him.

But that didn’t stop him from wanting her.

He started driving toward the farm, pushing Cassidy to the back of his mind as he focused on the job at hand. The one he could lose if he called her to fill her in. Chief Nadeau was a stickler for the rules. He didn’t even believe in bending them a little.

“We’re gonna bring in the fire department to check on the bomb,” Chief Nadeau radioed while he was driving. “No telling if it’s really a bomb we’re dealing with. Either way, we gotta know what we’re dealing with and Augusta will take a couple of hours to get here.”

The entire time he was on the radio with Carlene or Chief Nadeau, he heard this nagging voice in the back of his head that said Cassidy would hate him even more if he didn’t call her to be there for her cousin and best friend.

His job came first, after all, what kind of life could he offer Cassidy without it? Maybe the chief will think that Kristina called her.

Arriving at the house, Bobby jumped out of his car, not bothering to shut off his lights.

“Kristina? Peter?”

He headed toward the house, afraid they might still be inside, but the sight of Peter stepping out from the doorway of the barn dressed in what looked like a horse blanket stopped him.

“Over here, Bobby,” Peter waved at him.

“What the fuck are you wearing,” Bobby snorted, unable to hide his amusement, as he strolled over. “Not much protection from the night air in that get-up.”

“I could have stuck with what I ran out of the house with,” Pete raised his eyebrows with a grin. “Kristina didn’t want the goods to shrink away forever, so she found me this.”

“I don’t even want to know,” Bobby rolled his eyes. “Good thinking, staying out of the house, considering there still might be a bomb in there.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Pete adjusted his blanket as he motioned for Bobby to follow him into the barn.

“Hey, watch it, dude,” Bobby smacked him on the back as soldiers would to each other. “I put my life on the line to learn that Sherlock shit.”

“And we appreciate it, don’t we, honey?” Peter said to Kristina as they walked through the door.

Kristina was sitting on a chair in the tack room. She was covered in blood, but at least she had been wearing clothes. Bobby felt his chest squeeze at the sight of someone he knew and cared about looking like she’d been through a war zone. He hadn’t seen that much blood on a person since . . . I’m not thinking about that now.

“Might as well get comfortable here for a while. We’re not going into the house until the major crimes can come up from Augusta.”

Kristina nodded, and the look in her eyes could only be described as terror.

“What happened?” Bobby kept his voice soft, so he didn’t scare her even more. He knew what it was like to be in that kind of shock. Honestly, the fact that she was sitting there with relative calm surprised him. “Who did you shoot?”

“H-he wanted to k-kill me,” she stammered out. “I didn’t want to s-shoot him.” Her voice broke, and she covered her mouth with her hand as she gasped back sobs.

“Who wanted to kill you?” Bobby kept his voice calm and steady.

“U-uncle Al…” Kristina’s voice broke again, and she choked on another sob. “Why would he do this? I don’t understand what happened.”

Bobby felt his stomach drop. His money would have been on her stepfather, Davis. Not her uncle. This was going to destroy Cassidy. For crying out loud, she worked with him every day. Schooling his features into the most neutral expression he could manage, he swallowed back the bile.

“I know this hasn’t been easy,” Bobby said as he met her eyes. “We’ll sort this out as fast as we can, but until we do, you’re going to have to stay put.”

Kristina nodded, her eyes brimming with tears as she choked back her emotions. Bobby tried to process what she’d just said. It wasn’t Davis, as he’d assumed when Peter had called him. That man had been nothing but trouble, and Kristina had fought to free herself from him after her mom died under suspicious circumstances. He’d managed to wiggle out of being charged with her murder, but plenty of people in town still thought he did it.

“It’s okay, babe, I’m here with you.” Pete stood behind her, rubbing her back. She leaned back against him and shut her eyes.

“It’s like a horrible nightmare,” she said.

“Keep her here, and don’t clean up,” Bobby directed Peter, keeping his voice as professional and unemotional as he could. “Major Crimes is going to want to examine her.”

They both nodded their understanding.

Bobby headed back toward the driveway at the sound of more sirens. It looked like a Memorial Day parade, the way the official vehicles all drove down the long driveway to the farmhouse. A couple of big fire trucks and the Fire Marshal’s truck parked directly in front of the house. There was an ambulance, the Chief’s car, and a couple of cops from the next town for backup.

“Officer Cabot,” Chief Nadeau’s normally twinkling blue eyes were grim as he ambled over to where he was standing next to the barn entrance. “Have you debriefed them?”

“No sir,” Bobby said. “I just got here. Kristina is in the tack room. She’s covered in blood and pretty shaken up.”

“Damn. I’ll have one of our team go sit with her while we figure out exactly what happened here. Major Crimes is going to want to go over everything.”

By 5 am, the Fire Marshall had cleared the house of the potential bomb threat. Bobby, Chief Nadeau, and Keven, the district crime scene photographer, headed inside and down to the basement where Peter had said the body lay. The place looked like a scene from a horror movie.

There was no way to recognize the man whose face had been blown off. Well, not unless you had known who he was. Bobby knew immediately it was Al.

Part of him had hoped she’d gotten it wrong. That she had actually meant her stepfather, a man not many would actually miss. He had to tell Cassidy. She’d been close to him because they’d worked together in the stable, training the show horses. She deserved to hear the news from someone who cared about her. There was more to this tragedy than met the eye, he just didn’t know what.

“Shit,” Chief Nadeau said, shaking his head at the sight. “Looks like he was holding something.”

Bobby crouched down to inspect what the man had been holding when he died. His hand had been held up as he’d fallen backward. Bobby felt his stomach turn as he peered through the blood spatters and brain matter to see the object closer.

It was a large wrench. The kind plumbers might use to attach large pipes. Definitely heavy enough to do some damage if he’d been coming after Kristina.

“She claimed it was self-defense,” Bobby said, looking back at the Chief.

“Okay, why don’t you and Sergeant Meadows question her after forensics is finished taking pictures of her?”

Chief Nadeau headed for the stairs as Bobby exchanged glances with Erica.

“Yes, sir,” Bobby said as he straightened up and glanced around the basement again.

Everyone was busy processing the scene, and he could see things had gone down exactly the way Kristina had said. She’d shot her uncle because he’d been trying to kill her, and she’d realized it wasn’t the first time. The explosion that had almost killed her a month ago must have been his doing as well. But why? None of it made any sense.

Glancing at his watch, he decided that while it might not win him any points, he should call Cassidy after all.

Cassidy

The incessant buzzing pulled Cassidy out of dreamland.

Opening one eye, she fumbled around her bedside table for her phone and swiped it open to see who was calling her at whatever godforsaken hour this was. She already had to get up at six; losing a few hours of precious sleep was now a given.

Her phone was generally on ‘Do Not Disturb’ between the hours of 9 pm and 6 am, with only a select few people having the ability to break through that barrier if they were listed on her favorites list.

Apparently, she’d forgotten to remove her ex from that list.

“Bobby?”

She knew it must be important because he wasn’t the type to call her in the middle of the night for no reason.

“There’s been a shooting over at Kristina’s.” His voice was clipped and sounded tense. Cassidy was immediately fully awake.

“Oh my god, is Kristina okay? It was Davis, wasn’t it?” She was already out of bed and tugging on the jeans she’d left in a heap next to the bed. “That dirtbag just can’t let it go.”

“I can’t give the details,” Bobby said, his voice hushed, “but Kristina wasn’t the one who was shot. She did the shooting.”

Cassidy felt her stomach drop and swallowed a gasp of shock. Kristina shot Davis?

Oh shit, this is bad. This is unbelievably bad.

“I’m on my way,” Cassidy pulled on a t-shirt and grabbed a scrunchy to contain her blonde curls.

“If anyone gives you any trouble, tell them you’re with me,” Bobby said, and she realized that he was calling her, putting his job at risk, to come to a crime scene because her cousin and best friend was involved.

I’d never forgive him if he hadn’t called me to be there for Kris, and he fucking knows it.

“Thanks for the heads up,” she said, putting her phone on speakerphone and tossing it on the bed. Grabbing her hoodie, she tugged it on over her head. “Who did she shoot?”

“Seems to be the same person who planted the bomb that almost killed her last month,” Bobby said, and then she heard someone else talking to him. “I gotta go, but get here as soon as you can. Kristina is a wreck. Peter is here, but I know she’ll want to see you.”

“I’m on my way.” She hung up and pulled on her boots.

Five minutes later, she was in her freezing truck, headed toward the Cartwright Stable, cursing the cold, her lack of coffee, and Davis as she drove. But most of all, she was cursing the asshole who had threatened her best friend.

When she finally pulled into the long driveway, she had to identify herself before she was allowed to pass.

The number of vehicles with flashing lights was impressive, especially at 6 am. Cassidy parked her truck in her usual spot beside the barn. Since it was out of the way, she wouldn’t have to worry about it.

Making her way through the commotion, she saw a stretcher being wheeled into the house.

“Hold up,” a uniformed officer she didn’t recognize was holding up his hand to stop her entry to the house. “Unless you are here on official business, I can’t let you enter.”

“I’m here because I work here, and Kristina is my cousin,” Cassidy stared at the officer.

“That may be true, but this is a crime scene. I don’t think you understand what’s going on here.”

“Of course, I know there’s something going on, you dolt. That’s why I’m here,” Cassidy didn’t let him finish as she raised her voice at the idiot trying to keep her from her cousin.

“Cassidy!”

Kristina cried in relief as she ran toward her cousin.

“Kristina!”

The officer stepped aside just in time to keep from being knocked over by the two women rushing to hug each other, both sobbing furiously.

Thankfully, the officer backed off, probably due to Bobby glaring at him.

Cassidy pulled back to look at her cousin’s blood-splattered shirt and face. The blood was dried on now, and Cassidy could see that the stains were not going to come out easily, if at all. Schooling her face to keep her horror from showing, she focused instead on staying calm.

“What happened?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Kristina sniffed and bit her bottom lip, a sure sign of her distressed emotional state. “We need a place to stay for the night and the next few days, apparently.”

“You can come stay with me in my apartment,” Cassidy offered. “We can figure something else out tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Kristina said and yawned. “But I don’t know if I want to come back here.”

“What?” Cassidy frowned at her cousin. “Why not? You’ve fought like a tiger to stay here. Not even Davis could get you to leave with all the bullshit he pulled.”

This place held family history for both of them. This had been the home where their moms were raised. It had belonged to their family for over one hundred years. From the way Kristina was reacting, she meant what she’d just said, obviously fighting back a torrent of tears as she shook her head. One tear escaped, and Cassidy swallowed back a lump in her own throat.

“I can’t. . .” Kristina choked out as her boyfriend Peter came up behind her and pulled her into his arms.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Let’s go to the Inn. I’ve already called Matt.”

“You did?” Kristina looked up at him, and Cassidy looked away to give them privacy, accidentally meeting Bobby’s gaze.

The concern in his eyes mirrored the way she felt, but she realized it was for her. Not Kristina. In that moment, she knew that if she gave him any sign that she needed emotional support, his arms would open wide for her.

Talk about a gut punch.

She glanced back at her cousin.

Cassidy couldn’t help the tiny tinge of jealousy she felt as she watched Peter comfort her cousin. Not because she wanted Peter. God no. It was the loving emotional support he was giving her. The kind of support she couldn’t allow Bobby to give her. Not anymore.

Why did Bobby have to be such a dick?

She wasn’t foolish enough to fall for his games this time. Crossing her arms, she deliberately avoided looking back at Bobby as she leaned against the wall and waited for Kristina to pull herself together. At least the wall wouldn’t let her down.

Bobby

Bobby and Peter watched the girls climb the stairs so that Kristina could scrub off the aftermath of her ordeal, now that they’d finished questioning and photographing her.

“I’ll help you pack,” Cassidy said as they moved out of sight.

“You called Cassidy, didn’t you?” Peter grinned at Bobby, who put his finger to his lips before nodding toward the cops outside.

“Yeah,” he affirmed, keeping his voice low. “I knew Kristina would want to see her and Cassidy would want to be here for her. I know she has you here, but those girls are best friends and closer than some sisters.”

“I’m glad you did,” Peter said. “Kris needs her family around right now. With her mom gone and her stepfather a total asshole, she needs someone she can trust. I’m gonna call her dad too. He’ll want to know about this. “

Bobby nodded. Kaleb was still new to being back in town, but it seemed like he’d finally connected with his daughter. Peter was right about her needing family right now.

One of the state officers walked by, and Bobby cleared his throat and raised his voice to a more professional level as if he was still questioning Peter as a witness.

“Do you know where she got the weapon?”

“No. I’ve never seen it before,” Peter shook his head. “Why? Is it important?”

Bobby had pulled out his tablet again and jotted down what Peter had told him.

“Just wanted to be sure,” he said. “Let me know before you guys leave town, just in case we have any other questions.”

While it seemed like an open-and-shut case of self-defense, there could still be other questions that might come up during the course of the investigation.

“Is there anything we need to worry about?” Peter frowned down at Bobby.

“No, it’s just standard procedure for any witnesses to a homicide. We need to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

Peter nodded, and Bobby put his tablet down.

“We should be all set in a day or so.”

“Okay,” Peter said, taking a deep breath. “I might take her on the road with me if she’ll go. I’ve already been away too long. They don’t want to cancel any more shows if we can help it.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea, as far as what might be best for Kristina,” Bobby nodded. “Confidentially, as a police officer, I ought to tell you to stay close until we can prove she didn’t plan to kill her uncle. As a friend with close ties to her family, she’s going to need time to come to terms with this tragedy.”

Peter was the lead singer for the popular country music band Lexington Steele. He had met Kristina on a fluke last Christmas when he’d crashed the car he was driving into her fence. Bobby wasn’t sure of all the details, but the two were obviously madly in love.

Peter took a slow, deep breath as he nodded. “I’m glad you agree with me. I was a little worried you’d say she needed to stay here.”

“Taking her with you on the road is probably a good idea. She’s been through a lot, and getting away from here might do her good.”

“Officer Cabot,” one of the officers who had been processing the basement called him, and he turned away from Peter to see what they’d found.

“What do you have?”

Bobby followed him down the stairs to the bloody crime scene. They were still waiting for forensics, and the body was still lying where it had dropped, the head still half brains and bloody pulp and partially intact. He’d seen worse in Iraq, but just barely. A memory flash of the aftermath of the roadside bomb that had ended most of his squad hit him unexpectedly, and he swallowed the gasp of dismay. Looking around, he managed to regain his composure before anyone noticed the slip.

“Looks like it was definitely self-defense,” the officer said, pointing to the heavy plumber’s wrench in the slack grasp of the victim. “Also, looks like he was planting a type of bomb on the furnace.”

“Shit, really?”

Bobby moved closer to look at the device.

“Luckily, he didn’t have a chance to set the timer. The fire department had no trouble making sure it was defused, so it’s a dud now.”

“Okay,” that was a relief.

“Something is bothering me,” the officer said, looking back and forth between where the body had been and the furnace where the defused bomb was still in place.

“What’s that?” Bobby frowned at the scene, a thought tickling his brain but not quite ready to make itself known.

“Why would her uncle want to kill her?”

Bobby nodded. That was the question of the day. He’d known Uncle Al as long as he could remember, and he would have bet that there wasn’t a vicious bone in that man’s body. He would have lost that bet, obviously.

“We may never know what was going on in the twisted mind of this man,” Chief Nadeau said as he entered and stepped off the stairs, shaking his head at the scene. “Has this scene been processed? Major Crimes is gonna take over as soon as they get here, and we’ll lose our stake in the investigation. I put off calling them as long as I could, but this is a murder investigation. It’s gotta go by the book.”

“Almost done,” the officer Bobby had been talking to looked down at his tablet.

Bobby went back upstairs.

“Something feels off about this whole thing,” Chief Nadeau said. “I think you should stay close until we understand his motive.”

“Yes, sir.”

Peter came closer. He’d found some actual clothes but still looked pretty shaken up. His hair was in a wild mess around his head, and he was still barefoot.

“I’m going to talk to Kris, but I’m taking her with me. You might want to stay here with Cassidy.”

“Just to warn you, Major Crimes isn’t going to want Kristina going too far. They may want to question her again.” Bobby glanced upward toward the ceiling. “What do you mean you want me to stay here with Cassidy?”

“There are a few perks to being a celebrity,” Peter winked at Bobby with a grin. “I’ve pulled a few strings, and we also have a great lawyer. He’ll know where to find us.”

Bobby nodded with a half smile. “That makes things easier, for sure.”

“Kris and I were talking it over before you got here. She wants Cassidy to stay here and take over the farm. She just wants to get away from it for a while. Too many bad memories.”

“So you want me to stay here with Cassidy?” Bobby raised an eyebrow at Peter. “As her bodyguard? Trust me. She’s not gonna like that. She’s still mad at me.”

“That woman needs to get over whatever you did and give you another chance,” Peter said. “I might not know you all that well, but I can tell you’re a good man.”

“Yeah, I don’t know about that,” Bobby shrugged. “I broke up with her by text instead of proposing. A good man would have at least had the decency to do it in person. I was too chickenshit.”

“What the fuck man,” Peter let out a bark of laughter. “What on God’s green earth made you do that?”

Bobby grinned back. “I thought I was protecting her.”

“Of course you did,” Peter shook his head at Bobby, still grinning. “Protecting her from what?”

“Dealing with losing me. I was sure I was gonna die. I’d just watched most of my unit blow up in Iraq on a mission, and I was pretty badly injured.”

“Ah,” Peter nodded his understanding. “You would rather have her hate you than miss you.”

“You get it,” Bobby’s mouth twisted with irony. “She still hates me.”

“And yet here you are, safe and sound.”

“She claimed she’s not going to give me the chance to break her heart again.”

Peter shook his head. “You did it to yourself, man.”

“Tell me about it.”

💔 A past that never healed. A future that might depend on forgiveness. Don’t miss the next unforgettable installment in the Wild Romance series.

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