Choices, p.1
Choices, page 1
TRACEFINDER:
CHOICES
Tracefinder Book 3
KAJE HARPER
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * * * *
Copyright © 2020 Kaje Harper
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/KajeHarper
Edited by Debbie McGowan
Cover Art © 2020 Karrie Jax Cover Design – karriejax.com
Cover photograph © 2019 Paul Henry Serres – paulhenryserres.com
Other cover photos – Licensed stock images
Proofread by Ashley VanBuren
Formatting by Beaten Track Publishing – beatentrackpublishing.com
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission of the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Image/art disclaimer: Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only. Any person depicted is a model.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Content warning: For adult readers over the age of 18 only. This book contains explicit sexual situations between two men.
An ex-cop and a psychic on the mend find their safe haven threatened by vandalism, arson, and the shadow of their dangerous past.
After overusing his Talent till he almost died, Brian wants nothing more than a quiet job on the farm, with Nick to come home to. He’s trying to start a new life, despite bad dreams he can’t shake, vandalism close to home, and his sister’s problematic baby on the way.
Nick gave up the police force and moved to North Carolina to be with Brian, and he doesn’t regret it. But he’s at loose ends, with no real work, the lurking specter of Brian’s brother Damon hanging around, and a worry in the pit of his stomach that Damon’s old enemies might still be after Brian. Nick’s keeping his eyes open and his gun loaded.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
About the Author
Other Books by Kaje Harper
Acknowledgements
This book was a long time in the writing, as my guys tried to find their way forward. I’m grateful to every reader who said they wanted to see more of Nick and Brian, and to my invaluable beta readers— Nat, Patricia, and Jonathan— who helped shape the story, found plot holes, and kept my characters true to themselves. Sara Winters graciously took time to look at it for specific concerns I had. Ashley nailed down my lurking typos. Debbie McGowan was a wonderful editor, formatter, and all-around supporter of my writing and this series. Karrie put together the cover I wanted, once Sid found a new picture of my photographically elusive Brian.
I remember my first-ever book release in 2011, when I wrote in isolation and tried to be all things to the book alone. It’s been a nine-year journey and now I have a wonderful family of people who help me get a story out the door in the best shape it can be. And instead of wondering if anyone will read it, I have fans who’ll pick up the book and give it a try. You all make this writing gig not just possible, but fun. Thank you.
Chapter 1
Brian Kerr— or Carlson, on the fake ID he was now using— looked around his small bedroom, wondering why he felt so restless. He’d lived in tons of worse places than this tiny room tucked under the stairs of Doc’s mother’s farmhouse. Hell, he’d spent whole nights as a kid riding city buses, when Mom couldn’t make the rent. Back then, he’d have thought this private space with a clean bed, a door that could be locked, and a bathroom down the hall, was amazing luxury.
He sat on the edge of the mattress, tapping his heel against the box of laundry underneath it. Sleep should’ve come easy after a long day of chores, but the evening was ticking by and he couldn’t relax. I wish Nick was here.
Luger, their big dog, rose from his rug by the bed and whined softly. He shoved his furry head under Brian’s arm and stuck his nose against Brian’s ribs, rucking up his T-shirt.
“Yikes!” Brian wrestled the dog’s cold nose off his skin. Luger turned toward the door and whined again.
“What? Do you miss Nick too?” He ruffled the dog’s ears, the soft velvet reassuring under his fingers. “He’s coming, you know. Him and Charlie. They’ll be driving down here. Not long now.”
Nick was back in Minnesota, packing for the move. He’d be eating pizza or something— probably pizza— with Charlie, in Nick’s little single-wide trailer. The trailer Brian had never even spent one night in. The home Nick loved but was selling, just to be with Brian. He’d try to make it up to Nick forever.
Luger suddenly pulled free of his grip, shouldered the door wide, and dashed out into the hallway. A moment later, a rumble and a bang somewhere outside the house made Brian jolt. What? A car crash? Loud, clanging, thumpy sounds set off all the dogs together at the front of the house, Luger’s guard-dog bark much deeper and snarlier than the two border collies. Brian slammed out of his room and charged down the hall. Don’t let anyone be hurt. Don’t let Luger bite anyone.
He hit the front entryway a step behind Doc and his mother, Yasmin, just in time to grab Luger’s collar before Yasmin opened the door. The border collies bolted down the steps ahead of her. Doc called, “Mama. Wait up! Be careful!” but she ran after them, her big flashlight raised like a club. Doc put a hand on the porch rail and vaulted down to the yard.
Brian stumbled down the steps like a normal, uncoordinated person, yanked along by Luger’s pull on the collar. The leather bit into his fingers, and cool air chilled the back of his neck. The two collies plowed to a stop at the edge of the yard, ruffs bristling, barking into the darkness. Luger lunged toward them, yanking against Brian’s grip, roaring a challenge at something unseen, his paws digging into the dirt.
Brian struggled to hold on, then remembered he could use his voice. “Luger! Sit! Stay!” Luger’s butt hit the ground obediently, but his growls didn’t lessen and he quivered eagerly. Brian didn’t let go.
Doc caught up to his mom and stepped in front of her. “Hey? Who’s out there? Is someone hurt?”
Yasmin shone the flashlight past him. The narrow beam swept over the side of the barn, a few small trees, the woodpile Nick had tripled in size when he’d visited. A glitter of light made her shine it farther along the pasture path.
A hundred feet away at the end of the dirt path, her big tractor stood canted at an angle, half in the ditch and half buried grill-deep in a broken metal gate. Beyond the gate, the glow of sheep’s eyes caught the light like zombies gathering for the kill. Or maybe like curious sheep.
“Oh, hell, no!” Yasmin swung her light around the scene. “Where are you? Show yourself!”
Other than a grunt from one of the sheep and the dogs’ slowing barks, no one answered.
Brian knelt beside Luger, rubbing his back soothingly. “Hush, Luug. Shush now.” Luger dropped his growl to a low grumble in his throat, still sitting as ordered but focused off in the darkness like an arrow waiting to be launched. Brian raised his voice. “What happened? Was there an accident?”
Yasmin didn’t answer, moving her light methodically across the bushes and pastureland behind the fence.
Doc spared him a quick glance. “Right. The tractor turned itself on, opened the door, and accidentally drove itself into a gate.”
“Um.” His face heated, despite the cool night, and he bent to check Luger’s paws, hiding the flush. Not that Doc— Zander, he wants to be called Zander in his mother’s house— not that Zander would notice, or care.
Yasmin eventually lowered the light. “I don’t see anyone. Stupid kids. Like we don’t have enough to deal with.”
Zander said, “You think it was kids?”
She looked up at him, her expression hidden in the dark. “Who else would it be?”
Zander glanced toward Brian, then shrugged. “Someone out to cause trouble?”
“Not Damon,” Brian protested. His brother always came to people’s minds when there was trouble.
“Of course not him. Other folk.” Zander’s voice went colder, and Brian was transported back to the bouncing deck of a disguised boat out on the ocean, with guns and flames and blood. To a cold-eyed criminal and a deadly explosion and the things they’d all done—
“You don’t think…?” He glanced around nervously. No way. If Turov’s people had found them, they’d be kidnapped or shot by now, not standing around staring at a crashed tractor. Right? An icy finger ran up the back of his neck, but he didn’t want to put any of that into words around Yasmin. He didn’t know how mu ch or little Zander had told her. Right now, she didn’t look at Brian like he was a risk, a time bomb, or crazy, and he liked that.
“I don’t know what I think.” Zander ran a hand over his close-cropped hair. “It makes no sense as a threat. Probably was some damned kids.”
Yasmin swung her light toward the barn. “We’d better check in there. I hope someone catches the little bastards and takes a switch to their behinds. And makes them pay damages. I didn’t need this.”
Zander reached for the flashlight. “Let me look, Mama. You stay here.”
Yasmin didn’t let go. “I’m not some fragile flower, young man. You can come along.”
“I’ll come too.” Brian took a better grip on Luger’s collar. “Heel!” Luug gave him a look that registered as disgusted, but obediently ranged alongside his left knee. Brian bumped the furry Belgian Tervuren’s solid shoulder, feeling safer. Luger was even better than a gun. He wouldn’t know how to shoot a gun.
“Stay behind us.” Zander strode toward the gaping door with Yasmin at his side.
It seemed wrong having the biggest person— and the one armed with a guard dog— hiding in the back, but he didn’t argue. Luger still swung his head side to side as if sniffing for enemies, but his hackles slowly lowered as they approached the barn. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Zander snapped on the lights to reveal nothing out of place but the tractor. Another switch brought up the spotlights, bathing the farmyard in a bright white glare. Brian pivoted, but saw nothing unusual— parked cars, outbuildings, the dim shapes of trees beyond.
Yasmin ran her light over the sliding track for the door. “Looks like they greased it up. I wondered why we didn’t hear it screech when they opened it. Damned thing’s been sticky forever.”
“Kind of prepared— for kids.” Zander swiped the top track and looked at the black traces on his fingertip. “Didn’t you say other farms have had trouble recently?”
“Yeah, a few.”
“Any of them owned by white folk?”
He and Yasmin exchanged glances, but she said, “Yes. The horse farms for sure. It’s probably not that.”
Brian wished he knew what to say to help. “Should I check out the tractor? Or I could, um, turn Luger loose, maybe?” He wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but the dog was trained to guard property.
“Not a chance.” The glare Yasmin gave Luger showed she hadn’t forgotten or forgiven him for chasing sheep the day after he arrived. “Zan, check the tractor. Tell me if it’s as bad as it looks.”
Zander muttered, “I’m a doctor, not a mechanic.”
His mother kicked his shin with her bare foot. “You better not have forgotten everything you learned on the commune. Go have a look. You’re wearing shoes.”
“You should be too. Give me the light.” Flashlight in hand, Zander headed toward the crashed tractor. Despite his denial, he moved confidently as he checked the front and underside. When he came back to them, his high forehead was deeply furrowed. “In my medical opinion, it should be eased out of this life with as much motor oil as it takes for pain relief. Sorry, Mama, looks like a major repair, if it can be fixed at all.”
“Well, crap.”
Zander patted her shoulder as he went into the barn and picked up a roll of chicken wire. “I’ll block the gap in the gate for now, keep the sheep safe. We’ll look again in the morning. Maybe it won’t be so bad.”
“And maybe pigs will fly.” She moved aside to let him carry the wire out. “I guess I’ll head back to bed. Brian, can you tie up that dog of yours and give Zan a hand with the gate?”
“Um, sure.”
Yasmin snapped her fingers at Laddie and Lass, and picked her way across the yard to the front steps with a dog at each side. Brian found a lead rope on a hook by the door and used it to leash Luger inside the barn.
Zander called, “Hey, Brian, bring some rope with you? There’s a bunch in the feed room, on the shelf.”
By the time Brian had found a long piece and made his way down the dark path, Zander had the wire mesh unrolled and stretched across the gap beside the bent gate. Together, they tied the ends in place.
“Pull it tight.” Zander gave the rope another tug. “Damned sheep get through anything.”
Brian crooked his fingers into the mesh loops and pulled, feeling the bite of the wire. “If this wasn’t kids, who do you think…?”
“I don’t know. Bastards. This’ll kill her budget.”
Brian knew how that felt— the lurch in the pit of your stomach when you’d thought you were getting by, and then had a bill you couldn’t pay. Sometimes they’d ditched an apartment and disappeared, rather than face the bill collectors. “I can’t get at my bank account, but maybe Nick has enough for a loan.” Surely Nick wouldn’t mind using his money to keep this safe haven going?
“Oh, no, thanks, she’s not that bad off, and I’ll have money coming in soon.”
“Good. That’s good.” He eased his fingers out of the chicken wire as Zander threaded the rope through and around. Here, in the dark, working together to repair damage done out of spite, seemed to be the time to ask, “Do you ever worry about what Damon said?”
“I try not to think about all the crap your brother says.” Zander huffed a breath. “Which bit?”
“That Turov’s people might try to find me and Lori.” He couldn’t help shivering as he remembered the cold, arrogant old man who’d tried to force him to help kill his brother. Who he in turn had actually thrown under a boat… Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t, don’t, don’t.
“Oh. That.” Zander bent to tie a last knot, then straightened. “Yeah. Sometimes.”
“I’m scared they might come here.”
“Hopefully, with your names changed and your hair dyed and all, they won’t ever make the connection.”
“I hope so too.” He ran a hand over his hair, which didn’t feel any different even though his familiar white-blond was now sandy brown like Damon’s. “You don’t think… this tractor was maybe them?”
“Nah. Damon said they were worse guys than him. Can you imagine your brother crashing a tractor and then sitting around with his thumb up his ass watching his target fix a fence?”
“Maybe they’re trying to lure one of us out here alone, to kidnap us.”
“Pretty half-assed way to do it. I don’t think so, especially since we’re not the first place ’round here to get hit. I’m sure this is separate.”
“Oh. Good.” He channeled the way Nick would say that, half angry, half eager for trouble. It didn’t come out quite right.
Zander put a hand on the small of his back, urging him back down the path. “Let’s go get some sleep. Worry about it in the morning.”
He shivered and covered it by saying, “I didn’t think it got cold in North Carolina. This is pretty cold. Not Minnesota cold, but—” He bit back the pretty cold he’d almost tacked on the end. Repeating words was a Bry thing. It’d been a while since he’d let himself fall back into those old patterns.
“Yeah. We even get a little snow. Not much, but sometimes.”
As they approached the barn, Luger came trotting out, trailing a short, chewed bit of lead rope from his collar. He wagged his tail at Brian and presented his butt for a scratching.
“He doesn’t look worried,” Zander said.
“No. That’s a good sign.” Brian indulged Luger with a quick rub. “He’s trained to guard. If strangers were still around, he’d know.”
“Maybe we should tie him out at night.”
Brian hesitated, not sure how to say that he hated seeing dogs chained up. It seemed ungrateful.
Luckily, Zander glanced down at Luger’s frayed rope and added, “On second thought, he’d probably get loose and do even more damage. Never mind.”
“I can patrol with him at night,” Brian offered. “Or maybe when Nick gets here, he can.” That might appeal to Nick more than farm work. Brian was worried about Nick getting bored.
“That’s probably overkill.” Zander turned off the barn lights and rolled the door shut. “I might get better locks. Maybe a motion-activated light.”
“Sure.”
“Let’s go sleep. Damn it, I have an early start at the clinic tomorrow. You’ll help Mama with whatever needs doing in the morning?”
