Contemporary Romance: Passage of Arms - A Military Romance Novel (Romance, Contemporary Romance, Military Romance, Romance Novel Book 1) (22 page)

Taking a deep breath, Sarah rubbed her arms and pushed through the door. Inside, it had the feel of a homey family restaurant. It was warm and smelled of eggs and steak. If it had been under different circumstances, Sarah might have even enjoyed the atmosphere. She met the eyes of the hostess with trepidation.

“Hey,” Sarah managed.

The hostess, a woman who looked about Sarah’s age offered a large smile.

“Hey, yourself,” she responded. Sarah frowned.

“Aren’t you a little old to be a hostess?” Sarah asked, confused. The woman’s face fell suddenly.

“That’s rude,” she said flatly. Sarah swallowed and said nothing more. She wanted to send a signal of some sort that she was there against her will, but she didn’t know how. Instead, she lowered her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I’m meeting someone here.”

“Table for two?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Sarah heard the defeat in her voice. The woman grabbed two menus and walked Sarah to the back of the restaurant, along the far side of the wall with the windows that faced the edge of the property. Sarah could see the kitchen door from the booth. She frowned, and looked back in the direction they had come.

The restaurant was nearly empty, maybe two tables were in use and she didn’t even see other waitress.

“Is something wrong?” The hostess asked.

“Yeah,” Sarah frowned. “Can I sit closer to the door? I want to be able to leave as soon as possible.”

The woman wrinkled her nose. “Sorry. Those tables look clean but opening shift use a cleaning agent with formaldehyde. We’re airing them out and advising customers sit somewhere else in the meantime.”

Sarah scowled. “Is that even safe?”

“Here are your menus,” the woman’s eyes glossed over. Her face seemed to blank, and then refocused. “Can I start you off with something to drink?”

Pinching her brow together, Sarah shrugged. “A coffee. Sugar, lots of sugar. Can you put alcohol in it?” The hostess shook her head slowly. “Yeah,” sighing, Sarah scratched the back of her neck. “Okay, um. Some coffee with creamer then.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back.”

Sarah was left in silence, the eerie silence of the unmoving restaurant. She peered out the window and let her mind drift. She didn’t know if she should be happy to see Dave or what. She tried to make sense of what Bruce had told her, but most of that conversation was already becoming jumbled in her mind. The only thing she really understood was that Dave had used her—no, he didn’t. Bruce said he did…but was it true?

She felt the phone vibrate against her palm and placed it on the table after laying out the 20 dollar bill. Her phone had a low battery. That was awesome. Did Bruce think giving her a phone that was about to die was a joke? She put the screen to sleep and clasped her hands together over the surface of the table and waited.

The minutes ticked by. She had long forgotten about her coffee and just sat, fingers locked together. She didn’t know what she’d say when she saw Dave or how she’d act. She wanted answers. She
needed
answers; and yet, in the same second she thought about gaining understanding, she realized what she really wanted more than anything was to just go back to the way her life used to be before. Before Bruce showed up, and before she met Dave. If she could just take this past week out of her life like it never existed, she’d do it in a heartbeat.

Sarah heard a bell ring and looked towards the front of the restaurant. She stood to get a better look. It was Dave. He met her eyes in an instant and headed towards her swiftly. Sarah’s heart lurched when she saw him. She forgot about being angry and stood quickly, wanting a hug.

“Hey,” Dave said in a rushed breath. He held Sarah strongly, feeling her skin as if to make sure she was in one piece. “Are you okay?” He asked, pushing her away from him. He ran a hand over her forehead.

Sarah frowned. She didn’t want to move away from him, but her body stiffened at the thought of Bruce watching. And then she remembered what Bruce had said.
“I never thought they would use you like this.”

“Are you okay, Sarah?” Dave asked again, pushing hair away from her forehead. Sarah searched his face and noticed saw him clearly for the first time. His face was swollen in certain areas, and his right eye was bruised.

“You look terrible,” Sarah said, upset. “What happened?” Sarah’s gaze traveled down his chest to his hand where two of his fingers were wrapped. “Your hand!”

“Yeah, I,” Dave paused and shook his head, motioning towards the table. “Let’s have a seat. I need to talk to you.”

“Okay,” Sarah agreed, but she felt herself growing uneasy.

“I haven’t been honest with you,” Dave started, he searched Sarah’s face and paused. “Where’s Ruth?”

“What?” Sarah blinked at the question.

“Ruth,” Dave asked again. He watched her closely. “Where is she?”

Sarah’s breath caught in her throat. She didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know,” she stammered. She didn’t even know what time it was. As soon as she spoke, she knew instantly it was the wrong thing to say. She bit her lip and shook her head.

“I don’t know why I said that. She’s at school,” Sarah corrected. Her eyes darted to across the restaurant. Had Bruce heard her somehow?

“At school?” Dave repeated. Sarah nodded and ran a hand along her forehead.

“Can you tell me what I’m doing here?” Sarah asked. She needed to stick to the plan as closely as possible, but then Bruce’s words taunted her. He was planning on harming Dave when she left. She lowered her eyes and stared at the table top. This didn’t seem fair to her one bit. Doing things Bruce’s way was the only guarantee she had of seeing her daughter or getting home, and yet, if she left, she might never see Dave again.

Before her, Dave nodded. “I need to ask you some questions about someone you know.”

Sarah tried her best to shrug as if she could care less. “Okay,” her voice squeaked.

Dave watched her carefully. His face was hard. He reached for his ear with his right hand and pulled his ear lobe down, like he was trying to scratch his inner ear. He did it just once, and then stretched his jaw.

“I’m really sorry,” Dave said softly. He reached across the table and touched Sarah’s hand. She didn’t withdraw it. She believed him, but after seeing Bruce switch so easily, she said nothing and kept her hand still.

“Someone’s going to come through the door,” Dave started to say. Sarah’s phone interrupted and rang. She didn’t have to look at it to know it was Bruce. Something wasn’t right. She had no idea what it was, but she knew that somehow, this entire thing, whatever it was, had gone south. Sarah’s lips trembled. She hoped she didn’t give anything away. She needed to see her daughter again, to sleep in her bed and live another day.

“Are you listening to me, Sarah?” Dave grabbed her attention back, but Sarah’s eyes immediately darted back to the phone.

“I have to answer that,” she said weakly. Dave shook his head.

“Don’t. When that door opens, just get beneath this table, okay?” Dave searched her eyes. “Sarah,” he pulled her gaze to his. “Do you hear me?”

Dave’s voice seemed to run together and morph into nothing but a bunch of sounds. There was something neither Bruce nor Dave was telling her and she couldn’t take the lies anymore.

No sooner than Dave finished speaking, somewhere, her ears registered the sound of a ringing bell, much like the bell that had alerted her to Dave’s presence.

Wood scraped against the floor as Dave stood abruptly. Time seemed to stand still, but Sarah knew that Bruce had entered the restaurant. It wasn’t until Dave withdrew a gun that she heard herself scream.

She felt the cold floor on her knees before she had even realized she had moved from her chair. There was shouting—Sarah could barely make out anything, she just kept screaming and couldn’t stop. A hand on her lower back caused her to turn around. She stared into the eyes of the hostess, but the woman didn’t look like a hostess anymore.

Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, out of her face. She wore a black jacket—something bulletproof, but the white, bold letters on the front couldn’t have been taken any other way. FBI was printed across the chest in bold, white font.

“Follow me,” the woman whispered, and then she turned, pulling Sarah behind her. Sarah followed eagerly. Something ripped through the air, piercing her ears and causing another wave of yelling. Was it a gunshot? Time moved slower than reality, but the hostess shoved Sarah through the kitchen doors. She was grabbed then, roughly and hard, almost tackled by more men wearing the same black bulletproof gear.

She felt like she was in a whirlwind, being pushed, shoved and almost dragged through the kitchen to the backdoor where the sunlight from outside hit her face. The bare yard she had seen on the outside was completely different in the back of the building. There were large black vans, a group of men and women wearing the same gear with weapons. Their vests all said the same thing: FBI.

A single woman wearing a vest and slacks came to Sarah’s side as she was pushed and ushered to the back of a van.

“Check her vitals,” the woman instructed to someone who must have been standing near.

“She’s in shock. Look at her pupils.”

“Give her some oxygen!”

There were too many orders, too many shouts, but soon, Sarah heard nothing at all as she slipped into unconsciousness, fainting from shock and stress.

Resolved…or Not

When Sarah opened her eyes, she winced. Her body was sore, probably from being tense for so long. It didn’t help that she was on a cold, metal van floor either. Sarah sat up and felt a mask over her mouth and nose for the first time. She pulled at it, tugging weakly before she lifted it over her head and set it aside. A thick, wool blanket laid over her. It was only making her hot now. Hot and itchy.

Sarah pulled her legs to her chest and pitched the blanket to the side. She could tell that the van doors weren’t shut completely, just closed enough to give her some privacy. That’s when the memories came flooding back. She remember seeing Dave pull a gun. She remembered the hostess leading her out and to safety. She also remembered that she was never served her coffee.

Swallowing, Sarah felt her sore throat tighten and squeeze. Was that from screaming? Sarah squeezed her eyes shut and realized that she didn’t hear yelling anymore.

She moved towards the van doors, but they swung open before she could touch them. A woman stood before her, some brunette wearing an FBI vest and dark slacks. She looked familiar, but Sarah only stared.

“Do you feel a lot better?” The woman questioned.

“Where’s my daughter? I need to know where Ruth is,” Sarah said quickly, she started to push the left van door open, but the woman stopped her.

“She’s safe,” she answered with a calming nod. “She’s in custody with us right now. She’s not here, but we can return her to your home so that you arrive at the same time.”

A flood of relief washed over Sarah. She nodded, a tear linking from her eye. “Yes, I want that,” she said quickly. The woman smiled back at Sarah.

“You did great,” she encouraged, giving a plump smile. The woman glanced to her right, behind the closed van door and straightened. “Okay, there’s someone here to see you,” she whispered. Sarah frowned at the information, but the woman ducked to the right side of the van before Sarah could say anything else.

A second later, and a figure stepped into the doorway. It was Dave. His arm was in a sling, but his face was still about the same, bruised and swollen. Sarah felt anger rise within her. She shook her head.

“Get away from me,” she said quickly. “I don’t ever want to see you again.” Dave looked down. After a moment, he met Sarah’s eyes again and nodded.

“Are you okay?”

Sarah scoffed. The sound wavered on the air. “What do you think?” She spat, hugging her legs. “I want to go home. I want my daughter. And,” Sarah sniffed, “I don’t ever want to see you again. Don’t call me. Don’t text—no emails. Nothing. Leave me and my daughter alone.”

Dave nodded. “Okay,” his voice wasn’t as strong when he spoke. “You’re in shock,” he said calmly, and then he laughed. “I am too, to be honest. But that’s okay,” his face fell. “Um, we can get you home as soon as you can help us out with some information.”

“I don’t know anything. And we? Who are you talking about?” Sarah heard the desperation in her own voice.

Dave glanced down. “I mean the bureau, Sarah. I’m a federal agent.”

Sarah’s lips trembled. “So you renting boats?”

“Was just a cover. I’ve been working on this drug operation for over two years. I started when we received intel that our mark was planning on establishing an multi-state supply chain.”

Sarah touched her temple. “You’re not making any sense.”

“Bruce is a drug supplier, Sarah. A big one too. After he was kicked out the Marine Corps—.”

“He was kicked out?” Sarah felt her head swelling with the information.

“Well, forced to retire, but same thing,” Dave paused, “he falsified information from a logistics report which caused officers to make a decision that ultimately killed a company,” Dave’s jaw clicked and he lowered his eyes. “I’m so sorry that I have to tell you this,” he whispered.

Sarah blinked. “What are you talking about?”

“To save face and stay out the media, Bruce was forced out of service,” Dave spoke slowly and steadily. “But there was reason to believe that he orchestrated the circumstances that inevitably led to the ambush that,” Dave paused, “that killed your husband.”

The words floated through Sarah’s ears, but she didn’t feel like she heard them correctly. She shook her head. Her mind was working to process the information. She knew there was a reason why Dave was standing before her, bringing up her dead husband, but at the moment, she just wasn’t able to connect the dots.

“I don’t,” Sarah paused, her breath escaping her, “what are you trying to say?”

“It’s just a theory that arose from the investigation but we know without a shadow of a doubt that a logistics report was altered and falsified to show information that just wasn’t true,” Dave sighed softly. “That false information caused command to attempt an emergency supply drop at the same time the troops would have returned. If it weren’t for the supply drop, they would have made it,” Dave searched Sarah’s face. “In any case, when Bruce separated, he made contacts that helped him start distributing a new drug line. He became the central hub of Tallahassee before he started moving his men towards this area.”

“It was my case. I was in Tallahassee and when I figured out his goal was Nashville, I came here to befriend the right people,” Dave lowered his eyes again and touched his forehead with his left hand.

“So Bruce was right,” Sarah stammered. “You were using me to get to him—.”

“What?” Dave’s face contorted. “I didn’t even know you knew him personally until two days ago,” Dave said suddenly. His chest heaved with a breath. “I never meant to meet you and I…” he rubbed and massaged his skin with fatigue, “I probably never should have.”

Sarah swallowed back a lump of warm saliva and something she suspected was acid. She felt sick and like she should vomit. A wave of heat ran over her and she was suddenly sweaty.

“Are you okay?” Dave asked again. “You look like you need to vomit.”

Sarah heard herself chuckle. She nodded her head, but then suddenly shook it. She was going to vomit for sure. She knew it without a shadow of a doubt.

“It’s okay if you need to vomit,” Dave said with a weak smile. He helped Sarah to the edge of the van. “I vomited before I came over here.” Sarah met his eyes.

“Really?”

“No,” Dave laughed, and Sarah joined him. It was easier than she thought it should be. But a second later, she heaved and her breakfast rose from the depths of her stomach to travel across her tongue and splatter on the ground. Dave stayed at her side, holding her the best he could with his free hand. When she finished, Sarah wiped at her mouth and felt disgusting. Dave smiled at her kindly.

“I want to go home,” Sarah said, looking away.

“Okay,” Dave nodded, “and you will. You just have to answer some questions about Bruce, okay? Can you do that?”

“I don’t understand,” she felt like she was being whiny again. “What do you need to ask me?”

Dave ran his eyes over Sarah’s face, taking her in slowly. “I’m not going to ask the questions, Sarah. I can’t,” he paused, “being compromised. We just need to confirm the times he was here and get a timeline of events of what he accomplished. Your testimony of his actions and behaviors can help us with this, okay?”

Sarah nodded, but still wasn’t sure. Dave hesitated in front of her, helping her to find her balance on the back of the van. When she was steady, Dave ran his free hand through his hair. He seemed to search for someone that Sarah couldn’t see, but when he found them, he nodded and turned to her again.

“I’m so sorry about all of this,” Dave said softly. Sarah avoided his eyes. “After questioning and a psych evaluation, you’ll be returned home and Ruth will be waiting for you.” Dave paused in front of her. Sarah wanted to question him further, but she decided to stay silent. She was done speaking with him. She wasn’t even sure how much of his story was true. None of it even made sense. Adam and Bruce were great friends.

That thought froze her though. She thought she and Bruce had been great friends once, but good friends didn’t do this to each other. She had thought she had known Bruce, and she was completely wrong. Sarah met Dave’s eyes and blinked.

“Where is he? Where is Bruce?”

Dave pressed his lips together. “Dead.” His eyes darted across Sarah’s face and then he turned and left.