Framed (3 page)

“You’re to report to Hinkle before breakfast.”

“Why? My regular counseling day is Wednesday.”

“Don’t know, didn’t ask.”

“Gotta rid you of those demons, boy,” Cooter chuckled.

Looking back at the old man, Kade flashed a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I don’t have any demons, Cooter.”

“If you believe that then you’ve got more than I thought,” the old man grumbled.

That hit closer to home than Kade wanted to admit, and for the first time since meeting the old man, Kade let his anger show.

“Yeah? You’d have demons, too, Cooter, if you killed as many men as I have.”

“Well, I’d say that’s the most honest thing you’ve said to me since walking into this place.”

“Save it old man,” he growled low, “I don’t need to be psychoanalyzed.”

Furious for losing control, he shoved past the old man and headed towards Daily, who handcuffed him in preparation to leave the cellblock. After a ten-minute walk through locked door after locked door, which put an exclamation point on his sudden foul mood, they reached Hinkle’s office. Daily knocked, waited for the counselor to answer, then opened the door and escorted him in. Kade was surprised to find a woman sitting in Hinkle’s office when he cleared the door. He was even more surprised when she stood, turned, and faced him. Christ, she wasn’t just a woman; she was Kade’s wet dream, one he’d dreamt about on and off since high school and was completely off limits because she was married.

Harley Dash Jordan.

Kade scanned her long legs, large, soft breasts, dark blond hair that had been kissed by the sun, and big brown eyes that reached into his very soul and his breath froze just as it had every time he’d looked at her. She was beyond tempting to any man, but to him, she was a highly anticipated Christmas present he could never unwrap. He hadn’t seen her in eight years, but his reaction was still the same. Lust surged swiftly, like the current of a fast moving river, the moment those brown eyes hit him, and he took a step back.

He’d fantasized about Harley after he’d seen her on the football field his senior year. He knew she was too innocent for the likes of him so he’d let her be instead of pursuing her like every molecule in his body told him to do. Then, years later, once he’d straightened out his life, he’d seen her at her father’s garage on his way out of town and cursed his rotten luck he wouldn’t be back for more than two years. When he had returned, he found out she was a month away from getting married and he’d cursed his rotten luck again. Now, he wanted to howl at the moon that she was standing in his presence when he hadn’t had a woman beneath him in over two years.

“Take a seat, Kingston. There’s an opportunity to participate in a worthwhile program I want to discuss with you.”

Shaking his head before they could tempt him with forbidden fruit, fruit that would make his time here unbearable, he answered immediately.

“Whatever it is, the answer is no. Not if she’s involved.”

I couldn’t concentrate. This was the closest I’d been to Kade since high school and his effect on me was overpowering. Never in my life had I encountered a man as insanely sexual or blatantly masculine. Everything about him screamed danger, dominant male, and sex.

The air shifted with an electrical current that arced between us as I stared back into his dark, blank eyes. His effect up close and personal was commanding and it took a moment to gather my thoughts. I was stunned by his outburst and knew I should be sensitive to his situation, but instead I was insulted, maybe even a little bit hurt that after all those years fantasizing about him, he’d reacted that way towards me. That hurt turned to recklessness, however, and instead of waiting for Hinkle to step in my pride got the best of me.

“Not if . . . not if I’m involved? What the hell is that supposed to mean? I can assure you the program is an excellent one,” I defended, narrowing my eyes and crossing my arms. If I’d been any more insulted, I might have started tapping my foot, but Hinkle and the guard being in the room stopped that embarrassing behavior.

Kade drew in a sharp breath at my outburst and his eyes sparked to life as he took my measure. They roamed from the top of my head to the tips of my toes and back again. When he was done, and his brown eyes settled back on mine, I wanted to take a step back at the hunger I saw there. I took a shuddered breath and rocked back on my heels when the full force of his eyes bore into mine. His sheer force of will filled the room and I felt my body respond to him immediately. As if he could sense my reaction, I watched in fascination as he took a step back and threw up his shield again, blanking his face to block out the world.

“I was on assignment for two months before I was debriefed and then moved home,” he answered with a dry neutrality I didn’t believe. “I was thrown in jail my first night home for a crime I didn’t commit and I’ve been here for six months after spending close to eighteen in county lockup. I haven’t had a woman beneath me for more than two years and the only way I’m surviving without killing someone is because there are none here. So, you, with your long legs and large . . . Let’s just say the Taliban couldn’t think of a better way to torture me.”

I missed the part at first where he said my body was a distraction. I was too busy watching his jaw clench as he spoke. He was tightly reigned in, his façade impenetrable, and it almost knocked me on my ass to watch his shadowed soul shut down further as he spoke of being imprisoned against his will. I wanted more than anything to change his mind just so I could spend time with him, but it was clear from the firm set of his jaw and intense look in his eyes there would be no reversing his stance. Not if the way he all but growled his words was any indicator.

“As you wish,” I mumbled, giving in without a fight before turning and taking my seat. I wasn’t about to pressure him no matter how much I wanted to be in his presence. I’d just have Hinkle keep offering and hope he agreed someday. If Kade didn't, and I was still the problem, then I’d be willing to step aside and let one of the other volunteers run the dog-training program during his participation.

“Did you just quote The Princess Bride?” Kade rumbled low. I looked back and noted his hard eyes had softened; the carefully guarded shield had cracked. His mouth had pulled into a wry grin as he waited for my answer. I saw an opening so I stood, responding quickly, hoping to break down the wall further.

“You have a dizzying intellect, Kade. I’m surprised you caught that.”

His brows rose slightly, then he crossed his arms and corrected me. “It’s truly,” he answered. “Truly, you have a dizzying intellect, Kade.”

Inconceivable.

I couldn’t believe an ex-SEAL, a former badass who dodged bullets for a living, admitted to knowing the lines of the greatest comedy slash romance slash action-adventure ever written.

“How is it a badass SEAL like yourself can quote lines better than me from a romantic comedy?”

He hesitated a moment, his eyes darting to the guard before he answered.

“Because one of my badass SEAL brethren is married to a woman who can quote every word . . . and does so with frequency.”

His shield was down fully now. The smile he gave me caused my breath to hitch and my nipples hardened in response.

“Can we start over?” I jumped in, hoping a bridge had been built.

“No,” he answered firmly and immediately, his voice low with a warning you couldn’t mistake. Just like that, the man who had smiled and quoted Princess Bride word for word was gone. “There isn’t anything you could offer that would entice me to spend time with
you.
It would be dangerous for every man in my cellblock and my own peace of mind.”

“But if you’d just hear me out. I understand where you’re coming from. I—”

“No, you don’t. You think you do, but you don’t. Not with a man like me.”

“Kingston, the program we’re offering you is fulfilling and would make your time here more bearable,” John Hinkle, prison psychologist and counselor finally jumped in. “You won’t be up for parole for another seven years, Kade. I think this program could be beneficial to you.”

Ignoring Hinkle, Kade turned to the prison guard who’d escorted him in. “Do I have to stay here ’til they’re done?”

“Nope,” the guard answered. “But it’s a good program Kingston, you should hear them out.”

“Then we’re done here,” Kade growled, then turned towards the door. When the guard turned and opened the door, Kade looked back at me for a moment and stared as if he was memorizing my face. Then, just as he did that day in the forecourt of my dad’s repair shop, he jerked his chin slightly before he walked away.

Turning back to Hinkle, I sat down in the chair and sighed. I’d hoped for a better response from Kade.

“We can try again in twelve weeks when the new dogs come in,” Hinkle said. John was in his late forties with salt and pepper hair, an extra tire around his middle, and wired rimmed glasses that reminded me of John-Boy from The Waltons.

There has to be some way to convince Kade.

“Will you do me a favor, John?” I asked when an idea came to me. “Can you see if I can move my class outside in a secured yard near his cellblock? Maybe if he saw the program he’d be willing to listen to what I have to say.”

“Hold on, let me see what yards butt up to his.”

Hinkle pulled up the files on his computer, then looked at a map of the yards.

“It could work, but you’d have to deal with inmates disrupting class and it would require more guards.”

“Just this one time, John. It’s not a permanent move; it’s just so Kade, and even the other inmates, can see what we do.”

Hinkle didn’t respond at first; he cocked his head as if he was reading me. I’d tried, rather unsuccessfully I’ll admit, to keep my emotions in check the whole time Kade had been in the room. But I was beginning to think the man could see how much Kade had affected me. When Kade had looked at me with lust in his eyes, I’d been sixteen again and unable to speak. When he said I was a beautiful woman who tempted him I’d been twenty-two again in my dad’s garage; only this time he wasn’t dressed in fatigues with close-cropped hair, he was in orange coveralls and his hair had grown out well past his ears. Not to mention, in the years since I’d seen him last, he’d somehow grown incredibly bigger, wider, and harder around the edges. Now, he was nothing but hard muscle covering wide, strong bones all connected with sinew. And his eyes had hardened even more with time and imprisonment. I would have run from him in any other circumstance, he was that powerful, but when he’d quoted Princess Bride that had sealed my fate. I knew then I would do whatever it took to help him while he was at Renault. Between the lustful looks and the boy I remembered, my body no longer hummed when I looked at him; it burned with a passion for the man that had stood in front of me. Frankly, it was all I could do to keep from walking the remaining feet between us, wrapping my arms around him, and telling him that Dad and I believed he was innocent.

“Why this man, out of all the others here?” Hinkle questioned. “He’s in a bad place right now, Harley. He was counting on his former team to return and find evidence to set him free. He’s feeling abandoned for the second time in his life.”

“Do you believe he’s innocent?”

“What I believe doesn’t matter. A jury found him guilty and it’s my responsibility to counsel him. I’ve gotten to know him pretty well in the past six months and I don’t want to put him in a situation that will put others at risk. He’s a dangerous man because of his training, but he’s also a man with deep wounds from his past. So I’m asking you again, why this man?”

Taking a deep breath to control my voice, I shrugged, then tried to explain (without revealing I’d essentially been hung up on the man since I was sixteen) in a way Hinkle would understand.

“The man fought for our country, John. Don’t you think he deserves a little respect and a little extra effort considering all that he’s been through? This program places abused dogs in their care and gives them something to focus on besides being incarcerated twenty-four hours a day.”

“That’s it? You just want to pay him back for his service?”

“It’s also as a favor to my father, who’s also a former Navy man. Look, he’ll be here for at least seven years and I think it’s the least we can do for him . . . And the dogs,” I threw in when I realized I was too focused on Kade and not the program.

Hinkle paused for a moment to consider my response before picking up his phone and calling the Warden. Thankfully, he didn’t check my pulse to see if I was lying. If he had, he would have found it racing. I wanted to help Kade, to ease his pain, and, if I’m honest, to be able to see him three times a week. But I couldn’t do that unless he was in the program.

***

Kade sat with his hands clenched, trying to ignore the sight of Harley Dash Jordan and her class of canine trainers. The class of twelve men and twelve dogs was holding court in a yard next to his with only a chain link fence and razor wire separating them. He’d hoped when he walked out of Hinkle’s office it was the end of that particular torture, but he’d been wrong. He knew about the dog training program, was curious even, but he had no idea who ran it. Not once in the six months since he’d been at Renault had he seen the inmates training the dogs. Now that his team had written him off, and he’d be spending the next seven to fifteen years in this hellhole, he might have signed up if it weren’t for Harley Jordan.

His former SEAL team had a German shepherd mascot named Titan and he missed the dog. He would have enjoyed working with one of the dogs in the program, but the torture of seeing Harley, a woman he could never have, was too great. Though, right now, what bothered him the most while watching Harley bend at the waist wasn’t that he couldn’t join the program, it was the other inmates who had their eyes fixed on her ass the same as him.

Jordan must have a screw loose. No way would I allow her to commune with the inmates without being here to protect her
.

“You like watching the dogs or the ass in the air?” Cooter chuckled as he sat down beside him. Clenching his jaw to keep from responding, Kade turned his eyes away from Harley and her band of misfits and glared at the old man. “The fur on that one looks like it would be soft as silk to run your hands through. And the tail, the way it swings when she walks, well—”