Fulfilling Promises (Red Starr, Book Five)
Read Fulfilling Promises (Red Starr, Book Five) Online
Authors: Kennedy Layne
Tags: #Romance, #Military
Red Starr, Book Five
Kennedy Layne
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FULFILLING PROMISES
Copyright © 2016 by Kennedy Layne
Kindle Edition
E-Book ISBN: 978-1-943420-16-2
Print ISBN: 978-1-943420-20-9
Cover Artist: Sweet ’N Spicy Designs
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
Jeffrey—you have fulfilled more promises with love than I ever could have imagined.
Cole—your life is filled with promise and we have no doubt you will succeed in anything you choose to do!
John “Trigger” Dixon returned to his small hometown in rural Mississippi as a favor to an old high school friend. It was meant to be a quick trip, with a short visit to his parents and an afternoon spent spoiling his two nephews. He should have known his vacation wouldn’t go as planned. The rebel in him always got in the way.
Devyn Wilde had lived up to her surname according to the townsfolk—at least by reputation. She’d never let it bother her before, but she’d finally had enough after she was brought in for questioning by the police for her brother’s murder. How could anyone believe that she would forsake her family? In the south, family comes before anyone or anything.
Trigger had last seen Devyn right before he’d joined the Red Starr Hostage Rescue Team, both of them agreeing to end their casual relationship. After all, it had been a temporary diversion—friends with benefits. He hadn’t expected to find that she was a suspect in a homicide investigation, secretly investigating her brother’s mysterious murder. Their sweet passion returns full force despite the danger, but keeping an old promise might just cost him his life.
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J
ohn “Trigger” Dixon
tapped his thumb on the worn leather cover on the steering wheel in rhythm to the country music steadily drifting out of the high fidelity Alpine speakers. He was listening to his favorite playlist stored on his cell phone linked through the Bluetooth instead of the radio. Only two local stations came in somewhat clear on the FM selection and he hadn’t paid the extra money to have the Sirius system or the GPS enabled. Amberton, Mississippi was about as rural as a small town could get and the closest cell tower was a good twenty plus miles northeast of town, closer to Corinth.
The rolling hills were heavily forested with hickories, ashes, elms, Red Swamp oaks, and the ever present pines that had always covered these beautiful ridges. The lower lying areas were a bit swampy, but you couldn’t find any better fishing in the four surrounding states. Alcorn County was a bit out of the way for most folks; however, to Trigger…it was still home.
“Glad to be back, boy?” Trigger asked his loyal companion as he pointed toward a meticulously maintained Texaco gas station somewhere out of the fifties still in business. It served as the town’s mini-grocery store, since there wasn’t need for anything bigger.
Amberton had a gas station, post office, and a diner on what was considered the main drag, though the faded red brick buildings had seen better days. The awnings were straight and the fabric was well maintained. The bank his father managed was located on the west end of town toward the highway that connected them to the rest of the world. It was where most of the businesses were clustered because of the town elders managing the small town’s layout through their control of the water rights. If you were located in the town limits, residential and commercial buildings had to be on the town water system. The elders controlled who had access.
“We’ll stop into Jester’s on the way to the garage. I’m sure he still carries those beef sticks you like so much.”
Diesel, a four-year-old German Shepherd, lifted his nose into the warm wind and took in the familiar scents of home. The intelligent canine had been born and trained in Germany. He’d been originally bought and paid for with county funds to serve as a police dog, but that hadn’t quite worked out. Trigger ended up getting him from a family friend back in the day who used Diesel as a service dog. He had fond memories of Mac Witten and missed that old codger every single day. He took his responsibility of Diesel seriously and the two were never far apart.
The soft top was currently down on the forest green 2016 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited. Trigger had rented the two-door, off-road vehicle just for this trip home, knowing how much Diesel would enjoy riding in the passenger seat with his head hanging out the window. The weather had been reasonably beautiful for the last few days, but those clouds to the west signified he’d have to put the black-coated canvas on within an hour. Sixty minutes would give him plenty of time to do what he’d come here for before driving out to his parents’ home.
An odd spectacle greeted Trigger as he came to the town’s only four-way intersection. He’d been going to turn right when the sight of several vehicles at Devyn’s tavern, The Laughing Griffin, caught his attention. The bar was the only entertainment for miles, mostly because it had a single seven-foot pool table, lots of cold beer, and an old neon Wurlitzer jukebox updated to hold compact discs with relatively modern music loaded onto them. Most folks in town stopped by the place from time to time, so it served as the local watering hole. It didn’t hurt that Devyn Wilde was the owner and downright beautiful.
Trigger glanced at the green neon numbers of the radio, noticing it was only a little after fourteen hundred in the afternoon. The crowded parking lot meant some out-of-the-usual kind of excitement had taken place. He made a quick decision and flipped his blinker to the left, not really needing it considering no one was at the intersection besides him and Diesel. It was force of habit…muscle memory.
“Well, I’d been hoping to postpone this, but maybe an early meet-and-greet will ease some tension,” Trigger said, flashing a smile toward Diesel. “Devyn never did return my phone call last week.”
And neither had Devyn’s brother, which was the reason Trigger had decided to visit home during his two-week vacation. Joey Wilde and Trigger had been friends their entire lives. They’d grown up within a mile of each other and had remained close even during Trigger’s enlistment in the Marines. Friendship like that never died, so why then hadn’t Joey answered the numerous voice messages he’d left on his phone? And why hadn’t Devyn called him back?
The most convenient thing would have been to call Trigger’s parents to check on both Joey and Devyn, but Gail and Jack Dixon had taken their grandchildren and the rest of the family to Disney World. They were due back sometime this evening and Trigger had decided to surprise them with a visit, killing two birds with one monster boulder.
Trigger drove the small distance, but he couldn’t find a place to park the Jeep in the spaces against the curbside next to the three storefronts. He ended up near the far outside edge of the building in the gravel lot and barely had his tires on the dusty stones. Only two things would attract this kind of crowd—someone won the lottery or there was a death amongst the few remaining residents.
“Damn—if it isn’t Trigger Dixon.”
Trigger had just turned off the ignition and palmed his keys when he heard Cody Arnett’s gravelly voice call out. The two men were roughly the same age, although Cody had been a year ahead of Trigger in school. He’d never gotten out of Amberton and he was currently working a ten-dollar an hour job at the recycling plant over an hour away down Highway 72, halfway to Memphis.
It wasn’t as if Alcorn County had a lot of manufacturing jobs anymore, although their fortunes might change with all the new construction east of Corinth next to the highway. According to the large sign next to the off-ramp, some townhomes were going to be built there this summer. It would be nice to see a few of the construction workers in town make some money. It might just put some life back into this county the way it once was.
“Good to see you, Cody,” Trigger said, unfastening his seat belt and then stepping out of the Jeep. He left the door open for Diesel, who had followed close behind. “How are you doing?”
“I took today off after hearing some of the buzz about what happened,” Cody said, running a hand through his somewhat greasy hair. It looked as if the man was still wearing his standard blue uniform for the plant, which could only mean he hadn’t showered since yesterday. His bloodshot eyes backed up that assumption. “Did you come back because of Devyn or the garage?”
“Devyn?” Trigger lifted his sunglasses on top of his head, really wishing they didn’t have to play this stupid guessing game. Cody always did like to drag shit out. His jokes were always the worst shaggy dogs a person could hear, as if he was relishing the punch line before everyone else. He hadn’t changed a damned bit. Trigger wasn’t about to give this man intimate details just so they could be spread around town. “I’m here to visit my family. Devyn and I are friends. You already know that and it hasn’t changed.”
Trigger had been honorably discharged almost three years prior. He’d served his country and he didn’t have one regret for doing so. He was proud of his time with the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) that he and his fellow Marines had served in. Their MEU was Special Operations Capable so they were designated as an MEU(SOC), and he was even more satisfied that he was still able to use his skills with Red Starr HRT, a hostage rescue unit based out of San Diego.
Trigger and Devyn had spent time together upon his return home, something neither one of them had really planned. Their brief affair had been hot and heavy between consenting adult friends—friends with benefits. They’d enjoyed each other’s company and neither one of them had regretted it. They’d remained friends with an occasional text over the last year and a half, although communication between the two had somewhat faded with his recent overseas commitments.