If I Loved You (Harper Falls Book 1) (3 page)

“Have I ever said no to Pizza?” They headed
for Jack’s SUV without debate. Drew thought a lunch run was beneath
his baby’s dignity. Jack didn’t get it. Why own a car that sat in
the garage 90 percent of the time? Drew was always adding to his
collection. He would drive one of them the five miles to work then
park in the covered space built just for him. Then at the end of
the day he would drive it home and to be tucked away for the night
in his custom built, climate controlled garage. The man loved his
cars. Jack would never have said anything for fear of losing his
head, but he thought Drew should use one of those cars to drive
down the mountain to claim the
real
love of his life. But, except for a drunken night in college, they
never talked about the woman his friend had spent the last ten
years eating his heart out over. So Drew heaped his affection on
several tons of metal and ignored the elephant in the room or, in
this case, the town.

Jack pulled out of the parking lot and past
the obstacle course and outdoor training facilities that they had
built in the clearing across from H&W headquarters.

“The guys are set for their regular training
session,” Drew reminded him. Over the years, they had expanded
their bodyguard business to almost two dozen men. They had decided
to keep the personal security crew even after they started making
money from the cyber security software they developed. Part of it
was stupid sentimentality, but mostly it was for the clients that
depended on them. Neither of them was very hands on anymore, but
now and then it felt good to work out with the crew, just to prove
they hadn’t lost their edge to the younger guys.

“I’m starting to worry about Craig,” Drew
frowned. Craig Lowe was in charge of training the crew and dealt
with any day to day problems. If anything serious cropped up Craig
would come to one of them, but otherwise he had the authority to
run things.

“He’s getting more and more erratic. I think
it’s time we seriously considered getting someone to replace
him.”

As much as it saddened him, Jack had agree.
There were perks that came with rubbing elbows with the rich and
famous, and neither Jack nor Drew begrudged any of the crew their
right to indulge a bit. They certainly hadn’t been saints when they
were starting out. But Craig was taking it too far. Late nights and
alcohol were starting to effect his physical appearance and his job
performance. He was late more often than not, and there were times
when they called to find out where he was and they couldn't reach
him.

“I talked to Craig yesterday.” Jack ran a
hand through his dark hair in frustration. He couldn’t help but
notice that it had gotten longer than his liked. His mother had
thought her baby’s hair looked so sweet that she never let anyone
cut it. He’d been six when that had changed. The first time a
stranger mistook him for a girl, Jack grabbed an old knife that his
father kept in the barn and hacked at it until the curls littered
the floor. What little hair was left stood up in little-jagged
spikes. His mother had cried—his father laughed his ass off. He
tended to forget haircuts when he was in the middle of a project
and by the feel of it, he was way past due.

“What excuse did he give you this time?”

“No excuse,” Jack said ruefully. “He swears
that he quit. Quit the late nights, quit the drinking. If it’s a
vice, he’s quit it.”

“Does he think we're idiots?” Drew
scoffed.

“He's not thinking at all. I told him what
you and I agreed on. He enters a detox program or he’s fired.”

“It’s for the best, Jack,” Drew told him.
Jack had more sympathy for human failings than he did. Jack’s first
instinct was to reason first, kick ass if necessary. Drew’s
patience had a much shorter shelf life.

“Best for him
and
the business. We can’t afford to have him screw
up and get somebody hurt. Neither of us wants that.”

“I agree.” No amount of insurance could
cover the guilt they would live with if a client or employee was
injured on their watch. “I’m driving him to Spokane tomorrow and I
promised him a job would be waiting for him when he gets out.”

“But you didn’t promise him he’d have the
same
job.”

“No. He’ll be on probation for a while,”
Jack assured him.

“Good.” Drew sighed. “That leaves us with
the crew arriving this weekend and no one to handle the training.
It’s too late to reschedule.”

Jack and Drew exchanged resigned looks.
“Well, shit. I can’t say I’m looking forward to long hours in the
hot sun and nights soaking my aching muscles. Didn’t we get enough
of that when we were poor and stupid? I’m beginning to wonder if we
shouldn’t rethink our decision to keep the personal security
division. We don’t need the money or the publicity.”

“The crew will only be here for a week,”
Jack reminded his partner. “Besides, we’re getting soft sitting
behind our desks all day. It will do us good to mix it up with the
guys.”

Drew huffed but didn’t disagree. They both
kept in shape but punching a bag was different then punching
another person. He didn’t doubt they could still hold their own in
a fight, but getting down in the trenches would be good for both of
them. Kicking ass was no longer part of their job description.
Still, it didn’t hurt to keep their skills honed.

“Fine. But we should start looking around
for a replacement for Craig. There’s no guarantee he’ll stick with
rehab, or stay on the wagon afterward. We need to move on this
soon. It’s not just the training. The day to day crap is
time-consuming. It’s time I’d rather be using on developing new
software.”

“I’m way ahead of you,” Jack assured him.
“There’s someone I have in mind who’d be perfect. You remember I
mentioned an old friend from high school who joined the Army right
after graduation?

“Right. Alex something.”

“Alex Fleming.”

Drew frowned. “Didn’t you say he was career
Army?”

“That was always his plan,” Jack said. His
blue eyes darkened with concern. “Something changed about a year
ago. He didn’t give me any details, whatever he was involved with
was strictly hush-hush. But it ended with him in the hospital, and
six months later he was out of the army with an honorable
discharge.”

Drew could tell that Jack was worried about
his friend. Jack tended to let other people’s problems become his
own. When he cared about that person, he would move heaven and
earth to help. He hoped Alex Fleming knew how lucky he was to have
a man like Jack Winston on his side. Drew had thanked his lucky
stars more than once for a friend like Jack.

“You don’t know anything else?”

“Nope,” Jack admitted. “In fact I didn’t
know that much until a couple of days ago. Apparently he bought a
motorcycle and has been riding around Europe. Says he wants to see
a bit of the world as a civilian for a change. When he called me,
it was out of the blue. I told him there was a job waiting for him,
all he had to do was show up.”

“And do you think he will?” Drew didn’t say
anything about Jack offering his old friend a job without
consulting him first. If Jack believed in Alex Fleming, then that
was all Drew needed to know.

“I do.” Jack pulled to a stop in front of
Mama
Joan’s
, the town’s best pizza place. “I think
that’s why he finally got in touch. He’s ready to come home. He
just needed to hear that he had a place to come.”

Drew opened the door to the restaurant
taking a moment to breathe in the spicy aromas that hit them as
soon as they walked in. He gave a wave to some familiar faces that
were already enjoying their lunch. “Well, let’s hope he gets here
sooner than later. Back in our younger days I enjoyed strapping on
a gun and playing James Bond, but not anymore.”

“We’re only twenty-eight,” Jack reminded
him. “But I know what you mean. I always found those jobs to be a
dead bore. But the women were amazing, nothing boring about
that.

“You act as though your love life has dried
up.” Women of all ages loved Jack, and it didn’t matter if they
were in Los Angeles or Harper Falls. Jack never went without for
long.

“Nope, I find small town women to be very
friendly. In fact,” he tilted his head slightly towards the back of
the room. “There are two very lovely ladies smiling at us. What do
you say we go persuade them to let us share their table?”

Drew hesitated. He glanced around like he
always did when he was in town but as usual she wasn’t there. So
why not join Jack and eat with a woman who smiled at him, one who
didn’t cross the street if she saw him coming? Besides, Jack would
do all the talking. Pizza and feminine company. Not a bad way to
spend the next hour. And if he wasn’t interested? Well, it was only
lunch.

“Sure, Jack, why not.”

ROSE HAD SPENT most of the time since she’d
gotten up that morning accessing her mood. She’d begun with mildly
depressed, segued into righteously pissed, and had even considered
justifiably homicidal. But after talking herself down, she’d
finally settled on optimistically resigned. Last night might have
been a disaster, but she couldn’t stay grim when the early May
weather was so warm and sunny, and there was a whiff of lilac in
the air. She had come to a decision, and she was happy with it. Now
was the hard part, sharing the news with her friends.

Crossing the street towards the coffee shop
where her best friends, Tyler Jones, and Jordanna Wilde, were
waiting, Rose knew what their reaction to her decision would be.
Tyler would tell her she was crazy, and Dani would calmly point out
all the flaws in the plan. And it would be hard to argue with
either of them. But for now she was sticking to it. Once they
realized how serious she was they would support her, full on best
friend mode.

Three little girls had formed a bond over a
summer. Celebrations, whispered secrets, heartaches, and inevitable
separations had proven that bond unbreakable. Not that it had been
a smooth beginning.

At nine years of age, Rose had still been
reeling from the sudden death of her mother six months earlier. Her
mother had never mentioned any family. Her father wasn’t just out
of the picture; he’d never been in it. Locating a next of kin had
taken a few weeks, then all of a sudden Rose had found herself in
the custody of an aunt she hadn’t known existed.

It hadn't taken Rose long to learn the
woman's chiseled in stone rules. First, she was under no
circumstances to call her anything but Louise. Calling her Aunt
would get her a firm slap across the face. Rose only broke that
rule once. Second, and most important, never discuss age, her own
or Louise’s. Louise was forever twenty-five and having a
nine-year-old around tended to started men counting. Third, no one
wanted Rose. She should be grateful Louise was big-hearted enough
to take in such a skinny, unattractive child. What Louise
conveniently left out was the money Rose’s mother had in her
savings account at her time of her death. Rose had never known how
much was there, and she’d certainly never seen a dime of it. But it
turned out to be the extra incentive Louise had needed to do what
the social worker termed ‘the decent thing’.

Soon Louise had nabbed herself a well to do
new husband and Rose was being shipped off to a private school in
Eastern Washington. A turn of events that couldn’t have made Rose
happier.

Harper Academy was in Harper Falls. Rose had
been informed by the oh so proper headmistress that it was a very
exclusive school. She thought Rose should say thanks every day that
she had a wealthy benefactor with connections to the Harper family,
the founders, and trustees. Rose didn’t know or care anything about
who ran the school or the surrounding town. What mattered to her
was the outstanding music program the school offered. When things
with her mother had been at their worst, music would often be their
only way of connecting. Being able to study, to learn new
instruments, was a dream come true.

Rose had always known that her mother was an
unhappy person. Maggie O’Brian was alone in the world; her heart
given to a man who had gotten her pregnant and disappeared before
Rose was born. Maggie assured Rose that her father would be with
them if he could, that someday he would come back. Rose was too
young to know what that meant, all she did know was that it made
her mother sad. But when Rose sang, sometimes her mother would
smile. So she taught herself to play the guitar. The old beat up
instrument that she bought at a yard sale for one dollar had been
her most prized possession. The simple songs she wrote weren’t
chart toppers by any stretch of the imagination. But at the time
Rose’s only goal had been to give her mother a few moments of
happiness. What she couldn’t understand at such a young age was
that the depression that had a hold on Maggie O’Brian was stronger
than a few well-meant songs. Maggie had crawled into a black hole
and didn’t want to come out. Not for her daughter, not for
anything.

When Rose got her first look at the school’s
music room full of shiny new instruments, most of which Rose had
never even heard of, it was all she could do to contain her
excitement. She felt terrified that if it got back to her aunt that
Rose was actually thrilled to be there, she would taken out and
sent somewhere else, somewhere without music. But inside, Rose was
jumping with joy. Harper Academy was where she was meant to be, and
she wasn’t going to do anything that might ruin her chances of
staying.

Luck remained on Rose’s side when it came to
where she would live while attending Harper Academy though at first
she wouldn’t have said it was
good
luck. There was housing for students, but when Rose arrived it was
the middle of June, and they didn’t board students during the
summer. There were a few townsfolk who occasionally rented rooms to
students when the dormitories were overbooked The headmistress had
suggested the Jones family because they had a daughter Rose’s
age.