Page 16 of Pirates in Calusa Cove (Everglades Overwatch #2)

CHAPTER 13

Later that night, Trinity tucked her hands under her cheek and stared at Keaton. Her life had done a complete one-eighty in less than a week. She’d harbored feelings for Keaton ever since she’d met him, and if she were being totally honest with herself, it was one of the reasons she and Fenton would have never worked out.

His cheating and all his other faults—they had been the push she’d needed to get out of one more lousy relationship. She’d always picked the wrong kind of man. It was as if she were a magnet for them. Or as if she chose that kind of man on purpose, as if to prove to herself it was all she was worth, just like her mother had told her.

But Keaton was different, and she felt that deep in her bones. Keaton was exactly the kind of man her mom told her would never want to marry her, simply because she was too much trouble, too independent, too much like her father.

Keaton lived his life honorably, as shown by his relationships with his Navy buddies and how he treated people. He respected others and lifted them up rather than cutting them down.

Outside of their rocky start, which she understood now, Keaton was the kind of man who didn’t give his heart easily, but when he did, he did so freely and without reservation.

Her heart beat rapidly in the center of her chest. Honesty was important to him, and she didn’t want to keep secrets. She didn’t want to sit on this just because it might not be anything to worry about. Then again, it could be life-changing.

“You’re deep in thought.” Keaton ran his index finger up and down her arm. “Are you okay?”

“I have to tell you something, and when I do, I need you not to freak out.”

He traced her lower lip with his thumb. “I believe we’re past all that, considering we jumped from being unable to be in the same room without arguing to barely dating to being in love.”

“Yeah, well, I still want the dating part. I want to be taken out to dinner. To go on picnics. To scuba dive together. Everything but the flowers.” She patted the center of his chest. After dinner, while sitting on the dock, watching the boaters return, she’d told him she wanted to take things slow. While she loved him and that wouldn’t change, she still wanted—needed—the part of a relationship that included long walks and getting to know each other better.

He’d easily agreed. He didn’t want to jump into anything other than being in a relationship where they didn’t see anyone else but each other, and they’d take everything else one day at a time.

His willingness and desire to take things slow made her love him even more.

“I look forward to it.” He kissed her nose. “But now you’re avoiding whatever has put that wrinkle on your forehead.”

She wanted to resent that he could not only read her emotions but also knew her that well. No man she’d ever had a relationship with had been this in tune with her. It was both refreshing and terrifying.

“I kind of am,” she admitted. “It’s not an easy topic.”

“Perhaps you should treat it like a Band-Aid, then.”

“You neglected to bring over my pills,” she blurted out.

“What pills?” He raised on his elbow, palming his cheek, and stared at her with an inquisitive gaze. God, he was adorable. When his attention was on her, he didn’t waver, and wouldn’t, unless a bomb went off.

“A prescription that was in the master bathroom.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. I can get them for you tomorrow.” He smiled. “Just tell me where they are and what they look like.”

“Thanks, but you should know they’re important, and I shouldn’t miss a dose.”

“What does that mean? What happens when you do? Is something wrong?” He sat up taller. His face paled. God, this man was so sweet.

“No, it’s nothing like that.”

“What is it like? Because now I am freaking out.”

“They’re my birth control pills, and I haven’t taken any since the morning I got lost at sea.” She sucked her lower lip into her mouth and chewed on it.

He blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. Then his eyes went wide. His lips parted, but he didn’t gasp. He didn’t groan. He didn’t even make a hefty sigh. Raising his hand, he began to touch each finger with his thumb.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Counting how many days…” He dropped his hand to the mattress. “I have no idea. It’s not like I completely understand these things. But I’m not an idiot, and I do get that we essentially had unprotected sex.”

“To be completely transparent, too many days were missed, and we might want to consider a Plan B solution, and that window is pretty short.”

He narrowed his stare and flopped back on the bed, fingering his tattoo. She wondered if he even knew he did that. Not that she minded, because she didn’t. However, considering the situation, she found it…interesting.

And a little scary. She knew him…but there were so many things she was completely clueless about. This was one of those things.

“I can pick that up, too,” he said so softly she barely heard the words. He turned, catching her gaze. “Can I ask you a crazy question, but one that most couples eventually discuss?”

“Okay.”

They were a couple. That wasn’t weird or scary. But her pulse raced, and her mind scattered. She held her breath in fear of whatever this might be.

“Do you want children? ”

“Someday.” This could be the beginning of the end. The thing that turned this beautiful beginning into a storm at sea. “You don’t want a family,” she whispered.

He inhaled sharply. “It’s been so long since I’ve thought about it. After Petra died, all the dreams of having kids went with her, so I never even considered it.” He ran his thumb across her lower lip. “I love you. I don’t want to be with anyone else. I can’t even imagine that. All of that is easy for me to say. To feel.”

“But the family part? That’s hard?” She swallowed her breath. While that hurt, she couldn’t blame him. That death had shaped so much of his life, and she’d be a bitch if she tried to take that away and change his reality and how it had affected who he’d become as a man.

“It’s not exactly like that. It’s just that I didn’t consider it. The idea never even entered my brain, partly because I can’t say I’ve ever been in a real relationship since Petra. While I never dated more than one person at a time, there still wasn’t any level of commitment, only an understanding that I was dedicated to being a SEAL, and that’s where my heart belonged.” He leaned in and kissed her softly. “But understand it’s something that’s now sitting in the front of my mind.”

“But only because I forgot my pills, and I didn’t do this on purpose. You’ve got to believe me. This isn’t something I want to deal with right now in my life. But I couldn’t not tell you. That would be wrong,” she said, practically begging him to hear her words. To not hold what happened against her and hopefully forgive her forgetfulness .

“You’ve been under a lot of stress.” He brushed his mouth over hers in a long, decadent kiss. “We’ve both been firing on half a tank.” He tucked her hair behind her ears. “I don’t honestly know where I stand on having a family in the future because I haven’t thought about it. We jumped into the deep end, and we need some time to tread water. But what I find fascinating about myself now is that I don’t seem to oppose the idea in the future.”

Her heart did a backflip in her chest. She had to be dreaming. “I don’t want you to change your mind because I was…reckless.”

“Babe, I don’t see it that way.”

She groaned. She wanted to believe him, but she’d been the one who’d forgotten—not him.

He cupped her chin. “And I’m not changing my mind about anything. I’m having a discussion with my girlfriend—whom I love—about something important. I don’t know if now would be the right time. We’ve barely even begun. All I’m saying is that I’m not freaking out.”

He had to be too good to be true. He would show his true colors and leave her, or he’d see how unworthy she was. That’s what her mother had always beaten into her brain.

“Maybe you're not, but I am.” She’d always struggled to fit in—to believe she belonged—anywhere. Returning to Calusa Cove had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She’d always loved the sleepy little town. It felt like home, and she wanted the people to accept her as she accepted them .

She’d seen the ugly underbelly of Keaton Cole. She knew some of his darkest secrets. And what she didn’t know, she could see etched in the scars on his body.

Keaton was the kind of man that what you saw was what you got. He spoke his mind freely, and perhaps that was one of the things she’d been drawn to—as strange as that sounded. He’d been hard on her for a long time.

But he’d also been right. What was she trying to prove? And to whom?

The people who mattered in her life—her father, Audra, Baily, Keaton, and his friends—gave her the respect she craved. She might not have a long history with them, the tight bond and inside jokes. But she had something special with each and every one of them.

For the first time in her life, she felt like she fit in, that she belonged, that she had found her people.

“We’re in this together.” He pulled her close to his side, tucking her head onto his shoulder. “I look forward to the day this business with jewels is over so we can settle into whatever brand of normal we can find.”

“That is if the jewels haven’t curs?—”

“Don’t even say it. I researched that, and while I don’t believe anything I have read, there’s no point in putting it out in the universe.” He kissed her temple. “Now, get some sleep. It’s late, and we promised Dawson and Audra we’d be there by seven.”

Trinity snuggled in, her arm and leg draped over Keaton’s body as if that was exactly where they had always belonged. As if she’d found home. It both electrified and terrified her. She’d been searching for this feeling her entire life. She’d always had a safe place with her father. That was a given.

But what human—what woman—didn’t want more? She’d craved a life partner. Someone to share her dreams, hopes, and fears with. Someone she could be herself with. Someone who would accept her for who she was, faults and all.

A tiny voice in the back of her head worried that when all this business with the jewels was handled, Keaton would walk out of her life, that it was the danger that had brought them together and drove him to step in because he couldn’t let a bad thing happen to someone he called a friend.

She closed her eyes, holding on to the three lovely words he’d uttered more than once. They had flowed from his lips to her ears and hit her heart like a cannonball hurling through the air, smacking their target with precision. There was no reason not to believe he meant them—in the moment.

But moments tended to fade into the background.

Moments didn’t always last.

She let sleep overtake her body, doing her best to ignore that little voice because each moment in life built on another. And then another.

And hopefully, this was just the beginning.

Keaton jerked awake. An alarm blared in his ears. One constant, loud siren. Only, it wasn’t the sound attached to waking him up. That noise seldom went off. He always woke before that happened. He had an internal clock that naturally made his body and mind come alive somewhere between four thirty and five. It had been ingrained in his psyche since the military and hadn’t disappeared in civilian life.

He rubbed his eyes and sprang to his feet. Leaning over the bed, he reached for Trinity’s good arm. “Wake up.” He shook her a little too harshly. “Come on, babe, we’ve got to get out of the house, now.” He turned and pulled back the curtains. Fire surrounded the back of the house. The flames stretched high. They were wild and danced toward the sky. They smacked against the glass like fists punching a wall. It wouldn’t be long before it went inside by shattering the pane into pieces.

“Huh. What?” She wiped the hair from her face. “What the hell is that sound?”

“The fire alarm,” Keaton said as calmly as he could. His sense of smell registered the smoke. It filled his lungs, constricting his breath.

So did the scent of gas. It was intense and could only mean one thing.

This was no accident.

He snagged his jeans, hiked them over his hips, grabbed his weapon, and snatched up his cell. “Put some clothes on and let’s go.” His voice was stern—commanding—and he didn’t like speaking to her in that tone. But now, his skin felt the heat. He didn’t know where the fire had started, except he suspected someone had doused his home with gas and lit a match .

He needed to get to Monty, and they all needed to get out.

Trinity didn’t need to be told twice. She did exactly what he asked her to do without question. “My dad,” she whispered.

Keaton raced to the bedroom door. Before opening it, he placed his hand on the wood panel. It wasn’t too hot. He put his ear to it. He couldn’t hear the roar of the flames. Nor did he see smoke coming from under the door. Carefully, he tugged on the knob.

He swallowed, staring at the yellow and orange that glowed on the walls. The fire appeared to be mainly on the outside frame of the home, but it had broken through the barrier and crawled up the walls of his foyer. The curtains were all but gone. He glanced to his right.

The couch had sparks as a few flames grew. More flames danced outside the glass sliders.

“Monty,” he yelled as he tapped on his cell, texting the SOS to his buddies. Hayes was working tonight, so he could act immediately, and Keaton wouldn’t have to call the fire department, killing two birds with one text.

That worked because Hayes immediately texted with an ETA for his home.

“Monty, can you hear me? We need to get out of the house.” He took Trinity by the hand. “Stay close,” he said as he inched through the house. Both exits were covered in flames, cutting them off from being able to use them as escape routes.

“Daddy!” Trinity’s voice screeched, and she tugged hard at his hand, trying to get to her dad .

“What the hell is going on?” Monty appeared on the other side of the kitchen. “There’s a fire outside.”

“I know.” Keaton nodded. “Can we get out of your window?” he asked.

Monty shook his head. “The fire made its way inside my room.” He covered his mouth and coughed. “I tried opening the window, and it won’t budge. It’s as if it’s locked.”

“That’s impossible,” Keaton said. “Stay right here in the middle of the room.” He huddled his two houseguests in the safest spot and went to the sliders, jumping over a few flames. That was the safest exit right now. He unlocked the door and yanked.

Nothing. Someone had barricaded it from the outside.

How had he not known? They should have tripped his motion detectors. His alarm should have gone off long before the fire alarms had. “I’m going to have to break the glass,” he said. “Go to my bedroom and get some sheets. Douse them in water and wrap yourselves in them.”

“Okay,” Monty agreed as he grabbed his daughter.

“But Daddy, we can’t leave him out here to?—”

“You can and you will.” Keaton glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll be fine.” He took the blanket from the sofa and wrapped it around his hand and arm. “Trust me. Hayes and the fire department are on the way.” He pleaded with her with his eyes. Begging her to do as she was told.

“Okay.” She took off with her dad, thank God.

He stared at his hand. That was dumb. He took his weapon, gripped it, and rewrapped the blanket to protect his arm. He smacked the glass once. It barely cracked. He did it again. Not much more. A third time provided spider cracks, but it didn’t break.

He hit it four… five… six times… and finally, on the seventh hit, the damn thing broke. Glass went flying everywhere.

“Goddammit.” He groaned as a piece landed right in his thigh. A big piece, too. Big enough he could pull it out, but also big enough he probably shouldn’t.

Blood oozed out around the sides, soaking his jeans. He did what he always did and pushed the pain that tried to register in his brain to a dark corner of his mind. He’d deal with it later.

“Come on, we’ve got to go. The flames are just getting worse.” The smell of gas was worse than the smoke. It was as if whoever had done this took an airplane full and dumped it on top of his house.

“Here.” Monty handed him a wet blanket.

“Run toward the center of the lawn. I’ll be right behind you,” Keaton said.

Bang!

Monty clutched his shoulder. His body jerked backward.

Bang!

“Daddy!” Trinity screamed as her father dropped to his knees. This time, the bullet tore through his chest.

Monty’s eyes went wide. He opened his mouth, but all that came out was a gasp and a gurgle.

Keaton shoved Trinity to the ground, covering both her and her dad with his body, and glanced over his shoulder.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

“Stay down,” he said as calmly as he could as the bullets flew over his head.

“Find the jewels and get the girl,” a male voice echoed.

“Over my dead body.” Keaton lifted his head. A sharp pain vibrated against his temple. It rattled his teeth. His vision blurred.

And then the world went dark.