Page 4 of Impossible Thrills

She risked a glance at Nick. He seemed like a Bridger Hawk type of guy—brave, irresistibly handsome, talented, sought after by women, but she feared he was a Johnny type instead. Most charming womanizers were, in her experience.

“Someday, when our children are old enough, Avalyn and I will tell them our story and about their nut-job Uncle Ramsey who terrified their mama into admitting she loved me. Our story has the best ending possible.” He splayed his hands. “But enough about us. Now it’s time for your story.”

Darcy swallowed. She’d rather hear more about Bridger and Avalyn. Would she and Nick someday tell their children ‘their story’? The soft glance Nick gave her made her heart thud out of control. Those deep-brown eyes seemed somehow vulnerable and fully invested in her.

She whipped to face Bridger, Mercedes, and Shawn. She and Nick wouldn’t have a story to tell their children someday. She had seventy-six children to care for currently. They were her purpose, and she couldn’t be distracted by the first handsome guy she interacted with.

Bridger smiled knowingly, as if he could see something she couldn’t. “Welcome to episode six of A Chance for Charity, ‘Impossible Thrills.’”

Bridger acted like the impossible challenges would be thrilling. Darcy thought they’d only be impossible and possibly end in her death.

A warm hand brushed against hers. She glanced up into the soulful and mesmerizing eyes of Lieutenant Nicholas Jacobs. He smiled softly and whispered, “Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe and we’ll win any challenge they throw at us.”

Darcy wanted to trust him and found herself inching closer. She should run off the dock instead. She didn’t even know this man.

She thought about what she did know. He worked for the illustrious Captain Aiden Porter, a legend all his own. Nick was a former Marine, which was singularly impressive. He’d dived in to rescue her for which she was grateful.

She fingered her locket. How could she not trust a man with eyes like Will Turner’s?

Because she couldn’t trust any man.

Chapter

Two

Nicholas Jacobs was captivated by the beautiful woman he’d instinctively dived into the ocean for, but it had clicked instantly who she was and he could hardly believe this awful coincidence.

Darcy Saint was the ex-wife of Johnathon Trattori—drug dealer, murderer, and one of Nick’s ‘pro-bono’ projects of the past two years. Nick’s boss and hero, Aiden Porter, supported him in his quest to take down criminals like Trattori, even if there wasn’t a financial reward in it for their company.

Nick had wasted far too much time researching, profiling, and tracking the scum-ball and still couldn’t give Interpol or the FBI proof and put Trattori and his drug ring out of commission. The man was slippery, but Nick would finish him. Nick took down drug dealers as his personal quest, knowing his birth mother had overdosed not long after she deserted him in a snowstorm.

Darcy Saint was going to be his partner for this reality television show. It was surreal. Some of his associates and government contacts believed she was innocent and clueless about what her husband did under the guise of Trattori International. Nick had also heard her labeled ‘Trattori’s traitorous ex’ from those who believed she knew the truth and was part of it, the sweet, innocent beauty all a ploy that Trattori had loved to use to his advantage.

How could the wife of a criminal like Trattori not have filth on her own hands? She’d gotten away from Trattori after they divorced and had moved to Mexico, but she should have gone to the authorities and shared any inside information she had. Unless she truly was clueless about her ex’s criminal activity.

Who knew? Nick would have to be very careful not to let his guard down around her. Loose lips did indeed sink ships.

Could he get the break he’d been searching for on the Trattori case from being close to the angelic ex-wife this week? That felt a little slimy to him, especially as he was inextricably drawn to her ethereal beauty, big blue eyes, and charitable purpose.

It was unnerving that her charity’s purpose was to provide a home, food, nurturing, and love for deserted infants and toddlers. A cause very relatable to him.

The story his adoptive parents had cautiously revealed to him when he was old enough to repeatedly ask why everybody in his family but him had red hair and blue eyes, was that he’d been left next to their back door in a snowstorm as a newborn. That Papa Pete had taken the garbage out was divine intervention in all of their minds. Papa Pete was a great man but not very observant. He’d never noticed an overflowing garbage can before or after that day.

Nick loved his Papa Pete and Mama Marie and each of his seven older siblings. His adoptive parents had been stretched thin financially and timewise, but they’d showered love and emotional support on all of them. His birth mother had left a note revealing she had no family and no hope of caring for her baby. Papa and Mama had gone through the proper channels to adopt him, claiming from that first moment he was their son and it was ‘love at first sight’ at least Mama said that all the time. The police had informed them a few weeks later that Nick’s birth mother had overdosed.

The only thing he had of his birth mother’s was a gold medallion with a coat of arms and the name Corsini inscribed on it. Mama had helped him research and they’d learned that Corsini was a princely family from Florence, but they didn’t find any living relatives. Nick wore the medallion to remind him of his passion—the fight against drugs. Which brought him back to needing to take down scum like Trattori.

The connection to what he’d lived through and what Darcy was doing to help deserted little ones had his neck tingling. Had Mercedes known about his adoption story? He didn’t know how she could’ve. Mama and Papa had kept it quiet, always insisting he was their son. He adored them.

The exquisitely beautiful and possibly dangerous Darcy Saint had his entire body tingling. From all outside appearances, she was as angelic as she was gorgeous. What was she like on the inside? Innocent and duped by Johnny Trattori as most reports claimed, or using the orphaned children as a cover after she took her ex’s money then tried to distance herself from Trattori and not go down with him?

Trattori’s ex should not be appealing to Nick. He had instinctively dived in the water to save her, but every look, every brief touch had not only been intriguing but felt substantial, real, exhilarating.

Nick didn’t experience real or substantial with women. He flirted and dated. Never anything serious. Women seemed drawn to him, but Mama was always worrying about his ‘trust issues.’ She was right to worry. He didn’t need any woman getting too close and wanting to delve into his psyche or cure him. He was busy with his career in security, working long hours with Aiden and doing his part to right the wrongs in the world. He didn’t have time for a serious relationship while working night and day to be almost as good as Aiden fighting with or without weapons and deploying on assignments.

Aiden would never settle down and marry. He’d confided in Nick that it wasn’t fair to the woman he would marry to never be there for her, or to him to lose his focus on his goals to protect, help, and rid the world of filth.

Yet Aiden had assigned Nick to watch over the beautiful Chalisa Anderson last weekend and Nick had been blindsided, overwhelmed, and beaten by five thugs who called a drug lord their boss. He still had some bruises and scrapes to show for it.

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