Page 6 of Exhale
The thought came way too late.
Ace spun away from him and, with one power move, broke Reed’s nose with a punch that sent the asshole to the dirt.
Shouting and chaos occurred, along with everyone pulling their weapons and aiming them at him and Ace.
It took the mayor and the chief of police to restore normalcy.
And in the aftermath of it all, Reed held a hand to his bleeding nose and stared at him.
Owen gave Reed a smirking smile. One that silently said…
Don’t fuck with us.
The house before Jordan in the quiet neighborhood looked as it always had…
Peaceful.
The trip to the sprawling brownstone from the Nightfall Drifter’s ranch had been a few hours, so Jordan took the time to stretch his legs when he slid from behind the wheel of his borrowed SUV.
The front door opened, and Marsha Richardson stepped out onto the porch, waving like crazy. Her smile was so big that Jordan couldn’t help but smile back.
“Jordan!” Zoey, Marsha’s teenage daughter, darted around her mother and charged down the stairs.
When Zoey threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, Jordan squeezed her tight.
“I was wondering when you’d get here!” Zoey said happily, putting him at arm’s length.
“Let him come inside,” Tom Richardson said from his spot next to Marsha on the porch.
The couple had been married for thirty-three years and had lived in the same home for almost as long. It was evident by the homey clutter and feel when he stepped inside.
Every time he came here, Jordan felt comfortable, like putting on a favorite sweater. The place smelled amazing, like baked apple pie and brownies. Marsha was a baker, and because she had known he was coming, she had gone to town on desserts.
Photographs of their three children, in various stages of growing up, hung on the walls and littered every available space on the living room wall unit and adjacent shelves.
Zoey linked her arm with his and drew him into the kitchen. She was the youngest at nineteen, followed by Scott at twenty-four, and then Cindi coming in as the oldest at twenty-six.
Jordan was close to them all and was sorry to hear that Scott and Cindi couldn’t make it for his visit.
Jordan had met them all by accident one blistering hot summer in Morristown, Arizona.
It had happened out of the blue when he had taken a job three years ago. He had just finished up his part at the local cybercrimes division. They had needed his help with catching a perp wanted in connection with money laundering.
Heading out after the job was done, he was starving, so he stopped at an all-night diner in Phoenix, Arizona, on his way out of town.
It was there that he noticed a sixteen-year-old Zoey, at the time, looking pale and scared out of her wits. She was sitting in a booth with two unkempt men, and something about the whole thing struck him as odd.
So, Jordan waited.
He finished his burger and fries and ordered coffee.
One of the men reached over and pulled the ball cap the girl wore down over her forehead in a ploy Jordan was sure was designed to hide her face.
Zoey lifted her head and glared at the guy. The bright black and blue bruise surrounding her eye and covering her cheek was clearly visible.
Jordan stayed where he was at the counter and waited. But he knew what those bruises meant. Even if the young girl was related to the two men—and he didn’t think she was—those marks spoke of abuse. And he was going to do anything and everything in his power to help her.
So, he did.
