

**Steel Glances**

Rory Chambers

Copyright Porterlance Books 2013

Published by Porterlance Books at Smashwords
All rights reserved. Except for the use in review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to the actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Other Books by Rory Chambers:

Dangerous Reunion (Book 1: Class of '92 Series)  
Surviving Las Vegas (Book 2: Class of '92 Series)  
Secret Obsessions (Book 3: Class of '92 Series)  
Class of '92 Series (All 3 Books)  
Steel Glances (Book 1: Rocky Mountain Novella Series)  
Identity Crisis (Book 2: Rocky Mountain Novella Series)  
Legally Comatose (Book 3: Rocky Mountain Novella Series)  
Mountain Novella Series (All 3 Books)

## www.PorterlanceBooks.com  
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# Steel Glances

# Rory Chambers

# Chapter 1

Although it was a beautiful autumn day, it felt more like spring as Kristen Casey walked down the sidewalk. The only real difference was that the trees had shed their normal shades of green for more bold and brilliant ambers, oranges and reds.

Kristen passed an elderly couple who gave her a sympathetic smile, which she politely returned. It was odd that a place so beautifully landscaped couldn't be more appreciated by its visitors.

The lawn had all been freshly mowed and the scent of fresh-cut grass was in the air. Kristen found herself transported briefly back in time to when she was in elementary school. She would walk from her father's house everyday to school. For a short-cut, she would cut through an apartment complex where at least twice a week, they were cutting their grass. The smell, to her, meant that spring had arrived. Towards the end of the school year, she would always be so restless because all she wanted to do was be outside, where she could enjoy all that nature offered her. She'd give anything to be that naïve, playfully restless girl once more.

But, she wasn't a little girl anymore. She was twenty-eight, and had learned the hard way that life wasn't just full of sunshine and rainbows. And nothing demonstrated that better than where she was right now. Even though she was surrounded by sunshine, a bright blue sky, freshly mowed lawn and well manicured topiaries, she was also surrounded by pain and sorrow. Kristen looked around. She had a habit of reading the names and messages on the carved pieces of stone. She could only imagine how many lives were affected by all of the names before her.

"I'm here, Dad," she said as she placed the flowers she had been carrying next to her recently deceased father's headstone. It read:

THOMAS J. CASEY  
BELOVED HUSBAND AND FATHER  
BORN MAY 25TH, 1958  
DIED AUGUST 10TH, 2013

For a little while, Kristen just stood there. She was trying to feel her father's presence. She concentrated with her eyes closed to see if maybe she could notice a shift in the wind or anything that would tell her that he was there and aware of her visit. As much as she wanted to find something to grab a hold of, she noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

As she got ready to speak, tears began to form. She wiped them away, wondering why she was crying. It wasn't as if she had never experienced death before. She could barely remember a time in her life where she hadn't mourned over the loss of a loved one. But, this was different. This was her father. And, she knew why she was crying. It was because she loved him. He had been there through everything for her. He had worked hard to help her whenever she needed him. He put her through college and helped her through her divorce. Every memory she had involved him somehow. He was her rock, and now he was gone.

"Daddy," she began after scrubbing the tears out from under her eyelids and off her face. "How are you?" she asked before laughing. He was dead...that's how he was. It was a habit, though. Since he had gotten older, she always asked him how he was doing when they talked on the phone or met for lunch. She had been worried about him...mostly about him being lonely.

Since he retired, she constantly urged him to get out more. "You should join a club or something," she would suggest, but he would always complain that he was too old and too tired to meet new people. "Well, you can't just spend the rest of your life in the house...cutting yourself off from everyone and everything."

"I'm here, out and about, at lunch with the only person that matters, aren't I?" he would answer with a twinkle in his eye that would make Kristen laugh.

There were so many memories, but she would trade all of them just to have her father back again. "I miss you," she whispered, no longer caring if the tears flooded down her face.

She never considered herself to be a crier. In fact, she was often told by the men she dated that she was too strong and independent...almost unfeeling. They never understood that she was just trying to protect herself, but that was fine with her. She didn't need them...any of them. She wouldn't settle for any man that would try to change her. If there was one thing her father always taught her, it was that she should always be true to herself. "Never be ashamed of who you are, honey," he told her as she and her husband split up.

She and Kyle should never have gotten married, anyway. They were just out of high school and thought they were madly in love with one another. In truth, neither really knew a thing about the world, or how hard it was to be in it...away from the nest and all the protection being a minor living at home brought with it.

It didn't take Kyle long to cave under the pressure of working to support a family. He would come home in a bad mood and they would fight, constantly. After a year of trying to make it work, Kristen decided that it wasn't the right life for her and filed for divorce. In spite of his behavior during the marriage, Kyle was hurt and accused her of seeing someone else. By the time the divorce was final; the two people that had once been best friends and so madly in love were no longer spoke to one another. And, it was her dad that was there for her. That gave her the strength to make the hard call. That gave her the strength to be true to herself.

There were so many things she had wished she had gotten the chance to say to him before he died. She had never even thanked him for making her the person that she was. Although it wasn't the same, she wanted to tell him now.

"Dad, you raised me from a little girl into the woman I am now, and I never even thanked you for that. I know I wasn't the most cooperative girl in the world," she began. As a teenager, Kristen wasn't always the easiest to get along with. For a while, she resented her father's intrusions when it came to boys she liked. He was never the dominating, overbearing type, but did want to know what was going on with his little girl. But, she didn't see it that way. She saw it as an invasion of her privacy. A privacy that she held onto dearly. More than a few arguments were started just because he asked her if she were going to a dance with anyone, or got a valentine from a boy. At the time, she felt justified. It never occurred to her at that time that he could ever die and she would feel guilty and ashamed of her behavior. But, he did die, and she did feel ashamed. She knew he had never held her typical teenage behavior against her, but she still felt the need to apologize. Better late than never.

Kristen thanked her father for being such a good Dad and told him how much he had always meant to her. She was only sorry she wasn't able to get him and her mom buried next to one another.

Kristen's father knew he would never be buried next to his late wife. She had passed away many years ago, at a time where he wasn't able to purchase the plot next to hers. He was just out of college and still struggling to pay back loans and make a life for his family. Although Kristen's mom, Sara, worked, she did so as a pre-school teacher. It didn't pay much, but she loved what she did and that's all that mattered to Thomas. When she died, though, there was only enough money to give her the burial she deserved. Over the years, he had saved money, always intending to buy the plot next to Sara's but by the time he had saved enough, it was gone. There were people already buried on both sides of his wife.

The one time Kristen and her father discussed it, he was adamant that he didn't want his wife and Kristen's mother moved. "I would love to rest beside her until the end of time," he explained, "but that's just me being selfish. She's at rest and should stay where she is. Besides, I'll be with her in Heaven."Kristen tried to focus on that...her mother and father, together in Heaven. She imagined they were together, in each other's arms, smiling down on her and for a split second she didn't feel so alone.

She had spent the better part of two hours talking to her father. Even though she knew her fiancé, Adam, would be coming over for dinner, she couldn't tear herself away from the cemetery. Somehow, to her, leaving meant that she was saying goodbye. That was something she hadn't been able to bring herself to do...not at the funeral and not now.

As if nature and her father were in collaboration to help Kristen with the healing process, the skies that had been so blue with barely even a fluffy cloud in sight when she arrived were now dark and grey. Without any warning, a loud crack of thunder bellowed as the Heavens opened up and released a torrential downpour.

Still reluctant to leave, Kristen gasped as the sound of the thunder scared her. "I love you, Daddy!" she yelled to be heard over the storm and then ran for the sidewalk. It was only the third time she had been to the cemetery and with the heavy rains, she could barely see. She only hoped she was going the right direction.

By the time she made it to the parking lot, Kristen's baby blue silk blouse was clinging to her chest. It and the suit she was wearing were both ruined. She stood under a tree for cover so she could get her key fob out and unlock the door to her car, but the tree provided little cover. The wind was blowing the rain at an angle and Kristen couldn't see anything. As she fished around in her purse, she could tell it was quickly filling with water.

Kristen felt almost overjoyed as she clicked the button and saw her car's headlight flash, signaling that the doors were now unlocked. She made a mad dash for the car and got inside in record time. She didn't care that her clothes were dripping wet and probably ruining her car seats. She was just thankful that she was out of the storm.

"Come on, come on," she said as she urged the car's heater to warm her up. She had been listening to a jazz station while driving to the cemetery, and as she started the car, one of her father's favorite songs was playing. It was probably just a coincidence, but she decided to see it as a sign. A sign that her dad was with her and still looking out over her.

Kristen sat in the car, singing softly along to the old standard that was playing on the radio and remembered how her father used the very same song when he first taught her how to slow dance.

He had moved all of the living room furniture in their large, Victorian home out of the way to provide them with a spacious dance floor. "I can't do this," a young and embarrassed Kristen laughed as her father first instructed her on where to place her hands.

"Yes, you can," her father urged. "Just look me in the eyes."

After stepping repeatedly on her father's feet, Kristen finally got the hang of it. As she listened to the melody coming from her car's speakers, she could almost feel her father's hand in hers, twirling her around on their scuffed living room floor.

The song ended and the heavy rain began to slow. When it was safe to get on the roads, Kristen glanced once more at the cemetery and promised her father that she'd be back soon to visit him again.

# Chapter 2

As Kristen pulled onto the highway, she could tell it would take much longer than her normal twenty minutes to get home. She checked the time on the dash and hoped she would still be able to make it home before Adam arrived. She would need time to get out of her soaking wet clothes and once again make herself look presentable.

With the rain and the traffic, not to mention the visit she had just had with her father at the cemetery, Kristen couldn't help but be reminded of the last time she saw her father alive.

They had been having a weekly lunch together ever since she moved back to town after graduating from the University of South Alabama. During the five years she was away at school, she only got to come home a handful of times. Once she returned back to Colorado, Kristen wanted to bridge the gap that being so far away for so long had created. Sure, they talked all the time, but she wanted them to see each other, face to face.

She could remember the first time they had met at Daphne's Café for lunch. She hadn't seen her father in over a year and she took a cab straight from the airport to the café. Their plan was to have lunch, after which, her father would take her home before returning back to work. "My baby girl," Thomas said as he walked through the restaurant to his daughter's table.

"Daddy," Kristen greeted her father as she stood and waited to embrace him. She didn't say it, but she thought he had aged so much in what felt to her like such a short amount of time.

Even though they lived together for the next year, they still kept up their tradition of going to Daphne's Café for lunch every Saturday.

The Saturday of her father's death, Kristen had some errands to do near her father's house so she told him that she'd pick him up. "So, you're going to be my chauffeur?" Thomas teased from the other end of the phone.

"Don't go getting spoiled, Daddy. It'll just be this once," Kristen teased back.

That afternoon, after she finished shopping at the mall for a tasteful cocktail dress, she made her way to her father's house. As usual, he wasn't ready. It was surprising that Kristen was so punctual, because her father was always getting lost in one project or another. So lost that he would shut out the rest of the world and time would just seem to stand still for him. Kristen never recalled making a conscious choice to always make sure she was on time, but it was probably something deep in her subconscious that was determined to be just the opposite of her father when it came to punctuality.

Noticing the dark clouds that were rolling in, Kristen reminded her dad to wear a hat. "And, if you have an umbrella, you should bring that as well," she shouted from the kitchen as she checked the fridge and pantry to make sure her dad was eating right.

"You know I've never owned an umbrella," he father replied before entering the kitchen and telling her to get out of his pantry.

It was true. Kristen never could remember her father using an umbrella, or gloves, or even sunglasses. He always said, "If you don't have it, you should be able to live without it." At the time, the saying seemed like a bunch of nonsense to Kristen, but that afternoon her father finally explained it to her. All he meant was that it was better for a person to be okay without having certain conveniences rather than be inconvenienced because they didn't.

As always, Thomas ordered the half sandwich and soup combo, opting for the club sandwich with tomato soup and his daughter ordered a strawberry chicken salad.

"You're going to fade away if you keep eating nothing but that rabbit food," Thomas said, but his daughter knew he was just teasing her. Kristen was thin, but she knew she could still stand to lose a pound or five. As gruff as his voice sounded, Thomas Casey was a man without a mean bone in his body.

Rather than sit outside on the deck, Kristen and her father sat inside, catching up on each other's weeks as they listened to the crackling of thunder. Their lunches normally lasted longer, but with the storm coming in, Kristen figured they had better cut their visit short. As always, Thomas insisted on paying for his daughter's salad, and as always, she snuck twenty dollars into his coat pocket as she reached to retrieve it from the hook beside the exit door.

"Wait here, Daddy, while I pull the car up," Kristen told her father. And, though he tried to argue, she insisted he stay on the sidewalk out of the rain.

Coming back to the present, Kristen found herself on the exact same mile long stretch of highway where she lost her father that day.

They were driving back to her father's house when they saw a bright flash of light in the rear-view mirror. Kristen thought it was lightning, and counted slowly to see how long it would be before the corresponding thunder would sound. She had no idea if there was any truth to it, but her father had told her as a young girl that however many seconds it took after lightning before you heard the thunder, that's how many miles away the lightning struck.

Kristen barely reached two before she heard the loud boom. But, it wasn't thunder. At first, she didn't know what it was. Before she could even think about it, the car was jolted forward and her head was thrown into the steering wheel.

As she lifted her head, Kristen felt groggy. Had she just been in a car wreck, she wondered? Around her, she heard sirens and saw red flashing lights. It hurt to lift her head, but she managed. "Dad, are you....," she began before stopping mid-sentence. She had lifted her hand and it was covered in blood, but she didn't feel a cut on her hand. She looked in the mirror to see if her head was bleeding, but it wasn't. It was protected during the by the airbag. It was then that she turned around and saw her father. She wanted to scream, but no sounds would come out. Her father sat motionless as blood ran down his face.

"Ma'am? Are you alright?" Kristen heard as her car door was opened. She was in shock. Inside she was yelling at the voice to check on her father. No words actually escaped her mouth though.

She saw the passenger door open as someone was carrying her from the car. Finally, she found the voice within her. "Help my Dad," she screamed frantically. "Help him!"

What happened next, Kristen only heard about from the police reports and doctors. She was told that she passed out in the ambulance due to shock.

"Where's my father?" she asked anyone that walked by her room when she returned to consciousness, but they all just walked by as if they hadn't heard a thing. It wasn't until her doctor came in to check on her that she received any answers.

That was the moment she would remember for all of time. The moment she would be told that her father was dead.

As Kristen sat in traffic remembering that awful day from weeks earlier, a car horn honked snapping her back to reality. She released her foot from the brake and chastised herself for not paying attention. Even though the police told her there was nothing she could do to avoid the accident, she still wondered if maybe she could have been paying closer attention that day.

It was then that Adam and Kristen grew closer. Up until that point, they had gone out on a few dates, but Kristen kept herself distanced. She had never allowed herself to get close to another man since her divorce. Kristen still hadn't even introduced Adam to her father, which she regretted, because now she never would have the chance.

After the wreck, Adam was all Kristen had, though. He was there to help her deal with the pain of losing the only family she had left. He kept her strong when she thought it was impossible. It was probably because of the loyalty and strength he showed during that time that Kristen accepted his proposal just a few weeks later. Kristen was instantly without any family but told herself that Adam could be her new family. And, so she said, "Yes," when he asked her to marry him.

# Chapter 3

Kristen looked at the clock again as she exited the highway. She was already fifteen minutes late for her date with Adam and still needed to get out of her wet clothes, and fix her hair and make-up. She wasn't normally a very vain person, but Adam came from money and was used to things being a certain way. He never stepped foot in public without looking tidy and put together. Never was a hair even out of place. And, if Kristen was going to be with him, she had to be always be just as put together. She had to laugh as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her hair was all matted down and her mascara was running. She thought she resembled Heath Ledger as _the Joker_.

As she approached her house, she was relieved to see that Adam had yet to show up. The downside to him having to always look perfect was that he very often arrived places late. In that way, he reminder Kristen a bit of her father. Still, punctuality was one of her pet peeves. This time, it worked in her favor, though.

The rain was barely a drizzle as Kristen locked her car and then ran up the front steps of her house. Within seconds, she was inside. Since her purse was still dripping water, she tossed it into the kitchen sink rather than placing it on the table in the entryway where she usually kept it.

She didn't know when Adam would arrive, so she flung her shoes off as she headed to her bedroom. Along the way, she undressed, leaving a trail of wet clothes scattered across the hardwood floors from the kitchen to the master bathroom. It would only take a minute to pick them up. Kristen's main priority was getting into the shower quickly.

At that same time, Adam was just looking himself over in the mirror. When he was sure that he looked amazing, he grabbed a sports coat and headed out the door. Even though he wasn't after Kristen because of her looks, she was a very beautiful woman and that was hard for him to resist. Although he knew he was running late, he wasn't very concerned with time. Still, to be polite, he decided to call Kristen and let her know when he would be there.

The pulsating streams of steaming, scalding hot water felt good against Kristen's chilled skin. If she had more time, she knew she could've spent hours enjoying the shower. But, she was on a deadline, so she grabbed an all in one shampoo and conditioner and applied a healthy portion to her hair. As it set, she took to washing her body, making sure to scrub her face extra hard to make sure all of the make-up was removed.

After rinsing out her hair, Kristen turned off the hot water and began drying off inside of the shower. Not that anyone would know from looking at her house at the moment, but she hated trailing water behind her when she got out of the tub or shower. So, instead, she always dried off inside the shower before exiting.

Once her hair was wrapped tightly in the towel to dry, Kristen began re-applying her makeup, taking the time to make sure it was perfect. If it wasn't, Adam would notice. It was then that she noticed she had a voicemail on her phone. It was from Adam. "Hey. I'm running late but I should be there by seven thirty," he said. It was a short and concise message. That was typical of Adam. He wasn't really a man of very many words. Kristen checked the time on her phone to see how much time that gave her. Only ten minutes!

Luckily for her, she had short hair that she normally just blow-dried and applied a little styling gel to. It only took about five minutes to get her hair fixed, which left her five minutes to get dressed.

Kristen looked through her closet trying to find anything that would be dressy but also comfortable, but nothing seemed to stand out. Finally, she decided on a simple blue dress with a white belt. It brought out the blue in her blue-green eyes.

As she ran through the house, gathering her wet clothes and shoes, she saw the light from Adam's car's headlights move across the entryway wall. She had made it, just in time.

"Sorry, I'm late," Adam said as Kristen welcomed him inside with a kiss on his cheek. It was probably the reserved part of her that always kept everyone at a distance, but Kristen didn't like PDA. Kissing, to her, was something to do when you felt romantic. It wasn't something she did often or light-heartedly.

The kiss on the cheek didn't go unnoticed by Adam. He would never admit it, but he was somewhat hurt. He planned on getting a kiss and possibly more, though, before the end of the night. So, rather than let it bring him down, he just smiled and hung his jacket up.

"That's alright," Kristen answered, a little confused as she watched Adam hang up his sports coat. "I just got home myself." She planned on telling him the whole story over dinner and a glass of wine, but Adam had other plans.

"I thought we could just stay in and have a cozy time here," Adam suggested after Kristen asked if she should get her purse.

"So, you don't want to go out at all?" she asked, unsure of what to make of it. Something in her told her to be suspicious of Adam's motives. While he had always been a nice guy, just somewhat egotistical and impatient, he always wanted to move faster in some areas of their relationship than she was comfortable with.

"We can just stay in...get cozy on the couch, maybe enjoy some wine," Adam explained. Kristen agreed, even though she was looking forward to a nice dinner, even if she did normally end up picking up the tab. With the visit to her father, and being stuck in traffic, she hadn't eaten dinner yet and was starving.

After Kristen opened and poured a nice bottle of wine into two glasses, she returned to the kitchen to see if she had anything to eat that she could serve with the wine. She didn't need to be drinking on an empty stomach. She didn't want to get talked into doing something that she would regret.

Some would call her old fashioned, but Kristen didn't want to have sex with Adam or anyone else until she was married. She had made that mistake before and it didn't end well. She wanted to make sure that when she got married, it was for true love and not for the manufactured love two people can feel when they engage in sex. Adam didn't really understand or agree with Kristen's views on the subject and she could tell he was frustrated.

While Kristen was in the kitchen, Adam removed his shoes and started the gas fireplace before he started sipping his wine. It was an abysmal year, but even bad wine was wine. He would ask Kristen if she had something a bit stronger when she returned.

"I found some cheese and crackers," Kristen announced as she brought the tray into the living room where Adam waited on the couch. His tie was loosened and his shoes were off and sitting by the fireplace. She saw that he had already consumed half of his glass of wine and was already refilling it as she joined him on the couch.

Kristen thought she saw a sour look on Adam's face as he looked at her tray of appetizers, but if he disapproved of the food, he kept it to himself. She did her best to make the cheese and crackers look classy, but for someone with money it probably resembled something from a table setup at the grocery store to give out free samples.

"You won't believe the day I've had," Kristen began but was cut off my Adam.

"Can that wait, babe?" he asked as he moved closer and began to kiss her neck. The wine might have been cheap, but it definitely put him in the mood. "I've missed you so much." Kristen could feel his hands moving up her leg and under the hem of her dress.

Instinctively, she stopped him by placing her hands on his. "We've talked about this," she said, surprised that they would have to have the same talk once again.

"We won't have sex, I promise. I just want to make out a little bit." He would say anything he had to, to seal the deal. She had heard that before from him, though, and he always tried to go farther and farther, as if he expected her to change her mind in the heat of passion. She wasn't going to be talked into anything she wasn't ready for.

"I think you should go," Kristen said, surprising both herself and Adam. She stood up and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Are you serious? You've got to be kidding me," Adam asked as he remained sitting on the couch with a confused smile on his face. He knew she wasn't joking but thought that maybe if he was cute enough, she wouldn't be able to resist him. However, when Kristen didn't answer or change her stance, his smile quickly faded. Without a word, he stood up, slipped his shoes back on, adjusted his tie and walked out the front door. His face remained emotionless, but he was fuming on the inside.

Kristen locked the door behind him. She didn't know where things stood, or if she even cared at the moment. She just knew that she had a very emotionally exhausting day and wanted to be alone. If Adam really loved her, he would understand and not hold it against her. And, if he didn't, well then, he wasn't the right man for her anyways.

As she lay in bed watching TV, Kristen half expected a call from Adam once he had cooled off, but her phone didn't ring. A part of her thought that maybe she should call him and apologize for over-reacting, but she was too stubborn for that. "Maybe tomorrow," she told herself.

# Chapter 4

Kristen managed to get a good night's sleep in spite of her fight with Adam. She woke refreshed and energized which was exactly what she needed for a day that would likely be just as emotionally draining as visiting her father at the cemetery.

She wasn't looking forward to the task at hand. She hadn't been inside her father's house since he passed away and she knew that going there now would be very painful. Still, his things needed to be packed up.

As soon as Kristen entered her father's neighborhood, she became flooded with memories. Until she had moved halfway across the country for college, Kristen had lived her entire life in that neighborhood...that house. She had learned how to ride her first two-wheeler on the street right in front of her father's house. She remembered how scared she was when her father suggested they remove her training wheels.

"I'll be right beside you," her father promised. And, at first, he did run alongside her, ready to catch her if she began to wobble or fall. As the five-year old Kristen gained confidence, though, she started pedaling faster making it hard for her father to keep up. She remembered looking back and seeing him bent over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath...but displaying a proud smile. His smile quickly changed to a look of concern as she crashed the bike into a hedge from Ms. Calputo's yard. It took her father almost three weeks to convince Kristen to try riding the bike again, but she eventually did and mastered it, like everything she attempted.

As she turned to pull into the driveway, Kristen couldn't help glancing at Ms. Calputo's house. Though she had long ago passed away, the yard still contained the hedge that softened Kristen's crash that day so many years earlier.

Kristen put the car in park and shut off the engine, but remained seated. She needed a few minutes to get the nerve up enough to go inside. After what felt like forever, but in reality was probably just a few minutes, Kristen grabbed her purse and headed up the walkway.

"Not again!" Kristen cursed under her breath as she put the key in the lock and attempted to turn it. She had been telling her father for years to replace the lock, but he never seemed as bothered by it as she was. When she couldn't manage to get the door unlocked, Kristen decided to get in the house the same way she did when she was a teenager, sneaking home after curfew.

Thinking back on it now, she figured her father had to have known that she used to climb in and even out of the dining room window. The latch hadn't worked for as long as she could remember, so she was always able to get in and out easily. And, since her father always seemed wrapped up in something in his office, he rarely checked to make sure she was home in time.

Kristen even went so far as to keep a set of pajamas hidden in the china cabinet so she could change into them as soon as she got home. That way, if she was heading up the worn and creaking stairs, she could turn around and pretend as though she had just come downstairs to check on her father. The next day, she would just retrieve her shoes and clothes from the china cabinet and replace them with a clean pair of pajamas.

As she tried to lift herself up into the window, she found it wasn't as easy as she remembered from the past. Kristen finally managed to get the first half of her body in the window, but with her rear still sticking out she heard a voice.

"Can I help you?" a man asked. Even without being able to turn around and see who it was, Kristen knew the voice was speaking to her.

"My key didn't work," Kristen explained. If she hadn't have been in such a compromising position, she would've told the man to mind his own business. Reluctantly, she asked him instead to give her a push.

Andrew Steel was Thomas' neighbor. He didn't know who the woman was that was entering his neighbor's house through a window, but he certainly planned on finding out. "Before I give you a hand," Steel began to ask with a smirk as he stared at the woman's firm rear end hanging out of the window, "can you tell me who you are?"

Kristen was livid. She was not at all the type of woman who ever answered to a man, certainly not one she didn't even know. And, to make it worse, her stomach hurt as it pressed uncomfortably on the window sill. She wasn't able to get in on her own though, so after weighing her options, she decided it was easier to just play along and answer.

"My father lived here. I'm here to pack up his things," she said loudly, to make sure he heard her. Without comment from the man, Kristen felt his strong hands on her ass. Her cheeks reddened, but she managed to get the rest of the way in the house. She promptly turned around ready to give the man a piece of her mind. "How dare you...," she began with fire in her eyes, but the man cut her off.

"You asked for a hand," he replied smartly. "How else do you suppose I helped you get inside?"

Kristen stared at the man. He seemed to be somewhere around her same age...maybe a couple of years older. He had short dark hair, styled in a timeless, classic style and a nose that seemed to have been broken...probably more than once. As she held his gaze, she noticed he also has piercing green eyes. They seemed to bore right into her. She wouldn't look away, though.

Seeing that the man wasn't intimidated, Kristen decided to just get on with her task. "That'll be all," she said, as though she was dismissing the help.

Steel held his position. There was something about the woman that intrigued him. She was hard and rude, but he could also see a softness in her no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Even though he didn't think she was lying about why she was breaking in, he wanted more time with her. "Do you really think I'm going to just take your word that your father lived here? Do you have any proof?"

He had heard about her father's death and didn't mean to cause her any pain. He just wanted a chance to introduce himself and maybe get to know her name as well.

Kristen stood speechless. "Who was this man that was demanding to know who I am?" she wondered. "I don't owe you any explanations!" Kristen answered and then closed the window behind her.

"Okay. I'll just call the cops!" Steel yelled through the window before turning to walk away. A smile spread across his face as he counted to three in his head.

"Wait!" he heard the woman yell as she opened the front door. "Here is a picture of me with my father...are you happy now?"

Steel pretended to examine the picture closely, holding it up and comparing it to the woman in front of him. "Well, there are some similarities," he conceded.

"It's me!" Kristen yelled. She was getting madder by the minute.

"And your name is....?"

Kristen wondered what she had to do to get the man to leave her alone. "My name is Kristen Casey," she said without smiling or adding even the hint of a friendly tone to her voice.

Steel smiled as he reached for her hand. "It's very nice to meet you, Kristen. My name is Andrew Steel, but you can call me Steel." Before letting Kristen have her hand back, he brought it to his lips and places a light kiss on it.

Kristen immediately yanked her hand back. She wasn't sure if was out of revulsion or because of the tingle she had felt. Without saying anything, Kristen walked inside and closed the door behind her, leaving the Steel standing alone on the porch.

Though Steel wasn't used to having women react that way to his charm, he wasn't offended. He just saw Kristen as a challenge...one that he would enjoy.

# Chapter 5

Kristen stood against the back of the door, hoping the infuriating man she had just met would walk away. She held her breath and listened. She never heard him walk away, but he didn't knock on the door or say anything either. After a few minutes, when she assumed the coast was clear, Kristen focused her mind back on the task at hand.

As she walked slowly through the house, she became overwhelmed at everything her father had accumulated in his lifetime. She would normally never consider him a hoarder, but there was clutter everywhere. For the first time, she was having second thoughts about using a moving service. She didn't feel comfortable letting strangers handle and rifle through her father's belongings, though. His things were personal...parts of his life, of her life, and she needed to know they were packed and organized by someone that could respect what they stood for. And, she was the only one who fit the bill.

The only question was, where to start? She decided to tackle the easiest room on the main level first. Since her father didn't really cook, Kristen began in the kitchen. After going out to her car to retrieve the boxes and tape she had in her trunk, she set out to pack up all of the dishes. Lucky for her, her father kept months worth of newspapers on hand. She never understood why, but he hated throwing them away. She wrapped the plates carefully and then moved on to the bowls. Her father's dishes were about as old as she was. The pattern on them was seriously dated and Kristen had no idea what she would do with them. She just knew she couldn't bring herself to get rid of them. There were too many memories.

She stared at the bowl in her hand, remembering how she would eat out of one of them every single morning before school. Growing up, she must've eaten at least a thousand boxes of sugary cereal. The kind with cartoon characters on the boxes. And, then, during winters, she would use the same bowls to eat bowls of hot soup. With every bite, she would slurp the soup from the spoon.

As Kristen moved on to the pots and pans, she could recall the Christmas she had purchased them for her father. It was at least ten years ago, but some of the pans still looked brand new. She wondered how someone could live almost exclusively on take out. That's what her father liked, though. "Your mom was the one who loved to cook," he would say whenever Kristen would suggest he start making his own dinners. She wasn't sure if he was afraid to try something new, or just trying to preserve the memory of her mom. Either way, she eventually stopped prodding him. She still refused to let him eat a takeout Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, though.

Every year for each holiday, her father would come over to her house. He'd watch sports or a parade while she slaved away in the kitchen. Every year, her father would say the same thing as they began to eat, "How many people are you expecting? This food can feed an army!" And, every year, she would laugh as if it were a brand new joke. She did cook a lot, but that was mainly so that she could send leftovers home with her father. At least then she knew he'd be eating something home-cooked for the rest of the week.

After the dishes and pans were all packed, the only thing left was the food in the pantry. Most of it was non-perishable items that she would donate. She did take a few of the items home...things she could eat and remember her father.

She felt like she had been packing forever, but there was still so much to do. She decided that since she tackled the easiest room first, she should at least make a dent in the most cluttered room as well before calling it quits.

Her father's office. It was a large room that contained several bookcases and a desk. Although those were both piled high with books and papers, the biggest issue with the office was that there were also stacks and stacks of papers and folders covering almost every inch of the floor. Some of the stacks were piled as high as five or six feet. She realized that most of her father's work was done in an era before scanners and computers were used by the masses, but she still wondered how one man could accumulate so much. Not only that, but how he even kept track of what was what.

Kristen felt completely overwhelmed. Her legs started shaking and she was forced to sit. She collapsed in a chair and dropped her head into her hands and just wept.

"Daddy, I can't do this," she cried through her sobs. "It should've been me." She knew some of the tears were because she missed her father dearly, but she was also dealing with the guilt she felt.

She knew her father would chastise her for even thinking she was responsible, but Kristen knew that her father would still be alive if she hadn't picked him up that day. She was also the one who first suggested leaving lunch because of the storm. Had they just stayed at Daphne's Café and waited out the storm, things would be so different. That thought haunted her every minute since she woke up in the hospital.

She knew exactly what her father would say if her were still around. "Kristen, things have a way of working out how they are supposed to. If it was my time, I would've died...somehow, some way. If we had stayed at the café, I could have choked on my food. This is not your fault." Strangely, she could actually hear his voice inside of her head saying those words. Still, they did little to comfort her. It was a father's job to make his kids feel better.

She was wasting time, though. Realizing she was having a pity party, Kristen picked herself up, wiped the tears from her face and taped up a new box so she could fill it up. "Why did you keep so many papers?" she asked under her breath, as if her father could actually answer.

Kristen flipped through each set of papers before packing them. Most of them were just accounting papers that probably should've been in storage years ago, or at least in file cabinets. After a while, Kristen started to see a pattern in the stacks. They seemed to have been stacked in both alphabetical order as well as by year. Kristen stopped to grab a marker so she could label the box with the information.

As she started on her second stack, her phone rang. Looking at the Caller ID, she saw it was Adam. A part of her wanted to just let the phone go directly to voicemail. She was still mad at him for the night before. Not only that, but also because he didn't call earlier to apologize. By the time the phone rang for the sixth time, she reluctantly answered.

"Hello?" she said. Her voice was cold, but not mean.

"Hey, babe," Adam answered playfully. He could tell she was mad, but wasn't about to apologize. He knew it would make things easier, but saying he was sorry wasn't something he had a lot of practice at. "Are you still at your father's?"

Kristen couldn't believe that Adam was going to completely ignore what happened the night before. Maybe to him, it was no big deal. As much as she wanted to stay mad at him, his voice sounded so playful. It was one of the things she loved most about him. Plus, she needed to talk to someone if only so she didn't hold in all the stress she was feeling over packing up her father's stuff. "Yes, and I haven't even made a dent," she finally answered.

It was true. What Kristen hoped would only be a two-day project, she now realized was going to take a great deal longer. She wasn't even a tenth of the way done with the office yet and still had the living room and upstairs to do. She would let movers come in and move all of the furniture and packed boxes into storage until she could figure out what to do with everything, but first she had to pack the lifetime worth of belongings.

"Did you come across anything interesting," Adam asked, but Kristen told him that she really had only tackled the kitchen so far. "Well, my offer to help is still out there," he suggested.

"This is something I think I need to do by myself," Kristen answered. It was sweet of Adam to offer, and for him, that was as close to an apology as she would likely get. For her, though, she needed to do it herself...for closure. She was fortunate she had accumulated a decent amount of sick days at her financial management job because it would probably take all of them to get everything squared away.

After getting off the phone, Kristen decided to just call it a night and return bright and early the next morning.

# Chapter 6

Kristen barely got five hours of sleep before waking up. She knew it was going to be a long day and wanted to begin as soon as possible so that maybe she could get home before midnight, even if that meant sacrificing a little sleep. Her goal was to at least get the rest of her father's office and the remainder of the downstairs all packed up.

As her coffee was brewing, Kristen stumbled into the shower. She hoped that the combination of the hot water and the caffeine would knock her out of her zombie-like state.

After showering and then slowly sipping on a hot cup of black coffee with lots of cream and sugar, she was feeling more alert. The drive over to her father's was uneventful, and before she knew it, Kristen was back at the front door, struggling once again with the key.

"Please open up," she softly plead with the door's lock as she jiggled the key in the deadbolt. The last thing she wanted was to get caught a second time breaking into her father's house through the window. The neighbor would never let het live it down.

Andrew Steel started his morning off with a large cup of black coffee every morning. Since he had retired from serving on the police force to become an author, he enjoyed the freedom to just sit and relax.

Most mornings he would sit on his porch and watch the street and whatever was happening on it. Watching his neighbors gave him inspiration for characters and even plots he could use in his novels. When it got colder outside, however, he enjoyed his coffee from his dining room. He was still able to see the street fairly well from his window.

On this particular morning, he found himself watching his neighbor's daughter's arrival. She intrigued him. She had fire and spunk and he liked that. Steel couldn't help but smile as he watched Kristen fight with the lock for the second day in a row. He was curious to see if she'd once again revert to climbing into the house through the window. Had she been nicer to him, he would've offered to let her in through the back door with the spare key her father had given him after they had become friends.

Just as Kristen was about to give up, she heard a click and the lock turned. Relieved, she opened the door and returned to her car to fetch more boxes.

Steel watched in amusement as she struggled to bring the boxes inside the house. The morning was a windy one and a strong gust had caused Kristen to lose her grip on the stack of flattened, corrugated, cardboard boxes. One flew from her hands and then another. Steel snickered to himself as he watched Kristen chase the scattered cardboard around the yard. He considered helping her, but it was just too comical to watch. Besides, she would probably only resent his help. No, he would watch from a distance instead.

Kristen was exhausted before she even got started on the packing. Just getting the door open and the boxes inside was a feat of its own. By lunch, though, she managed to get the office looking better. She only had a few stacks of paper and the contents of the desk left.

With the office much less cluttered, it reminded her of how it looked when she was a kid. Even then, her father spent most of his time at his desk, so to not feel lonely as she played, Kristen would bring her toys into the office to play. Her father didn't mind her making forts from her blankets and sheets as long as she respected his work.

"Daddy?" she would ask. "Do you like my fort?" She knew her father never really looked, not because he didn't care but more because he was always just so entranced in his work. Little Kristen didn't mind. Either way, her father always praised her efforts. And, as she looked over her fort, complete with different rooms and areas for her and the many stuffed animals she brought down from her room, she was proud. She would play quietly inside the fort as her father worked. To her, it felt like she and her father went camping.

Even with his one tracked mind, Kristen could always convince her father to take a break for dinner. On nights where she had built a fort, they ate inside. Even if it was only an hour of her father's time, it was enough. She never felt ignored or unloved. She understood that he was just very passionate about his work.

As Kristen examined each set of documents before packing them, she noticed something strange. The accountant listed on the documents was Thomas Cadbury. She wasn't sure why her father would have someone else's papers, but assumed the matching first name was just a coincident.

Before she had time to give it anymore though, the doorbell rang. Kristen's legs tingled as she stood up and attempted to walk to the door. Her leg was asleep and the prickling needle-like feeling was intense. She tried to shake it off, but didn't want to look like an idiot when answering the door.

"Can I help y...," she started to say as she opened the door, but stopped when she saw that it was only her father's neighbor, Steel. Her mood changed instantly. "What do you want?" she asked, not even pretending to be pleasant.

"Well, thank you for that warm welcome," Steel teased. As he smiled, he could see how it irked Kristen. He had come over to make peace, though. Under normal circumstances, he would continue to enjoy the tension between them. But, the woman had just lost her father...his friend. It wasn't a normal feeling for him, but he felt guilty over giving her a hard time the day before. "I brought some lunch," he said as he held out a bag filled with several storage containers. "I hoped that maybe we could start over."

Kristen studied the man's face to see if he was genuine. She had trouble reading it, though. Maybe it was because she was lost in his handsome features. Catching herself, she snapped to attention and took the bag. Whether she liked the man or not, she couldn't deny that she was hungry. "Come in," she offered before she had time to change her mind.

"It's just some grilled lamb and a tzatziki sauce," Steel announced as Kristen unpacked the bag, looking into each of the containers. She was familiar with the standard ingredients of gyros and had to admit it smelled wonderful. Also in the bag were some grilled pita bread, a tomato salad and some cheesecake.

Kristen decided to meet Steel's generous gift halfway and took a bottle of wine from one of the boxes she packed the day before. "I'm afraid I have no idea where the corkscrew is," she said. "Do you have one?"

Kristen cleaned out two wine glasses while Steel went to get the corkscrew. By the time he returned and opened the bottle, Kristen had fixed them each a plate of food. As she took her first bite, she couldn't help but moan her delight. The food was delicious.

"I take it you approve," Steel laughed.

"My God, yes! This is amazing! Where did you get it?" Kristen asked.

Steel surprised her by answering that he cooked it himself. She didn't understand him. One day he was a complete jerk, and the next, he's apologetic, helpful and charming. On top of all that, she finds out that he's a chef.

"Did you train formally?" Kristen asked. She may have grown up in a household that didn't involve cooking, but that also meant she had eaten at a lot of restaurants. She knew good food when she tasted it.

"No. I was in the military before I joined the police force," Steel answered and then went on to explain how he left the police force the previous year to become a full time writer.

Kristen was intrigued at what would cause a man that could only be in his mid to late thirties to quit his job and do something as unstable as writing. She didn't want to ask, though. That would be rude. The more he talked, the more fascinated she was with him. He had lived a life that she could only dream of living. She had only had one career and it wasn't really the most interesting one.

Before the two knew it, they had been visiting for over two hours. It wasn't until Kristen received a text from Adam that she noted the time. "I'm so sorry, but I really need to get back to work. I didn't realize how late it had become."

Steel was disappointed that his time with Kristen had come to an end, but took comfort in knowing that there was a lot of the house still left to pack. He knew he would get another chance to be around her. As he gathered up his containers, he thought briefly about offering to help Kristen pack. Something in her eyes told him that she would turn him down and he preferred to end the night on a high note.

As Kristen and Steel reached the door to say goodbye, she extended her hand. It was formal, but she didn't know him well enough to give him a hug. As their hands made contact, there it was again. The tingle. There was definite electricity when they connected. Without any thought to Adam, Kristen found herself hoping she would be seeing more of Steel. She didn't know it, but he felt exactly the same way.

# Chapter 7

As she tried to get back to work, Kristen couldn't clear her mind of the handsome neighbor. She was confused. She was engaged to Adam, and cared for him deeply. But, since meeting Steel, she knew one thing...she was drawn to him. When she was with him, it was almost as if Adam didn't even exist, and that made her feel guilty.

She stood by the door trying to wipe him from her memory and focus on the task at hand. But, the more she tried to forget him and the way he made her feel, the stronger the attraction became.

"Get your head together," she chastised herself.

Before heading back to her father's office, Kristen decided to splash some cold water on her face. It wasn't a cold shower, but she hoped it would have the same effect at least.

"Now, where was I?" she mumbled under her breath as she re-entered her father's office. It was then that she recalled the name Thomas Cadbury. She was packing the papers with the other accountant's name on them.

She went back in forth in her mind as to whether she should pack those documents in a separate box, since they weren't her father's. Ultimately, she did decide to keep them separate. As she searched the stack to see where the Thomas Cadbury documents left off and the Thomas Casey ones began, something was gnawing at her.

"What's wrong here?" she asked herself. Something just didn't feel right and she decided to examine the documents closer as she packed them each away.

Kristen must've gone through at least a thousand pieces of paper, and she still could figure out why the name on the forms bothered her so much. With the last stack in hand, though, something stood out. It was the signature. She recognized it.

Kristen sprung to her feet and retrieved a stack of papers from one of the other boxes. She flipped through the papers quickly to find what she was looking for. There it was! Her father's signature! Holding the papers side by side, she could easily tell both signatures were signed by the same person...her father.

She still didn't know what it meant though. Why would her father have been using a different last name? It didn't make sense.

Kristen began searching the room, but nothing else seemed to stand out as being odd. She wasn't able to find anything other than that one stack of documents with the name Thomas Cadbury. She searched the books on the book shelf, the desk draw, and even the computer. As she finished checking the single desk cabinet, she slammed its door in frustration, sending a picture that sat on top of the desk crashing to the floor.

The picture was of Kristen as a toddler. She must've been only two at the time, and in the picture with her were both her mother and father. She didn't really remember her mother; she had died right around that time. Kristen was surprised that she hadn't noticed the picture sitting on top of the desk before then.

As she bent down to pick it up, she felt a sharp pain on her finger. She quickly withdrew her hand and noticed a small shard of glass was wedged inside like a splinter. Her finger was already bleeding, so after removing the glass piece, she sucked her finger until the bleeding stopped.

Once the bleeding was under control, she again knelt down and carefully picked up the other broken pieces of glass. It was then that she noticed something metallic sticking out from behind the picture which was still barely being held by the broken frame.

It was a key. But, to what? Kristen picked up the picture and frame and began examining them closer. The frame was just cheap, and seemed to have no other clues as to what the key was for. But, as Kristen looked at the front and back of the picture, in small print at the very bottom was written the number 405b. "405b?" she asked herself.

All of her life, her father seemed to be a very devoted but dull man. Even if it saved her life, she couldn't think of anything really exciting about him. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He was happy and that's all she wanted for him. But, now Kristen found herself wondering how much she really knew about her father. First there was the different name that was signed in his own handwriting to a bunch of forms and now a mysterious key that was accompanied by a mysterious number. Kristen didn't know what to make of it.

As she sat down, trying, struggling to think of a reasonable answer for the things she had discovered, her hands shook. She felt the urge to cry, but didn't really understand why. Deciding that she wasn't going to give into the feelings she was feeling, Kristen placed the picture and key in the box of Thomas Cadbury documents and decided to head home. Maybe after a warm bubble bath, she could figure things out.

She carried the box to the car, and turned back to see if Steel's lights were still on. She thought briefly about asking him for help. Between him being an ex-police officer and her father's friend and neighbor, he may have been able to give her answers. His house was dark though. It was probably a good thing, Kristen thought to herself. Steel was still virtually a stranger. She didn't doubt she could trust him, but since she didn't know what it was she'd be trusting him with, she decided to keep it all to herself. At least until she had more information.

Since it was so late, there was virtually no traffic on the road, making it a quick trip back home. After bringing the box inside and placing it next to her computer desk, Kristen made a b-line straight to her master bathroom where she started her bath water. She added bubbles and then changed out of her clothes and into a robe.

She decided to send a text to Adam since she had not really talked to him in a while. It read: HEY. JUST GETTING IN AND EXHAUSTED. I'LL TALK TO YOU TOMORROW, OKAY?

As she sat in warm fragrant water, with bubbles all around her, Kristen turned on the jets to help relax her. She closed her eyes and tried to figure out a plan to get some answers. The water went cold several times, but Kristen just kept adding in more hot water to get the bath back up to temperature. The only thought she could come up with was to figure out what the key went to. She hoped that when she figured that out, she might have more answers and things would start to make sense again.

Even though she was getting extremely tired, she put on her robe and slippers and returned to her computer desk where she had left the box. Before doing anything else, she took the key and added it to her key ring. With her luck, she would lose the key and then never get any closure.

Next, she booted her laptop up and started searching the internet. The key contained an engraving, but as she searched for information that might tell her what it meant, nothing came up, just generic information about the company that produced it. Unfortunately, they were one of the largest key and lock manufacturers in the world, and made keys for every purpose.

Kristen's next hour was spent looking at pictures of keys on an image search. She thought that maybe she would be able to find a picture of the same key and at least figure out what it went to. But, again, she had no luck. After searching at least a thousand pictures, she made the call to go to sleep. She couldn't be productive when she was so tired. She would get a few hours of sleep and try again in the morning.

# Chapter 8

By the time Kristen awoke, she was starting to feel really sleep deprived. Although she had been trying to get enough sleep the last couple of nights, much of it was spent tossing and turning.

As usual, Kristen had to have her morning coffee before she could function. It was her one vice. Her body needed lots of caffeine, and sugar to come to life. She had tried to quit once, but the headaches that came with depriving herself of the hot black liquid just weren't worth it.

She sat at the bar in her kitchen and looked up the closest locksmiths as she enjoyed not just one but two cups of her overly creamed and sugared coffee.

Once she was dressed and presentable, she checked to make sure she had the key on her and headed out to her car. If she hadn't have been so busy, she would've saw on the news that a cold front had moved in overnight. It went from being beautiful and cool to downright freezing in only a few short hours.

"Come on!!!" Kristen yelled as she turned the key in her ignition but the car refused to start. It was a fairly new car, but for some reason anytime it got below forty degrees, it wouldn't crank. She had the battery checked, but the clerk at the auto store told her it checked out fine and didn't need replacing.

Kristen stepped out of the car and checked to see if any of her neighbors were outside and getting into their cars so one of them could give her a jump. It was already well past the time they all left for work, though. And, with the frigid temperatures, no one at all was outside.

Not wanting to disturb anyone, Kristen pulled the car insurance card from her glove box. "I get free roadside service, so I may as well use it," she muttered to herself. She sat in the frozen car to make the call for the tow truck. It was only at the end of the call that she realized she was home and could've been inside the whole time, wrapped in the warmth of her cozy home.

The day was not off to a great start. Kristen waited for the tow truck and wondered if life would ever get back to normal. All she wanted was one stress-free day. To her surprise, the tow truck didn't take very long, so that was a plus.

"You know it can sometimes be your timing belt," the tow truck operator said with a slight lisp. He was a white man, with balding brown hair and a protruding belly. His name, Jared, was stitched on his shirt.

"I'll get that checked out," Kristen promised even though she didn't know how a belt could affect her car starting up. She stood back and watched as Jared attached a portable jumper to her batteries negative and positive posts. As if nothing was wrong, the car cranked right up.

"Just let it run a few minutes so your battery can charge," Jared told her before returning to his truck to fill out the form he would need signed for reimbursement from Kristen's insurance company.

After Kristen signed the service slip, she thanked Jared and immediately turned the heater on in her car. Her hands were frozen from just standing outside a few minutes. While the car warmed up, she returned to the house to see if she could find a pair of gloves.

Two hours after she had woken up, she was finally on her way to the locksmith's. When she arrived, there was only one employee behind the counter and he was helping another customer. As Kristen waited, she looked around, checking to see if she saw any keys that matched the one she found at her fathers.

"Can I help you?" the young clerk behind the counter asked once he had finished helping the previous customer.

"I hope so," Kristen answered and smiled. The great thing about being a reasonably attractive female was that a smile could go a long way with the opposite sex. "I'm hoping to find out what a key goes to," she explained as she grabbed the keys from her purse and removed the one she needed information about.

The clerk was appeared to be a college student, probably just a year or two over eighteen. Kristen hoped he was knowledgeable enough to have some answers for her. If not, she would go to as many locksmiths as it took to get answers.

The kid took the key from Kristen and examined it before saying anything. When he did speak, he confirmed that it was manufactured by the company she had read about on the internet. That made Kristen feel better. At least he knew that much.

"Beyond that, there's not much I can tell you. It's a standard copy of a key. It could go to anything...a padlock, a house, a lockbox," the kid elaborated.

Deflated, Kristen thanked him and proceeded to a different locksmith shop. There she received basically the same exact information. After visiting five different places, the story at each one was the same. No one knew what the key went to. Unless it went to a lockbox at her father's house, Kristen felt she may never know what the significance of the key was.

On her way back home, she decided to stop back by her fathers and do a quick search for anything with a lock. Maybe she would luck out. She looked in every room but was unable to find anything with a lock. There were no lockboxes, visible or hidden safes, or anything else the key could unlock.

Before leaving, she stood in place and just did one final turn to see if anything stood out to her as odd or out of place. Nothing did, but she did notice just how many boxes she had accumulated. She had brought the box containing the picture and Thomas Cadbury paperwork with her, so she decided she may as well grab a few more and put them in storage on her way home. At least that way, when the movers came, she would already have the unit rented and ready.

In between her father's house and her own, there was a storage center that advertised the first month for just one dollar, so Kristen pulled in. She noticed as she stepped out of her car that even though the sun was getting ready to set, the weather had actually warmed up a little.

"Hello?" Kristen called out as she tried the office door and it was locked. There was a buzzer though, so she gave it three short rings.

Within seconds, an elderly man entered the office through a door in the back and let Kristen inside. "How can I help ya, little lady?" he asked. He wore overalls and seemed very friendly. Kristen imagined that he was the owner of the storage facility.

"I need to rent a storage unit," Kristen answered. She had never rented one before and didn't really know what she was doing.

"Well, what size do you need?" the elderly man asked. Kristen looked at him like a deer caught in someone's headlights. She had just assumed they came in one size. Seeing her confusion, the elderly man, who introduced himself as Jimmy, began asking a series of questions to determine what she needed.

"Well, it's for basically an entire household of furniture and belongings," Kristen answered when he asked what was going to be stored in the locker. "My father died," Kristen added and then looked down. It was still hard to even say out loud.

Jimmy suggested Kristen get the biggest locker available and began to ring her up in the computer. "Do you have your own lock?" he asked. Kristen didn't, so he showed her some options. It was then that she noticed one that came with a key identical to her own.

"Does this look like a key that could go to one of these padlocks?" she excitedly asked Jimmy. It wasn't concrete, but it was the first lead she had and she was overjoyed when he confirmed that the key probably did go to a storage unit. Kristen was so happy she could've kissed Jimmy. Had a counter not been separating them, she probably would have.

After sharing with Jimmy the number she had found on the picture, he was even more sure that the key definitely went to a storage locker. But where? It could be anywhere, even in another city.

# Chapter 9

Kristen was excited at the new discovery...so excited that she couldn't think of anything else for the rest of the night. After tossing and turning for hours, she finally just decided to wake get up and make some coffee.

There were only three other times in her life when Kristen felt so restless: the night before taking her SATs, the night before she graduated from college, and the night before her wedding. She could remember clearly the stomach full of butterflies as she lay in bed wondering if she was really ready to get married...to be a wife. She second guessed herself over and over again, and, at one point, even picked up the phone to call of the wedding. She wondered how different her life would be if she had gone through with that call.

As she sipped her coffee, she wondered how she was going to track down the storage facility her father used. Surely there were records of the rental or the monthly payments somewhere. Since she couldn't sleep anyways, she threw on a pair of sweatpants and tee shirt and grabbed her purse and coat. The fastest way to get some answers was going to be by going back to her fathers and looking for any records referring to a storage facility.

To Kristen's surprise, her car started right up, in spite of the cold of the night. She wasn't concerned for her lack of sleep as she drove. She was running on adrenaline and felt wide awake. As she pulled up to her father's she wished that she would've left on some lights...at least the front porch light.

The house and yard were pitch black as Kristen attempted to navigate her way up the stairs and to the front door. Before even reaching the first stair, she tripped over a hedge and stubbed her foot on a rock. After hopping around and shouting some expletives under her breath, she kept going.

When she finally made it to the door, she felt around for the key hole. It took some time, but she was able to get the lock to turn. It became a little easier each time she did it.

"Now I just need to turn a light o....," she said aloud to herself, but before she could reach the light switch, she tripped again, sending her to the floor. She felt broken glass under her hand and wondered what she had broken during her fall.

It was clear when she finally turned the lights on. Kristen looked around and saw a mess. Boxes were overturned, and their contents scattered. Someone had broken into her father's house!

Suddenly, the thought occurred to her that whoever had broken in could still be in the house. Without pause, she fumbled for her phone and quickly dialed 9-1-1 as she headed back towards the door. She needed to get outside and back to her car ASAP.

"9-1-1, what is your emergency?" a voice asked as Kristen's call was answered.

Kristen looked around to make sure no one was there before answering. "There's been a break in," she whispered but the operator couldn't hear her and asked her to repeat herself. Kristen's hands were trembling as she slowly walked toward her car. With it so dark out, she didn't know if there was anyone watching her, or even approaching her.

She managed to make it to her car without incident. After checking the car and making sure her doors were locked, she felt safer. She still couldn't control her trembling. She felt so violated. It occurred to her that the robbers could've been broken into while she was there packing.

The 9-1-1 operator kept Kristen on the phone until the police arrived fifteen minutes later. Kristen remained in her car until the police approached her car.

While she answered questions, three of the other officers searched the house to see if anyone was inside. "It's clear, boss!" one of them yelled.

"Ms. Casey, the house is empty. I know it may be disturbing for you, but we need you to walk through and see if anything is missing," the Sergeant that was interviewing Kristen told her.

"Why would they break in and not take anything?" Kristen asked. She assumed the crooks were mainly after electronics, jewelry, or anything else that was valuable and easily pawn-able. As she walked through the first floor of the house, though, her father's television and computer were still there.

"Maybe you scared them off when you arrived," the Sergeant suggested. "Did you see anything when you arrived...anything at all? A light, a movement?"

"No...nothing. It was so dark," Kristen answered. She tried to replay the event in her head to see if anything stood out, but all she remembered was darkness and quite all around her. "Maybe something else spooked them," she said, thinking aloud.

"Kristen, what's going on?" It was Steel's voice. He had been in bed when he noticed the flashing of red and blue lights reflecting off his bedroom walls.

Uncharacteristic for her, Kristen ran into Steel's arms. "Someone broke in and trashed the place," she cried. With her arms wrapped around Steel's waist, she felt safe. She could hear his heart beating quickly as his strong arms embraced her.

"Sir, this is a cri...," the Sergeant began before realizing the man hugging Kristen was Andrew Steel. "Steel, is that you?"

"Sergeant, how've ya been?" Steel would've shaken his old Sergeant's hand, but both of them were currently busy consoling Kristen. He could feel her shaking as he held her tightly.

After the police report was completed, everyone but Steel left. "Let me help you clean this mess up," he offered. He had seen a very different side to Kristen. A side that only made him like her more. She was not the headstrong woman he had encountered before, but someone more vulnerable. She needed him and he was glad he could be there for her.

"Everything is such a mess!" Kristen cried as she looked around overwhelmed. Although she was no longer concerned with why nothing was missing, Steel was. He knew that the way the place was ran-sacked could only mean one thing...the robbers were looking for something very specific. He wasn't sure if they had found it or not, but he certainly intended to find out.

As he and Kristen cleaned up and re-packed the boxes, he wanted to get something off of his chest. "Kristen, I wanted to apologize to you for how I behaved that first day," he said.

"You already made up for that when you brought over lunch," Kristen said with the first signs of a smile Steel had seen on her all night.

"I know, but I wanted to actually say it," Steel replied. Kristen couldn't figure him out. How could someone be so arrogant at one moment, yet sweet at another? And, how could she be attracted to both the arrogance and sweetness.

Kristen stared at Steel for a minute. She could see he meant every word. She stepped towards him, hoping she could reach him before she lost the courage to do what she had wanted to do from the first day she met him.

Steel stood still, bewildered, as Kristen pulled his face towards her. He knew she was involved, but he didn't care. He wanted her and, at least at that moment, she wanted him too.

As their lips met, he felt his heartbeat quicken and his manhood begin to harden. He pulled back to look in Kristen's eyes. He needed to see if she had any regrets over kissing him. The only thing he saw was her desire for him. Not wanting to give himself a chance to turn back, he scooped her into his arms and carried her upstairs. He laid her gently on the bed, before going over to close the door. "Is this okay?" he asked, giving her one more chance to stop what was about to happen.

Kristen couldn't speak. Her heart was pounding, and she wanted Steel more than any other man she had ever been with. She nodded her head to show her consent. It was then that Steel returned to the bed and kissed her once again.

As they kissed, Steel pulled Kristen's shirt over her head. He kissed her neck, making his way down to her cleavage. Both of their breathing was heavy, and Kristen released a soft moan as Steel expertly unhooked her lace bra.

Steel stood before going any further and removed his shirt. Kristen was in awe as she looked at his perfectly sculpted body. The only imperfection was a scar on his abdomen. It looked too messy to be from a surgery, so she assumed it that he was stabbed while on the job as a police officer. Somehow, that made the scar sexy.

"I want you so badly," Steel said breathlessly as he returned to kissing Kristen's cleavage. She cupped her breast in his hand and softly kissed her erect nipple, tracing it with his warm and wet tongue. He repeated the process on the other breast, taking his time to make sure Kristen was enjoying every second.

"I want you too," Kristen said back. She couldn't take it much longer. Her body was on fire. She pulled Steel towards her and quickly unbuttoned his jeans. As she pulled the zipper down, she kissed his stomach...giving each ab muscle its own kiss.

As she kissed her way farther south, she lowered his jeans, exposing the rest of his tanned and toned body. He kept kissing until she reached his erect manhood. Giving head was never something that interested her very much, but Kristen was dying to pleasure Steel's firm cock with her mouth. He was bigger than anyone she had ever been with, but she did her best to please him. From the sounds of his load moans, she was doing a good job.

"Wait up!" Steel said, stepping back. "You're doing too good of a job," he laughed as he explained that he wanted to prolong the pleasure.

The two made love for two hours before collapsing in each other's arms. Steel gently caressed Kristen's forehead, combing the hair from her face, as she fell asleep. As much as he loved the intimacy they shared, he found his mind circulating back to the robbery. He knew he needed to figure out what was going on. Kristen's life might depend on it!

# Chapter 10

Steel stayed awake thinking of the break-in. The robbers trashed the place but didn't seem to take anything, at least nothing valuable. In his mind, there was only one reason they would do that...they were looking for information. He would need to talk with Kristen to figure out what information they might've been looking for, though.

As she slept peacefully, he carefully slipped out of bed and back to his place. He wanted to fix her a nice breakfast and get a shower before she woke up. The shower was a quick one, because he wanted to check back in on Kristen. She was still asleep, but he didn't like leaving her alone for too long. The chances of the robbers coming back were slim, especially the day after they had just broken in. Still, he wasn't going to take any chances with the woman he was beginning to have very strong feelings for.

After making some fresh muffins, and cutting up a fresh cantaloupe, Steel poured some coffee and juice and delivered everything to Kristen. The smell of the coffee was enough to get her to stir. For her, it was like having an alarm clock.

"Good morning, beautiful," he said as Kristen lifted her head and struggled to open her eyes.

"What time is it?" she asked. With her eyes closed, she still didn't know Steel had cooked and brought her breakfast in bed.

"It's just after nine," Steel laughed as he watched Kristen trying to scrub the sleep from her eyes. Even with her puffy eyes and hair sticking out in every direction, she still looked beautiful to him.

Kristen suddenly sat up straight with a shocked look on her face. It had just occurred to her that she had spent the night with Steel. Not only that, but now she was lying in bed, looking a mess. Even her breath was horrid.

"I made you breakfast," Steel announced as he set the tray on the bed. "I'll let you eat and get freshened up. Come downstairs when you're done, okay?"

Kristen thanked him and waited for him to exit the room and close the door behind her. "Oh my God!" she whispered to herself as she brought the covers up over her face. She could smell Steel's cologne on them, which brought back images of his glistening and naked body that she got to know very well the night before.

After taking a few bites from the blueberry muffin Steel brought her, she headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower. After showering and fixing her hair, she ate a little more breakfast and took a few big gulps of her coffee before attempting to brush her teeth. Since she didn't have a toothbrush at her father's house, Kristen was forced to place the toothpaste on her finger and brush her teeth that way.

"Sorry I took so long," Kristen told Steel as she emerged from the bedroom and headed down the stairs.

Steel smiled. "It was well worth it. You're beautiful." It sounded like a cheesy line, but he actually meant it. Kristen was glowing. For the first time since he had met her, she actually seemed happy.

Even though he had seen her naked just hours before, Kristen found herself blushing at his compliment. As a defense mechanism, she changed the subject. "Thank you so much for last night," she said before realizing that he might think she was actually thanking him for the sex. Her cheeks turned bright red. "For helping me clean up, I mean," she corrected.

"I knew what you meant," Steel replied with a large grin. He liked seeing her shy and embarrassed. It looked cute on her, but he imagined it was probably impossible for her not to look cute. "You know, I really liked your father. We had been friends for a few years," Steel said to break the awkward silence. He meant every word, but he also wanted to steer the conversation towards her father so that he could maybe figure out what he was mixed up with. Kristen wondered why she had never heard her father mention Steel, but he was never that much of a talker.

After talking for a while, Kristen announced that she needed to run some errands. "Please don't think I'm running away," she joked. If she didn't need answers concerning the mysterious key, she would gladly spend the whole day with Steel.

No, it's fine. I have some things I need to do as well." It wasn't a lie. Steel wanted to deal with something that had been bothering him for some time. After Thomas Casey's death, he had pulled in some favors to see the police report. Though nothing in the report really seemed out of the ordinary, he never could shake the feeling that the accident wasn't truly an accident.

The driver of the car that hit Kristen and her father was only issued a ticket for following too closely. According to the police report, the car hydroplaned into Kristen's car, so there were no charges issued. It all seemed like a normal, unfortunate accident. But, considering the robbery the night before, Steel wanted another look at that police report. He wanted the name and address of the person that hit Kristen and her father.

"Hey, Sergeant," he greeted his old boss as he walked into his old precinct. "Don't you ever go home?"

"Very funny, Steel. I've already been home and am back again," Sergeant Kawoski answered. "Do you have more information on your neighbor's break-in?"

Steel explained his suspicions to his old boss and friend. "I just need to see the accident report from August tenth."

"You know, I can get in trouble for this," Sergeant Kawoski answered as he stared at Steel. He knew that look. It was a look of determination. He knew if he didn't show Steel the report, he would just get ahold of it some other way.

With the name and address of the driver in hand, Steel left the police precinct. The address was from a town an hour and a half away. As the GPS signaled Steel had arrived at the address, Steel looked around. There were no apartments or houses anywhere...just a set of railroad tracks. There were a few abandoned warehouses around, but Steel was sure the address on the driver's license was a fake. And if it was a fake, his name probably was as well. "Now, why would a driver involved in a car accident that resulted in someone's death be using a fake name and address on his license?" Steel asked himself, but he knew why. It was because it wasn't an accident at all.

# Chapter 11

Since Kristen returned home, Adam had called several times. If it had only been one or two spaced out calls, she could've come up with an excuse, but after seven calls, five voicemails and a few texts, it was obvious that she was avoiding him.

As she reflected on her steamy encounter with Steel, she knew she should feel guilty and ashamed. But, she didn't, at least not about that. Her time with Steel felt right, and she wouldn't feel guilty about that. She felt _guilty_ because she didn't feel guilty.

She knew she needed to be honest with Adam about her feelings for and actions with Steel, but she wasn't quite sure how. Her phone rang again and Kristen just buried her face in her pillow. She had been in bed all day, and had no intentions of getting up anytime soon. "Please stop calling," she plead partly to Adam, and partly to God.

Adam slammed the phone down in frustration. He had been calling Kristen since the night before, and was beginning to get worried. The time on his watch showed it was already after six o' clock. She couldn't have been away from her phone all day. Kristen wasn't the type of woman who didn't always have her phone with her, so if she wasn't answering, it was on purpose. He just wanted to know why, so he could fix things.

"Well, if she isn't going to answer her phone, I guess I'll have to go visit her in person," Adam told himself as he fixed his hair in his bedroom's full-length mirror. Once he made sure every hair was in place, he grabbed a jacket and got in his car.

Kristen knew she needed to get up. She wanted to check out storage facilities, but as she looked at her bedside clock, she realized everything would be closed before long. Resigning that the day was wasted, she threw her head back on the bed. Within a few minutes, she was once again asleep.

BANG, BANG, BANG

Kristen jerked her head up. She wasn't sure if someone was banging on her door, or if she had just been having a nightmare. She listened quietly to see if the sounds would repeat themselves. They did. Kristen carefully got out of bed and peeked out the window. It was Adam's car in the driveway.

"It's now or never," she told herself as she Grabbed some clothes to throw on.

BANG, BANG, BANG

"Just a minute!" Kristen yelled as she headed down the steps.

Adam had been knocking loudly on the door for the better part of fifteen minutes. He knew Kristen was home because her car was in the driveway. Just when he was about to give up and leave, he saw a light turn on upstairs. He didn't know what he was going to say, but he told himself to stay calm. The last thing he needed was to blow his temper.

Kristen stopped at the door before answering it and tried to ready herself for what was going to be a long and difficult talk. She hoped she would find some inner strength or maybe the perfect words to say, but none of that happened. She didn't feel ready to talk to Adam, but he was waiting on the other side of her door. Before losing what little courage she had left, Kristen unlocked the door and opened the door. "Come in, Adam," she said awkwardly.

"I was worried about you," Adam said as he stepped inside and took off his jacket. "Are you alright?" He knew things were at a crucial place and didn't want to come off too strong with Kristen. He would wait and let her talk first, and then decide how he should proceed.

"Well," Kristen started as she signaled for Adam to sit down on the couch. "Well, I think we need to talk." It was weak, but she needed to bring up a way to start the discussion.

Adam waited for Kristen to find her next words. He gazed around the room as he waited. Just as the silence began to get really uncomfortable, Kristen spoke up again.

"First off, I'm sorry I have been avoiding your calls."

"So, you _have_ been avoiding my calls?" Adam confirmed.

"Yes," Kristen answered. Now it was time for the hard part. Knowing there was no good way to say it, she just closed her eyes and blurted it out, not stopping to even take a breath. "I think we should call of the engagement. It's nothing personal about you. You're a great guy. It's just that I have feelings for someone else."

Adam listened as Kristen attempted to break up with her. He needed to change her mind. Breaking up was not an option. He had put too much work into their relationship and was finally close to reaping the rewards. "We're supposed to get married," he reminded her. He didn't care about whatever feelings she had for someone else. She was his fiancée, and he would get over any problems they had to see that they got married like they planned.

"We barely knew each other when we got engaged," Kristen explained. She knew she should tell him the complete truth...that she and Steel had slept together, but she was having second thoughts. Was there really any reason to hurt him further? "I'll always appreciate what you've done for me," she began but Adam interrupted her.

"Please. Don't do this," Adam let a single tear slide down his cheek, as he grabbed Kristen's hands and held them in his own. "We can get through this." He was trying anything he could to get her to reconsider.

As Kristen saw Adam begin to cry, she felt more horrible than she had earlier. She came close to just taking everything she had said back. That might've made Adam happy, but it wouldn't make her happy. No, she had to follow her heart. In the long run, it would be better for both of them. If she stayed with Adam, she would always regret it and have resentments towards him.

"I'm sorry, Adam. I just don't love you," she said before her own tears started to rush from her eyes. It was then that Adam started getting angry. He tried to bury the rage he was feeling. Blowing up wouldn't do him any good. Rather than say anything, he angrily grabbed his jacket and stormed out, slamming the door loudly behind him.

Kristen watched from the window as Adam drove off. He was in such a hurry that he left tire marks on the street. She couldn't blame him, though. She didn't know how she would react if the same thing had happened to her.

Suddenly, she felt cold and alone. A part of her life had just died. It seemed as though death surrounded her. Thinking that maybe a shower would help her feel renewed, Kristen enjoyed a hot shower. She felt cleaner afterwards, but no less alone.

She picked up her phone and considered calling Steel before putting it right back down. She didn't want to be the type of woman that always needed a man. She knew she was stronger than that. Still, she couldn't shake the urge to reach out to Steel. She thought about it as she brewed a pot of coffee. After changing her mind several times, she finally settled on just sending him a text.

Within seconds, her phone rang. Kristen's heart stopped. For a second, she thought it was Adam. Still, she flipped the phone over and saw that it wasn't Adam. It was Steel. Instantly she found herself smiling and feeling warm all over.

"I was hoping you'd get in touch with me today," Steel said when Kristen answered the phone. "I was a little worried that you were regretting our time together."

"Not at all!" Kristen replied. "I only have good feelings about that." It was true and she hoped that Steel believed her.

The two talked on the phone for three hours before finally saying goodbye. Before hanging up, though, they did make plans to spend the next day together. When Steel asked what Kristen wanted to do, she would only say that she needed his help with something that concerned her father. Intrigued, Steel agreed. Maybe whatever she was going to reveal would provide the answers he needed.

# Chapter 12

Steel woke up bright and early, as Kristen instructed. He didn't know where they would be going; just that it could take all day. That was fine with him. He certainly didn't mind spending all day with a beautiful woman.

He pulled up to Kristen's house at exactly eight-thirty and attempted to turn the car off so he could go knock on the door to let Kristen know he was there. Before he could, though, he saw Kristen's door open. She emerged from the house, bundled up but still looking beautiful. Steel immediately jumped from the car and quickly ran around to the passenger side so he could at least open the door for her. His mother taught him to always be a gentleman.

"You're right on time," Kristen announced with a smile. She felt one hundred percent better after talking with Steel the night before. She couldn't explain it, but she felt as if she were destined to have met Steel. Now that she had, she was ready to close the door on the Adam chapter of her life. She knew with time, he would find someone better suited to him.

After Kristen gave him the address to type in his GPS, Steel asked, "Well, are you going to tell me what we're up to today?"

It was then that Kristen told him all about the papers and key she had found at her father's. "I know it's a long-shot, but I have to find a storage locker with the number 405b. I need to figure out what my dad was hiding for so long."

Steel's heart went out to Kristen. He needed answers too. He wrestled with whether or not to tell Kristen what he had found out about her father's death. The police officer in him told him that he should keep the information to himself until he had more concrete evidence. Right now, everything he knew was circumstantial. There was no reason to upset her over that.

When they arrived at the first storage facility, the manager on duty told Kristen and Steel that they didn't have any storage lockers with that number. "Well, do you know of a faster way to find a place that does other than just checking with every place in the city?" Kristen asked. It didn't take that long to check with each place, but multiply that by the hundreds of places they would have to check, and that could take quite a while. And then there was a good chance that the place they were looking for wasn't even in the city.

"No, ma'am," the female manager replied. "I wish I could have been more help." Kristen thanked the woman, but felt defeated. She knew it wasn't likely, but she hoped that maybe the first place they checked would be where her father had housed whatever it was that he was hiding.

Steel hugged her, and told her that they would find some answers. "It's just going to take time, that's all. You have to be patient." Rather than drive to every storage facility in the city, he suggested they call the places instead. "That way, we can just check the places that either have a locker by that number, or don't answer their phones."

By lunchtime, they had called seventy-five places and found three storage facilities with units that had the number 405b.

"Do you think one of them will be the right one?" Kristen asked, hopeful.

"There's always a chance, but you have to ready yourself for the chance that they won't be the one your father rented," Steel told her. He knew that the chances of them finding the locker within a day or even a week were slim. If her father wanted to hide something, he was unlikely to pick a place that would be easy to locate.

After they had checked out the first locker and the key didn't fit the lock, Steel could see the extreme look of disappointment on Kristen's face. "Why don't we just take a break and get some lunch?" he suggested. It had already been a stressful morning, and they could use a break and some food.

Steel let Kristen pick the restaurant so she chose a Mexican place she had always heard was good from the girls at work. "I love Mexican food," Steel volunteered after Kristen revealed her selection. For him, it was just another sign that they were meant to be together. Although he loved all ethnicities of food, Mexican and Chinese foods were his absolute favorites.

Kristen ordered an enchilada combination plate, while Steel ordered the fajitas. He also suggested Kristen get a margarita. "It'll take off the edge," he told her. He was driving, but even if he wasn't, he would've still ordered water.

He stopped drinking years ago after it started affecting his work. Being a police officer was a difficult job. His drinking started out as just get-togethers with his co-workers after duty. Then, he started drinking when he was stressed at the direction a case was going in, or when he didn't like its outcome. That led to him just drinking all the time. It wasn't something he was proud of, but he was proud that he had gotten clean and put his life back together.

By the time the food arrived, Kristen was back to her old self. It might've been the margarita, or the delicious food, but Steel wanted to believe it was his company that helped alter her mood.

"So, how is someone like you not married?" Steel asked as he stared at Kristen. It was a rude question to ask, but he hoped she would take it as the compliment he intended it to be.

Kristen's smile faded. She hadn't told Steel much about her life and past, but she supposed it was time. As they finished eating their lunch she told him everything. She didn't leave anything out. She told him about her first marriage, her engagement to Adam, and even how she broke up with him the night before. It wasn't until she stopped talking that she realized she could've scared Steel off by telling him she broke up with Adam because of her feelings for him.

Steel listened as Kristen divulged all the details about her past relationships. It had been a long time since he had such personal discussions with a woman. When she got to the part about breaking up with Adam, he was overjoyed. If it had been anyone else, he might've used it as an excuse to run away or end the relationship. He normally didn't do intimacy. Kristen wasn't any other woman though. He felt connected to her instantly and knew he never wanted to spend a single day without her. He wanted to tell her that, but couldn't find the words. He wasn't used to wearing his heart on his sleeve and just hoped that Kristen could be patient with him as he re-learned how.

Kristen hoped that maybe Steel would share his past with her too, but she could tell he kept a wall around his heart. The look in his eyes told her all she needed to know, though. Even if he couldn't say it, she knew how he felt.

Once they finished their lunch, Kristen and Steel resumed their search. The next place was a bust, and once again Kristen felt disappointed.

"Is this just a waste of time?" she asked.

The third place was on the very outskirts of town, and as they stepped into the storage facility's office, both Kristen and Steel felt like they were transported in time. The décor was out of the nineteen-seventies, even down to the small nineteen inch television that still had rotary knobs to change the channel.

"Hello?" Steel asked as he and Kristen stood at the counter. As was his habit from his police training, he looked around. He noticed that there wasn't a computer, or any form of electronics from the last three decades.

"Ring the bell," Kristen suggested.

"I'm comin'!" a voice shouted from somewhere around the corner from the counter. "What can I dos for you two?" asked the elderly man that approached. He had to have been at least eighty.

"We called earlier, to find out if you had a storage locker with the number 405b," Steel answered.

The old man bent down and looked for something for a few minutes before straightening back up. He set a book on the counter and began looking through it. "Yes, we do, but that locker's been rented...for quite some time," he said.

Kristen could feel her heartbeat speed up with excitement. She didn't want to get her hopes up too high though.

Steel explained to the elderly man that they were searching for a locker that belonged to Kristen's father and asked if they could check it out to see if their key fit its lock.

The old man stared at Steel and then to Kristen, as if trying to decide whether or not he believed the couple's story. They didn't seem dishonest to him. "I suppose that would be alright," he finally answered.

After getting directions to the locker, Steel and Kristen made their way to see if it was indeed the locker they were searching for.

"Well, this is it," Steel said. He wouldn't admit it, but he had a good feeling about the locker. If he was Thomas Casey and wanted to keep something safe or hidden, he would probably use the same place...a place that didn't use computers, or modern technology that could be hacked.

Kristen's hands shook as she held the key out and inserted it into the lock. "I'm nervous," she laughed. The key slid into the lock easily, but she wondered if it would turn. She closed her eyes and turned the key. At first nothing happened. Then, as both Steel and Kristen stared at the lock, it popped open!

# Chapter 13

Kristen thought her hands would stop shaking once the lock opened, but she found herself only more nervous. She didn't know what she would find inside the storage locker and she was scared. What was she about to find out about her father?

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Steel asked as he rubbed Kristen's shoulders, but he knew she wouldn't be able to turn back. She needed answers and he hoped that whatever was inside would provide them.

Kristen nodded. Her mouth was dry, and she felt sick to her stomach, but she did her best to ready herself for whatever it was that they would find.

As Steel pulled open the locker door, she was shocked. She didn't know what she expected. Maybe it was boxes stacked and stuffed everywhere, but it certainly wasn't what they had found: a single two-drawer file cabinet, sitting alone in the middle of the big storage unit.

Kristen looked at Steel, confused. "What is this?" she asked.

Steel grabbed her hand. "There's only one way to find out."

Kristen opened the top drawer and it was empty. "There's nothing here!" She was upset and angry that their wild goose chase was for nothing, but Steel told her to check the bottom drawer as well.

At first, she thought it was empty as well. Without a light in the storage unit, she almost missed the folded and stapled set of papers in the back of the cabinet's drawer. Kristen furrowed her brow as she reached for the papers.

Steel remained silent as Kristen opened the packet of papers and scanned the first page. Her expression changed from one of anger to one of horror. Instantly her face drained of all color. "Does this mean what I think it means?" she asked before handing Steel the set of papers to read.

He only had to scan the first page to see why Kristen was upset. He recognized her parents' names on the page, as well as her own first name. Her last name was different, however. That was because the packet of papers was a set of adoption papers. Adoption papers for Kristen.

Steel wanted to comfort her, but he didn't know what to say. What do you tell someone who has just lost their father and then finds out that he worked under another name and wasn't even your biological parent? "You had no idea?" he finally asked. It was probably the wrong thing to say, but he wanted Kristen to say something, anything.

"What? Did I have any idea that my whole life was a lie?" Kristen spat back angrily. She didn't mean to take it out on Steel. After all, it wasn't his fault that she was adopted or that no one decided to ever tell her the truth.

At that moment, Kristen wanted to punch something...anything. And, unfortunately for him, Steel was the only thing there. He understood the urge though, and was fine with it. He would be Kristen's punching bag if that's what she needed. He listened as she ranted and raved about how there were so many times her father could have told her the truth, and when the anger wore off, he would also be there to hold her.

It only took fifteen minutes for Kristen's yelling to turn to sobbing. As Steel embraced her, he wished he could do more. He just kept telling her that everything would be alright. Inside, though, he knew there would be more bad news to come.

As Kristen's sobbing slowed, she raised her head from Steel's chest and looked into his eyes. She saw compassion in them. "I'm sorry," she said. Her voice was still horse, but he had heard her.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," he answered as he kissed her forehead. It was strange how protective he felt for a woman that until a few days earlier had been a virtual stranger. But, he was protective of her and wished he could take away all the pain and unpleasantness she was feeling.

"I just don't understand it. He always told me that I looked like my mother," Kristen said. Steel wasn't sure if she was talking to him or to himself, so he just let her talk. He would speak up if she needed him to, but what she needed then was just to get it all out. "I used to stare at her pictures to see if I could see myself in her. We didn't have the same nose or eyes, but thought I saw the same lips and chin. And, I was proud of that. I was proud to have some of her features. It made me feel connected to her, you know?"

Steel nodded and let Kristen continue.

"You know, I only have one or two memories of her. I remember her singing to me as she tucked me in to bed," Kristen reminisced and as she did, a smile began to form. She closed her eyes and could almost see and hear her mother's presence. But, it wasn't her mother. It was someone that adopted her. Did that make a difference? Her mother and father still raised her and loved her. She tried to tell herself that that's the only thing that should matter, but she felt betrayed. "Why didn't he tell me? He had years to tell me....years!"

Steel could sense Kristen's anger coming to the surface once again. She seemed to be a ball of raw emotion, quickly going from sadness, to nostalgia, to anger. Still, he remained silent but attentive.

"Every week, we got together and ate lunch...every week! He had so many opportunities to tell me the truth. I wasn't a little girl anymore."

Steel wanted to say that her father just probably didn't know how to tell her the truth, especially as she got older and older. He probably thought he would have more chances and was waiting for the right time. Deep down, he knew Kristen already knew that. She couldn't do it now, but after the freshness of the news wears off, she would be able to think about it from her father's perspective and realize he was in a difficult spot.

Kristen wiped the tears from her eyes as she saw the old man from the office head their way. "I see you found what you were lookin' for," he said as he approached.

"Yes, thank you," Kristen answered politely, before turning away and heading to the car.

The elderly man noticed the smeared makeup on the woman and wondered for a minute if she and the man she was with had been in a fight.

"She got some very bad news," Steel vaguely explained when he saw the man's concern. "But, thank you very much for your help." He asked the old man if he could use the file cabinet before telling him that the locker would no longer be needed.

As he got back in the car, Kristen seemed more put together. Still, Steel wasn't sure if he should say anything.

"What? What is it?" she asked. She could already tell when something was on his mind. A part of her wanted to run away and hide in her bed, and never wake up. That wasn't her, though. She was stronger than that, and even if she had to fake it for the time being, she would prove it.

"It can wait," Steel answered as he slowly pulled out of the storage facility. He turned on the radio, in hopes that some soft music would take Kristen's mind off of her troubles, at least a little bit.

Kristen turned the radio back off. "No, what is it!?" she demanded to know. Steel would've smiled at her determination if it had been under any other circumstances.

He pulled off the road and into a fast food restaurant's parking lot and looked at Kristen hard. He wanted to gauge if she could handle what he was about to tell her. Seeing that she wouldn't give up, he had no other choice. "There are still a lot of unanswered questions," he began. "We don't know if the news we discovered today is related to the break-in, or your father's death. It doesn't explain or even seem to have anything to do with why your father was using a different name for some of his work," Steel explained.

Kristen felt a twinge of pain every time Steel used the word _father_. Even if he wasn't her biological father, he was still her dad. She had to remember that. As Steel spoke, she realized that he has said ' _your father's death_ ' as if it may not have been an accident. That wasn't something he had shared with her. "Wait," she said. "What unanswered questions about my father's death?"

# Chapter 14

Steel hadn't meant to let it slip that he had questions about Kristen's father's death. He wanted to sweep it under the rug, at least until he had more concrete proof, but the last thing Kristen needed was to feel as though she were being lied to by him. She already felt as if her entire life was a lie, and what she needed most was honesty from those she trusted.

It's just a hunch right now," Steel began as he pulled back out onto the road. "But, I think that maybe the accident that you and your father were in...the one that killed him, wasn't an accident after all." He waited for Kristen's reaction.

"How could it not have been an accident? Are you saying that someone deliberately tried to kill him?" Kristen's head was reeling. She felt like she was trapped inside of a bad soap opera, one that she couldn't get out of. It was one bad thing after another.

Steel explained what he had discovered concerning the man that had hit them, but began slowing his words as he repeatedly glanced in his rear and side mirrors. "Damnit!" he said as he quickly turned a corner.

"What is it?" Kristen asked. She was worried, but didn't know what was wrong. Steel's attention had been diverted to something that was causing him to drive erratically. She looked behind them, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"We're being followed," Steel answered. He clenched his jaw tightly as he watched the black car that followed them. He couldn't see the driver or even how many people were in the car through the darkly tinted windows, but was sure the car was following them. He took a few quick turns just to make sure, and every time the car took the same turns.

"What?" Kristen asked, her voice rising out of both surprise and fear. "Who's following us?"

Steel was too busy driving to answer. He didn't know what the car that was chasing them was after, but he didn't intend on finding out. Not while he had Kristen in the car with him.

After maneuvering onto the freeway, where he could drive faster and without the worry of lights and stalled traffic, Steel reached for his phone. "Call 9-1-1," he ordered, as he handed the phone to Kristen. "Ask for the Thirteenth Precinct."

Kristen did as Steel had asked. Once she was connected to the Thirteenth Precinct, Steel asked her to place the phone on speaker.

"Put Sergeant Kawoski on the phone!" Steel ordered whoever answered the call. "This is Andrew Steel. Within seconds, Steel was patched through to Kawoski, who promised to dispatch two units ASAP.

Kristen watched out the rear window as the car following them kept their distance but always remained in the same lane as Steel, no matter how many times he switched. That didn't last long, though. Kristen noticed the car speeding up rapidly as they approached a bridge. "They're gaining on us!" she screamed.

Steel knew what was about to happen. The car following them had switched lanes and was attempting to pull up beside Steel. They intended to ram Steel and Kristen off the road.

"Hang on!" he yelled as he slammed on the gas, giving him the opportunity to get into the left lane and cut off whoever had been trailing them. He knew he might not stop them from getting into a wreck, but he was damned sure going to make sure it didn't happen on a bridge.

The black car sped up as well and rammed Steel's car, sending them off the road and into a tailspin. Thankfully, they had passed the bridge before getting struck. Steel tried to control the car as it spun out of control. Kristen wanted to scream, but she was too scared. She watched in horror as the car spun right towards a large tree. She closed her eyes and waited for the impact, but it never came. The car stopped, just two inches from hitting the tree.

"Don't get out of the car!" Steel yelled as he saw the black car had pulled off the road and was behind them. Even if Kristen wanted to open her door, she couldn't. It was blocked by the large tree.

Steel opened the glove box and reached for his gun. If someone wanted to kill him and Kristen, they were going to have to work for it.

As he readied himself for the confrontation, he heard sirens and looked back to see the black car driving off. He gave the description of the black car and what had happened to the police officers. An ambulance also showed up, but Steel said that both he and Kristen were fine.

He didn't get Kristen back home until after sundown. "I don't think it's safe for you to stay here tonight," he told her as they sat in her driveway.

"I'm not going to let them run me off from my home!" Kristen replied with a steely look in her eye.

"Please, for me, stay with me, so I know you're safe," Steel urged. "We'll get this whole thing straightened out soon, but for now, we need to be smart." Steel was asking her to come with him, but it wasn't really a choice. If she said no, he would drag her kicking and screaming. He wasn't about to let anything happen to her. While he knew that his place was not much safer for them, it would do for the night until he could make other arrangements.

Kristen agreed to stay with Steel, and as she packed a bag, he made a few phone calls to arrange something a little more permanent.

"Pack enough to tide you over for a week," he yelled up to the second floor as he watched the street for anyone driving by.

Kristen packed frantically, throwing anything she thought she might need in the suitcase. Steel had warned her that they needed to be quick. After what had happened on the freeway, she knew he wasn't kidding. She took his warnings seriously as she made sure to stay clear of the bedroom window. After grabbing some items from her bathroom, she was ready to go.

"Can you help me with this?" she asked from the top of the stairs. Her bag was too heavy for her to handle, and Steel quickly came to her rescue.

Just as they were about to load the bag into the trunk of the car, they saw headlights turning towards them. Steel readied himself with his gun and told Kristen to crouch behind a bush. The held their breath and watched as the car passed by without incident. It wasn't the black car that had run them off the road. Still, Steel didn't feel safe. They were vulnerable outside.

He closed the trunk and got Kristen into the car safely and then headed back to his place so that he could pack a bag as well. They were going to go where no one would be able to find them.

# Chapter 15

Kristen sat quietly as Steel drove back to his place. She couldn't believe how much her life was changing. Why was someone after her, and what did it have to do with her father? She was in shock, but trusted Steel. Over the short time she had known him, he had come to be very important to her.

She couldn't help looking behind them as the drove the familiar path to her father's neighborhood. Every time she saw a car's headlights, she wondered if they were being followed again.

Steel saw Kristen glancing out the rear window. Every time there was a vehicle behind them, he could see her wring her hands together and become more and more tense. He wished he could take away all the drama that had become her life. The best he could do, though, is try to keep her safe until he could get to the bottom of it all.

"Here," he told Kristen as he extended his hand towards her. "Just hold my hand."

That connection to Steel did seem to calm Kristen down. It reminded her that she wasn't going through anything alone, and that she had someone there to help her and protect her...someone who cared for her.

Once they reached, Steel's house, he continued driving around the block, to make sure nothing looked out of place. When he was satisfied that there were no apparent dangers, he pulled to the curb.

"Wait here," he told Kristen as he hopped from the car and ran inside. Within thirty seconds, he returned with two bags.

"How did you do that so fast?" Kristen asked. It was the first thing she had said since they had left her home.

"I always keep a spare back packed," Steel laughed.

"Well, what's in the other one?" Kristen's curiosity seemed to help get her out of her catatonic state. Steel answered that the smaller bag he carried contained money and another gun as well as ammo. Somehow knowing that Steel was prepared for emergencies like the one they were experiencing made her feel better...more relaxed.

It didn't even occur to Kristen until they were back on the highway that she had no idea where they were going. She was probably being overly suspicious, but she wondered if she should ask Steel about their destination. The car could have been bugged.

"What is it?" Steel asked. He had been keeping an eye on Kristen and her body language, and she appeared to be struggling with something. He couldn't help smile as he watched the expressions on her face change every time she had changed her mind about whatever it was.

Kristen didn't know why, but she was still surprised that Steel could read her so well. She shouldn't have been...it was probably part of his training as a police officer, or maybe it was a natural ability that had made him perfect for the job. Either way, he had her figured out.

"I was going to ask where we were going, but I thought maybe the car was bugged," she answered as she laughed nervously. Hearing her thoughts out loud, Kristen realized how absurd they sounded.

"That was good thinking," Steel told her. "But, I already checked the car for bugs while we were at your house." Kristen couldn't help smiling proudly that she was beginning to think like a cop. Steel smiled as well as their eyes connected.

He explained that they were heading into the mountains. His old sergeant had a secluded cabin there where Steel thought they'd be safe. The cabin was surrounded by acres of woods, and no one would be able to trace it to Kristen or himself.

Luckily for Steel, he had been to the cabin once with his long time friend and boos. As he made the drive up the mountain, it was almost pitch black. Even with his high beams on, he was forced to drive very slow.

"I see what you mean," Kristen said as she looked out the windshield and tried to see anything. Even the road was difficult to see. It had changed from a paved road into a dirt one no wider than a path almost. "Is it safe to be driving on this?" she asked nervously. She was beginning to get scared. In the dark of night, everything around them looked foreboding and ominous. She told herself that it probably looked less scary in the light of day.

For over two hours, the two drove in silence as Steel put all his concentration into watching where he was going. The slightest distraction would get them completely lost. As they got into the heavier parts of the wooded road, the GPS unit in his car stopped working. He wasn't going to tell Kristen, but he really had no idea where they were. Everything around them was trees...above them, beside them and in front of them were trees, trees, and more trees.

Both Steel and Kristen sighed with relief as they saw a small light appear ahead of them. "Is that it?" Kristen asked.

Steel delayed his answer until they got a little closer. He was still too far to really make out what the light was. When it came into better view, he recognized it as the solar lantern attached to the front porch of Kawoski's cabin. "Yes, we're here!" he happily announced.

Leaving the bags in the car, Steel suggested they go inside and turn some lights on before bringing everything inside.

The cabin wasn't at all what Kristen was expecting. She thought it would be a little shack, maybe with a living room and a bedroom. She wasn't sure why, but she even expected it to have an outhouse instead of traditional indoor plumbing. What she saw as they entered the cabin was anything but what she expected, though. The living room was big and luxurious. There were modern furnishings that surrounded a gigantic stone fireplace.

When she saw that there was a second floor, Kristen asked, "How much do they pay police sergeants anyways?"

Steel laughed. "The cabin belonged to his father, who was an oil tycoon," he explained. He had the same exact reaction the one time he had visited the cabin for a weekend fishing trip. It was larger and more lavish than most people's homes and yet Kawoski barely spent any time there.

"Oh no!" Kristen gasped when they got back to the first floor after checking out the bedrooms.

The police instincts in Steel set him on guard. He quickly looked around, but didn't see any threats. "What?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kristen apologized when she saw Steel's furrowed brows and intense look. She didn't mean to alarm him. "I just realized that we didn't bring anything to eat," she said.

Steel explained that his boss told him there was a huge chest freezer with plenty of meat, and a pantry stocked with non-perishables. "Besides that, we can fish for some fresh food." A smile filled his face as he pictures Kristen in full fishing gear.

Steel asked Kristen to check out the food situation and maybe set something out to thaw while he unloaded the car.

"I can help," she protested, but Steel wouldn't hear of it. She looked through the freezer and saw that there were a few roasts, plenty of chicken and even a turkey. She grabbed the turkey and carried it upstairs so she could put it in a tub filled with water.

Steel was coming in with her bag and his two just as she was coming back down stairs. "Did you pick out your room?" he asked as he set everything down.

"No, I was putting the turkey in the tub."

"Well, that wasn't exactly the answer I was expecting," Steel laughed, but it did help with the anxiety he was feeling over their room selection. He didn't know whether Kristen would want to share a room with him or be offended if he suggested it. Even though he wanted to share a bed with her for purely selfish reasons, he also knew that it was safer for them to be in the same room. He wouldn't be able to sleep if he couldn't see Kristen and keep an eye on her. He felt safe at the cabin, but he had learned long ago to never get to comfortable.

# Chapter 16

Kristen was tired, but she was nervous about their sleeping arrangements. She and Steel had already made love but for some reason she felt foolish asking him if they should share a room at the cabin. She knew a lot of guys liked their space and she didn't want to crowd him. "Should we share a room so we can stay together?" she finally asked. The words sounded awkward coming out of her mouth but it was less embarrassing than coming right out and asking if he wanted to share her bed. She hoped Steel's answer would give her a clue as to how he felt.

"That's probably a good idea." Steel was glad that Kristen had brought up the subject. He was also glad that they would be sharing a room. After going upstairs and checking out the rooms again, Steel suggested they take the room with one King bed in it. "It has the least windows, so it'll provide more cover for us," he explained. The truth was there were other rooms just as good, but he didn't want to give Kristen the option of sleeping in separate beds.

Kristen felt like a teenage girl again as she got ready for bed in the bedroom's adjoining bathroom. She wanted to make sure she looked and smelled her best and it had been a long day. She soaked in the tub as Steel brought up the bags and made sure everything was locked up and secured.

Steel was already in bed when Kristen emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a plush robe. She couldn't help notice Steel's bare and chiseled chest and arms as he sat in bed writing on a notepad. "How was the bath?" he asked as he looked up. Kristen could see the desire in his expression as he looked her up and down.

"It was good," she answered and then turned away towards her suitcase. She didn't want him to see her blushing. "I just needed to get some pajamas."

When she got back into the bathroom to change into her sleeping clothes, Kristen was kicking herself. "Why did I mention my pajamas?" she whispered to herself knowing it didn't exactly conjure up a sexy image.

Steel thought Kristen looked adorable as she emerged in her two piece pajamas, complete with colorful socks that even had separate toe holes for each of her petite digits. That didn't mean, he wouldn't have preferred her in her birthday suit, though.

Both Kristen and Steel were tired, so after sharing an awkward kiss, they turned out the lights and decided to just get to sleep. They needed the rest so they could be alert. Even so, Steel curled up behind Kristen and wrapped his arm around her. She liked the feel of his arm holding her and the warmth of his breath on the back of her neck.

The two new lovers woke to the ring of Steel's cell phone. "I need to take this," he said as he gently crawled out of bed.

By the time Kristen made it downstairs and into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee brewing, he was deep in conversation. It was still too early for her to comprehend what he was saying. She didn't function very well without her morning cup of joe.

When her coffee was finished brewing, Kristen poured herself a mug and headed out to the front porch. In the light of day, the cabin and its surroundings looked quite different than it did on their arrival. She could see a stream nearby where she imagined rabbits and deer and all sorts of wildlife visiting to hydrate themselves. All of the trees surrounding the property were still in full bloom, but in a rainbow of colors. It was strange how much perspective and context could change how your views on things. The previous night, the cabin and woods and darkness make Kristen feel scared, as if she were entering a black abyss. But, as she sat drinking her coffee on the porch, she saw the cabin and its surroundings as a warm place where she could see herself spending the rest of her life.

Through the windows, Kristen could see that Steel was off the phone, so she went back inside to join him and offer him some coffee. As she poured, though, she could tell something about the phone call had disturbed him. "Bad news?" she asked, though she wasn't sure she wanted to hear it.

"I'm not sure," Steel answered. "I had a buddy of mine with the force do some checking around and he discovered why your father had those papers with a different last name on them."

"Why?" Kristen asked, relieved that she would finally be getting some answers. She wasn't prepared for what Steel was about to tell her, though.

He explained that her father apparently had worked for the mafia at one time. Correction. He did some of their accounting. "I guess, to keep himself untraceable, he used a different name on the forms," Steel continued to explain.

"So, you're saying the people who maybe killed him, and ran us off the road...it's the mafia?" Kristen didn't know how to react. She thought she was safe with Steel but knowing the mafia was after them seemed daunting. How could just the two of them take on such a powerful organization? She didn't want to cry, but felt the waterworks building up.

"All we know if that he worked for them. My buddy is going to do some more digging and call me back," Steel answered as he pulled Kristen to him and held her in his embrace. He shared her concerns about the vastness of the mafia's power, but he had to stay calm and at least appear in control, for her.

By dinnertime, Kristen had calmed down somewhat. Focusing on cooking a nice turkey dinner, complete with potatoes and gravy, fresh baked rolls, cornbread dressing and even cranberry sauce at least kept her mind occupied on something other than their current dilemma.

"Man, what smells so good?" Steel asked with a smile on his face as he stepped into the open and spacious kitchen. Kristen knew at least a part of his compliment was an act to put a smile on her face. After eating the food he had cooked, she knew he could likely do a better job in the kitchen. Still, she was no novice. Their turkey dinner would be delicious and homey...just the way she liked it.

"This is way too much food for just the two of us," Kristen laughed as she set everything out on the large dining room table. She was sure they would eat it all, though, if they had to spend more than a couple of days there.

"This is so good!" Steel said as he filled his mouth with turkey and gravy. He wasn't lying, either. It had been a long time since he had a home-cooked turkey dinner and everything tasted amazing. By the end of dinner, he had to unbutton his jeans just to breathe. "I'm so full," he complained with a smile as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"Well, you didn't have to eat thirds of everything! It will keep 'til tomorrow, you know," Kristen teased as she began to clear the table.

In the kitchen, she found containers for all of the leftovers and made room for them in the fridge before carving all the remaining meat off the turkey carcass. Just as she was finishing up, Steel got another phone call from his buddy. She instantly tensed up and wondered if the new Steel was about to hear would be good or bad.

# Chapter 17

Kristen listened intensely as she tried to wash the dishes quietly. She wanted to know what Steel was finding out, but he gave little clues to anything. His only replies on the phone were a bunch of ' _okays_ ' and ' _I sees_ '. She would have to wait for him to get off the phone to find out anything.

Steel paced the living room floor as he listened to his buddy and ex-partner tell him what he had found out. "Apparently, everyone involved in the mafia organization at the time that Thomas Casey worked for them is locked away. It looks like whatever crimes your neighbor may have known about or had a paper trail on were already tried and justice had been served."

Unable to stand listening in any longer without hearing some real information, Kristen grabbed the trash containing the turkey carcass and headed outside to dispose of it.

"So, no one had recently been paroled or released?" Steel asked, trying to figure out what could be going on. He was positive that the mafia could be the only explanation for everything that had been going on. It wasn't the M.O. he was used to in cases where they were involved, but he had been out of the game for quite some time.

"Nope. A few died but none have been released under any circumstances. I think you gotta start looking at other angles," his friend answered.

Frustrated, Steel thanked his buddy and hung up the phone. "What is going on?" he asked himself.

As Kristen rounded the corner of the cabin to place the garbage bag in the trash can, she heard the cracking of a branch in the distance. She stopped in her tracks and turned towards the sound, but couldn't see anything now that it was dark again. She knew it was probably a deer or other animal, but she didn't want to stick around to find out.

As quickly as she could, she opened the garbage can lid and threw the bag inside. As she turned around to head back inside, she heard a voice.

"You shouldn't have left me," the familiar voice said. It was Adam. She couldn't see him but he sounded close.

"What are you doing here, Adam?" she asked. She wasn't happy about his arrival, but at least it was just a jealous ex-boyfriend and not the killer.

"It all could've been so perfect. We could've gotten married and lived together, never having to worry about money...but, you ruined all that."

Adam's voice sounded creepy. Kristen wondered if he had been drinking. Either way, she needed to get him inside so they'd be safe, and let Steel decide where they should go from that point.

"We've got to get inside. It's not safe here," she urged. As she listened to the crackling of more tree limbs, Adam came into view. He was holding a gun and had an expression on his face that Kristen had never seen before.

Inside, at the same time, Steel headed into the kitchen to tell Kristen what his buddy told him about the mafia, only there was no sign of her. He checked the other rooms, thinking maybe she went upstairs. Still, there was no sign of her. It wasn't until he re-checked the kitchen did he see the back door was cracked.

Steel headed outside, but as he was about to round the corner of the house, he heard voices. One belonged to Kristen, but who was she talking to. He tried to proceed as quietly as possible. As he got closer, he could tell the other voice belonged to a man, and angry sounding man.

"Drop the gun!" Steel yelled as he turned the corner.

"Stop, it's just Adam!" Kristen told Steel. She knew he was just looking out for her, but she certainly didn't want him shooting Adam, even if he was carrying a gun. "Let's just all go inside and talk about this," she suggested...hoping to keep the peace between her two ex-fiancé and new lover.

"I don't think he's here because he's jealous," Steel replied to Kristen before turning his attention back to Adam. "I said drop the gun!"

Without warning, Adam quickly retreated back into the shadows, making it hard for Steel to locate him. Kristen, confused, demanded to know what was going on.

"Get inside, now!" Steel ordered, but before they could even round the corner, a gun fired and Kristen watched as Steel fell forward. She screamed.

"Get away from him," she heard Adam say as he stepped forward and kicked Steel's gun away from his hand.

Kristen was frozen in fear and couldn't take her eyes off of Steel. He wasn't moving or even uttering a sound. Was he dead?

Adam grabbed her by the arm and forced her back inside the cabin. "Why are you doing this?" she cried once they were inside.

"Because of the inheritance, you stupid bitch," Adam answered as he looked through the kitchen drawers. Keeping one eye on Kristen he never lowered the gun. He was able to find that he was looking for, though. As he tossed a ball of twine at Kristen, he ordered her to tie her feet together.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Kristen yelled back. None of it was making sense to her.

Outside, Steel struggled to get to his feet. He had been shot in the shoulder and the pain was intense. It was nothing he hadn't suffered from before, though. Still, he was losing blood and felt his strength fading. "I've got to save Kristen," he kept telling himself as he tried to scoot closer to where Adam had kicked his gun.

# Chapter 18

As Steel struggled to get his gun and stand up, Kristen was inside getting her hands tied tightly by the twine that Adam found in the kitchen.

Kristen didn't know what Adam was after but she figured it wasn't just because he was jealous and wanted her back. She tried to stay calm and think, but she had just seen Steel shot in cold blood. For all she knew, he was dead. As the tears ran down her face, she tried really hard to calm her breathing and just be rational. She knew she couldn't let her emotions get out of hand...not if she wanted to make it out alive.

"You don't have to do this, Adam," she pled. "I'll go with you."

He laughed as he waved his gun at her. "I don't need you anymore, and I'm not Adam. My name is Jason Middleton."

_Middleton_. Where had Kristen heard that name? It was the adoption papers. Her birth parents' last name was Middleton. "Who are you?" she asked, but Adam could see she had already figured part of it out.

"I'm your cousin," Adam answered. He didn't see any reason not to be honest. After all, he planned on killing her and making it look like an accident. Then, his grandparents' inheritance would be all his.

Kristen was glad she had never slept with Adam, or Jason, after hearing that he was her cousin. Still she couldn't understand why he would try to marry her. "If you're my cousin, why did you want to get married after my father's accident," she asked. She was surprised he was answering her at all, but as long as he was, she knew she needed to keep him talking until she could figure out a plan to get free.

"Accident? Are you serious?!" Jason shouted and once again laughed loudly. "That wasn't an accident. I had to get your father out of the way, so you'd never learn that you were adopted."

Kristen felt another wave of tears, this time for her father. He died because of her. "Why did you care if I found out who my birth parents were?" she spat. Her hatred and anger had grown for the man she now knew was her cousin.

She watched through tear filled eyes as Jason ignored her question and moved the gas stove away from the wall. At first she didn't know what he was doing, but then it all became clear. He was going to start a gas leak, and blow up the cabin. If she was going to get free, Kristen knew it had to be soon.

She listened as Jason explained to her about the inheritance and how he was happy at first to just marry her so he'd get to share the money. But, after she left him to be with Steel, he decided to kill her and just keep all the money for himself.

Fortunately, as Jason talked, he focused his attention on the gas line behind the stove. With his head buried and the noise he was making, Kristen was able to try to get her hands and legs freed.

As much as she struggled, though, she couldn't seem to get lose. Before she knew it, Jason was finished doing whatever he was doing with the gas line, and announced that he would miss her.

"Don't do this!" she screamed as she began sobbing. She couldn't believe her life was going to end that way, but without her father or Steel, she wasn't sure she had any reason to go on living anyway.

Before Jason left, he set a small device on the table near Kristen. It made a clicking noise that sounded like the ignition on her barbecue grill.

She watched in horror as he headed for the back door. She began thrashing back and forth in an attempt to free herself from the twine restraints. Her only hope was to get free before the house filled with gas. As she bucked back and forth, the twine cut into her wrists and ankles.

Just as Jason reached the back door, he opened it and turned to say something. Before he could get the words out, though, Kristen heard a loud bang. She froze and watched as Jason's shirt turned red and he slumped to the ground. He had been shot.

The next second, she saw Steel step over the body and into the kitchen. He was hurt, but alive. The tears in her eyes changed from those of fear to those of happiness.

"Turn off the gas!" she told him, but he was only concerned with one thing, and that was getting her out of the house. He grabbed a knife from a wooden block on the kitchen counter and cut her free.

"Go outside and get far away from the cabin!" he ordered. "I'll shut the gas off and join you."

Kristen didn't want to leave Steel in the cabin with the leaking gas, but knew that an argument would just waste time and endanger both of their lives. She did grab the clicking ignition device and throw it into the front yard on her way out though.

As she waited for Steel, she could barely breathe. She held her breath, hoping that nothing would go wrong. "What was taking so long?" she wondered after about five minutes. A part of her wondered if maybe he had passed out from either the blood loss or the fumes.

Just as she was about to head back inside to check on him, she saw him emerge from the doorway. She ran to meet him. "I'm so happy you're alive!" she shouted as she hugged him tightly and kissed him on the lips.

"The things I do for love," he teased and then kissed her back, this time more passionately.

An hour later, the area in front of the cabin was filled with police cruisers, ambulance and fire engines. Kristen and Steel gave an account on how Jason, who pretended to be her fiancé, Adam, had tracked them to the cabin and tried to kill them both so he could steal Kristen's rightful inheritance.

Steel was still unsure how Jason even knew where they were, but one of the detectives said he must've had a bug on Kristen. The only thing she always had on her at all times was her cell phone, and sure enough, when they checked it they found a tracking device.

"I'm so sorry," Kristen said. Everything that had happened was all because of her, and she couldn't help feeling guilty.

"We're fine. I just know that I never want to live another day without you in my life," Steel replied as he got down on one knee. "Kristen, will you marry me?"

All of the EMTs and officers all broke out in applause as Steel proposed. He had to use a tied piece of grass as the engagement ring, but Kristen told him she would love to marry him.

A year later, they were married, but that's a story for another time.
Be sure to read the second book in the Rocky Mountain Novella series.

Identity Crisis: A Rocky Mountain Novella

Flip the page to see another Rory Chambers series as well as a preview of a best-selling Porterlance Book
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### As the Snow Falls  
Volumes 1

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### M.D. James

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### Turn the page for a preview...

### Chapter 1

"Naw. She's okay." I half managed to get out as my friends were teasing me about having a crush on April Powders.

"Yeah, you do! Ohhhh, yeah, you do! Jimmy likes April. Jimmy likes April," Mikey sang out loud while dancing around our lunch table. I'm not sure how, exactly, I became friends with Mikey. I suppose it was because we had homeroom together since I could remember. He was very tall for a thirteen year old and built like a lumber-jack. And, like you'd assume from looking at his unkempt hair and dirt-stained face, he had absolutely no manners. He didn't even care if there were girls around when he needed to pass gas, or shoot a booger out of his nose. And, he certainly didn't mind embarrassing me in front of April Powders.

I was quickly turning beet red, and wanted to die.

April was a girl who I sat next to each day in my English literature and biology classes. She had curly, brown hair that always smelled like roses. She was our class president, and my lab partner in biology. The truth was, I did have a bit of a crush on her, but I'd never tell Mikey that. No need to give him more ammunition to use on me later. It was always so hard to concentrate on the biology lesson when I was sitting next to April. I was magically transported into the wishful thinking of my mind by the lovely, clean scent of April's hair. I would get so nervous, though, that I had to constantly wipe the palms of my hands on my pants in class. They would sweat so much when I was around her. I mean, they would sweat a lot...so much so, that I felt like a sweat factory in biology! I probably left class everyday with pit stains under my arms too. I'm sure she thought I was a complete and utter idiot.

Being thirteen and in high school was hard to figure out. As a teen and high-schooler, I was supposed to hit on girls every chance I got and try to get dates or more from them...but, just last year I was made fun of if I even had a crush on a girl, or a girl had a crush on me. I never really knew what to do, and Mikey seemed to know that and pounced on me every chance he got. Unfortunately, for me, he got a lot of chances. I mean A LOT!

"Aww...leave him alone, Mike," my best friend, Connor, interjected. "Can't ya see he's embarrassed?"

Connor was everything I wished I was. He was taller than me...standing at five foot nine inches. He was athletic and toned. He had brown hair and hazel eyes like me, but also kind-of a crooked smile that seemed to make girls swoon. He was the kind of guy who was smart, funny, witty, goofy, and outgoing. I felt very lucky to have him as my best friend. I could tell Connor anything and know my secrets were safe with him. He was completely trust-worthy, and we had been friends since I was nine years old. That's when he stopped a bully from beating my face to a bloody stump. I know he was just trying to protect me this time too, but Mikey was hard to reel in when he knew he was getting under a person's skin.

Just as Mikey was about to start in again, and likely embarrass me to even greater depths than before, the school bell loudly rang.

RRIIIINNNNNGGGGGG....

Saved by the bell, lunch was over.

I exhaled a huge sigh of relief, as I picked up my trash and partially eaten sandwich and tossed them in the fly ridden trash can. I missed while trying to shoot the balled up wrapper into the can, as if it was a basketball. I quickly looked around to make sure Mikey didn't see my failure, and it seemed that I was in the clear for once. Now, I just had to make it through the rest of the day.

Connor and I told Mikey we would see him later since he had Algebra class on the other end of campus. As we walked away, Mikey yelled at the top of his lungs, "Jimmy! See ya later, Loverboy!" and cracked up laughing to himself as he blew a kiss in my direction. About thirty kids stopped and started looking at me and laughed...some hysterically.

"Don't mind him, dude," Connor offered, and playfully tussled my hair as he broke away to his locker. He always knew how to make me feel better.

The next few classes went well. I didn't have any classes the second half of the day with either Mikey or April, so I could just focus on my schoolwork. I was always a teacher's pet type of guy. I naturally got good grades, and was always polite and attentive to my teachers. I didn't brown-nose or anything, but I still got singled out as the example to follow in quite a few of my classes.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang and I couldn't wait to get home. Mom said that if I got my homework done early enough, we could go look at Christmas lights around town. I've always loved Christmas. Living in Washington State, I was fortunate enough to get a white Christmas every year. It just seemed to make everything so much more magical. The lights seemed to twinkle more, as they reflected off the snow and ice...and the people became just a tiny bit happier, in spite of having to drive in a foot of snow. The cold temperatures made me wanna get a fire going in the fireplace, and drink hot cocoa while watching my favorite Christmas television special. I had to imagine the fire since we never had a fireplace in our house.

Connor and I lived right next door to each other, so we always walked home together and talked about our day. It was actually the part of my day I normally looked forward to most.

"Wanna have a snowball fight throw-down?" Connor challenged as we passed the park near our houses. A snowball fight throw-down is like the ultimate snowball fight....winner takes all. The last three years Connor has held the championship, but I was determined to beat him one day. It would have to wait until some other day though.

"Can't today, bud. We're going to go look at Christmas lights tonight, so I gotta get my homework for Mrs. Schiltz's class done ASAP!" I answered. "Maybe tomorrow."

"Deal." Connor said with one of his patented winks as we each crossed our front yards.

As soon as I opened the worn and squeaky door, I threw off my snow covered shoes and ran straight to the fridge. I was fortunate enough to have a very good metabolism. Though, sometimes, I wondered if I was too thin. I weighed just under one hundred and thirty pounds. I felt like that was a good weight for my age and height. I grabbed some whole wheat bread, three or four ham slices, colby-jack cheese, and some Cheez-Its and headed to my room. I put a sandwich together quickly, and got my books out of my hand-me-down book bag.

"Is that you, Honey?" I heard Mom yell from down the hall. My Mom was a very pretty lady, who had to raise two kids all alone. She worked hard as a deli manager in our local super-market, and always seemed to have a smile on her face. Sometimes, I worried that she worked too hard. She was older than most of my friends' moms, and shouldn't have been doing as much manual labor as she did. My friends used to tease me when I was little about my Mom being the same age as their grandmas, but I still thought she was the best Mom around. When I would see laundry detergent commercials on television, I remembered my childhood being just like what was portrayed in them. The rays of sun would be coming in the windows, with a gentle spring breeze. Mom would always have everything smelling so great, and welcome me home from school with a perfect smile on her loving face.

"Yeah. I'm starting on my homework now. Are we still going to look at lights tonight?" I asked her.

"As long as you and your sister get your homework done in time," she hollered back from down the hall.

My sister's name was Sarah. Don't let the angelic sounding name fool you. She was pretty...she definitely got Mom's looks. She had the same long, wavy, blonde hair that shimmered, and eyes that changed between blue and green depending upon which type of a mood she was in. Her skin was very pale, almost porcelain-like. But, my sister could be mean....to me, at least. I guess that was to be expected from an older sister. She just turned sixteen, and thought she was too cool to hang around her dorky, younger brother. Even as kids, she seemed to find ways to torment me while we played together. When I was barely eight, she would only play with me if I would pet and talk to her feet. She would pretend they were turtles, and if I didn't pet them, and snuggle with them, their feelings would get hurt. On _several_ occasions, she made me eat the dead skin from her feet...telling me it tasted like bacon, and that the turtles made it for me. And, of course, she always got her way. Anytime we had to pick a game to play or decide on what to watch on TV, it was always what she wanted. I always figured my mom loved her more, but it could've just been that she was mom's first-born, or because they were both girls. Maybe it was just because my sister threw the biggest fit if she didn't get her way. One time, we were having an argument at _Wendy's_ about something and she took her packet of black pepper and blew the pepper right into my eyes. Boy, did it burn! Of course, she claimed it was an accident, but, I knew better. I told myself that I hoped she wasn't planning on coming home late and messing up our trip to go see the Christmas lights.

BANG, BANG, BANG!

I sprung up from my history homework, as my sister barged into my room and collapsed onto my bed, scattering my homework all over the place.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked a bit too rudely when I heard my sister's sobbing.

"I don't want to talk about it!" she replied. I moved my homework out of the way, because I thought her nose was running and I definitely didn't need snot all over my report when I turned it in. "You wouldn't even understand," she continued in between sobs.

"How do you know what I'd understand?" I asked, defensively.

"Men!" she exclaimed. Before I could figure out what she meant, she rambled on like I wasn't even there. "They will tell you they love you, and that you mean the world to them...but, don't you believe them. Oh no! Don't you believe them!"

I don't really expect to ever be in that position with a man, but okay.....

"They're all the same and only after one thing. Why can't Andrew understand that I want to take it slower than that? He tried to get me to hook-up last night, you know?" she asked rhetorically to no one in particular, as if I weren't really even there. "And, then, when I said I just wanted to kiss...he said he was fine with it. But, today he gives me the silent treatment all day, and at lunch I see him flirting with Angela 'the slut' Morgan!"

"Should I be hearing this?" I asked, but she continued as if not even hearing me.

"If he wants Angela 'the slut' Morgan, well, he can have her! I've got lots of guys wanting to date me. That's what I'll do! I'll go out with another guy tonight. See how he likes it!" Before she could ramble more, I stopped her and reminded her that we were all going to look at Christmas lights. "Grow up, Jimmy! How can you think of Christmas lights at a time like this???" And, with that, she stormed out of my room, likely to go repeat the entire thing to Mom.

Even if she decided she didn't want to go look at the lights with me and Mom, I was still excited. I spent the next two hours doing my report until I smelled dinner. As I was packing my books back into my book bag, Mom yelled out, "Dinner time!"

I raced to the dining room, and saw we were having a "taco night." Not very Christmassy, but I loved Mexican food. Laid out on the table were hard, corn tortillas as well as soft, flour tortillas. There was ground, seasoned beef, refried beans, two kinds of shredded cheese, black olive slices, lettuce, onions, diced tomatoes, salsa and sour cream. My sister was already seated at the table and seemed to be in better spirits. As always, I started loading up my plate first.

"Hungry much?" my sister asked in a sarcastic tone.

"You bet..." I replied with my mouth full as I continued shoving the first bite in my mouth. The taco broke and all its fillings dropped out onto my plate. Mom and Sarah laughed contagiously.

After dinner, Sarah and I cleaned the table and dishes. She made me wash because she said her hands were too delicate for dish-water. _Oh, brother!_ I didn't mind though because I never liked drying dishes anyways. I always thought I was going to drop and break them because they were so slippery. Once the left-overs were put up and the kitchen was sparkling clean again, Mom told us to get our coats and shoes on so we could get on the road for some good ole Christmas light lookin'.

"You don't have to tell me twice...." I hollered as I raced to find my shoes.

"Jimmy! I've told you not to get snow all over the place when you come in from school," Mom complained when she saw the mess the snow from my shoes made. "Go get a towel and mop up the puddles, please." I hurried and cleaned up the mess, and we all hopped in the car.

Brrrr, rrrr, rrrr, rrrrrr....cachuk!

Mom's car was an older, powder-blue, Chrysler station-wagon that never seemed to want to start when it was cold outside. Mom tried again, and it finally cranked. "Oh my God...it's sooooo c-c-coooollllddddd in here," Sarah complained. She always seemed to be complaining about something. Mom turned on the Christmas carols to take our minds off of the frigid car while it slowly warmed up. Then, she stepped outside to scrape the ice from the windshield. Meanwhile, I bundled up in the blanket I kept on the back seat for long trips. I got car sick very easily, so if we were going to be in the car long, I always had to nap to prevent myself from getting too nauseous. There was always a blanket and pillow waiting for me, just in case.

"Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells! Jingle all the waaaayyyy..." I sang as we backed out of the driveway. The car began to heat up and we started out to the first neighborhood. The first few houses didn't have any lights on, even though their yards were decorated. We did manage to find enough houses that had their lights on to make it worth it, though. We sang along to the carols on the radio, in between our trio of "ooohhhhs" and "aaahhhs" as we saw bigger and bigger displays of lights. One house even had wooden cut outs of cartoon characters, and had re-enacted a scene from my favorite Christmas special, involving a lonely Christmas tree.

Once we left a few of the smaller neighborhoods, we made our way to the King of Neighborhoods, as I nick-named the sub-division due to the enormous sizes of the houses. I don't know if you'd call the houses in _Ashton Woods Estate_ mansions, but they are certainly the biggest houses I had ever seen. Each house was covered in stone, and even had a smaller attached home for their housekeepers or cooks. We weren't what I would call poor, but we rented our home...and had an older car. Mom provided for my sister and I alright and we haven't been on welfare. Even so, money was tight. I could never imagine living in a house as large and luxurious as the ones I was looking at. There must have been at least seven or eight bedrooms in each main house...and probably just as many bathrooms. _Imagine that....not having to share a bathroom with Sarah anymore._ It brought a smile to my face.

The lights and decorations on the mansions looked so elegant. It was my absolute favorite stop every year. My mom always worried that we would get arrested, because of the looks of our car. "Surely, they'll think we're casing the joint," she always joked. One of the houses had a huge tree in the middle of the spacious, front yard, and they always decorated it to look like a Christmas tree, complete with the tree skirt and larger than life presents underneath. It was so big, it reminded me of the tree at the end of the _How the Grinch Stole_ Christmas cartoon special. If I would ever become rich, I'd want to give my Mom a Christmas tree like that...with just as many presents.

We continued looking at more houses and more pretty lights, but I must have fallen asleep because I awoke to my Mom tucking me in to bed.

"Sweet dreams, Jimmy," she said as she kissed my forehead.

"Goodnight, Mom," I lazily muttered back.

BBBBBZZZZZ. BBBBBZZZZZ. BBBBBZZZZZ. BBBBBZZZZZ.

I hated my alarm clock. Connor had an iPod dock that would wake him to his favorite music. I didn't have an iPod or cell phone...hell; we didn't even have enough money for a generic mp3 player. I tossed my simple but effective alarm clock across the room and slowly got out of bed.

I had to bang on the bathroom door, repeatedly. "Hurry up!" As usual, Sarah was in there doing her makeup. "You can do that in your room," I suggested for about the millionth time.

"I have to look extra, _extra_ hot today, you know...so I can make Andrew jealous," she explained as she exited our only bathroom, "...so, chill out, dweeb."

"Whatever..." I mumbled as I closed the door and started the shower. I wasn't really a vain guy. I didn't get haircuts every two weeks like Connor, or workout religiously like Mikey. Most days I barely ran a comb through my hair. But, I thought I was an attractive enough guy, in an average sort of way.

After getting ready and grabbing my book bag, I made my way next door to Connor's so we could head to the bus stop. We always rode the bus on cold mornings, because it was just too cold and early to make a hike to school in the snow and ice. Most of our friends got rides to school from their parents, but Connor's parents and my Mom were already at work by the time school started.

As we pulled up to the school, Mikey was there waiting. "What took ya'll so long?" he asked with a fake, southern drawl.

"We're here at the same time as always, Mikey," I replied. He just punched my shoulder and started telling us about the cool, new tablet computer he got last night for Hanukkah. Mikey lived on the wealthier side of town. His parents were both doctors, so he tended to always have the best of everything. I liked living vicariously through him, especially when he would tell us about all the new gadgets he got as presents. But, after 10 minutes of him rambling on about this new $700 tablet computer, even I was jealous and ready to change the subject. "So....how did you guys think you did on yesterday's English Lit test?" I offered to steer the subject in a different direction.

"I aced that biotch!" exclaimed Mikey, even though he rarely got anything above a "C."

"I think I did pretty well, too," I stated.

Of course, Mikey had to start in on me, again. "I'm surprised you could concentrate on the test, what, with you drooling over April all day."

"I think that was you, Mike!" Connor interjected, coming to my rescue yet again. "We'd better get to homeroom, though, before the bell rings." We took our seats just as the second bell rang.

The rest of the day went by without incident. In Biology, April even gave me a note that of course smelled of roses. I waited until last period, though, to read it:

Jimmy,

I think you're really cute. I hope you think I'm pretty, also.

I was hoping you'd ask me to the Winter Dance, if you don't already have a date.

Let me know...okay?

April

It was a short note, but one that made me very happy. It got me equally as nervous, though. I had never even held a girl's hand...so how was I going to take one to the dance? I had nothing to wear, and I'd have to get a corsage. At the end of the night, she'd probably expect me to kiss her. It's not that I didn't want to, but what if I was bad at it and she told everyone at school? I definitely didn't want Mikey to know about this note, but I'd probably tell Connor about it on the way home from school.

"Hey, Connor," I started as we made our way home, "April gave me a note today in Biology."

"No way, dude! That's great....what'd it say?"

"She wants to go to the Winter Dance with me." I explained. Connor thought that was great. "But, I'm scared. I have never been that close to a girl. How will I know if I should kiss her?"

"You'll just know," he offered with confidence. Connor had kissed a few girls over the last year, even though he never really dated any of them.

"How will I know how to kiss," I asked, "...so I don't gross her out?"

My best friend just started cracking up laughing. "You know I'm your best friend and would do anything for you, dude....but, I'm not kissing you!" he teased. Hearing that made me laugh and lightened my mood.

That is, until we rounded the next corner. Blue and red lights were flashing near my house. I could see a portly police officer putting my Mom in the back of a squad car. She was handcuffed!

I forgot about Connor and the note from April, and sprinted to my house as the police car containing my Mom drove off. I don't know when I started crying, but tears were streaming down my face. At first, I figured it was just snowflakes that landed on me, melting. I was screaming, trying to catch my mother. I didn't know what was going on. As I reached my house, a tall, middle-aged, uniformed officer asked if I was James Nelson.

"Where did you take my Mom?" I screamed, through my sobbing and tears.

"It'll be alright, son," the officer told me. "Are you James Nelson?"

"YES! YES! Why did you take my Mom away?" I demanded.

"Because she isn't your Mom," the tall officer answered.

_That's all I remember before I fainted_.

