Sins of the Past (4 page)

Jacob popped a pain pill and chased it with a glass of water. “You have about ten minutes to tell me both before I’m out like a light,” he said as he slid further down onto the bed and propped his knee up on a pillow.

He could hear male laughter and shouts in the background and knew Cole was in the barracks. It reminded him that that would never be him again. Jacob missed it all. He missed the smell of gunpowder, the adrenaline rush as he geared up for a mission, and the high he got from accomplishing his mission and returning home safe after making the world a slightly better place to live in.

Cole’s voice broke him out of his thoughts. “Okay, the bad news first, Valente may not be dead.”

Jacob immediately sat up and winced when the move pulled at his knee. “What do you mean he may not be dead? I personally shot the bastard.” He was the reason Jacob was no longer enlisted. He had wanted to personally make sure he killed the man and had gotten up close and personal to do it. Jacob had taken a bullet to the knee, but watching Valente’s eyes as he put a bullet through the man’s head had made it all worth it.

“I keep hearing rumors that you shot the wrong guy.” Cole sighed as if he was tired. “I’m not sure if any of it is true, but the word on the street is that Valente was a paranoid bastard. So paranoid that he had a decoy of himself made. They say he convinced a plastic surgeon to give another man his face. The night we raided his compound, the decoy was there, not him.”

Jacob stared at the bare white wall in front of him. Everything that Cole had told him was possible. Julio Valente was worse than scum and using another man to die in his place sounded like something he would do. In Jacob’s opinion, the man’s mother should have aborted him when she found out she was pregnant. Valente hadn’t deserved to take his first breath of air. He had done nothing but terrorize young girls since he was old enough to understand what he was doing.

From the file his SEAL team had gathered on Valente, he had raped his first girl when he was barely twelve. The six-year-old had been his next door neighbor. From there his crimes got progressively worse until he eventually ran the largest white slavery ring in the world. He kidnapped young girls off the streets all over the world and auctioned them off like cattle to the highest bidder.

Jacob’s stomach clenched thinking about some of the girls they were able to recover the night they raided the compound. The girls were from Valente’s own personal stash. Even though they were rescued, he had a feeling none of them would ever be the same. Not only had the girls been raped, they had also been tortured beyond belief. They seemed to range between the ages of five to twelve and most had fingers or toes missing, large gashes all over their bodies, and multiple bruises. Rage at seeing what he considered to still be babies being treated that way, was the reason Jacob had personally gone after Valente himself.

“There is something else. If the rumors are true, then the one about Valente putting a price on your head is true as well.”

“How is that even possible? How would Valente even know I was there, especially if he wasn’t and there really was a decoy. I never pulled off my mask. There is no way he would have known who I was.”

Cole was silent before he answered. “The question I’ve been asking myself is how the man even knew we were coming. That was a top secret mission. Need to know only.”

Jacob wondered the same thing. His SEAL team was an elite black ops group. They only went on missions the government needed carried out in silence, the kind of missions where, if they were caught, the U.S. would deny all involvement. There was no reason why his name should even be circulating in any rumors.

“We’ll talk more when I get there. There are too many ears here.” Cole paused, letting his meaning sink in. The line wasn’t secure.

“What do you mean when you get here?”

“That’s the good news that I wanted to tell you. I got my discharge papers today. I’m getting out in two weeks. I assume that offer to crash on your couch still stands.”

Jacob was happy to hear the news, but he was shocked. “I thought you were reenlisting. You love the SEALs too much to leave.”

“It’s not the same. Besides, I thought it was time to move over and let the young guys handle things.”

Jacob knew there was more to it by the sound of Cole’s voice, but he didn’t push. Cole was not old by any means, they were both thirty-eight and still in good shape. Cole could run circles around those younger guys if he wanted to. “You know you can crash here anytime you want. There’s a guest bedroom so you don’t even have to sleep on the couch.”

“Thanks man.”

They talked a few minutes more, until Jacob felt himself starting to drift off to sleep. After hanging up, his thoughts were on Valente. Jacob knew he needed to make plans. If he really was on Valente’s radar, then the man would eventually catch up to him. When that happened, Jacob would be ready for him. He had a feeling that was one of the reasons Cole was planning on staying with him as well, even if the other man wouldn’t admit it.

The last thing Jacob thought of was his neighbor. He had never laughed so hard with anyone other than Cole. He had enjoyed himself with Lorna so much that he had been reluctant to go home when the time came. Jacob smiled. Cole was going to love her. He couldn’t wait to introduce the two.

* * * *

Jacob barely resisted the urge to scream as he stared at the bare white walls of his living room. He was so bored. Back at the base there was always something for him to be doing. He had always been on the go. Now that he was no longer in the military, he had no idea what to do with his time. Fighting and war were all he knew.

Jacob sighed. “Maybe I should take up a hobby. Great, now I’m talking to myself.” He stood and grabbed his crutches. Jacob couldn’t wait for Cole to get there, but in the meantime, he needed to find something to do to keep himself from going crazy.

Hobbling his way to the kitchen, Jacob opened the refrigerator only to slam it closed again. The shelves were still just as bare as they had been when he had looked a few hours ago. He stared at his keys on the kitchen counter and contemplated how hard it would be for him to go on a grocery run. He hadn’t taken any pain meds since he woke up so he was okay to drive. The problem was how he was going to push the grocery cart around once he got to the store, because there was no way he was going to use one of those motorized shopping carts. Jacob shrugged his shoulders and snatched his keys off the counter. The lure of getting out of the house and actually doing something was too much. He decided he would figure something out when he got there.

As he made his way slowly down the porch steps and over to his car, Jacob offered up a prayer of thanks to whoever was listening that he had been shot in his left knee instead of his right. At least he could still drive and wasn’t a complete invalid. He backed out of the drive and glanced over at his neighbor’s house. If he was lucky enough, maybe he would see Lorna in town.

Jacob took his time as he drove through the small town. It was around lunchtime and though the day was hot, there were still people out on the sidewalks shopping. He spotted a diner and he was tempted to stop in to grab lunch, but he drove on past when he caught a glimpse of the crowd through the window. He wasn’t in the mood to be around a lot of people yet. He wanted to recover a little more before he got to know the people in the town he chose to move to. Jacob didn’t want to have to answer any questions about his injury.

Instead, he pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store and parked. Jacob told himself the disappointment he felt wasn’t because he didn’t see Lorna’s car as he drove through town. As much as they had talked the night before, he realized neither of them had gotten around to talking about what they did for a living. He had no clue where his neighbor worked. All he knew was she left early every morning in ragged jeans and a T-shirt covered in grease stains and she didn’t return until dark covered in even more grease. Not that he had been watching for her. He just happened to be looking out the window at those times.

Cutting the engine, Jacob made his way to the store. Once inside, he leaned on his crutches and stood staring at the line of grocery carts. There was one lonely motorized wheelchair with a basket strapped to the front sitting next to the pushcarts as if it was mocking him. Jacob refused to even acknowledge its presence. There was no way his pride would even let him consider it.

“Oh, bless your heart.”

The nasally voice came from behind him and Jacob turned to see a woman standing behind him looking at him as if she was about to start bawling on his behalf at any moment. Before he could even say anything, she had her hands wrapped around his arm and was moving him away from the carts. He had enough time to look down and see her long red nails as they pressed into his skin a little. Jacob winced when the first word that popped into his head was “claws” when he saw them.

“You poor thing. You just move right out of the way and let me help you. I’m Ashley, by the way.”

“Jacob,” he mumbled, although he wasn’t sure she had heard him. Ashley had already gotten a cart and started off toward the aisles. Leaving him no choice, he hobbled after her, trying to keep up with his crutches.

“I’m so glad I ran into you. We hadn’t got the chance to meet and Daddy has told me all about you.”

Jacob had no idea who
Daddy
was since he hadn’t met anyone in town, besides Lorna. Just thinking of his neighbor made him shiver. The sight of her naked after her towel had fallen off the night before kept replaying over and over again. The fact that she had been bleeding at the time, or he that was the cause of it, did nothing to take away from the sight of her bare with those sexy curves of hers on display.

Lorna was a natural beauty, unlike the woman currently talking as they made their way down the dairy aisle. Jacob grabbed a gallon of milk and placed it in the cart, wondering if Ashley was even aware he hadn’t even been listening to a word she said. Looking at her, he saw that she was nothing like Lorna. This woman was fake, from her overly-styled, dyed blonde hair down to her almost leathery-looking tanned skin. Compared to Lorna, Ashley was not beautiful by any means.

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked when he realized Ashley was frowning up at him.

“I was asking if you needed any help getting your groceries home,” she told him, her voice almost a purr. Ashley placed her hand on his arm and gave it a rub. “Maybe, I could cook you dinner while I’m there.”

Jacob paused as he tried to come up with a polite way of turning Ashley down. His brain didn’t seem to be functioning though because the only answer that kept popping into his head was “no way in hell.” He didn’t think that would go over well with her though. He knew Ashley’s type. They saw a big strong man with no ring on his finger and they pounced, trying to sink their claws into him before someone else could. Jacob was not interested in a trophy wife and, by the looks of Ashley, he had a feeling that is exactly what she would be.

Before Jacob could say anything, Lorna stepped down the aisle with a wicked grin on her face. “There you are neighbor. I told you to wait for me outside.” She walked straight up to Jacob, bumping Ashley out of the way and replacing the woman’s hand on his arm with hers before turning. “Oh, hi Ashley. I didn’t see you there.”

Jacob barely held back his laugh at the overly-sweet tone of Lorna’s voice. From the way she had pushed Ashley out of the way and how angry Ashley’s red face looked, he could tell these two women had some serious animosity toward each other.

Ashley pressed her lips together as if she tasted something bitter. “I should have known you’d be lurking around somewhere. Like mother, like daughter, right?”

Jacob felt Lorna’s whole body tense beside him. He could hear her teeth grinding and wondered what he had gotten himself in the middle of. Because of his battle training, his reflexes were off the charts and Jacob was able to drop one crutch and catch Lorna around her middle just as she lunged for Ashley. The other woman gasped and clutched at her throat as if Lorna had actually touched her.

“Jacob, it was lovely to meet you, but I must be going now. Maybe we can get together some other time and get to know each other.”

He watched as Ashley turned on her impractically high heels and pretty much ran out of the store. Jacob looked down at Lorna, whom he was still holding on to, and lifted one brow. “Do I even want to ask what that was all about?”

“Don’t even ask. Just be glad I saved you from that bitch. By tomorrow she would have had you walking down the aisle with your two point five kids in tow and the paint on the white picket fence still drying.”

She felt good pressed up against him. Lorna wasn’t tall, only coming up to his shoulders, but they seemed to fit together perfectly. Jacob was glad she hadn’t realized he was still holding her because he was definitely enjoying himself. The curves he had imagined all night long definitely felt good in person.

The whispering he heard in the background finally got loud enough to distract him and Jacob looked up to see that the majority of the people in the store had stopped what they were doing and were staring at him and Lorna and whispering to each other. He frowned. “What the hell is wrong with this town?”

“Don’t worry,” Lorna waved them off and grabbed that handle of the cart. “I’m used to it. It’s an everyday occurrence where I’m concerned. By the time we leave here, the whole town will know that the great Lorna Marco strikes again. By the time the story gets around, I will have stolen you right out of Ashley’s arms with my slutly ways and basically raped you right here on the floor for all to see.”