Searching Love_Saints Protection & Investigations Read online

  Searching Love

  Saints Protection & Investigations

  Maryann Jordan

  Contents

  Untitled

  Acknowledgments

  Author Information

  Author’s Notes

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Untitled

  Searching Love

  * * *

  Saints Protection & Investigations

  * * *

  By

  Maryann Jordan

  Searching Love (Saints Protection & Investigation Series)

  Copyright 2018 Maryann Jordan

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.

  If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, then you are reading an illegal pirated copy. If you would be concerned about working for no pay, then please respect the author’s work! Make sure that you are only reading a copy that has been officially released by the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design by: Becky McGraw

  Editor: Shannon Brandee Eversoll

  Proofreader: MyckelAnne Phillips

  Cover Photographer: Eric McKinney, 6:12 Photography

  ISBN: 978-1-947214-16-3

  Acknowledgments

  First and foremost, I have to thank my husband, Michael. Always believing in me and wanting me to pursue my dreams, this book would not be possible without his support. To my daughters, MaryBeth and Nicole, I taught you to follow your dreams and now it is time for me to take my own advice.

  My best friend, Tammie, who for over twenty years has been with me through thick and thin. You’ve filled the role of confidant, supporter, and sister.

  My other best friend, Myckel Anne, who keeps me on track, keeps me grounded, and most of all – keeps my secrets. Thank you for not only being my proofreader and my Marketing PA, but friend. I do not know what I would do without you in my life.

  My beta readers kept me sane, cheered me on, found all my silly errors, and often helped me understand my characters through their eyes. A huge thank you to Denise, Sandi, Barbara, Jennifer, Danielle, Tracey, Lynn, Stracey, and Jamila for being my beta girls who love alphas!

  Shannon Brandee Eversoll as my editor and Myckel Anne Phillips as my proofreader gave their time and talents to making all my books as well written as it can be.

  My street team, Jordan Jewels, you all are amazing! You volunteer your time to promote my books and I cannot thank you enough! I hope you will stay with me, because I have lots more stories inside, just waiting to be written!

  My Personal Assistant Barbara Martoncik keeps me going when I feel overwhelmed and I am so grateful for not only her assistance, but her friendship.

  Most importantly, thank you readers. You allow me into your home for a few hours as you disappear into my characters and you support me as I follow my indie author dreams.

  Author Information

  USA Today Bestselling and Award Winning Author

  I am an avid reader of romance novels, often joking that I cut my teeth on the historical romances. I have been reading and reviewing for years. In 2013, I finally gave into the characters in my head, screaming for their story to be told. From these musings, my first novel, Emma’s Home, The Fairfield Series was born.

  I was a high school counselor having worked in education for thirty years. I live in Virginia, having also lived in four states and two foreign countries. I have been married to a wonderfully patient man for thirty-five years. When writing, my dog or one of my four cats can generally be found in the same room if not on my lap.

  Please take the time to leave a review of this book.

  Feel free to contact me, especially if you enjoyed my book. I love to hear from readers!

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  Website

  Author’s Note

  * * *

  I have lived in numerous states as well as overseas, but for the last twenty years have called Virginia my home. Many of my stories take place in this wonderful commonwealth, but I choose to use fictional city names with some geographical accuracies.

  These fictionally named cities allow me to use my creativity and not feel constricted by attempting to accurately portray the areas.

  It is my hope that my readers will allow me this creative license and understand my fictional world.

  I also do extensive research on my books and try to write on subjects with accuracy. There will always be points where creative license will be used to create scenes or plots.

  This book marks the last of the Saints Protection & Investigation Series. It was a spin-off from my Alvarez Security Series and next will be the spin-off, Lighthouse Security & Investigations Series.

  Like all my books, my readers are the life-blood of my writing. They fell in love with Gabe and demanded more books like that…and I was happy to accommodate because they are my favorite genre of books as well.

  So, to my faithful readers…the ones who one-click when they see a pre-order. To my re-readers…the ones who tell me that when they cannot find a book to read, they go back and re-read my series again and again.

  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

  1

  Though the evening sun was still high in the sky it had dipped behind the tree line, creating shadows and making visibility more difficult. Nathan Washington did not mind for himself since intuition always took over, but he hated the thought of someone not familiar with their surroundings to stumble.

  “Come on, girl,” he said, “let’s get going.”

  The beautiful, red-haired female with him looked up and grinned before taking off, running ahead. The twists and turns in the path did not appear to cause her any delay but, then, she rarely stayed on the path anyway, instead heading wherever her instincts told her to go.

  Nathan jogged along behind her, admiring her form. Long legs. A svelte 110 pounds. Silky hair. Deep, soulful, brown eyes. A nose that constantly worked. Long ears, a wrinkly face, and, right now, a tongue lolling to the side.

  Scarlett, his four-year-old bloodhound, was on the scent and he hustled to keep up with her.

  When the call had come in from his good friend, Jack Bryant, telling him his services were needed, he and Scarlett had immediately hurried to the scene. Jack’s wife, Bethany, owned Mountville Cabin Rentals, situated at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, next to their property. Arriving a
t the main house at Mountville, he saw Jack standing with his arm around her.

  Bethany started to move toward him, her face pinched with fear, but Jack’s arm kept her in place. He towered over his wife, his stance protective. Looking at his friend, Nathan took in the hard set of his jaw and the small shirt held in his other hand.

  “This is from the little boy,” Jack said, his words clipped. “The parents said that they were walking back to the cabin from a hike and didn’t notice Jimmy wasn’t with them all the way. They have four kids and he got separated somehow.”

  “Got it,” he said, taking the shirt and holding it down to Scarlett, allowing her to sniff. A moment later, he and Scarlett had taken off, moving swiftly past the crying mother and father holding their other three children. With shouts of, “Please find him”, ringing in his ears, he blocked out all other thoughts and focused on the hunt.

  “You got it, girl,” he encouraged, as she left the trail and leaped over a small tree in the woods. Through the thickets and down a slight ravine, Scarlett loped along, her nose down, tail wagging. Tall pines, aspens, maples, and oaks filled the forest, their rough, dark trunks easily providing a hiding place for a small child. The surroundings were beautiful but, to a lost child, the forest could seem ominous.

  He hated that the frightened child had left the trail, but where the undergrowth parted and leaves coated the ground, it was easy to get confused, thinking you were still on a path. Nonetheless, he had every confidence that his well-trained bloodhound would be able to keep up with Jimmy’s trail.

  As each additional minute stretched on he was afraid of what he would find at the end of the trail. His years as a member of an Army search and rescue team had left him with that. Shaking the negative thought from his mind, he crawled under a downed branch, keeping pace with her.

  Ten minutes later, Scarlett’s pace picked up and he sucked in a quick breath. He could tell they were close, so he began calling out, “Jimmy! Jimmy!”

  Suddenly, Scarlett came to a stop, her haunches lowering to a sit, her sides heaving and her tongue hanging out. Just in front of her was a little boy, his bare arms and legs scratched from the low growing brambles. The child turned his tear-stained face up toward him, his eyes wide.

  Squatting down, Nathan said, “Hey, Jimmy. I’m Nathan. Glad to see you, buddy. My dog’s been looking for you…I think she’d like to say hello.”

  Jimmy wiped his nose and stared at Scarlett before saying, “I want to find my mommy.”

  “Well, she said she misses her little man, so let’s go find her, bud. But, first, here’s some water and a granola bar.” He pulled the water bottle and treat from his backpack. As Jimmy drank thirstily, he also poured more water in a bowl for Scarlett. “See, she’s thirsty, too.”

  A slight smile crept across Jimmy’s face as he watched Scarlett drink.

  While Jimmy was distracted, Nathan turned away slightly and called on his radio, “Jack. Got him. He’s okay. Coming back now.” Reaching his arms down, he said, “Can I carry you? You must be tired.”

  With only a second’s hesitation, Jimmy’s arms shot upward, allowing Nathan to pick him up. Looking down to Scarlett, Nathan said, “Okay, girl, take us back.”

  Scarlett looked up and her intelligent eyes sought his before she loped back along the path in the direction they had come from.

  Soon, they were leaving the trail and heading back down the main road toward the cabins when he saw a group of people rushing toward him with Jimmy’s parents in the lead.

  “Jimmy, it looks like we have a welcome party coming our way.”

  “Mommy!” he screamed, and Nathan set his feet on the ground.

  Scarlett stayed back with him as they watched Jimmy engulfed by his family. Jack and Bethany hurried past them, heading straight to Nathan. Before he had a chance to brace, Bethany rushed to him, throwing her arms around him.

  “Thank you, oh God, thank you,” she gushed, tears in her eyes.

  He looked over her head, observing Jack’s expression, now relaxed in relief. As Bethany let him go, Jack moved in to shake his hand, pulling him in for a back slap as well.

  “Words can’t express, man,” Jack started.

  “No need. That’s what me and Scarlett do,” he smiled in return.

  Before he had a chance to walk away, Jimmy’s parents hustled over, both pulling him in for hugs of their own as Jimmy proudly introduced them to Scarlett. He knelt down, one hand rubbing behind her ears as he said, “You stick with your parents from now on, yeah?”

  Jimmy nodded as he mimicked his actions, rubbing her ears as well. “She found me good, didn’t she?”

  “Yeah…she found you good,” he chuckled, his heart lighter.

  It took a few more minutes before the family completed their effusive expressions of gratitude before heading back to their cabin, but Nathan was ready to leave. He loved his job but the accolades that often accompanied made him self-conscious.

  “Son, we do good because it’s what we should do, not because someone’ll thank us for it.”

  He could hear his father’s words, so often spoken as he grew up, ringing in his ears. Patting his leg, he looked down, grinning as Scarlett’s eyes peered up at him. “Come on, girl.”

  He offered a chin lift to Jack, knowing his friend would understand his desire to leave. Grinning, he observed Jack pulling Bethany back to his side to keep her from running over again, waving as he and Scarlett climbed back into his old truck.

  As the truck rumbled down the road, he thought of Jack’s previous business offer. Saints Protection & Investigations. Jack, while still in the Army Special Forces, had worked with a team of highly trained members making up a multi-task force consisting of SEALs, SF, CIA, explosive experts, and others. Finding the diversity worked well, Jack recreated the idea of an exclusive multi-task force once he was a civilian. He recruited from SEALs, FBI, SF, Police, ATF, DEA, and CIA for his new team. Top of the line equipment, weapons, security systems, vehicles, and computers—everything the Saints Protection & Investigations could need—was at their disposal. And, as Jack liked to say, they took on the jobs nobody else wanted or could solve.

  Private and government contracts provided lucrative rewards, but every one of the ten men who were Jack’s elites would have done their jobs for a lot less money. The chance to investigate crimes and protect, without the bureaucratic bullshit that hampered each of them in the past, was the perfect enticement.

  Nathan had worked several cases for Jack on a contractual basis, but had never taken him up on his offer of full-time work. Sighing heavily, he wondered what held him back. Snorting, he knew the answer…I’m a loner. Since getting out of the Army, where he had worked beside, and then lost, some of the best men he had ever met, he preferred the solitude of his work now.

  Twenty minutes later, his truck turned onto the gravel drive and he carefully avoided the potholes and ruts. Looking over at his favorite girl he grinned widely. Hell, my only girl, right now. “You likin’ this, Scarlett?”

  She turned her head to offer him a baleful stare and he could have sworn she was talking. Laughing, he reached across and rubbed her head before she returned to her outside perusal as they drove toward home.

  Pulling to the side of his cabin, her baying joined the cacophony of his other hounds, penned in their runs in the back. Getting out, he walked toward them, the sight of his small kennels warming his heart. He raised bloodhounds, training them for wilderness tracking before selling them to the police, military, or investigators. He also fostered rescue bloodhounds when one of the local agencies needed him. He was often called to work independently by the sheriff or police across a four-county area, as well as by the Blue Ridge Mountain Forest Service. His operation was small, but it gave him enough money to care for his dogs and keep his cabin.

  “Hey, Beau. Red. Persi,” he called out the names of the dogs he currently had in residence. Beau and Persi were his, and Red was a rescue that was almost ready for adoption. Pers
i was pregnant and he grinned, thinking of the litter of more red bloodhounds he would soon have. Walking into the large shed, he flipped on the light switch. The insulated building held shelves of food and medicines on one side, with the inside portion of the dogs’ runs on the other.

  Blaise Hanssen, a friend of his who also happened to be one of Jack’s Saints, was a veterinarian and had helped him design and build the kennel. Blaise’s wife, Grace, was also a dog trainer. Formerly working with drug dogs, she now trained companion animals.

  As he moved to get the food ready, the three dogs loped through their doggie doors and into the building, still baying for attention. Dishing out their food, he watched as they ate, Scarlett joining in with her dish. After they finished, he let them out and they bounded along as he headed to the cabin.

  Situated in thick woods, he owned twenty acres around his cabin and loved the solitude. It gave him a great place to train the dogs to track, as well as giving him the privacy he craved.

  Walking through the back door, the dogs trotted down the hall to their pillows in the living room as he stopped in the utility room to kick off his boots and wash his hands. Moving into the kitchen, he opened the refrigerator, pulling out the leftover stew from the previous night. Once it was heating on the stove, he sliced a few thick pieces of bread and slathered them with butter before placing them in the oven to toast.