Never in her life had she looked forward to another day. Never had she wanted the night to end sooner than it did. Never had she wanted to stay out all night if only to keep the euphoric feeling.
All too soon everything came crashing down as her mother’s footsteps and snarled words entered the room, “I told you to stay away from him,” she snarled from behind Sophia’s stance by the door.
Lost & Found
One
Hungover from a night of too much drinking to drown away his pain, Nick Kelly winced as he heard a car door slam in the early morning light. The sound was like a small bomb going off in his head. Even breathing hurt.
He knew who it was, of course. Ace Mitchell. His brother from another mother. They were cousins and grew up together. Raised more like siblings until they found different directions in life. Being two years older than the other man, Nick felt like he was a little more cemented in knowing his place in life. Being Sheriff in Golden, British Columbia was the only thing he’d ever wanted. The law was his life; he lived and breathed authority.
Ace had always been slightly wilder. He craved action and adventure, to be bigger than he felt staying local. While Nick understood, he’d been sad to see his cousin leave. As teenagers, they’d been inseparable. Entering young adulthood, they’d learned the carnal pleasures of sharing a woman.
“Nicky!” Ace called to him, making him wince again as Roxie, his Husky/Pitbull mix, began her barking from the floor. Knowing his cousin, if he weren’t up soon, the big burly bastard would start pounding on the bedroom door.
“I’m coming!” Fuck, his voice cracked like some twelve-year-old punk hitting puberty. Harsh laughter met his words as Ace entered his room.
“What the fuck, man?” The fucker was bent over, almost in tears.
“Fuck off,” Nick grumbled, getting up scratching his rock-hard abs. Naked as the day he was born, he shoved Ace out of the way, heading for the bathroom to take a piss.
“Who shit in your corn flakes already?” His cousin followed in his footsteps, waiting outside the door.
“It was a rough fucking night.” Taking a piss with morning wood had him wishing he’d brought the chick home that had been all over him. Too bad her attitude sucked.
“Whatever, dude. Get your shit and let’s go.” Ace walked away calling Roxie to his heels.
He’d missed this man, but some days, he wished he’d never asked him to come home. He’d been a pain in Nick’s ass for the last three months. Christmas had just passed, and his father was doing better, but Ace seemed settled in his spare room with no plans to leave.
Dressing in his sheriff’s uniform—jeans and a tan button-up—he pinned on his star before slipping his feet into his boots and grabbing a heavy coat. They were supposed to get upwards of two feet of snow before nightfall. So he and Ace were making sure there were no hikers, skiers, or snowmobilers on the trails.
Most days he loved his job. Others, where he had to tell people common sense things, he wished he could just leave them to their fate.
“I say, at least, seven folks still in the mountains,” Ace commented as Nick shut the door behind him.
“Nine,” he countered.
“Care to wager?” There was a gleam in Ace’s eyes that he didn’t trust.
“Such as?”
Triumph lit the other man’s face. “No more boozing until we find her.”
Her.
The her he was referring to was non-existent at the moment.
While Nick wasn’t a drunk, he liked a cold one on his front porch after a long day’s work of dealing with idiots.
They had waited for what seemed like forever to find the woman to complete them, and if he were honest, he didn’t think they would in Golden. Their hometown was surrounded by mountains with a population of less than four thousand people, more than half of which he’d grown up with. He wasn’t interested in the women he grew up with. He wanted someone who he would have the pleasure of learning their entire life’s story, and her, his.
“And what makes you think we’ll find her anytime soon?” He felt himself caving in. At thirty-four years old, he was ready to settle down, pop out a couple of kids, and go to bed with a warm, willing body every night.
“I can feel it.” Ace clapped his hands together, rubbing them as if he knew something.
“What you feel is the storm about to eat your balls alive if we don’t hurry the hell up.” Opening the back door of his SUV for Roxie to jump in, they both climbed in the front.
“There’s a buzzing in the air. Something’s happening soon,” Ace insisted.