Full Force Fatherhood

“Then you might want to call her back.” She smiled and handed her credit card over to clear out her tab. It sobered Mark.

“I find it hard to believe that you happened to take a message for me on the same day you just happened to run into me at a bar. Did you come here to give this to me?”

Her smile grew wide. “Let’s just say, I’m hitting two birds with one stone.” She gave the man a pat on the shoulder. “It was good to see you, Mark. I hope everything works out.”

“Thanks, Nik. You, too.”

Mark stared down at the number after she’d gone. It was amazing how ten digits could affect him so profoundly. He quickly looked around the bar, as if the patrons could hear his internal struggle. No one paid him any mind. He slipped the card into his jacket.

Less than an hour later, Mark was sitting in his apartment, staring at his phone. There was nothing to be afraid of about calling Kelli. She had, after all, wanted to talk to him. But Mark couldn’t get past the why of it all. Why call? Why now?

“Only one way to find out,” he announced to the empty room.

Mark dialed the number before realizing how late it was. He didn’t know her child’s name but knew she lived with Kelli. The last thing he needed was another reason for Kelli to be upset with him. Waking up her toddler was something he wanted to avoid if possible. He hung up on the third ring, deciding to call her the next day.

Again, he wondered why she wanted to talk to him.

Mark waited around for a few more minutes before deciding to take a shower. It was quick and refreshing, a great contrast to a not-so-great day. His new mood stuck as he got to his phone and saw he had a voice mail.

The number matched the one Nikki had given him. He put the message on speaker and listened as Kelli Crane’s voice echoed off the walls.

“Mark Tranton? Hi, this is Kelli Crane. There’s something I really need to talk to you about. Can we meet? Let me know.” She paused. Mark almost ended the recording before she said one last thing.

“I don’t think Victor’s death was an accident.”

* * *

THE NEXT WORKDAY was a washout, just as Mark had thought it would be. Thanks to a heavy rain in the middle of the night before, his construction site and crew were put on hold. That could have been a time to relax for Mark—they’d been working long hours before the storm came in—but he still wouldn’t entertain the idea of a vacation. He was the kind of man who not only appreciated hard work but also craved it. When that work stopped, for whatever reason, he was left with a world of thought he’d rather not visit. So instead of lounging around—or, heaven forbid, sleeping in—Mark changed into his sweats and hit the gym.

The workout room was sectioned off in the corner of the bottom floor of his apartment complex, which gave the place a solitude that Mark liked. Or maybe it was the feeling of improvement that working out brought him. Either way, it was a ritual he could do anywhere, whenever he wanted. He didn’t need permission. He didn’t need advice.

Whether or not he was a bodyguard didn’t matter.

“I don’t think Victor’s death was an accident.”

Mark brought his fist back from the speed bag. Kelli Crane’s admission had all but stopped him from breathing. Not because it was out of left field. No, because it was strange to hear his theory come out of the widow’s mouth.

A theory that had been thrown aside by everyone he’d cared about and thought cared about him. Even Nikki had tried to talk him out of it until she’d been blue in the face. She was trying to protect him from himself, she’d said. But all she’d done was shown him that at the end of the day maybe she didn’t believe in him as much as he’d once thought.

His fist connected with the bag again. He could feel the teeth of the past sinking back into him, and he had two options. Try to pry them off or ignore them until he couldn’t feel their sting.

The second option had treated him well the past year. He snorted, knowing that was a lie.

Mark went through his boxing routine, trying to drown out his thoughts, but each time his skin connected with the bag, he seemed to fall deeper down the hole. The image of the mystery culprit—not the nineteen-year-old firebug—flashed across his mind.

“Whoa, what did the bag ever do to you?” Mark spun around to find his neighbor Craig go for the weights. He was grinning, but his smile fell when he saw Mark’s face. “Everything okay?”

Mark realized his breathing had become rapid, his heart beating fast. His shirt clung to his chest, sweat keeping it flat against his torso. A dull ache in his hands began to register.

“Just blowing off some steam,” he said, changing his harsh tone to one that could pass as conversational. It worked well enough.

“You already have steam? The sun just came up!” Craig laughed. “Must be about a woman.”

Mark shrugged. “You could say that.”

They talked about the weather and their jobs for a while before doing their own things. Mark’s hands finally begged him to give it a rest, so he said bye to Craig and huffed back to his third-floor apartment.

It wasn’t a big space—a studio with a box of a balcony—but Mark didn’t need much. The only mementos he truly treasured were the pictures that hung on the walls. His parents and younger sister, Beth; friends from his hometown in Florida; and even one that had been taken the day Orion had officially opened. That one, though, he didn’t really look at anymore. The rest of his valuables consisted of his home media center and laptop—both of which he had seldom used since starting his construction job. A homey place it was not, but it sufficed.

Mark walked to the glass door that led to the balcony and looked out. It was a cloudy seventy degrees and was expected to get chilly. A cold front was supposedly blowing in that night, but he wasn’t about to put stock in anything the forecast projected. In his ten years of Dallas living, he had learned that if you didn’t like the weather in Texas, you should just wait an hour. It often changed.

The quiet of his apartment crept around him the longer he stood there. He hadn’t called Kelli back, and he didn’t know if he would. After Victor had died—and in the year that followed—he had almost gone crazy following his gut, trying to find the figure in the dark who had started the fire. Even after Darwin McGregor admitted that it had been him.

Determination had turned into obsession. Walls went up around him as each of his friends tried to tell him it was his guilt that fueled the pursuit. Nothing more and nothing less. Then, on the one-year anniversary of the fire, he had decided it was time to let it go.

This was the first time, however, that Kelli had ever mentioned it.

He eyed his phone on the coffee table. Didn’t he owe it to her to at least hear her out?

Chapter Four (#ulink_5332d7b0-1bdc-5b35-8ce2-f995dbbae396)

The weatherman might not have been completely wrong. As Mark stepped out of his taxi, he wondered if he should have brought his jacket. His long sleeves might not cut it if the temperature dropped even further.

It was just after dinner, and he was back at the bar he’d been at the night before. He had a feeling the place would be seeing a lot of him in the next few weeks, especially if this meeting went south. He’d finally called Kelli back and was surprised when she’d asked to meet him somewhere later that night. Nothing more was said beyond that, and now here he was, showing up a half hour early. Nerves or anticipation? He couldn’t tell which, but he made his way to one of the booths tucked into the corner. It gave him a clear sightline to the front doors.

From habit, he took in his surroundings. Men and women of varying careers were all dressed down to some degree—one of the women at the table next to him had on flats, though a pair of heels could be seen sticking out of the bag at her feet, while the other had let her hair loose across her shoulders; an older man at the bar had his tie undone around his neck, beer in hand and eyes on the TV; a group of yuppies had their blazers draped over chair backs while they threw darts next to the front door; a man walked in and immediately went to the bar, hand up, ordering a beer.

A few more patrons came in and before he knew it, the half hour had passed. Mark hadn’t spent enough time with Kelli Crane to know if she was punctual or not.

No, he didn’t really know her at all.

The Orion Security Group had done its homework on the now twenty-nine-year-old woman before the contract had started. It was imperative to do the research to make the protection side of the job most effective. He’d learned that Kelli Crane—formally McKinnely—had a degree in art therapy and worked with the elderly at the community center. She came from a small family that all but disappeared after a car crash killed her parents when she was young. Socially she had kept out of the spotlight, staying close with a childhood friend named Lynn.

In that regard, she was quite the opposite of her late husband. Victor Crane had been a networker, thanks to his job. He had more connections than even Orion’s analyst had been able to uncover. Mark had tracked down as many as he could, trying to find a tie between the man’s death and the fire, but it was hard to find a link when you didn’t know what you were looking for in the first place.

Mark couldn’t help but focus on the blonde as she paused to survey the room before meeting his gaze. There was no hesitation in her bright eyes. She made a beeline for him.

Although he’d recognized her easily, he had to admit she looked different from the woman he’d known through the contract. Kelli walked with unmistakable purpose. Her once-long hair was shortened to her chin with bangs that cut straight over her eyebrows. The dirty blond had lightened as her skin had darkened—she’d been getting sun. He’d bet her kid had something to do with that. Instead of the almost prim outfits she had worn at the cabin, she was dressed more casually—a blue button-up with jeans and black flats. There was no flashy jewelry—he noticed no wedding ring, either—and even her purse seemed more practical than pretty.

Seeing her made him wonder what he looked like in turn. Had he changed in the past two years?

“Hi,” Kelli greeted him, sliding into the seat across from him without pause. Whatever was on her mind, it had her determined.

“Hi,” he responded. Mark didn’t know what to feel, seeing her so informally, as if they were old friends reconnecting. The only thing they shared was a tragedy. Did she feel the same self-loathing he did?

“Thanks for meeting me, by the way. I know it must be strange.”

“It’s the least I can do.” He cleared his throat. “So, how have you been?”