Out 0f The Blue (Fate, Tx. Book 2.5) Read online

  Out of the Blue

  A Fate, Texas Novella

  Jess Bryant

  Blue Lemon Press

  Contents

  Synopsis

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  A Note from the Author

  Also Available From Jess Bryant

  Should’ve Been Us

  Call Me, Irresistible

  Stay A Little Longer

  It Had To Be You

  They say that it’s only just before you die that you truly see what’s important.

  Nick Sloan can vouch for that. After being shot in the line of duty and barely pulling through, he knows that his dream job of working SWAT in the big city isn’t the dream he should be chasing. No, when he was lying in that hospital bed, it wasn’t the badge that he thought about, it was her.

  Kady Shaw never thought she would see him again but then he turned up, out of the blue. The man she’d loved. The man she’d thought she would spend the rest of her life with. The man that had shattered her heart when he’d chosen a promotion over their engagement. But all of a sudden he’s back in Fate, Texas, back in their small hometown, back and swearing that he’s going to win her back as well.

  Can Nick convince her that he can be trusted with her heart again? Is there anything left of Kady’s heart to give? Or is a life tied to a man that will always put himself in danger to save others too much to ask of her?

  Out of the Blue – A Fate, Texas Novel

  Copyright ©2019 by Jess Bryant.

  Cover Art: Vixen Designs

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Any mention of name brands means the author recognizes the trademarks associated.

  For all the Law Enforcement Officers… and those that love and stand by their LEOs.

  1

  Nick Sloan stepped inside the Fate Sheriff’s Department main office with as much confidence as he could muster. He’d never thought he would walk back through those doors but he’d been doing a lot of things recently he’d never thought he would do. Like quitting his dream job in Dallas, giving up his gorgeous uptown loft and moving back to his middle of nowhere, smaller than a map dot hometown. Nearly dying had a way of making a man take a good hard look in the mirror and reevaluate his life choices.

  He’d made some bad ones.

  His entire life he’d wanted nothing more than to be a police officer. Growing up, he and his best friend, Shane, had played cops and robbers every day after school. They’d come to blows over who got to be the cop with the cuffs more than once and in real life neither of them had been happy until they had their own set, their own gun and their own badge.

  That had been it for Shane. He’d wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and he had. He’d joined the FSD and he’d been happy.

  Nick hadn’t. He’d wanted the thrill that came with the big city lights. He’d wanted the excitement of tracking down real criminals instead of trafficking homecoming parades. Nick had wanted more than this small town offered and when the chance to leave had come, he’d jumped on it.

  He’d left everything he knew behind that day. The town where he’d grown up. The friends that had always been there for him. The woman that he’d loved.

  His heart still ached thinking about Kady. It always did. No matter how much time or distance he put between them, just the thought of her had a way of ripping him wide open. He’d tried for a long time not to think about her.

  Since he’d been shot though, since he’d nearly died, she was constantly on his mind and he’d stopped trying to push her out of his head and out of his heart.

  He’d come back to Fate for her, even if she didn’t know it yet.

  “Can I help you?” A deep voice pulled him out of his thoughts and Nick realized that he’d been standing inside the doorway, lost in his own head, oblivious to the man in uniform behind the desk staring at him.

  “Yeah. Sorry.” He shook off the past and focused on the present, on the dark-haired man in the brown uniform, “I’m here to start my first shift.”

  “Nick Sloan.” The man nodded, “We’ve been expecting you. I’m Deputy Lance Nichols. It’s nice to finally meet you. The boss has nothing but good things to say about you.”

  “Well that’s certainly nice to hear.” He shook the hand that was offered, “Nice to meet you too. Are you my new partner? Shane mentioned I’d be riding with one of his deputies until we got all the official paperwork in order.”

  “Nope, not me.” Lance shook his head, “I’m about to head out for a much-needed vacation. You’re paired up with our resident boy wonder.”

  “Boy wonder?” Nick raised an eyebrow.

  “He’s young but he’s a smart kid. Pain in the ass, know-it-all, by-the-book, never misses a chance to earn a gold star kid. But he’s good at his job.” Lance huffed as if even uttering that last sentence was difficult for him and Nick smirked when the other man shrugged, “Probably why Lowry paired you with him to start off.”

  “Okay.” Nick glanced around the otherwise empty office, “Where is this boy wonder?”

  “In the back I think.” Lance twisted slightly and raised his voice, “Hey! Shaw! Your new partner is here!”

  Nick’s smirk instantly fell. That name hit him like a punch to the gut. Shaw. He shook his head, wondering if he’d heard wrong. There was no way he’d heard right.

  He’d have known. Someone would have told him. Shane would have said something if…

  A blond-haired man stepped out of a small hallway a few feet away and Nick cursed. He’d know those features anywhere no matter how much time had passed. Blond hair and blue-green eyes, just like Kady, only instead of being beautiful, on that masculine face and body they were strikingly handsome.

  Connor Shaw, Kady’s little brother, wasn’t so little anymore. He’d grown up. He’d filled out. He was still a good-looking kid, even in the ugly brown uniforms that the FSD issued. At least he was until a look of pure anger and rage overtook his features and he all but growled before barreling across the room, straight towards Nick.

  “You son of a bitch.” Connor hissed a moment before he swung his fist at Nick’s face.

  Connor connected and Nick stumbled a little and grabbed for his jaw, “Shit.”

  He should have seen that coming. As soon as he’d heard the name Shaw, he should have known that he had that blow coming. But he’d been transfixed by the changes in the boy he’d known, and by the ways he still resembled his sister. He hadn’t imagined Connor would throw a punch, here, in the police station, wearing his uniform, but he’d underestimated just how much the kid must have despised him for what he’d done.

  “I can’t believe you really came back.” Connor growled as he stepped closer and raised his fist, no doubt to deck him again, but the other man stepped in front of him, stopping him with a hard shove.

  “What the fuck, Shaw?” Lance put his arms out, corralling him back, “Are you out of your mind? You can’t sucker punch someone in the damn office. You’ll get your badge revoked!”

  “Worth it.” Connor shook his fist, his glare still firmly on Nick and his blue eyes burning like the hottest
fires of hell.

  “Jesus man, cool down.” Lance glanced back at Nick with a worried expression, “What the hell is going on?”

  “It’s fine. Let him go.” Nick touched his jaw tenderly, knowing it would start turning colors soon, “I had that one coming.”

  “You damn sure did and a hell of a lot more.” Connor bowed up again but Lance pushed him back a second time.

  “Somebody tell me what the hell is going on.” He insisted.

  “This is the asshole that all but left Kady at the altar.” Connor spit the words out like metal, “Broke her heart and then just up and left for her to deal with the fallout.”

  “It broke my heart too.” Nick admitted but Connor only sneered.

  “Boo-hoo, you son of a bitch. You…”

  “Hey!” A loud, bellowing voice cut Connor off and all three of the men turned.

  Nick glared at his oldest friend in the world when Shane Lowry stepped out of his office and into the pit with them. He’d aged well since the last time Nick saw him. Clearly, Fate and his recent appointment as Sheriff agreed with him. So did the pretty blonde he went home to every night probably. Nick wondered what his friend’s wife would say if he came home with a bruise of his own.

  Shane hadn’t told him that Connor worked for him. He’d never mentioned him at all. He hadn’t told Nick that the kid joined the department or that he intended to pair them up. From the way he was glaring between them now, he’d known this was inevitable and when he spoke, he all but confirmed it.

  “You got that out of your system now, Shaw?”

  Connor heaved out an angry breath but gave a jerk of his chin, “Yes, sir.”

  “Sloan?” Shane called him by his last name, clearly setting the boundary that said he was the man in charge despite their friendship. “You got a problem?”

  “None.”

  “Good.” Shane sighed, “You two need to learn to get along and that starts right now. Day one. You’re on patrol together until I decide you know how to work as a team. If I see or hear even one whisper of another instance like what just happened, you’ll both be on desk duty until you hit retirement. You got me?”

  “Yes, sir.” Connor dropped his gaze to the floor.

  Nick frowned but nodded, “Sir, yes, sir.”

  Shane’s eyes narrowed and Nick barely resisted the urge to flip him off. Bastard. His best friend was a lying bastard. Not only that, he was also a hardass boss. Pairing him up with Kady’s little brother day one? It was a disaster waiting to happen and Shane must have known that.

  Maybe he really did just want to get it out of the way. Maybe he thought Nick deserved whatever justice Connor wanted to beat into him for what he’d done. The reasons didn’t really matter. It was clear to him that Shane wasn’t about to change his mind.

  “Good.” He motioned down the hallway, “Sloan, your uniform is in the locker room. Get changed. Shaw, he’s your responsibility until I say otherwise. He’s got a uniform but no badge or gun until the paperwork goes through. See to it nobody kills his dumb ass would ya?”

  Connor snorted, “No promises.”

  “He doesn’t leave your sight.” Shane’s voice was tight, like he was clenching his jaw, “That starts now, Shaw. Go with him. You’re joined at the hip. Congratulations, you’ve got your first partner.”

  Nick scowled at his friend as he walked past him but Shane ignored him. He could hear Connor trudging down the hallway behind him but he didn’t dare speak yet. He could just imagine the kid jumping him from behind if he thought Nick said the wrong thing so he waited until they were in the locker room and facing one another before he reached for the words he knew needed to be said.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not the one you should be saying that to.” Connor crossed his arms over his chest.

  “I know. I know and I intend to tell her that just as soon as I get a chance I just…”

  “You’re not going to tell her anything. You’re going to stay the hell away from her.” Connor stepped forward, menace in his every muscle, “It took her a long time to put herself back together after what you did and I’m not going to sit by and watch you destroy her again.”

  “I fucked up.” Nick winced.

  “No shit.”

  “But I never stopped loving her.”

  Connor’s familiar eyes narrowed, “If you’d loved her you wouldn’t have thrown her away like garbage. You stay the hell away from my sister, Sloan. You stay away from her or I’ll finish what those bullets in Dallas didn’t and put you in the ground myself.”

  Sloan winced, the scars on his chest and abdomen itching at the reminder, “I almost died, Connor.”

  “I heard.” There was no warmth in his voice at all.

  “I almost died and the only thing I thought about when I was on the ground bleeding out was her. I love her and I came back for her. I’ll tell her that myself but I’m telling you first. Nothing is going to keep me from winning her back.”

  “You don’t win something back that you didn’t lose. You threw her away. You left her. You made your choice.”

  “It was the wrong one.”

  “Yeah, it was, and you’ve got to live with that.”

  “That’s the thing,” Nick shook his head slowly, “When I didn’t think I was going to live, all I wanted was to go back and choose her instead. That’s why I’m here. I don’t have to live with the choice I made. I can fix it, if she’ll let me.”

  Connor sneered at him, “You don’t deserve her.”

  “No. I don’t.” He admitted, “But I’m going to try like hell to get her back anyway because loving her kept me alive, even when nobody else thought I’d make it. At the very least, I have to thank her for that and I can only pray that she’ll find it in her heart to forgive me and give me a second chance.”

  “I wouldn’t hold your breath.”

  Nick didn’t respond. He turned to begin changing clothes. There was nothing he could say to that. It was too late. He felt like he’d been holding his breath since the last time he saw her and he wouldn’t be able to breathe again until she was back in his arms.

  2

  Kady Shaw had exactly twenty-two minutes to get back to the hospital before her next shift started. She was pulling a double to cover for one of the other nurses that was visiting her daughter at college in Austin. Normally she wouldn’t have bothered leaving the hospital at all, would have grabbed something from the cafeteria and called it good, but it was her good friend Holly’s birthday. She’d ordered them lunch from the diner and then swung over to the bakery and picked up some cupcakes. If she was lucky, she’d be able to catch Holly, grab a bite to eat and enjoy a sweet dessert before she had to be scrubbed back in, but only if the light would freaking change colors.

  She shuffled the bags and boxes that she had stacked precariously in her arms. The stupid light they’d put in between the hospital and the fire house was supposed to be for emergencies only. It wasn’t like Fate had a lot of traffic to disperse otherwise. She hadn’t heard any sirens and yet, the light remained red opposite her, warning her not to walk.

  Twenty minutes.

  She glared at the light and willed it to turn. When it obstinately remained frozen, she eyed the street back and forth. There weren’t any cars approaching. This was ridiculous. She checked one more time and then stepped off the curb and into the street.

  A shrill, shrieking siren went off just behind her and she jumped. No. No. She juggled the bags that shifted off balance precariously. She spun around on instinct even as her mind screamed at her to. Just as her eyes came to land on the police car pulling up to the light behind her, the box of cupcakes splattered to the pavement upside down followed closely by the brown paper bags of burgers and fries.

  “Son of a…” She cursed as she looked at the mess and then glanced back up at the police car, her eyes narrowing angrily as she saw the blond head emerging from the driver’s side door, “Connor! What the hell?”

  “Shi
t. Sorry Kady.” Her brother was looking at the mess at her feet but almost as quickly as the words left his mouth his gaze shot back to his car and his tone went firm and commanding, “Don’t you dare get out of that car.”

  “Con?” She stepped closer, confused by the change in his tone and his direction.

  “I didn’t realize it was you, Kady.” He grimaced as he glanced back at her, “I’m sorry sis. I really didn’t want this to happen at all but, definitely not like this. I thought I’d call you later, after your shift and…”

  Her brother was clearly upset about something. His words were racing and he kept shaking his head. There was something in his eyes that she didn’t understand, a sadness that made her reach for him on instinct. No matter how much taller or broader or bigger he was than her, he would always be her little brother.

  “Connor, what’s…”

  “Kady?”

  A deep, gravel-filled voice that she would have known anywhere said her name before she could finish her question. Her heart stopped. It simply stopped beating. Her breath caught in her chest and she felt the world shift under her feet. She heard a low whine and it took her a moment to realize that it had come from her because her eyes were busy taking in the man that had ignored Connor’s order and stepped out of the car.

  “Nick?” She raised a hand to her mouth, suddenly uncertain that any of this was real.

  Maybe she hadn’t realized a car was coming and she’d been mowed down crossing the road and this was hell. Maybe right at this very second, she was suffering from some sort of embolism and her brain was giving her hallucinations to distract her from her own death. Either of those things seemed more likely than watching her ex-fiancé step out of her little brother’s police cruiser in full-on, FSD uniform, looking exactly like the man he’d been before he broke her heart.