The Carrier (The Carrier Series Book 1) (21 page)

I began with the most basic question. “Nolan
Hill, who are you?”

He smiled and took my hand. “I guess I owe you that
much.” Then he looked deep into my eyes and very slowly said, “My name is Nolan
Hill. I am a twenty-five-year-old native of Chicago, and I am in desperate,
all-encompassing love with you, Ava Gardner.”

And for now, that was all I needed to hear. I
leaned over and kissed him sweetly, hoping he could feel forgiveness in my
lips.

My deepest gratitude to my husband, Wes, who
although he may have wanted to, he never once rolled his eyes, scoffed, or openly
reprimanded me whenever I (yet again) cracked open my laptop to dive into my
world of Ava and Nolan (especially when I should have been cleaning the house,
doing the laundry, or making dinner instead). Thank you so much for allowing me
to chase my dreams. I love you!

Many thanks to my personal cheerleaders, Mindy
and Lori, who had the loudest voices in raising me up into a level of
confidence that could bring me to this accomplishment. I couldn’t have reached
this point without you!

To my benevolent editor, Carl
Stratman
, who offered me phenomenal suggestions, careful
edits, and a cheap service! Without your generosity, I don’t think this would
have been possible.

A big thank you to my awesome graphic designer,
Hannah Christian Hess, whose creative efforts blew my mind! Thank you so much
for your willingness to help me out!
http://www.hannahchristian.com/

Thanks to all the readers who gave my debut
novel a try! I hope you’ll stay tuned for the next installment of The Carrier
Series!

And finally, with grateful appreciation deep in
my heart, thank you, Lena, for your positive support, your willingness to
research for me, and your truthful advice. Love you.

Excerpt
from the next book in
The Carrier Series:
The
Defender

Nolan parked his silver Audi near the baseball
fields behind the community pool. He pushed the button on the dash to turn off
the engine, and then reached over to grab my hand. My insides felt like there
were a thousand tiny daggers poking my organs. I squeezed Nolan’s hand for
comfort. It was his idea to visit the place where our lives drastically changed
a bit more than six weeks before, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready just yet.

Nolan let out a deep sigh. “Are you ready for
this?”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying
to suppress the horror of that night, but I couldn’t keep the thoughts from my
brain. I was stabbed and left to die right on that rock in the distance. But I
knew Nolan was right—visiting Make
Out
Rock was part
of our healing.

Nolan narrowed his eyes with concern and then
placed his other hand on top of our already interlaced fingers.

I smiled weakly. How does he always make me
feel so safe?

“Yes. Ready or not, let’s do this.” Then I let
go of his hand and reached for the door handle. I rubbed my stomach—the daggers
were still poking.

Was this really a great idea?

Nolan met me around the front bumper with his
arms open wide. I walked right into them and they closed around me like safety gates.
I snuggled the side of my head into the crook under his shoulder. It was my
favorite spot to be.

Nolan lowered his face into my hair, inhaled
deeply, and loudly exhaled. I knew he
was smelling
my
hair—a habit of his that I treasured. “Let’s go over there before I chicken
out,” he said.

Ah ha.
So he felt a little nervous
as well.

Nolan let go of my back, grabbed my shoulders,
and held me at
arms
length. “Ava Gardner, you are the
reason for my existence. I swear to heaven above that I will do everything in
my power to keep you safe from evil.”

I giggled a little.
“Safe
from evil?
Sounds like a comic book line.”

“You’d be surprised how much this life
resembles the world of comic books.” He gently kissed my lips, making my knees
wonderfully weak, and then grabbed my left hand and led me off in the direction
of the train tracks.

Today the sky was a brilliant blue backdrop to
the fluffy white clouds. A gentle breeze with a tiny bite of cold Wisconsin air
blew the hair from my sweater-covered shoulders. It was a beautiful fall day by
anyone’s standards. The tree’s leaves were just beginning to display their
gorgeous colors, and I could faintly hear a tour boat chugging its way down the
Wisconsin River off in the distance.

As we crossed the train tracks, I could feel
Nolan’s hand begin to shake in mine. He was the one who stabbed me, but it was
a warranted part of a desperate plan to save my life from a sinister man who
thought I was a hardened criminal. Messed up? Yes, I knew. But even so, last
summer was a chapter of my life that I wouldn’t change for anything. It was one
that helped me find the love of my life. I wanted nothing more than to be with
Nolan Hill for the rest of my days and I was pretty sure he felt the exact same
way.

The thick, green screen of trees and bushes
that hid the entrance to Make
Out
Rock in the summer
was now lying in heaps of red and yellow leaves at the foot of bare branches,
leaving the entrance exposed and open. We easily found the deep-cut pathway and
scaled our way down to the top of the towering rock ledge.

Partway down I stopped dead in my tracks as my
mind quickly flashed back to that dark night. Nolan felt me drawback, and
stopped his momentum to wrap his arms around my body. My knees began to shake
and my stomach turned over, but at the same time I knew this was a mental
hurdle I’d have to jump.

Nolan began to rub the side of my arms and
kissed my forehead sweetly. “Maybe I was wrong. Let’s get out of here. We can
visit in a few months.”

I looked up through the tears forming in my
eyes. How was I lucky enough to love someone who loved me even more in return?
I wanted him to understand. “No, Nolan. I want to do this.” I looked down at
the ground, gravity pulling a tiny tear out of my eye. “Although that was the
worst night of my life, I need to be here with you now.
To
prove to myself that I can move on.”
The daggers were still dancing in
my stomach.

Nolan’s blue eyes glittered in the autumn
sunlight. He placed his fingers on my
jawline
,
stroking my chin with his thumb. I felt like melting right into his hand. He
opened his mouth to speak a few times but said nothing.

Finally he said, “I would feel humbled and
gracious if you could find it within yourself to someday forgive me and trust
me once more. I know it will take time, but I am willing to wait as long as it
takes.”

Then before I could answer, he slowly pulled me
in and held his lips half an inch from mine. His warm breath lingered on my
mouth and wanted so much for him to go the rest of the distance, but he held
his position, teasing me carefully. Right as I was ready to go in for the
touchdown myself, he sensed my impatience, and kissed me with much emotion.

I led Nolan by the hand to the middle of the
rock ledge, and we both sat down. The familiar beauty of the Dells had calmed
my breathing, and I could feel the daggers backing off. A deep, cleansing
breath of the natural air refreshed my lungs. I watched the gentle, swirling
brown water flow down river and my mind was flooded with memories of a summer
filled with adventures with Nolan. Falling in love with him had been easy and
natural.  

Nolan looked upriver toward the docks. “I
realized that night that you were the most important person in my life. I knew
I needed to do whatever I could in order to protect you, even if that meant
harming you in the process.”

Did he know I felt the same way?

“That day,” I began, “when I knew something was
wrong and I was sure you were going to break up with me, I literally felt like
my life was over. I had been through heartbreak before, but nothing compared to
the pain I went through that night. That’s when I knew, I had given you my
heart.”

I leaned my head onto his shoulder and we
continued to look around, taking in the beauty of the environment around us. I
looked down toward the end of the rock ledge and couldn’t help but imagine the
exact position I was in when I lay here waiting for death to take me away that
night. Then I noticed a dark stain on the rock where I had lain.

My blood.

Of course, my blood had stained the rock. All
of a sudden I flashed back to that moment when I truly thought my life had
ended. When someone I loved and trusted purposely shoved a knife into my belly.

I stood up, shaking. “Let’s get going. I think
I’ve had enough for one day.”

“Absolutely.”
He
rose and turned to leave. “Are you
alri
—” But then he
stopped abruptly, made a weird face, and scanned the area around us.

“What’s wrong?” He put two fingers over my lips
to silence me.

He whispered, “
Shh
...
listen
,” as his ears turned up like a Lab on a hunt.

I heard it, too.
A very faint
beeping noise.
Its high-pitched warning tone was rapidly getting faster
and faster.

 “Run!” he screamed, and pulled my arm toward
the railroad tracks. I begged my feet to go faster but I couldn’t seem to make
them keep up with Nolan’s. A wild scream escaped my lips as he leaped over the
tracks and dove into the ditch behind them. I followed his lead and right as I
landed, Nolan rolled over my body and an ear splitting BOOM echoed out over the
river and through the baseball fields. My hands instinctively covered my ears
and I screamed again.

Nolan waited a few seconds and then rolled off
of me. We sat up on our elbows and looked toward the rock. The whole cliff top
had been blown away. Thick, angry smoke took over the air, and fire began to
eat the bottom of the trees. My jaw was stuck in the open position.

My Dells! My beautiful Dells blown away!

Nolan stood up. “Are you okay?”

My ears were ringing but I could still hear
Nolan. I took a quick inventory of the rest of my body, running my hands up and
down my legs, torso, and arms. All parts were accounted for and I could see no
blood.
“Yeah.
I think I’m fine.” My head stayed focused
on the scene before me.

 “We have to get out of here!” Nolan held
out his hand to help me up, but I was still in awe of what had happened. Why
was he in such a hurry to leave?

I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene at hand.
“We have to call 911.”

Nolan began yelling, “They won’t be far away!
We have to go
now
!” 

“Who won’t be far away?”

Nolan yanked me onto my feet and pulled me in
the opposite direction of his car, toward a grassy pathway parallel with the
train tracks. I kept looking over my shoulder, causing my body to twist and my
legs to flail, not being able to keep up with my top half.

Nolan stopped and grabbed my face in his hands.
He looked deep into my eyes and said with great authority, “Ava Gardner. You
have to trust me. We need to run down this path as fast as we can.
Now
!”

I stared with disbelief. Was I dreaming? It
wasn’t until I heard the police sirens behind us that I snapped out of my
trance and began to run.

 Nolan led the way, sprinting through the
forest. My heart was beating out of my chest, and I didn’t think I could go
much farther. We must have been running at full speed for at least five
minutes. I was not used to such nonsense.

Finally he stopped and surveyed the scene.
“This will do,” he said.

I bent over with my hands on my knees,
breathing like I had just given birth right there on the forest floor. He told
me to climb halfway up the tree and sit on a sturdy limb.

“No
!...
Not until...you
tell me...what’s going...on!” I could barely get the words out between my heavy
breathing. I was beyond frustration.

Nolan quickly walked over to me. He pulled me
up from my crouched position and stared deeply into my eyes.
“My
sweet Ava.
Please. I know this must be hard, but you have to trust me.
Do as I say and
this will
all be over in a few
minutes.” Then he kissed me passionately but quickly. “Please.”

I wanted to protest but instead I surrendered
to those damn baby blues. I was helpless against their power.

I turned around and climbed the tree up to the third
limb. I was lucky my sister and I had trees to climb in our backyard as kids.
Who knew that skill would come in handy as an adult? I looked down. I was
probably about forty feet up the tree and glad that heights didn’t bother me.

Nolan nervously paced the forest floor under my
hideout tree. He took out his cell and dialed a number. Then he turned his back
away from me. Normally I would be able to hear what he was saying, but my ears
were still ringing from the blast. My stomach had turned inside out again. I
was nervous and anxious and sure of one thing—I would
never
go near that
rock again.

I could see the smoke rising from the site a
few hundred yards down the pathway. There was a fire truck there now with men
pointing long hoses at the fire. 

Nolan’s voice grew louder. “
Dammit
!
I need a reconnaissance team in here now!” He began to pace quicker. “What do
you mean my field rating is unsatisfactory?” He paused and I could tell he was
angry. “A civilian’s life is at risk!”

Nolan suddenly slammed a finger at the screen
to hang up the call, letting out a grunt of frustration in the process. He
quickly and intensely looked up over the tree line. Had he heard something I
didn’t? Then out of nowhere the crack of gunshot echoed through the woods and
Nolan dropped to the ground with a groan.

I gasped.
No...
no
...
no
...
no
!
My mouth opened to let
out a scream but nothing came out.

Nolan rolled over to his side, looked up at me,
and said in a raspy voice, “
Greeeeeeeeen
.
Trust Greene.”

I whispered back through my tears, “What?
Sweetheart...?”

I was about to jump down from the tree when I
heard footsteps. I looked out into the forest and saw three men in dark suits
carrying guns. They ran towards the unmoving Nolan. I held completely still.
They hadn’t seen me up in the tree yet.

One of the men pressed something in his ear,
“We got him. No sign of the girl.”

They knew I had been with Nolan. Chills sped
down my spine. Another man picked up Nolan and threw him over his shoulder, and
then they all ran out of the forest the same way they entered.