Traded Read online

  The Dogs:

  Brody Mullen. Football Player.

  Jackson Waller, Doctor.

  Zane Shaw, Bar Owner.

  Kyle Hicks, Real Estate Developer.

  Lance Mullen, Hedge Fund Manager.

  Traded: Brody and Kara

  Cliffside Bay Series, Volume 1

  Tess Thompson

  Published by Tess Thompson, 2018.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  TRADED: BRODY AND KARA

  First edition. February 15, 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 Tess Thompson.

  ISBN: 978-0998583556

  Written by Tess Thompson.

  Also by Tess Thompson

  Cliffside Bay Series

  Traded: Brody and Kara

  Deleted: Jackson and Maggie

  Jaded: Zane and Honor

  Marred: Kyle and Violet (Coming Soon)

  The Blue Mountain Series

  Blue Midnight

  Blue Moon

  The Legley Bay Series

  Caramel and Magnolias

  Tea and Primroses

  The River Valley Series

  Riversong

  The River Valley Series

  Riverbend

  Riverstar

  A River Valley Christmas: Tommy's Wish

  Riversnow

  Riverstorm

  Standalone

  Duet for Three Hands

  Miller's Secret

  The Santa Trial

  Watch for more at Tess Thompson’s site.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Also By Tess Thompson

  Dedication

  Chapter One | Kara

  Chapter Two | Brody

  Chapter Three | Kara

  Chapter Four | Brody

  Chapter Five | Kara

  Chapter Six | Brody

  Chapter Seven | Kara

  Chapter Eight | Brody

  Chapter Nine | Kara

  Chapter Ten | Brody

  Chapter Eleven | Kara

  Chapter Twelve | Brody

  Chapter Thirteen | Kara

  Chapter Fourteen | Brody

  Chapter Fifteen | Kara

  Chapter Sixteen | Brody

  Chapter Seventeen | Kara

  Chapter Eighteen | Brody

  Chapter Nineteen | Kara

  Chapter Twenty | Brody

  Chapter Twenty-one | Kara

  Chapter Twenty-two | Brody

  Chapter Twenty-three | Kara

  Chapter Twenty-four | Brody

  Chapter Twenty-five | Kara

  Chapter Twenty-six | Brody

  Chapter Twenty-seven | Kara

  Chapter Twenty-eight | Kara

  Chapter Twenty-nine | Brody

  Chapter Thirty | Kara

  Chapter Thirty-one | Brody

  Chapter Thirty-two | Kara

  Chapter Thirty-three | Brody

  Chapter Thirty-four | Kara

  Chapter Thirty-five | Brody

  Chapter Thirty-six | Kara

  Chapter Thirty-seven | Brody

  Chapter Thirty-eight | Kara

  Sign up for Tess Thompson's Mailing List

  Further Reading: Miller's Secret

  Also By Tess Thompson

  About the Author

  For MaryAnn Schaefer,

  Who makes me laugh, rallies my hope, works harder than she should, and always has my back.

  Chapter One

  Kara

  They came for her on a Sunday. It was third quarter with two minutes left on the clock in a savage battle between football rivals San Francisco Sharks and Kansas City Rockets when the sounds that would change her life forever broke through the ordinary chirps of the television announcers. The three hard knocks followed by two taps on the front door yanked her attention away from quarterback Brody Mullen’s Houdini-like antics on the field. This was the code. Her scalp tingled. Heat surged through her body and out to her numb limbs. The pulse at her neck hammered. Her clock had run out of time.

  Kara Boggs jerked to her feet. The popcorn bowl flew from her lap and rained the white, buttery clouds onto her rug. Minnie mewed and sprang from her position in the crack between the couch cushions to the coffee table and watched the door with wide, frightened eyes.

  Sweat dampened the back of her neck. Black dots danced before her eyes, blinding her. She spoke silent instructions to herself, like she had when she’d first started her nursing career in the trauma unit. Think. Be calm. Breathe.

  Kara flipped on an extra lamp. Shadows of the oak tree outside her front window moved in ghostlike shudders. She was ready. Like expectant travelers, her suitcases and Minnie’s carrier waited in the entryway. She stumbled to the front door and opened it a crack. Two United States Marshals, dressed in khakis and shiny black jackets, stood at attention. Shotguns strapped to their massive chests gleamed under the hallway light. She opened the door. Without a sound, she stepped aside and gestured for them to enter. They filed in, making no eye contact until she had shut the door behind them. The taller of the two marshals spoke first, his voice deep and without emotion. They showed badges as they introduced themselves. Inspector Green. U.S. Marshal Hill.

  Perspiration dampened her back as she envisioned her home from their perspective. Located in a wealthy suburb of Philadelphia, it was furnished like the display window of the finest department store in shades of cream with splashes of red and blue accents. Every detail had been planned with care, including the arrangements of vases and bowls, books and magazines. Walnut tables and chests gleamed under the soft lighting. Prints of landscapes framed in black hung in attractive clusters on the eggshell walls. She wondered if the deputies assumed her beautiful home had been financed by her father. Silly as it was, she fought the urge to tell them how hard she’d worked to become a nurse practitioner. Yes, it was true that her father had helped with the down payment for the condo and her college tuition, but the rest she’d earned.

  Yet, it all came back to one thing. She could not have gone to school without her father’s help, and she would never have been able to go to graduate school without accruing massive amounts of debt. Her father had financed her expensive education at Penn State. After graduation, he had not pleaded with her to come home to Upstate New York but had happily written her a check for a down payment on her condo. None of that had surprised her. The moment her mother had died when she was ten, he’d sent her away to boarding school. He didn’t want her.

  She’d always assumed his generosity was rooted in guilt. Now, she knew the truth. It was not guilt that fueled him, but self-protection. He was a criminal. Her life had been financed with blood money.

  None of it mattered now. These were the last minutes of what would be a former life. The next life, whatever it was, would be her penance. Her retribution for living with contented blinders to the truth.

  “Nice to meet you.” Her voice cracked. Be brave. She tried to conjure her mother’s face, but no image came tonight.

  “It’s time. The car’s waiting.” Cold blue eyes bored through her, carving out what was left of her heart. He’s on my side. Don’t be afraid. “Are these your bags?”

  “Yes. Yes.” She looked down at her loose jeans and sweatshirt, suddenly humiliated. These were her “stay at home and watch football” clothes. With her long brown hair in a ponytail and her face scrubbed of makeup, she probably looked younger than her twenty-nine years.

  The game. Playoff season. San Francisco versus Kansas City. She’d forgotten football was playing on the television. The soothing sound of the announcers’ voices drifted into her consciousness.
“Brody Mullen, inarguably, is the best quarterback in the league.”

  “That’s right,” said the other announcer. “Looking at statistics alone—without even bringing up his stellar character and leadership of his San Francisco Sharks, this young man is the AFL’s greatest quarterback. And, regardless of how you dissect it, he’s had the best season of his career.”

  Football would remain, regardless of where they sent her. She could watch her Philadelphia Raptors from wherever she lived. She could still mock handsome, arrogant Brody Mullen—one of her favorite past times. He was the best quarterback in the league. The bastard. She disliked him immensely. More accurately, she hated him. It wasn’t because her Raptor’s quarterback was not the best in the league or because they hadn’t made the playoffs since the eighties. No, it was just him. Him and his stupid dimple in the middle of his stupid chin. Brody Mullen and his insufferable San Francisco Sharks were most likely headed to the Super Bowl this year, and it made her mad.

  Why did good things always happen to the wrong people? Sure, Mullen made a good show of being the quintessential all-American boy next door with his weekly visits to the children’s hospital and all that money he donated to underprivileged communities. But that’s all he was—a show. His appearance and supposed good deeds deceived and distracted from his true character. That chiseled jaw, high cheekbones, and honey-blond hair kissed by the California sun gave the impression of a wholesome boy you would want to bring home to your mother. However, Kara could see beyond his beauty, unlike the rest of the women of America. The guy was obviously full of himself, born into football royalty with every privilege, and advised by a team of public relations phonies into appearing otherwise.

  What was she doing? Concentrate on the task at hand. Football could distract her when she was all alone in a hotel room, not now when she needed to pull every ounce of her honed focusing ability to the surface. Get through one task at a time, like she’d done for months now. Collapse when it’s all over.

  She scurried to the coffee table and found the remote. Her hands shook so violently, she mistakenly turned up the volume.

  The smaller of the two deputies took the controller from her. “We understand you have a cat. Go get her. The faster we get you out of here, the better.”

  The cat. Her sweet Minnie. Where was she? The hammering at the door must have scared her. She would be under the bed, with green eyes wide and frightened. Kara sprinted to the bedroom. Minnie was on the bed, staring at her. Instead of frightened, she looked angry. Kara scooped her up and held her close. “It’s all right now, baby. We’re just going for a little ride.” A sob escaped. She buried her face into the tuxedo cat’s fur. Minnie purred.

  She caught sight of herself in the mirror. Was this really her with the frightened brown eyes and blotched skin? The months of strain had damaged her appearance. Dark smudges under her eyes paired with hollow cheekbones hinted at countless sleepless nights and a lack of appetite. She was tall and muscular from years of dance and cheerleading when she was younger, but her shoulders curled forward like a person embarrassed by her mere existence. This was new. She’d always been so proud, so sure of herself.

  Was this the right choice? To leave everyone and everything she loved? To give up her position at the hospital? To abandon her beautiful home and all the possessions? The answer was the same as it had been for months. She must. Justice was more important than her own comfort. When she chose to testify against her father, the Witness Protection Program became her only option—her only chance to live. Despite the shock of the truth about her father, she wanted to live. She would begin again.

  Kara squared her shoulders and took in a deep breath. Her mother had not taught her to cower or hide.

  Yes, she must go. They offered her a new life. She would take it.

  Behind her, she sensed one of the marshals in the doorway of the bedroom. With Minnie still in her arms, she turned. He had the carrier in his hand. “Don’t lose courage now, Miss Boggs. You’ve come this far.” He set the carrier on the bed where she would no longer sleep under a downy comforter and memory foam pillows. Would her pillow still remember her when she was no longer Kara Boggs?

  “This is Minnie.” The tears almost escaped. She swallowed and gave herself a direct order. Do not break down until you’re alone. “I can still bring her, right?”

  “Yes, of course. Do you need help getting her in the carrier?” Sympathy flickered in the marshal’s eyes.

  “No, I’ll do it.” She coaxed Minnie into the carrier with treats she’d kept in a bag on the bureau for just this purpose.

  She took one more look at her bedroom. How naïve she’d been two years ago when she’d chosen fabrics and paint colors. My starter home, she’d smugly called it. My bachelorette pad.

  It was time.

  She followed the marshal to the front door. “Where to now?”

  “We have you booked in a hotel near the courthouse. You’ll have twenty-four-hour protection during the trial. We’ll escort you to and from the courtroom.”

  “And then?”

  “We’ll send you to your new location.”

  “Where is it?” she asked.

  “We don’t know,” Green said. “But, it’ll be somewhere nice. The boss has a soft spot for you. It’s not every day we get someone willing to give up their life to do the right thing.”

  “Someone innocent,” Hill added.

  Most in the Witness Protection Program were criminals. They’d told her this during the first interviews when they’d still suspected she might be privy to the dirty underworld of her father’s life. After a time, however, they’d come to understand she knew nothing. She was not a criminal, merely a participant in a plush life. A princess, protected from the dangerous life of a money launderer.

  “Please try and remember during your adjustment period that you’re bringing down an entire branch of the Columbian drug cartel. Most people never have the chance to do something this important. If they do, they shy away.”

  “Like cowards. You didn’t,” Green said, his voice gruff. “Our boss thinks you’re the bravest person he’s ever met.”

  That was kind. But she knew the truth. Her complacency made her guilty. How many clues were there over the years that she’d dismissed, made excuses for, refused to see? At night when she could not sleep she remembered, and remembered, and remembered until the pieces of the puzzle collided with the force of magnets. The completed puzzle broke her heart. Daddy, say it isn’t so.

  But it was.

  Despite her naïve complicity in a life of privilege, she had stepped forward to do the just thing. Perhaps too late? How many lives had been ruined? She was a nurse! A nurse who witnessed the ravages of drugs every single day in the emergency room where she worked. Drugs were cunning. They ruined families and damaged babies and snuffed out lives.

  Too late or not, she had done it. She had colluded with her father’s enemy. As if she’d channeled the finest actress on Broadway, she’d slipped into her role of whistleblower. She’d planted wiretaps and bugs in his office. She’d played to his ego, his desire for her to know how powerful he was, how influential—the trust these dangerous men had in him.

  “I came from nothing, Kara, and look at the life I’ve made for us.”

  “Have another drink, Dad. Tell me more. Who are these people you work for? How did you become involved?”

  Her alliance with the FBI had brought their family crashing to the ground like a house made of the finest sand. With the tapes and her testimony, her father would be sentenced to prison for the rest his life, as would several of the most dangerous Columbian drug lords in organized crime. From prison, they would order her death. Unless she disappeared.

  She grabbed the photograph of her mother from the bedside table and stuffed it into her purse.

  “I’m ready.”

  Chapter Two

  Brody

  With three seconds left on the clock, the American Football League’s San Francisco qua
rterback, Brody Mullen, huddled with his offense for the last play of the Super Bowl. His San Francisco Sharks were down by five. One touchdown against the New England Rebels could make them Super Bowl champions. But they were sixty yards from the end zone. It was a long, high pass or nothing. They had to go for broke. Brody locked eyes with his wide receiver, Trevor Beeson, and called the play. Beeson’s long arms were their only chance. If Brody could throw the pass just right, and Beeson caught it, they would go home winners.

  Please God, don’t let me blow this.

  The center snapped the football. Brody caught it and scanned downfield for Beeson. Around him, his offensive line secured him with the force of their bodies. Brody hurled the football toward the end zone. Beeson, anticipating the location of the ball, sprinted into the far-left corner.

  Beeson had one of New England’s defense in front of him and another behind him. Three sets of arms reached for the ball, but Beeson’s were the longest. He plucked the football from the air like a frog’s tongue snatched a fly.

  Touchdown!

  Brody fell to his knees. I did it. Finally. This is for you, Dad. Memories flooded his consciousness: hours in the backyard throwing the football with his dad; the day his high school team won the state championship; the news that he’d been awarded the Heisman Trophy when he was at USC; the day of the AFL draft. Every moment, he’d shared with his dad. If only he could see this moment.

  When he stood, blinded by tears, his teammates pounced on him. Beeson almost knocked him over with the force of his hug. “Enough sacks for today, Frog,” he said.

  “You’re the boss, man,” Beeson said.

  “No, Frog. You’re the boss.”

  Brody searched the crowd for his family and friends. They’d watched from a box above. He knew they’d waste no time getting down here.

  Moments later, he saw his mother plowing through the crowds to get to him. Following her were his brother and their three best friends. His assistant, Honor, trailed behind the pack. Where was Flora?