Rafe Aguilar is running for his life from a Colombian drug cartel and comes home to Angel Falls to try and recover his lost memories.
Rafe Aguilar returns battered and bruised from a run in with the cartel in Colombia.
His brother Andras hides him in a remote mountain cabin near the horse farm.
Rafe’s neighbor, the lovely Sydney Santana, has secrets of her own.
As their magnetic attraction intensifies, they must find a way to escape the past.
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Winter wasn’t giving up on the February evening in the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Heavy wet snow bleached the front yard from the porch to the barn on Andras Aguilar’s horse farm. He looked at the clock on the wall and frowned, knowing his wife, Harper, would be traveling home on snow-packed roads from the hospital in Santa Fe where she worked as a neurosurgeon three days a week. She served as a family practitioner for the Angel Falls Clinic the other two days.
Harper was a talented and independent woman, and although Andras wanted to protect her from the world, he knew she wouldn’t welcome his concerns. Nevertheless, he picked up his cell phone and called her.
She answered on the third ring. “Hi, sweetheart. How’s your day going so far?”
“It’s fine. It will be better once you get here. The roads are scary, Harper. Please drive carefully and watch for idiots trying to pass when you’re in the canyon.”
He could hear the smile in her voice. “I’ll drive like a little old granny. I promise, worrywart. See you soon. Love you.”
Harper had come into his life unexpectedly and become his champion in a community that regarded him with distrust and fear. He’d fallen hard for her, and she’d changed his solitary life and opened him up to feelings he’d never known he needed.
He walked impatiently to his front window and looked toward the wide barn door. He had closed it earlier in the day as the cold front blew in, but now it stood partially open. His adopted son Bobby had insisted on checking on the horses, and Andras had watched as the boy had run across the yard with Bear, their powerfully built German shepherd, trailing behind him. Any creatures lurking in the barn would be quickly dispatched, he thought and laughed quietly.
Suddenly, Bobby blasted out of the barn. His winter cap fell from his head, and his carrot top hair flopped in his face as he ran toward the house. Andras could hear his high-pitched screech and quickly opened the front door. Bobby ran into his arms and, between breaths, managed to squeak out, “Man … there’s a … man in there.” He gulped a lungful of air as he pointed back toward the barn. Andras could feel his thin body shaking.
He pulled Bobby inside the house as he took a jacket off a hook, grabbed his shotgun, and said sharply, “Stay here.”
The horse farm was several miles outside of town, and it would have been unusual for a vagrant to take refuge in his barn but certainly not impossible. Andras walked cautiously toward the open door and peered into the darkness. “Whoever you are, come out right now. I’m carrying a gun, and I don’t want to shoot you. You scared my boy half to death. I would have given you shelter if you’d asked.”
He heard his dog Bear give a nervous whine and then run to him from the far side of the barn where Andras stored the hay. Bear whined again and looked back into the shadows. The German shepherd, protective by nature, was not showing any aggression toward the intruder as Andras would have expected. This was strange indeed.
Andras held the gun out before him and followed Bear as the dog circled back and forth. Then, he saw a figure lying against the hay. The man’s eyes were half-open, but Andras would have recognized that face anywhere as he stared dumbfounded at the man. “Rafe,” he said as he put the gun down and reached out for his brother.
“My God, Rafe, what’s happened to you?” His brother’s face was ashen with dark purple and blue bruises splattered across it, and his blond hair was dirty and shaggy. His cracked lips were caked with dried blood.
Rafe’s voice was hoarse and broken as he tried to speak. “Andras, help. Don’t tell. Dead,” he said and closed his eyes. Eyes that only moments before were filled with pain and fear. His big brother had never been afraid of anyone or anything in his life.
Andras’s mind was flooded with emotion. Rafe had always tried to protect him from their mother and the outside world. Whatever Rafe needed from him now, he would give it no matter the cost.
Rafe was wearing only a shirt, pants, and a light jacket on this cold, snowy night. When Andras placed his hand on his brother’s chest, Rafe cried out in pain. He was a big man over six feet, and the last time Andras had seen him, Rafe was impressive with a hard-packed muscular body. Today, he looked thin and gaunt.
Andras quickly took off his own coat and covered him. Speaking softly, he said, “Rafe, can you hear me?”
The only response he heard was labored puffs of air between groans as his chest rose and fell. He reached for Rafe’s hand to squeeze it softly and pulled back when he found bloodied bandages surrounding his brother’s fingers. “What’s happened to you? Who did this to you?”
Andras felt an overwhelming urge to kill those responsible. He clenched his teeth and forced down the bile that had risen in his throat. “I’ll be right back, I promise. I’ll get help.”
He rose, looked down, and placed a hand on Bear’s head. “Stay. Guard.” The obedient dog, his eyes alert and searching, lay down next to Rafe.
Andras crossed the yard and saw Bobby rocking back and forth on his feet while peering out the kitchen window. When Andras opened the door, his curly black hair was wet from the falling snow. He immediately knelt and looked into Bobby’s eyes to reassure the boy. “There’s no need to be afraid. The man in the barn is not here to hurt us. He’s your Uncle Rafe, and he needs our help.”
“What’s the matter with him?”
“I don’t know yet, but I must ask something of you that may be hard. I think some bad people hurt him, and he’s hiding. I need you to keep it a secret between you and me and your mom and not tell anyone that you’ve seen your uncle. Can you promise me that?”
Bobby’s eyes widened, and his bottom lip trembled when he said, “Yes, I promise I won’t tell. He’s not gonna die, is he?”
Andras didn’t lie to him when he said, “I hope not, but I don’t know.” He saw the lights from a car flash across the window and was relieved to see that it was Harper. “Go get some blankets from the hall closet while I go outside and talk to your mom.”
~~~
Harper turned off the ignition and pushed open the car door, almost slamming it into Andras. “What in the world are you doing out here in the snow without a coat?” she said as she stepped out and took in the expression on his face. “What is it?” Her heart leaped to her throat. “Has something happened to Bobby?”
“No,” Andras placed his hands on her shoulders and said, “Bobby’s fine. It’s Rafe. Somethings happened to Rafe.”
Harper sucked in her breath as her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, good Lord. I know we haven’t heard from him in a while. He’s not … he isn’t dead, is he?”
Andras pulled her toward the barn and said, “He’s here, Harper. Bobby found him hiding in the barn. I don’t know anything yet, but someone has hurt him badly. You’ve got to help him.”
“Did you call 911?” she said, looking around as if she expected to see the yard filled with EMTs and the flashing lights from an ambulance.
“No, I can’t.” He quickened his pace and said, “You’ll know what I mean when you see him.”
“Turn on the lights. I can’t see a thing,” Harper said as she walked briskly across the dirt floor behind Andras. The familiar scents of hay and warm horseflesh were mingled with something else—the copper tang of blood.
She came to a sudden stop when she saw Bear lying near a man curled in a fetal position between the bales of hay. She prayed she wouldn’t have to tell Andras that his brother was no longer alive. She put her hand on the dog’s head. “Good boy,” she said as she knelt and pressed her fingers against the groove of Rafe’s neck along the trachea. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of relief when she felt a shallow pulse in his carotid artery.
“He needs to be in a hospital. I can’t take care of him here.”
Andras paced in front of her while rubbing the back of his neck. “No,” he said, his voice loud and commanding. Harper’s head shot up to look at her husband. He never lost control.
“The last thing he said before he passed out was that I couldn’t tell anyone he was here, or he would be dead.”
“Well, he’s almost dead now, and if we don’t get him to a hospital, he could be.” She saw the fear reflected in Andras’s face and relented, “All right, all right. Let’s at least get him to the clinic. I don’t have anything here but basic first aid.”
She gently shifted Rafe onto his back, pushed aside the jacket, and began to unbutton his shirt. What she saw gave her pause. His chest was a deep bluish-purple with numerous minor cuts that looked like they had been made with a sharp knife or scalpel. Most were crusted with dried blood, but some were surrounded by swollen red flesh and oozing pus.
Rafe’s body jerked and shuddered as he opened his feverish eyes, and Harper wasn’t sure if he even recognized her. “Rafe, it’s me, Harper. I’m taking you to my clinic to examine you and treat your wounds. Andras and I are going to help you to my car. Do you understand?”
He closed his eyes and then opened them again. In a soft exhalation of air, he whispered, “Yes.”
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