Framed Read online

  “Just this one time, John. It’s not a permanent move; it’s just so Kade, and even the other inmates, can see what we do.”

  Hinkle didn’t respond at first; he cocked his head as if he was reading me. I’d tried, rather unsuccessfully I’ll admit, to keep my emotions in check the whole time Kade had been in the room. But I was beginning to think the man could see how much Kade had affected me. When Kade had looked at me with lust in his eyes, I’d been sixteen again and unable to speak. When he said I was a beautiful woman who tempted him I’d been twenty-two again in my dad’s garage; only this time he wasn’t dressed in fatigues with close-cropped hair, he was in orange coveralls and his hair had grown out well past his ears. Not to mention, in the years since I’d seen him last, he’d somehow grown incredibly bigger, wider, and harder around the edges. Now, he was nothing but hard muscle covering wide, strong bones all connected with sinew. And his eyes had hardened even more with time and imprisonment. I would have run from him in any other circumstance, he was that powerful, but when he’d quoted Princess Bride that had sealed my fate. I knew then I would do whatever it took to help him while he was at Renault. Between the lustful looks and the boy I remembered, my body no longer hummed when I looked at him; it burned with a passion for the man that had stood in front of me. Frankly, it was all I could do to keep from walking the remaining feet between us, wrapping my arms around him, and telling him that Dad and I believed he was innocent.

  “Why this man, out of all the others here?” Hinkle questioned. “He’s in a bad place right now, Harley. He was counting on his former team to return and find evidence to set him free. He’s feeling abandoned for the second time in his life.”

  “Do you believe he’s innocent?”

  “What I believe doesn’t matter. A jury found him guilty and it’s my responsibility to counsel him. I’ve gotten to know him pretty well in the past six months and I don’t want to put him in a situation that will put others at risk. He’s a dangerous man because of his training, but he’s also a man with deep wounds from his past. So I’m asking you again, why this man?”

  Taking a deep breath to control my voice, I shrugged, then tried to explain (without revealing I’d essentially been hung up on the man since I was sixteen) in a way Hinkle would understand.

  “The man fought for our country, John. Don’t you think he deserves a little respect and a little extra effort considering all that he’s been through? This program places abused dogs in their care and gives them something to focus on besides being incarcerated twenty-four hours a day.”

  “That’s it? You just want to pay him back for his service?”

  “It’s also as a favor to my father, who’s also a former Navy man. Look, he’ll be here for at least seven years and I think it’s the least we can do for him . . . And the dogs,” I threw in when I realized I was too focused on Kade and not the program.

  Hinkle paused for a moment to consider my response before picking up his phone and calling the Warden. Thankfully, he didn’t check my pulse to see if I was lying. If he had, he would have found it racing. I wanted to help Kade, to ease his pain, and, if I’m honest, to be able to see him three times a week. But I couldn’t do that unless he was in the program.

  ***

  Kade sat with his hands clenched, trying to ignore the sight of Harley Dash Jordan and her class of canine trainers. The class of twelve men and twelve dogs was holding court in a yard next to his with only a chain link fence and razor wire separating them. He’d hoped when he walked out of Hinkle’s office it was the end of that particular torture, but he’d been wrong. He knew about the dog training program, was curious even, but he had no idea who ran it. Not once in the six months since he’d been at Renault had he seen the inmates training the dogs. Now that his team had written him off, and he’d be spending the next seven to fifteen years in this hellhole, he might have signed up if it weren’t for Harley Jordan.

  His former SEAL team had a German shepherd mascot named Titan and he missed the dog. He would have enjoyed working with one of the dogs in the program, but the torture of seeing Harley, a woman he could never have, was too great. Though, right now, what bothered him the most while watching Harley bend at the waist wasn’t that he couldn’t join the program, it was the other inmates who had their eyes fixed on her ass the same as him.

  Jordan must have a screw loose. No way would I allow her to commune with the inmates without being here to protect her.

  “You like watching the dogs or the ass in the air?” Cooter chuckled as he sat down beside him. Clenching his jaw to keep from responding, Kade turned his eyes away from Harley and her band of misfits and glared at the old man. “The fur on that one looks like it would be soft as silk to run your hands through. And the tail, the way it swings when she walks, well—”

  “You better be talking about the dog, old man,” Kade gritted between his teeth.

  The responding hoot told him Cooter had been baiting him. He stood to leave that part of the yard so he wouldn’t be tortured by either one.

  “Where are you going?” Cooter called to his retreating backside.

  “Somewhere I can find peace of mind,” Kade replied, heading for the weight area so he could bench press his sexual frustration into oblivion.

  It was wrong to covet another man’s wife so he needed a distraction before he ended up jacking off in the shower while Harley’s ass was in his mind’s eye. It wasn’t far enough away, though. He could still hear the distant sound of her voice as the husky tone carried across the yard, bouncing off the concrete walls as he lifted weights; calling to him like it did in his dreams all those years ago.

  As he lowered the bar to his chest, inhaling deeply, filling his lungs with air in preparation for the lift, he heard a dog yelp then bark as if it had been hurt. The sound of Harley yelling at someone caught his attention further and he stopped. Popping the weights off his chest, he placed the bar on the stand behind him and sat up just in time to see Harley go down. The guards restrained the inmate quickly, pulling him back from the dog as Harley rose to her feet, but not before Kade made a mental picture of the man who’d laid his hands on her.

  “What kind of asshole doesn’t protect his wife at a prison?” Kade mumbled as he envisioned putting a fist into the inmates face.

  “Ms. Dash doesn’t have a husband,” Scott Turner, a short man with thinning hair who was inside for embezzling half a million dollars, responded.

  Kade turned and looked at the man who barely stood five feet eight if he stretched his neck, and cocked an eyebrow.

  “I started IDTP last year, but I was allergic to the dogs and had to quit. One of the men asked her what her husband thought about her working around all these inmates. She answered back that she was divorced, but said if he’d had a problem with it, he would have been divorced sooner.”

  Kade scoffed as his eyes snapped back to Harley. A real man would have cared, would have been here to protect her; that told him all he needed to know about the former husband.

  He kept his eyes on Harley, watching for any other signs of trouble, then realized he couldn’t step in to protect her even if he’d wanted to. Feeling powerless, he watched her brush off the attack as if it had been no big deal. Standing again, she took hold of the cowering dog the inmate had released and she squatted on her haunches. She pet the dog, kissing him on the head as her hands ran down the length of his body, soothing him until his tail began to wag. As she did this, Kade watched her search his yard as if she was looking for someone. When her eyes stopped at him and softened, he felt as if he’d been punched in the gut and he didn’t breathe once in the space of three hard beats of his heart.

  Watching her now, he was seventeen again, standing on the football field stretching. He was getting ready for the big game against Milton High School when Milton’s cheerleaders ran out onto the field carrying a paper banner for the players to run through. Harley Dash had been on the end closest to him and he’d zeroed in on her immediately. She
had a smile that lit up the stadium and a laugh that said she loved life, and was loved by all around her. Seeing that much happiness in one person had called out to him in a way no other girl had before. She was shorter, daintier, hadn’t come into her womanhood completely like most of the curvaceous girls he’d chased, but he could see her potential. Fragile was the word that had come to mind as he looked at her; as if she would break in two if handled too roughly and that had called out to his inner caveman for some reason. He’d been tempted to pursue her until he wrapped her legs around his waist as he entered her slowly, preferably while she whispered his name. But that smile said she was something special, something clean and pure that had never been touched. He hadn’t been around many girls that wholesome, and the thought of marring it with his wild ways didn’t sit well so he’d left her alone.

  Thinking back to that night as he stared back at Harley, he remembered how half the players around him had paused at the sight of her tanned legs and sun kissed hair. How she’d been oblivious to it, to all of them. You could tell just by looking at her she was unaware of how appealing she was. That had amped up the sexy factor for the almost-man Kade had been by a thousand percent and ultimately convinced him he wasn’t good enough for her. Looking at her now, he knew he wasn’t good enough, but then he figured no man was.

  Kade held her eyes as she stroked the dog and wished like hell it was him she was running those slender hands across. He hissed through his teeth when she licked her lips to cool them in the warm Florida sun. When she finally stood and walked back to the center of the yard, half the men around him groaned in appreciation as her now womanly form swayed with each step she took. Hearing that, after seeing her go down, his protective instincts kicked in and he made an instantaneous decision. The thought of a man laying a hand on her again made his blood boil. So, like it or not, while he was in here and she was teaching, he’d be in the class to keep her safe.

  Moving towards the fence that separated his yard from the class, he whistled between his teeth to catch her attention. She spun around and he watched her eyes round in surprise at his approach. When she started moving towards the fence, he took in the dog at her side. He looked to be part shepherd, definitely husky or malamute with his long, thick coat and blue eyes that looked like they could see inside you and find you lacking.

  When Harley reached the fence, he squatted down and looked the dog in the eyes. He could tell it had been abused by the way he wouldn’t hold his gaze. This dog had learned quickly to avoid eye contact; that acting out only got you abused for your trouble. Reaching his fingers through the fence, he waited until it took a hesitant step towards him. With a calm voice, Kade whispered praise to the dog, grinning when his tail started to wag right before his pink tongue reached out and licked his fingers.

  “What’s his name?” he asked Harley without looking her in the eyes. Those light chocolate-colored eyes had starred in many of his erotic dreams years ago and for the safety of his cellblock he needed to keep his distance as much as possible.

  “He doesn’t have a name yet. I call him Mr. Fluffy Butt because of all the hair around his butt,” she replied in all seriousness.

  “Jesus, woman, are you trying to emasculate him?” he asked in outrage.

  “I was hoping you would name him. I handpicked him, especially for you, since he reminded me of the dog you had with your SEAL team.”

  Surprised how she even knew that much about him, Kade couldn’t help but grin. He stood and looked down at her. Their eyes locked and heat instantly rippled between them, smoldering like coals in a fire.

  Christ, what am I thinking?

  “I guess I better give him a name then,” he finally answered, looking back at the dog to break the spell.

  “Does that mean you’ve changed your mind?”

  Without taking his eyes off the dog, Kade nodded. “Somebody has to keep you safe from all these sex starved men,” he explained. “I think I’ll call him Buck. He looks like he could lead a pack of wild wolves someday with the proper training.”

  Harley choked on his answer, clenching her jaw in outrage before retorting, “I can take care of myself, Mr. Kingston. You don’t need to look—”

  Kade’s angry eyes shot back at her outburst and pinned her where she stood. She didn’t have a clue how dangerous some of these men were with the proper motivation. It didn’t matter what she thought, he wouldn’t let anyone lay another hand on her again. He watched with satisfaction as she stepped back and quickly swallowed her angry retort.

  “That’s the second time I’ve seen you fall because of undisciplined men. I didn’t like it any better this time than I did when I was seventeen. If you’re gonna be near inmates while training dogs, then I’m near you.”

  “You remember that?” she replied with surprise, her husky voice going from strong and sure to breathless and full of wonder. He tried to keep the sound of it from making him hard, but his cock took full notice as she licked her lips again.

  “Yeah, I remember. I remember you fell and then panicking you’d broken your neck. I remember feeling relieved when I ripped Johnson from the top of you to find you lying there unharmed. I also remember that fuckin’ smile you gave me when I helped you stand. It kept me—”

  “Harley!” her assistant thankfully called out before he could finish telling her that she’d kept him awake at nights with a hard on that could cut glass.

  Focus, for fuck's sake.

  She turned to her co-worker, raising her finger to indicate she’d be right with her. When she turned back around, Kade decided to end the conversation so he could retreat before he spilled all his secrets.

  “I want in the program now so fill out whatever paperwork I need and I’ll sign it.”

  “My dad and I never thought you were guilty,” she blurted out, catching him off guard.

  Jesus.

  A sharp bolt of shock hit him square in the chest and something like warmth, maybe even hope, filtered through his veins as he stared back dumbstruck. No one had believed in him except for Kyle and his grandfather. To hear Harley say she believed he was innocent was like a balm to his open wounds, soothing them temporarily. He stood stock-stll, staring at her, unable to say anything that would begin to express his gratitude for her belief in him. Before he could so much as reply, she mumbled shyly, “I’ll, um, I’ll file the paperwork and see you on Wednesday then,” before she turned and started back towards her class.

  “Harley!” he shouted as she made her way back, finally finding his voice.

  When she turned back around and looked at him, those brown eyes of hers were attentive, focused on him, hanging onto his every word. Not disgusted at having to talk to the murderer Kade Kingston like so many others had in the past two years. Seeing that, the vice clamp that had compressed his chest since his arrest lifted momentarily. Feeling freer than he had in two years, his lip twitched into a devilish grin and he called out, “As you wish.”

  ***

  The smell of oil and gasoline overwhelmed my nose as I climbed out of my Jeep. It’s funny how your sense of smell can evoke memories from your childhood. For me, old oil and gasoline were like your mother’s favorite perfume; one she wore while you were growing up, pulling up memories of a happier time. My earliest memories of my mother were of her sitting at what was now my desk in my father’s business, working the accounts while on the phone trying to collect on past debts. It was one of the reasons I continued to work for my father when I could have moved on. He could hire anyone to take care of his books, but knowing I was sitting in her chair working at her desk kept her memory fresh and alive.

  I thought about her most days, but it was days like today I really wished she were here. My jumbled feelings where Kade was concerned were giving me pause and I needed a woman’s advice. As a representative of the IDTP I had to conduct myself in a professional manner. But today I’d turned into a smitten woman who blurted out her thoughts because a gorgeous man made her feel things she hadn’t felt i
n years. If I weren’t careful, I’d be pulled from the program for unprofessional behavior towards Kade, putting all my hard work at risk. Innocent or not, he was still in prison and would probably be there for another seven years unless a miracle happened. And here I was fantasizing about kissing him, about how it would feel to have those strong arms wrapped round my body.

  “Stupid, stupid, stupid, Harley.” I berated myself as I climbed the stairs to my studio apartment over the auto repair shop.

  I’d moved into the old apartment after Michael and I divorced. I decided to move here instead of back home with my father or an apartment in some huge complex where I knew no one. It was all I needed until I figured out my life, plus it had great views of Whiting Airfield from the back window. I could walk upstairs when it was lunchtime to make a sandwich, and if I overslept, I was one minute from work.

  Kicking off my tennis shoes inside the door, I dragged myself into the kitchen and poured a glass of wine as Buttercup, my diva Yorkshire terrier, laid in her princess bed and stared at me.

  “I’m home,” I announced, but she just rolled on her back as if she expected me to rub her belly instead of being a normal dog and greeting me at the door.

  Rolling my eyes at her royal highness, I sipped the sweet wine and thought about Kade. I wondered what he was doing this very moment. Was he in his cell reading or was he at dinner surrounded by killers, stuck in a nightmare he didn’t deserve? Would his former team really show like my dad said and help him prove his innocence or was he trapped and forgotten like he thought he was; praying there was something left of his life when he was paroled? And what of his grandfather? Was he still fighting for his life, hoping one day he’d see his grandson again? I could go crazy thinking about it all so I couldn’t imagine what it was doing to Kade.

  “The whole thing is unfair. You can tell just by looking at him, he didn’t do it.”

  “No, he didn’t. You can thank the media and all their hype for his conviction,” my father said as he walked into my apartment unannounced.