Sirens in Bliss

Chapter Thirteen:

Rafe

Rafe moved through the door with only the slightest trepidation. He’d left the crazy crew behind with his daughter, but the insanity of the day wasn’t anywhere close to being over. After all, it was his first real foray into breaking and entering, but, then, he had the law on his side—or rather at his back. Cam was right behind him.

“Where do you think he would have left it?” Cam asked.

“I suspect it should be somewhere on his desk.” Rafe looked around the small cabin. The walls were covered in fishing equipment and photographs, each lovingly framed.

“I’ll take a look through his desk.” Laura pushed her way in. She had vigorously protested the whole breaking and entering idea. “I don’t see why we can’t just print out another form.”

He’d been over this. Zane had been explicit about why they needed the original letter of intent Hiram had signed a few months back. Unfortunately he’d also been called back to Trio. After a long argument in which the group had explained that the world would end if he didn’t get that letter, Rafe had given in. “It’s because the town seal is on the document.”

“All right, we can get a new seal,” Laura suggested.

“Stef is the only one with a seal stamper. Hiram claims a moose ate his so Stef, as the county’s chief engineer, has the only one left,” Rafe explained. They were a very small government. Hell, before 1993, there hadn’t even been a mayor’s office. Hiram had just taken care of things. It hadn’t been until the nineties that they gave in and actually formed a city government.

God, he knew way too much about Bliss politics already.

“What a cluster fuck. So Hiram named a successor and we have to find the paperwork?” Cam had been a little slow on the uptake since he’d been called home from work. He’d hung up before Rafe could explain why they needed him, so he’d come charging in expecting something was wrong with Sierra. He’d actually had his lights and siren going.

Cam needed to chill.

“No, Hiram was supposed to appoint a deputy mayor, but he left the name off. They were all in discussion about who it would be. Apparently Hi never made decisions without taking everything into account.”

Cam picked up on the conversation. “And we’re going to find the document and forge your name, thereby stealing all the political power in the town and setting ourselves up as the first family of Bliss. Does the mayor get a mansion?”

Laura rolled her eyes. “Look around you, babe. This is it.”

Hiram’s cabin was small, but well built. There was absolutely nothing about the place that screamed political power. It was kind of a temple devoted to fishing and hunting.

“And we’re only going to find the document,” Rafe insisted. “I’m not going to be the mayor.”

Cam turned. “Why not? It seems like a pretty sweet gig if you ask me.”

“It seems like a pain in my ass.” He’d been to more than one town hall meeting. And despite what Zane thought, there would eventually be elections.

Although Hiram never faced one. No one ever ran against him. He was utterly beloved.

Rafe looked around the cozy little cabin and wondered if Hiram ever regretted his decision to not leave Bliss.

“I’m just saying that it would be helpful to have someone a little more friendly to law enforcement in the mayor’s office. Hiram was a total radical.”

“Hiram was not a radical,” Laura argued. “He just felt like Nate shouldn’t write tickets every time he wanted to upgrade something at the station house. He was scaring off the tourists.”

“Well, then he should open up the town’s pocketbook. We needed that fridge. The old one was from the sixties. Hiram tried to tell Nate that the sixties was the height of refrigeration technology. Though at least he wasn’t a hypocrite.” Cam put a hand on Hiram’s white, had-to-be-fifty-years-old Frigidaire. “If Rafe was the mayor, we could upgrade the bed in the overnight room. I swear that mattress is so lumpy my back aches for days.”

“I wouldn’t write you a blank check, Cam.” He would be careful with the town funds. He would more likely spend the money on training the citizens in fire containment and prevention. Bliss was surrounded by national forest land and the threat of wildfires was always around. Yes, he would allocate funds to the volunteer firefighters.

There was also talk of a school. Bobby and Will had been homeschooled, but if Sierra was going to school, there would be a forty-five-minute bus ride both ways. Bliss needed a small school, an innovative, multi-grade learning institution.

That was where he would use Stef and Seth. He would casually mention some of the things he would need, perhaps even indicate that he was having some sort of bake sale as a method of raising money. Stef’s eyes would roll and he would tell Rafe what a waste of time that would be, and suddenly Rafe would have a six-figure check in his hand.

And then he would mention Stef’s utter generosity to Seth. He would go on and on about how the King of Bliss was investing in its future.

Seth would be cutting an even bigger check.

Sierra would have the best of all worlds—the beauty of the mountains, the close-knit family of a small town, and a world-class education. It only took a man who knew how to work the Bliss system. It would be good for everyone. There was a baby boom happening in Bliss and someone needed to be prepared.

“I just think it would be a cool gig,” Cam said. A frown suddenly crossed his face. “Except for all the Nell and Henry interaction.”

“I’m worried about them actually,” Laura said. “Something’s off. Nell seems fine, but Henry is anxious about something. He just hasn’t been throwing himself into his protests the way he used to.”

Cam looked around, his eyes perfectly innocent as he took in the room. “He seems fine to me. They were protesting Jack Barnes just yesterday. Apparently even though he’s organic, he still kills cows and that’s bad. I don’t know. His burgers are pretty tasty.”

Something about the eyes gave him away. Cam never looked that innocent unless he was hiding something. Laura sighed and mumbled something about male hormones being involved, but then she wandered off to look through Hiram’s office.

“What’s wrong with Henry?” Rafe asked quietly.

Cam looked through the mail on Hiram’s small bar. “Like I said, absolutely nothing.”

Rafe was not buying it. “You figured out his past.”

There had been rumblings about it in town ever since the incident with Gemma and her ex. Caleb had told a few people that he didn’t believe Henry’s story about how the man had tripped. Caleb thought Henry had taken him down and in a very calculated way.

A single shoulder shrugged up and down.

“Since when do you hide information from me?”

Cam’s eyes came up and there was an unfamiliar hardness there. “Since I took an oath to protect and defend the citizens of this town.”

A little shiver went up Rafe’s spine. He’d always, always known that Henry wasn’t what he seemed. He had never doubted that Henry loved his wife, but there was an undercurrent of violence that ran just beneath Henry’s placid surface.

Rafe had profiled for a very long time. He’d been damn good at it. If he was profiling Henry Flanders, he would put him in the predator category. It was in the way he moved, the way his eyes hardened when he thought no one was looking. It was in the way he quickly surmised he was being watched. Rafe was also good at quietly studying people, but Henry always felt his eyes and turned back on his laid-back charm. “Has Henry’s past caught up with him?”

Cam’s jaw tightened, and Rafe knew that whatever secrets he had, they were bad—potentially very dangerous. “I can’t talk about it outside of the station.”

“Does Stef know?” The King of Bliss knew everything.

“Yes, but you can’t blame me for that. Hiram knew, too. Stef and Hi are really the only political figures in this town. Stef holds an office. If you take the mayor job, I’ll immediately fill you in. Other than that, you’re on a need-to-know basis and you don’t need to know.”

“If something is going to happen in Bliss, I should be informed.” Everyone should be informed. The town had been hit by everything from biker gangs to a serial killer. Rafe still didn’t believe it was really a hot spot of alien activity, but Mel still ran around town with a bullhorn informing the citizenry when probing season began.

Cam’s blue eyes came up and there was a steely anger in them. Rafe braced himself because that look told him Cam knew something he shouldn’t. “Yeah, well, I would like to be informed when you’re planning to move us all to Miami, but I didn’t get that courtesy, so I guess you’ll survive like I did.”

Fuck. “I haven’t taken the job.”

“I hear the ‘yet’ in those words, partner.”

“And I’m wondering why you’ve taken to spying on me.” He could turn this around. He hadn’t said a word because he hadn’t decided what he was going to do. Cam was pushing him, and he didn’t like it one bit.

“Well, you’ve taken to hiding whole fucking life decisions from us.”

“What’s going on?” Laura was standing in the doorway, a piece of paper in her hand.

“Did you find it?” Maybe he could avoid this conversation.

She turned her eyes up to his. “Yes. I also found a list. I think it was a list he was making for deputy mayor. Would you like to know who was at the top?”

It didn’t really matter now, but he would say anything to not have to answer her original question. “Who?”

She looked back down at the lined piece of paper she was holding. “It’s a list along with pros and cons. Nell is at the bottom. Her pro is hard working and makes excellent bread. Her con is will make everyone in town blow their own heads off. He has Cade Sinclair in here. He’s smart and hard working. Cons—why can’t that boy wear a shirt? But at the top of the list is Rafael Kincaid.”

Did he really want to hear this? He carefully schooled his expression. “And what are my pros?”

“One of the smartest men in the county. Good family man. Could handle the craziness and keep everyone in line. Best man for the job.”

“What are his cons?” Cam asked, a deep frown creasing his brow.

“Rafe could be the best mayor, if only he opened himself up. He likely won’t stay. He’ll take his family back to the city in the end.” Laura looked up. “Is that what you’re planning?”

It looked like they would have it out here and now. “You know staying here was always contingent on me finding a decent job, Laura. How are we going to raise our daughter if no one is making any money? Right now we’re living off the money we had saved up. We won’t have money for her college fund. We won’t be able to fix up the cabin. If we choose to adopt again, where will we put the child? You two don’t seem to think about these things, so I am forced to.”

“The money is there to build onto the cabin. You’ve just been holding off on it because you don’t want to stay here,” Laura accused.

“And screw the money part, man.” Cam jumped in. “Where do I fit in to your corporate job in Miami?”

“You already have a job?” Laura’s question came out on a breathless huff.

“I’ve been offered a job with a six-figure salary, a company car, and the best insurance we could possibly get.” Perhaps she would see it was for the best.

Laura shook her head. “So you expect us to move to Miami where you have a job and we don’t.”

That was one argument he could shoot down. “Laura, you work at a convenience store.”

“I help out the people of my town, and as soon as we find someone to take my place, I’m going to start working on some projects. You know Georgia Stark is talking about a school.”

“That school should be under the purview of the mayor’s office.” He wanted to control the project. If he let Georgia handle it, school uniforms would be provided by Prada and walking in five-inch heels would be a requirement of graduation.

Except he wasn’t going to handle it.

Laura’s face had gone a stunning shade of pink. “Well, that’s not up to you because you’ll be in Miami. Tell me something, Rafe. Did your mother put you up to this? Can she not stand the thought of her precious boy being stuck in some back road Colorado town?”

“Laura,” Cam warned.

Laura’s well-shod foot came down. “No, I’ve had it up to here. If Rafe isn’t happy, he can run right back to his momma. She doesn’t like me anyway. She hasn’t even asked to come out and see Sierra. She doesn’t care about her own granddaughter. That’s what you’re trying to choose over us, Rafe.”

“Laura, be quiet about this,” Cam commanded.

“No,” Laura shot back. “I won’t. He loves his mother so much. He can live with her. I’m not moving. I’m staying right here. I made it clear to you in the beginning that I wouldn’t leave Bliss. I gave you every opportunity to go back to DC and keep your job with the BAU, but you want to have your cake and eat it, too. This is my family, Rafe. I’m not leaving. I’m not raising my child, our child, in a world that would ridicule her for the type of family she has. Or did you expect that Cam would just stick to the background? Maybe we shouldn’t tell Sierra that Cam is her father at all. We can call him Uncle Cam and pretend like he doesn’t sleep with us. You probably have this all figured out.”

Every word stabbed at him because it was all true. She had told him she wouldn’t leave. She had made her wishes clear. He just wasn’t sure there was a place for him here. Cam had slid naturally into the role of deputy and hero and small-town good guy.

Rafe still enjoyed expensive wine and he’d never gotten into fishing. He’d spent most of his time since getting married looking for a job or working with Caleb to adopt Sierra. He hadn’t really fit in around town. He hadn’t tried because he’d needed the job first. How could he introduce himself without a job?

And he would never really have one in Bliss.

Unless he took what his crazy neighbors were offering.

“I have not figured out anything at all, Laura.” It wasn’t worth throwing anything in her face. He wasn’t really mad. He just felt a deep sadness begin to weigh him down. His mother had rejected him, and now it felt like his wife and partner were doing the same thing.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then. I’m going home to take care of our baby. Maybe you should think about her. I’ll get this to Zane. He needs to talk to Cade so we can get this thing done.” Laura stormed out, her blonde hair flowing behind her.

He loved her so much, but now he wondered if love alone was enough for him. Perhaps it would be better to leave Bliss, to let Laura and Cam stay where they so obviously belonged. He slumped down on Hiram’s couch. At his feet was a bearskin rug complete with head and claws attached. The story was Hiram had fought with the bear and eventually won and cackled with glee every time he stepped on his rug.

Rafe wasn’t colorful, not like Laura and Cam.

“She doesn’t know, man. I’m really sorry, but she doesn’t know about the rift with your mom because you haven’t talked about it with us. You hold yourself apart.” Cam sat down beside him. “It makes me wonder if you’re going to leave. And I don’t think for a second that you’re planning on shoving me to the side. You would never do that.”

At least Cam believed him. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Well, I’ll tell you I feel some guilt about it. I suppose that’s one reason you wouldn’t tell us.”

“Yes. I knew how it would make you feel.”

“But, god, Rafe, I’ll take the guilt to get you to talk to me. If you don’t want to talk to me, then at least tell Laura. You were a momma’s boy. I don’t mean that as an insult. I just know how close you were to her. I loved my mom, too. And I know how hard it was on her to raise a kid in a place that didn’t accept her.” Cam continued as he crossed to the kitchen, opening the fridge. “My town didn’t accept her because she was unmarried when she had me. Do you even know what it would be like for us? I’ve lived this life. I don’t want it for our daughter. At the same time, I know how you feel. You just had the rug ripped out from under you.”

Because his mother was always supposed to be there. Because she was supposed to stand beside him even when she thought he was wrong. She wasn’t supposed to tell him he was dead to her. She wasn’t supposed to cut him out of her life.

She wasn’t supposed to abandon him.

“I knew she would take it hard.” Rafe began speaking slowly, forcing the words out. “It was why I put off telling her the truth for so long. I only told her that we’d found Laura and we were working things out. I knew how she would take those words.”

“She took the ‘we’ to mean you and Laura.”

“Yes.”

Cam sat down, passing him a beer. “Well, I suppose that’s only to be expected.” He popped the top on his. “Her brain isn’t on the Bliss wave station. It must have been a surprise to her.”

Rafe looked down at the beer. “I don’t know about this.”

Cam laughed a little. “Hi doesn’t need it anymore, and while he was stingy with money, he was always quick to offer a beer. So tell me what happened, and not the craptastic, two-second version.”

“Fine.” He took a long draw off the beer. There was something soothing about sitting with his best friend, having a cheap beer. “I tried to explain it to her gently. I thought showing her some pictures of Sierra would soften her up. She wanted to know why I couldn’t get a kid who looked like me. She said we should have gotten a surrogate because Sierra didn’t have her blood.”

Cam sat back, a thoughtful look in his eyes. “She was always very concerned with her blood line.”

“We have a long family history.” He’d heard about it endlessly growing up. He and Javier were the latest in a long line of Spanish royalty who came to the new world centuries before. They had a duty to be the best, to continue the line.

He thought he had. He had a daughter and she was beautiful and sweet and he intended to raise her to know all of her heritages. His daughter would be the quintessential American—a child of the world, raised with American idealism.

His mother had only cared about the blood that ran in Sierra’s veins.

Sierra’s blood meant nothing. The love he and Laura and Cam would pour into her, that was what would bind them together as a family.

Cam sent him a sympathetic look. “She could change her mind. Living in Miami so close to her might bring her around.”

He shook his head. “That’s not why I was considering the job in Miami. It was a coincidence. I simply have contacts there. I was considering the job because it’s the only one that’s been offered to me.”

“That’s not true.” Cam stood up and gestured around. “It seems to me you’ve been offered another job.”

“I’ve been offered up as a sacrificial lamb to keep Nell Flanders out of political office.”

“That seems like a mighty important job to me. You know she thinks the sheriff’s department should switch to nonviolent methods of…well, everything. She wants to ban all firearms in the county and teach the citizenry to talk to bears so we don’t kill them.”

Rafe had come into close contact with a bear just two months before. It had been deeply attracted to the hummingbird feeders Laura had placed around the house. He’d been scared shitless. “They’ll just eat us.”

“And Nell would say we deserved it. Do you understand the chaos that would happen? I just think being mayor of Bliss is a bigger job than you’re giving it credit. And I think you would do a hell of a job. It’s up to you. Laura will come around. I can work on her. If you really want to give Miami a shot, I’ll make sure it happens. Nate has connections with the DEA, and I’m sure he can give me some serious recommendation. I can try Miami PD maybe.”

He didn’t like the thought of Cam on the streets. He didn’t like it at all. “But you love it here.”

Cam sat forward, a sad smile on his face. “And you’re my partner. You gave it a shot. I won’t have you miserable. We’ll find a way. We’ll compromise because we’re a family. I’m going to go talk to our wife. You think about it for a while. We’re supposed to be at Trio for some weird ceremonial thing that proves Wolf’s girl isn’t an alien queen. I have to go fire up the Detector 6000. Stef made it special for the wedding. You won’t want to miss it.”

He walked out the door, leaving Rafe alone in Hiram’s tiny cabin.

There would be no Detector 6000s for Cam in the Miami PD. There wouldn’t be Big Game Dinners or Winter Festivals where Sierra could ride ponies. There would be no crazy town hall meetings.

He looked around. Hiram had lived alone for the last fifty or so years, but Rafe couldn’t tell from the pictures on the wall. He stood up and stared at that wall. Forty or so pictures hung in cheap frames, but somehow they made a rich canvas of the man’s life. There were old black and whites, one of a very large family. The man who was obviously the father had a grim look on his face, and the others were crowding in, looking similarly stoic. Only one boy was grinning like a loon.

Hiram. Maybe he’d never fit into that large, serious family, but he’d kept the photo. There was a picture of Hiram and a woman who looked a whole lot like Max and Rye Harper. They were dressed in late seventies clothes. She was smiling at the camera and holding up a trout she’d caught, but Hiram’s face was toward her and he practically glowed.

There were pictures of Hiram with Stella and a young Stef, with Jamie and Noah’s dads and mom out on the Circle G. He recognized some of the locals who had been here long before him because Stella had taken him through her albums one night. There was a picture of Hiram handing out diplomas to Max and Rye and Stef and Callie.

The last one caused Rafe’s throat to tighten. It was a picture of Hiram holding up Sierra Rose.

Hiram had come to the small party that welcomed his daughter. Hiram had picked her up, pronounced her perfect, and welcomed her as the newest citizen of Bliss.

Tears filled Rafe’s eyes because he finally realized something.

Sierra had already lost a grandfather. And if Rafe took his family out of Bliss, she would lose a whole family.

Blood. All his life it had been pounded into his brain. Blood made a family, a long line of DNA that connected him to ancestors who the history books talked about.

But here was a whole life laid out in faded pictures and knickknacks, and suddenly it was so lovely to Rafe. Hiram’s history didn’t span Europe. It was all about a lifetime spent in Bliss. It was about a world of friends who became family. They didn’t need blood. Hell, half the time they didn’t really have anything in common with the singular exception of where they lived, but somehow it had worked for Hiram.

Because he’d been open. Because he’d made his decision and he hadn’t looked back. He’d moved forward. He’d forged his own life, his own path.

Wasn’t that all a father could ask for his child?

Rafe sat back and allowed a wealth of history to play in his brain.