Read For His Honor for Free Online Page B

easily have flown to Australia and be doing a walkabout right now.”
    She nodded. “I know, I know.”
    “If you’re lucky enough to find him, the chances are low that he’ll greet you with the kind of reception you’re hoping for. I know my brother, and if he’s trying to get away from all his pressures and disappointments—then I imagine you might be the very last person he wants to see right now.”
    Nicole nodded but couldn’t bring herself to respond to his comments. They hurt.
    She was scared, pregnant and alone. And now one of the people who knew Red best was telling her that this was a fool’s errand.
    “If you need to call me for anything,” Jeb said, “just let me know.” And then he gave her his personal cell number, once again asking her to call him for anything, at any time.

    Grateful for his kindness, Nicole thanked him profusely before they got off the phone.
    Once she’d hung up, Nicole studied the piece of paper with her chicken scratches on it. It looked like pure desperation; nothing on that paper would lead her to Red.
    Vermont. Beaumont Farms. Cabin near a lake.
    This was all she had, her only hopes of finding the man she loved, the man who’d left her, a rich man who had the ability to fly anywhere in the world on a whim. What were the chances he’d gone to this one place—this silly shack stuck out in the middle of nowhere?
    Nicole decided she was going to find out.

    ***

    Packing a small overnight bag with toiletries and some clothes, Nicole left a brief note for Danielle saying that she was going home to her parents’ house for a day or two.

    This was another lie in a steadily growing list, but who was really keeping track anyway?
    After leaving her apartment, Nicole went to the nearest Hertz location, and rented a red Ford Fiesta.

    It was a five-hour drive to Bristol, Vermont. The day was warm and dry, the sky blue and almost cloudless. Nicole missed driving—in New York, there was little reason to have a car, and flying down the road at her own speed made her feel a little more in control.

    She kept her windows down, put some cheesy pop music on, and sang along with the songs—even the ones she hardly knew.

    It was important to get to Vermont as early in the day as possible, so Nicole stopped only once at a rest stop, where she got a couple of cheeseburgers from McDonalds and went to the bathroom.

    Finally, she was just a few miles outside of Bristol. The landscape had changed to one that was very familiar to her from her childhood in upstate New York. She was used to seeing long stretches of farmland, trees, barns and tiny houses, pickup trucks parked in the driveways.

    Once she entered Bristol, Nicole felt a pang in her chest. It was a beautiful little town, like something from a Norman Rockwell painting.

    The first thing she thought when she drove down quaint little Main Street with its Cup a Joe café, and Danny’s Barber Shop with the spinning pole out front: This would be a wonderful place to start a family.

    And then the tears were in her eyes and Nicole let them stream down her cheeks.
    She was being silly again, but her hormones were probably going crazy after all.

    She pulled into the tiny little two-pump gas station and a girl that looked around seventeen or eighteen with strawberry-blond hair, jeans and a halter top, came over to the car. “Hi,” she said to Nicole with a simple smile.

    Nicole noticed the girl had one of those tribal tattoos on her left bicep.

    “Hi. Could you fill up the tank with regular, please?”

    “Sure.” The girl started the pump and then stood beside it, whistling an unrecognizable tune, until the tank was full. She put the nozzle back in the pump and came over to the window. “That’ll be twenty two, thirty.”

    Nicole gave her twenty-five bucks. “Keep the change.”

    “Thanks! Much appreciated,” the girl said.

    “Do you happen to know how I can get to Beauford Farms from here?” Nicole asked