Before the Rain Breaks Read online

  Before the

  Rain

  Breaks

  CALLE J.

  BROOKES

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Before the Rain Breaks (Finley Creek, #7)

  Other books by

  Before the | Rain | Breaks

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue

  LOST RIVER LIT PUBLISHING, LLC

  SPRINGS VALLEY INDIANA

  EST. 2011

  Other books by

  Calle J.

  Brookes

  PARANORMAL ROMANCE

  DARDANOS Paranormal Romance

  The Blood Hunter (formerly Live or Die)

  The Blood Heir (formerly The Blood King)

  The Blood Seer (formerly The Seer’s Strength)

  The Blood Warrior (formerly The Warrior’s Woman)

  The Blood Healer (formerly The Healer’s Heart)

  The Wolf Bitten (formerly Once Wolf Bitten)

  The Demon Queen (formerly Awakening the Demon’s Queen)

  The Wolf Queen (formerly The Wolf’s Redemption)

  The Wolf God (formerly The Wolf God & His Mate)

  The Nightmare God (formerly God of Nightmares)

  DARDANOS: THE LAQUAZZEANA

  The Warrior Soul (formerly A Warrior’s Quest)

  The Darkest Soul (formerly Out of the Darkness)

  The Chosen Soul (formerly Warrior Blind)

  The Reborned Soul (formerly The Witch)

  The Goddess Soul (formerly Balance of the Worlds)

  The Healer Soul (formerly The Healer’s Soul)

  DARDANOS: THE ADRASTOS

  The Outcast One (formerly The Outcast)

  The Forlorn One (formerly The Forlorn)

  The Beloved One (formerly The Beloved)

  The Betrayed One (formerly The Betrayed)

  ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

  PAVAD: FBI ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

  Beginning (Prequel 1)

  Waiting (Prequel 2)

  Watching

  Wanting

  Second Chances

  Hunting

  Running

  Redeeming

  Revealing

  Stalking

  Ghosting

  Burning

  Gathering

  Falling

  Hiding

  Seeking

  FINLEY CREEK SERIES

  TRILOGY ONE (TEXAS STATE POLICE)

  Her Best Friend’s Keeper

  Shelter from the Storm

  The Price of Silence

  TRILOGY TWO (FINLEY CREEK GENERAL)

  If the Dark Wins

  Wounds That Won’t Heal

  Hope for Finley Creek (bonus novella)

  As the Night Ends

  QUARTET ONE (FINLEY CREEK; DISASTER)

  Before the Rain Breaks

  MASTERSON COUNTY NOVELLA SERIES

  Seeking the Sheriff

  Discovering the Doctor

  Ruining the Rancher

  Denying the Devil

  SUSPENSE/THRILLER

  SMALL TOWN SHERIFFS

  Holding the Truth

  PAVAD: FBI CASE FILES

  PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0001

  “Knocked Out”

  PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0002

  “Knocked Down”

  PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0003

  “Knocked Around”

  Calle has several free reads available at

  www.CalleJBrookesReads.com

  For my grandfather, the best man I have ever known.

  You will be missed.

  Oct. 2015

  For my grandmother, who gave me the courage to try. Without you and your love of romance, I never would have made it this far.

  Feb. 2016

  For my papaw, whose children loved him deeply, and will always

  miss him.

  Oct. 2017

  Calle J. Brookes is first and foremost a fiction writer. She enjoys crafting paranormal romance and romantic suspense. She reads almost every genre except horror. She spends most of her time juggling family life and writing while reminding herself that she can’t spend all of her time in the worlds found within books. CJ loves to be contacted by her readers via email and at www.CalleJBrookes.com. When not at home writing stories of adventure and wrangling with two border collies and a beagle puppy, CJ is off in her RV somewhere exploring the beautiful world we live in, along with her husband of she can’t remember how many years and their child.

  BEFORE THE RAIN BREAKS

  Copyright © 2019 by Calle J. Brookes

  All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations em- bodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  For information contact:

  www.callejbrookes.com

  Book and Cover design by B. G. Lashbrooks

  First Edition: JULY 2019

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Before the

  Rain

  Breaks

  CALLE J.

  BROOKES

  Chapter 1

  The eyes were on her. She could feel them again. But only the security guards were visible. Finley Coulter tried to see into the cars surrounding her in the rear parking lot of Finley Creek General Hospital, but the sun was starting to set and the streetlights weren’t that good.

  She was probably being ridiculous. No one would have a reason to stare at her.

  Yet every day for the last four days she’d felt eyes on her. She should have waited for someone else to walk out to her car with her. It didn’t make her weak to do that. She could have waited for Izzie or Nikkie Jean—they usually left around the same time she did.

  But she’d wanted to get home and regroup.

  It had been a long day at the hospital.

  And she still had things to do that evening that were going to keep her from having a moment of quiet time to herself. She shivered. The last thing she wanted to do tonight was dress up in a barely there dress and go powwow with her uncle’s uppity friends.

  They thought that since she was an actual Coulter, she should be thrilled to be a part of their group.

  The only one there tonight she’d have anything to say to would be her friend Mel.

  Mel had only been a part of this group for a little while—since marrying Houghton Barratt, a distant cousin of Fin’s. Mel had a snotty wit that most of
tonight’s attendees wouldn’t understand.

  At least there would be Mel.

  Wind picked up around her, sending rain right into her face. She wiped it away. When she opened her eyes, a shadow blocked her path.

  Hands went around her. Fin didn’t think; she reacted. She screamed.

  “Easy, Dr. Coulter, I didn’t mean to scare you,” a warm male voice said. One she recognized.

  Some of the nerves lessened. “Dr. Patel, I’m sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going, and you just appeared out of nowhere.”

  “It’s because I’m so small and insignificant.” He shot her a grin. A very handsome one. Heat hit her cheeks.

  The last words she’d ever use to describe Virat Patel were small and insignificant.

  The man was built like a god. He had to be at least fourteen inches taller than Fin’s five foot one. And his shoulders were almost a yard wide. His chest was hard and strong, and his arms were perfection. He had Indian ancestry, and it showed in his warm tan skin and in the straight black hair. He had a faint beard that disguised the boyish dimples a little.

  It did little to hide how perfectly this man was put together. He practically oozed sex appeal.

  Virile Virat—that’s what the idiot, doctor-obsessed, sex-crazed nurses inside called him when he wasn’t around.

  As far as she knew, he hadn’t been involved with any of them. Rumor had it he had had a thing for her friend Dr. Lacy McGareth, until she’d nearly died and then gotten together with her now husband.

  Rumor had it that Dr. Patel’s heart had been broken.

  Rumors were everywhere at the hospital. Rumormongering was the main form of entertainment at Finley Creek Gen, after all.

  “What has you so jumpy?”

  Dr. Patel wasn’t a close friend. They were more like friendly colleagues. But he was someone safe. She doubted anyone would do anything to her with him around.

  “Nothing...I...it can be a bit creepy out here. But it’s better than Doctors’ Row.” The back edge of the parking garage had been the sight of some seriously bad events in recent hospital history. Fin had refused to park there ever since, even though her boss was making strides to get it more secure. Fin wasn’t going to take those kinds of chances. She parked where the security guards could see her every minute between her car and the hospital.

  “No kidding. I haven’t parked in the Row since Lanning damaged my car.”

  He fell into step beside her. Fin forced herself to breathe deeply and relax.

  She was safe. She wasn’t alone. And she could see her car in the distance.

  Chapter 2

  Virat had seen the fear in Fin’s big blue eyes. He’d always hated when a woman was afraid. It probably came from having four younger sisters, all six or more years younger than he was. He had been their protector for as long as he could remember.

  And Fin had definitely been afraid of something. Most of the time, she was a bubbly font of cheerfulness, but sometimes, there would be a look of almost terror that would cross her face.

  He’d made a point of studying her before. He studied everyone he worked with, male or female.

  He had to admit the females in his sphere were his favorites. He spent most of his time with Lacy Deane and Nikkie Jean Netore, surgical residents in his department.

  The two of them were the best parts of his day, and he’d freely admit that. Both had strong personalities, though. Much like the woman walking next to him.

  She only practiced part-time, spending the rest of her day helping the chief of medicine run the best hospital in the region and one of the best teaching hospitals in the country.

  Fin was very good at the human side of running a hospital, and she filled in where the chief of medicine needed her. She’d run the entire hospital when the COM had nearly been killed several months ago.

  “Did you hear the news about Jillian and Rafe?”

  She looked at him and smiled, sending tiny dimples flashing. “Yes. She’s beyond thrilled, but he looks a little green.”

  “No doubt.” His question had done what he’d intended. Some of the fear was leaving blue eyes. Virat fell into step next to her.

  Fin was small.

  It wasn’t always evident—she zoomed around so much it had often made him sea-sick just to watch her. But when he got close to her, just how small she was sank in.

  She and Nikkie Jean, his favorite pediatric resident surgeon, weren’t much over five feet, and maybe one hundred ten pounds—on extra-heavy days. Nikkie had big hazel eyes and glasses, and caramel-brown hair that she usually had braided. Fin had blue eyes that were almost unreal looking, small delicate features, and straight almost white-blond hair.

  Whereas Nikkie was extremely timid until she got to know someone—and then she was a little holy terror with pranks and constant good humor—Fin was a breezy little elf type.

  But they both had that same fear in their eyes from time to time that stabbed right through him.

  He didn’t know Nikkie Jean’s story, but Fin’s was part of that ever-growing pool of common gossip.

  Fin and two of her friends had left a college party and run into a killer. He’d attacked all three young women. Only two had survived.

  The pain she must have gone through was something he didn’t want to contemplate.

  She was heavily involved with the women’s charity W4HAV that operated out of the building across the parking lot from where they were.

  As was Nikkie. Every woman involved with W4HAV was involved because of past trauma.

  The mere idea of those two women, and other women he cared about—Lacy, Jillian, Annie Gaines and Izzie MacNamara—who were in and out of W4HAV all the time, being hurt sickened him.

  It was the protector in him no doubt.

  They approached her car first. He wasn’t leaving the parking lot until she was securely in her car and on her way home.

  She stopped walking.

  Virat looked at her.

  She’d paled. And utter terror covered her face. “Fin? What’s wrong?”

  He turned toward her car. Underneath the windshield wiper was a folded piece of paper. And a single white rose.

  Nothing overtly threatening from where he stood.

  But it had obviously terrified her. He stepped closer and grabbed her hand. “Hey, whatever it is, I’m not going anywhere. Ok?”

  Chapter 3

  She let him hold her hand. Fin fought every instinct telling her to jump into his arms and just hide. “I’m a big wimp. It’s just a rose.”

  “Then why does it frighten you so much?” He led her to the driver-side door. He reached over and grabbed the letter. “Although why someone would leave a letter out like this in the rain is a bit confusing.”

  “It’s not the first one.”

  He shot her a look. “What do you mean?”

  “I...” She shouldn’t have said anything. The words had just slipped out.

  He opened the letter and read it. She watched his face as it tightened. As the words sank in. When he was finished reading, he looked up at her. “How many of these have you gotten?”

  “This will be the fourth.” In a month. Each one had creeped her out more than the last.

  His expression darkened, and his hand crushed the letter. “They all been on your car? Here?”

  She nodded. “So far.”

  “So far. Have you told anyone?”

  “I took the first one to the TSP. And I call whenever I get another one. They’re dusting them for prints, I think. But they’ve not been overtly threatening.” Just terrifying.

  “Has anything else happened?”

  She shook her head. “I just...”

  “Tell me.”

  He was the first person she worked with to know. She felt like she’d been keeping it in for the last month. Keeping a horrible secret from the friends who were all still inside right now.

  “Sometimes I feel like he’s watching me.” It came out in a whisper. Fin looked into h
is dark eyes as the tears shocked the heck out of her. She thought she had better control of herself than this. “And I don’t know what to do.”

  He leaned closer, the letter still clutched in his hand. “We’ll call the TSP now. Then I will follow you home. Make sure you get there ok. And if you need me at any time, you’re to call. I don’t think we live that far apart. Maybe three or four blocks. I’m in the Finley Heights complex.”

  She nodded. Finley Heights was part of her estate; she’d inherited the complex from her mother, who had inherited it from her grandfather. But she had a trust that ran most of the businesses included in her inheritance.

  It was four blocks from the home she’d grown up in, that she now occupied alone. “Thanks. I’m sorry. I’m being a big wimp. I just—”

  “There’s nothing wimpy about it. This bastard doesn’t have a right to make you afraid like this. You didn’t ask for it. You don’t welcome or want it. It’s wrong.” And there was heat in his tone that had her nerves returning.

  “It is. And I don’t know how to stop it.”

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m sorry. I’m making things worse, aren’t I? My youngest sister was stalked when she was seventeen, Fin. I was away at med school. I didn’t learn about until I went home on spring break. For months, she lived terrified of going outside where he could see her. He was a neighbor.”

  “What happened?”

  “I happened. I learned about it, and a friend and I took care of the problem. My friend eventually married Adhira. They have a toddler now. The stalker moved away after that.”

  “She’s lucky to have you.” At times, Fin didn’t feel like she had anyone anymore. Just the people she worked with. Annie, Izzie, and Nikkie Jean, mostly.

  And Margo.

  She would always have Margo.

  But her best friend was no longer in Finley Creek on a regular basis; W4HAV, the women’s charity Margo had assisted the governor’s wife in creating now, needed her in the Austin branch more time than not.

  It was the first time she and Margo had been separated for sometimes weeks at a time.

  No wonder she was feeling a bit...alone.

  He pulled his phone out, and she listened as he called the TSP. But he didn’t call the patrolman who’d been assigned to handle her case. He called another man, directly.