True North Book 3 - Finding Now Kate and Sam Read online

  True North

  Book Three

  Finding Now

  Kate and Sam

  Allie Juliette Mousseau

  Copyright © 2014 by Allie Juliette Mousseau.

  All Rights Reserved

  Published by Allie Juliette Mousseau

  Edited by Nicole Hewitt

  Cover design by Tattoo Custom Cover Designs

  Formatted by Mike Mousso

  All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  www.alliejuliettemousseau.com

  Please enjoy the teasers from my good friends;

  th Snyder “Cursed Love” and M Clark / Mary Ting “Something Great”

  Dedication

  To my readers <3

  You’re the ones who make it all happen.

  You bring the ink on the paper into breathing life

  and give the characters their souls.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One - Going Out In Style ~ Dropkick Murphys

  Chapter Two – Through Glass ~ Stone Sour

  Chapter Three – Hapless ~ Seven Day Sonnet

  Chapter Four – Lost in You ~ Three Days Grace

  Chapter Five – Use Somebody ~ King of Leon

  Chapter Six – She Talks To Angels ~ The Black Crows

  Chapter Seven – Away from the Sun ~ 3 Doors Down

  Chapter Eight – Broken ~ Lifehouse

  Chapter Nine – Paralyzer ~ Finger Eleven

  Chapter Ten – Come to Me ~ Goo Goo Dolls

  Chapter Eleven – Beneath Your Beautiful ~ Labrinth (featuring Emeli Sande)

  Chapter Twelve – Look After You ~ The Fray

  Chapter Thirteen – You Found Me ~ The Fray

  Chapter Fourteen – She Will Be Loved ~ Maroon 5

  Chapter Fifteen – Moves Like Jagger ~ Maroon 5 (featuring Christina Aguilera)

  Chapter Sixteen – Rabiosa ~ Shakira (featuring Pitbull)

  Chapter Seventeen – Carry On ~ Fun

  Chapter Eighteen – If You Only Knew ~ Shinedown

  Chapter Nineteen – Raging Fire ~ Phillip Phillips

  Chapter Twenty – Mirrors ~ Justin Timberlake

  About and More Books by Allie Juliette

  Chapter One

  “Going Out In Style”

  Dropkick Murphys

  Sam

  It was early Saturday morning when my brothers and I busted into the guest house on my parents’ ranch, where my sister Jules and Nate, her fiancé, were staying. Their wedding was next weekend so it was time to steal the groom for the next three days and drag him—kicking and screaming if necessary—to his bachelor party.

  “Sorry, Jules, but it’s time for this boy to get the royal treatment,” I announced rubbing my hands together, full of excitement.

  “OH, SHIT!” Nate exclaimed and tried to run, knocking down the bar stool he was sitting on as my oldest brothers, Caleb and Josh, tackled and pinned him to the floor.

  Nate was a big man—around 6’4—and strong as an ox, but we were prepared. Will laughed as he secured Nate’s wrists in a pair of police issued handcuffs, and Jake wrapped a rope around his ankles.

  “Just like roping a steer,” Caleb chuckled.

  “Handcuffs!? Are you fucking kidding me?” Nate shouted as Josh and Caleb lugged him up onto their shoulders. Yeah, he was pissed. He’d get over it soon enough.

  “Where are you taking him?” Jules asked calmly, giving Nate a sympathetic look and standing on her tiptoes to give him one last kiss goodbye.

  “Can’t tell you that, little sis,” Jake said, smiling cockily.

  “You hardly need to worry. Caleb here wouldn’t allow us to hire any strippers,” I complained good-naturedly.

  “He’s marrying our sister, Sam,” Caleb protested. Nate started to bitch loudly while trying to wriggle free from his bonds, so Josh shoved a bandana in his mouth to shut him up. “Do you really want to get him drunk in a room full of strippers?”

  “I don’t think you understand,” I replied. “I want to be drunk in a room full of strippers.”

  Josh made a noise and waved Caleb off. “He’s only thinking that Piper will kick his ever lovin’ sad ass from here to Saskatoon if he’s caught hanging out—”

  “Ha! Literally,” Will interjected.

  “… with exotic dancers,” Josh finished and looked at Caleb. “Which is what they’d prefer you to call them.”

  “Whatever.” Caleb rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was trying not to laugh.

  “Don’t worry, Nate.” I leaned into his ear. “I may have been able to score a few hula dancers.”

  “SAM!” Jules’ eyebrows knitted together.

  I walked over and mussed up her finely coiffed hairstyle as I cooed, “We’ll bring him back in one piece before the rehearsal dinner.”

  “Maybe,” I heard Will mumble mischievously.

  Jules slapped my hand away.

  I caught a look at Nate who shrugged and watched Jules apologetically.

  I rolled my eyes and my head with them. “Oh come on, you two! You haven’t been separated since Canada. We have to take him. This is a rite of passage … it’s tradition!”

  “It’s part of the entire wedding experience,” Jake put in.

  “Yeah!” Josh agreed. “You wouldn’t want to deny him his last bit of real freedom.”

  Livie rolled her eyes. “Oh man, that’s rich.”

  A little over a year ago, after Jake returned home from the Army and his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he and Livie—Nate’s little sister—had gotten married. They were now expecting the first addition to their family, and Livie sported her baby bump proudly. Jake had gone through hell over in the Middle East and come home seriously messed up. If it hadn’t been for Livie’s love, I don’t know what would have happened to him. I was grateful to her for giving me my brother back, even though it meant he was now tied to her at the hip. Jake ran his own business, Extreme Sky Adventures, where he taught people how to skydive, so I had to admit married life hadn’t squeezed all the fun out of him.

  Now, Jake smiled at her, swept her up off the chair she was sitting in and kissed her. “Love you, baby, and you know there’s no other freedom like the kind I have in you.”

  Nate started making noises behind the gag.

  “Yeah, yeah, no one asked you anything,” Will said to Nate without sympathy.

  Jules cracked a smile. “Have fun, you guys.”

  “We could put him in the truck bed?” Josh suggested when we got outside.

  The overcast skies had decided it was time to let go of what they’d been holding back, and the cool rain prickled across my skin and through my white tee.

  “Or the trunk of Sam’s car.” Will cocked an eyebrow and I barked out a laugh.

  Jake came to Nate’s rescue. “I think the blindfold is enough, guys.”

  Josh rolled his eyes disgustedly. “You and Caleb are like old married men now.”

  “And Nate will be too in seven days,” I said as we shoved him into the back seat of my ‘69 Charger, which I called Lady. The smooth, sleek, powerfully modified race car was the only sweet woman I wanted to ride with any long-term commitment.

  Will slid in next to Nate. “Now as long as you don’t bitch, I’ll take off the gag.” He removed the bandana.

  Nate licked his lips and said in a warning tone, “Somebody better have something to drink.”

  “Of course we do,” Josh said, sitting down on Nate’s other side and taking a silver flask out of the pocket of his leather
jacket. “Ladies first.” Josh tilted the flask up so that the liquid would spill into Nate’s mouth.

  Nate swallowed and shuddered. “So is whiskey my only option or does someone have a Mountain Dew or something?”

  “Only whiskey,” Will laughed. “It is our duty to get you completely inebriated before we reach our destination so you won’t complain about what we have planned.”

  Nate groaned. “Where is Caleb in all of this?”

  “Right behind us in his truck with Jake,” I answered as we pulled out down the road. “They had some last minute phone calls to make so we got you all to ourselves.”

  “Alright, alright. Since you have me, can we do away with the cuffs and the rope?”

  “Not just yet,” Josh laughed.

  Nate cursed and laid his head back in defeat.

  We met up at Williston airport and carried Nate onto the family’s private jet. Once we were all boarded and about 30,000 feet in the air, we took off the cuffs, rope and blindfold.

  “So where are we going?” Nate rubbed his wrists, looking between us. We met his question with stone cold silence. He sighed. “Not even a hint, right?”

  “Right,” we said back.

  Josh leaned his head back and closed his eyes to catch a few Zs. Josh was in training for the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) title fight that would be going down next month. He was tougher than fucking iron—a black belt in both Judo and Jiu-Jitsu and disciplined in Jeet Kune Do—plus he was a firefighter back in Williston in his spare time. He had arms like freaking pythons, covered in black tribal tats, and was an unapologetic ladies man like myself.

  The rest of us played cards for the next couple of hours while trying hard to get Nate trashed, but he could hold his liquor like a sailor. I looked around at these guys—they were my brothers and my best friends. I fucking loved my family!

  Will was my identical twin and we were pretty much alike in every way. After he’d graduated in the spring from the University of Washington, he had gone into professional MotoCross and was loving every minute of it. He got to schmooze with the greatest names in sports while traveling all around the world.

  Caleb was more attached to home, like Nate was. Both of them managed the North ranch while working hands-on and held shares in the oil business that the family owned. Caleb, like Nate, had also found the woman of his dreams (or so he claimed), but Nate was marrying his in less then a week while Caleb was still working up to the proposal.

  By the time we landed, we had Nate buzzing pretty good. We blindfolded him again, but since Nate had guaranteed his cooperation, we were able to forego the cuffs. However, he may not have cooperated if he knew what we were about to do. We all climbed into the back of the black stretch Hummer limousine we had rented for the next 24 hours. The beast was sweet! Colorful neon lights lined the ceiling and floor. It had a stocked bar, a killer sound system, a flat screen and a hot tub—and Caleb and Jake were out of their fucking minds if they really thought the rest of us weren’t going to score in that kind of luxury vehicle.

  We headed to our very specific destination. Just the idea of it made me rub the palms of my hands together mischievously.

  “You know, I’m getting pretty frigging nervous with all of this blindfold shit,” Nate grumbled.

  “That’s the entire point, buddy,” Jake quipped.

  In no time, we were at our destination. We pulled off to the side of the road and maneuvered Nate out of the vehicle toward the party of people waiting for us.

  My adrenaline was starting to pump like it did before a race or a concert!

  “Okay, man, this is where you’re going to have to sign on the dotted line,” Caleb explained as he set a pen between Nate’s fingers. “And trust us.”

  Nate laughed. “I do not trust any of you at this moment.” He signed the consent form anyway, blindfolded.

  The instructor, an athletic guy in his forties who’d been doing this gig for a long time, smiled and shook his head, and he, Jake and Caleb walked away talking while Will and Josh held onto Nate, one on each arm.

  “It’s hot and dry,” Nate said, trying to figure out his surroundings. “No breeze either. Where the fuck are we and what are we doing here?”

  “Nate, we couldn’t have strippers,” I lamented.

  “Exotic dancers,” Josh corrected.

  “Or hookers,” I continued, shaking my head in disappointment.

  “Professional escorts,” Josh said factually.

  “So we had to think of something BIG!” I threw up my arms widely.

  I’d been looking forward to this party for the last two weeks! And Nate may have howled and griped, but he was just as extreme as the rest of us.

  Jake came running back. “Okay, we’re just about ready! Nate, it’s time to set you up in the equipment.”

  “Of course it is,” he stated flatly.

  I’ll admit it; Nate was a pretty good sport while the “master” set the harness up around his ankles.

  Too soon, understanding began to dawn on Nate. “Oh, fuck no,” he groaned.

  “Oh, fuck yes!” Jake was just as psyched as I was.

  “Remove the blindfold,” Caleb instructed like a circus announcer, and Will obliged, taking the blindfold away with a huge gesture of his arm.

  “No! No way! NO. FUCKING. WAY!” Nate said looking down as we all stood behind him on the steel deck of the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, where we had nudged him out onto a jutting platform.

  “Six hundred and eighty feet of pure fucking adrenaline!” I shouted into the deeply carved gorge below. My voice echoed back up to me, and I couldn’t wait for my turn!

  “This is the plunge before the plunge,” Caleb announced with a reckless smile, watching the Rio Grande River winding its way far, far below us.

  “Couldn’t start off easy, could you? Couldn’t have chosen a bridge a little less close to the fucking moon?” Nate grumbled.

  I threw my head back and laughed. It was a gorgeous freaking day. The sky was clear blue, and the heat of the New Mexico sun felt good against my skin.

  “You jump or we push, your choice,” Will warned him.

  “Yeah, yeah, asshole! I know the score,” Nate barked.

  “Are you ready?” hollered out the jump master.

  Nate rolled his eyes while the rest of us smirked at his demise, but he gave a thumbs up to the master who then yelled, “JUMP!”

  Nate dove into the nothingness around him. He was silent as he effortlessly sliced through the air at breakneck speed. I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking about. For me, it was about not thinking at all. Some people did yoga and meditation to clear their minds. This, falling hundreds of feet, the wind rushing through your ears, your mind like a blank slate waiting to be filled with new thought, this was that for me.

  We all leaned over the railing and watched Nate reach the end of the bungee, only to be snapped back hard. I wondered if he’d puked. It probably wasn’t very nice of us to have made him drink so much. I smiled at that. Then we all heard him whoop and holler. Yeah, we knew he’d love it.

  Jake shook his head slowly and grinned. “Jules would fucking kill us if she knew.”

  “Good thing she doesn’t know.” Will clapped Jake on the back and called out, “Who’s next?”

  Each of us took two turns. Several times, people driving by stopped to watch us. We gave quite a performance, especially when two hot girls pulled up in a white convertible Jaguar. They parked and got out to lean against the hood, wearing only bikini tops and tight denim shorts, reminding me why I loved being a guy.

  I’d just had my ankles set in the harness for my second jump when I decided to make this party even more fun. I called over to the blonde, “Hey, Blondie, what’s your name?”

  She smiled when she realized I was addressing her. “Heather.”

  I motioned with my head. “Come on over here, Heather.”

  Both girls looked at each other and giggled before she put on a brave face and came over.

>   As she got closer I said, “This could be the end for me.” I looked into her deep brown eyes. Damn, she was smoking hot! “How about a kiss in case I don’t make it?”

  She looked back at her friend again then back at me and grinned eagerly; her pretty white teeth gleamed behind her cherry red lips.

  Yeah, that’s what I thought. I slid my hand up under the back of her long wavy hair and brought her face close to mine until our lips touched. She tasted like cinnamon, and a second later she pushed her tongue into my mouth, making my dick very happy in my pants.

  When we came apart she said, “Now don’t die, ’cause there’s more where that came from.”

  “I’ll hold you to it, Heather,” I said right before I threw myself from the platform and free fell between the rock crevices.

  I invited Heather and her friend Ange, who my twin brother Will was hitting it off with, to park their car in town and join us for a tour of the area from inside our limo. They agreed and soon we were a group. After a couple drinks we were feeling pretty good, and I really just wanted to get rid of the married guys and let our pretty female guests strip to their bras and panties so we could enjoy the hot tub together. But I’d have to wait and try that later because now we were headed to The Alley, a hopping club in the middle of Taos which really started revving up as the night went on.

  The Alley’s terracotta buildings and curving archways were rustic New Mexico perfection. One of the structures was the oldest building in Taos, built by the Pueblo Indians some four hundred years ago. The music was rocking, and we happily found an open table in the bar under the dark log support beams.

  We got three orders of their homemade corn chip nachos with salsa and guacamole and ordered tamales, enchiladas and pork tacos and stuffed ourselves.

  After dinner, Josh suggested tequila shots. A tall bottle of Cuervo, a bowl of salt and another bowl with limes were set before us, and we had at it.

  A few shots later, Heather was sitting on my lap while Ange was on Will’s. Caleb, Jake and Nate shot pool, while Josh had begun entertaining a long, dark haired Latino beauty named Elena. It was turning out to be an awesome fucking bachelor party after all.