Nobody Knows Read online

  Table of Contents

  Nobody Knows

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale

  Blurb

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  What’s next?

  Copyright © 2020 Lani Lynn Vale

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

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

  I’m thankful for each and every one of you readers that is currently about to devour this book. Hope your day is absolutely fabulous.

  <3 Lani

  Acknowledgments

  Golden Czermak - Photographer

  My Brother’s Editor & Ink It Out Editing- My editors

  Cover Me Darling - Cover Artist

  My mom - Thank you for reading this book eight million two hundred and seven times.

  Kendra, Jen, Brandi, Laura, Lisa, Kathy, Mindy, Barbara, Penney & Amanda—I don’t know what I would do without y’all. Thank you, my lovely betas, for loving my books as much as I do.

  Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale

  The Freebirds

  Boomtown

  Highway Don’t Care

  Another One Bites the Dust

  Last Day of My Life

  Texas Tornado

  I Don’t Dance

  The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC

  Lights To My Siren

  Halligan To My Axe

  Kevlar To My Vest

  Keys To My Cuffs

  Life To My Flight

  Charge To My Line

  Counter To My Intelligence

  Right To My Wrong

  Code 11- KPD SWAT

  Center Mass

  Double Tap

  Bang Switch

  Execution Style

  Charlie Foxtrot

  Kill Shot

  Coup De Grace

  The Uncertain Saints

  Whiskey Neat

  Jack & Coke

  Vodka On The Rocks

  Bad Apple

  Dirty Mother

  Rusty Nail

  The Kilgore Fire Series

  Shock Advised

  Flash Point

  Oxygen Deprived

  Controlled Burn

  Put Out

  I Like Big Dragons Series

  I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie

  Dragons Need Love, Too

  Oh, My Dragon

  The Dixie Warden Rejects

  Beard Mode

  Fear the Beard

  Son of a Beard

  I’m Only Here for the Beard

  The Beard Made Me Do It

  Beard Up

  For the Love of Beard

  Law & Beard

  There’s No Crying in Baseball

  Pitch Please

  Quit Your Pitchin’

  Listen, Pitch

  The Hail Raisers

  Hail No

  Go to Hail

  Burn in Hail

  What the Hail

  The Hail You Say

  Hail Mary

  The Simple Man Series

  Kinda Don’t Care

  Maybe Don’t Wanna

  Get You Some

  Ain’t Doin’ It

  Too Bad So Sad

  Bear Bottom Guardians MC

  Mess Me Up

  Talkin’ Trash

  How About No

  My Bad

  One Chance, Fancy

  It Happens

  Keep It Classy

  Snitches Get Stitches

  F-Bomb

  The Southern Gentleman Series

  Hissy Fit

  Lord Have Mercy

  KPD Motorcycle Patrol

  Hide Your Crazy

  It Wasn’t Me

  I’d Rather Not

  Make Me

  Sinners are Winners

  If You Say So

  SWAT 2.0

  Just Kidding

  Fries Before Guys

  Maybe Swearing Will Help

  Ask Me If I Care

  May Contain Wine

  Joke’s on You

  Join the Club

  Any Day Now

  Say it Ain’t So

  Officially Over It

  Nobody Knows

  Depends Who’s Asking (12-8-20)

  Valentine Boys

  Herd That

  Crazy Heifer

  Chute Yeah

  Get Bucked

  Souls Chapel Revenants MC

  Repeat Offender (1-12-21)

  Conjugal Visits (2-23-21)

  Jailbait (4-6-21)

  Doin’ A Dime (5-4-21)

  Inmate of the Month (6-29-21)

  Kitty Kitty (8-10-21)

  Gen Pop (9-21-21)

  Shakedown (11-2-21)

  Standalones

  Somethin’ About That Boy

  Blurb

  All he ever wanted was to matter to someone.

  What he didn’t know was that he did matter to someone.

  Someone that worried about him every single day that he was gone.

  • • •

  Malachi Gabriel Gnocchi was missing for two years. Thanks to a mission gone wrong, not only had he been captured, but his best friend along with his fellow teammates had been taken, too.

  He spent two years in hell, hoping and praying that one day he’d get to go home.

  And one day he does. Only, he isn’t the same person that left. Every single thing that made him Malachi is no more.

  • • •

  Sierra started writing to soldiers overseas through the soldier pen pal program when she was in high school. Years later, she had no idea that the one soldier that she’d been paired up with in the very beginning would be the one man that would change her world eight years down the road.

  When the letters from her soldier stopped, she knew that something bad had happened.

  When they started back up again two years after the last letter, she thought that someone was playing a joke on her.

  Only, that joke wasn’t a joke at all.

  The man on the other end of those letters is a man that’s dying slowly from the inside out.

  He’s a living, breathing mess and there’s only one thing she can do to help him.

  Write him back and hope that she can bring him back from the edge.

  PROLOGUE

  Per my previous email.

  -Email speak for, pay the fuck attention

  SIERRA

  Hi, Gabriel!

  My name is Sierra.

  We were told not to give our real names, but I honestly don’t see why. So I’m going to give you my real name—Sierra. (Duh!)

  Anyway, today I’m just supposed to introduce myself.

  We started a new program in English
that has us writing to pen pals—i.e., soldiers like you that are deployed overseas.

  I’m a junior in high school (I’m seventeen in case you’re trying to calculate it) and I’m slowly dying inside because I hate, hate, hate English. But, I have to admit, writing you is kind of fun. English class is the bane of my existence because I’m so sucky at it. It doesn’t help that my ex-boyfriend is in here, too.

  Anywho, this letter writing thing is taking my mind off of how much I want this period to end. It’s making me work on my people skills—of which I have none, according to my family and friends. Apparently wanting to read—yes, I know that’s ironic seeing as I hate English. In there, I’m forced to read shitty books. At home, I read sci-fi/fantasy so they’re definitely different, okay?—which some people think is a bad thing. Apparently wanting to read over going out and hanging with my so-called friends is also a bad thing. Who knew?

  I have an older brother named Samuel who is enlisting in the military as we speak, and a younger sister named Blue.

  You never know, maybe y’all will run into one another one day—then again, maybe you won’t. My brother assures me that the military is way larger than I give it credit for.

  Whatever.

  I’m from Texas. A little small town, actually, that’s so small that everyone knows each other.

  If you’re new here, they’re going to know it, and by dinnertime, they’ll likely know your whole entire life story.

  Anyway, today is supposed to be a short letter explaining about the program that we’re writing in, telling you a little bit about myself, and then giving you my PO Box. A PO Box, might I add, that isn’t anywhere near our school. It’s actually our teacher’s that lives near Harmony, Texas—where you’ll be sending return letters to.

  Anyway, I hope this letter finds you well, and I hope you don’t totally hate writing back because I seriously hate English, and you’ll be doing me a huge favor by writing me back.

  Also, is it really sad that my hand is literally cramping right now from writing? I don’t think I’ve written this long of a letter in my life.

  Hope to hear from you soon,

  Sierra

  • • •

  Sierra,

  Hi, my name is Gabriel—in case you’re wondering, that really is my real name. Kind of. That’s my middle name, but it’s the one that I go by.

  Anyway, your letter did find me well. We just got done sweeping the roadside for bombs. So, yeah, I’m lucky to still be alive with how crazy these people are over here. They’ll literally blow up their own mother if it forwards their agenda or kills a couple US troops.

  I’m not really sure if I’m allowed to tell you that or not, but hey, you’re being real, I’m being real. I’ve been in the military for about two years now. So far, I really like being here. It gives me a purpose unlike being back at home where I think I went days without being noticed.

  Which brings me to my next point—you should be happy that your parents notice you. I think mine only noticed when they had to do something for me that they didn’t want to do—you know, like attend a parent-teacher conference. Go to my high school graduation. Take me to get my driver’s license. Things like that.

  Do you have a dog? Because I swear that looks like a paw print on the envelope you sent me. Then again, the letters get through a shit-ton of people before it gets here. There could’ve been another dog that stepped on it.

  I have a dog. I left him with my mom and dad when I deployed. I hope that they’re taking care of him well. They’ve been awfully vague when I call and ask about him.

  I think it pisses them off because I’m asking about the dog and not them.

  By the way, Maxie is the dog’s name. He’s a long-haired German Shepherd. He’s sweet, has a black face with brown hair around his brown eyes, and loves every single woman he’s ever met. Men, on the other hand? He doesn’t like men all that much. Except for me. He loves me.

  Wow, totally rambling about my dog. But I miss him.

  That’s about all I miss from home.

  Can’t wait to hear from you again.

  Gabriel

  CHAPTER 1

  Do hugs, not drugs.

  -Sierra to Gabriel

  SIERRA

  Gabriel,

  I’ll have you know that I took your advice and got a dog today!

  I swear to God, walking into that shelter to get a dog was by far the hardest thing that I’ve ever done in my life.

  The shelter where I got Axe from is a no-kill shelter, so they had tonnnnnsssssss of dogs. I’m talking, every single kennel they had was filled with a precious fur baby.

  When I got there, I asked the front desk attendant who her favorite dog was. She said that it was a dog at the end of the line—he was a long-haired German Shepherd like you have!

  Anyway, I walk down to the end of the kennels—which was the hardest thing, again! —and there he was. He wasn’t at the gate like the other dogs. He was at the back of his little cell, facing the wall, not even bothering to look at who the other dogs were barking at. He was curled in on himself, and he had a bowl full of food just beyond him that according to the kennel attendant, he barely ever touches. They said that he was severely underweight, barely ever moved out of his curled-up position, and never got a second look from anybody.

  It was then that I knew I had to get him.

  Anyway, so I go in there with him, talk to him, and the only time I hear him perk up is when I tell him softly that I’m going to get an ax and break him out of his jail. I swear to God, his head jerked up so fast that I knew that the name had to be familiar to him.

  So I started calling him Axe.

  Actually, if we’re going to be honest here, I call him Axie Poo now.

  I think he tolerates me.

  Even better, he hates men, which means that he hates my brother.

  It’s so funny to see my brother walk into the room and hear Axe growl.

  This letter turned into a short novel.

  Wow.

  Hope that you’re doing great, Gabriel.

  Love,

  Sierra & Axe

  • • •

  Six months ago

  “Hey,” I heard said from the other end of the line. “This is Melissa.”

  Melissa, aka my English teacher from high school.

  “Umm,” I paused. “Ms. Abrams?”

  “Yes, sorry. I forget that you all don’t know me by my actual name.” She chuckled.

  My brows furrowed.

  “What’s up?” I asked. “How are you?”

  She laughed. “I’m great. I’m vacationing in Bora Bora. My husband is literally sunbathing out on the beach naked. Wow, that was a little much. I’m sorry. It’s just, I get so nervous talking to old students. I don’t know how to act.”

  I laughed then. “I got you. It’s a little weird talking to old teachers, too. But luckily, we’re both adults now. It’s good that you have a beach you can sunbathe naked at, though. I kind of wish I had that right now. It’s currently hot as balls here, and it’s only spring.”

  Melissa peeled with laughter. “That’s why we’re vacationing. We’ll get home and it’ll be awful. Anywho, I got something for you. Do you remember that pen pal program that we did in English?”

  Did I ever.

  “Yes,” I replied, wondering where she was going with this. “I do.”

  My dog, Axe, jumped up on the couch beside where I was sitting. He moved until his head was resting on my lap, right against my stomach.

  I ran my fingers between his raised ears and scratched while I tried not to think about those letters. The letters that I got for years and years before one day they just… stopped.

  My heart still hurt.

  I knew, somehow knew, that something really bad had happened to him.

  He was a Navy SEAL.

  He went to dangerous places.

  Bad things happened to good people over there.

  “Well,” she said. “The older
woman that’s checking my mail for me got a letter in the mail. It was addressed to you. She thought about throwing it away, thinking that it was for someone else, but I told her if she was to get anything like that she had questions about, to call. And anyway, you have a letter from your pen pal. I know that when you got out of my class, you continued to write him. I’m assuming that he doesn’t know where to write you anymore, so he’s trying the old PO Box.”

  Her words had me sitting up and dislodging the dog from my lap.

  Hell, even my box of crackers went flying.

  Axe jumped down and started to gobble up the ones that’d fallen to the floor.

  I stared sightlessly at the dog as my fingers started to tremble.

  “Where can I go to get it?” I asked, sounding just as desperate as I felt.

  She laughed, liking my enthusiasm.

  “The cool thing is that Mrs. Dannerboll is in Kilgore. I’m going to send you her address via text. But, I’d love to know what happens. I swear, you were one of the only ones out of the entire program that I saw get something out of it. I’d love to know how it ends up.” She paused. “Are you excited? Or is this something else?”

  I licked my lips. “We were great friends. Then one day he just… stopped. Everything. All communications. I always feared that something really bad happened to him. He wasn’t the type of person to stop writing to me like that. It’s been two-and-a-half years now since I last heard from him. And of course, it’s a good thing.”

  She sighed. “Well, she’s expecting you, dear.”

  With that, she hung up, and I dashed to the bedroom to put clothes on.

  I wasn’t sure this Dannerboll lady would appreciate my short athletic shorts, tank top, and long socks.

  It was only as I was slipping into my jeans that I realized that this could be a horrible trick.

  All of my friends, as well as my family, knew all about Gabriel.

  I didn’t think that they quite knew the extent of my feelings for the man on the other end of the line, but they knew that I had a thing for him. One that wasn’t altogether rational.

  Which would be something my asshole brother would do just to torture me.