Baked with Love

by Erin Wright

  “Dammit,” Gage grumbled as he headed down the hallway to greet him. He didn’t mind Aaron – they didn’t know each other real well, but from the few interactions with the cop that Gage’d had, he seemed like a nice enough guy.

  But that was the problem – he was a guy.

  Morland looked up from his discussion with the receptionist and spotted Gage. “Hey,” he called out, leaving the receptionist behind and heading down the hallway to him. “Dispatch called in and said Cady is awake. Is she ready to give a statement?”

  Gage pulled him to the side of the wide hallway. “Don’t take this personally, but is Officer Miller available?” he asked in a low voice. “Cady’s had some bad experiences with men in the past. She’d do a lot better with a female officer.”

  “No, sorry. She’s got the day off – won’t be back to work until the late shift tomorrow.”

  “Of course,” Gage muttered. “All right. Last I checked, she was getting cleaned up by a CNA. Wait here – I’ll see if she’s decent.”

  As he walked into Cady’s room, he found a slightly bemused Cady and a chattering Zara. “So I told him that if he didn’t stop being such an ass, I’d kick him in the nuts. I have brothers – I know where to hit. Don’t ever mess with girls who have brothers. Do you have any?”

  “You must’ve taken lessons from the same place as my sister Emma,” Gage said, stepping in to save Cady from having to answer and admit to her sibling-less state. “She doesn’t put up with much gruff from us poor abused brothers.”

  “As if,” Zara sniffed. “She’d tell us a different story if she were here.”

  “I’m sure she would,” Gage said mildly. “Cady, the officer is here. You ready?”

  “Which one?” Cady asked, not answering his question, shifting higher in the hospital bed, cradling her right arm to her.

  Gage looked over at Zara, eyebrows raised, waiting for the teen to leave before answering Cady’s question.

  “Right!” Zara said after a moment, finally catching onto the hint. “I’m sure there are bed pans that need to be emptied anyway.” She sounded less than thrilled at the idea but left quietly.

  “It’s Officer Morland,” Gage said, turning back to Cady. “A guy. He’s the same one who questioned me.” She was already shaking her head no, and he clasped her hand in his. “It’s going to be okay,” he said softly. “I can stay right here if you want me to.”

  “They’d let you stay in the room with me?” She looked skeptical at the idea. Gage suppressed a laugh. She wouldn’t take kindly to him laughing at her.

  “You’re not under suspicion. They aren’t going to be cross-examining you. The police just need to know what happened out of your own mouth. I can only tell them what happened after I got there.”

  “Why did you come back?” Cady asked, a hint of desperation in her voice. It was clear as daylight that she wanted to postpone the questioning as much as possible. “You were supposed to be gone for the night. I’ve been meaning to ask you why you came back.”

  “I left my cell phone on my desk in the bakery. I went to text you to tell you that dinner was ready, and couldn’t find it anywhere. I don’t have a landline, of course, so I couldn’t call you and ask you to pick it up on the way to my place, so I drove back instead. Figured I’d talk you into leaving if you hadn’t already. I half thought I’d see you heading to my place as I was heading to the bakery, but your Jeep wasn’t on the road. Then I pulled into the parking lot and there were two Jeeps parked there, one a fluorescent orange, and…” He shuddered, trying to push down the panic that threatened to overwhelm him.

  Seeing Cady struggling in Richard’s arms had stopped his heart, he was sure of it. It was Cream Puffs that got him going again. When he’d been leaving the house, she’d gleefully jumped in the back of his truck, excited for a chance to go for a ride, ignoring his stern order to stay behind. He’d given into her – it wasn’t worth arguing with the dog and anyway, she was getting pretty good about staying safely in the bed of the truck while they drove around town.

  When he’d pulled into the tight, dark parking lot, hemmed in by buildings and detritus that every business seemed to accumulate, she jumped out and took off like a shot before he could even bring the truck to a standstill. She’d growled and barked ferociously as she’d tried to tear off Richard’s leg.

  He figured she deserved a treat a day for the rest of her life for her bravery last night.

  “I’ll go get Officer Morland. I’ll come back with him, he’ll ask you questions, and it’ll all be over in a jiffy.” He squeezed her hand and then went to the doorway of the room, not willing to take no as an answer. The sooner they could get this done and over with, the sooner they could make sure they kept this asshole locked up for life. “Morland?” he said, and the officer hurried over. “I’ll stay in the room as you talk to her,” he said bluntly, and the officer nodded.

  “As long as you’re not doing the talking, I’m good with that.”

  The understanding clear between them, they headed back through Cady’s hospital door. Some questions, and then he could get Cady out of the hospital and ensconced in bed. He could feed her chocolate pie and cream puffs until she got better. The Smoothie Queen had only been open for a week, and it sucked to close it down so quickly, but the town would understand. She could reopen it again when she had use of both of her arms, and Dickwad was securely locked behind bars.

  Until then, he’d make sure that she was okay. That was all that mattered.

  Chapter 25

  Cady

  Cady’s heart was galloping fast in her chest, feeling for all the world like it was going to tear right out of her. Officer Morland? Did she have to talk to a male cop? Couldn’t she just hide in her house and pretend for the rest of her life that there were no men in existence?

  Except for Gage, of course, but he didn’t count.

  Hmmmm…I should probably not tell him that I don’t count him as a male. He may not take that in the right spirit…

  It was this thought that had her smiling slightly as Officer Morland entered the room, Gage right on his heels, but as soon as she spotted the bulk of the officer, the smile disappeared. He wasn’t quite as muscular as Gage – honestly, no one was, so that wasn’t saying much, but still, she could see his bulging biceps straining against the sleeves of his uniform as though threatening her, promising that if she didn’t do what he wanted, he’d hold her down and…

  Her breath was coming in short, choppy gasps now and the edges of her vision darkened, sound warping and distorting, like everyone was suddenly at the other end of a very long tunnel.

  Gage’s hand, calloused and large, slipped into hers, and she heard him talking even as her eyes clung to the curve of Morland’s bicep. So much power right there. He could hurt—

  “No one’s gonna hurt you,” Gage whispered, stroking his fingers through her hair.

  Could he hear me? Was I talking out loud?

  Shit, shit, shit.

  This realization, finally, was the reason she could pull her eyes away from the unwanted male in the room and up to Gage. “You’ll stay?” she whispered. He’d already told her yes but she needed to hear it again. She needed to know that he wouldn’t abandon her.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Gage whispered, and then pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “I’m just going to sit here quietly while you chat with Morland. He’ll be extra nice to you because he knows that if he isn’t, he won’t get any more of those bear claws that he just loves.”

  Cady nodded. Withholding bakery treats from someone was a pretty big threat. Morland was a cop, ergo the main staple of his diet was donuts, ergo he’d hate to lose access to the only bakery in town that sold them.

  Satisfied with the severity of this threat, she turned back to the police officer and found that he’d pulled up a chair and was sitting beside the bed, a notepad and pen in hand, no longer looming menacingly over her. Cady instantly liked him about 10 times better. Gray-green e
yes, a curl to his dark brown hair, and a square jaw…Cady supposed that women probably thought he was handsome, although he was certainly no Gage Dyer.

  Still, she clung to Gage’s hand, as if scared he was going to pull it away at any moment. She knew he wouldn’t, but…

  It felt good to hold it tight anyway.

  “Hi, Cady,” the officer said with a small smile that reached his eyes. “I heard that you’ve had a run-in with Richard Schmidt previously. Why don’t we start with that encounter, and then move to last night’s activities?”

  “I call him Rat Bastard,” Cady said, figuring that she should start with the important information.

  She heard Gage choking on his laughter as the gray-green eyes of the officer went round.

  “An applicable nickname if I’ve ever heard one,” the officer finally said in a strangled voice that sounded suspiciously like he was trying to choke back his own laughter.

  Cady decided he might be all right after all.

  “So,” Cady continued, “Rat Bastard showed up to Emma and Sugar’s big birthday party they hold every year. Have you gone to it?”

  “Not personally, but I’ve heard it’s fun.”

  “Well, Rat Bastard decided to take Sugar hostage because he was pissed that she had Jaxson’s baby, which is honestly ridiculous. This sounds like a plot line from Days of Our Lives, but I swear it’s true. Like she’s really going to say,” and Cady intentionally pitched her voice in a high falsetto that sounded nothing like Sugar, “‘Oh gosh, Rat Bastard, I thought you were a real asshole before, but now that you’ve attacked me and held a gun to my head, I’ll love you forever!’ Said no woman ever.”

  This time, the choking laughter spilled out as Morland let out a roar of laughter.

  Cady grinned up at him, pleased with herself. She’d been so damn terrified before this hulk of a man came into the room, sure that she’d be attacked again but Gage’s presence by her side had made her feel relaxed. Protected. If something bad happened, he’d stand between her and the bad guy every step of the way.

  He’d proven that last night.

  And now, Officer Morland had proven that he had a sense of humor. Cady decided to tell Sugar and Emma that he should hold a permanent spot on the guest list each year. Not that she was personally in charge of who they invited and who they didn’t, but she knew they’d be more than happy to add another guest to the list.

  She told the cop about how Gage had saved Sugar, and then Abby had taken the rat bastard away in handcuffs. She hadn’t seen him since; had mostly forgotten about him, actually.

  The truth was – although she didn’t share this insight with the cop – was that if she’d remembered him living there, lurking in the shadows, always ready to jump out at her and hurt her, she never would’ve relaxed as much as she had over the past seven months. It would’ve been a guillotine, always hanging over her, ready to fall at any moment.

  “So you two didn’t interact at any point during that encounter?” the officer probed. “You didn’t yell at him to leave your friend alone, or take a swing at him?”

  Cady shook her head. “I hardly knew Sugar and Emma at that point. I’d just met Sugar 30 minutes before Rat Bastard showed up, and Emma 15 minutes before that. I didn’t know their history; I hardly knew anyone in Long Valley at that point. I just stood in the crowd and watched. I didn’t know what to do, and he had a gun…Honestly, he was so drunk off his ass, even if we’d had an entire conversation, he wouldn’t have remembered it the next day. But he didn’t attack me last night because I’m me.” At the officer’s blank look, she plowed on. “He thought I was Sugar.”

  She felt more than heard Gage’s sharp intake of breath next to her, and she realized that somehow, no one had figured out this piece of crucial information.

  “Did he call you Sugar?” the officer asked, and Cady shook her head. “Then how do you know he thought he was attacking her?”

  “He called me a bitch and a whore,” Cady said slowly, struggling to remember everything that had happened. It’d been dark and so surprising, and then the adrenaline rushing through her veins…it was a giant blur of fear and panic and anger. “Well, maybe he called me Sugar. Dammit. I’m sorry. It’s all a big mess up here.” She waved a hand next to her temple.

  “Well, whether or not he actually used the name ‘Sugar,’ you seem really sure that he thought he was attacking her. Can you tell me why?”

  “Oh. Right. Well, because he kept talking about Jaxson. How I had a baby with him, but I was still working for Gage,” she squeezed his hand but didn’t look at him, “and how someone needed to teach me manners. Or that wasn’t how a married woman was supposed to act. Something along those lines.” She waved her hand dismissively. “But I realized that in the dark, and the back doors for the bakery and my smoothie shop right next to each other…it’d be easy to get them mixed up. Plus, we’re about the same build, both have dark brown hair – mine is curly and hers is straight, but he might’ve thought that Sugar got a perm.” She shrugged. “I don’t know if y’all ran a blood alcohol test on him or not, but he was stinkin’ drunk. Literally. The smell rolling off him…I could hardly breathe. You guys are going to lock him up this time, right?” she demanded. It was ludicrous enough that he’d gotten off without punishment after bringing a gun to a birthday party. Surely he couldn’t get away with a second attempted kidnapping.

  Gage and Officer Morland exchanged glances, as if they’d been discussing this exact point before Cady had come along. “What?” she asked sharply.

  That look. It wasn’t good, that was for damn sure.

  “You know who his father is, right?” the cop said after a moment’s pause.

  “Yeah. The town’s judge. The only judge for the whole county, actually. But that shouldn’t matter. Justice is blind, and he should have to—”

  “Justice is sometimes a little less blind than she should be,” Morland broke in. “We’ve tried to nail this guy’s ass to the wall before – this ain’t our first rodeo with him. But the county prosecutor says that making the son pay for what he’s doing will screw up every other case coming through the system as the judge takes his anger out about Richard’s case on everything else. We can’t get the prosecutor to prosecute any of Richard’s drunk driving arrests – of which he’s had plenty – and the birthday party incident was dropped for ‘lack of evidence.’”

  Cady sputtered in shock but the cop just held up his hand wearily. “There were probably a hundred people there who could’ve testified to what Richard did. If my other cases had half that amount of evidence, I could die a happy man. But us cops can’t force a prosecutor to take on a case, no matter how much we wish we could. Which,” he said with a quiet pride, “is why we’re going to move jurisdictions. The county prosecutor is pissed at us for taking this out of his hands, but as soon as this got called in, we started working on getting everything moved to the state level. Usually the state won’t take on cases like this – they have enough on their hands without taking over county cases, too – but we made it clear what’s happening, and convinced the state that they needed to step in. It’s obviously a conflict of interest but since none of the prior cases actually went to court, the judge could claim that he hasn’t had any say in any of it. It’d been working pretty slick for him, but now…”

  The cop trailed off meaningfully, and Cady grinned at him, feeling happy for the first time since the attack. Finally, Rat Bastard was going to get what was coming to him. Turns out, justice was a little more blind than some people wanted her to be after all. Oh, what a glorious day!

  “I’ve already talked to Sugar and Gage,” Officer Morland said with a jerk of his head towards Gage, “but your cooperation will be most important of all. Otherwise, we won’t be able to connect the two attacks together, and the defense lawyers might argue that these have been nothing more than a couple of fistfights between two guys. Certainly not something to lock a man away for; otherwise, half our county would be in jail.” He
laughed at his own little joke and then stopped, looking Cady straight in the eye. He could see the panic building up inside of her, she could tell, and she tore her gaze away. She didn’t want him to see the vulnerability. He couldn’t. She didn’t want him to know. No one should know.

  “Cooperation?” she asked, her voice cracking partway through with fear. “What kind?” She wetted her lips and then to give herself something to do, picked up the cup with the straw and tried to take a sip. It made a faint gurgling sound – she’d already drained the cup dry. Gage took the cup and filled it from the sink in the corner.

  Without something to hold and hide behind, Cady twisted the pendant around her neck instead, sliding it back and forth along the chain. Maybe the cop just meant she’d have to give her statement and that’d be it. That was fine. She could do that. As long as—

  “You have to be willing to testify in court,” Officer Morland said bluntly as Gage handed the cup back to her. “Maybe Richard will take a plea deal and it won’t come to that, but you have to be willing to do so, or the whole thing falls apart. The state prosecutor was very clear on that.”

  Her hands were shaking so hard, she was suddenly glad that the hospital had felt like she needed a sippy cup to drink from, like a small child would use. The lid kept the water from sloshing over its sides.

  “Gage and Sugar both…” she said desperately, hoping that the answer would be no. She couldn’t look her boyfriend in the face. He was sitting right there next to her, but the implied question was directed at the cop.

  Say no, say no, say no—

  “We both agreed to testify in court,” Gage answered softly, squeezing her hand. “It’s the only way—”

  “But then he’ll come after me,” she broke in, the panic breaking and washing over its banks. “This last time, he attacked me on accident. If he’d known who I was, he wouldn’t have touched me. I become a marked woman if I testify against him. Next time, he’s attacking me because I am me.” Her breath was coming in short, shallow pants now, her voice far away, belonging to someone else.