by Joanna Blake
Shut up shut up shut up.
“You sure about that?”
I nodded slowly. I hated lying to anyone, even the law. But I didn’t have a choice. I hugged myself, hoping no one saw him come in.
At least he didn’t look like a stiff tonight.
“Here boy. Leave him alone. Cheeto! Besos!”
They ignored me but Connor quirked an eyebrow at me.
“Cheeto?”
“The cat. He’s orange. Sorry, if they are bothering you. I can-”
“It’s fine.”
I chewed my lip. Then I blurted out the question that had been bothering me since he appeared at the door.
“Do you usually make house calls?”
He just stared at me.
“We have more photos to show you. I need to know who was there last night. We can do that here, or we can do it at headquarters.”
“It’s going to be hard to say with one hundred percent certainty. I don’t interact with the customers all that much.”
He gave me an odd look and then he smiled slowly.
“That’s probably for the best.”
“That’s what Mason says.”
He laughed and shook his head.
“I bet he does.”
Rrrrrrr…
I realized Besos was growling. Even lazy, chubby Morely sat up and looked towards the kitchen. Cheeto sat up too.
For a minute I thought Mason had come home early. But Mase was a big guy and his boots made a lot of noise. I always knew when Mase was home.
I heard footsteps running away and the roar of a bike.
Yeah, definitely not Mason.
Connor pulled his gun and was on his feet in an instant.
“Someone is outside.”
He held his hand out when I tried to follow him. I followed anyway.
He moved so fast and so silently that I almost missed it. The man was like a damn panther. Sneakier than a cat. I had a feeling he was a thousand times as deadly.
He paused and looked at me.
“Stay back.”
He opened the door and stepped outside with his gun drawn. He swung around quickly, checking the walkway and the alley that led to the back.
Then he holstered his gun and stared at something on the ground.
“What the fuck is this?”
Connor
The roses were covered in blood.
An ex-boyfriend then. Or a stalker. Or a threat.
I stepped back and turned to face her, leaving the door open as I phoned it in. If it was related to the case I need it bagged and tagged.
“What is it?”
I cocked an eyebrow at her as I put my phone away.
“Someone left you a gift.”
“Me?”
“I assume no one would send Mason two dozen red roses covered in blood.”
“Blood?”
“Looks like it. You got an admirer? A crazy one?”
She shook her head but I saw the moment of hesitation. The moment when she was deciding what lie to tell me. How to spin it.
She knew something.
I could see it in her breathtaking eyes. The kaleidoscope of different shades of blue projected pure terror.
I felt it in my gut.
It made me furious. Who would threaten such a sweet, young girl? It suddenly didn’t matter to me that she lived with a biker anymore. That she worked at the bar.
It was despicable.
From the beginning, I had a strong hunch who had been behind the murder. And I had a very good idea of who she was afraid of, even though she tried to hide it. I could see her fear. Taste it. And I also had a good idea of why.
Because she was mixed up in it, dammit.
I didn’t care who she associated with. I only cared who she was. And I knew she was good. Not perfect, even though her looks were flawless. She was defensive and wounded and living in the wrong world.
But she was good.
I felt it in my gut. Deeper than that. I felt it in the part of me that I had forgotten existed. I felt it in my soul.
Fuck me.
She bent forward in the open doorway, reaching for the roses. I took her arm, guiding her back from the door.
“Don’t touch it. Evidence, honey.”
Her eyes were wide.
“Evidence?”
I nodded and stared as she tugged her hoodie shut over the lacy little thing she was wearing. I swallowed, not letting go of her arm. One strap was still visible where it rested on the creamy skin of her shoulder.
That sexy spaghetti strap top of hers was going to kill me. She looked so sweet and cuddly in that outfit. It was hard to think of her as the enemy. Hard to think about breaking her.
Using her to catch a killer.
But I had to. I knew I did. She was the only witness, even if she was pretending not to have a Goddamn clue.
She knew something.
The words kept circling in my head. There was no other reason to threaten her. No reason for her to be afraid. I was going to have to wait on forensics to tell me if there was any sign of who had done this. They would camp out in the front yard and comb through everything.
And that created a whole other problem. The one I’d been dreading. Hoping to somehow avoid.
Once they showed up word would get out that Casey was talking to the us. That looked bad, even though she was barely cooperating.
That was it. Game over.
Her life would be in jeopardy the moment I put in the call.
I stared at her, my jaw ticking. She was part of this officially now. On the books. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to do every damn thing I could to keep her safe.
Even if it meant bending the rules a little.
Or, a lot.
“Pack a bag. You’re coming with me.”
“What? No!”
I stepped closer and she backed away into the wall. I leaned over her, staring deep into her huge eyes. I wanted her to tell me the truth dammit!
“Tell me this wasn’t Dante. Tell me you have a psychotic exboyfriend. Because from what I have found so far, you don’t.”
She stared at me, breathing fast. I nodded, taking her silence as a ‘no.’ So what if I’d admitted looking into her personal life, or lack thereof?
She didn’t need to know how Goddamn happy it had made me to know she wasn’t attached. Hell, it looked like she never had been.
The girl’s online profile was devoid of boyfriends, past or present. No family photos either. It was devoid of almost anything except her dubious taste in reality television.
She liked the pages of almost every cheesy housewife show in existence.
It was set to private, but we had ways around that. It wasn’t even hard. I could access her private messages if I wanted to. Her emails. Her texts.
I hadn’t found one thing that indicted there a guy in her life. There was nothing. Other than her and Mason talking about the damn animals all the time.
I had run facial recognition software too. Searching to see if she had another name, or a hidden profile. A rap sheet. Overdue library books. Parking tickets.
Anything.
So far it had come up with zilch. No images of her on a milk carton, no Instagram pictures of her on someone’s lap.
Of course, it was still processing. So I kept hoping something would come up. Because as far as I could tell, Casey Jones hadn’t even existed until four years ago.
And that was going to complicate the case. And anything that came after.
Because for some crazy reason I couldn’t imagine letting this girl out of my sight.
She clearly had other ideas. She glared up at me, clearly not intimidated by my closeness. I could smell her. I was inches away from her lips. From her delicious body.
“I don’t need your protection.”
“Yes, you fucking do.”
I was close enough to kiss her. I was hard as a rock, just from standing there. I could feel heat and electricity jumping b
etween our bodies.
She shook her head frantically.
“They’ll kill him. If they think- if they think I know something.”
I gripped her arm, but not hard. I stared at my hand where I held her, then back into her beautiful, panicked eyes.
“Don’t you?”
She shook her head again but there was no conviction in it. We both knew she was lying. And we both knew she was in danger.
I let my eyes slide over her, resting on her tempting lips.
“It doesn’t matter now. This place is going to be crawling with forensics soon. Even if you don’t know something, it’s going to look like you do.”
She blinked and I smiled at her, trying to look reassuring. Now that I’d decided to take her with me, I felt better. I would keep her safe.
And I would catch the killer.
Then and only then would I decide what to do about this insane attraction I had for little Miss Casey not-her-real-name Jones.
“Get packed.”
That stubborn little chin came up.
“I won’t leave Mason.”
“Mason can handle himself.”
“I don’t care. I owe him.”
I pushed away from the wall and pulled my phone out.
“Fine. I will get him in custody too.”
“No- wait!”
Her hands reached for me. I held perfectly still, barely breathing through the chain reaction that simple touch set off.
Her hand. My shoulder. Straight to my cock.
“Get packed or I will do it for you.”
I shook her off and put the call in for someone to pay Mason a visit. He would get picked up and taken to a safe house. One set up by the agency.
Of course, I didn’t mention to anyone that I was taking her.
Or where I was taking her. That was going to stay completely off the record. Nothing official about it.
Or legal.
She was coming home with me.
Cassandra
It would be okay. Everything would be okay. I’d made Connor promise.
And for some reason, I believed him.
Mason would be safe. Pissed off, but safe. Connor had even agreed to take all the animals to the safe house too.
But not the same safe house I was going to.
No one could know where we were going. I wasn’t even allowed to take my phone. I sent one text before we left, with the agent watching me like a hawk the whole time.
I’m safe. Things just got complicated. I’m sorry.
I bit my lip, stealing a glance at Connor. He was staring out the window, my bags in his hands.
He looked grim. Furious. Determined.
Then he looked at me and nodded, his eyes softening immediately. Just like that, I felt safe. Or at least, safe-ish.
How crazy was that?
I curled up in the passenger seat as Connor drove me out of town. We drove in silence as we left the suburban streets and slid into the darkness of the countryside. The hills were getting steeper, the roads narrower. The headlights were fewer and farther in between.
For a moment, I realized that I was completely at his mercy. If he was a bad guy, this would be the end of the movie. Dump body in ditch, roll credits.
I grimaced. Maybe I watched a little too much reality TV. I especially loved those shows about people who had snapped and committed grisly murders.
Mostly scorned women. Those were the best. Sometimes you even cheered for them.
Well, sometimes.
Yeah, I loved all those true crime shows. Though after this, if I survived, I doubted I would enjoy them anymore.
“So, are you in school or anything?”
I snapped back to the present. I swallowed and shook my head.
“Next Fall. I was supposed to start then.”
College already felt like something that had been derailed. I was probably not going to be here in the Fall. Hopefully I would still be alive, but everything else felt like a longshot.
“College?”
I nodded and realized he couldn’t see me in the dark. Brilliant Cass.
“Yeah. I mean, I always wanted to become a veterinarian but I know that takes a really long time.”
“An M.D.? No shit?”
I shrugged.
“I really like animals. I’m not too squeamish either…”
I trailed off, realizing I was a lot more squeamish than I once thought. What I’d seen the other night had cleared that up right quick. I felt a little sick as my mind replayed the sound of that knife sliding through skin…
“That’s really cool. You got really high scores on your GED so it should be easy for you.”
I stared at him.
“How do you know that?”
He gave me a look and didn’t answer. I felt naked suddenly. He’d looked me up obviously. Not just to see if I had a criminal record.
That made me feel… weird.
I crossed my arms, determined not to let him see me squirm.
“What else did you find out?”
“Well, for starters, Casey Jones isn’t your real name.”
My mouth dropped open and went dry.
“And you watch a lot of really questionable television.”
I bit my lip, realizing how vulnerable I really was. He was right. Casey Jones was a fake name. It wasn’t legally mine. I didn’t even exist on paper.
It’s not like I’d done anything wrong when I’d run off. At least I hoped my old foster mom hadn’t accused me of anything illegal… not that I’d done anything but run off.
Either way I was of age now. It’s not like they could make me go back.
There was nothing to be afraid of.
I jumped as a hand landed on my shoulder.
“Hey relax, you aren’t under investigation.”
“Then why did you investigate me?”
He cleared his throat, his eyes on the road.
“I was curious. Occupational hazard.”
I looked out the window at the trees. I had no idea what to say about that. Why would he be curious about me?
I was a waitress in a biker bar. I was no one special. I was a teenage runaway who had managed to avoid selling her body to survive. And that was just dumb luck.
“We’re here.”
I rolled down the window as he turned off the main road. I heard rattling as he took a gravel road up through the trees. I didn’t see any lights or a house.
Yeah… this was a good place to dump a body.
I glanced at Connor but he didn’t look at me. And I didn’t get a serial killer vibe. And I highly doubted he worked for Dante.
And Dante hadn’t said he wanted to kill me yet. Not exactly. Not yet anyway. It was probably his idea of a romantic gesture to send me bloody roses.
Connor had a strange smile on his face when we finally pulled up to a log cabin ten minutes later. We were far from the main road, if you could call it that. We were pretty much far from anywhere.
I got out of the car and stared up at the welcoming front porch. It was a real log cabin. The sort mountain men lived in on TV.
My God, we really were in the middle of nowhere.
“What is this place?”
He looked at me and smiled the slightest bit.
“Home.”
Connor
“Home?”
I nodded and went to the trunk to get her bags. The girl travelled light, even with the heat I’d put on her ass to get ready fast. A small duffle with some clothes and a backpack with some books and toiletries. That was it.
A word flashed in my mind, sharp and immediately recognizable as true.
Runaway.
That must be what it was. What she was. Casey had packed fast. Like she was used to running. I looked at her in the darkness, the defensive posture, the sense of aloneness…
That was it. Everything clicked into place.
She was a runaway. And somehow, Mason had saved her.
For once in my life, I ha
d a reason to really respect a criminal. Because he’d done right by this one girl. I slammed the trunk shut and she jumped.
“It’s okay. You’re safe here.”
She looked up at me as I came to stand beside her. The moon was bright and I could see every inch, every graceful curve of her face.
“No one is ever really safe.”
I wanted to yank her against me and hold her. To tell her she was wrong. Even if I knew she was right.
What did safe mean anyway? Danny wasn’t safe, even with me looking after him. Danny was gone.
I clenched my jaw. Eyes on the prize, DeWitt. Solve the crime first.
Then you can decide what to do about the girl.
“Come on, let me get you settled.”
She waited outside on the porch while I turned the lights on. I showed her to the guest room on the second floor. I was down the hall from her, and closer to the stairs. That way I would hear her if she tried to sneak out.
Or if anyone tried to get in.
“Are you tired?”
She shook her head.
“I slept all day.”
I smiled a little.
“I did too.”
We went downstairs and I offered her food. She said no, but she did take a glass of water. She sat on the couch, looking like a bird about to take flight.
“Have you heard about Mason?”
“Not yet.”
She chewed on that soft, sexy bottom lip of hers. I stared at her hungrily, desperate to have a taste. She noticed the TV and perked up a bit.
“Do you have cable?”
I picked up the remote and tossed it to her.
“Knock yourself out.”
Cassandra
The man never stopped working. He was out on the porch, his voice low as he took call after call. He paced back and forth.
Every once in a while, he came in and used the laptop at the kitchen table. Then his phone would buzz and he’d leave again.
It kind of felt domestic. Like when Mason was working on his bike and I would sit outside with a book. It felt oddly… normal. Which was odd in itself.
Never mind the fact that I was on lockdown and Dante had sent me twenty-four blood soaked long-stemmed roses.
I wondered for the hundredth time why he hadn’t just killed me then and there. It would have been quick. I was short and he was tall and strong. I doubt I would have even had time to scream.
