by Lissa Kasey
“Pull over,” Jacob told me for the fifth time. Newt was in his lap, curled up and snoozing like he didn’t have a care in the world. “I can drive.”
“I’m just gonna find a hotel. Get out of the sun for a bit,” I told him, hoping he didn’t realize just how bad it was getting. The pain was narrowing my vision, throbbing through my left temple, and turning my stomach into a rolling gurgle that made me glad I hadn’t eaten anything.
“Ollie, fuck. Pull over.” Jacob cursed at me when I got a little too close to another car, which rewarded us with a blaring honk. I winced and had to force myself to reopen my eyes. My depth perception was shot. I blinked back tears and closed my left eye to concentrate on pulling over. It was the guards’ vehicle behind us whose sudden flashing hazard lights got everyone out of my way.
I pulled over to the side, put the car in park, opened the door to lean out, and hurled. Nothing but bile. And I didn’t feel any better, since my head pounded, and the sound of cars whipping by was like razors across my brain.
I don’t know who picked me up because someone dropped a jacket over my face, unbuckled the seat belt, and crawled into the back seat with me in their lap. The jacket smelled like Kade. It was the one I’d taken from the closet this morning.
“Do you have any cannabis oil with you?” Jacob asked quietly. He stroked my hair and spoke to someone else for a minute. “I called ahead and reserved a couple of rooms. Yeah, it’s pet-friendly, and discreet.” He touched my hair. “Ollie? Oil?”
“No,” I whispered. Because it was Kade’s, and I wouldn’t use it for me. He’d been hurt, and he would need it.
“One of your pills, then?”
I shook my head, knowing he couldn’t see me anyway, which was fine since tears were trailing down my cheeks. Between the pain in my head and the gaping wound in my heart, I could have died at that moment and been grateful for the release.
A car door closed, and a moment later we were moving again.
“Duke is gonna drive,” Jacob said. He adjusted me on the seat, putting a blanket under my head, but leaving the jacket to block out the light as he petted my hair. Newt snuffled under the jacket, curling up under my chin and purring softly.
I couldn’t stop the sobs even though there was no radio to muffle the sound. I must have passed out fairly quickly since the next time I woke was to the sound of voices outside the car and Newt’s purrs. The headache wasn’t gone, but it had receded a little, and even through the covering of the coat, I could tell it had to be dark.
“Hey.” Jacob’s voice was soft and close, like he was kneeling. The door was open near my head. I could feel the breeze across my skin. “Let’s get you inside.”
I carefully peeled back the jacket so I could stare up at the darkening sky. It was just after dusk, sun gone, but darkness not completely fallen yet. We were parked away from the streetlights of a small but very nice-looking villa. “I thought you said you rented some rooms?” I asked Jacob. “Newt,” I called, looking for my cat. He stretched out a paw from his perch on the backrest of the seat. “I need either his leash or my bag,” I told Jacob as I slowly sat up, fearing the wave of pain that often came from getting vertical.
“This is a private sort of place for rent,” Jacob said, handing me my bag. “It’s a little higher end than a Marriott.”
“We could have stayed at a normal hotel,” I protested. I didn’t think Kade and I could afford this. Not even if I drained our joint savings. I hadn’t taken a modeling job in ages, Haven was probably back in the red since I hadn’t been working and Kade was missing, and the last of my personal savings had gone into home repairs Kade had insisted on before he vanished. “Do I even want to know how much this place costs?” I held the bag open in my lap for Newt. He gave me a sleepy glare, but after a moment slunk into the bag with lithe disdain, settling so his head stuck out and I could zip around him. He liked the bag better than the leash, but I was pretty sure he’d rather have just ridden on my shoulder like a designer scarf.
“Nope,” Jacob said. “And it doesn’t matter since I’m paying for it.” He stood and went to meet Duke, who was coming back from what appeared to be the main part of the building. Duke’s first name was actually Adrian, but Kade just called him Duke, and so it had sort of become a pattern for me as well. He didn’t seem to be bothered by anyone just using his last name. Maybe it was a military thing. He was totally ex-military, though I didn’t know what branch. He was sort of like Will—even out of uniform, their posture just screamed what they were. Or had been. Kade could be that way, but he relaxed easier than either Will or Duke did. Maybe it was a variation of rank. Again I’d never thought to ask since Kade was just Kade to me.
I got out of the car, giving myself extra time and slow movement so as not to set off my pounding head. With Newt’s carrier clutched to my chest like a shield, I followed Jacob toward our room. His guards fell into place around us. More guards than could have fit in the car that had followed. But there were at least three dark SUVs surrounding my Bug. “How many guards did you bring?” I asked Jacob.
“All of them,” he replied unabashedly, and before I could protest, he added, “And when we find Kade, they’ll be guarding him too. Until he’s better.”
My eyes were suddenly shiny with tears, and if it hadn’t been for Newt, I might have hugged the bastard. “Jerk,” I whispered to him. “Making me feel stuff….”
He gave me a knowing grin and opened the door. “Duke already looked the room over,” he explained. “We’re in here.” He waved to the other little pods surrounding the area, but a sizable walking distance away. “They are close.”
“We’ll have someone on watch 24/7,” Duke corrected Jacob. “In shifts.”
The room was too bright. I hissed at all the lights, and Jacob rushed forward to shut most of them off, just leaving the overhead fan light in the giant bathroom on. There was only one bed. And while it was a California King at the very least, I had no intention of getting in bed with Jacob. I glared at him.
“I’ll take the couch,” he told me, following my line of sight.
“This one room is nicer than my entire house.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree. I like your house. This place is high-end sterile, nice but sort of cold. I’ve stayed here a time or two between shows. There is a self-cleaning litter box in the bathroom near the toilet. Flushes out like a toilet.”
The idea of that both intrigued and confused me. I wandered to the bathroom to have a look, letting Newt out of the carrier as I went. Jacob spoke to Duke a few minutes longer before shutting the door and most of the noise out. The bathroom was about the same size as the one Kade had renovated on the second floor of our house. Only instead of stone, this was marble. Huge, wide-open, and like Jacob had said, white, cold, and sterile.
Newt pawed at the box beside the toilet for a moment before doing his business. Once he bolted away, a little sensor light began to blink. I didn’t stay around to watch it scoop away Newt’s attempt to mark this as his territory. Instead I made my way to the bed, stripping out of everything except my undies.
I could feel Jacob’s eyes on me but didn’t care. Everything hurt. My skin, my teeth, my hair, and my soul. The bed looked inviting enough, and in the morning we could start looking for Kade. He had to be close. I really wanted him to be close.
“We’ll talk to the sisters first,” Jacob said. “Tomas pulled their schedules. I know where they will be tomorrow.”
“Why them?” I asked as I slid between the covers and rolled a pillow over my head, peering out just the tiniest bit to look at Jacob.
“’Cause women love me.”
I snorted.
“Men love me, too, but I thought we’d take the easy road first.”
“I don’t think this is going to be as easy as you think it is.”
“I disagree.”
Whatever. He’d learn fast enough, I supposed.
“We have to choose wisely, though. Wrong first choice
and the whole group will know, and they might move him.”
The thought chilled me.
“But I have a plan for that too.” Jacob flipped through several screens on his tablet. He kept the screen angled away so the light wouldn’t cast toward the bed. He sat sprawled on the couch, feet up, with Newt in his lap again, while he rubbed the cat’s ears.
He was silent so long I had to prod him. “Are you going to share that plan with me?”
“You should sleep.”
I sighed. My head was pounding. Just on one side, and only when I moved more than the tiniest bit, but it was horrible.
“Take some oil.”
“No.”
“I know you have some.”
“It’s Kade’s.”
“He wouldn’t begrudge you some relief. Plus you need sleep. Real sleep. So you’re better and energized for tomorrow. The oil will relax your brain. You need to shut it off for just a few minutes. If you’re not feeling better tomorrow, I’ll insist one of the guards drive.” He looked my way, and I knew he couldn’t really see me under the blankets and peering out between pillows with my one good eye. “Kade needs you to rest.”
I growled at him.
He dislodged Newt from his perch and crossed the room to my bag. I didn’t more than grunt at him when he dug through it until he found the cannabis oil. “Two drops. I’ll explain my plan as you’re drifting off. Just sleep, though, okay? Don’t fight it.” He held the dropper out, and I wanted to refuse, but my head hurt so much, and I was so tired and nauseous that I took the drops.
He pulled a chair close to the bed and adjusted the blanket. I felt the mattress shift a little as Newt appeared on the bed and curled up beside me. He always had to be touching someone if it was possible, draped over my legs, or curled around my arms, in Jacob’s lap or Kade’s. Since I was lying on my stomach, head turned to the side, he found his place between my shoulder blades, kneading gently and purring softly.
“He’s totally a therapy cat,” Jacob said. “Never seen a cat so focused on taking care of someone. Usually they are more distant and aloof.”
“Like you?” I grumbled at him as the pain began to ebb away. “Plan.”
“I’ve got my guards following everyone in Kade’s immediate family. I find it funny how they all came home after Kade disappeared. Most of them are normally halfway across the country. Yet here they all are, in Carlsbad.”
I blinked up at him, but his face was lost in the darkness now that he’d set the tablet aside.
“Two guards are following each of them. Watching. Recording where they go. People they talk to. Anything that might lead us to Kade.”
It was a good idea but not something I could have ever done on my own.
“Will said it’s how he found Kade the last time. Following Kade’s dad. But he’s being careful this time. My guys have been watching him for a week, and he just goes to work and home.”
“Big house?” I asked, knowing it had to be. Maybe Kade was in the family home. I had no idea how we’d get to him, then.
“Yeah. I have pictures and stuff.” His fingers brushed through my hair. “Duke’s got good people now. Trained. Discreet. Smart. He’s keeping me updated on what his people report in. It’s like a game of chess.” His fingers stilled for a minute. They were lulling me to sleep. “I always sucked at strategy. Emily and Levi did that….”
We hadn’t talked about it. The blackmail. The years of abuse he’d written off as obligation. The death of someone he didn’t know how to hate but badly wanted to. He had a hard time just saying Levi’s name most days.
“Anyway. So we’re watching them all. They’re keeping me updated. Tomorrow we’ll start talking to people. Maybe we’ll find Kade tomorrow. That would be great, right?”
I let out a long sigh of contentment at the idea. As wonderful as it was, I had little hope. Not after we’d filed a police report and circulated his picture everywhere possible, only to be met with silence. No leads, no one came forward, and very soon even the little bit of press we’d stirred up had been muffled. It all led back to his family. Which was why I was sure they had him hidden away somewhere.
Jacob was silent for a minute, then said, “I think he’s in the big house.”
Which made my gut hurt, because how would we free him? We couldn’t just waltz into a house that had three times the security team Jacob had. Even as sleep finally overtook me, I prayed as I never had before that we’d find him fast.
Chapter Three
AFTER A long shower, I felt a thousand times better the next morning. Apparently I’d slept more than twelve hours, and Jacob had rewarded me with sushi for an early lunch. For the first time in a long time, my stomach actually settled enough to let me eat. Technically, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be eating fish, but eating something rather than nothing had to be good, right? I’d worry about what my nutritionist said later. After I found Kade.
“Who’s doing what where?” I asked Jacob while we both stuffed our faces with food prepared by the villas’ chef. “Anything suspicious?”
Jacob waved Duke over and pointed him to a chair, even shoved a tray of sashimi toward him. Duke wrinkled his nose. “I hate seafood,” he admitted.
“Did you eat?” Jacob asked with a frown.
“A burger from In-N-Out in the car.” His eyes found me, and I knew he hadn’t saved it because he knew I was mostly vegan and didn’t want to gross me out.
Jacob just shrugged. “Sit and talk while we eat, then. Ollie’s the PI. He might get something more out of what you’re seeing than either of us do.”
“We’re pretty sure Kade’s at the house,” Duke said.
“The mansion,” I clarified.
“It’s sort of like Fort Knox. We’ve been trying to record the guard schedule, find a weakness, but there isn’t one. There are always a dozen guys everywhere,” Duke said. “What normal family needs that kind of security?”
“They’re rich,” I offered.
“So is Jacob. Hell, so are you,” Duke said. “But neither of you need that kind of manpower.”
“I’m not rich,” I told him. I used to be. When I was modeling. The PI business wasn’t exactly a cash cow, though Kade had really taken over most of that management and put us into the black.
“You banked almost two hundred thousand last year. That’s not rich?”
I blinked at him. How did he know that?
“Not hard to look at tax records.”
Jacob frowned. “I paid my assistant more than one hundred thousand last year. Well, Kisten. The others didn’t make nearly as much.” But Kisten was now dead, and as far as I knew, Jacob was not yet looking for a new assistant.
“You guys are so well off, your idea of wealth is skewed,” Duke pointed out. “Ollie lives in a multimillion dollar house and pays more for his property taxes each quarter than most people pay in rent in a year.”
I’d paid the house in full before Nathan died, using almost every penny I’d saved, so all I owed on it were property taxes, utilities, and insurance. Sometimes even affording those were difficult month to month. At least before Kade had come in and shared the burden. “What does that have to do with security?” I asked. “Whether I’m rich or not.” Was I rich? It had been a while since I’d done more than just pay bills. And Kade had taken over a lot of that with his management of Haven.
“Normally Kade and a very expensive security system are all you need. Jacob travels the world, so he has us. He had way more guards than he needed before because of his family and the threats. There are sixteen now, on rotation, which is still a lot. Kade’s family are a bunch of old money investors and a couple trust-fund babies, but the security he has could rival a decent-sized private militia group. Not even thugs. Trained soldiers. Could be ex-military or from one of the privately funded military organizations. These guys are hard-core and trained. And there are dozens of them. So many we haven’t been able to count them all.”
“I thought they just own
ed a lot of land and buildings?” Jacob asked.
“And are well invested in weapons development. They are also major shareholders in a private military group that operates overseas.” Duke flipped his phone so we could read the screen. “They don’t own it, but lots of their money is flowing into it. One of my guys specializes in money trails. Plus a certain hacker-created software that would make the Pentagon drool.” Duke glanced my way, careful like he was afraid he was going to piss me off. “Tomas gave me full access to your software, so long as it’s to find Kade.”
I agreed with Tomas’s assessment 100 percent. “Defense contracts?” I clarified.
“Private ones, yes. You know they pay better. Your brother did more than a handful of work for a couple of these contractors,” Duke told me. “Side stuff, Stateside. No record of Kade ever doing work for any of them. But I find it odd that Nathan worked for companies Kade’s family was fueling money into.”
I had no idea. It was odd to hear Nathan’s name from Duke, who hadn’t known him at all. All that really meant anything was that Kade’s parents had money and they probably had Kade locked up in their mansion out of my reach. As much as I wanted to linger on the new facts about Nathan, I couldn’t get past my need to find Kade. When had Nathan become second in my head and Kade first? It took a moment of breathing and meditation to keep a panic attack from overwhelming me. Kade being first wasn’t bad. Kade was here. He was alive. Nathan was gone. He’d have wanted me to be happy and move on. Loving Kade did not lessen the pain of losing Nathan, but he did make it more manageable by being there when I needed to cry, scream, or just dissolve. I so needed to dissolve right now. My therapist would have been proud that I was thinking through my options instead of just falling apart.
“So there’s a lot of security.” Jacob tapped his fingers on the table, pushing an uneaten bit of sushi around his plate. “We can’t just waltz in like we own the place.”
