With the way her body was shaking, she didn’t honestly think she could stand, let alone leave. She wasn’t about to try, either and she nodded again letting him know she agreed.
“Good.” Kade turned, took a few steps and stopped to glance back in her direction one last time. “Love ya, Mud Pie.”
“Love you, too.” She managed to whisper back with her normal response to how they’d been saying goodbye to one another since they were teenagers. The meaning behind her words was more than the casual way he took them, though.
Kade turned away, switched off the lights and locked the door as he left. The room plunged into darkness, making her acutely aware of how alone and terrified she was. The only comfort she had was the radio she held in her hand with a death grip and the knowledge Kade would return for her … to her. He would. He had to. Kade was her hero. Always. He was strong. Courageous. Invincible. And whatever was about to go down out there, he would be okay.
She let out a ragged breath. Please let him be okay.
Chapter Three
Panic and adrenaline surged through Kade as he double-timed it towards the hallway, Maddy’s scream over the radio echoing in his eardrum. Following close behind were two men from the task force. They had heard her, too. All of them had. But it was Kade’s gut the sound had sliced through like a knife.
All he had ever wanted was to keep her safe. But instead of hauling her out of the club when he had a chance, he wasted precious time by getting caught up in his own anger at finding her there and the fear of exactly what that meant.
Being a cop tainted his perspective. In his experience if a woman dressed like a hooker and worked with other hookers, the chances were damn good she was a hooker. That didn’t justify him assuming the worst when it came to Maddy or accusing her of what he had, though. Deep down, he knew she wouldn’t sell herself. But he couldn’t let it go. Some part of him needed the reassurance, needed to hear her deny it. And because he was hurting over the thought of another man touching her and taking her in all the ways he had ever wanted to, he needed to do it in the most hurtful way possible.
The minute the words had left his mouth he’d known the mistake he made. Christ, the pain he’d seen in her eyes and knowing he was the one that put that look there had nearly brought him to his knees. Maddy was the only woman he’d ever loved, still loved, and how did he choose to show it? By calling her a whore and putting her very life at risk.
If anything had happened to her, it was his fault. He was the one that left her in that damn room alone and unprotected. He was the one that had fucked up by allowing his emotions get the best of him when he should have been thinking about getting her to safety. He was the one that promised her years ago that he would never let anything or anyone harm her. If she’d been taken, injured, or God forbid something worse, he was the one that let her down. The one to blame.
Kade pushed the thoughts out of his mind and focused on the task at hand—getting to her. It was taking too long. It felt like hours instead of seconds when he finally came to the opening where the door used to be and was now lying on the floor. Heart pounding, he bounded into the room, weapon ready. He swept left, then right. With no immediate threats, he holstered his gun and ran to Maddy, huddled in the same corner he’d left her.
Tear-soaked cheeks and wide, frightened eyes turned in his direction when he got closer, and with a sob, she launched herself into his arms. Kade wrapped her tight against him, relief washing over him that she wasn’t hurt. Scared but unharmed.
He held her for moment, stroking her hair as she cried and shook against his chest. His heart broke at the sound, at how small and fragile she felt. All he wanted to do was hold her, tell her it was all right and take her home, but he had to know what had caused her to scream over the radio like she did. Never letting go, he spoke soothingly into her ear. “It’s okay now, Maddy. I’m here. You’re safe. Tell me what happened.”
Kade felt a shudder run through her before she choked out a single name. “Camp.”
He stiffened and on reflex, tightened his hold on her. To protect her. To shield her from his next question and the answer he instinctively knew he wasn’t going to like. “What did Camp do?”
“He…” She hesitated for a beat and took a breath before she quickly recounted what happened. “He busted down the door and started throwing boxes off the shelf to get this one he had stashed in the back. I hid hoping he wouldn’t see me, but when he turned around … he saw me. He had a gun and said he should’ve known I was trouble because I was asking the girls questions about their age. That I was a snitch. That I brought you here and ruined everything. That’s when he pointed the gun at me and I screamed. He saw the radio and … and he told me that it wasn’t over. That he would find me. Then he ran.”
Kade forced himself to try to sound calm. “Where did he go, Maddy?”
She tried to pull back, but Kade held her close not wanting her to see his reaction, the anger he felt at himself for putting her in danger.
“I think he went towards the back exit.”
Kade didn’t need to tell the men that had followed him to go after Camp. They were already gone, the sound of their running feet hitting the floor as they headed in the direction Maddy said Camp had gone. He wanted to go with them. Find Camp and rip him apart with his bare hands for threatening Maddy, but he wouldn’t leave her. Not now. Not again. Never again.
Without a word, he picked her up, cradled her against his chest and began to make his way out of the club. Kade was taking her home, and if he had any say it in, she would be staying there. Forever. Maddy meant everything to him, and it was about time he told her that.
Chapter Four
Kade grabbed for his phone and groaned when he saw one of the precinct numbers on the screen. He didn’t want to deal with whoever was calling. All he wanted to do was forget about his job and the operation for the rest of the night. Tomorrow, he’d handle whatever needed to get done and the pile of paperwork he was sure was waiting on his desk. Tonight, his focus, the only person he wanted to talk to, was the woman currently in his shower.
Camp was still out there, though, and if the call was about him, Kade wanted an update. The son-of-bitch had threatened Maddy, and Kade knew it was a threat to take seriously. Not wanting her to hear the conversation, he quickly got up from the couch and padded across the room to listen at the bedroom door. He didn’t want to worry her. Kade was worried enough for both of them. Satisfied when he heard the water running, Kade answered the phone. If he was lucky the person on the other end wouldn’t be Sean.
“Kellins.”
“Hey, Special K, took you long enough. Too busy with your houseguest to answer? Using any special interrogation techniques on her?”
Sean chuckled on the other end, and Kade shook his head. Would it be too much to ask if his partner didn’t act like an asshole, for once? The man grated on Kade’s nerves like no other, and he barked into the phone. “None of your fucking business. What do you want, Sean?”
“Man, you’re entirely too easy. I called because we have Camp. Good call on sending units over to that girl’s apartment.”
Kade sat back down on the couch. He didn’t want to be right about Camp going directly to Maddy’s place to find her. The thought of what could have happened if she had gone to her home instead of his twisted in his gut. At least, they got the prick and Kade could relax knowing that Camp would be put in a cell right along with the other two. The trio could talk business all they wanted in jail. They weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“That’s good. I’ll bring Maddy in tomorrow to give her statement.”
“What’s the story there, Kade? You nearly ripped my head off when I told you she should be going to the precinct for questioning, not with you. I’m guessing you know her already. From the way you were acting, I would say pretty well, too.”
Kade glanced at the photo frame hanging over the mantel. A gift from Maddy when he’d taken the oath to be a police officer
. It was filled with pictures displaying a chronological order of the years they’d know each other. Starting the very first day he’d seen her, when he was ten years old and she was six, sitting in a mud puddle crying that she’d fallen and ruined her pretty new dress. Kade had sat down with her and played until both of them were covered in mud from head to toe. The pictures continued to when he graduated from the academy. Each photo showing the two of them together and marking some event in their lives as they got older.
“I know her.” Kade wasn’t going to give him any more of an explanation, and he sure-as-shit wasn’t going to apologize for yelling at him back at the club. Sean might have been only doing to his job when he tried to stop Kade from getting Maddy out of there, but that didn’t mean he didn’t deserve it. If not then, but for any of the other countless times Sean had pissed him off. He’d get over it.
There was a moment of silence on the other end before Sean continued, uncharacteristically supportive. “I get it, man, and you know I’ve got your back. But, Kade how deep was she? Are you sure you know what you’re getting into?”
Kade glanced at the bedroom door and smiled. Yeah, he knew. “Nothing to worry about. She’s clear.”
It was the truth. Kade had questioned her on the way back to his house. Her only crime was piss-poor judgment in taking the job in the first place. Which he still had every intention of finding out why she had come to Atlanta, been working there and hadn’t looked him up yet. None of that was adding up. She should know he would want to see her, want to know she was in the city. But considering he hadn’t tried to contact her since the last time they’d seen each other, maybe she didn’t.
“Good to know. Take it easy, Special K. Or anyway you can.” Another chuckle came from the other end before the line went dead. Groaning at Sean’s last remark, Kade placed the phone back on the table just as Maddy walked out of his bedroom wearing the T-shirt he’d placed on the bed for her. And nothing else.
Screw all that leather bra and garter shit. Maddy standing there with her hair wet, bare legs and feet, and his shirt hanging to her knees was hands down the sexiest sight he’d ever seen. His cock twitched in agreement.
“Feel better?” he asked when she sat down next to him and pulled her legs up under her.
“Yep, thanks. Any news?”
“They found him. It’s over.” He watched as she let out a sigh of relief and smiled.
He smiled back and reached out, taking her hand and entwining his fingers with hers. “Maddy, what happened? Why are you in Atlanta? The last time I saw you, everything was going good for you.”
“It was for a while. Mom had finally found a steady boyfriend, and the endless parade of men every night stopped. The guy she was dating even seemed normal. Nice. Not like some of the others.”
Her eyes settled on him. He knew which ones she was referring to. One especially had a scar from where Kade, at only sixteen, had beaten the crap out of him. A then twelve-year-old Maddy had come out of her room late one night for a drink to find her mother’s date for that evening in the kitchen rummaging through the refrigerator. When he saw Maddy, the bastard had pulled his dick out, told her that her mom had passed out drunk and that she should finish what her mother had started. Crying and scared, Maddy had run out of her house and straight to Kade.
That wasn’t the first or last time he’d gone to Maddy’s rescue. Her life had been one big pile of crap, thanks to her alcoholic, self-absorbed mother. In her mom’s eyes, Maddy was the sole reason why her once-prom-queen mother was stuck in their small town as a single parent, had to actually work to keep food on the table, and had little hope of reaching her goal of being married to a man rich enough where she could sit on her ass all day being pampered.
Instead of seeing the good, Maddy’s mother chose to hate her life and her daughter for it. So every night she sat on a barstool trying to escape her reality and latch on to someone willing to support her and give her a way out. Meaning, she got drunk and offered to take any man who gave her a passing glance home with her for a fuck. What was even more screwed up was how her mother had started leaving Maddy, at the age of eight, home alone to do it.
That was when Kade had taken it upon himself to look after her. He would go next door to her house, stay and watch TV to keep her company or invite her over to his. Kade’s parents had been more than happy to make sure Maddy was safe. It had become a routine, them being together every night and Kade had come to see her as his litter sister. Someone that needed his protection, his love.
Somewhere along the way those feelings changed, though. Probably when her chest got larger and her skirts got shorter. Or it could have been when he saw her in one of those damn bikinis she always wore around her backyard. Whenever or however it happened, Kade had come to realize two very important things. Maddy was definitely not his sister, and his feelings for her went much deeper, were more raw and powerful than he’d originally thought. Kade was hopelessly and undeniably in love with Maddy, and there was nothing he could or would do about it.
Four years didn’t seem like much of an age difference, unless of course you’re old enough to buy a six-pack and the woman you love isn’t out of high school yet. Even when she had come to him at sixteen offering him her innocence, wanting him to be her first, he wouldn’t do it. Every part of him screamed to take her, make her his, but he wouldn’t take advantage of her and hurt her like that, or himself.
He’d been home on summer break from college, starting the police academy in a few months, while she still had two more years to go until she graduated. If they had made love, leaving Maddy would have killed them. They were in two different worlds, in two different stages in their lives.
He swore eventually he would go back for her, though. When he had his life settled and he was in a place where he could take care of her the way she deserved, and when she was ready to make the decision to go with him for the right reasons. Not because she was young and impetuous but because she wanted to be with him as much as he did her.
Kade never forgot that silent promise. Maddy was always in the back of his mind and with a hold on his heart. And two years ago, ready to take her away from what she’d always known and give her everything she ever wanted, he had gone back. Only to find that for the first time, Maddy was genuinely happy in her life. Content even, with starting college, having a job she enjoyed and her mother not being … well, her mother. There was a confidence and independence about Maddy that hadn’t been there before. He saw it in her features and heard it in her voice when she spoke about her future. Everything had finally turned around for her, and, even though his ego had taken a larger beating than he cared to admit, the truth was she didn’t need him anymore. She was making plans, looking forward and finding her own way without him.
What kind of man would he be if he tried to take that from her? How could he swoop in, after all the time that had passed, and ask her to forego the happiness she’d found and drop everything she was working towards because of him? For him? No matter how happy confessing his love, throwing her over his shoulder, and hauling her back to Atlanta would make him, he couldn’t be that selfish. Not with her. He loved her too much. So, as disheartening as it was, he left without ever telling her how he felt and with doing what he thought was right by her. Even if that meant doing nothing at all.
“Kade?”
Her voice broke through his thoughts and the memories of how they’d gotten to this moment. Of how he’d fallen in love with her but never could find the right time to share those feelings with her. Until now.
Kade squeezed her hand. “Sorry, Mud Pie. Got lost in my own head there.”
Her brows furrowed slightly. “Anything you care to share?”
“Later. First, I want to know what changed at home. What brought you here?”
“Right. That. Well, about a year ago, I came home from class and found the house empty and a note. Mom wanted a new life, and her boyfriend was going to give it to her. In California. She just up and
left, leaving me with the house and all the bills that went along with it. I tried to keep up with everything, but my job didn’t cut it and soon I was in way over my head and about neck deep in collectors calling. I even quit school to work full-time, but that still wasn’t enough. So, I sold the house, paid everything off, took what money was left and came here to start over. I begin classes at Georgia Tech next month, but what cash I had went for the tuition. That’s why I took the job at the club. No one would hire me. Apparently, being a cashier at small diner in a small town doesn’t hold a lot weight when it comes to employment experience around Atlanta. I tried finding something else, Kade. I really did. But working at the club was the only option.” She lowered her eyes and shook her head. “What you told me, what he was planning to do to helpless young girls. What kind of monster is he? What does that say about me for working there? I should have known the girls were lying about their ages. I should have asked more questions.”
Kade reached out with his free hand and tilted her chin up with his finger. “If you had, you’d probably be dead. There was nothing you could have done. You didn’t know, and it was better that you hadn’t.” Stroking the side of her cheek with his thumb, he continued. “Maddy, why didn’t you come to me? I would have helped. You know that.”
“I do know, and I was going to after I got things straightened out and was on my feet. Kade, you’ve done so much for me. Have always been there when I needed you, but, I didn’t want to put that on you this time. If I had, you would’ve felt responsible and felt like you had to take care of me, and I won’t be a burden to you or anyone, ever again.”
“Don’t. That’s your mom talking, not you. I never thought of you like that. I couldn’t. I love you.”
She smiled. “Love you, too, but—”
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