by Susan Crosby
James followed, but the guy was at least fifteen years younger, and he cleared fences in a single bound. He was long gone by the time James climbed the second fence.
He made his way to the sidewalk. Cassie spotted him and came running. Quinn pulled into his driveway. The gang was all there.
James hooked a thumb over his shoulder as Cassie reached him. “He does a helluva superhero imitation. He’s gone.”
“What’s going on?” Quinn asked when he reached them.
“Let’s go in the house.” His ego stung, James led the way. He remembered why he’d gotten out of the bounty hunting business. He couldn’t keep up with the young outlaws who could run faster and longer than he could. It struck him then that another six or seven years from now when his hoped-for child would want to play baseball with him, that he might not be able to. The thought depressed him further.
He caught Quinn and Cassie up to speed on Caryn and Kevin, and placed two calls—first to the police to report the break-in, then to arrange to have the glass in his back door replaced.
James scooped up the jacket he’d pulled off Baldy, found no ID but did find a cell phone.
Quinn got a plastic bag to preserve prints for a later check, then took it with him into the kitchen. “I’ll deal with this.”
“What do you think, Jamey?” Cassie asked. “Was the guy after this paperwork in particular or anything he could get his hands on?”
“My guess is he’s connected to Caryn, or rather Paul, somehow.”
“But she paid them off.”
“Someone else he owed money to, maybe? Something altogether different? Baldy would’ve had to have been watching her place and saw her put the boxes in the car. How else would he know where to find them?”
“Baldy?”
“For lack of a another name,” he said.
“Are you going to tell Caryn?”
“Yes.” He rubbed his forehead. He wanted to sort through the papers again and really dig in now. There had to be something to give him a clue, something Caryn had overlooked.
“Does she need protection?” Cassie asked.
He’d been wondering the same thing. And if she was in danger, so was Kevin. And now that James had chased off Baldy, would they bring someone else in? Someone who would take more violent action?
“Maybe,” he said to Cassie.
“You should move them in here.”
Quinn stormed into the office. “Can’t release that information, my ass,” he said, apparently to himself. “I need to use your computer.”
James and Cassie smiled at his belligerence. Quinn was probably trying to get information on Baldy’s cell phone by going through legal channels, something he’d been doing for only a year, since he’d become a legitimate P.I. instead of a shadow man who straddled legal and illegal as necessary to do the job. “Have at it,” James said then turned to Cassie. “Baldy wasn’t staking out Caryn.”
“This morning he wasn’t.”
“Let’s go take a look at the car,” he said.
“It’s a rental,” Quinn said as he typed. “I already checked it out.”
“Rented by John Doe?” Cassie asked.
“John Deer.” He grinned. “The cleverness of crooks.” His expression turned serious again as he searched for information.
“The only way I could get Caryn and Kevin to move in here is if Caryn told him the truth about his father’s debts.”
“It’s a hard thing to find out about your father, but he’s eighteen, Jamey. Maybe it’ll be his ounce of prevention.”
“Yeah.” He looked around the room blindly. “I need to talk to Caryn. I need to make sure she isn’t being targeted.”
“Go,” Cassie said. “I’ll wait for the cops and the window guy. Give me your alarm code. We’ll call when Quinn’s done his magic and found out who owns the cell phone.”
“Don’t do anything you could lose your license over,” James said after he wrote down the code for Cassie, then left.
He wished he had his bike, but he’d even turned in the loaner since that job was done.
After fighting traffic he finally pulled into the GGC parking lot and then walked to a spot where he could see into the dining room. He spotted Venus, who smiled and waved. He mouthed Caryn’s name. In a minute she came to the window and held up both hands as if to say ten minutes. He went to the employee entrance to wait for her.
She was pulling on a sweater as she came through the door. He hadn’t realized how chilly it was. His adrenaline heated him as if a dial was turned to high.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Kevin—?”
“He’s fine.” James had already called him on a ridiculous pretext, had woken him up. James told Caryn what had happened.
She shivered, drew her sweater closer. “The same people, you think? Or different ones? There could be more?”
“I don’t know yet. Cass and Quinn are working on it, too. We’ll get to the bottom of it, I promise you that.” Idly he rubbed her arms, trying to warm her. She continued to shake. “Caryn—”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“I haven’t said anything.”
“You’re about to say something I’m not going to like.”
“You need to tell Kevin.”
“No.”
“Yes. Because you and Kevin need to move in with me until we have answers.”
She went rigid. “No.”
“Yes.” He loosened his hold as she tried to pull away. “I can’t guarantee your safety, otherwise.”
“What makes you so sure we’re in any kind of danger?”
“I don’t know for certain, but I’m sure as hell not taking any chances.”
Caryn jumped at his tone of voice, uncompromising and commanding, with maybe a little fear tossed in. He already felt responsible for her and her son.
His cell phone rang. She walked away from him as he talked. Move in with him? Tell Kevin? She dragged her hands down her face. Life was supposed to be settling down! she wanted to scream to the heavens.
“Caryn.”
She spun around.
“That was my boss, Quinn. He says the cell phone belongs to a business in L.A. He’s checking out the company, but it’s probably a front for something.”
“Was he able to trace his calls?”
“He can’t do that. If he got caught trying—hacking—he’d lose his license. He’d have to go deeper than he did to get the ownership info, and it’s a much higher risk to track numbers. Anyway, we had to call the police, and the D.A. can probably get the information.”
“You called the police?”
“Of course I did.” He gentled his tone. “It doesn’t mean we stop investigating on our own.” He touched her cheek.
She wanted to lean against him. To feel his arms around her. She was so grateful she wasn’t dealing with this whole mess alone anymore. Still, she didn’t want to tell Kevin, to ruin his memory of his father.
“Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of Paul’s death,” she said.
James did sweep her into his arms then. Tears sprang, burned. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Isn’t it enough for him to deal with?” she asked. “The anniversary?”
“I’m sorry about the timing. But he needs to be told. For his own sake, he needs to be told.”
She felt his lips graze her hair. His leather jacket smelled comforting, of all things.
He moved her back but didn’t release her. “After your shift, you’re off for the weekend, right? And no school for Kevin, either.”
“His new job?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for him to be working where there are guns.”
“He’s going to be so upset.”
“You have to help me make him see there’s no choice. The job will be held for him.”
“All right.” What else could she say? “I’ll talk to him this afternoon.”
“We’ll talk to him. I’ll be in the parking lot wh
en you’re done with work and follow you home. Cassie will track down Kevin after his last class and follow him. You can’t tell anyone. Not even Venus.”
“Okay.”
For a second she thought he was going to kiss her. Was it just last night he’d kissed her like there was no tomorrow? And just look what tomorrow brought….
“Everything will be fine,” he said.
She tried to lighten the moment. “I bet you say that to all your…” She wasn’t sure what word to use. Victims? Clients? Women?
“Friends,” she finally said.
“You’re more than a friend.”
She stared at him. He cupped her face. “I don’t know how that happened so fast, but it did.”
“As Kevin’s mother?”
“As my…Mysterious.”
She swallowed. “That’s kind of a big complication.”
“No kidding.” He brushed her lips with his, deepened the kiss slightly, then pulled her close as he changed angles.
The door opened against Caryn’s back, startling her. He caught her arm, keeping her from falling.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Venus said, her eyes shining. “I didn’t realize…. I’ll tell Rafael you need an extra minute.” She disappeared.
“I have to go,” Caryn said, angry at herself that she’d forgotten where she was, worried as she was about Kevin, and confused and yet happy about James.
“I’ll see you at three,” he said.
She nodded, then slipped inside the building.
“Oooh,” Venus said with a grin. “Hot stuff, huh? You’re so cute together.”
Caryn smiled, despite the uncertainties she faced. “Get back to work,” she ordered Venus playfully.
“Yes, ma’am. Lovebird, ma’am.”
Lovebird? No, not love. Not yet. But something powerful enough to allow her to trust him when she didn’t think she would ever trust anyone again.
It felt good.
Twelve
James wasn’t sure what kind of reaction he’d expected from Kevin but it wasn’t silence, this absolute, total silence. Kevin had listened to Caryn’s explanation, made eye contact with James as he’d added his perspective, then sat without saying a word.
Caryn caught James’s eye and gave him a questioning look. He shrugged.
“Do you have any questions?” Caryn asked her son.
“No.”
“You must have—”
“I don’t, Mom. I’m trying to find a polite way to say I told you so. But polite doesn’t matter now, does it? You waited too long, kept this a secret too long. There’s no trail to follow. My father was murdered, and we could have found his murderer if you hadn’t kept this a secret.” He shoved himself out of the chair and stormed across his mother’s living room. “Thanks for your faith in me. I told you something was wrong. I told you.”
James couldn’t even defend her well because he believed the same as Kevin, at least about telling, not that Paul had been murdered. He didn’t have enough evidence to come to that conclusion yet. But he also understood Caryn’s fear and what had driven her to keep the gambling and payoff to herself.
He saw Caryn’s eyes well up, but she didn’t argue the point.
“If they were as professional as they appear to be, you wouldn’t have had a trail to follow then, either,” James said to Kevin. “Give your mother a break. She did what she felt was necessary in order to keep you and herself safe.”
“She should’ve called the cops.”
“Maybe so.”
“Look where we are now!” Kevin jammed his hands in his pockets. “We’re going to have to hide out. I just got a job. I’ll be fired.”
“What’s happening now may have nothing to do with what happened then,” James said to Kevin. “We don’t know it’s the same people. Why would they get involved a year after the fact, especially since they’ve already been paid off? And as for your job, it’s safe.”
“For now.”
“For however long it takes.”
Kevin seemed to relax a bit at that. James watched Caryn lay her hands on her thighs and look at the floor, as if trying to will away overwhelming emotions by focusing on the rug. He wished he could put his arm around her. He wished he could take her to bed and give her something else to think about.
“You both need to pack enough clothes for a few days,” he said instead. “Kevin, we’ll take all your dad’s paperwork along, too. You can work on it at my house.”
“I haven’t said I’ll go.”
“You’ll—”
“It’s the safest thing to do,” James said, interrupting whatever Caryn was about to say. He couldn’t force Kevin. She would try, as his mother, but she couldn’t force him, either.
“You’re trying to be my dad.”
The belligerence in his voice hurt James, but he had to ignore it, excuse it. “I’m not. I’ll be your friend, though. And I just happen to be equipped to handle this kind of situation. Frankly, Kevin, I could use your input. We’ve got a weekend. Let’s take advantage of it.”
“I have plans for tomorrow night.”
Caryn’s head came up fast at that. She gave James an accusatory look. He had, after all, said she had nothing to worry about. He hadn’t told her he’d later seen Kevin and Venus through the curtains, embracing.
“You’ll need to cancel them,” James said. “Plus, you can’t tell her what’s going on.”
“Who?”
“Venus.”
“I didn’t say I had plans with Venus. Other plans. What am I supposed to say?”
“That it’s the one-year anniversary of your father’s death,” Caryn said quietly. “And we decided we needed to spend it together.”
After a few seconds, Kevin approached her. “I didn’t forget. I just wanted to be thinking about something else that day.”
She grabbed his hand. “I completely understand that.” She looked at James. “What if someone sees us leaving here with our suitcases? Or arriving at your house?”
“Pack your stuff in grocery sacks. After we leave, Cassie will pick up everything and bring it over later, as if she’s delivering groceries. Not too many bags, okay?”
“There are a lot of boxes,” Keith said.
“Sorted by year?”
“Not really.”
“I’ll work something out. For now, why don’t you both get ready?”
Kevin headed to the stairs then stopped. “I should use the back stairs, don’t you think? They lead to the yard, and there’s a door into my kitchen from there.”
James had just been about to suggest it. “Good idea.”
“He’s right,” Caryn said after the back door shut. “I should’ve contacted the police.”
“Hindsight. You were scared. What’s done is done.” He pulled out his phone and dialed Cassie as Caryn disappeared into her bedroom to pack. “Hey, Cass. We’ll be ready in twenty.”
“Quinn’s here with me,” she said. “We can drive over and walk the block. See what we can see.”
“Thanks.” He tucked the phone in his pocket and went to look out the front window. Because he was three stories up, he saw only the tops of cars. Who knew who sat inside, watching? He had to get Caryn and Kevin out of this house, into his car, then into his house without anyone seeing. And then he had to do the same thing with those boxes.
It was the least of his worries. He had no doubt he could protect them coming and going.
But just who was going to protect him from falling harder for both of them when they would be living with him?
In James’s office later, Caryn concentrated first on organizing the papers from the three boxes that she’d given James, as Kevin took over the living room to sort what he had. James went back and forth between them. It was almost midnight. They’d been at it for hours. Caryn sat cross-legged on the floor. She was so tired, she was ready to let the papers be her mattress. But she couldn’t. Not yet. She had to tell James something, but not until Kevin went to bed.
“Want to call it a day?” James asked from the doorway.
She nodded. Even the coffee she’d had an hour ago wasn’t giving her a boost. “How about you?” she asked.
“I think we’re organized. Tomorrow we can start to make sense of it all.”
“Will you go to sleep or will you continue to work on—” she opened her arms “—all this?”
“I’m going to bed.”
She wished she could climb in bed with him. Just to sleep beside him would make her feel better. Just to be held…
Which was a big, fat lie. Not that she didn’t want to be held, but she wanted everything. To kiss and be kissed, to touch and be touched, to have the freedom to make love with him, to feel him over her, inside her. To forget about everything else.
“Caryn?”
“Hmm?”
He’d come close, was crouching in front of her. “Did you fall asleep?”
She smiled and shook her head. She reached to touch his hand—
“Mom.”
She jerked her arm back. Her gaze flew to James’s.
“He can’t see,” James whispered. “I’m blocking.”
“What, honey?”
“I want to go to bed.”
“We were just talking about that. I’ll be right behind you.” She accepted James’s help to stand. She’d been sitting for so long, she stumbled. He caught her by the elbow.
“Whoa.”
“Sorry. Foot’s asleep.” She shook it. Kevin had come up close and took her other hand. She let go of James’s.
“I’ll help you upstairs,” Kevin said.
She laughed. “I’m not doddering yet. Just give me a minute.” She didn’t look at her son’s face but at the floor and moved her foot around until the pins and needles went away, aware that James had stepped out of reach. Was Kevin jealous? He was certainly being proprietary. Or had he seen something between her and James? Something they weren’t aware they were showing?
“Okay, I’m ready. See you in the morning, James. Thanks so much for putting us up and taking care of us.”
