Dade

by Delores Fossen

  “Not now.”

  She shook her head, wondering if they were still talking about Ellie’s murder.

  “Things were different when we were kids,” he mumbled. Dade huffed, paused, huffed again. “Something happened when Mom was pregnant with us, and Nate was born with a lot of medical problems.”

  Ah. She understood that, too. “So you fought his battles for him?”

  “Yeah. Sometimes literally.” He stared down at his hands and scraped his thumbnail over one of his knuckles. “The kids used to rag on him at school. But Nate, he was smart. A lot smarter than the kids who tried to bully him, so he could usually talk his way out of a butt whipping. Still can.” Now, Dade looked at her. “He’s the youngest cop in SAPD ever promoted to lieutenant. He’s a big gun there.”

  “He’s a survivor,” Kayla mumbled.

  Dade shrugged. “Losing Ellie nearly killed him.”

  And therefore it had nearly killed Dade. Kayla could see how much Dade loved his twin brother, and whether he realized it or not, he was still fighting Nate’s battles. Still making sure that she wasn’t a threat.

  Kayla was about to assure him that she was no threat, but Dade spoke first. “Last night I did some digging into your sister’s recent—”

  He stopped when there was movement on the laptop screen, and Dade turned up the volume. Kayla wanted to know what Dade had been about to tell her, but she knew it would have to wait when she saw Grayson lead Misty into his office. Her sister dropped down into the chair directly in front of the webcam.

  Misty did not look like a happy camper.

  That was reasonable, because she was essentially in police custody and had been the entire night. Her short blond hair looked as if it hadn’t been combed, and her sister wore no makeup. A rarity. It made her look much younger than twenty-seven. She looked more like a schoolgirl waiting out detention.

  Misty’s eyes zoomed right in on Kayla. “I can’t believe you let them bring me in like this.”

  Kayla felt as if Misty had slapped her. All that anger in her voice, and she was glaring not at Dade or Grayson but at Kayla.

  “Kayla was nearly killed,” Dade responded before she could find her breath.

  “Well, I didn’t have anything to do with that,” Misty fired back. But when she looked at Kayla again, her glare softened a little. “I’m sorry if you were almost hurt, but I’m not responsible for it.”

  “Not almost hurt,” Dade again. “She was almost killed by a man named Raymond Salvetti who phoned you just a half hour before the attack.”

  Misty gasped. Hopefully because she was surprised by that revelation. It had to be that. Because Kayla couldn’t believe that her sister would betray her. Their relationship wasn’t perfect, but her sister loved her.

  Kayla hoped.

  Frantically shaking her head, Misty looked up at Grayson. “Someone did call me last night, and I didn’t recognize the number so I let it go to voice mail. I swear, I don’t know any gunmen.”

  “Maybe you do,” Dade countered. “Think hard. Did you know Raymond Salvetti?”

  Misty didn’t hesitate even a second. “I don’t have to think hard. I don’t know anyone like that. Charles set this up. He would do anything to get to Kayla, and he probably hired this Salvetti guy.”

  “Yes,” Kayla agreed. “But for him to do that, he had to know where I was staying. Salvetti came to the estate, Misty. He knew I was there.”

  Misty did more of that frantic head shaking. Kayla wanted to hold on to each one of them as the truth. “I didn’t tell anyone where you were staying. You told me to keep it a secret, and I did. I swear, I did.”

  “How did you let Misty know that you’d be at the estate?” Grayson interrupted. He looked at Kayla. “In person? Phone? Email?”

  “Phone,” Kayla and Misty answered in unison. It was Kayla who continued. “Where were you when we had that conversation?” she asked Misty.

  “At a bar on St. Mary’s. But no one heard our conversation.”

  “You’re sure?” Grayson pressed.

  “Positive.” Misty shoved her hands through her hair and groaned in frustration. “If you want to point the finger at someone other than Charles, you need to look in your own backyard. That Silver Creek D.A., Winston Calhoun, and his assistant, Alan Bowers, have been bugging me for months. Both have been trying to find Kayla. Well, I’m betting both of them knew she’d be at the estate.”

  It was true. Both men did know. And Kayla hadn’t ruled either or both out as the leak that had led the gunman to her. Like Dade had apparently done last night, she needed to do some digging because the Rylands might not think of friends and neighbors as potential felons. But Kayla knew for a fact that Charles could be very persuasive. He had a knack for finding people’s weak spots.

  “Why would you think for one minute I would put Kayla in danger?” Misty demanded. She volleyed a glare between Dade and Grayson.

  “Money,” Dade volunteered, and he gave Kayla an I’m-sorry glance. “I dug into your financials last night, and I found you’ve recently come into some money. Ten thousand dollars to be exact.”

  Kayla heard the sound of shock escape from her throat. So that was what Dade had been about to tell her. Oh, God. Misty and she hadn’t come from money, and even though Kayla gave her sister a monthly allowance to cover living expenses, Misty went through it as quickly as she got it. And Misty hadn’t always spent the money wisely. Sometimes, she’d even used it to buy drugs. That’s why Kayla hadn’t just doled out more.

  Ten grand was a huge sum for her sister, and Misty had to have an explanation. She just had to, and Kayla waited with her breath held.

  Misty huffed. “I’m an artist,” she snarled at Dade. “And I sold some paintings. That’s all there is to it.”

  “You’ve got receipts for the sales, of course?” Dade remarked.

  Her sister’s eyes widened, and she lowered her head until she was staring down at her lap. “No, not exactly. It was a private sale. A cash deal.”

  Kayla’s heart dropped, as well. Her sister had never made that much money from her paintings, and a sale like that should have caused Misty to call her immediately.

  “I need the name and contact info for the buyer,” Grayson insisted. He grabbed a notepad and pen and slid them Misty’s way.

  Misty’s attention stayed fixed to her lap. “I don’t have it, but I can get it, I suppose.”

  “You suppose?” Kayla questioned. She tried very hard not to get angry about such a casual comment. “Misty, someone tried to kill me and maybe Robbie, too. You have to cooperate with the police. I need answers so I can keep Robbie safe.”

  That got Misty’s attention aimed back at the webcam. “I don’t have answers!” she shouted. “The person who bought the art didn’t contact me directly. He went through a friend of a friend and said he wanted the deal to be secret, that he didn’t want his soon-to-be ex-wife to know he was draining their accounts.” She moved closer to the screen. “Can’t you see, Kayla? Someone’s trying to set me up.”

  “Then, prove it,” Dade fired back before Kayla could say anything. “Get the name of the art buyer from your friend of a friend.”

  Misty’s forehead bunched up and she mumbled something Kayla didn’t catch. “Give me twenty-four hours,” she bargained. She began to chew on her thumbnail. “And I think it’s time I called a lawyer.”

  Dade and his brother exchanged a glance. “Twenty-four hours,” Grayson confirmed. “If I don’t hear from you, I’m hauling you right back here, and it won’t be just for questioning. I’ll arrest you for obstruction of justice and any other charge I can tack on.”

  “Thanks a lot, Kayla,” Misty snarled, and she jumped to her feet. She practically ran out of the office.

  Grayson leaned closer to the screen. “I’ll call you if I find out anything.”

  A few seconds later, the screen went blank. Kayla’s mind, however, didn’t. It started to spin with plausible explanations, none of which she hoped w
ould point to her sister’s guilt.

  “Charles could have set up that art deal to incriminate Misty,” Kayla tossed out there. “He knows she’s the only person I trust, and he might want to take that from me.”

  She expected Dade to counter her theory with a reminder that Misty had looked guilty of something. Or that her sister hadn’t mentioned this art deal before now.

  But he didn’t say any of that.

  Dade simply slipped his arm around her shoulder and eased her closer to him. Kayla thought about his shoulder. That this might be painful for him, but she couldn’t refuse the comfort he was offering her. She’d had to stay strong for so long. All on her own. And it felt good to have a semi-ally.

  “Grayson is a good cop,” Dade reminded her. “He’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  Yes. Dade was a good cop, too, and she was afraid that bottom would incriminate her sister. “I feel the same way about Misty as you do about Nate. I’ve always protected her.”

  Dade stayed quiet a moment and gently rubbed his fingertips on her arm. “You’re positive she didn’t sell you out to Brennan?”

  Kayla wanted to be angry that he would even ask. After all, she’d had no trouble feeling that anger during Misty’s interview. But it wasn’t anger she felt this time.

  It was fear for what Misty could have done.

  “Charles could have manipulated her,” Kayla suggested. “He could have made her believe that telling him my whereabouts would be the only way to keep me alive.”

  “But wouldn’t she have admitted that to you, especially after I told her that you’d nearly been killed?”

  Kayla hoped that would be true, but she had to shake her head. “She might be too afraid to tell me.”

  She braced herself for Dade to huff or roll his eyes, but he didn’t. Maybe because he had five siblings, he understood the sometimes-delicate dynamics of family.

  “Misty doesn’t know how bad things were with Preston and Charles,” Kayla continued. “She knows I witnessed some illegal activity. That I overheard conversations about money laundering and such. But Misty believes those were rare occurrences. They weren’t.”

  Dade stayed quiet a moment. “Exactly how much did you witness?”

  “Too much,” she mumbled. “I overheard and saw enough to convict Charles of dozens of felonies.”

  “Good thing, too, because I doubt there’s any physical evidence to nail him.”

  “There used to be,” Kayla admitted. “He had files at his office and heaven knows what stashed in safe-deposit boxes under fake names.” She had to take a deep breath because that was a reminder of just how dangerous her former father-in-law was and continued to be.

  Dade turned slightly so they were directly facing each other. “Protecting Robbie and you comes first. I can’t put Misty or anyone else ahead of that, understand?”

  “Yes.” It’s exactly what she wanted Dade to do—to protect her son at all cost.

  And Dade would. She didn’t have to second-guess that.

  Mercy.

  How much her life had changed in these short hours. Just yesterday, she thought of Dade and all the Rylands as the enemy, but she no longer felt that way about Dade.

  That could be a major mistake.

  “Yeah,” she heard him say and realized he was studying her eyes as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. Maybe he did because he looked away, cursed and mumbled something.

  “What?” she asked.

  He cursed again. “This,” he answered.

  This was bad. Because Dade turned back to her, leaned in and touched his mouth to hers. It was quick. And dirty. It packed a punch of a full-fledged French kiss.

  “Hell,” he mumbled. “If I’m breaking the rules, I might as well break ’em hard.”

  And he did.

  His hand went around the back of her neck and he dragged her to him. Not just the lip contact but some body-to-body contact as well. Her breasts landed against his toned chest muscles.

  Oh, he was good. Too good. His mouth blazed against her and sent a jolt of fire through all the wrong parts of her body.

  She’d been right about Dade. He could melt chrome with that mouth and seduce her straight to his bed. Something that couldn’t happen.

  Kayla repeated that to herself. Several times.

  Finally, she managed to pull back. Or maybe she was successful only because Dade pulled back as well.

  “There are about a hundred reasons why that can’t happen again,” he insisted. And he inched away from her so they were no longer touching.

  Kayla couldn’t argue with that, and she could even add some reasons of her own. “I can’t get involved because my last relationship nearly destroyed me. Besides, when you look at me, you’ll always think of Nate’s dead wife.”

  He made a sound of agreement.

  And then Kayla heard another sound.

  One that she hadn’t expected to hear. Apparently, neither had Dade because he sprang from the sofa, and in the same motion, he drew his gun from his shoulder holster. He hurried to the window, and Kayla followed, but Dade only pushed her behind him.

  “Hell,” Dade mumbled. “We have a visitor.”

  Chapter Seven

  Dade drew his gun and pushed Kayla behind him. No one should be here, but there was a black four-door sedan barreling up the dirt road toward the ranch house.

  “Who is it?” Kayla asked. Her voice wasn’t just trembling, it was downright shaking.

  Dade kept his gun and his attention nailed to the car, and it didn’t take him long to figure out who their visitor was. Or rather visitors. Because he instantly recognized the two men who exited the car when it came to a stop in front of the house.

  “It’s the D.A., Winston Calhoun, and the assistant D.A., Alan Bowers,” he said.

  She drew in a hard breath. “They’re here already?”

  “Is everything okay?” Connie called out to them.

  “Yeah,” Dade answered, but he had no idea if that was the truth. “Just stay put with Robbie.”

  When he started across the yard, Winston ducked his head down, probably because of the icy wind. He carried a leather briefcase and was dressed for work in an iron-gray business suit that matched the color of his hair and the winter sky. He was a good twenty years older than Dade, and Dade had known the man his entire life.

  He couldn’t say the same for Alan.

  The thirty-something-year-old had moved to Silver Creek about a year and a half ago when he’d gotten the job at the D.A.’s office. He was lanky to the point of being wiry, with hair so blond that he looked more at home on the beach than he did in cowboy country. Like his boss, Alan wore a suit, so this obviously wasn’t a social call.

  When the men made it to the porch, Dade reholstered his gun, disengaged the security system and opened the door. “This had better be important,” he snarled.

  Winston spared him a glance, but his dark eyes went to Kayla. Yeah. Something was definitely wrong, but Winston didn’t say a word until both Alan and he had stepped inside.

  “Charles Brennan’s lawyers just requested a trial delay,” Winston announced.

  Kayla didn’t make a sound, but Dade could feel her reaction. Every muscle in her body tensed.

  “Please tell me he won’t get it,” Dade insisted.

  Alan lifted his bony shoulder, and Winston shook his head. Dade just cursed. Kayla and Robbie sure as hell didn’t need this.

  “You could have told us this over the phone,” Dade pointed out. “Rather than risk someone following you.”

  Alan’s mouth tightened. Probably because he was insulted that Dade had just slammed him for what Dade considered to be an unnecessary visit that could turn out to be a big-time security risk.

  Winston, however, had no visible reaction. “This visit is important,” he declared. “And for the record, no one followed us. We were careful.”

  Winston set his briefcase on the table near the door and extracted a manila file. “I need to get
Kayla’s signature on the statement she gave me over the phone two days ago.” He handed her both the file and pen.

  “Of course.” Kayla’s voice was still shaky and so was her hand. And Dade knew why. The statement and her signature would be needed if for some reason Kayla couldn’t testify.

  In other words, if Dade failed to do his job and Brennan killed her.

  “I’d like to read through this first,” Kayla said, her attention already on the first page. She sank onto the sofa.

  “It’s all there,” Alan informed her. He made a nervous gesture toward the papers. “We just need your signature so we can leave.”

  Kayla lifted her eyes. Met his. “I’d still prefer to read it.”

  Dade was about to second that and even insist on it. Not because he didn’t trust Winston but because this entire visit was well beyond making him feel uncomfortable. However, before Dade could say anything, Winston latched onto his arm and pulled him aside. Alan stayed near Kayla.

  “We haven’t been able to link the dead gunman, Salvetti, to Brennan,” Winston whispered. “But we have been able to link Brennan to Danny Flynn, the guy the gunman called. Flynn did some handyman work at Brennan’s estate.”

  None of this surprised Dade. “Any proof that Flynn orchestrated the attack last night?”

  “No. But get this—Brennan says Flynn’s trying to set him up because he fired him.”

  Of course Brennan would say that. He would say and do anything to cover his butt.

  Dade heard Robbie make a sound. A squeal, followed by a fussy protest. And Kayla nearly jumped off the sofa.

  “I’ll check on him,” Dade told her. Best for her to finish reading the statement so he could get Winston and Alan out of there.

  Dade headed down the hall, and it didn’t take him long to spot the baby. Connie had him in a snug protective grip, but Robbie clearly wanted to get down. Dade went closer, and when the baby reached out for him, Dade pulled him into his arms.

  Without thinking, he brushed a kiss on Robbie’s forehead.

  That was something he often did to his niece, Kimmie, but he regretted it now. That kiss earned him a raised eyebrow from the nanny who clearly didn’t trust him. Robbie, on the other hand, was loaded with trust. He babbled something to Dade and dropped his head on Dade’s shoulder.