by Violet Duke
And boy had he made an entrance.
In full police gear, of course.
Looking more renegade cowboy than cop, per usual.
With eyes only for her…just like she remembered.
“And here I thought you were exaggerating,” commented Alec in supreme amusement as he leaned against the doorway, arms crossed lazily, looking as insolent as can be. “The guy really does sound like he’s growling when he talks. A few of my buddies had the same problem—they said switching from tighty-whiteys to boxers helps.”
Caine’s eyes snapped over to him and narrowed sharply.
Oy. This wasn’t going to be good.
“Don’t think anything’s going to help him with that giant stick up his ass though.”
She sighed and put herself between the two men, feeling a little like she was seeing a lion and a tiger sizing each other up. It’d be a close fight, but Caine would undoubtedly win…if Alec didn’t irritate him to death first.
“Caine, this is Alec, my business partner. I wouldn’t have been able to stay off the grid for so long if not for him,” she buffered to play peacemaker.
Thankfully, that tidbit helped. A micro-fraction.
“Since he’s a P.I. by trade,” she continued, “he’s been my on-the-lam expert ever since I met him at a women’s shelter I was volunteering at when I first moved to Tucson.”
At the time, she’d never have thought the man would become like the tiresome, but irreplaceable big brother she never had. His impact on her life over the last seven years was second only to that of Stacey, the women’s shelter director. Stacey had singlehandedly helped change the entire course of her life in hiding by imparting survival wisdom beyond what Alec had been able to teach her, practically from the very first day they’d met.
“The reason I stopped in today was because there are two things I need your assistance with,” Addison ventured, after Stacey finished reading through the police reports about David.
“Can’t promise anything, but let’s hear it.”
“The first is a job. Unfortunately, my past work experience needs to stay in the past. So it needs to be a job that doesn’t require references. I’ll do anything—clean toilets with a toothbrush, stuff envelopes until my fingers bleed. Anything at all…as long as I can get paid under the table.”
The statuesque woman that could’ve been her old boss Joe’s female twin looked her up and down then before asking curiously, “What’s the second thing you need?”
Praying with all her might that she wasn’t wrong about the woman, she confessed quietly, “I need help registering an incoming high school freshmen in school without forwarded transcripts...and too deep a look at his guardian’s information. I have all his other necessary documents though—health records, even his birth certificate.”
After a surprised double take, Stacey looked over at Tanner and Kylie playing with a few of the younger kids in the rec room. “Just an incoming high school freshman?”
“Yes.”
Slowly, she smiled in understanding. “Because your sister is young enough that she could maybe pass for your daughter.”
No sense beating around the bush. “From what I’ve seen over the years, when I respond to folks’ questions with a passing comment on how tough raising a baby during middle school can be, they don’t ask a whole lot of follow-ups.” Addison shrugged. “To be fair, I have been raising my sister since she was born.”
Stacey raised an impressed eyebrow. “You’re smart. Smart is good. And tough. Tough is even better in your situation.” She scribbled down an address. “This is a friend who needs some help painting her house. In exchange, I can get her to offer you room and board for a week. Get settled in and then come back to see me on Monday. I don’t get involved with things under the table. But I do know a few folks who can help your work situation.”
It was like having to turn down food when you were starving. “I….” Addison wasn’t sure how much she should reveal about Caine and why she needed to stay untraceable. “It has to be under the table. It just does.”
“That’s not your only option. We have finance and tax specialists who advise us on ways where the women under our protection can still work legally, while staying in hiding.” Stacey’s expression turned grim. “That’s what we recommend for the women here with spouses who miss them in the ‘we’d-love-her-back-dead-or-alive’ variety.”
Addison snapped her mouth shut. Sure, having a crazed stalker was bad, but nothing like that. She couldn’t imagine being terrorized by your own spouse.
“I’m sure you’ve done your homework,” continued Stacey. “If you don’t want to be found, you need to stay untrackable, meaning no ID, no bank account, no government forms, nothing traceable. Which makes getting a job, a home, a credit card, a car all really difficult. But, it is possible to survive. As long as you’re willing to—”
“Anything,” Addison cut in. “I’ll do anything to keep my brother and sister fed and safe with a roof over their heads. Anything to give them as good a childhood as I possibly can.”
Stacey sighed. “And this is where I pull the reins in. Like I said, you’re a smart girl; smart is good. And tough. But in this case, tough isn’t better.”
Startled, Addison just stared at her.
“You need to set boundaries, Addison. Or you’ll find yourself halfway over a line you don’t want to cross…with no way back.”
She thought about that for a moment—if there was anything she wouldn’t do for the kids.
There wasn’t.
“That right there is where your toughness is a detriment,” said Stacey softly. “You may think you’ll be okay doing anything for the ones you love. But when that ‘anything’ reaches lines a normal person should never have to cross…let’s just say that there are some decisions people shouldn’t ever have to make, some choices they shouldn’t ever have to live with.”
Addison studied the heartbreakingly violent scars crisscrossing up and down Stacey’s arms, now seeing the impressive steel in her spine with new appreciation. “Do you need any help here at the shelter? Not for pay. But a volunteer position? A couple times a week, maybe?”
“You want to volunteer instead of get paid?” Intrigued amusement colored the older woman’s voice. “So not such a smart girl, after all.” She nodded approvingly. “Being smart is overrated. Doing good is just as important as doing well.”
She paused then, as if making sure that last statement sunk in, before declaring, “You’re hired.” One final look. “Just remember what I said about boundaries.”
Boundaries.
Looks like it was Stacey’s advice again for the win.
If Addison wanted to attempt any sort of ‘just friends’ relationship with Caine, boundaries were exactly what she needed to set for herself. Specifically, boundaries that would help her ignore all of Caine’s alpha protective and possessive tendencies—which, if possible, seemed to be even stronger now than it’d been seven years ago.
Ditto on her irrepressible reaction to said tendencies, if the last few minutes were any indication.
Alec interrupted her slightly derailed introspection with a simpering smile she didn’t trust for a second. “Kylie is just putting some stuff away in her room. We got everything off our shopping list. But, I didn’t remember until we were halfway home that you’re running low on body lotion; I’ll be sure to stop by the store again later.”
Geez, he’d worded that just so. Sometimes, having a friend as invasively observant as Alec right next door wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Addison could practically see Caine grinding down on his molars
“Alec, cut it out. Behave.”
She turned to Caine. “And you, stop with all your posturing and rumbling.”
Caine’s gaze shot back to hers, and immediately went from intense to contemplative.
Then just plain hungry.
She stepped back and managed to release a sound from her throat that resembled
a verbal question mark.
“Didn’t think it was possible,” he commented gruffly, practically eating her up with his eyes before leaning in and making sure his next words were for her ears only. “You’re an even bigger temptation now than you were before.”
If not for the fact that he looked genuinely surprised, she would’ve thought he was boggling her brain on purpose.
Be strong. Remember. Boundaries. “Thought you said I didn’t change that much.”
“You didn’t. And yet here I am, more tempted than I’ve ever been to throw you over my shoulder and drag you off to my stone age cave…so I can tempt you right back,” he replied, voice now barely louder than a whisper.
Her breathing quit altogether.
“Well, damn.” Alec shook his head. “Not sure what the guy just said to you, but I’m pretty sure he just shot my chances at stealing you from him straight to hell.”
That effectively shattered the moment, and made her roll her eyes. “Ignore him, Caine. Now he’s just making up stuff to mess with you.”
Caine quirked a surprised brow. “No. He isn’t.”
She turned to Alec to get some back-up, and was shocked to find him shrugging.
His subsequent retort stunned her even further. “Can’t blame a guy for falling for you, babycakes.” Though he said it in his normal playful Southern drawl, there was a sobering truth to his words. “At least now, I know to throw in the towel.”
Trying—and failing—to wrap her brain around what he was saying, she walked over to him, remarkably, without any resistance from Caine. “Alec, you never… I swear, I never…” She took a good, hard look at her best friend who she’d never once thought of in that way. “I didn’t know,” she finally managed.
He gave her a hey-don’t-sweat-it smile. “I know you didn’t. If I’d really thought I’d stood a chance, I assure you, I would’ve made a little more effort to clue you in more.” He gave her a wicked little grin. “But don’t worry. I console myself with the knowledge that if you had known, you would never have let me help you in the shower the first few days after you broke your arm a couple years back.”
Aaand, their status quo was back.
“Quit trying to make that sound dirtier than it was.” So saying, truth be told, Addison was having a hard time even remembering that shower scenario beyond a few fuzzy details. You’d think a guy helping her lather up would’ve made more of an impact on her memory banks.
“Man, way to kick a guy when he’s down,” he lamented dramatically, looking miffed, but not unsurprised. “You forgot all about that until now didn’t you?”
Now she felt bad. Mostly because she was positive that if it were Caine that had helped her in the shower, there was no way on earth she’d ever be able to forget something like that.
A blast of heat cloaked her back a moment later when Caine slid in behind her fully.
Alec waved jovially as Caine proceeded to then unceremoniously close the office door in his face. “So I guess I’ll just wait out here while you two work some stuff out,” Alec called out from the hallway, chuckling when the deadbolt clicked shut not long after.
Caine tugged on her elbow to turn her around.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t jealousy greeting her when she looked up at him, but rather, a raw sadness. And concern. “You broke your arm? What happened?”
Criminy, why was he always saying exactly the thing that could make her legs—and resistance of any sort—weaken and wane. She didn’t stop him when he lifted both of her wrists up as if he could x-ray her bones with his eyes alone.
“It was just a minor break. Tanner was trying to teach me and Kylie how to skateboard one summer. Kylie picked it up great, while I pitched forward and somersaulted in the air, onto my butt.”
A look she couldn’t describe crossed his features.
“Caine, I swear, it wasn’t a big deal.”
His expression shuttered even more.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he replied, gently squeezing both forearms before letting her go.
“Was it what Alec said?” she ventured. “Because truly, nothing happened.” Why she felt compelled to hammer that point across, she wasn’t sure.
“That guy is ten different kinds of annoying, but no, it’s not that.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know which arm you broke,” he said quietly, running his eyes over both. “I hate that I don’t know. That I wasn’t there.”
“Caine, I was fine. More embarrassed than anything else.”
“But it was a moment I missed.”
“I don’t think me falling on my butt counts as a moment,” she reasoned lightly, wanting so badly to erase that lonely look from his eyes.
“Not the falling part. The skateboarding. It was a family moment. One of countless others I missed out on over the years.”
Her heart constricted. And the ache that followed overwhelmed her in its intensity. Largely because it was echoing the pain she was hearing in his voice.
Yeah, she hated that he missed out on those, too.
Though she’d never once admitted it out loud, during Tanner’s high school graduation ceremony, Addison had purposely sat next to an open chair.
Just in case.
Knowing Caine would’ve moved mountains to be able to be at Tanner’s graduation if he could’ve, Addison reached for his hand in an attempt to try to comfort him.
It was like picking up a live wire.
Directly synced with every nerve ending in her body.
A long, charged silence passed between them before finally, he grated out in a low, strained rasp, “Tell me to go, Addison.”
Stay.
The single word slipped out of her heart and past her lips before she could stop it.
His eyes flared.
In the end, it was Alec who kept her boundaries intact. By unlocking the door with his key, and then pretty much poking Caine with a stick. “It occurred to me while I was standing out there that I didn’t get to properly introduce myself. How rude of me. Caine Spencer, right? I’m Alec. Alec James. Good to finally meet you.”
Oh lord.
One… Two… Three…
Boom.
The very second Alec’s last name fully registered, Caine looked ready to throw him out the window…while simultaneously looking like he’d been kicked in the gut.
“I didn’t lie to you earlier,” Addison explained, quickly. “I’ve never been married.”
His voice was all-cop now. “Then how did you get your last name changed…to this asshole’s one? You said it was done legally.”
She sighed. “You’re not going to like it.”
His jaw flexed. “Tell me anyway.”
“The actual legal change part was totally above board,” she reassured him brightly. “Since common law name use was in effect for a few years by that point.”
“Rewind back to the part I’m not going to like.”
“Okay, in order to start the process of me getting to use that name without filling out official name change paperwork that would’ve made it possible for David to track me down, I had to get one photo ID first with that name on it. And the cleanest, easiest way to do it, according to Alec, was to get a college photo ID.”
“You went to college?” Caine’s eyes immediately softened around the edges. “Just like you always wanted.”
Jesus Christ. The man had impeccable aim when it came to arrows at her heart.
“Can we get to the part where I’m a genius?” said Alec, taking over narrating the story, even though Caine looked to be trying to ignore his very presence altogether. “The thing with college ID office windows—especially back then, exponentially so if you go during the busiest time possible—is that if you find one run by student workers, they’re not expecting to handle a ton of official identification documents because these IDs are typically just for campus gym and library use. All they really care about is that the correct student ID number mat
ches up to the photo ID connected to the right student file—to determine that the person in question has access to the campus amenities.”
Admittedly, Alec’s plan had been brilliant. And almost frighteningly simple. “Alec got us a pair of matching fake rings and we told the student worker my name was now Milan James, but I just hadn’t had a chance to go in to take a new driver’s license photo yet.”
“The student worker didn’t even care,” added Alec. “There was such a long line, the kid just rushed to type in what Addison wrote on the half-sheet application form—Addison Milan James—and printed out the ID a minute later.” He rocked back on his heels proudly, “After that, it was just a matter of telling folks her middle name was Milan.”
“And that I was his cousin on the James side,” she clarified emphatically. It kind of felt good to get all this off her chest. “From there, we got more photo ID’s from gyms and shopping clubs, along with utility bills, a library card, the whole nine yards, sometimes with a middle initial M, but usually not. Within a month, I had a dozen forms of ID with my new last name.”
Caine nodded. “Creative.” He gave her a puzzled frown. “Why did you think I wouldn’t like that story?”
Flabbergasted, she blinked up at him. “Be-because I broke the rules.”
“Not really. It’s not like you forged any documents for the student worker or anything. And the law does say you can use whatever name you want—all you did was find a way to circumvent a paper trail between your common law name and real one. Sounds like you managed to stay inside the lines, for the most part.”
When she continued to stare at him in astonishment, he groused, “Addison, are you under the impression that I’m some sort of boy scout or something?
Alec raised his hand and piped in unhelpfully, “I know that’s how I’ve always thought of you.”
Caine tipped her chin up and pierced her with his dark gaze. “I’m definitely not a boy scout. Especially when it comes to you, Addison.”
