01 Cade

by Paige Tyler

  Assuring the caller that they would be there, wherever “there” was, Cade flipped his phone closed and set it down on the bedside table. Knowing she couldn’t pretend to be asleep any longer, Riley held the sheet to her breasts with one hand and used the other to push herself into a sitting position.

  Tucking her hair behind an ear, Riley tried to ignore the way her pulse leaped at the sight of Cade’s tousled hair and dark stubble. She hadn’t known it was possible for anyone to look that gorgeous the first thing in the morning. “Do they have another safe house ready?” she asked.

  Cade nodded. “My boss wants us to meet him at the Seattle office.”

  Riley said nothing. She wondered if Cade was as uncomfortable as she was after the night of unbridled passion they’d spent together. She wished she could think of something to say to make the situation less awkward, but nothing would come to mind. So instead, she just sat there, clutching the sheet to her breasts. The same sheet that was riding low on his hips to reveal his well-muscled chest and tight, sexy abs, she noticed. Oh God! If she didn’t get out of bed soon, she was going end up jumping him!

  Riley was still trying to figure out how to make a graceful exit from the bed when Cade cleared his throat. “I told him we’d be there as soon as we could.”

  Her face colored. “I’d better go get dressed then.”

  Realizing she’d have to leave the sheet where it was or else leave Cade completely naked, Riley avoided his gaze as she blushingly slid out of bed. Naked, she scooped her clothes up from the floor, and then, grabbing her bag as quickly as she could, she padded into the bathroom.

  Cade watched Riley go, his body responding to the sight of her nakedness with an eagerness that made him groan.

  He’d like nothing better than to drag her back into bed with him and spend the day making love to her. She was just that amazing.

  Last night had been incredible. Riley was not only more beautiful than he had imagined, but more passionate than he could have dreamed. He could make love to her a thousand times, and still never get enough, he thought. And waking up with her in his arms that morning had felt good. Too good, he told himself.

  As enjoyable as the sex had been, there was a part of Cade that regretted taking her to bed last night. He’d known all along that Riley was the kind of woman he could fall for, the kind of woman he could see himself spending the rest of his life with. He’d also known that nothing could ever come of their relationship, not when she could be leaving at any time. But he had allowed himself to get close to her anyway.

  Sleeping with her had been stupid not just because the relationship couldn’t go anywhere, but because having sex with a witness was just downright unprofessional. He was supposed to be protecting her, not sleeping with her. If this ever got out, his career in the Marshals would be over.

  Swearing under his breath, he got out of bed and collected his clothes from the floor.

  When Riley walked out of the bathroom half an hour later, it was to find Cade already dressed and waiting for her. He had ditched the jeans and button-up shirt she’d gotten used to seeing him wear in favor of a suit and tie, she noticed, but he still looked just as gorgeous.

  “Ready to go?” he asked, and Riley nodded.

  They drove up to Seattle in silence, Cade obviously as preoccupied with his thoughts as she was with hers. Was he regretting last night as much as she was? she wondered.

  Once inside the building where the U.S. Marshals had their offices, Cade led her directly to the one belonging to his superior. At their entrance, the man got to his feet and came around his desk to join the two other men that were standing in front of it.

  “I’m Deputy Chief Conner,” he said, extending his hand to Riley. “And these are Deputies Thompson and Morris.”

  Riley reached out to shake his hand, and then did the same with the other two Marshals when they offered their hands as well.

  Deputy Chief Conner glanced at Cade. “No problems on the way, I take it?” he asked.

  Cade shook his head. “No, Sir.”

  The older man nodded. “Good.” He turned his attention back to Riley. “You’ll be staying at a safe house just south of Olympia with Deputies Thompson and Morris for a couple of days until we get you relocated, Ms. Barnett. With any luck, we’ll have you on your way within the week.”

  Riley’s brow furrowed at the mention of the other two Marshals. Did that mean Cade wouldn’t be going with her to the safe house? She glanced at Cade to see him looking just as puzzled by Deputy Chief Conner’s words.

  “I thought I would be staying at the safe house with Ms. Barnett,” he said to the older man.

  Deputy Chief Conner shook his head. “I want you working on finding out who the shooter was,” he said.

  “Deputies Thompson and Morris will take care of her until we can get her relocated.”

  Riley felt her heart sank at that. She might have thought sleeping with him was foolish, but nevertheless, she had hoped to be able to spend a couple of more days with Cade before she had to move. But maybe it was better this way, she told herself. If she were with Cade, she had no doubt she would end up sleeping with him again, and that would only result in more heartache. It was easier to make a clean break of things, she thought. But as her gaze strayed to the handsome Marshal, she realized it wasn’t going to be easy at all.

  “Ms. Barnett,” Deputy Thompson said from behind her. “If you’re ready, we can go.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at the men, before turning back to Cade again. At the hotel that morning, she hadn’t been able to think of anything to say Cade, and now there was so much she wanted to say to him. Like how much she appreciated him saving her life. And how comforting it was to be in his arms, even if it had been only for a little while. But she couldn’t tell him any of those things, not with his boss and the other two Marshals looking on.

  Cade gave her a nod. “Take care of yourself,” he told her.

  Riley felt a slight pang of disappointment that he hadn’t said something more personal, but she realized that he couldn’t very well say anything in front of his co-workers either. She offered him a small smile. “You, too,” she said softly.

  Realizing that the other two Marshals were waiting for her, Riley swallowed hard and turned away. Surprised to feel tears welling in her eyes, she quickly made her way to the door before anyone could see. But unable to resist one more look at Cade, she paused and glanced back at him over her shoulder to find him studying her with those remarkable gold eyes of his. For a moment the urge to run back into the office and throw herself into his arms was almost too much to resist, and she had to force herself to turn away.

  Cade watched her go, his gaze following Riley until she disappeared around a cubicle and out of sight. He had hoped that she would look back at him once more before she left, but she hadn’t. Well, what had he expected? He was just another in a long string of Marshals what had been responsible for keeping her alive.

  “Do you think you got a good enough look at the shooter to sit down with a sketch artist?” Conner asked.

  The words jerked him from his thoughts and Cade gave himself a mental shake as he turned to look at the other man. “I should be able to, yeah,” he said.

  “Good,” Conner said. “While you do that, I’m going to talk to the DA that prosecuted Donatti and see if he can shed some light on this whole thing. There must be a reason if Donatti put out a contract on Riley Barnett at this point.”

  Taking that as his cue to leave, Cade headed for the door. Regardless of the fact that he’d told Conner he would be able to work with a sketch artist, he wasn’t sure how much good it would do. Not because he hadn’t seen the hit man well enough, but because he was too distracted with thoughts of Riley.

  Cade had really been taken aback when Conner had announced that Thompson and Morris were going to be taking Riley to the safe house. He had just naturally assumed he would stay with her until she was relocated. But maybe it was better that he didn’t
. The more time he spent with her, the harder it was going to be on him when she left. Besides, Conner was right. It was more important to track down the hit man that had tried to kill her.

  With that in mind, Cade spent the rest of the day focusing his attention on doing just that. He was just frowning at the drawing the sketch artist had made when Conner walked over to his desk. The older man studied the drawing for a moment.

  “So, that’s our shooter, huh?” the other man said when he’d taken a look at it.

  “Yeah,” Cade said. “This guy’s face is really familiar for some reason.”

  He hadn’t realized it when he’d first seen the man the other night, but after thinking about it, Cade was sure he had seen the hit man somewhere before.

  Conner regarded the sketch thoughtfully. “Take a look through the NCIC database,” he told Cade. “If we’re lucky, maybe the guy has a record. Start with known mob enforcers.”

  Looking through the online National Crime Information Center database would be a whole hell of a lot easier than thumbing through old mug books. Of course, everything depended on the guy having a record and being in the database. If he didn’t, things would be much more difficult, Cade thought.

  “What did the DA have to say?” he asked Conner.

  Conner shook his head. “He wasn’t in the office,” he said. “I’m waiting for him to call me back.”

  Cade knew that with the time difference between the east and west coast it could be awhile before the man returned Conner’s call. Hopefully, Cade would have a solid lead on the hit man by then.

  As it turned out, though, Cade had no luck finding the guy through the NCIC database. He came up with a lot of known hit men, mob enforcers, and just general bad guys with organized crime connections, but none of them resembled the shooter from the other night. Thinking that he was using too narrow of a scope, he broadened it, but again, his search yielded nothing but hours of wasted time.

  “Anything?” Conner asked when he came up to Cade’s desk later that evening.

  Cade sat back in his chair with a sigh. “Not a thing.”

  The other man frowned. “I just got off the phone with the Manhattan DA. Turns out that Albert Donatti has been more interested in making deals than in taking out witnesses,” he said. “He’s in the WitSec Program himself now.”

  Cade’s brow furrowed. “He flipped on someone else?” he asked rhetorically. “If that’s the case, then it doesn’t make sense that he’d go out and hire a hit man.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Conner said, and then sighed. “Maybe we’re just looking at this the wrong way. Look, go home and get some rest. We’ll look at it a different angle first thing in the morning.”

  Cade went, but only reluctantly. He would much rather have stayed and looked through the criminal databases some more, but as exhausted as he was, he’d probably only miss something if he did.

  Despite being wiped out, however, Cade couldn’t sleep at all that night. Finally tired of tossing and turning, he got out of bed a little after midnight and wandered into the living room to watch television. But despite having plenty of channels to choose from, none of them could hold his interest, and before long, his thoughts turned back to Riley.

  After spending a week in the safe house with her, his apartment seemed so quiet and empty. He had never thought of himself as the overly talkative type, but it turned out that he had really enjoyed the time he and Riley had spent together talking. And he couldn’t help but remember what it had felt like to spend the night with her in his arms.

  It might have been foolish, but it had felt good.

  He found himself wondering what Riley was doing at that moment. Had she gotten settled in at the safe house?

  Was she asleep, or was she making the other Marshals sit through whatever chick-flicks she’d talked them into renting for her? That thought made Cade smile. But then almost immediately, it turned into a frown as he was reminded again of how much he missed her. Did she miss him as much?

  Cade let out a derisive snort at that. He would like to have thought that the sex they’d had the night before had meant something to Riley, but her actions that morning had made it clear that it had been nothing more than aone-night stand to her. He wished it could mean so little to him.

  Turning off the television a couple of hours later, Cade threw himself back into bed and tried hard to push thoughts of Riley from his mind. He did fall asleep, but only because he was exhausted. And even then, he slept fitfully, and often awoke swearing he could feel Riley there with him, sleeping curled up at his side.

  Cade woke up around five the next morning feeling even more exhausted than he had the night before. He wanted to sleep more, but decided that it would be a waste of time to try. So instead, he took a shower and got dressed, then left for work. At the office, he’d at least have something to distract him from thinking about Riley.

  He logged back into the NCIC database the moment he got into the office, but even though he tried to focus, it did no good. He couldn’t stop thinking about Riley. Or worrying about her. Thompson and Morris were more than competent, so Cade knew that logically there was no reason to be concerned for Riley’s safety. But he also knew that he would feel a hell of a lot better if he checked on her. So, around mid-morning, he gave up on the database search and decided to get a status report on Riley. Cade didn’t have either man’s cell phone number, however, but rather than ask Conner, he went down to get it from the Support Division.

  Maxine, the woman who managed most of the administrative functions for the Seattle office, wasn’t at her desk, however. Not knowing when she’d be back, Cade was about to leave a note for her when he noticed the photograph on her desk. He stared at the picture, unable to believe what he was seeing. In it, a smiling Maxine was standing in front of a panoramic view of the Grand Canyon, and beside her, was the dark-haired man that had tried to kill Riley at the safe house the other night.

  “Son of a bitch,” Cade muttered.

  Grabbing the photograph off the desk, Cade leaned over the cubicle to show it to Maxine’s coworker. “Do you know who this guy with Maxine is?”

  The woman smiled. “Sure,” she said. “That’s Maxine’s husband, Tony.”

  Photograph in hand, Cade swore under his breath as he quickly weaved his way through the maze of cubicles. All this time he had been thinking that it was some mob hit man that was after Riley. No wonder he hadn’t been able to get a match through the NCIC database.

  Back upstairs, Cade made a quick stop at his desk to grab the composite drawing before heading to Conner’s office. Not bothering to knock, he walked right in. Ignoring the other man’s scowl, he held up the photo in one hand, and the sketch in the other.

  “I finally have a name to go with the face,” he said. “Tony Caruthers, who just happens to be married to Maxine from the Support Division.”

  Conner’s brow furrowed as he glanced from the photo to the sketch, and then back again. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive,” Cade assured him.

  The other man swore. “Is Maxine Caruthers in today?”

  Cade nodded. “But she’s not at her desk.”

  “Let’s find her then,” Conner said. “I want to talk to her.”

  It took nearly half an hour to find Maxine in the huge office building, but when they did, it was to take her directly to an interrogation room. It didn’t take much prompting to get the woman to talk, and within minutes, she broke down and admitted everything. It seemed that her husband wasn’t a hit man for the mob by trade, but just some guy that thought he could get rich quick by killing federal witnesses. The fact that Maxine had the addresses and personal records on all of the witnesses had made the decision easy.

  “Did Albert Donatti order the hit?” Cade asked curtly.

  Maxine shook her head. “No,” she sobbed. “Tony thought he should do the job first, and then go to Donatti and ask for the money.” She sniffed. “I told Tony it was a stupid idea, but he was sure we could
make a bundle, and that no one would ever know. I didn’t want to do it!”

  But she went along with it anyway, Cade thought bitterly. “Why Riley Barnett, then?”

  The woman shrugged. “Tony thought she would be an easy target, a good way to get his feet wet, I guess,” she said. “He thought it would be safer to start with a woman instead of a man.”

  “Where is your husband now, Maxine?” Conner asked.

  She didn’t answer, but only fiddled nervously with the tissue in her hand, and Cade ground his jaw.

  “You’re already an accessory to attempted murder, Maxine,” he told the woman. “Tell us where your husband is and the district attorney will probably take that into account.”

  Maxine said nothing for a moment, but Cade could tell she was considering his words. “I don’t know for sure, but I gave him the address for the safe house down in Olympia this morning,” she said finally. “He’s probably on his way there.”

  Cade felt his gut clench. Riley, he thought. He could hear Conner talking to someone on his cell phone, ordering the local PD to the safe house, but Cade didn’t wait around to see what else the man said. Instead, he got the address for the safe house from Maxine and was out the door before Conner could stop him.

  Riley never ate ice cream right out of the container, but that afternoon she found herself sitting at the kitchen table with a pint of chocolate chip mint, half listening to the two Marshals talk about the baseball game they were watching on television in the living room and feeling altogether miserable.

  It had only been a day since she’d seen Cade, but Riley missed him so much that her heart ached. How was it possible to develop such strong feelings for a man she barely knew? she wondered. She’d only slept with him onetime. And they hadn’t even exactly hit it off in the beginning. But as she sat there eating the ice cream, she wondered if she and Cade would have ended up dating if they had met under different circumstances. Then again, she thought, it was highly unlikely that they ever would have met at all if she hadn’t been in the Witness Protection Program.