Run, Hide

by Carol Ericson

  She gasped and lifted her head, pressing her chin to her chest. “You’re not going to take a half hour down there, are you?”

  He dipped one finger inside her. “I just might.”

  Groaning, she flopped back against the pillow. With his finger still inserted in her tight walls, he nibbled around her edges, his tongue darting out for small tastes of her honey.

  Then he went to work in earnest, and she didn’t stand a chance against his tender assault. He brought her to climax within minutes, and as she began to come down from her high, shaking and moaning, he thrust his tongue inside her again and again.

  She clutched at his hair, her fingernails digging into his scalp. Her thighs clamped around his head, drowning him in her musky scent.

  He sucked her into his mouth, as gently as a soft, ocean breeze. Must’ve felt like a gale force wind because she screamed as he toyed with her, drawing her closer to the edge of the precipice.

  This time he left her hanging. As he straddled her body, she squirmed beneath him, her hands clawing at his chest for release. He nudged her thighs apart and drove into her, lifting her bottom from the bed. He pulled out and thrust again, and she shattered beneath him.

  Her climax clutched around him as he pounded against her. She lay spent for a moment and he slowed his movement. Then she reached up and held his face in her hands. Her blue gaze never leaving his, she whispered. “Your turn.”

  “Don’t worry. I plan to take it.” He pulled out and flipped her over while she dragged a pillow beneath her chest and lifted her hips in blatant invitation.

  He rose to his knees and steadied her with his hands on either side of her rounded bottom. He rode her from behind, his skin slapping hers in an erotic rhythm that signaled their ultimate connection.

  When he came, he couldn’t stifle the growls born from his primal satisfaction. He also couldn’t let go of his wife. Still shuddering with his release, he reached around and stroked her where their bodies met. She shivered and pushed against his probing fingers.

  Her heat grew around him once again. Her creamy

  derriere undulated against his belly, and he hardened in response. This time she climaxed with a whimper instead of a cry. A long, soft sigh escaped her lips, and her body melted beneath his, trapping his hand between her hot flesh and the mattress below.

  He slipped out of her and rolled to the side.

  She opened one eye. “I can’t move.”

  “That opens up all kinds of possibilities.” He traced the beads of her spine with the tip of his finger, lightly following her bottom crease. He tucked his fingers between her legs and stroked her damp inner thighs.

  “Mmm.” She burrowed her face into the pillow, inching her legs apart.

  He rubbed her bottom with the flat of his hand, while the fingers of his other hand swirled closer to her heated core. “Do you want another?”

  She shifted her head to the side, a guilty smile playing across her lips. “I wouldn’t mind, but—” she ran her hand down his belly and stroked him “—you’re not ready yet.”

  “Yet is the operative word.” He nudged one finger inside while he pinched her flesh with the others.

  She sucked in a breath and jerked at his touch. “You do have magic fingers.”

  “Don’t forget my magic tongue.”

  “And your magic...”

  Without ever releasing his hold on her, he nudged her onto her back and continued his magic.

  * * *

  CADE HAD FALLEN INTO a drugged sleep, which someone was trying to spoil. The reality of making love to Jenna and his dreams had merged into one long night of pleasure and satiation.

  He’d held her close all night, their limbs tangled, their hands always searching, their lips meeting in hot, hungry kisses. He didn’t know where his body left off and hers began.

  He reached for her again, his fingers crawling across cool, empty sheets. Empty.

  He struggled against the weights on his eyelids as someone poked him in the side. “Cade, Cade, wake up. Isn’t that the bar where you met your father last night?”

  Jenna’s words acted like a splash of cold water on his face. He rubbed his eyes, kicking the tangled sheets from his naked body. “What?”

  “On the TV. Wait. I think I can pause this and rewind.”

  Cade pushed up to a sitting position, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Why would Ted’s Sports Bar be on TV? He blinked and squinted at the neon snake frozen on the screen, emergency vehicles parked in front of the bar.

  “What the hell is going on? What’s this story?”

  She kept the remote pointed at the TV as she twisted her body toward him. “Th-there’s been a murder.”

  Cade felt as if he was falling and he grabbed the sheets in his fists. Wait. It could be anyone. It was a bar.

  “Can you play it back?”

  She fumbled with the remote until the figures on the TV sped in reverse. Then she stabbed another button and the morning news anchors changed their demeanors from happy to serious.

  “In other news, a man’s body was found in the alley behind Ted’s Sports Bar in the early morning hours when one of the employees went out to dump the trash. Colleen Temple is on the scene. Colleen, has the man been identified?”

  Colleen adjusted a strand of hair and arranged her face into a frown. “Pat, the man, in his early sixties, has been identified from his driver’s license, but police are waiting to contact his next of kin. One bar patron, who was here last night, is claiming the man’s alligator boots were stolen. A charge the police will neither confirm nor deny.”

  Cade’s gut rolled and he yanked the sheet, ripping it in half.

  “Cade?”

  “It’s Kevin. They murdered him and we have to get out of here.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Jenna’s knees buckled and she dropped to the bed. Had Cade lost his mind? What did Kevin Stark have to do with Nico Zendaris?

  “How do you know it’s Kevin? Th-there could’ve been plenty of sixty-year-old men at the bar last night.”

  “The alligator boots, Jenna. The murdered man had alligator boots and so did Kevin.”

  “Still, there could be lots of older men wearing alligator boots in New Mexico.”

  His dark eyes drilled her. “Really?”

  “Why would Zendaris kill your...Kevin?”

  “I can give you plenty of motives. I should’ve gotten you and Gavin out of here last night. What reason did he give me to trust one word out of his mouth?”

  Cade’s naked form, his muscles hard and ready, looked untouchable. His tight jaw and blazing eyes made him look unreachable.

  “I don’t understand, Cade.”

  “Get Gavin ready. I don’t have time to explain.”

  And just like that, the husband she’d reclaimed in body and soul last night had hardened into this stranger, giving orders and keeping her in the dark.

  This stranger had kept her and Gavin safe, so she followed those orders.

  She pulled the hotel terry-cloth robe over her nakedness and stumbled into the adjoining bedroom. Gavin had had his bath last night, so she could get him ready to go in minutes. But why did she have to?

  Cade directed tight smiles at Gavin and perfunctory pats on the head, and Gavin picked up on his tension. Then he reacted by refusing to put on his jacket and kicking his mittens across the floor.

  Jenna cracked. “You pick those up right now.”

  Cade parked the new suitcase stuffed with their new clothes in the corner of the room and crouched before Gavin. The lines that worry had carved in his face the past hour softened. “Why did you do that, Gavin?”

  “I wanna stay.”

  “In this place? I’ve got a better place, and we’ll stop at a ghost town on the way. Do you want to go to an Old West ghost town?”

  His eyes wide, Gavin nodded. “Are ghosts there?”

  “Just a couple of small ones.” Cade pointed to the scattered mittens. “Now pick those up li
ke your mother asked you.”

  Gavin galloped across the floor, scooped up the mittens and shoved them in his pockets.

  Jenna blew out a breath. One small crisis averted. If only Zendaris could be distracted by ghost towns.

  “That’s better. Pancakes or eggs this morning?”

  “Both!”

  As she slid into the car next to Cade, she touched his arm. “Thanks for defusing that back there. That could’ve wound up in a major tantrum, and you do not want to see a three-year-old boy throw a tantrum.”

  “It’s not pretty when someone else’s kid does it, so I can’t imagine it would look any better on my son.”

  Jenna glanced over her shoulder. Had Gavin noticed Cade calling him his son? They needed a quiet moment to tell him together, but when exactly would that be?

  Cade needed to tell her why Kevin had been murdered and what it had to do with Zendaris and why it prompted them to flee from the most comfortable bed she’d had in three days. The most comfortable bed she’d had in three years, because Cade was beside her.

  As Cade pulled out of the hotel parking lot, Jenna closed her eyes and got lost in the sensations of last night. Cade hadn’t forgotten what she liked and how she liked it. She always did purr beneath his skilled touch, and nothing had changed.

  Jenna gave her cheek a small slap. She had to get her head out of the clouds and her mind out of the bed. Her gaze ticked down to the speedometer as they hit the highway. They were on the run again, which meant danger had descended. So much for the brief respite at the hotel.

  “Are you falling asleep over there?”

  “Nope. Wide awake.”

  He lifted one eyebrow. “I could’ve sworn I saw you slapping yourself.”

  “I need some coffee...and some information.”

  “The coffee I can promise you in another half hour or so. The information—” he jerked his thumb at Gavin kicking his feet in the air “—will have to wait.”

  If Cade couldn’t talk about Kevin in veiled references in front of Gavin, it must be bad.

  They approached a suburb of Albuquerque and pulled into the parking lot of a chain restaurant. They spent the time at breakfast entertaining Gavin.

  Jenna studied Cade coloring his fifth cow. It felt good to share the guilt of uprooting Gavin every fifteen minutes with someone else. Her shoulders ached from all the remorse.

  “Where are we headed after this, Cade?” She tried to keep the weariness from her voice.

  “We’ll go east until I hear from Prospero.”

  “Why haven’t you heard from them yet?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe they don’t have anything to report, or any help to give.”

  “We don’t need them. Between the two of us and our vast experience, I think we can find a safe place to hole up.”

  “It would be easier to do with help from Prospero.” He scratched his chin with the red crayon, leaving a mark. “They can provide fake IDs, cash, oversight.”

  “From what I saw in your little black bag, you have IDs, I still have lots of cash and we can provide our own oversight.”

  “We won’t wait for them, but I’m not going to refuse their help when it’s offered. If it’s offered.” His dark eyes clouded over, turning a shade of gray.

  It’s the first time he’d acknowledged all might not be well with Prospero. Had Jim the traitor been right? Did members of Prospero suspect Cade of having the plans in his possession? Not Cade’s team members and not Jack Coburn. Coburn had handpicked Prospero Team Three’s members and shared a tight bond with them. And Jack Coburn was Prospero.

  They finished breakfast and made a beeline for the car. Jenna buckled Gavin into his car seat and draped a blanket across his knees. He usually fell asleep in the car, anyway, but she wanted to make sure he was warm and cozy to speed things along.

  The tension between her and Cade was as thick as an early summer fog rolling in from Coronado Bay. Amazing to think that less than twelve hours ago, they’d been wrapped in each other’s arms with no boundaries between them.

  After about the hundredth time peeking into the backseat, she squeezed the toe of Gavin’s boot. “Are you sleeping?”

  His long dark lashes fluttered once on his smooth cheeks, but other than that he didn’t stir at her touch.

  Swinging around to face Cade, she said, “Okay, spill. What the hell happened to Kevin and how do you know Zendaris is responsible?”

  His gaze darted to the rearview mirror. “You don’t waste any time, do you?”

  “I’ve been cooling my jets for about three hours now. I don’t like being kept in the dark.”

  “You’d rather I blurt all this stuff out in front of Gavin? Isn’t that how you kept him feeling secure all these years? You never let the turmoil of your life bubble over in front of him?”

  “Yes, but now he’s sleeping, so stop stalling.”

  Cade set his jaw and drilled the highway with his gaze. “When I met with Kevin last night he had a proposition for me.”

  “A proposition?” Her stomach dipped and did backflips.

  “Zendaris had tracked him down somehow.” He waited for her gasp to subside. “I guess even Zendaris knew enough that I wouldn’t give in to blackmail over my old man if they snatched him.”

  “How did they find him?”

  “I have no idea. How did they find you?” He lifted his shoulders. “They have their resources just like we do.”

  “What did they want with him?” She held her breath hoping for a different answer than the one she knew in her heart.

  “They wanted to use him to get to me. They promised him money if could turn Gavin over to them.”

  “B-but he refused.” Jenna hugged herself because she couldn’t hug Cade.

  “Did he?” He swerved sharply to avoid roadkill in their lane. “He knew I’d never let him get close to Gavin, so Kevin had another proposition for me.”

  He stopped speaking and clenched his jaw so tightly that Jenna could hear his teeth grinding.

  She waited, afraid to touch him—afraid not to.

  After a few minutes, he continued. “Kevin figured we could make a deal with Zendaris. I’d hand Gavin over to Kevin, Kevin would hand Gavin over to Zendaris and then I’d hand the plans over to Zendaris and get Gavin back.”

  Her jaw dropped. “Kevin really believed that would work? He really believed you’d let your son anywhere near that maniac? Either of those maniacs?”

  “I don’t know what he believed. The dollar signs had clouded his vision and probably his senses.”

  “And that’s when you left?” She shifted her gaze to her hands folded in her lap, her knuckles white, her fingers red.

  Cade sucked in a breath. “Do you think I had something to do with Kevin’s murder?”

  Did she? When Cade got that dangerous look in his eye, when his muscles coiled into a spring until he looked ready to strike anyone, she didn’t know him anymore. That wasn’t the same man who could color balloons and cows with Gavin. That wasn’t the same man who could tease her to heights of passion.

  “No, but I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”

  He drew his brows over his nose and shot a curious look at her. “I didn’t. I left.”

  “What did Kevin tell you about how he left things with Zendaris?”

  “He said he’d told them I wouldn’t let him anywhere near my son, and didn’t know where I was, anyway.”

  “Either he was lying to you or Zendaris’s men thought he was lying to them.” She shivered and cranked up the heat. “What if they had tracked Kevin to the bar while he met with you?”

  “They may have.”

  “Kevin called you on your cell phone. What if they have that phone now?” Her gaze darted to the black phone in the cup holder. “What if they call you?”

  “I’ve told you. The phone is special, untraceable. Even when someone calls me, the number doesn’t show up on their phone. They’re not interested in calling me. They’d rather do other thing
s.”

  “And yet they didn’t make a move on you last night?”

  “They may have tried.” He shoved his foot against the accelerator. “I might have been careless last night, but I always make sure there’s nobody following me—always.”

  “Nobody followed you back to the hotel last night?”

  “I made sure of it, but they must’ve been at the bar. If not when I was at Ted’s, then later to meet with Kevin. Who knows? Maybe Kevin had set up a meeting with them, thinking he could make the deal with me and then let them know he’d be getting his hands on Gavin.”

  “Instead, they killed him.”

  “I warned him.” Cade pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can see him trying to con a couple of thugs for an international arms dealer. He probably thought he had them up to the second they took his life.”

  His armor seemed to have slipped a little, so she rubbed her knuckles on the rough denim covering his thighs. “I’m sorry, Cade.”

  “Why?”

  “He was your father. You loved him once as a child.”

  “He wasn’t worthy of it.”

  She turned her head, blowing out a breath and fogging the window. “At that moment he was. At the moment he made you laugh, at the moment he cheered you on at your first swim meet, at the moment he read you a story. He was worthy then.”

  She didn’t know if she was getting through to him at all, but her words made her own nose tingle. She’d never even had those moments with her parents. They’d been too busy with their social scene, taking exotic vacations without her and her sister, using them as props for the obligatory family portrait.

  “I want to be there for the long haul with Gavin.”

  Wiping her cheek, she faced him, or at least his hard profile. “You will be.”

  “Haven’t done such a great job of it yet.”

  “When are we going to tell him you’re his father?”

  “Maybe we should wait.”

  “Really? Wait for what?” In her bones, she felt that Cade needed his son now, needed that connection.

  “Maybe we should wait for all this to settle down.”

  She chewed her lip and clasped her hands between her knees. “Do you want to make sure you can be his father in more than name only?”