If he’d lost her tonight, he didn’t know what he would do.
But why would he feel this all the way to his marrow? He’d lost Sadie a long time ago when she hadn’t been interested in him. He’d moved on and let her go. They’d remained friends, sure, but nothing more. Still, no matter their relationship—friendship or romance—losing Sadie tonight would have crushed him. Before they exited the woods to find someone in law enforcement who could help escort them back—he wasn’t even sure where—he stopped and drew her close again.
“Sadie, are you okay?” He brushed a strand of hair from her face, her skin soft against his fingers. “Did he hurt you?”
He held his breath, waiting for her answer.
Though her body trembled, she shook her head. “Not like that. No. He didn’t get the chance. I’m fine. Thank you for saving me. I knew you would look for me and find me—that is, if you were able, but I just didn’t know. When I saw the wreck, I wasn’t sure what to do. I was afraid you were hurt and so I headed toward the vehicles. I wanted to call for help but my phone was in your car. I was so scared that you’d been hurt, Gage.” She pressed her head against his chest and her shoulders moved up and down.
He held her, comforting her the only way he could. “I’m fine. I will probably have a few aches and pains tomorrow, but I’m more worried about you. And I want to kick myself for letting this happen.”
She pulled away. “What? This wasn’t your fault. Please don’t blame yourself.” She stepped back from him. “Gage, we have to get this guy. I wish I would have stayed and hit him in the head again, but he looked like he would get back up, so I ran toward the light and the shouts.”
He allowed himself a half smile. Sadie was as strong as anyone he’d ever met. “You did good. You have survival instincts.”
“I think it’s going to take more than that to endure this. We have to figure this out.”
“We will.” He took her hand. “Now, let’s get you home.”
“Where exactly is that?”
“I’m thinking you’d prefer to stay at your uncle Joe’s with your family at least tonight. Am I right?”
“Yeah, I think that would make me feel better. But you’re staying too.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Well, look, you don’t have a car. Stay there and Uncle Joe can take you to the rental place. Please, let me help you.”
“We’ll see how it works out.” He needed to contact Crowley about tonight and Thompkins to see what he’d learned about Sean’s death. He wasn’t sure how all of this tied into the drugs, but keeping Sadie safe was what mattered to him most. Staying by her side was the only way to do that. The only way to end it was to find her stalker and Karon’s killer, and hopefully he would bring the maritime drug smuggling ring to an end in the process.
This guy—whoever he was—had proven he was determined to get to her. Did he know that she’d been with someone in law enforcement tonight? That he’d also attacked a CGIS special agent? Regardless, Gage had to protect her. His thoughts shifted to the moment as they stepped onto the road and headed to the remaining emergency vehicles, careful of the few passing cars maneuvering around the cleanup crew. He’d hesitated about staying at Joe’s, but he was certain he couldn’t leave Sadie alone and he didn’t trust just anyone to protect her.
An hour later, he agreed to stay at her uncle Joe’s. Sadie safely inside and chattering in the kitchen with her aunts Debby and Neta, Gage pulled Joe aside where they could speak in private on the porch. “I appreciate you opening up your home to me tonight, Joe.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He scratched his jaw. “Though it makes me wonder...”
“Good. I’m glad you’re tracking with me. I’m staying because I need to protect Sadie.”
“It’s that bad, is it?”
“Yes. Someone is trying to get to her. Someone tried to kill her on the boat.”
“Do you have any idea why?”
“That’s the trillion-dollar question.”
“Do you think she knows something?”
“If she does, she doesn’t realize it, but I intend to talk to her more tonight.” What happened out there tonight was a close call. Even worse, it happened while on his watch.
“Joe?” Neta opened the screen door. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You didn’t,” Gage said. “I think we’re done here, aren’t we, Joe?”
“Sure thing.”
“I need to make a few calls.” Gage eyed his smartphone after Joe went back inside. He called Crowley to let him know what had gone down, including that his vehicle was now totaled.
“Man, I’m sorry. Glad you’re okay.”
Gage squeezed the bridge of his nose. “What do you have on your end?”
“The fire chief says it was a gas leak that caused the explosion at the house.”
“And we saw the guy leaving the house. He ran from us.”
“Right. You and I both know that’s circumstantial. But I’m with you. He wanted it to look like an accident, but now you’re on to him. I’ll contact the sheriff in Grays Harbor County and see if they apprehended him. This could be over tonight.”
Except Gage doubted they had gotten their hands on this guy. He’d been slippery. He shook his head and contacted his CGIS counterpart, Thompkins, and filled him in on his day.
“Yours sounds more exciting than mine. But I did hear from the coroner.”
“And?”
“Cause of death on Lieutenant Sean Miller was the gunshot wounds. No surprise there. He was on leave at the time, so no one in the Coast Guard had missed him. We’ve sent the two bullets to ballistics. We know they’re the same kind of bullets used by the drug runners. But sounds like you have bigger issues.”
Yeah, like making sure this guy doesn’t hurt Sadie. Or kill her. But that wasn’t his official job and he wouldn’t say that to Thompkins.
“Listen, I’m sorry I didn’t look deeper, dig deeper into Karon Casings’s death. Crowley’s initial investigation didn’t come up with anything suspicious. There was no reason for me to question that.”
“No need to apologize. We know she was murdered now.”
“Right. Karon and Sean were seen together before she washed up dead, but she washed up two weeks before he did. He lived two weeks longer before he was shot and killed.”
“What do you make of that?” Gage asked.
“It’s hard to say. Maybe whoever killed him kept him alive and tried to get him to talk. About what, I don’t know. Or maybe...it kills me to say it, but maybe Sean was involved with the smugglers and was angry about Karon’s death. He confronted them, so they shot him.”
And now someone wanted Sadie dead. Acid erupted in his throat. “It’s all conjecture. We need to get our hands on the guy who’s pursuing Sadie Strand and get some answers. He’s our best shot at getting them now.”
The screen door creaked. He was out of time.
“Gage?” Sadie’s pleasant voice reached out to him.
“Anything else you need to tell me?” he asked of Thompkins.
“We’re good,” his CGIS counterpart said. “Stay alive tonight.”
Right. He ended the call and tucked the cell in his pocket. “I’m done.”
“Are you coming in?”
“How about we sit on the porch for a while and talk.” Although that might not be the safest place. Still, he figured their guy was on the run. Who was he? Who was he working with? What did all this have to do with the drug runners?
Gage gestured at the swing and Sadie took a seat. He joined her. “There’s something I haven’t told you yet. A Coastie washed up on the beach and was discovered yesterday. His name is Sean Miller.”
Her brows knitted. “You mentioned a Miller when you were talking to Deputy Crowley. That s
omeone was investigating Miller. Is that who we’re talking about?”
“Yes. We believe their deaths are connected. Did she ever mention Sean to you?”
“I knew she had been seeing someone. But she’s dated different guys on and off. The last few months I have been seriously out of reach. I got an email here or there from her. I remember her mentioning a Sean in there somewhere.” Sadie pressed her face in her hands. “I considered her to be my best friend—we’d been so close and understood each other. It wasn’t practical to stay in touch every day even with today’s technology because I traveled to remote areas in my research. But when I’d finally resurface and we’d talk, we’d catch up, and it was like I had never left. I feel like I should have stayed here in Coldwater Bay. If I had, maybe none of this would have happened. If I’d been a better friend, at the very least I’d know more about what’s going on. What happened to her.” Her grief-filled eyes searched his. “I’m sorry, Gage. I’m so sorry that I can’t offer more help. If only I’d been a better friend, Karon might still be alive.”
Quietly sobbing, she bent over, her hands covering her face once again.
Or, you might have died right along with her. But those words were best left unsaid.
Gage put his hand on her back, wishing he could take the pain away. Wishing there was something he could say to comfort her, but this was one of those moments when words simply weren’t adequate. He wished they had met again under completely different circumstances.
When her soft crying finally subsided, she sat up and swiped at her red-rimmed eyes. Seeing her like this ripped at his heart. “Don’t blame yourself, Sadie. If Karon was the friend you say, she wouldn’t have wanted you to do that.”
She nodded and sniffled. “I’m in pain, that’s all. I can’t make it go away, but at least I can try to focus my efforts on finding out what happened. Do you think her involvement with Sean Miller is what got her killed?”
“There are too many unknowns. But tomorrow, we’ll meet with Shana and maybe find a connection. What we look for is a motive and opportunity. Who had enough motivation to kill two people and try to make that three. For my part, I’m looking into Karon’s connection to the drug smugglers. The results of the water test might be important. It could somehow be related.”
“I’m anxious to see the results too, especially if those results can tell us who is motivated to follow me and try to kill us both.”
“Which brings me to this. Try to think, Sadie. Try to remember. Is there anything you might know or have learned indirectly? Any reason this guy would want you dead?”
She shook her head vehemently. “Don’t you think I would have told you by now? You know what I know. I woke up on a sinking boat. Do we know what they used to drug me?”
He shook his head. “Some drugs are hard to detect, especially if the lab doesn’t know what to look for. I’m still waiting to hear back.”
“I’m sorry I don’t know anything else. It’s all so fuzzy.”
“It’s okay. But please keep trying to think of something that might help, even if it doesn’t pertain to what happened to you on the boat.” Depending on the drug he used, she could have had an entire conversation with the guy and wouldn’t remember it. But he didn’t want to risk scaring her by bringing it up. Not until he knew something solid.
The thought of someone drugging her, leaving her to die like that, infuriated Gage.
“So you think that she was with Sean when she was killed? Were they on the boat together?”
“Could be, but I really don’t have enough information to say.” Which was beginning to grate on him.
“Well, we do know that I went to her home. I looked at her computer. Her mother was upset the sheriff’s investigator thought it had been an accident. I think that whoever drugged me and left me to die thought I found something on her computer. We need to see if there’s anything left on the hard drive. Some super techno geek could find it, if the blast didn’t damage it too much. Unless he took the computer.”
Gage had his doubt there could have been anything left. “If he wanted it to look like an accident, he would have left the computer. Just like leaving you on that boat drugged. Only you woke up too soon.”
“I still can’t figure out why he didn’t just drown me and leave me on the boat.”
Drowning had been sufficient to keep Karon quiet. “I’m curious about that, as well—if you waking up had been intended or accidental.”
Sometimes criminals became overconfident. He’d thought perhaps this was personal in some way. Sadie waking up a few moments before she would die with no way out was some kind of payback. But the other pieces didn’t fit.
Sadie leaned against his shoulder. Again, that supercharged current ran through him, through his entire body this time. His reaction to her wasn’t anything new—in fact, it was a familiar sensation from the past—but it was completely wrong in this situation. This wasn’t the time or the place, and especially not the woman. Still, his arm lifted and wrapped around her shoulder. His mind wasn’t in charge now, and his heart made him a fool.
* * *
Sadie soaked up the comfort she found in Gage, the safety and security that poured off him. Now that she thought about it, he’d always been there for her in the past. He was there when a Coastie had broken her heart. He’d listened to her and helped her work through her grief. Heard her vow never to date a Coastie again. All of that seemed so ridiculous now in the face of this new life-and-death threat.
She might be shaking right now if Gage wasn’t here. Or if someone else had been sent to protect Sadie, though she assumed Gage had assigned that task to himself, and that it wasn’t official.
Unwilling to give up what Gage provided, she lingered next to him, leaning into him, his sturdy arm around her, for a good, long while.
Then she said, “Well, it’s been a much too long day. I need to get inside and sleep. And so do you.” She tried to shift away from him but he held his arm in place. He didn’t let her go. When she lifted her gaze, his face was much too close.
Warmth infused her insides. Why had she never noticed her attraction to him? His broad shoulders, sun-bleached hair and those bright hazel eyes. His gentle touch and compassion. Or was it that she’d never been attracted to him like this before? Maybe it had everything to do with the fact that this man she’d considered no more than a friend had become her hero overnight. Protecting her, keeping her safe when she’d never needed any of that previously. Add to that, her attraction to him went much deeper than anything physical. Maybe that’s because it had started with a deep friendship.
Did Sadie have it all wrong? Maybe it had everything to do with her needing his protection. The fact that he’d risked his own life to pull her from the water—and what she felt for him was only a temporary infatuation. Nothing deep and real and lasting.
But she had a feeling, a very strong feeling, that it could last. Worse, even if it didn’t last, Sadie was almost prepared to throw her resolve to the wind and let it happen.
Except...
This was wrong. All wrong. She couldn’t fall for him. Couldn’t let herself be with him after all the heartache she’d been through. But as he dipped his head closer to hers, she floated. She knew he would kiss her. Her heart danced to a new song. Sadie had never wanted anything more in her life.
Her senses scrambled her head, so her better judgment was powerless to fight back.
The bushes stirred across the street. A dog barked. Gage stiffened, released her and jumped from the porch swing. Had his weapon out and ready to use.
Terror took the place of reckless joy and her pulse skyrocketed. “What is it?”
He pushed her behind him. “Get in the house.”
“But Gage...” She was afraid for him.
“Please do as I ask. I’m going to make sure we haven’t been followed here.”
Sadie opened the screen door and closed it, but stood there watching.
“Close the door and lock it.”
She didn’t want to be away from him. Even these walls couldn’t protect her like Gage could. But neither did she want to distract him so she closed the door and locked it. Through the windows, she watched Gage head across the street. When he didn’t return after five minutes, she tugged her cell out, grateful Gage had retrieved it for her.
“What is it, hon?” Aunt Debby approached from behind.
“I don’t know. Gage went to check on something.” Or someone. Oh, God, please don’t let the killer follow us here.
She hoped it wasn’t already too late.
Was she putting more people she loved in danger by staying here?
“You probably need to go to bed after the day you’ve had. I’ll watch for him.” Her aunt had always been a nurturer, just like her brother, Sadie’s conservationist father.
“No. I need to call 9-1-1.” She eyed the smartphone to hit the numbers.
“There he is. Coming back across the street. It must have been nothing to worry about.” Aunt Debby tugged the curtain wider. “You worry about him too much. That man can take care of himself. And—” she dropped the curtain “—he’s a handsome guy, if you ask me. A good catch.”
“I know what you’re getting at, but I’m not fishing.”
* * *
The next morning Sadie rode with Gage in a rental car he’d picked up earlier. She eyed her cell phone, wondering if she should contact Shana. “I hope we’re not going to be late.”
“We won’t be.” He steered up the road they’d driven last night.
When they passed the place where they’d engaged in car wars, the only evidence anything had happened was the tree Gage’s vehicle had struck. A slight tremble started up her legs. She willed it away.
Reaching across the console that separated them, she touched his arm. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Gage. You could have been killed last night.”
Thread of Revenge Page 9
