by Anthology
Antonio rarely traveled anywhere without his men close by. I’d gotten lucky the other night, and had I done my job without letting Caitlyn’s plight distract me, she’d have been a whole lot safer right now. Shit. As much as I wanted to track down the sassy blonde, I had to go to work too. Tonight though, I’d set out some feelers and find my way back to her.
I left work earlier than usual without a second thought. Important meetings filled my schedule all day, but I had found enough time to gather intel on the loser Caitlyn worked for. Thankfully, his name slipped through her thoughts at some point during one of our conversations, and I had paid attention.
Joe Raglione. He treated his employees like shit at the bottom of his shoe, and his treatment of a certain blue-eyed waitress was no different. He wasn’t a hardened criminal exactly, but he took bets and engaged in some unsavory deals at the very least.
Mr. Radley Hayden was the next fucking scumbag on my list. He only rented to hot young things, and he literally raped them for rent on these dingy little rathole apartments in terrible parts of the city, and yet he lived like a king on the eastside in a high-rise condominium. Mr. Hayden was about to get a serious lesson in manners. When I was through with him, he wouldn’t take advantage of anyone again.
After I properly sorted him out, I planned to go and collect my girl, whether she wanted to be collected or not. I didn’t have the right to make demands of her as we had talked about, but I wasn’t going to allow her to insist on placing herself in danger either. Labeling her as my girl should have raised red flags somewhere in my brain, but it felt oddly right. Whether it was right or wrong, I wasn’t going to let her go this time. I wasn’t sure if I believed in fate, but if I did, I would say that it had thrown us together under a set of unusual and extreme circumstances, and I’d be damned to let her slip away.
I texted my sister Louisa. Don’t be mad. Caitlyn snuck out in the middle of the night.
Her reply was immediate. Jackass! Go get her.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. It’s not that easy, Sis. I sent off nothing more than a lame excuse to Louisa. My cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“With the shit you told me the other night, this means Cate has gone and placed herself in the path of a freaking oncoming train,” Louisa grumbled. “Do you know where she is?”
“I have a pretty good idea. I’ll let you know when I find her.”
“I’ll kick your ass if you don’t. When you-know-who goes after someone, it doesn’t take him long to hit his mark.” She spoke a little too knowingly and perhaps she’d dealt with him more than I’d realized over the past few years.
“You’re not telling me anything new, Louisa. Is there anything else or can I go now?”
“You’ve already kissed her.” She blew out a breath. “Haven’t you?”
“Jesus.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Caitlyn kissed me first if it’s all the same to you, but whether or not her and I have any sort of relationship potential is second to the threat to her life.”
“Fine, and you’re right. I bet Cate would be good for you. Tell me she’s an adorable combination of sweet and feisty.”
“Oh, Sis, you have no idea.”
“Good.” She chuckled despite the circumstances. “Why are you still hanging around talking to me?”
Pointing out that she’d called me first wouldn’t get me off the phone any faster, so I hurried the conversation along. “I’ll text you later. Love you.”
“Please be careful, Kade.” Her voice cracked at the edge thick with sudden emotion. If Antonio already got his hands on my girl, then it would be quite a fight to get her back, and we both knew the risk I’d be taking to do so.
“Don’t worry, Sis. I’m always careful. Talk to you in a bit.” I ended the call without giving Louisa another word in. I hated to hear how upset I’d gotten her, but I had a plan. Changing into nondescript clothing along with the mask that covered most of my face fueled my inner hunger for justice for Caitlyn.
After grabbing a duffel of emergency supplies, I was on my way, and I didn’t plan on coming back until all the parts of my mission were complete, and I had the sassy blonde in my possession. This time I wouldn’t let her out of my sight.
Agenda: Take care of Hayden and take out Raglione. Then get the damn girl.
I was going to get into Caitlyn’s good graces no matter what it took to show her that I held her best interests at heart. Beating down those two low-life scumbags would definitely get her attention. Just the thought of smashing their scuzzy faces in made me feel damn good. All warm and fuzzy inside Ah, well. We all had our quirks.
Caitlyn
Flames licked the top of the awning while I stood open-mouthed in disbelief. Against explicit orders from Kade, I had returned to Joe’s Pizzeria this evening for work as if nothing had happened. I had, somewhere deep down in my heart, wanted to listen to what Kade asked of me, but because I was me, I’d disobeyed and snuck out like a reckless teenager. Joe hadn’t been happy with me when I had called him earlier this morning, but when I twisted the truth a bit, his tune had quickly changed. I informed my boss that I could sue him for worker’s compensation after being sent to a bad neighborhood and attacked on the job. Joe had relented, but it hardly mattered now.
I stared up at the clouds of thick black smoke that filled the block and crinkled my nose at the awful smell that permeated the air around me. The only small compensation was that my only real friend, Amanda, had been off today. Kade is my friend too.
Funny how one night of long conversations where I had shared secrets I’d never shared with another living soul, and one really hot make out session, led me to think about him in this moment of panic. Fire trucks sounded off in the distance, their sirens blaring, and I shook my head.
“You need to get out of here.”
I shifted slightly and saw a man covered from head to toe in dark clothing on the sidewalk beside me. I headed toward him, but he took several steps backward.
“You get out of here, bozo,” I hollered, annoyed that this crazy, oddly dressed person thought he could order me around. “I’ve got to give a statement.”
“The fire was deliberate,” he insisted, urgently. “Please listen to me. You aren’t safe in this neighborhood.”
Deliberate? Like, as in, arson? What in the actual fuck? Who was this stranger and how did he know whether the fire was set or not?
“Did you set it?” Every step I took, he mirrored with a step in the opposite direction. “Wait!” His eyes were mostly covered with a black mask, similar to the one I remembered from the other night. “Were you at Devil’s Park about a week ago?”
“It’s not safe to stick around,” he answered mysteriously, ignoring my question. “Go home!” He disappeared around the corner.
“Did you tell Kade to take care of me?”
I hurried across the street, following in the direction he’d vanished, around the corner and into a dark alley. I wanted answers. But when I stood in the mouth of that alleyway, staring down the narrow access between two buildings, I couldn’t see him anymore. He was gone. I hesitated, unsure if my desperation for answers meant I was also crazy enough to blindly follow him into this kind of darkness. Anyone or anything could be hiding in this litter-strewn alley.
I was still hesitating when someone grabbed me around the waist from behind, wrapping a burly arm around my neck. I knew without a doubt my strength could cause damage to that person, but the body felt familiar.
“If you don’t let go of me, Masquerader, I’m going to break your neck,” I warned.
“Yes, I was at Devil’s Park,” the man whispered against my ear. “Don’t move. There were four large SUVs circling the block a few minutes ago. I wanted to get you away from the building.”
I stilled in his arms, acutely aware of every part of his body, and breathed out. “So, I should be thanking you again? Is this what you do in your free time? Rescue waitresses?”
“Be quiet.”
“H
ey, Masked Wonder,” I teased, poking him gently. “Did you start the fire?” My pulse quickened. With the quiet command he had just given, he had almost sounded like Kade. Almost.
Could there be something else at play here?
“Is that the best name you can come up with?” He blew out a breath and it tickled my ear. “Make no mistake, this fire was no great loss to anyone. Joe was far from a pillar of the community. He was corrupt and his business was too. No one innocent died.”
“If you did commit arson, then you also risked my life,” I reasoned, my voice getting a little hard with anger as the smoke billowed around us, floating down the street. “Why would you do something like that if you’re here actively trying to save it?” I sought answers but I wasn’t sure he would give any.
“I would never put you directly in danger.” Every answer he gave was vague and mysterious. “I’m not that sort of degenerate.”
“What about the others? I’m sure Joe had staff in there.”
“Enough talking,” he snapped. “The men surrounding the area are moving in closer and they are looking for you. We can talk later and I’ll answer your questions. Please be quiet.”
I fell silent for a moment, contemplating the number of ways this could go down. The one thought that propelled me was that my best outcome included one in which I was out of this man’s arms no matter how pure his intentions were.
If I jab an elbow into his rib cage, I’ll damage something without killing him and it will cause a fuck ton of pain.
Masked and Dangerous needed to understand I wasn’t playing anymore.
“If you break my ribs, Caity-bug, I’m going to be mighty pissed.”
I swallowed hard, but stayed quiet for once. Pieces I’d been missing suddenly clicked into place. The masked man from Devil’s Park was Kade. The second less obvious puzzle also sorted itself out in front of me. Kade had the ability to read minds. I knew for certain I hadn’t spoken out loud that time.
Don’t call me that, I thought at him, wondering if tone translated via my thoughts and added a helping of haughtiness. He tugged me back a few paces, but I kept up, just in time to see a line of bullets strike the area where we’d just been hiding with near perfect precision. It shook me to the core.
Maybe Kade had been right about the danger. Maybe.
“I can hear thoughts even over a distance,” he explained under his breath. “If I focus or if the person is particularly loud, I can pick up patterns or sort of make a prediction. We need to get out of here, as I’ve been saying.”
I nodded, reading between the lines and hearing the things he wasn’t saying, and allowed him to lead the way, mirroring his steps like I had done earlier, so we could get to some sort of relative safety.
Several blocks, three random fences, a multitude of alleyways, and two dozen turns later, we both leaned against a dumpster, panting in exhaustion. My head pounded, my breath rattled in my lungs, and sweat dripped down my face.
“You have a lot of explaining to do, Mind Guy.”
“Another ridiculous moniker,” he said with a chuckle. “We need to keep moving, and I promise I’ll explain, Caity-bug, but I can’t trust we haven’t been followed. It isn’t too much further.”
“The last time I went to your house, I was unconscious for days. Not sure it’s looking like the best option for me, Brain Scanner.” I caught my breath finally and my heartbeat slowed down.
“Ugh,” he shook his head, and then clutched his side. “The damn fence I climbed over didn’t do me any favors. Come on, Strong Hold, we need to move.”
“What?” I wasn’t happy when he threw a stupid nickname at me in return. “That’s not my name.” What had happened to him calling me by cute little terms of endearment?
“Let’s go.” Kade grabbed my hand, and tugged me toward him. “We need to get out of here, The Brawn and the Beautiful.”
“I like that one.” I blinked up at him. “But it’s not going to fit on the back of my cape.”
I couldn’t believe we were joking around with goofy nicknames while literally in the middle of running for our lives, but when I was with Kade, I did a lot of things that didn’t make sense.
“You can shorten it, but think of the epicness of the news articles you’ll star in,” he teased back as he led us down another alleyway, farther away from danger. “I don’t recommend a cape anyhow.”
“News articles and capes,” I scoffed. “Fine. You win this round.”
“Oh, Caity-bug, I win every round. Just wait and see.”
We continued on while I marveled over the perfect trust I had placed in him tonight. It wasn’t just his kisses I had missed. From the second I had left his house, I had missed him. His touch, his smell, and his protection. I missed all of those things. Kade felt safe, and in turn I felt protected. I squeezed his hand. He glanced over his shoulder and smirked.
We just might make a good team after all.
Chapter 7
Kade
I stripped off the mask, the hoodie, the Kevlar vest my sister had begged someone to fashion for me after I’d crossed paths with Antonio and his family for the first time, and then off came my shoes, socks, and t-shirt. The exertion from our jaunt through the worst neighborhoods in the city combined with the fear which radiated off Caitlyn’s body after those bullets hit the wall left me sweaty and drained. She had been terrified and it had scared me to the bones.
“If you keep pulling off clothes, then I’m out.”
“So, you don’t want to see me naked?” I cocked an eyebrow. “I’d have thought after how many times I’ve seen all your gorgeous parts that you’d want to equal the playing field.” It hadn’t been my intent to strip all the way down, but the way her eyes drank in my muscles, it made me wish it had been.
“We’ve got way more important matters to discuss.”
“I need a shower. You can follow me if you want, but I smell like smoke and worse things.” I unbuckled my belt and enjoyed the subtle shift of her eyes as I disrobed, and then strutted passed her to get to the bathroom. She liked the view, from the way her breath caught in her throat, but her internal commentary fell silent as I turned up the hallway and went to the shower.
I tested the water, removed the rest of my clothing and stepped through the curtain. I didn’t have time to hold her hand through every step of this mess. If she wanted answers faster than I was willing to provide them, she’d have to work around my schedule. I lathered my hair, hoping the minty scent removed the awful burning smell.
“Kade?
“Yeah?”
“I smell like the worst camp fire ever. I busted open my hands on a fence and my hair is a nightmare.”
Those things were true, but she left out the vital part of her reasoning. She didn’t want to be alone, because she was scared shitless. I let my head fall back on my shoulders until it hit the wall with a soft thud. I had looked forward to a few peaceful moments to myself, but if she wanted to be in here, then I’d allow it. I gathered my thoughts but I’d need more time in order to give her all the answers she sought. Leftover questions hung out from the first time we met, and I hadn’t addressed them. Others spiraled through her brain at full speed. One stray thought kept pounding against me like a sledgehammer. I don’t matter enough to be taken care of.
I hated whomever in her life shaped her into thinking that she didn’t matter. I refused to let such an amazing woman, one who by all means could have just flipped Sheila Delgado the middle finger the other night and gotten the hell out of Devil’s Park, the same woman who allowed herself to be strangely vulnerable around me, to think so poorly of herself. She had a strong moral code for someone who had no doubt been through a lot.
“Are you waiting for a singing telegram to invite you into the shower? Get in here, Caity-bug. Hurry up before the water gets cold.”
“Stop calling me that.” She jerked open the shower curtain and joined me.
“You like it, so stop pretending you don’t.” I slapped my
hand against the fullest part of her ass. She squeaked. It was the most adorable and slightly undignified sound I’d ever heard, but it fit her perfectly. “Turn around.”
Caitlyn spun around as I’d asked, and I tipped her head back to wet her gorgeous blonde tresses. They hung down passed her waist in long golden strands and felt like silk in between my fingers. I shampooed her glorious mane as she stood there watching me with huge blue eyes. “What’s on your mind?”
“I don’t know you, and yet you take such good care of me. What’s that about?”
“We all need somebody, Cate. Why shouldn’t it be me?” She shut her eyes and allowed me to rinse out the suds. Repeating the process with the creamy coconut smelling conditioner, I caressed her scalp as I worked the mixture through her hair.
“It’s just that I didn’t ask for you to rescue me.” She exhaled slowly. “I appreciate what you did and all, but it’s hard to accept.”
“There is more at stake than just personal matters and I’ve got a lot riding on this. Will you accept that much of an explanation and let me handle everything else?”
“Yeah, Kade. I’ll do that.” Cate chewed on her bottom lip. She had something else on her mind, but I refused to pry. “Were you, uh, serious about being my Daddy? Not like in a kinky way.” A light blush flushed over her cheeks giving her a cute pink glow.
“Yes.” I dipped her head into the shower stream until the water ran clear, rinsing the last of the cream from her hair. Blinking open her eyes, she stared up at me those perfect blue pools, pupils widened from my confirmation. “There’s also nothing wrong with being a bit kinky, Caity-bug. Not one damn thing.”
“If you’re in that role, then are you going to punish me the way you mentioned or were you just teasing?”
“I was absolutely serious.” I kissed her softly. “Punishing you should make you think long and hard about doing something so reckless like running off again. You nearly got us both killed tonight. I won’t tolerate such behavior. Not now and not ever.”
