Secrets at Cedar Cabin

by Colleen Coble

  Lance ran through the Seattle streets as fast as he could. Agents had followed Bailey, and she told him through the mic where she was heading. When he stepped into the café down the street from the hotel, he found her nursing an iced tea with lemon. Her face was white, and her hand trembled as she ran her finger along the condensation in her glass.

  He dropped into the chair beside her. “He scared you.”

  “I hate him.” Her voice shook.

  “You did great, Bailey. At least we know your mom was threatened.” He had been so relieved when he found her safe. She’d gotten under his skin somehow, and the thought of that lowlife hurting her had dogged him all evening.

  Her green eyes were huge and tragic as she raised them to meet his gaze. “He definitely has ties with trafficking, but it didn’t even seem to bother Kyle that his friend made such an outrageous threat to Mom.”

  Lance struggled to keep his calm. He didn’t want his anger to fuel Bailey’s agitation. “Knowing his connection to this is huge. We can track his known associates, get his phone records to see who he’s talked to, and follow him to see if he’ll lead us to that friend. And clearly your mom knew enough to be afraid of the man who called her. Maybe she even knew him.”

  Bailey stared at her glass. “He seemed scared that I’d leave without signing over the property. Why would he care about that? I didn’t even know about it until he gave it to me.”

  “Makes me wonder if he’d given you that deed without permission from someone. If we could only discover who owns Baker Holdings, we might get somewhere, but it’s too well hidden.”

  “What can I do now? See Kyle again?”

  He put a protective hand on her shoulder. “No, I don’t want you around him now that we know he’s involved in trafficking. In fact, I don’t think it’s safe for you to stay at your little cottage. He knows where you are now. Can you think of anywhere else you could go?”

  “I could stay with Lily. She needs more care anyway. I was thinking about fixing up the loft so I could sleep in it and bringing her to my cabin, but her place is larger. I could park my car in her garage. It’s so remote, I’d be able to duck inside if I heard a car coming down the lane.”

  He frowned as a dozen dangerous scenarios played out in his mind. “They could come by boat and walk across though.”

  “Jermaine’s place is between Lily’s and mine. They might not go that far from the water.”

  She had a point, but he still didn’t like it. “There’s nowhere else?”

  “I could rent somewhere or stay in a hotel, but I don’t think moving to a different place in plain sight would slow them down for long. They might not think to look at Lily’s.”

  He couldn’t fault her logic. “Okay. I don’t suppose there’s room for me at Lily’s?”

  “It’s a four-bedroom cabin, so there’s plenty of room.”

  Was that hope in her eyes? He knew she was scared. Who wouldn’t be with the danger lurking around her that seemed to increase every day. “I’ll move in, too, then if you think it’s okay with Lily. This connection to Kyle is my only lead to the traffickers. It will probably bring me more information than aimlessly walking the streets of Seattle searching for Ava.”

  “I doubt Lily will mind. I’ll need to clean it first. The place is a mess. I can sleep in a hotel tonight, then go down and clean it tomorrow.”

  “I’ve got a two-bedroom condo here in Seattle. It’s late. You can stay with me, and we’ll both go back to Lavender Tides tomorrow. Or if you’d rather stay in a hotel, I can camp out there. I don’t think you should be alone.”

  Her green eyes held his captive. He’d never seen eyes like hers, and he couldn’t look away. It was as if she were seeing into his soul to test his motives.

  She finally nodded. “I can stay in your spare room. I’m exhausted, quite honestly. But I didn’t bring a change of clothes. As long as we go back first thing in the morning, it should be okay. Sheba will want breakfast. I put water out for her and fed her before I left the house.”

  “I’ve got sweats you can wear. They’ll be big on you, but they’re clean. And I even have a hair dryer and shampoo.” He grinned and signaled for the server. “Let’s have some dinner first. I’m famished.”

  “Me too, now that I’m away from Kyle’s cologne. I used to like it, but now it makes me want to throw up.”

  He glanced at the menu as the server, a college girl from the looks of her, came their way. “I think I’ll have a burger and fries.”

  “Sounds good to me. Red meat to strengthen my backbone. Put avocado on mine, please.”

  The server jotted down their order and left them alone again. Lance studied Bailey’s face and the way her long lashes lay on her cheeks as she gazed down at her hands. “Have you always had purple hair?”

  She looked up and smiled. “I dyed it on the drive out here. I’d read that if you want to hide, pick a really bold and outlandish style. People will notice the hair or the clothes and not you.”

  “I don’t think anyone could avoid noticing you, purple hair or not.” His face heated. He couldn’t believe he’d just said what he was thinking. “I mean, you’re a striking woman. You can’t hide those eyes. Your mom had green eyes too?” Nice save. Deflect the topic to something safe.

  She shook her head. “She had blue eyes and much lighter hair. I don’t know where I got my coloring. Maybe my dad, but she would never talk about him. I don’t even know his name.” She reached up and pulled the pins from her hair. “My head hurts.” Her hair tumbled down onto her shoulders, and she ran her fingers against her scalp. “That feels better.”

  He was more attracted to her than he’d thought. There was more to her than her beauty. And everything about her intrigued him. Staying close to Bailey might be more dangerous than he’d thought.

  Chapter 26

  Bailey should have felt nervous being alone with Lance in his condo, but she wasn’t. They stepped into the spacious condo. The light wood floors and gray walls enveloped her with tranquility the moment he shut the door behind them. A faint odor of Pine-Sol hung in the room, and the place seemed spotless.

  He showed her around the condo, including the spare room, which held a queen bed covered with an all-white quilt decorated with ocean-blue pillows. The walls were a pale blue, several shades lighter than the pillows, and a seascape rug softened the hardwood floors. “This is beautiful.”

  “There’s a lock on your door.” He pointed it out and held her gaze. “Just in case you’re nervous.”

  “I’m not. I trust you.” She shouldn’t, not with her track record, but the man made it hard to hold on to her armor. His steady dark-blue eyes inspired total belief in his abilities and his character.

  He smiled. “Your bathroom is just across the hall.” He flipped off the lights to the guest room as they exited.

  She peeked inside the spacious bathroom. The marble top held two sinks, and the huge tiled shower looked inviting.

  He pointed to his right. “My room is at the end of the hall.”

  The door he referred to was closed. “I don’t get to see if you’re a slob?”

  She didn’t expect him to open the door, but he did. She peeked inside from the doorway to a king bed neatly made with a blue quilt, no pillows. The dresser had nothing on top of it, and the bedside tables held only lamps. Neat as a pin.

  “Are all FBI agents neat freaks?”

  “I’m a minimalist.” His eyes gleamed. “I’m probably the exception and not the rule among agents. Daniel’s place would give you a heart attack, but he’s got a toddler in the house.”

  “Aw, he has a baby?” She followed him to the comfortable living room with its overstuffed leather sectional and dark-wood tables. “How old?”

  “Milo just turned one. I was at his birthday party, and it was bedlam. I wanted to pick up all the wrapping paper and corral all the toys. Milo is cute though, and I’m sure he’s worth living in that mess.”

  She sank into the welcomi
ng embrace of the couch cushions. “I’d love to have half a dozen kids.” The words were out before she realized it. “Sorry, we’re treading into personal ground again, aren’t we?”

  “I think we’re beyond a victim and law-enforcement type of relationship. Why so many kids?”

  “I grew up alone. You know about my stepbrothers. I always wanted a little brother or sister. Since I can’t have them, I hope to someday fill the house with laughter and kids.” She fell silent and stared down at her hands. “I’ve always wanted a real home. We bounced from rental to rental most of my life. I don’t even have any cousins. No family at all now that Mom’s gone.”

  She cleared her thickening throat. This wasn’t the kind of thing she usually shared with anyone. He watched her intently. His half-smile seemed approving.

  She forced a lighter tone into her voice. “How about you? You have a girlfriend who’ll come hunting for me because I stayed here?”

  His eyes crinkled at the corners, and he barked out a laugh. “There’s not a lot of time for dating when you’re with the FBI. I got through school in record time by taking as heavy a load as I was allowed, and I took summer school too. I got engaged my first summer out of school, but she didn’t like playing second fiddle to my obsession to find Ava. I had what seemed a credible lead the weekend of my engagement party and went to check it out. She called off the wedding the week before the ceremony.”

  “You’re kidding! A party isn’t worth Ava’s life.”

  “That’s what I thought, but Kim had a different view. And I found I was okay with it. Looking back I realized it was always about her. Kim had little interest in my family, and it was always difficult to get her to visit my parents. I doubt we could have made a marriage work. But if life ever settles down, I wouldn’t mind having a bunch of kids. I could about eat up little Milo.”

  “Driven,” she said.

  He nodded. “Guilty as charged. I wanted to find my sister.”

  “I can’t imagine how hard this has been.”

  “Pure torture,” he agreed. “So you moved a lot and you always wanted siblings. What else? How’d you get into nursing?”

  She smiled and pulled her legs up under her on the sofa. “I gravitated to older people in the neighborhoods we moved to. I told you about always looking for the missing grandparents. When I was thirteen, we lived in an apartment building in Phoenix. There was a sweet little old lady next door who used to have me over for milk and cookies after school. She started failing, and her daughter asked me to keep an eye on her. I cooked for her, gave her medicine when it was time, and spent a lot of hours with her. I loved her so much. I found I liked taking care of people.” She shrugged. “Sounds lame.”

  “It doesn’t sound lame. You care about other people. That’s a rarity in this world.”

  His soft words caused her pulse to thump in her chest. “I’m not one to play games, Lance. I find it hard to hold back on talking about something when it’s staring me in the face, and I feel like there’s something between us. Something different—and maybe even special. It could be my imagination, but I like being around you. You’re—different. I don’t have a great track record though, so I have to tell you I’m terrified at the way I’m feeling.”

  The gentle expression in his eyes intensified. “Shew, you don’t pull any punches, do you?” He chuckled. “It’s not your imagination, Bailey. I like being around you too. Probably more than I should when I’m supposed to be concentrating on finding my sister.”

  “I want to help you do that.”

  “I know you do. And once she’s found, I’d like to ask you out.”

  She held his gaze. “I’ll say yes.”

  His gentle smile came again. “That’s a load off my mind.”

  He was nothing like Kyle. This was a man she could trust with her life—and that’s exactly what she’d been doing for the past few days. If anyone could find out what was happening, it was Lance.

  His secretary had started the coffee, and King inhaled the aroma of his Guatemalan coffee, then sipped a cup as he took care of signing various paperwork she’d left for him. He had several meetings in Seattle today, so he’d have to wrap things up quickly, then make the two-hour drive to the city.

  He smiled. Life was good, and his business had never been better. The big arms purchase he’d just landed would bring in several million.

  Chey knocked, then came on in. “Sir, I have the new pictures of the girls, both the ones we’re selling and the ones who will be dancing in Shanghai. Would you like to see them, or should I forge ahead with arranging sales?”

  “Let me take a look.” He enjoyed this part of the business. His merchandise was always the best quality.

  Chey crossed the walnut floors and handed him a sheaf of glossy photos. Lotus’s photo was on top, and he stared at her full lips and exotic eyes. “She’s as beautiful as ever. She’ll be a big hit in Shanghai.” He flipped to the next picture, a young blonde. “She’s very attractive. I haven’t seen her before. How long have we had her?”

  “Just got her a couple of days ago. She hasn’t been with any johns yet.”

  He pursed his lips. “Excellent. Let’s advertise her as a virgin. She’ll bring in a lot of money.”

  He went through the other pictures, some American, some foreign. Many of the girls in his stable were plucked from countries like Cambodia, Thailand, and Romania, but the Apsara-trained dancers were the most valuable to his organization. “Looks good. Let’s get rid of all of them but the dancers until the heat’s off. We can also snatch more girls in a few months and start over with the lower-class brothels.”

  “Yes, sir.” Chey accepted the stack of photos and headed for the door. As he opened it, Kyle burst into the room.

  “You’ve got to do something!” Kyle’s hair was mussed, and he had dark circles under his eyes. The shirt he wore was wrinkled like it had been slept in. If he’d slept at all.

  “What’s going on?” He motioned for Chey to close the door behind him. “Get some coffee and calm down.”

  “I don’t want coffee.” Kyle raked his hand through his disheveled blond hair. “Bailey came to see me last night. She’s been staying at the cabin, and I think the only reason she visited was to grill me about her mom.”

  Kyle was such an idiot that he’d likely spilled information he should have kept buttoned up. “What did she say?”

  Kyle paced the floor. “She wanted to know how I’d gotten her mom to change her mind and favor the marriage. She’d evidently been thinking about it and remembered how opposed her mom had been at first.”

  “What did you tell her?” He kept his voice deceptively calm, but he curled his hands into fists in his lap.

  “She startled me so much that I told her the truth. That a friend had threatened her mom. She somehow made the assumption the friend meant to put her in a brothel, so I think she knows something about the sex trafficking.”

  “You idiot! Why did you tell her that?” Under the desk, he reached for the secret door with the gun. He’d like to shoot Kyle himself.

  “I didn’t give her your name, of course. I didn’t even tell her you were my uncle.”

  That was something at least. “She must have called the FBI, and that’s how they found the bodies. Did you check her for a wire?”

  Kyle blinked, then frowned and dropped into the chair. “Why would I even think she was wearing a wire? She just showed up at my hotel room dressed to the nines and looking hot. I thought maybe she wanted to get together.”

  “Probably to soften you up.” The boy was such an idiot. And a liability. If the FBI happened to find the older body, it could lead to all kinds of trouble.

  Kyle would have to be eliminated. A pity, but he’d always known he’d have to kill him sooner or later. He didn’t want to share the business. He’d built it to this stage, and it belonged to him.

  He put his hand on the desk and drummed his fingers. “Where is Bailey now?”

  “Back at Cedar
Cabin, I assume. She ran out of the hotel room when I asked her to sign the cabin back over to me.”

  “So you failed in that simple task as well.”

  Kyle shrugged. “I’m sorry, Uncle, but she wasn’t listening to much of anything I said.”

  “I need the property back. I can’t get rid of her unless I get that deed. Otherwise it would go to her next of kin.”

  “She has no next of kin. Could I produce the marriage certificate and show I’m her husband? As long as it didn’t hit the news, no one would contest that.”

  “That might work.” Which meant he’d have to let Kyle live just a little longer. At least he now knew where to find Bailey.

  Chapter 27

  Lance hadn’t slept much last night. Bailey’s sweet words kept ringing over and over in his head. “Something between us.” That felt like an understatement. The moment the words left her mouth, they’d lodged in his heart. He’d been trying to ignore the pull he felt toward her, but she dragged it right out into the open.

  One thing about Bailey—you’d always know where you stood with her. She didn’t play games, just like she’d said. How many women could say that? Once the traffickers were behind bars and their captives were free, he’d find out just where this relationship might go.

  At the first streaks of sunlight through his blinds, he rose, showered, and pulled on jeans and a sweatshirt. When he stepped into the hallway, he nearly collided with her coming out of the bathroom, and he set his hands on her shoulders to steady them both. Her hair was up in a towel, and she wore a white terry-cloth robe he kept in the spare-room closet for guests. Her skin smelled heavenly, a mixture of vanilla shower gel and warm woman.

  “Sorry.” He couldn’t seem to take his hands away. Her arms were warm and pliant under his fingers.

  Her green eyes huge, she looked up at him with a smile. “I thought I heard you stirring. It’s only six.”

  “I couldn’t sleep.”

  “Me neither.”

  What would she do if he leaned down and tasted those plump, kissable lips? He couldn’t tear his gaze away from them.