by Debbie Mason
Her daughter shimmied up his chest to suck on his face. “You can’t be hungry again.” He held Michaela against him while swinging his bare feet to the floor. “You’re lucky you’re cute,” he told her daughter, rising from the couch to hand her to Sadie.
She snuggled Michaela to her chest, relieved when she didn’t cry and reach for Chase. “I’m so sorry I fell asleep and left you to deal with her all night.”
He rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t know how you’ve been doing this on your own for the past three months and you’re still standing. I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
“I feel like I’ve slept for a week, and that’s thanks to you. I really do appreciate it, Chase.” Thinking of the almost-naked state she woke up in, her eyes went wide and her cheeks heated. “You covered me with the blanket last night, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but I closed my eyes.” A touch of color stained his incredible cheekbones.
She didn’t understand how he looked as gorgeous as ever with so little sleep. Still…“You were walking around in my bedroom with your eyes closed and my daughter in your arms? You’re lucky you didn’t trip over anything.”
“All right, I had my eyes open for the very reason you just stated. I intended to shut them, but your bedroom is…well, it’s a bit of a disaster.” He winced. “Sorry. I understand why it is now.”
She didn’t take offense, because it was the absolute truth. Although she didn’t tell him her daughter wasn’t the only reason her bedroom looked like it did. She’d never been a neat freak, and her messy habits had only intensified after she’d had Michaela. “No need to apologize. I’m just embarrassed you saw me almost naked.”
“You have no reason to be embarrassed. You look amazing. Uh, I didn’t mean to say that. Not that you don’t look amazing, you do, but it implies that I was staring at you while you were sleeping, which sounds a little creepy. I wasn’t. I—” He scratched the back of his head. “I should probably stop talking and grab some sleep. I mean a shower. I’m going to grab a shower.” He went to walk away, and Michaela held up her arms.
He sighed and leaned in to take Michaela’s hand and suddenly reared back. With a finger under his nose, he said, “Sadie, I don’t know what’s in her formula but you need to look for a new brand. Someone that little should not smell that bad.” He frowned at her. “Can you not smell that?”
She shrugged. “I guess I’m used to it.”
“You should get your sense of smell tested. I’m serious,” he said when she laughed, sighing when he noticed Michaela had yet to lower her arms. He pinched his nose and leaned in to kiss her fingers. “I can’t take you, stinky. I have to have a shower or I’m going to smell as bad as you do,” he told her daughter, gagging as he walked away.
Sadie lifted Michaela to smell her diaper. At first, she’d been afraid Chase had been talking about her. “He’s right. You are a little ripe. But don’t worry. Mommy still loves you.” She hugged her daughter tight and headed to the nursery to change her, amazed at how good a little extra sleep made her feel.
Twenty minutes later, Sadie looked up from the drawer she was searching when Chase walked into the kitchen. “Have you seen my cell phone?”
“No. When did you last have it?”
“At the store, but I’m sure I didn’t leave it there.” She wouldn’t, on the off chance Elijah tried to contact her.
“Did you check the diaper bag?” Without waiting for her to respond, he unzipped the quilted pink bag sitting on the island behind Michaela’s carrier and dug around inside. He held up her phone.
“Thank goodness,” she said, and reached for it.
He didn’t immediately let go of the phone. “You haven’t heard from your brother, have you?”
“No, and I have a feeling he won’t risk getting in touch with me now. Not after the other night. But if you’d give me my phone, I’ll check.” He handed it back to her. She entered her passcode and opened her phone. She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“If you do hear from him, you need to tell me, Sadie.”
“I know. I will,” she said when he held her gaze as if he didn’t quite believe her. She nodded at Michaela, who was sucking on a pacifier, looking from her to Chase as if she sensed the tension between them. “Maybe we should change the subject.”
“Sorry, you’re right.” He smiled at Michaela and leaned down to nuzzle her cheek. “Someone smells good. But what’s with the plug in her mouth?” He gestured at the pacifier as he straightened.
“One of Granny’s friends dropped it off yesterday. I’m pretty sure my grandmother asked her to. Even though she knows I’m dead set against them. I don’t need the added expense of braces down the road, but it seemed to work. Nate suggested we give her a sucker.”
“Of course he did.” Chase laughed.
Michaela popped the soother out of her mouth to give him a drooly smile. There was no denying he was drool-worthy. The sexy stubble he’d been sporting this morning was gone, and his golden-tanned skin glowed. He smelled incredible too, and the pristine park ranger uniform he wore only heightened his appeal.
Sadie bent to pick up the pacifier off the floor. She sucked on it and then stuck it in Michaela’s mouth.
Chase looked from her to the floor. “Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how many germs there are on a kitchen floor?” He took the pacifier out of her daughter’s mouth and went to turn on the tap.
Sadie glanced at the floor. It looked pretty clean to her. Much cleaner than it had yesterday morning when she’d left. “Did you wash my floor?”
“Yes.” He tested the water coming out of the faucet with his finger. “It really should be boiled, but this will have to do.”
She narrowed her eyes, taking in the starched lines of his uniform pants. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?”
“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about. But if you’re asking whether or not I’m looking for your—”
She picked up the slice of cold pizza she’d been eating while searching for her phone and waved it at him, a piece of pepperoni falling on the floor. “No, a neat freak.”
He inhaled noisily and bent to pick up the piece of pepperoni. “I’m not a neat freak,” he said while opening the cupboard under the sink and tossing the pepperoni in the garbage can.
She grabbed his hand when he went to close the cupboard door and looked inside. “Really? You cleaned my cupboard and lined up the cleaning products in order of their height.”
“I’m neat, not a freak.”
“Okay, I’m sorry I said that. You’re not a freak. But you may have a slight problem.” He gave her a look, and she pointed her slice of pizza at his pants, being careful not to get any on the floor. “Your uniform looks brand new.”
“It is. I had a run-in with Nessa McNab’s golden retriever.”
She struggled not to laugh. She’d heard all about it yesterday afternoon.
His eyes narrowed. “You already knew.”
“About your swim in Willow Creek to rescue Finn?” She nodded. “Yeah, I did.”
Michaela spat out her pacifier again. Chase picked it up and turned on the tap. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. Everyone at Zia Maria’s had too,” he said as he turned off the hot water, waving the pacifier to cool it off.
“I bet that earned you some brownie points with Zia Maria. She and Nessa are besties.”
He put the pacifier in Michaela’s mouth. “It did, but I think I earned more because of you.” Her daughter spat the pacifier out. It landed on the counter, which he inspected before sticking it back in her mouth.
Sadie frowned. “What do you mean?”
He kept his gaze on the pacifier, catching it when Michaela spat it out again.
Sadie smiled, nodding at the way her daughter pumped her arms and legs and the smile she directed at Chase. “She thinks it’s a game.”
He put the pacifier on the counter and took Michaela’s hand in his. “You’re a smart baby, aren�
�t you?” he said, raising her daughter’s thumb to her mouth. She latched on to it immediately, smiling around it at Chase. He shrugged at the face Sadie made. “It’s better than the pacifier. Thumb-suckers sleep through the night at a faster rate.”
“Did you read that in your baby book?” she teased.
“I Googled it in the middle of the night.”
“I’m guessing by your bloodshot eyes it didn’t do you much good.”
“It will, eventually.” He glanced at his watch. “You should probably get dressed for work.”
“I am dressed.” At his raised eyebrow, she said, “I’ll find something to wear at my grandmother’s store.” She went to grab the carrier’s handle. “You didn’t tell me what you meant by earning brownie points because of me.”
Shocking—yesterday she probably would have forgotten his comment by now.
He didn’t meet her eyes. “They’re worried about you, you and your grandmother. Elijah too. Did you know his girlfriend is expecting?”
“He told me the other night. My grandmother knows too. She wants me to reach out to Payton.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“A good idea because she’s pregnant with my brother’s child, or a good idea because you want me to pump her for information about Elijah?”
“I think you know the answer, Sadie.”
“Yeah, I do.” She returned the carrier to the island and opened the cupboard, tossing the rest of the pizza slice in the garbage. “And I don’t appreciate you asking me to do your job for you. He’s my brother, Chase. Is he a screwup? Yes. Was trafficking drugs for the Whiteside Mountain Gang wrong? Absolutely, and there’s a part of me that won’t be able to forgive him for that. But you didn’t see him when those guys were shooting at him. He—”
“They were shooting at both of you, Sadie.” Chase shoved his fingers through his hair. “Look, I understand we’re putting you in an untenable position. But what if your brother was responsible for Brodie’s murder? Would you be as quick to defend him then?”
“He’s not. Why are you looking at me like that? I think I know my own brother better than you do.”
“According to the ballistics experts, several of the bullets we recovered from the scene are a match to the one that killed Brodie. Your grandmother’s gun came back clean. The bullets didn’t come from Nate’s gun or the other shooters. They were all using high-powered rifles. The bullet came from your brother’s gun, Sadie.”
Her gun. The bullet had come from her gun. Her legs went weak, and she leaned against the island for support, schooling her features to keep her expression blank. No, it would be better if her face revealed all the shock and panic icing her insides. Chase would expect her to feel both emotions after learning in all probability that her brother’s gun was the weapon used in Brodie’s murder.
How was this even possible? She hadn’t shot anyone, and no one had access to her gun…Wait. She’d left the door unlocked yesterday. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility she’d done the same when she’d first moved back to Highland Falls. But that wasn’t when the deputy had been shot. He’d been shot the weekend of her baby shower.
Relief coursed through her, and she opened her mouth to tell Chase the truth, quickly closing it when she remembered a very important fact. She’d brought her gun with her when she’d come home for the baby shower. She’d been worried about Drew. He’d been in a bad place and drinking heavier than usual. Afraid he’d do something stupid, she’d brought her gun to her grandmother’s.
Chase reached out to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Instead of giving him a negative head shake like her body seemed primed to do, she nodded. “I’m fine, thanks.”
She couldn’t tell him the truth, not yet. Not until she figured this out.
Chapter Sixteen
Something’s up with Sadie, Black. Keep a close eye on her today. Monitor her phone calls as much as possible,” Chase said to his partner as he followed Sadie’s SUV on the dirt road, scanning for any sign of a potential threat.
“You tell her that it looks like her brother’s gun is connected to Brodie’s murder?”
“I did. It hit her hard. She went pale and quiet.” He followed close behind her as they turned onto the main road. “She says she hasn’t heard from Elijah.”
“You believe her?”
“Yes, I do.”
“And you believe her because you checked her phone, right?” When Chase didn’t immediately answer, Black swore in his ear. “Listen, Dudley Do-Right, sometimes you have to bend the law, go against your Boy Scout scruples to solve a case.”
“I haven’t done so before, and I don’t intend to start now.”
“I didn’t hear you complaining when I put a tracker on Sadie’s car.”
“I didn’t know for certain that you had. But that was different. Sadie was in danger.”
She still was, which was probably why Chase hadn’t removed the tracker himself. He’d been waiting for her to ask how Gabe had found her. His reason for not telling her wasn’t exactly noble. If she removed the tracker, the odds she was holding out on him went up.
“Have you heard from Gabe?” Chase asked, in hopes of distracting his partner. Plus there was something they needed to discuss.
“Yeah, he tried to reach you about twenty minutes ago.”
He’d been in the shower, a shower that smelled like wildflowers and Sadie. It reminded him of seeing her on the bed wrapped only in a towel last night. He’d told her the truth. He’d done his best to avoid looking at all that smooth skin still damp from the shower, but focusing on her face hadn’t helped as much as he’d hoped. She was a beautiful woman. One he was attracted to despite his best efforts not to be.
The heart wants what it wants, he remembered his mother saying the day their grandfather came to take them away. It seemed to hold true for her. Only she hadn’t wanted him and his brother but a man their grandfather deemed dangerous. His grandfather had been proven right three years later.
Chase wondered what the judge would think of Sadie. He brushed the thought and the answer to his speculation aside. He had a fairly good idea what his grandfather’s opinion of the Gray family would be. “What did Gabe want?”
“He suggested we bring his father-in-law in on the search, and he mentioned someone else he thinks could be of use to us. Hunter Mackenzie.”
“Abby Everhart’s fiancé. I don’t like the idea of bringing anyone else in on this, but I have too much ground to cover on my own. What do you think?”
“Shocked that you’d ask my opinion.”
Chase sighed. “It has nothing to do with you, Black. I’m just used to working on my own.” There was another call trying to come through. His boss at the forest service. Chase glanced at the time. He wasn’t late.
“So you’ve decided you trust me, after all. I’d wondered how long it would take.”
He didn’t, not completely. “Can we get back to the matter at hand? I’m good with Boyd helping out with the search, but I’m concerned Mackenzie might not be able to keep this from his fiancée.”
He glanced at the screen when another call came in from the forest service. He really wished Gabe’s father-in-law had suggested another job for him.
“Abby and her camera. Yeah, I agree. It’s a concern. But Gabe seems to trust him, and I trust Gabe.”
“So do I.”
“You know, we’re actually starting to sound like partners. I think this calls for a celebration.”
Chase was surprised to find himself smiling. It seemed like he was beginning to like the guy. “Let’s save the celebrating until after we bring in Elijah Gray.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” The tenor of Black’s voice had changed. He was thinking about Brodie. Sometimes Chase forgot his partner’s personal connection to the case. It was something he needed to remember, for all their sakes.
“Sadie’s about two minutes out. I can’t stick around. My boss has call
ed twice while I’ve been on with you.”
“Oh yeah, that was something else Gabe mentioned. Looks like you’re going to have a busy day, my man. A black bear was spotted in someone’s backyard this morning. I hear he’s a big mother.”
Chase didn’t miss the laughter in his partner’s voice. “And you thought you got the short end of the stick working at I Believe in Unicorns.”
“Looks like I was wrong. Wait a minute, I take that back.” Chase saw his partner in the store’s display window as Sadie pulled into the parking spot. “I’m stuck with the kid, and she’s crying again.”
This time it was Chase’s turn to laugh.
Sadie had barely been at the store five minutes when her best friends walked in, which meant she couldn’t complete the text she’d started to her brother. It wasn’t like she could send him a message while Chase watched her every move as they left for work. Pulling off to the side of the road with him following close behind hadn’t been an option either.
“You two are out bright and early.” Their concerned expressions worried her. “What’s going on?”
“What, we can’t drop in and say hi to our bestie without a reason?” Abby asked, her red hair pulled up in a high ponytail. She wore a navy-and-white-checked top with white capris and flip-flops, while Mallory wore a flowy, flower-printed sundress that hid her baby bump.
Today’s weather was more summerlike than springlike.
“It feels like I haven’t seen you in ages.” Her gorgeous blond friend gave her a hug and then beamed at Michaela sitting in her carrier on the counter. Her eyes were still red-rimmed from her latest crying jag. “Oh, look at you, beautiful. Do you mind if I take her out of her seat?” Mallory asked.
“No way. You leave her right where she is. She’s quiet, and I’d like to keep it that way,” Nate answered for Sadie.
“She’s been a little fussy,” Sadie admitted, giving Nate a quelling look.
Unlike Chase, Nate had no qualms hiding his identity. If it wasn’t for Chase, she’d have no idea that every word she spoke was being scrutinized and judged. It was killing her not to let her grandmother in on the secret. The only positive about Nate working and living with Agnes was that he’d keep her safe. Now Sadie had to figure out a way to do what she needed to without him catching on.