“Is someone following us?”
“No, I don’t think so. I haven’t seen a tail.”
“Then I’d like to stop. I haven’t seen her since the tour started last year. When this shit hits the news, I want her to know what is going on.”
Jasmine couldn’t deny she’d want her mom to know too. Nobody knew where they were going. A couple of hours’ delay would get them in to Kansas City about ten… “Alright, but only a short visit. We need to get to Kansas City tonight.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
Chapter Twelve
Chad spoke only to direct her through the quaint suburb to a quiet residential area. They pulled up in front of a small, white, siding-clad house with midnight blue shutters that sat at the end of a cul-de-sac. It certainly wasn’t what she’d expected given the massive empire Chad had built. He slipped out of the vehicle while she slipped on a jacket that concealed her weapons. He waited for her at the front of the SUV before he walked forward and knocked on the door.
Jasmine studied Chad. The exhaustion of the last week painted his face with broad brush strokes. He studiously avoided her gaze. But she could see the pronounced dark circles under his eyes and the deep furrows lining his brow.
She laid her hand on his bicep and tugged slightly. “Hey.” He tilted his eyes toward her, and she smiled at him. “It’s been a long time since anyone has introduced me to their mom.” A little levity couldn’t hurt, right?
The corner of his lip tugged up the slightest fraction. “A guy would be lucky to introduce you to his mom.”
Okay, so not the response she was looking for…
The front door flew open. “Teddy? Oh my goodness!”
Jasmine backed away as a woman launched herself at Chad.
~~
Enveloped in his mom’s arms, he pulled her in for a hug. She smelled like home. Her hugs had always pulled him right back to his youth and the security he’d known growing up.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming out? I would have baked you something!” His mom pushed away to chastise him, her smile belying any anger at the surprise visit. She glanced over at Jasmine and did a double take. He’d never brought a woman home. Well, minus Wendy Sherman who he’d dated in high school. “Introduce me to your friend, Teddy.”
“Sure. Mom, this is Jasmine King. Jasmine, this is my momma, Marie Nelson.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Jasmine smiled and extended her hand.
“Oh, no honey, the woman my baby brings home to meet his momma gets a hug.”
He choked back a laugh as his mom pulled Jasmine down into a hug. Surprisingly, Jasmine didn’t seem to have an issue with the contact. He’d thought she’d go all stiff and bodyguard on him.
His mom pulled away, and her eyes bounced from Jasmine to Chad. “Well, don’t just stand there, you two, come inside!”
Chad followed the women inside. It was like going through a time warp. Except for the new roof and renovated kitchen, the house hadn’t changed. The same dark brown leather couches, framed pictures of horses in green meadows, hell, even the wallpaper on the walls was the same.
“You have a lovely home, Mrs. Nelson.” Jasmine moved over to the wall of shame—his school pictures, pictures of him on the football team, his basic training picture from the Army and several pictures of him accepting Entertainer of the Year awards at the CMAs. Hell, looked like she needed to start a new wall or take down some of the older pictures. Not that she would.
“Thank you. We’ve lived here since Teddy was two. Can I get y’all some lemonade or ice tea? I have some soda too if that would be better.”
“Thanks, Mom. Can we go into the kitchen? I need to let you know about some stuff that’s been happening.” Chad flinched at the worried look she gave him and hurried to reassure her. “I’m fine, but you need to know about a few things before it blows up over all over the news.”
His mom nodded, her gray-streaked black hair bobbing with the movement. “Well, alright. Let me get some glasses. Jasmine, honey, grab whatever you and Teddy want out of the refrigerator, would you?”
Jasmine turned her head. A genuine smile spread across her face. “Teddy?”
“Oh, heavens, yes! He’s a junior. When his dad was alive, we took to calling that little dickens Teddy as his middle name is Theodore. He’s been Teddy to me and the folks around here ever since.”
The glasses went onto the table along with the old ceramic cookie jar. Jasmine poured them all lemonade and Chad straddled the chair, sitting down after the ladies.
“So, what’s got you all worked up? I can tell you haven’t been sleeping. You don’t get those circles under your eyes until you’ve almost hit a wall, so spill it.” His mom was a straight shooter, and he loved her for it.
“Jasmine is my bodyguard.”
His mother nodded and opened the cookie jar. “Kinda figured that out when I hugged two guns just a minute ago.” She handed Chad a cookie and offered one to Jasmine, who declined.
“Mom, there have been some threats made against me. The people Jasmine work with believe it is coming from the people closest to me.”
His mom leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “You know I’ve never approved of those people who sponge off you.” She turned in her chair to face Jasmine head on. “Why do you think one of those leeches is after my boy?”
“Several reasons, ma’am. Suffice to say we need to get Teddy here to a safe place where the only access to him is through us. I work for Guardian Security. That will give us time to process the evidence, look into the people close to him and find out who will gain if this person were to succeed in harming him.”
His mom held Jasmine’s stare for a full thirty seconds. He’d been on the receiving end of that look, and it was pure truth serum. He couldn’t ever hide the truth from his mom. Not once.
Finally, she nodded and turned back to him. “What else? You said the news. Why would they run a story about this? I mean, that doesn’t make sense.”
Chad lowered his eyes and crumbled the cookie onto a paper napkin. How the hell did he tell his mom the FBI thought he was connected to three different murders?
“Mrs. Nelson…”
“Marie.”
Jasmine nodded and continued, “Marie. There have been three murders that the FBI and my company, Guardian Security, have been investigating. The only thing connecting these three cases is Chad. He is not under arrest. We have no reason to suspect him, but you and I both know the press will spin this any way they can to boost ratings or sell papers.”
Marie leaned forward and reached across the table. She pulled the crumbled mess of cookie crumbs to her and wrapped them in the napkin before she lifted away from the table and threw the mess into the trash compactor.
“Teddy, did you have anything to do with this?” She looked out the window, not facing them.
He shook his head although she couldn’t see it. “Momma, I swear on Daddy’s grave, I had nothing to do with it.”
He saw his mom’s shoulders relax, and her head nod up and down once. “Okay, well then we can weather this storm, too.”
He was up, out of his chair and hugging his mom before he had any real knowledge of moving. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
“Hush, this isn’t of your making.” She drew a deep breath and cupped his face in her hands. He could see the unshed tears, and the hurt from knowing that he’d once again caused his mom pain made him feel like the worst kind of scum. “I’ll pack a bag and head to Zelda’s. She’s been after me to visit. They won’t have a clue where to find me, but you better take care of yourself. You hear me?” She gave him her ‘I’m going to tan your hide if you don’t behave’ look.
“Yes, ma’am.” Chad hugged her again and glanced over at Jasmine. He did a double take. The woman had unshed tears in her eyes, too. She blinked and looked away quickly, but he’d seen them.
His mom stepped away and put her hands on her hips, already in acti
on mode. “Now, we need to eat what’s in the refrigerator, so I don’t come back to a mess. I’ll tend to that when I get done packing a bag and calling Zelda. You can do me a favor while I’m here. The post office keeps delivering that mail from the VA centers. Could you please move all of it into the spare room? I can hardly park in the garage anymore.”
“What? I thought there were only a few letters?” Chad stepped to the door that led to the garage off the kitchen. He opened the door and flipped on the light. There were stacks and stacks of boxes and flats of letters. Several packages and bundles of letters tipped precariously off of one box near the roll-up door.
“When you started going to the centers, there were only a couple, but they keep coming in. I take it by the postmarks you’ve been keeping up the tradition of going to the hospitals and homes when you are on tour?”
He nodded and stepped down into the garage. He could barely make it around his mom’s old Ford Bronco to the stacks of mail.
“I don’t need all of it moved, just enough that I can get around the SUV with my groceries.”
“Why didn’t you tell me it had stacked up like this? I would have had someone come get it.”
“Ahh… kinda makes me feel like I’m doing something for you by keeping it here. It wasn’t a problem until they got a new postmaster. He won’t store it for you. Obviously, he’s not a country fan.”
Jasmine laughed at his mom’s comment as she followed him into the garage. “I’m going to go pack. You figure out how to stack that higher or make a plan to have someone get it after I get back from Zelda’s.
Jasmine carefully picked up a letter and looked at the address.
“Why a post office box here?”
“I go to the hospitals alone, just me and my guitar. It’s under the radar. Kirk usually covers for me. I sing and talk with the men and women that are recovering. The VA staff asked for an address so they could send thank you notes. I had a PO box from when I lived here… before that first hit and all the noise, so I gave them that. Mom told me a few letters showed up, so I just kept giving that address.” He lifted the package on top of the stack and set it so it wasn’t threatening to fall. His mom must have shoved it up as far as she could reach.
“We need to go through these. The rest of your fan mail is processed by your PR firm, right?”
“Yeah, Millicent set up the fan sites, so she has all the mail. Would you look at all this?”
“I’m calling a team to come get these. It won’t take long to get them here. Would your mom be willing to stay until they come?”
“Yeah. Zelda is her cousin’s wife. They’re both widows, and she lives only a couple hours from here. That’s where she hid out when I went through rehab and restructured my life the first time. No one bothered her.”
“Alright. Do your best not to touch any of the envelopes. Use the cardboard, and we’ll move these over here and on top of this small stack.”
They made quick work of moving the fan mail to make a wider pathway around the old but meticulously maintained vehicle.
“May I ask you a question?” Jasmine led him back into the kitchen.
“Shoot.” He didn’t have anything to hide. The woman knew everything about him anyway.
“The house and the Bronco?” She wiped her hands on a paper towel and leaned against the sink. His arm brushed hers when he soaped up his hands. He was acutely aware of how close they were and the fact that she could move but hadn’t.
“She refuses to take any money from me. I replaced the roof, and she allowed me to redo the kitchen, but…”
“She doesn’t like the people who live off you, does she?”
Chad turned off the water and took the paper towel she offered. He spun and leaned on the counter right next to her. Their arms touched from shoulder to elbow.
“No. She raised me to stand on my own two feet because that was the way she was raised. No matter what I say, the argument is always the same. “This house is paid for. It’s mine, and I love where I live. Why do I need a brand new house?” He shook his head. “I bought her a house, right on the river in Nashville. Beautiful brick house. She flat out refused to move. Thanked me for the thought and told me next time to buy her a bouquet of flowers.” He chuckled and nudged Jasmine. “Said she’d tan my hide if I spent any more money on her. If she needed anything, she’d ask.”
“I like your mom.” Jasmine leaned into him. It wasn’t an overt thing, but the contact between them grew. “We really should go soon.”
“You never did tell me where we were going.”
“Kansas City, tonight. South Dakota, tomorrow.”
Chad looked down into her beautiful green eyes. Even with all the ‘girlfriend’ makeup, the woman cranked every gear he owned. He felt her attraction and started to lean down to kiss her when his mom walked in. Jasmine pulled away and moved to the table.
“Well, dang it, my timing sucked, didn’t it?”
Chad laughed at his mom’s comment. He couldn’t help it or hold it in. His mom was an observant woman.
“Mom, can you stick around for a couple of hours? Jasmine is having her people come pick up the fan mail. They need to process it.”
“Process it? What for?” His mom cast a worried look at the garage.
“With the threat against Chad and the recent murders, we can’t leave any stone unturned.” Jasmine took a drink of her lemonade after she spoke, but it didn’t hide the red tinge of blush that colored her cheeks.
“Oh… alright. You two are leaving soon?” His mom thrust her hands on her hips when they both nodded. “Well, I’m not letting you leave without taking something to eat. I hate throwing out food. Come on, pull out that fried chicken, and there is some potato salad. Teddy, go into the sunroom and grab the picnic basket. Wherever you’re heading, you’ll need to eat.” His mom turned to Jasmine and smiled. “So Jasmine, tell me about your people.”
Chad spun on his heel, hiding the smile that spread across his face, and headed to the sunroom. His mom was a force of nature when she was inquisitive, and right now Jasmine was her biggest question mark. He thought of the sexy woman fending off his mom’s questions and decided to take his time finding that basket. Maybe he was just a bit sadistic.
Chapter Thirteen
Jasmine opened the hotel room door. Jared had reserved only one room, with one king sized bed. The hotel was sold out because Kansas City’s professional football and baseball teams both had home games; otherwise, she would have gotten them transferred to a twin room. Chad had been quiet on the drive. It wasn’t a moody silence, more reflective than anything. She’d listened to music the entire way. Her kind of music, not his. He never said a word, just stared out the side window.
In the room, he placed both of their bags on the faux leather bench at the end of the bed and shrugged, cracking his neck in the process. “I’m going to go shower.” He turned and grabbed his bag and shut the door to the bathroom two steps later.
Jasmine took off her jacket and her weapons. She put the guns on the nightstand beside her credentials, cuffs, and knives. With all the hardware off, she stretched and groaned with the pull. She reached for her cell phone and double checked the door was dead bolted and the privacy bar was engaged.
The shower came on as she dialed. “You’re late,” Jared’s voice rumbled in her ear.
“You know why. Did the team pick up the fan mail?”
“Yeah, I had to pull assets off other events, but we are starting to go through it.”
“What the hell is with this room?” She flopped onto the bed and gazed unseeingly at the popcorn ceiling.
“What’s the problem? One room, two beds. Deal with it, Jazz.”
“One room, one bed, Jared.”
“I reserved two queens.”
“I got one king.”
“Okay… so make a pillow wall and tell that son of a bitch if he touches you, he’s dog meat.”
Jasmine giggled at that. “What if I want him to touch me?” S
he waited for several long minutes before Jared answered.
“Jasmine, do not compromise your objectivity.”
She could image the face he was making. By the sound of his voice, his teeth were clenched, and he was trying desperately not to go off. She wondered if his face was as red as the day Jade had taken his motorcycle and crashed it when they were growing up.
“He’s not involved in these murders. You know it, and so do I.”
“Even if I make that claim, he’s still in danger, and you need to keep your head out of the clouds and keep your eyes open. You can’t do that if you are involved with this man.”
“So you’re telling me you can’t take care of Christian?” Jasmine had no idea if she was going to act on her feelings. Hell, she had no idea if Chad was going to make a move, but she’d be damned if she’d let her brother treat her like a fourteen-year-old girl on her first date.
“That’s different.”
“And that’s bullshit! It isn’t any different. Tell you what, Jared, why don’t you pull your head out of your ass and ask yourself if you’d say that to any other operative, or if it’s just me you’re treating like a child.”
“I’d sure as hell tell anyone in the field on a case the same thing. Get over yourself, Jazz. I don’t give a fuck if you want to sleep with the man, but I do care if you compromise Guardian’s ability to take care of our primary by becoming emotionally involved.”
Jasmine closed her eyes and counted to twenty. He was right. She was projecting. She sighed and sat up. The shower turned off. “Alright. I owe you an apology for that one. I’m fine. He’s fine. We’ll be at the ranch tomorrow, late.”
“Let me know when you hit the road.”
“Good night, J.”
“Night, Jazz. Be safe and smart.”
Jasmine disconnected the call and grabbed a few things out of her bag. Chad exited the bathroom in a fog bank of steam. He headed for his side of the bed without a word, and she headed for the bathroom. She paused and said over her shoulder, “Don’t open the door for any reason.”
Jasmine (Kings of Guardian Book 6) Page 12