by Connie Mann
The chief’s eyes widened. “That’s foolish. We don’t know who we’re dealing with here.”
“Right. That’s why we’re doing everything we can to find her.”
“Why haven’t you put out an Amber Alert?”
“I was ready to, but Cat says Mama Rosa is adamant that we don’t. She thinks Blaze is still in town. She doesn’t want her name and photo blasted all over the airwaves and Internet.”
“She give a reason why?”
“Cat says it’s because of what Blaze ran from to begin with.”
The chief pursed his lips, considered. “Any chance Teddy died because of her past, then? Something she told him?”
Nick had considered that and dismissed it as a long shot, so he was surprised to hear the chief mention it now. Even though Monroe was clearly a politician, he couldn’t forget that a smart cop lived behind all the hype. “I’ll go talk to their friend Bryan again, see if we missed a connection somewhere.”
Nick stood to leave, nodded at the box. “What were you looking for, Chief?”
“Answers. So far all we have are questions.” Monroe shook his head.
Back at his desk, Nick noticed JD had added to the whiteboard he had put up. He studied Teddy’s picture at the top and other photos taped below. His worry increased when he saw Blaze’s photo. He stopped, surprised to see Cat’s there, too. Plus Varga’s, and a photo of Nick’s destroyed home.
Nick let the questions circle in his mind. Was it possible that Blaze’s past and Cat’s past were all connected to Teddy’s death and the scopolamine and drugs in Safe Harbor?
Or were these separate things and trying to tie them together would only complicate matters further?
Frustrated, he decided to take a walk around downtown, clear his head and talk to a few people.
If he happened to run into Cat while he was out, so much the better.
Chapter 26
The afternoon sunlight blazed through the windshield as Cat drove toward Safe Harbor. How was she going to find Garcia’s place? She eyed the satchel on the seat beside her. With every mile, she told herself her uncle had wanted her to take the money. What he’d said and the way he’d left it there was tacit agreement, right?
Or would he report it stolen and have her arrested?
No, that didn’t make sense. He’d never want the scrutiny of local law enforcement.
She only knew of one way to find Garcia. Cat parked downtown, near the weather cam. Just as she reached into the trunk to pull her violin out of the case, Nick stepped up beside her. She knew it was him before she saw him, as some sixth sense had started to alert her every time he was near. Maybe it was the clean sandalwood of his cologne or simply the way her heart sped up whenever he was around.
She turned, and the worry in his eyes touched something deep inside her. “Hello, Officer Stanton.” She smiled, trying to lighten his expression, but he didn’t return the smile. “What’s wrong?”
“Let’s go get some ice cream, at the new place just down the highway.” He tried to lead her toward his car, but she stopped, put a hand on his chest.
“You’re scaring me. Tell me what’s wrong.”
He let out a harsh breath. “Nothing new is wrong. I just want to talk to you.”
Cat nodded, unsure what was going on. He was strung tight, like there was more humming under his skin than the worry about Blaze. She cast several glances toward him as they drove to the ice cream place, and found him eyeing her like he didn’t know what to do with her.
Cat looked away. If he had any inkling of what she had planned, he’d definitely try to stop her.
Nick had never been at a loss for words, but as he studied Cat, he couldn’t come up with a single thing to say. His feelings for her were like a wad of discarded fishing line, a twisted, mangled mess, without any rhyme or reason.
Watching her lick a double scoop of caramel sea salt ice cream wasn’t helping, either. Everything inside him tightened, and he crushed the bottom of his waffle cone before he realized what he was doing.
He looked away and focused on finishing his own ice cream. When she turned toward him, those dark eyes wide and worried, he was lost.
Leaning over the console, he pulled her into his arms, and held tight. She stiffened for just a moment, then relaxed into his arms. He didn’t say a word, simply stroked her hair and enjoyed the feel of her in his arms.
He shouldn’t enjoy it, he knew that. Cat wasn’t for him. She worked from a moral code too different from his. He was a cop, a black-and-white, right-and-wrong kind of guy. He didn’t like gray. It was too wishy-washy, could too easily lead down a slippery slope straight into black. He preferred clear delineations. Sure, he knew things weren’t always quite so cut and dried—he wasn’t a naive rookie—but rules and boundaries kept things neat and organized. Predictable and measurable.
Cat was like a whirlwind that had blown into his life and tossed everything he knew about the world and himself into disarray. He really didn’t like it.
But he liked her. Felt himself drawn to her like a stupid moth to the bright, shiny light that would kill it. Yet here he sat, wanting to hold her closer yet. Even though he knew she was somehow involved in everything going on in town.
He couldn’t love a woman like that.
He stilled as the truth slammed into him. Too late. Whether he should or not, he realized he already did love her. Somehow, while he wasn’t looking, he’d fallen for the petite warrior with the big, sad eyes.
But he also knew that if she didn’t leave soon, he’d probably end up arresting her. How could he live with that?
Cat held perfectly still, afraid to move a single muscle and break the spell. She’d never felt so safe in her whole life. Not even when her parents were still alive. They’d loved her, sure, but it was more of an obligatory love, not a spontaneous affection stemming from who she was. It was more a cultural expectation. Parents loved their children because they were supposed to, not because they wanted to. Nick, on the other hand, had every reason in the world to avoid her like a stinging insect. Yet here he was, offering comfort and protection. She knew it wouldn’t last. It couldn’t. She planned to offer her life for Blaze’s. And if that didn’t work, she’d still be gone, drawn into Garcia’s sick and twisted world.
An involuntary shudder passed through her, and Nick stiffened, the connection broken. Unexpected tears filled her eyes, but she wouldn’t let them fall. Still, she allowed herself this moment to grieve, to wish for what could never be and to imagine, for just an instant, what it would have been like if things were different, if they were two regular people falling in love.
She did love him, she realized. How could she not? He was everything a man should be: strong and protective, honorable, a guy who kept his word. All the things that made him the wrong man for someone like her, a woman who did whatever needed doing, never mind where it fell in the rule books.
Would he grieve when she either died or disappeared?
He pulled back, and she saw the sorrow in his eyes. He was grieving already. She reached out a hand and cupped his cheek. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Searching her eyes for a moment, he reached out and tucked her hair behind her ears. Then he tugged her closer and gave her the sweetest, most tender kiss she’d ever experienced. He touched her as though she was spun glass and he didn’t want to break her.
Her heart broke into thousands of sharp, jagged pieces as she leaned closer for one final kiss. He didn’t hesitate but cradled her head as his lips met hers again.
For an instant, Cat let down all the walls she’d kept around her heart and poured everything she felt for Nick into the kiss. The longing, the wishes, the regret. As the kiss deepened, she tried to convey all the things she knew she could never say, should never say, for both their sakes. Nick could never be happy with someone like her. He’d spend forever trying to justify the things she said and did and trying to reconcile them to his world and his moral code. She would never ask that of him.
And truthfully, she knew she would never escape from Garcia and her uncle. She was never sure exactly what her uncle wanted from her. But with Garcia, she knew—had known it from the time she was a scared teenager. The lustful, possessive look in his eyes still made her want to throw up. She had to get Blaze out of Garcia’s grasp, now. No one should have to spend their life on the run the way she had, either. If she could spare Blaze that, she would. Even if she had to offer herself in trade.
It would require every ounce of strength she possessed.
Equally hard, she had to let Nick go. Now. Before they hurt each other any more.
She put her hands over his strong ones where they cradled the back of her head and slowly inched away, already missing the taste and feel of him.
She took a deep breath. “As soon as we find Blaze, I’ll get out of your hair. I have another gig I need to get to.” Which was true, as Walt Simms had said she could come back anytime. She didn’t want to. But she would never tell Nick that. Best to leave certain things unsaid.
The dazed look in his eyes said the kiss had affected him as much as it had her, but then the fog cleared and he snapped back into warrior cop mode.
He sat back, cleared his throat. “Right.”
Cat looked at him and couldn’t hide her terror. “She’s out there, Nick. All alone. She’s just a kid.”
“I know. And we’re going to find her. If we’re right and either Wang or Garcia has her, they’re holding her for a reason, so I don’t think they’ll hurt her.”
“Garcia has her. And it’s me he wants.”
“We don’t know that for sure.”
Cat looked away. “Yes, we do.”
Nick tipped her face up, forced her to meet his eyes. “What are you saying, Cat? What haven’t you told me?”
The questions whirled around in Cat’s head as she looked at Nick, tried to decide how much to say. Could she trust him with the whole sordid story? And if she did, would he try to stop her from doing what she had to do? She almost snorted. Of course he would. He was a protector, and he’d want to save her. But he’d also do everything in his power to save Blaze.
That was what mattered. Blaze. She had to make sure Blaze was OK.
Her heart pounded and her hands wanted to shake, but she ignored all of that. She laced her fingers together and glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. “It’s kind of a long story.”
Something in her voice must have alerted him. He turned so that they were facing each other, knees almost touching. “I’ve got time. Start at the beginning.”
His gentle tone gave her the courage she needed to begin. She told him about her parents. About the hours and hours of practice every day, the isolation from other children, and her parents’ attitude of superiority over the rest of their little Indiana town.
Once she started, the words just kept coming. She told him how she always felt like the outsider in her parents’ relationship, of how her ability to play the violin seemed the only redeeming quality they thought she had.
“And then they died in the train wreck, traveling from one concert venue to another.”
“You were with them.”
Nodding, she squeezed her eyes shut against the memories. The sights, the sounds. She’d never forget them. She cleared her throat. “My uncle—my father’s brother—showed up. I guess the orchestra contacted him, and I was whisked away to his penthouse in Miami. Suddenly, I was surrounded by people. He had a huge staff, and people came and went at all hours, but I was just as lonely as before. Nobody talked to me. It was a really hard time. And if I thought my parents were strict about my music practice, that was nothing compared to my uncle. I spent hours and hours with my violin, and he expected me to play for him every night. Phillip drove me to and from school and made sure I never went anywhere else. I had no friends, no one to talk to. Except one person.”
She stopped, dug deep for the strength to tell him everything. Nick gave her an encouraging nod and took her hand.
“I met Daniel Habersham several months after I arrived. I knew he came from a wealthy family, but he was the kindest, gentlest person I’d ever met. He seemed to care for me, not as a violinist, but just as Catharine. He called me Cathy, something my uncle would never allow.
“Daniel wanted to take me to the spring dance, but I knew my uncle would never allow that, either. I’d asked to go, and he’d already said no. But Daniel said he wanted to do things properly and insisted on coming home with me after school one day to speak to my uncle himself.”
Nick nodded his approval. “Sounds like he was raised right.”
“I knew it wouldn’t go well, but Daniel wouldn’t be dissuaded. When we got there, Garcia was also at the penthouse, and there was tension in the air. We chatted for a bit, and then my uncle told me to go to my room while the three of them talked. I didn’t want to, but I left. I snuck back downstairs to the library, next door to my uncle’s study. I’d learned that if I stood under the air-conditioning vent, I could hear what was happening in his study.”
She looked up, met Nick’s eyes. Here’s where it got tricky. How much should she tell him? She decided to say as much as she could. “I couldn’t see, but all of a sudden, I heard Daniel make a horrible choking sound. My uncle sounded angry, demanding to know how much of the drug Garcia had given him.”
Her hands shook, and she tucked them under her thighs, so Nick wouldn’t see. “When I heard them say he was dead, I raced back up to my room and threw up. I was terrified.” She squeezed her eyes shut against the memories. “My uncle knocked on my bedroom door a little while later and said Daniel had to leave unexpectedly.”
The silence lengthened. Then Nick asked, “Why did they drug him? Do you know?”
“It sounded like they wanted information from him.” She couldn’t bring herself to explain Garcia’s questions about her virginity.
Nick’s eyes narrowed. “What did they give him?”
“Devil’s Breath. Scopolamine.”
Nick’s jaw clenched. “So that’s why you recognized it.”
She swallowed hard. “Yes. Seeing Teddy that night brought it all back.”
“Is that when you ran away?”
Cat looked up, saw nothing but compassion in his eyes. “Yes. I was terrified. I tried to call Daniel, hoping I’d misunderstood, but he didn’t answer. I took my mother’s violin and climbed out the window at my violin teacher’s house. I’ve kept moving ever since.”
She could almost see the wheels turning in Nick’s head as he fit the pieces together. She’d left one out, but she couldn’t tell him about what Garcia wanted from her. Maybe he’d figure it out on his own.
“You think Garcia knows you overheard? Or at least suspects?”
She shrugged. “How could he not? I was in the house when it happened, and then Daniel was gone. It was all over the news, since his family was pretty prominent.”
“Did they recover his body?”
“Yes. I saw it in the paper. I had stayed in Florida, trying to find him, still naively hoping he might be alive, but I never found a single trace. He was found in the Everglades, the victim of an apparent alligator attack.” She shook her head. She wouldn’t let those metal images in. Couldn’t.
“Why did you run? Didn’t you think your uncle could, or would, protect you?”
“I had overheard enough to know that the two of them were in business together. I didn’t want to be a bargaining chip.”
Nick stared at her for a long time, searching for more, but that was all she could say. “You were what? Thirteen?”
“Fourteen.”
“You are one tough cookie, Cat. The fact that you survived and stayed under the radar all these years is pretty amazing.”
She shrugged, uncomfortable with his praise. She hadn’t done anything praiseworthy. She’d merely survived. And done some sketchy things along the way to help other young girls get home safe. “I just kept moving.”
“From what Walt said, you’ve
done more than that. You’ve been helping other runaways and women in trouble.” He paused. “And now you’re trying to help Blaze.”
She met his gaze. “She reminds me of me.”
“You think Garcia wants you and is holding her as bait.”
“That’s my guess. Yes.”
“I can’t let you do it, Cat.”
She scrambled out of the SUV, scowled at him over her shoulder. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you. You don’t get to make decisions for me. I’ve been making them on my own for a long time, as you just said. You do your cop thing, and I’ll do what I need to in order to protect my family. And make no mistake. Blaze is family.”
He hurried around the SUV, stopped her with a hand on her arm. He cupped her shoulders, his expression fierce. “We are going to get Blaze out of there. I promise. But I don’t want to lose you in the process. Don’t try to do this without me, Cat.” He shook her lightly. “Promise me.”
Cat looked into his eyes, heart racing, indecision warring with common sense. He was a cop. He had resources she didn’t have. But he’d also do everything by the book, and Garcia had his own twisted code that was light-years from Nick’s.
The silence stretched. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
He studied her for several minutes, and Cat wondered if he’d try to arrest her or something. But finally he simply nodded and said, “I’ll take you back to your car.”
Neither said a word until he’d pulled up next to her beat-up car. He walked around to her side, opened the door, and hauled her into his arms for a kiss that left her shaken to her core.
Then he climbed into his SUV and drove away.
The regret she’d seen in his eyes would haunt her forever. But she’d think about that later.
Right now, she had to find Garcia, and there was only one way she knew to do that.
As before, she pulled out her violin and stood before the camera trained on the street and started playing, trying to ignore the trembling in her hands. Come on, come on. She kept her eyes on the people coming and going, especially the cars along the square. She’d played most of Panis Angelicus before she spotted the car she was looking for. At least she hoped it was the one.