by Beth Alvarez
Though he’d stubbornly held onto his old way of life, there wasn’t much reason to keep clinging. He’d been the one to ask for phones; Felicity would pick out hers over the weekend and they’d be halfway into the modern era. The next thing they knew, they’d be working from home on sleek brushed aluminum laptops and drinking coffee made on single-serving machines.
“What a time to be alive,” he muttered, a grim smirk worming its way onto his face at the irony of the statement.
Kade took his Keeper’s card from its hiding place behind his ID, dropping his wallet to the blankets as he flopped back onto his bed. He dialed with his thumb and pressed the phone to his ear, staring at the bunkhouse ceiling while it rang.
It rang longer than he thought it should before an answer came.
“Thaddeus Birch, Keeper.” The old man’s gravelly voice crackled in the poor connection. One of many joys of living in the country, Kade figured.
“Hey. It’s Kade. New phone, write my number down.”
“It’s unlike you to willingly seek cellular service,” Thaddeus said.
“Yeah, well, it’s unlike you to take four rings to answer. What’s going on?”
The Keeper made a sound of irritation. “I am arranging for a hunter to be dispatched to that region. Unfortunately, as you are the only person to submit a report thus far, I’m having difficulty establishing a contact point for information. And the lodging options appear to be... limited.”
Kade snorted. “If you want ’em to be put up in the Hilltop House and work with me, just say it.”
“I am attempting to avoid both of those scenarios,” Thaddeus replied dryly. “I would prefer not to encourage your involvement.”
“And I think you oughta, for more reason than one. I figure you owe me somethin’ after the predicament you put me in last night.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You coulda given my new meal ticket a bit more explanation about what they were doin’ at a motel, you know. I opened the door to find one of Filly’s friends right there, not havin’ a clue what she was there for. You have any idea how awkward it is, havin’ your woman’s friend show up thinkin’ you’re out hirin’ hookers?” Kade struggled to temper his voice. He was alone in the bunkhouse, but anyone could have been outside.
The old man didn’t seem concerned. “I did the best possible on short notice.”
“Well, either way, I don’t think I’m gonna do that again. If you can swing it, I’d like to arrange for cold meals from now on.” It pained him, but Kade steeled his resolve. He was hungry and irritable after his failed meal attempt, but thinking of the deep discomfort of the experience made him reluctant to try again.
A long silence followed, the only clear indicator that Thaddeus had been caught off guard. When he finally spoke, he was as calm as ever. “Are you certain?”
“I don’t want to repeat last night. Especially not after I get married.”
“Very well,” Thaddeus said, though he sounded unconvinced. “I will see what I can do. Is that all you needed?”
“For now,” Kade said. “Keep me posted.”
“Of course.”
The phone beeped at Kade’s ear, signaling the end of the call. He sighed, taking his phone and wallet and tucking them both into a small box he pushed beneath the bed. Then he stripped down to his white undershirt and tugged his belt free, leaving his jeans on as he crawled beneath the blankets. With any luck, he’d rest easy and wake up to find a chilled bottle of blood waiting for him in the fridge, either back at the Hilltop House or at the bakery on the town square.
Clinging to that idea, he nestled into bed, listening to the quiet sounds of ranch life beyond the bunkhouse walls and letting them lull him to sleep.
He didn’t rest long.
Sunlight lanced across his arm and neck, white hot and blistering, and Kade flipped off the other side of his bed with a curse. The light followed him, glancing off a mirror and into the shade of the bunkhouse, blindingly bright and reducing the figure that held it to a shadow.
The smell of singed flesh filled the air and Kade snarled, jerking his pistol out from underneath his pillow. With speed that surprised even him, he bolted forward and plowed his shoulder into the shadow’s stomach, pinning his enemy to the wall and jamming his gun beneath the man’s jaw before his vision recovered enough to see his face.
“So it is true,” Nick wheezed. “It was you.” The powder compact slipped from his hand, the mirror shattering when it hit the floor.
“You’re out of your league, boy,” Kade growled through clenched teeth, gripping Nick’s collar in his fist.
Nick’s lip peeled back, halfway between a grin and a grimace. “You sure about that?” His eyes shifted to the angry, blistered red stripe that ran up Kade’s arm from his elbow to the edge of his sleeve.
“Considerin’ I’m the one with a gun to your head, I’d think it’s pretty clear.” Kade tried to ignore the pain. “You really stupid enough to think you can kill me?”
“I don’t need to.” Nick’s tongue flicked over his lips, a nervous laugh escaping his throat despite the confidence of his words. “And we both know you wouldn’t kill me just to keep your secret safe.”
Kade pulled back the hammer on his pistol with his thumb. “You sure about that?”
Fear sparked in the younger man’s eyes. “Okay, okay, listen. Let’s make a deal.”
“I don’t deal with people who walk into my room and burn me,” Kade spat, jerking his head up to expose the burn across his throat.
“Well, you do now. Because now that I’ve found you out, your options are making a deal or being dumb enough to kill a cop’s kid. You think my dad would rest without solving that? He’d find you out, too. Because it’s not just me you’d have to kill, Kade. I’m not the only one who knows.”
Kade gritted his teeth, easing his grip on Nick’s shirt.
“That’s right,” Nick said, almost goading. “And Penny’s just a bystander, now, isn’t she?”
A bystander who’d spilled Kade’s secret the moment she’d gotten home, apparently. He wanted to be angry, but it wasn’t so different from what he’d done. Except Felicity deserved to know. He wasn’t so sure Nick deserved anything. “You sent her to that motel to whore herself out. Your own fiancée.”
“You got it wrong. She volunteered for that.”
“Not the way I heard it,” Kade muttered.
“Don’t try to change the subject. We’re here to talk about you, Colton. You and your line of work.”
Kade eased backwards, putting a small space between them. He kicked the broken mirror farther out of Nick’s reach, keeping his gun trained on the man’s head. “Now how’d you hear about that?”
“Turns out your Keepers aren’t as good at hiding information as they thought,” Nick said. “I know what brought you here. I know how much money they’re worth. And I’m willing to bet you’re still here because you’re hunting something, aren’t you?”
“I’m still here because I got a pretty little lady waitin’ for me at the Hilltop House,” Kade replied, though discomfort slithered up his spine like a fat slug.
Nick raised a brow. “You don’t even deny the rest.”
“I’m a little too sun-kissed to deny much right now, ain’t I?” Between that, Penny’s first-hand account, and the bite wound he’d left on her neck, he didn’t have much to stand on. Yet, almost worse than being so stuck was that he stood with a gun trained on the one person in Holly Hill he’d been able to confidently call a friend. Before last night, anyway.
“Then you should see that hearing me out is your only option.” Straightening his shirt, Nick brushed dirt from his sleeve.
Kade only frowned.
“I’ll make it quick,” Nick continued. “I don’t think either one of us wants to drag this out. So we’ll make it simple. Whatever it is you’re hunting, once you take it down, you give me half the bounty. In return, I keep your dirty secret.”
“A
re you tryin’ to blackmail me?”
“I don’t think trying is the word.”
Slowly, Kade lowered his gun. “Is that really all you want? Money?”
“It’s the only thing that’s going to fix my problems, so yeah. That’s what I want.” Nick slid his hands into his pockets, visibly more collected without the pistol pointed at his face.
“I don’t know what you’ve got goin’ on, but you could’ve come to anyone in town for help.” Unwilling to take any chances, Kade put his foot on the nearby mirror compact and sent it skidding all the way across the room.
“No, I really couldn’t have. Trust me, this’ll be easier for everyone involved. And as long as you play along, we’ll be on your side.”
“Call me crazy,” Kade said, “but I thought you were before.”
“I don’t do sentimental,” Nick sneered, inching backwards toward the door. “But I do have connections you can’t access, no matter how popular Felicity is around town. My dad’s office, for one. The whole district, now that he’s sheriff. You’re the hunter. You’re the one who gets paid. But it’s going to benefit both of us, so trust me, I’ll do my share.”
Kade shook his head. “I don’t think trust is somethin’ you’re ever gonna get from me again.”
“Heartbreaking.” Nick caught the edge of the bunkhouse door, taking half a step out before pausing—safely in the sunlight, Kade noted. “I’ll find you when I know more about the monster you’re after. I trust you’ll do the same.” He pulled the door closed behind him, leaving Kade swathed in shadow.
SEVEN
* * *
THOUGH THE HEAT made them unpleasant, Kade didn’t usually have trouble tolerating the multiple layers he wore to shelter his skin from the sun. This time, the fabric felt like sandpaper over his blistered arm, and he wanted nothing more than to tear off his shirts and tell Marshall McCullough where to stick his job.
But that was unlike him, and Kade practiced breathing deep and exhaling slowly as he knotted his bandana around his neck. He was reliable. Dependable. Didn’t get angry at people when other things were bothering him. And if nothing else, at least knowing the bandana was loose enough to cover the worst burn without rubbing was a small comfort.
He’d picked up the broken compact and tried to clean up the shattered glass after Nick’s departure, and he hoped no one would find any stray shards with their feet. Irritable as his injuries made him, thinking of Nick made it much worse.
Kade had called Thaddeus to warn the Keeper of what had been said. The insinuation that there were leaks anywhere in the organization had made the old man bristle like a mad dog, and their conversation had ended shortly. No doubt the old man would be turning over every rock in the office, trying to find whatever worm had betrayed them.
There was Felicity to worry about next. Kade had tried to call her, but she insisted she was too busy to talk. He’d made her promise to lock herself safely in the Hilltop House after bakery hours, but that was it. After that, the other cowboys had been back for lunch, and Kade still needed sleep.
He made a mental note to pick up a phone for Felicity as soon as he could. Once they weren’t tethered by her old-fashioned land lines, he’d just send her a text message. Then there’d be no need to worry about anyone overhearing things they shouldn’t.
Checking with his fingers to make sure his neck was completely covered, Kade adjusted his hat before strolling out of the bunkhouse like nothing was wrong. It was still a bit before his shift, but there was nothing else to do. At least at the Hilltop House, he’d been able to occupy himself by doing housework and maintenance indoors while Felicity was off living her dreams. He didn’t begrudge her; he just didn’t know what to do with himself anymore.
Before he’d met her, hunting had consumed his entire being. He enjoyed working at the ranch, but it only filled twelve hours of the day. With Felicity busy with her bakery and dress, the rest of his hours felt awfully empty.
“Well, well,” Rico announced, his mustache twitching with his smirk. “Looks like Sleeping Beauty finally woke up.”
The older cowboy leaned against the wall of the bunkhouse alongside James, who grinned. “Cuttin’ it closer today, Colton. Already tired after one day of working extra?”
“Tired after pickin’ up the slack around here, more like,” Kade replied. “Who’s ridin’?”
“Brady. Jim here was supposed to go help him, but Marshall wanted us to spend the afternoon replacing fence posts instead.” Rico rubbed his nose with his thumb. “Still plenty to do, if you feel like helping tomorrow.”
“Maybe.” Kade wasn’t keen on the idea of braving the sun while freshly burned, but if he got a delivery of bottled blood before then, that could change. He healed fast, these days. Faster than he had before. He knew some abilities improved as vampires aged, but he didn’t know how fast. Maybe he’d finally reached a point where the change was suddenly noticeable. Like the odd, disproportionate difference in volume between the third and fourth notch on his beat-up old truck’s stereo system.
James shifted on his feet, nodding toward the driveway. “Hey. Check out this fat cat.”
Kade turned, and it took everything in his power not to groan.
A gleaming black Jaguar crept up the drive at a snail’s pace, displacing as little gravel as possible.
“Who do you think that is?” Rico asked in a murmur.
The car stopped. Kade strode ten feet toward it before stopping with his stance wide and his thumbs hooked in his pockets.
The door opened, and out slid a dark-haired man in a fine gray suit.
“Does Dad know you’re drivin’ his car?” Kade called.
His brother’s face darkened.
James let out a low whistle. “Didn’t know you came from money, Kade.”
“Yeah, well.” Kade spat at the gravel. “They can keep it.”
Owen shut the door, sliding his hands into the pockets of his dress pants as he rounded the car. “I didn’t believe it when Dad told me you were working here. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” He stopped a few feet away, his brow furrowed. “Look at you. You haven’t changed at all.”
Kade shrugged, lifting his chin. “Stetson’s new.”
“No,” Owen said, his eyes narrowing. “I mean you look exactly the same as the last time I saw you, and that’s been...”
Too long and yet not long enough, Kade thought with a hint of chagrin. “Wish I could say the same, but you ain’t on the floor and you ain’t bleedin’. Yet.”
Behind him, Rico and James exchanged uncomfortable murmurs, the crunch of gravel under their boots making Kade smirk. They’d slink off and hide for now, but want full details later. Sometimes he thought the cowboys were worse gossips than Miss Gertie.
Owen looked exasperated. “That was ten years ago, Kade. I think it’s time to move past it.”
Just like his brother to sweep everything under the rug and expect they could carry on. No apology. Nothing. Kade wet his lips, stifling his irritation. “You drive all the way from Nashville in a suit?”
“From Oklahoma City,” his brother corrected.
“Had a case there?”
“In a matter of speaking.”
Kade grunted.
According to their father, Owen embarked on a jet-setter lifestyle not long after Kade left, eventually taking up residence in California and getting married. It had been a beautiful wedding. Their dad had shown him the pictures. And though Owen had money and a perfect wife and a perfect life, he hadn’t made the trip back to Nashville when Kade emerged from the ether after ten years missing. He’d made the effort to mend ties with what remained of his family. Owen hadn’t. Kade appreciated the time with his father; it was the first time they’d gotten along that he could remember. But the message from Owen had been loud and clear.
Owen cleared his throat, “Listen, Kade-”
“If you were thinkin’ you could just show up at the ranch and have a deep heart-to-heart and have everythin
g be better, I got a sad reality for ya,” Kade interrupted. “This here is my job. Work. I earn my keep and I’m proud of it.”
“And that’s why I’m here.” His brother let his eyes drift toward the range.
Kade raised a brow.
“Pam asked for a divorce,” Owen said, the words half-sigh. “It’s killing me. I need help. Just a bit to cover some bills until all this is settled.”
Sudden anger pooled in Kade’s stomach, hotter and sharper than the worst hunger he’d ever felt. “Wait a minute.” He lifted a finger, tilting his head. “You drove Dad’s car to the middle of nowhere in Texas to ask me for money?”
“Look, I know-”
“No, no.” Kade shook his head. “You’re asking me—a cowboy—for money?” The idea alone set him to seething. After everything he’d gone through, and everything Owen had said and done when the roles were reversed, he still had the gall to ask?
Owen grimaced. “Yes.”
“For Pete’s sake, Owen, you’re the lawyer! Didn’t you have a prenup?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Sounds like!” Crossing his arms, Kade struggled not to laugh. “And you know, I really wanna hear this story. Sounds like it’ll be good. But you know what? I got work to do, so you’re just gonna hafta climb back into that car and wait.”
His brother’s face fell. “When are you off?”
“Six in the morning.” Kade allowed himself a smirk when Owen looked even more discouraged.
Owen’s eyes darted to the bunkhouse. “Are you staying here?”
“McCullough only puts up family and people who earn it. Ain’t got space for pretty lawyer boys.” As bitter and vindicated as he felt, a small tinge of guilt still tugged at Kade’s heart, and his voice softened. “But if you head back to the Hilltop House, I’m sure Filly will be off work and home any minute. The inn’s closed until peak season, but it don’t matter. She’ll put you up.”
Though crestfallen, Owen nodded. “We’ll talk tomorrow, then?”