The next morning, Cassie woke Jack early enough to catch the sunrise. They sat on her porch in silence and watched the sun paint the sky like an artist’s brush. Everything was right in the world for just that moment.
Cassie insisted on making breakfast before Jack headed back to the city and his crime fighting duties. She hadn’t asked about his job and Jack hadn’t volunteered any information. When he was with Cassie, he didn’t want to talk about that part of his life. While Cassie cooked, Jack showered and dressed for work. He strapped on his gun holster with purpose. They had just finished breakfast and were polishing off their coffee when the doorbell rang.
“Expecting anyone?” The look of alarm on Cassie’s face made Jack jump to his feet. “Stay here,” he said, subconsciously patting his gun on the way to the door.
He opened the door to find a scrawny young man holding a package. “Can I help you?”
“I have a package for Cassandra Miller,” the man said after consulting his paperwork.
Cassie stepped around him and signed for the package. She held it uncertainly in her arms as they both waited for the delivery man to leave.
“Did you need something?” Cassie asked when he didn’t move.
“I have a letter for Jack Stone.” The man held up a large envelope. Jack looked at Cassie and then back at the man. “I was told to give this to him after the lady opens her package.”
For a brief second, Jack wondered if Suza was playing some kind of sick joke on him, teaching Jack a lesson about disobeying him. But there was a much more likely explanation that made Jack reach for the package.
Cassie had beaten him to it and tore the box open. She lifted the lid and revealed a dozen blood red roses. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked from the roses to Jack. One look at his face told her all she needed to know- Jack hadn’t sent the flowers. Her hand snatched the card tucked inside and she held it up for him to see.
SOON.
Jack grabbed the envelope from the delivery man and ripped it open. He removed the photos inside with a shaking hand. The first photograph was an 8X10 color photo of Cassie, bloody, naked, and tied to a bed. Jack knew instantly that it had been taken by Carver when she was still in captivity. The second photo was also of Cassie but this time she was with Jack. It was from last night when she had met him on the porch. They were holding each other, oblivious. Cassie’s head was tilted back as she looked into his eyes adoringly.
The third and final photograph didn’t include either of them. It was a candid shot of Jenny. She was strapped to a bed, nearly identical to the first photograph of Cassie. Written over the picture in red ink was one word.
TRADE?
It was just one word, but the message couldn’t have been clearer. Carver was willing to trade Jenny for Cassie. If Jack didn’t make the trade, Jenny would die and Carver would come for Cassie anyway.
Jack’s heart thudded painfully as he looked at Cassie. She had taken in everything and was processing the same thoughts as him. But the tightness in her shoulders and the stubborn lift of her chin said that she had taken her thoughts one step further. She was considering the offer.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Cassie
When Jack decided to surprise Cassie with a visit last night, she was overjoyed. Those few days without him had been painfully lonely. The quick chats on the phone had never been long enough, but she knew that he was deep into investigation mode with the new victims and she couldn’t be selfish with his time. The brutal truth was that another woman needed Jack more than Cassie at the moment.
Still, she was a little relieved that his midnight rendezvous meant he had been missing her as much as she had been missing him. Within minutes of his arrival, Jack was sound asleep in her bed and she couldn’t have been happier. She liked that her home was a place of comfort to him, relished that he needed her arms around him as much as she needed his around her. Cassie held him while he slept with his head on her chest and she didn’t close her eyes until hours later. Even with just a couple of hours of sleep, she awoke feeling more rested than she had all week.
Things were about to change quickly. She expected that Jack would have to leave very early to get back to the city for work. Cassie had prepared herself to say goodbye, hoping that she wouldn’t let her disappointment show. She wasn’t sure how they were going to handle the distance in their living arrangements in the long-term. Jack needed to be in the city for his job and Cassie couldn’t imagine moving back there.
But that would be a problem for later because they had a much more pressing concern. Jack switched immediately into detective mode, treating the flowers and notes like evidence and interrogating the poor delivery boy right there on Cassie’s porch. She left him there and went inside to shower and dress. When Jack joined her in the kitchen, his face was unreadable.
“How are you doing?” he asked, sliding into the seat across the table from her. Normally he would have picked a closer chair, one where he could easily reach over and take her hand. The fact that he didn’t do that immediately put Cassie on edge.
“I’m fine. Did you learn anything from the delivery boy?” Cassie turned her coffee mug slowly on the table.
“Not really. An order came into the flower shop online last night with a $100 payment for an immediate delivery this morning. I’m having our techs at the station try to track down the IP, but I’m not expecting much. I’ll take the package and note in for fingerprinting, but again I don’t think we’ll find anything.” Jack put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I want you to come with me, Cassie.”
Her head was already shaking before he finished talking. “I can’t.”
“Please, Cass.” He sighed. “It’s not safe for you to stay here. The man clearly has your address and knows how to get to you. And I can’t stay here with you. I have to go to the station and work on finding Jenny.”
His voice sounded more pained than Cassie ever remembered hearing it. “Jack, I’m just not ready to go back. He’s still going to find me there. I’m not any safer in Chicago than I am here in my own home.”
“You are safer with me,” he said firmly. “I need to be close to you. If I go back without you, my mind will still be here. I won’t be able to do my job and another woman could die.”
“That’s not fair,” Cassie said quietly. “You can’t put that on me.”
Jack rubbed a hand over his head, messing his neatly combed hair. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. I’ll just stay here with you. I can work from here. I’ll have to get someone to send me the files, but I can make it work.”
He looked tired and worried. Cassie wished there was something she could say to make things better, but short of giving him her abductor’s exact location there was little that she could do. Except one thing. She could do what he needed her to do. “I’ll go with you, Jack. Back to Chicago.”
“Are you sure?” He sounded so hopeful. “You can stay at the station during the day where you’ll be surrounded by people protecting you and at night, we’ll stay at my place.”
Cassie had never been to Jack’s place. “I’m sure. If it will help you to have me close, then of course I will do it.”
“You have no idea how much that will help me.” He offered a weak smile. “I owe you one.”
“I’ll think of some way for you to make it up to me,” Cassie said with a weak smile of her own. She was trying not to let it show, but she was petrified of returning to Chicago. It was something that she hadn’t planned to do for a very long time. “I’ll go pack some things.”
“Sexy lingerie?” Jack said with a wicked grin.
“How’d you guess?” She rolled her eyes before turning serious. “What are you going to tell your boss?”
“I’ve got an hour car ride to come up with something.” He tried to keep a smile on his face, but it no longer reached his eyes. “Let me worry about that.”
“You could always say that we just happened to bump into each other this morning. In my b
ed. What are the odds?” Cassie suggested playfully. “Or I could pretend to be my own twin sister, Sassy Miller.”
Jack laughed reluctantly. “Sassy Miller would definitely pack sexy lingerie.”
“She would,” Cassie agreed, returning his laugh. “Maybe I’ll throw something in if you promise not to be so stressed. I don’t like seeing you that way.”
“I don’t want to make a promise I’m not sure I can keep.” Jack glanced at the time. “You better get busy. We should’ve been on the road an hour ago.”
Cassie stood and slowly headed out of the kitchen, stopping next to Jack’s chair. She smoothed down his hair. “I’m really glad you came last night. My life just isn’t the same without you in it.”
“I know the feeling.” He caught her hand and kissed the back of it. “I’ll do whatever I have to do for us to be together.”
Because they had been delayed on their trip into the city, they missed the worst of the traffic and were at the station in less than an hour and a half. Cassie was nervous as they stepped through the door. She wasn’t sure what kind of reception to expect. Jack touched his hand lightly against the small of her back and steered her forward.
“It’s going to be fine,” he said, likely trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince her.
The people inside the station were too focused on their jobs to pay any attention to Cassie. Some people waved and said hello to Jack and he nodded back at them. They took a hallway past the uniformed officers and entered a room of mostly men, all wearing suits like Jack. These were the detectives.
Cassie’s anonymity vanished in an instant. Every detective they passed stared long and hard, first at Cassie and then at Jack.
“My desk is back here in the corner,” Jack said, ignoring everyone. “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll get you some coffee.”
“Jack.” Cassie glanced nervously around the room.
“If you’d be more comfortable in a room, I can put you in one of the interview rooms.” Jack shuffled the papers on his desk into a neat pile.
“Jack,” Cassie tried again.
He pulled out the chair. “Take a seat. Let me know if this is okay.”
“Jack.” This time she dared to put her hand on top of his on the back of the chair. “Everyone is staring.”
“Ignore them.” Jack moved his hand to her shoulder and squeezed gently. “Most of them will be leaving soon. The others will get bored quickly.”
“Do they all know who I am?” she asked, her voice wavering. Cassie had accepted that Jack had learned intimate details about her life before she ever even meant him, but she hated to think that these other men had seen the details in her file. “Do they know what he did to me?”
Jack’s cheek twitched as he fought back a wince. “Some of them know, I’m sure. Not all of them. But don’t worry about that, Cass. What happened to you isn’t who you are.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “I’ll take that coffee now.”
“Coming right up.” He smiled. “I’ll be right back.”
Cassie sank into his desk chair and faced forward. She could still feel eyes watching her, but she was determined to ignore it. Jack had a stack of files on the corner of his desk and one of them caught her eye. It was her own file.
She had obviously known that her disappearance would have caused a file to be opened in her name, but she had never stopped to wonder what kind of secrets had been kept in that file. Now was her chance to find out. Cassie pulled the file closer and flipped it open. After taking a deep breath, she started reading through the contents. It took a couple of minutes for her to get to the photographs.
“You shouldn’t be looking at that,” Jack said, surprising her.
Cassie had been so focused on the file that she hadn’t heard his return. He placed two mugs of coffee on the desk and stared down at the photos. His jaw worked slowly back and forth.
“I don’t recognize her,” she said, looking at a picture that had been taken in the hospital. All of her, all her injuries, were on display. “That can’t really be me.”
Jack pushed everything back together and closed the file. “Like I said, what happened to you isn’t who you are.”
“You don’t look at that those photos, do you?” Cassie nearly shuddered and she reached for the coffee.
“No. Not… not the same way that you look at them, anyway.” He shoved the file folder into a drawer and picked up his coffee.
“So, you do look at them?” She frowned into her mug, feeling terribly exposed and vulnerable.
Jack leaned on the edge of his desk, his long legs spread in front of him. “It’s my job, Cass. I have to compare your injuries to the other women. I have to look for clues and see every detail. Believe me, I’d rather not ever see those pictures of you again. Every time I look at them it feels like someone is stabbing me in the chest.”
His hand gripped his deck so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. Cassie touched them gently with the tips of her fingers and he unclenched his hand, twining his fingers around hers. Neither of them paid any attention to the activity happening throughout the room.
“I shouldn’t have come here,” Cassie said. “This is your world, Jack, not mine. These men all see me as a victim and if they find out about us, your career could be ruined.”
She tried to pull her hand away, but Jack tightened his fingers around hers. “I don’t give a damn about that. I only care about you, Cassie.”
“You need to care, Jack. Jenny needs you to care, she needs you to be the detective on her case. If you get suspended, she’s the one that is going to suffer.” This time Cassie succeeded in retrieving her hand. “Go do your job. I’ll be fine here.”
“I don’t think I should leave you,” he said, looking worried. “I can do some desk work today, stay with you.”
“No.” She shook her head stubbornly. “You need to do whatever you would do if I wasn’t here right now.”
Jack reluctantly said, “I do need to check on some requests I put in yesterday. And drop off the letter and package for DNA testing.”
“Go.” Cassie opened her bag and removed her laptop. “I have papers to grade anyway.”
“There’s more coffee in the kitchen. Donuts.” He grinned. “Don’t look so smug. Yes, cops like donuts.”
“I didn’t say anything,” she protested innocently. “I’ll be fine. I’m a grown woman and I know how to take care of myself.”
He glanced around the room and quickly kissed her cheek. “Whatever you do, don’t leave the station. You’ll be safe here.”
“I will be right here waiting for you when you get back.” Cassie winked at him. “Just don’t make me wait too long.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Too many people were looking in their direction now, so Jack offered a tight smile before walking away. Cassie watched him go, following his path across the large room. He strode with confidence past the other men, many of whom were watching him as closely as Cassie. She detected some jealousy in the men his age, probably over his esteem within the department. The older men looked suspicious and she suspected that had something to do with her presence in the station as Jack’s guest.
“Cassie Miller?”
Hours had passed since Jack left. Cassie had kept her head down the entire time, focusing on her work. Aside from the papers she had to grade, she needed to finish writing midterm exams. It was a good distraction from the activity around her, but now she couldn’t ignore it any longer.
“Yes.” She looked up at a man that was vaguely familiar. It was probably one of the handful of police officers and detectives that she had met with in the days after being found.
“I’m Captain Suza.” His face twisted into what was likely supposed to be a smile but looked much more like an expression of pain. “I’m Jack’s boss.”
“Oh. Of course.” Cassie had no idea what to say next. Jack hadn’t prepared her for meeting his boss. “You helped on my case.”
He nodded. “Would you mind stepping into my office for a minute?”
“Okay.” She swallowed hard and stood on shaking legs. Being invited into the Captain’s office couldn’t be a good thing. Cassie could feel every eye in the room following them. Suza closed the door behind them and invited her to take a seat.
She avoided looking around the room as she sat in the worn chair across from his desk. Cassie was afraid that if she looked too closely at his walls she might see her own picture tacked next to the other victims of unsolved crimes.
“It’s good to see you doing so well,” Suza said, leaning back in his chair. “The last time I saw you, it was in the hospital.”
“Not my finest hour,” Cassie said dryly. “I’m doing much better now.”
“Stone tells me you moved out of the city.” He folded his hands and rested them on his round belly. “Can’t say that I blame you.”
“I needed to get away,” she said quietly. “I just… needed to be elsewhere.”
Suza slowly sat up straight, maintaining eye contact with her. “Because of what happened to you?”
“Of course.” Her heart started beating faster. “Why else would I have left?”
“It didn’t have anything to do with Detective Stone?” He fixed her with a level stare.
He knew the truth and Cassie would gain nothing by lying to him. “Jack was the only reason I even thought about staying.”
“I was afraid of that.” Suza sighed and leaned over his desk. “Cassie, I’m sure Jack told you about the rules against personal relationships with the people we help.”
“He did.” Cassie couldn’t decipher the look he was giving her. He didn’t seem mad exactly, but he certainly wasn’t happy. “It’s not his fault. Jack didn’t instigate any of this. He was just making sure I was okay and I’m the one that pursued him.”
Suza reluctantly smiled. “I think we both know he isn’t an innocent victim. Stone never does anything he doesn’t want to do.”
“Please don’t fire him. He’s a good detective and he loves his job. I’ll end things with him right now if you promise to let him keep his job.” Cassie blinked hard against a wave of tears that threatened to burst forth.
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