Dade

by Delores Fossen

She’d obeyed Dade’s order to stay put, but she couldn’t stay down. Kayla peeked over the cruiser to make sure Dade and everyone else was all right.

  So far, so good.

  Thank God. Dade, Mason and Nate were all still standing. Mel, too.

  But she couldn’t say the same for Charles.

  He was on the grassy strip by the exterior courthouse wall, and Kayla watched as Mason went to him and put his fingers against Charles’s throat. Mason shook his head.

  “Is he dead?” Kayla asked, but there wasn’t enough sound in her voice for it to carry.

  Still, Dade must have heard her because he said something to Mason, turned and hurried toward her. He holstered his gun and pulled her into his arms.

  “It’s all right,” he whispered. “Charles is dead.”

  “Dead,” she repeated. Despite Dade’s grip on her, she started to walk toward the body. She had to make sure.

  “He’s dead, Kayla,” Dade tried again.

  But Kayla kept going. Of course Dade was plenty strong enough to stop her, but he must have sensed that this was something she needed to do.

  As she approached the body, Mason stepped away to go to Nate. Nate didn’t look any steadier than Kayla felt. Probably because he’d just had to kill a man. Kayla leaned down and as Mason had done, she put her hand against his neck to feel for a pulse. Nothing.

  But when she drew back her hand, she saw the blood, Charles’s blood, on her fingers.

  She stared at the blood and braced herself for whatever emotions were about to slam through her. But Kayla was surprised that she felt nothing but relief. Maybe that made her a sick person, but for the first time in years, she felt free, and she could give her son a safe and happy life.

  Some of the crowd came forward, as well. Charles’s attorney was at the front of the pack and kept mumbling how sorry she was to Nate and Mason. Winston was there, too. But Kayla picked through the people and caught Nate’s gaze.

  “Thank you,” she mouthed.

  He nodded, but this had to be a bitter relief for him. He’d finally gotten his wife’s killer. However, that wouldn’t give him back his wife.

  “You don’t need to be here,” Dade told her, and he would have ushered her out of there that very moment if Kayla hadn’t held her ground.

  Kayla walked closer to Mel. The deputy was bruised and scraped up, but her physical injuries didn’t look serious. “What did Charles say right before he died?”

  Mel glanced at Dade as if seeking his permission, but Kayla stepped between them and looked Mel straight in the eyes. “Tell me, please.”

  For several moments, Kayla didn’t think the deputy would do it, but Mel finally lifted her shoulders. “He said, ‘Tell Kayla it’s not over.’”

  Both Dade and Mason cursed, but it was Dade who got Kayla moving. This time digging in her heels didn’t help because Dade scooped her up and carried her to the police cruiser. The moment they were inside, he drove away, leaving the chaos of a crime scene behind them.

  “Brennan said that to get in one last jab,” Dade insisted.

  No doubt, but it made her sick to think that he hated her so much that he wanted her to be tormented even after his death.

  “Grayson will be back soon with Robbie and Connie,” Dade reminded her.

  She nodded, thankful that soon she would be able to hold her baby. But even now, just minutes after Charles’s death, she was already thinking, what was next?

  Where would she go, and what would she do?

  There would be no trial, so there was no need for her to stay in town. Or Silver Creek for that matter. She cringed at the idea of going to her estate because there was probably still blood and shot-out windows from the attack where Salvetti and Flynn had tried to kill her.

  Besides, there were no good memories there.

  But where?

  It surprised her to realize her best memories were those with Robbie and Dade. The oatmeal breakfast in the kitchen at the ranch safe house. The phone conversation Dade had had with Robbie after Grayson had gotten her son to safety. How had her life, and her heart, become so tangled with Dade’s that it was hard for her to imagine a future without him?

  “Are you okay?” Dade asked her.

  “Yes.” But they both knew it was a lie. The adrenaline was roaring through her, and the thoughts and images were firing through her head.

  Especially the images.

  She didn’t want to close her eyes and see Charles, or his blood on her hands, but she did, and Kayla wondered when this part of the nightmare would finally go away.

  Dade parked behind the sheriff’s building and ushered her in. Judging from the deputy and dispatcher’s somber faces, they’d already heard the news.

  “Grayson needs to talk to you,” Tina, the dispatcher, relayed to Dade. “Nothing’s wrong with your baby,” she quickly assured Kayla. “He just needs to go over some police business with Dade.”

  Dade reached for his cell, but then stopped. He glanced down at her hands. “Why don’t you go upstairs and wash up? Once Robbie is here, I can take all of you out to the ranch.”

  Kayla blinked. “The ranch?”

  “For some downtime,” Dade clarified. “The town will be buzzing with reporters and gawkers for the next couple of days.”

  Of course. Because this would be big news. It was possible the entire thing had been caught on film by a camera crew and would be replayed over and over on the news channels.

  Dade nudged her in the direction of the stairs, and Kayla forced one foot ahead of the other. Each step seemed to take way too much energy, probably because she was in shock, but she would get this blood off her hands.

  The apartment was just as Dade and she had left it, and her attention went straight to the bed with the rumpled covers. The place where Dade had made love to her. Or maybe it had just been sex for him. Later, she would sort all of that out, but for now she needed her son. Once she had Robbie in her arms, she didn’t intend to let go for a long time.

  She made her way to the bathroom and turned the water on full blast in the sink. Kayla grabbed the bar of soap and started to scrub.

  The tears came.

  They sprang to her eyes so quickly that she didn’t have time to try to blink them back. She hated Charles for what he’d done, but she couldn’t completely dismiss the waste of a human life. Robbie’s blood kin. His grandfather. A man her son would never know.

  Kayla stared into the sink as the blood-tinged water and soap suds spiraled down the drain. She reached to turn off the faucet, but she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

  A gun.

  She got just a glimpse of it before the arm curved around her neck, and the barrel of the gun jammed against her back.

  “Like Charles said, it’s not over, Kayla,” the person growled in her ear.

  “TINA SAID WE NEEDED to talk,” Dade greeted Grayson when his brother answered.

  “You okay?” Grayson immediately asked.

  “Yeah.” And that was mostly true. Kayla and he had come out of a dangerous situation without a scratch, and that was nothing short of a miracle. Still, it would be a while before he wouldn’t think of how close Kayla had come to dying—again.

  “How’s Kayla?” Grayson continued.

  “Shaken up more than she’ll admit. Seeing Robbie will help. How long before you get here?”

  “About fifteen minutes. I kept Robbie and Connie at the sheriff’s house down in Floresville.”

  No wonder it was taking Grayson so long to get here. Floresville was an hour and a half away from Silver Creek. But it was smart for his brother to take them that far away. As bad as the ordeal with Brennan had been, it would have been much worse if Robbie had been put in danger, too.

  “What are you going to do about Kayla?” Grayson wanted to know.

  Good question, but Dade didn’t have an answer that his brother would like. “I want to keep seeing her,” Dade confessed. “Do you have a problem with that?”

  �
�No, and neither will anyone else in the family,” Grayson said as gospel. And it would be. Even though they were all adults now, Grayson was still head of the Rylands, and what he said was pretty much a go.

  “Thank you,” Dade mumbled.

  “Don’t thank me yet. We’ve all got some long hours ahead of us to tie up this Brennan mess.”

  Yeah. And the mess that Alan had left them. “I’ll let Kayla know that Robbie will be here soon.”

  Dade ended the call and hurried toward the stairs. Despite the fact he’d just witnessed a man’s death, he was feeling darn good. The green light from Grayson was no doubt responsible for that and so was the woman waiting for him in the apartment. Dade only hoped that Kayla wasn’t standing up there trying to figure out how to tell him that it was over between them, that she couldn’t stay in Silver Creek any longer.

  His good mood faded a bit.

  And then it vanished completely when he opened the apartment door and saw Kayla’s expression. She was in the doorway of the bathroom, and her face was paper-white.

  “What’s wrong?” Dade asked, and he went to her so he could pull her into his arms.

  But he froze when he saw the gun.

  His stomach crashed to the floor, and every muscle in his body went into fight mode. He reached for his weapon.

  “Don’t!” someone warned. It was the person on the other end of that gun.

  It was a woman’s voice, and one that Dade instantly recognized.

  “Carrie,” he spat out. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Tying up loose ends,” Carrie calmly answered. “I thought I’d be finished doing that before you got here. Guess not. I really hadn’t planned on killing you, too, but you got here a little sooner than I figured. Now, take out your gun using only two fingers and toss it onto the counter. Do anything stupid, and I’ll kill her where she stands.”

  Dade believed her. He didn’t know why Carrie was doing this, but there was no hesitation in her voice.

  “Your gun,” Carrie repeated. “Put it on the counter. Now.”

  Dade hated to surrender his weapon, but he had no other choice. He couldn’t stand there and watch Carrie kill Kayla. So Dade did as this nutjob asked and laid his gun on the counter.

  Carrie inched Kayla forward but not too far. Carrie’s back stayed to the bathroom where there were no windows and therefore no way for anyone to sneak up on her. That meant Dade was going to have to figure out how to disarm both Carrie and this situation.

  “Brennan is dead,” Dade told Carrie.

  “Yeah, I saw it happen. When I realized he’d been killed, I sneaked in the back. Tina was busy on the phone and didn’t see me so I came up here and waited. I knew you’d have Kayla wash the blood from her hands.”

  Even though her every word was critical, Dade listened to make sure no one was coming up the stairs. Grayson would be arriving soon, and Dade didn’t want Robbie coming into this.

  Dade looked past Kayla. Or rather, tried. Hard to do with that look of stark fear on her face. God, she didn’t need to go through anything else. But Dade pushed that aside and snagged Carrie’s gaze.

  “Is this about me? About us?” he asked. “Because if it is, then this isn’t the way to win me back.”

  Carrie laughed, a quick burst of air, but there was no humor in it. “No, it’s not about you. Well, maybe just a little. Let’s just say I probably wouldn’t have taken the job if you hadn’t dumped me for her.” She gave Kayla a hard jam to the back.

  Hell.

  “We broke up months ago,” Dade reminded her, although he doubted she would listen to reason. After all, Carrie was holding Kayla at gunpoint. “And if this isn’t about me, what is it about?”

  “Money,” Carrie volunteered.

  “Charles is paying her off,” Kayla provided. She still had some fear in her expression, but now there was anger, too.

  “Hard to pay someone off if he’s dead.” Dade kept his attention fastened to Carrie. Especially her trigger finger. If it tensed, then he was going to have to dive at the women and pray for the best.

  “Charles set it up before Nate killed him. One of his offshore lawyers is holding the money for me. All he has to see is Kayla’s death certificate, and the cash is mine.” Unlike Kayla, there wasn’t a shred of emotion in Carrie’s voice. All ice. “He sent instructions through one of his employees for me to help him. First, I took Kayla’s phone from her car and made it look as if she’d been in touch with Salvetti.”

  Well, that was one mystery solved, and it probably had been easy because Carrie had come to the estate in her official role as a paramedic.

  “And then Brennan told you to do this?” Dade tipped his head to her gun.

  “Yes,” Carrie answered. “He said I was to tie up loose ends if he could no longer do it.”

  “I’m a loose end,” Kayla added. Her gaze drifted to the door, and Dade knew she was thinking about Grayson’s arrival. This had to end before his brother came up the stairs with Robbie and Connie.

  “So Brennan paid you to kill Kayla?” Dade asked. “Why would you agree to do that? Is this really just about the money?”

  “The money…and her.” Carrie glared at Kayla. “I was in love with Preston, and she took him from me. She didn’t care that she broke my heart. Heck, I’ll bet she didn’t even love him. She just didn’t want me to have him.”

  “I didn’t know about you,” Kayla insisted. “Preston never even mentioned you.”

  “Liar!” Carrie practically shouted. “He loved me, and he would have kept loving me if you hadn’t gotten in the way. I should have been the one married to him.”

  “I wish you had been,” Kayla mumbled.

  Dade remembered the photos of Kayla’s battered face and knew that was true. Carrie clearly had no idea of Preston’s true nature.

  “So, you’re going to kill Kayla because Preston dumped you?” Dade pushed. He wasn’t sure he’d get a sane answer, but he wanted to hear it anyway.

  “Damn right,” Carrie spat out. “I should have been Preston’s wife, living with him in a fancy house. I should have had all that Brennan money. Not her. Well, now I’ll have some of it, and I’ll rid the world of this man-stealing witch who got in my way.”

  Dade couldn’t believe the rage he was seeing and hearing, but he had to keep his own rage in check and get Kayla out of this. “How much did Brennan agree to pay you?” Dade asked Carrie. “Because I can match it.”

  “A million dollars.” Now, Carrie smiled. “Is she worth that much to you, Dade?”

  “Yes.” And in that moment he knew that was completely true. Kayla was worth that and more.

  She was worth everything.

  And that included dying for her.

  Even if he had to trade his life for hers, he was not going to leave Robbie an orphan.

  “Yes?” Carrie challenged.

  “Yes,” Dade repeated. “I’ll make the call and have the money sent anywhere you want. Better yet, I’ll double Brennan’s offer.”

  Carrie hesitated, and Dade said another prayer that she would jump at the chance for blood money. But then something flashed through her eyes.

  Not just anger.

  This was one step beyond that.

  “You barely know her,” Carrie spat out. “And you’re willing to give up so much for her? The witch has brainwashed you. Just like she did Preston. Can’t you see that?” She cursed, not waiting for his answer. “You’ve changed, Dade, and not for the better.”

  Dade disagreed with that. He had changed. He no longer felt like the bad boy of the Ryland clan. He was the man who was going to save Kayla’s life.

  “The money?” Dade reminded Carrie. “I’m offering you two million dollars.” And he adjusted his feet so he would be able to move better.

  “No deal,” Carrie told him. “I’d rather have Charles’s money.”

  “You mean you’d rather kill Kayla,” Dade fired back.

  “That, too.”

&nb
sp; When Carrie smiled, Dade knew he couldn’t change her sick mind. Maybe if she thought she had Kayla out of the way, she would stand a chance with him. And maybe she just wanted him to suffer because things hadn’t worked out between them.

  Dade glanced at Kayla and gave her a look that he hoped she could interpret—brace yourself.

  He lowered his head and launched himself forward.

  KAYLA DIDN’T HAVE TIME to react.

  One moment she was standing with Carrie’s gun jammed to her back, and the next moment Dade dived right into them.

  All three of them went crashing to the floor.

  Something rammed hard into Kayla, maybe it was Carrie’s gun, but whatever it was, it knocked the breath right out of her. Not a good time for that to happen because she needed to help Dade get that gun. It wouldn’t be long, maybe just seconds, before Grayson walked in with Robbie.

  Gasping for air, Kayla managed to roll to the side, and she got a better look at the life-and-death struggle. The three of them were wound together, and her right arm was hooked between Dade and Carrie.

  Thankfully, Dade had managed to get his hands on Carrie’s arm, and he had a death grip on her. That was the only thing that prevented the woman from aiming the gun. Unfortunately, Carrie’s finger was still on the trigger, and she made use of that.

  She fired.

  The blast echoed through the room and through Kayla.

  It was deafening, probably because the gun was so close to her ear. Certainly someone downstairs had heard it and would come up to investigate. Kayla didn’t know if that would be good or bad because it would be impossible for anyone to get off a clean shot.

  Kayla tried to move away, to untangle herself, but Carrie must have noticed what was going on because the woman kicked Kayla right in the chest. Her breath was already in shreds, and that didn’t help. But it did rile her to the core.

  She couldn’t let Carrie get away with this.

  Kayla rammed her elbow into Carrie and used the leverage to force herself out of the mix. But Dade was there in it, his hands still locked around Carrie’s wrist.

  Another shot slammed into the ceiling.

  Even though it didn’t come close to Dade or her, Kayla couldn’t risk a shot ricocheting off something and hitting Dade.