How could I resist that?
I went to her, lifting her up and stealing her lips. I didn’t carry her to the bed. No. I wanted to see her in full moonlight, wanted to see the full glory of the moonlight dancing on her skin.
I pushed open the French doors and took her out onto the rustic deck that surrounded the house. She nibbled at my throat as I carried her to the rail that separated the deck from the beach. The wood was smooth under my hands, under her ass. Then I stepped back, clinging to her hands as I did, staring at her here in this place, in this world that was practically made for her.
“You belong here.”
She shook her head. “This is a place of recreation. Temporary.”
I shook my head. “You look at home in the moonlight. It’s like you were made to be here, in this place.”
She smiled softly. “And you? Where were you made to be?”
“Wherever you are.”
I moved back into her arms, stealing another kiss. She melted against me, her hands moving slowly over my body, slipping under my clothes and touching everywhere. I loved the feel of her, loved the way her body fit mine as if they were meant to find one another. I’d never believed in the whole soul mate thing, but she was turning me into a believer.
“Is it possible,” she whispered against my mouth, “to need someone this much after such a short time?”
“I’m beginning to think it is.”
She watched my face as she reached inside my pants and took me into her hand. I closed my eyes, the pleasure so intense that I had to take a minute to keep from losing complete control. And then she guided me to her and the need just became overwhelming. I cried out, tugging her so close to me that I nearly pulled her off the rail. I wanted to lose myself in the feeling, but I needed to see her face, needed to see the pleasure in her eyes. And it was there, dancing in the moonlight, affection and trust and desire that I didn’t deserve.
As I made love to her there in the moonlight, I knew it was time to tell her everything. Despite the fear that she would never look at me this way again, I knew I was doing her a disfavor by not telling her the truth about the man she thought she was falling in love with. Because that man…it was all a lie. And she needed to know that.
Chapter 20
Cadence
We lay tangled in the bed, the remnants of an impromptu meal around us: deli meats and cheeses, fruit, and crackers. It was the most delicious meal I’d ever had, probably because it was the first food I’d had in my stomach since this recent ordeal had begun. And it helped the antibiotics go down easier.
My shoulder ached. My thigh ached. My hip hurt like a bitch. But I was alive and wrapped in a bubble of happiness like nothing I’d ever known before.
“We need to talk, Cadence.”
I refused to be frightened by those words. I propped myself up on my elbow and looked him in the eye.
“What about?”
“I shot at you.”
A stone sat on my chest with those words. I’d tried to forget that little part of our history together. But it was impossible to ignore.
“I know.”
“You have a right to know why.”
I ran my thumb over his bottom lip, wishing I could keep the flow of words inside a little longer. But I simply nodded, gesturing for him to continue.
His blue eyes moved over me like water in the ocean, begging me to understand before he’d even said a word. Then they dropped to the bed, to our legs tangled together, to my bare breasts so close that they were nearly pressed against his chest.
“I told you, I once had this girl I thought I was going to marry.”
“And Blake stole her away.”
“Not exactly. But, that was part of a bigger disaster that was happening in my life at the time.” His eyes came back up to mine. “You see, I had the perfect life. I had good parents, a father who owned his own business, a mother who was the queen of giving, of charity. She was chairwoman of every charity that ever existed within a thousand miles of Chicago. She got awards from the city council for her generosity. And my brother, Bobby, was intelligent and kind and generous, just like mom.”
“But perfection is hard to maintain.”
He nodded, his eyes filled with grief as he watched his finger play over my skin. “It all began to fall apart the last month of my junior year. The NFL scouts had been sniffing around me for more than a year, but I promised my mom I’d get my degree. I knew, though, that they would draft me the following spring. I was going to marry Kelly and play four or five years in the NFL, then I’d join my dad in the family business. I had my whole life planned out.”
He was quiet a minute longer. “I woke to the news. My father had been indicted for embezzlement. He stole from his own company to cover gambling debts. I hadn’t even known he was under investigation. My parents didn’t feel the need to mention it.”
“I’m sorry.”
He touched my lips. “That’s not even the worst of it. He was indicted, but my mom stood by him, insisting he was innocent. That was okay. We could face the future if he was innocent. I came home for the summer, went to the meetings with his lawyer. But then…a week after football season started, after the scouts began coming round again, he pled guilty. He had decided he would rather make a plea deal than face a long, drawn out trial. My mom…she was devastated. I had to go home for a couple of weeks to talk her down, to keep her from completely falling apart. When I got back, the scouts had turned their attention to Blake. He was new, and he was good. But not as good as I was.”
His hand moved down over my throat, his thumb brushing my bottom lip before sliding over my chin.
“About the same time, Kelly announced that she’d spent the night with Blake while I was gone and she thought she was in love. I lost it, believing that I needed her in order to get through this family ordeal. I confronted Blake with her words and he laughed. He said it was a one-night thing, and he didn’t see why she’d ever bothered to tell me. It didn’t matter, he said. She was just one in a long line of girls he’d warmed his bed with. And that seemed to make it worse, and I just lost it. I took a swing at him.
“I was still reeling from the fight, and serving out the one-game suspension coach put on me when my mom called late one night. Bobby had come home. He had leukemia and he couldn’t handle it on his own anymore.”
“Oh, God, Marcus,” I moaned softly.
“She wanted me to come home. She couldn’t handle my dad’s upcoming surrender date and Bobby’s cancer all at the same time. She’d handled other people’s problems for so long, but she couldn’t handle her own. But if I left, I’d give up my chance to be drafted into the NFL.”
“I’m sorry.”
He sat up quite abruptly. He ran his hands over his head, a low groan vibrating through his chest.
“I was frightened. Overwhelmed. In less than five months, my entire world had turned upside down. The courts were raiding my parents’ house, confiscating their belongings to pay his debts. My future was disappearing right in front of me. And my mom needed to lean on me, but I felt like a brittle old tree branch, as if any more weight would make me snap.
“I argued with her. Told her I needed to stay where I was. And my father agreed. He said it was important that I fulfill my dreams. And that struck me as selfish and made me want nothing to do with my future. I was a senior at Notre Dame, cruising through my classes with a 3.9 GPA. I was on top of the fucking world, but it had all suddenly turned to shit. I had to get out of there.”
He wouldn’t look at me. His eyes were lost in the past.
“I ran away. I’m not proud of it. I ran away and left my family to deal with their own mess. I joined the Marines, hoping to be sent to Afghanistan, hoping that I’d step on some land mine or IED and that would be the end of my problems. I thought my life was over and I had nothing else to live for.”
“Marcus…”
My heart hurt for him. I touched his arm, but he pulled away, sliding back on th
e bed. He needed to get it all out and he needed me not to feel sorry for him. And I didn’t. I hurt for him, but I didn’t pity him.
“Mom wrote me and told me how hard it was. She and Bobby were forced to sell the house and move into a small, one-bedroom apartment. I sent her my pay every month, but it didn’t help much. His medical care was astronomical and she couldn’t afford the kind of insurance we’d had when Dad was the CEO of his company. Bobby died during my first tour in Afghanistan. I could have asked for leave to go to the funeral, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to be reminded of all I’d lost.”
“I’m sorry.”
“My mom was all alone. She was the one the courts came to for the remainder of the monies owed. She was the one they pressured and made miserable for what my dad did. She was the one who suffered—this woman who’d been given all these awards by the city was suddenly a pariah no one wanted to know. It turned out she wasn’t the strong woman I thought she was.”
I pressed my hand to my mouth, the horror of what he was implying washing over me like a cold sheet of snow.
“I had nothing to go home to when I left the Marines. Nothing but highlights of Blake’s career, the career I should have had. Pictures of Kelly’s wedding to some doctor she’d met at graduate school. Letters from my dad, begging for money to fill his commissary accounts.”
He shook his head, clearly disgusted. “I came to Texas because Blake Zimmerman was here. If he hadn’t been injured, he’d still be living my dream. I wanted to see that, see what that was like. I wanted to know everything there was to know about him. I wanted to know what I’d missed out on.”
“You wanted to punish him.”
Marcus looked sharply at me. “No. I don’t blame him. Guys like Blake are victims of their own success. He thinks he’s entitled to anything he wants. He thinks that every girl, every success, everything is just there for the taking—because it always has been.”
He touched the side of my face. “I saw him with you. I saw the way he was looking at you. It was the same way he looked at all the girls who chased after him in college. The way he looked at Kelly. And all those girls? He used them and threw them away like they were disposable.
“I watched you in that restaurant, the way you spoke to your friend, the way you looked around the room. The way you saw through me…knew I was broken.”
“You heard that?’
He smiled softly. “Every word.” He sobered, his eyes filled with grief. “I didn’t want Blake to use you and toss you aside. I knew a girl like you would take that to heart. It would break you and there are enough broken people in the world.”
“So you tried to scare me off.”
“I knew someone was trying to hurt you. I knew it would make sense to everyone if someone took shots at you. And I was hoping it would frighten you badly enough that you would tell Blake to stuff his surrogacy.”
“But I didn’t.”
“You’re more stubborn than I imagined.” He ran his hand carefully over the stitches on my leg. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“I know.”
“I want to be a good man, but I’m not sure I’m capable of it. I run away when things get hard.”
“You haven’t left me.”
“No.” He met my eyes, leaned in, and kissed me gently. “But I don’t want you to count on me. I’m afraid I’ll hurt you. Again.”
“I’m sorry.” I took his face between my hands and stared into his eyes. “That’s not your choice. It’s mine.”
“Cadence—”
“I won’t walk away from the best thing that’s ever happened to me because of what you might or might not do. And I won’t give up on this because you think you’re this bad person.” I caressed his cheeks with my thumbs. “The thing is, babe, you were young. You were faced with obstacles no one should have to face all at once that way. And, yes, you ran away. And, no, maybe it wasn’t the best option. But it was the option you chose. You have to own it and move on. It doesn’t have to define you for the rest of your life.”
He kissed me again. “You’re so much more than I deserve.”
“But you’re exactly what I deserve.”
He chuckled a little. “I never thought of it that way.”
We kissed for a long moment, our lips refusing to give up that sweet contact. And then we slowly fell back onto the mattress and curled into each other, finally falling into a deep sleep that was long deserved. And I…I’d never felt more secure in all my life.
Chapter 21
Megan
“He didn’t go anywhere,” Dante insisted. “Home. And he didn’t make any calls, except a couple of calls to his wife’s cell that went unanswered.”
“Do I want to know how you know that?”
He looked a little sheepish, but he didn’t answer, didn’t even acknowledge the question.
I plopped myself down in my office chair, the wheels turning in my head. “He has to have told someone. Someone who tried to have Cadence killed.”
“What if it’s his wife?”
I shook my head. “She wants this baby. I saw her.”
“Are you sure?”
I shrugged, running the scene over in my head again, Annie Zimmerman collapsing when Blake told her that Cadence had been shot at. It didn’t make sense.
“It looks like she’s probably the only person Blake told about Cadence. And I looked at the papers they signed with her—”
“How?”
Dante shrugged. “I have my methods.”
I stared at him for a long minute, thinking it was a good thing he was on our side. “And?”
“There’s a life insurance policy they took out on Cadence in order to help them recoup any losses should she and the child die before they can take custody. It’s worth over a million dollars.”
“When did it go into effect?”
“The day it was signed.”
“And the beneficiaries?”
“Blake and Annie Zimmerman.”
It didn’t make sense. I stood and marched to the door.
“Sam? Did we do a financials check on the Zimmermans when we took their case?”
“It’s in the computer.”
I returned to my desk, but Sam was there right behind me, leaning over me to bring up the appropriate file. I watched her, wondering why she was wearing so much foundation when she rarely ever wore makeup at all. But then she stepped back and I found myself looking at a literal financial horror, a bank account that paid out more every month than it had coming in.
“Blake Zimmerman sank all his money into his car dealerships, and they haven’t been doing well. Gas prices, I’d assume.”
“And you didn’t feel the need to point this out earlier?”
Sam shrugged. “I thought you’d seen it. But since the target wasn’t him or his wife, I wasn’t sure it had any bearing.”
I looked at Dante. “Go talk to Blake. Find out where his wife is.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, snapping a playful salute.
I watched him go, but my eyes fell on Sam. She didn’t think I was looking. She was leaning against the desk, breathing a little heavily.
“Hey,” I said, taking her hand. “You okay?”
She caught my eye, forcing a smile. “Fine.”
“You’re not fine, Sam. What’s going on with you?”
She shrugged. “You know me, you know my issues.”
I nodded. Sam had lupus and she occasionally had flare-ups that left her weak and sore. Her lupus was systematic, often leaving her anemic. But she’d had it under control for years. In fact, I’d almost forgotten she suffered from it.
“Are you having a flare up? Do you need time off?”
She shook her head. “Just a little anemia. You know how it is.”
I stood and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, pulling her back against me. Sam wasn’t just my best friend. We’d grown up together. She was like the sister I never had, the other part of me that was always there. I didn�
��t know what I’d do without her.
“You would tell me if it was more than that, right?”
“Of course.”
She pulled away, her back to me until she reached the door. Then she turned, completely composed, completely the Sam I’d always known.
“I’m making progress on those files. I should have something concrete for you very soon.”
“Don’t push yourself, Sam. It’s waited this long, a few more days won’t hurt.”
She waved my words off. “I promised. I’ll get it.”
I watched her go, wondering for the first time in the length of our friendship if she was lying to me. But I shoved that thought away because it was simply too frightening to consider.
Besides, I had other things to worry about.
Chapter 22
Marcus
It was late afternoon when I finally woke. I cleaned up the mess we’d sort of ignored this morning and washed up our few dishes. Then I took a cup of coffee and walked on the beach a little. Cadence was waiting for me when I came back, curled up in a chair on the back deck, a soft smile on her pretty face as she watched me. I looked at her and I realized that I could really fall in love with her. There’d been girls while I was in the Marines, girls I said all the right things to to get what I wanted. But none of them had looked at me the way she did.
I could fall in love with her.
“We should grill steaks for dinner,” she called as I came closer. “There’s some—”
Before she could finish, a person dressed all in black, including the hood resting low on their head, slipped out of the shadows of the bungalow and wrapped their hands around Cadence’s face. There was something in the person’s hand, something they were shoving up against her nose and mouth. I dropped my coffee mug and ran, but whoever it was managed to drag her into the house and lock the French doors before I could get there.
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