Framed

by C. P. Smith

  “Much, thank you,” I answered snippily before turning on my heel and opening my Jeep door. Mickey loaded Buck in the back while I buckled in. Both men watched as I pulled out, smiling and waving the whole time as if we’d just had a pleasant lunch and caught up on old times. I had one word for the whole thing. Inconceivable! One thing was clear: if those fake smiles were anything to go by, whatever was going on with Kade, it had the boys rattled, and in turn, it had me freaked way the hell out.

  Eight

  Time seemed to stand still as I waited for Prez and Mickey to arrive at my dad’s house. I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of dread that had settled in the pit of my stomach, so I walked Buttercup and Buck down the shores of the Blackwater River, hoping to burn off the excess anxiety.

  Kade had always been like a ghostly figure in the back of my mind. He was that perfect, flawed, unattainable man that haunted my dreams. Considering that, it was no great surprise he’d come to mean a great deal to me in a few short days. From the moment we’d come face-to-face in Hinkle’s office, it seemed like we’d been in fast forward. Though now, we’d come to a dead stop, and the thought of Kade in a dark cell, pushing away those who were trying to help him, made me ill.

  I hadn’t felt the full weight of my feelings for Kade until I heard Cooter say Kade wanted me gone from his life. It was clear then from my reaction that the girl who’d secretly watched the boy had grown into a woman who desired more than anything to be with the man he’d become.

  Since my mother’s death, I’d just been going through the motions. Even my marriage had been robotic, as if I were pretending. I never felt that way around Kade. This past week working with him, talking with him, getting to know him on a personal level had been the most alive I’d felt in my life. In a sense, I’d been empty. But all that changed when Kade walked into Hinkle’s office. When I was with Kade, I could breathe again. Like I’d been gasping for air the past twelve years and he was the oxygen I’d needed.

  “This is not how our story will end,” I mumbled as I watched a heron dive into the black water, searching for food.

  Once I knew what the problem was, I’d fix it for him. I didn’t care if I lost my position with IDTP for becoming involved with a prisoner. The program would go on with or without me. My first priority had to be Kade.

  As the heron took flight, a breeze kicked up and I took a deep breath, thinking about what Kade had said to me in the infirmary. Just as I hadn’t forgotten him, he’d never forgotten me. Somehow, it seemed we were connected, our fates aligned.

  “Our souls are intertwined, but they've been forced apart and they’re waiting to be reunited,” I whispered to the wind. As soon as the words left my lips, I knew they were true. “We’re soul mates.”

  Smiling at that revelation, I turned from the bank and walked the dogs over the bridge and down the sidewalk heading for home. Images of Kade lying in the dark, alone, made my chest constrict. I knew with every ounce of my being he’d do whatever he had to do to help me, so I made a vow at that moment to do the same for him. “Whatever it takes. I promise. I won’t let you down, Kade. I’ll be your light and lead you out of the dark.”

  As I turned the corner to the house, I saw my dad’s truck and the boys’ rental in the drive. I’d left a note saying I’d taken the dogs for a walk so they’d know where to find me. Entering the house from the front, I made my way towards the back of the house. I heard voices growing louder as I turned the corner, so I stopped before they saw me. Holding my breath in preparation for what they might say, I heard my father shout, “No fuckin’ way are you risking my girl. I’m sorry for Kade, I am. But I can’t lose my daughter and you better believe I’ll fight you tooth and nail to keep her safe.”

  What in the world?

  “We can’t leave Kade in there to rot,” Prez fumed.

  “If you keep investigating, whoever this son of a bitch is will kill my daughter. Kade understood that and he isn’t willing to risk her life, either. You have to respect that.”

  My legs wobbled hearing the panic in my father’s voice, and I grabbed hold of a chair and lowered myself onto it.

  Kade’s protecting me?

  “If we leave town and conduct the investigation via computer, then they won’t know.”

  “Are you willing to risk Harley’s life to find out?”

  There was dead silence from the patio. I willed both SEALs to argue with my father, to say they would keep looking, but they said nothing.

  “Then we’re agreed. You’ll stop today and leave town. Maybe once Harley is married to someone else, and they know she’s moved on, you can come back to town and investigate. But until that time . . . “

  Still silence.

  “Say something,” I whispered to the room. I knew if I went in there and argued with my father, I wouldn’t win. There was no way any good father would back down where his child was concerned.

  “We’ll stop,” Prez finally gritted out.

  With those two words, my heart sank and I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t think I’d ever breathe again, knowing that I was the cause of Kade being stuck behind bars.

  “What do I do?” I whispered. “Please, God. Help me.” I couldn’t allow him to throw his life away for me. I couldn’t allow those who were guilty to go free. I wouldn’t be worthy of someone like Kade if I did.

  I was adrift in a sea of confusion and drowning in anger when it became clear to me. I had no choice; somehow, I had to find the evidence to set Kade free and do it without my father knowing.

  Fortune favors the bold. But it also kills the stupid. How in the world will I pull this off?

  “Follow the evidence,” I mumbled.

  There isn’t any.

  “Start at the beginning, Harley. Someone saw something, you just have to find them,” I told myself, then paused when my father began talking again.

  “What are you gonna tell Harley?” my dad asked.

  “We’ll tell her that we got called back to duty and we have people on the case.”

  “So you’ll leave tonight?”

  “We’ll leave tonight. We have a man who will hack Consolidated’s server when he’s done with his current mission. He’ll look for anything that might point us in the right direction. If he finds anything, we’ll send it to the SA. Other than that, we’re done.”

  “No! Call him now and stop him before he starts,” Dad ordered.

  “Slater’s like a ghost. They’ll never know he was there, Harry. If he finds the right evidence, they could be behind bars before they even thought about looking in Harley’s direction.”

  “I’m not willing to risk my daughter,” Dad roared.

  You may not be willing to risk my life, but I am. I’ll risk anything to set Kade free.

  We were connected, soul mates; I knew that now. And because of that connection, there was no way I was leaving him in prison to rot. I could no more turn my back on him than I could stop breathing.

  My decision was made, so I jumped to my feet and moved quickly to the front door with the dogs in tow. I went out and around to the back of the house, acting as if I’d just finished my walk. My father stopped arguing when he saw me coming, and I smiled as if I didn’t have a care in the world. I did, of course. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but I didn’t have a choice. If what I felt for Kade was anything close to what people felt when they were falling in love, then I knew I couldn’t stop until he was free. I’d rather die trying than be sentenced to a life without Kade in it.

  ***

  “Jesus, you were right. How’d you know she’d go out on her own?” D asked as he and Prez watched Harley enter St Elmo’s Fire.

  “I knew she wouldn’t just hang back and wait for the cavalry to get Kade out. Not if she thinks we’re gone.”

  “I still think we should let her know we didn’t leave.”

  “We don’t know who we’re up against. If they’re tracking her, they’ll see us if we approach and we can’t call her because they may
be bugging her phone.”

  “So we follow her and keep our distance, that’s it?”

  “All we can do, brother. We’ve got no leads left but Consolidated. Whoever is strong-arming King has deep pockets, so it fits they’re involved,” Prez answered, then marked the time that Harley entered before looking through his binoculars to check the streets for tails.

  The sound of crunching broke the silence of the car and the smell of nacho cheese permeated the air.

  “Do you always come prepared with snacks?” he questioned D.

  “Like a boy scout,” D chuckled. “Next stop she makes, I’m getting coffee.”

  “Jesus, this is gonna be a long ass day,” Prez replied on a sigh.

  ***

  The droning ring of his cell phone captured White’s attention as he watched Harley walk into St. Elmo’s Fire. He’d followed her this morning because he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head. When he’d returned home last night, he’d pulled out the pictures of her masturbating and jacked off again. When he was done, he’d stared at the pictures, wondering what the SEAL had thought, knowing that he’d come while watching his woman. He got perverse pleasure knowing that he probably lost his shit.

  In his opinion, he’d been living the same nightmare as the SEAL for the past two years. And as far as he was concerned, it was Kingston’s fault. If the SEAL had kept out of it, Sutton’s murder would have gone unsolved and neither man would be looking over their shoulders. And the more he thought about it, the more he convinced himself that Kingston owed him. He figured taking his woman would go a long way to settling the debt Kingston owed.

  “It worked,” Drum whispered when White answered the phone. “When I came on shift this morning, they were still talking about the meltdown Kingston had. Leroy told me he’s complied with our request. The SEALs should be leaving. We can relax now.”

  “Excellent. Did he destroy shit or take on the guards?” White asked, wanting to know every fucking detail.

  “Yeah. Took out Leroy first, then took on four guards.”

  “Did they beat him down?”

  “They had to in order to contain him. Leroy said he was out of control.”

  “Good,” White growled.

  “You gonna pass this along to Williams?” Drum asked.

  “Yeah, I have a meeting with him in a few minutes. I’ll pass it along.”

  “Ask him if I can quit this hellhole. I’m sick to death of this place.”

  “Man up, Drum. You’re there ‘til we know for sure this is over.”

  “Fuck, man, that’s easy for you to say. What the hell are you doing while I’m breathing the same air as this filth?”

  “Recon,” White bit out. “I’m keeping an eye on the players to make sure they do as they’re told.”

  “And? Have they left town?”

  “Headed to the airport last night. They turned in their car and I watched them go through security.”

  “Finally, some good news.”

  “Yeah. Things are looking up for the both of us. Keep your head in the game and you might make it out of this alive,” White answered. “I gotta go. I’ll pass on your message.”

  White hung up and started his van. He didn’t know what her game was, showing up at the site of the murder, but he didn’t have time to find out. He’d keep watch tonight, and if she went out, he’d follow. He wanted an opportunity to get up close and personal. His rough hand was no replacement for the wet heat of her bald, pink pussy. And if she fought him, even better.

  ***

  Light bounced off the gray walls as the fluorescent bulb swayed gently back and forth. Having just returned from his hour of solitary exercise, Kade reached out his arms and could almost touch each side of his cell. Gray walls, gray floor, and a gray metal shelf with a plastic covered mattress all matched his mood.

  The smell of urine and shit kept him company as the seconds ticked away at a snail’s pace. No books or TV to help pass the time; he only had his thoughts to keep him company as he waited for his single hour of freedom each day. Twenty-three hours of every day for the next five days, he’d have to spend inside this hell due to his attack on the guards.

  Closing his eyes to block out the light they kept on twenty-four seven, he tried to picture his grandfather’s face. He’d wanted to be there for him during his fight with cancer, and he failed him.

  “I tried, Pops.”

  Kade took after his mother’s side of the family. He’d grown tall, broad, and strong at an early age. Pops was a small man who sold insurance and who’d sired an even smaller son. Picturing his slight build, Kade wondered how his grandfather had survived the cancer this long. Kyle said he was hanging in there, and Kade didn’t doubt it. Pops had strength of character that was more important than strength in size. Just ask anyone who messed with his grandsons.

  Pops had lost his wife to a heart attack when Kade had been four. He had vague memories of a plump woman who smelled like roses. When his mother had abandoned him and Kyle, Pops had stepped in without hesitation and made them feel loved, protected. That should have been enough for Kade, but all he’d ever felt was unwanted, no matter how much Pops had tried.

  “Selfish. So fucking selfish. I should have tried harder.”

  Closing his eyes, he thought about all the times he’d come home past curfew, worrying his grandfather. Forces out of his control had shaped Kade into the wild teen he’d once been, just as forces now were deciding his future.

  As a teen, he’d been looking for love and acceptance, trying to feel something other than lost. When he couldn’t find it in the arms of some sweet smelling girl, he looked for it at the bottom of a bottle.

  Then he’d seen Harley.

  He didn’t know it at the time, didn’t even figure it out until she’d popped back into his life, but she’d changed him for the better from the first night they’d met.

  When he’d laid eyes on her, he’d wanted her, but he thought he didn’t deserve someone that innocent—that pure. After watching her that year, he realized he wanted something in his life that would make him feel the way he did when he looked at her. So he’d set himself on a path that would make him a man someone like Harley deserved. But the kicker was, now that he was older and looked back on his life, he knew he’d deserved her all along. The only one who thought he wasn’t good enough, was him.

  “Wasted years,” he growled.

  Once again, he’d paid a debt that wasn’t his. He’d tried to gain absolution in the Navy, when it was his parents who were fucked up. He wasn’t responsible for his parents’ actions any more than he was responsible for Sutton’s death. Yet, just like with his parents, he’d paid a debt for someone else and lost his chance with Harley once again.

  Moving to the metal shelf, he laid down on the thin mat and covered his eyes to block out the light. For a half-second, he started to whistle for Buck to climb up on the bed with him.

  He’s gone, too.

  “Time to let them go. I need to accept my fate and move on,” Kade admonished. “It’s like any mission I’ve been on. One minute at a time ‘til it’s over.”

  A sharp pain, like tiny slivers of glass, pierced his gut, and he took a deep breath to ease the rough edges that came when he thought about all he lost.

  “She’ll get over the lies eventually and find a man to love,” he mumbled. His fists clenched at the thought of another man touching her. “She won’t be mine, but she’ll be safe, and that’s all that matters.”

  Kade could hear footsteps coming down the hall so he stared at the cell door. Moments later, the small door they served his food through opened, and he heard the sound of paper rustling.

  “Brought you a notebook and a pencil to help pass the time,” Officer Gerald Daily said through the opening.

  Kade sat up and walked to the door. “Thanks,” he mumbled.

  “Rumors are flying, Kingston, and I’m curious. The way I hear it, you shouldn’t be in prison at all if Leroy can be believed.”


  “It doesn’t matter anymore. Innocent or guilty, I have to do the time.”

  “To protect the dog trainer?”

  “Leroy talks too fuckin’ much,” Kade growled. “Tell him to keep his mouth shut or there’ll be hell to pay when I get out.”

  “Does she know why you’re doin’ this?”

  “Yeah. She knows I’m guilty of murder and I’m payin’ for my crime,” he answered. The words tasted foul as he spoke them, but he’d made his decision. He would rather do the time than risk her life.

  Without another word, he moved to his bed and sat down. Daily took the hint and shut the door. Kade opened the notebook, took a deep breath to calm his ragged edges, then pressed the pencil to the first line on the page, and began to write a letter to his grandfather.

  ***

  After speaking with the owner of St. Elmo’s Fire, a conversation that netted me nothing that I didn’t already know, I was standing in the alley looking up at the two-story retirement complex. I studied the windows with the best angle of where Sutton’s body had been found. Six rooms, three on the bottom, and three on the top would have had a clear shot. Prez said the camera hadn’t recorded anything that night, so that left the residents. The murder had taken place around eleven, so it made sense that the residents would have been asleep.

  “What about the staff?” I wondered.

  Taking a deep breath to let go of my frustration, I headed to my car, then drove around the front of Sunny Shores and parked in the visitor’s parking lot.

  The building was bright yellow stucco with big windows, so the residents could see the Gulf Ocean anytime they wanted. I smiled as a group of residents came walking up the circular drive, carting towels and a beach ball. Opening the door for them, I waited as they shuffled into the building.

  Now what?

  There was a reception desk with an elderly woman sitting behind it, so I approached with a smile on my face.

  “Hello, young lady, can I direct you to a resident?”