by Karen Kirst
To his surprise, her eyes grew shiny with tears. “That’s one of nicest things you’ve ever said to me.”
She fumbled with the latch and let herself out of the car. Cade hurried around to her side, not sure whether to hug her or keep his distance. The main door opened, rattling the bell.
Barbara waved them over. “Come in. There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
Inside the shop’s front room, she introduced them to Felicia Ortiz and her cousin, Maria, who cradled a dark-eyed infant in her arms.
Tori’s smile encompassed both women. “Felicia and I’ve met, but I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting the woman responsible for these beautiful creations.” She gestured to the hand-decorated dog cookies. “You’re a talented lady. Our canine customers can attest to that.”
“I enjoy what I do.” Maria’s brown eyes shone with pleasure. “Your mom has told me so much about you, Tori, that I feel as if I know you.”
“I’m grateful Felicia has generously stepped in to keep your products stocked.” Tori turned to Cade. “Felicia told me she was deployed at the same time as you. She was with the Female Engagement Team. Did you work with each other?”
He’d thought there was something vaguely familiar about her. FET members were few and far between. In a male-dominant country like Afghanistan, an FET was necessary to bridge communications between female locals and the military.
Felicia’s pearl-white teeth flashed. “I can’t say that I remember meeting you.”
The baby squirmed and fussed. Felicia reached for him, held him against her shoulder and patted his tiny back.
Barbara shifted, giving him a glimpse of the framed photos beside the register. There were several of Barbara with Jason and Tori. The one that caught his eye was an older image of Tori and him, lounging on the front porch, Popsicles in their hands and goofy grins on their faces. Had Aaron come in the shop and seen the photo? It wouldn’t have taken much to get Barbara to chat about her kids.
Barbara turned to Tori. “Since you can’t be here right now, Felicia’s agreed to be my part-time help. Isn’t it wonderful? We won’t have to disappoint our customers.”
Tori’s mixed feelings showed. “That’s kind of you, Felicia, but what about your responsibilities on base?”
“I’m on terminal leave. I have thirty days of leave accrued.”
“You’re getting out of the Corps?”
The corners of her mouth turned down. “It was time.”
A pair of customers arrived, a mother and her young daughter. They had their Siberian husky with them.
Cade drew Tori upstairs. “Time to pack.”
She went into the bedroom and removed a duffel bag from the closet. “Is it safe for my mom to be here?”
He stationed himself by the window. “You’re the target, Tori. Not her.”
Her neighbor Kenneth emerged from his house with a bottle of lemonade. Sprawling onto a deck chair, he sipped the drink, his focus on Tori’s house. Another man joined him. Scrawny, disheveled and dressed in leather and combat boots.
“What about Felicia?”
He shifted his attention to her. She slipped a pair of shorts from a hanger and folded them neatly.
“Like me, she’s been trained to defend herself.”
“She should know what she’s getting into.”
“Agreed.”
Tori disappeared into the master bath. Drawers opened and closed. “We’ll tell her before we leave?” she called.
Before he could respond, an unfamiliar number flashed on his cell.
Cade answered. It was his alarm company.
Tori must’ve heard the change in his voice, because she came to the bathroom door and waited for him to finish the call.
“Someone broke into your house?” Her eyes begged him to say no.
“The alert came three minutes ago. They’ve dispatched the authorities.”
Tori tossed a smaller zippered bag into her duffel. “Let’s go.”
“You should stay here with your mom.” He didn’t want her anywhere near his house if Aaron or his cohorts were there.
She stalked over to him, angling her chin up to meet his gaze. “That wasn’t the deal. Where you go, I go.”
His chest grew tight with longing. “We’re a team now, huh?”
“Until this is over, yes.”
He wanted her safe, wanted the threat dealt with. What he didn’t want was his time with her to end. Friendship with Tori was better than no relationship at all.
TWELVE
Julian was at Cade’s house when they arrived fifteen minutes later. He’d been driving home for a long-awaited rest—his training schedule didn’t always follow typical working hours—when Cade had texted him.
He’d been ordered to wait outside by the deputies, and he didn’t look pleased. His nostrils flared, and his eyes grew flinty as he listened to Cade’s account of last night’s accident and subsequent confrontation.
He rubbed a hand along the short stubble shadowing his jaw. “That wouldn’t have happened if I’d followed you home.”
“You couldn’t shirk your duties. Any idea when you’ll leave town?”
Julian’s brows lifted, and Cade nodded.
“Right. You couldn’t say, even if you knew.”
“Sorry, brother.”
Their exchange reminded her of the times she’d come home from school and learned that her father had been called out of the country. Some days had been worse than others. Like birthdays celebrated without him. Piano recitals performed without him.
They may have had a tumultuous relationship, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t ached for her father long after his sacrifice. Or maybe she’d ached for another chance for the father-daughter relationship she’d dreamed of.
A pair of deputies exited the house and a third came around the side, having checked the fenced-in yard and surrounding property.
“There was no one here when we arrived, Mr. McMann. The alarm probably spooked them. Why don’t you come inside and tell us if you see anything out of place or notice valuables missing?”
Cade and Tori entered first, followed by Julian and the others. The rooms looked the same as when they’d left that morning. The knowledge that their enemies had breached his home—their supposed safe house—set her nerves on edge.
Cade strode to the patio door, which was slightly ajar, and pointed to the overturned potted plant on the pavers. “Did one of you knock that over?”
“It was already like that.” The deputy pointed out the handle. “Looks like they managed to get in by tampering with this lock.”
His hands balled into fists. Cade was determined to protect her. This was further evidence their enemy was just as determined to get his hands on her. For what specific purpose, she couldn’t bring herself to dwell on.
He methodically combed through the rest of the house. The deputies called for a member of the crime scene unit to come and dust for fingerprints. Two left to attend another call, leaving the third to wait in his cruiser outside.
Cade returned to the living room. “Aaron must’ve assumed we were home, considering neither of us has a vehicle at the moment.”
Julian’s gaze reflected his own misgivings. “You need a new place to stay. I’d offer you a spot in my apartment, but my sister’s in from Hawaii. She’ll be staying with me for another week.”
Cade expelled a breath. “We need a place that isn’t obviously connected to our friends and family.”
“I thought you didn’t want to stay in a hotel,” Tori said.
“I don’t if we can find an alternative.” He snapped his fingers. “Brett’s parents own a condo in Emerald Isle. It sits empty much of the year.”
A beachside condo sounded too good to be true. Aaron wouldn’t think to look for them among the summer tourist crowd.
“Will he agree to help once he learns I’m involved?”
“As long as his parents are fine with the idea, he won’t turn us down.”
Cade stepped outside to place the call. Through the glass, she watched him reach to massage his wounded thigh and grimace. He was taking the prescribed antibiotics but refused pain medication, saying he needed to keep his mind sharp. A fresh bandage covered the gash on his temple, and the stitches in his arm peeked from beneath his T-shirt sleeve.
He’d received those wounds protecting her.
“No need to worry about him.” Julian came to stand beside her, locking his hands behind his back. “He can handle that and much more.”
“It’s not that. What worries me is how far he’s prepared to go.”
Still speaking into the cell, he turned on the pavers and locked gazes with her, his expression fierce.
“He’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe,” Julian said.
“Even if that means sacrificing his life?”
Julian’s silent appraisal confirmed her fears.
“I can’t let him do that.”
“If it comes to that, it will be his choice to make.”
Cade would give everything he had to defend her. He’d risk his life. He’d even die for her. He was the kind of man who would always put others’ safety above his own.
Tori closed her eyes and sent a plea heavenward. Please end this nightmare, Lord. Let us both walk out of this alive.
* * *
Cade set the last of the supplies on the kitchen counter, his gaze drawn once again to Tori, who stood at the condo’s sliding glass doors and contemplated the ocean. She’d been quieter than usual during the forty-five-minute drive to the small tourist island on the intracoastal waterway.
“You’re armed, right?”
He turned to Julian, who waited with keys in hand. “I got my smaller gun back from the sheriff’s department.” He’d hit a taillight, not a person. “They’re keeping my other one as evidence since I wounded Aaron with it. They’ll return it at a later date.”
“Good. Call or text anytime.”
“Go home already, Tan.” Julian should’ve hit the rack hours ago, but he’d insisted on following them up here and waiting with Tori while Cade ducked in an island market for food and other necessities. “Get some sleep.”
Julian lowered his voice. “I know you have feelings for her, but don’t allow emotions to cloud your judgment. Keep a cool head.”
“Easy for you to say,” he retorted, not bothering to deny the charge. “You’ve never let yourself care about a woman.”
“Romance is too high-risk for me.”
Cade rolled his eyes. There wasn’t much that could spook the Force Recon Marine, so why he avoided serious-minded women like the plague was a mystery.
After locking the door behind his friend, he walked through the living room and rejoined Tori. She looked like a tourist. Her ankle-length dress, with its soft mint-green, pink and white pattern, paired with strappy sandals, screamed lazy days in the sun. Thin straps showed off her smooth shoulders and arms. She wore no makeup save for a coral-hued lip gloss, making her look years younger, reminding him of the girl he’d fallen hard for.
Beyond the small patio, sunlight glinted off azure water stretching to the horizon. Dense shrubbery separated the units from the parking lots.
She gave him a half-hearted smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“What are you thinking about?”
“The times our families went camping together.” Nodding to the gaggle of kids catching tiny crabs at the water’s edge, she said wistfully, “Remember when we used to do that?”
“I remember being unable to sleep in the tent because it was too humid, but my dad wouldn’t let me sleep outside because of alligators.”
The base’s camping site was located on a thin stretch of land between the ocean and river, and alligators had been spotted in the area.
A sparkle lit in her eyes. “We used to have contests—”
“To see who could build the biggest s’mores tower.”
“I won nine times out of ten.”
“Because I let you.”
Out of the corner of his eye, sudden movement had him reaching for Tori to push her behind him. But it was just a girl of about eight, fetching her beach ball.
“We shouldn’t stand in the open.”
The sparkled faded. “Right.”
Tori moved aside so Cade could pull the curtains closed, blocking the stunning view. They were safer in this condo than any other place he could think of. Only a handful of people knew their exact location. Brett and his parents, of course, along with Julian, Deputy Claxton and Jason.
Hating that he’d had to spoil her mood, he went to the closet and pulled out a stack of dusty boxes.
“You up for a round of Pay Day? Or do you prefer Monopoly?”
She sank onto the love seat and pretended to debate her choices. “I was the Pay Day champion. Let’s see if your skills have improved.”
Snagging a flat decorative pillow, he dropped it onto the carpet on the opposite side of the coffee table. “Again, because I let you win.”
She dragged the box over and laid out the pieces. “You have a faulty memory, Staff Sergeant.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Halfway through the game, she cupped the red die in her hands but didn’t roll it.
“Why are you still single?”
A choked laugh escaped. “Where did that come from?”
“You don’t think your mother has kept my mother informed of your dating habits through the years? And that my mother didn’t pass that info along to me?”
He shifted on the pillow, hiding a grimace at the dull throbbing in his thigh. “What did they tell you?”
“That you keep women at arm’s length.” Propping her elbow on the glass top, she rested her cheek in her hand. A casual pose, yet her eyes swam with curiosity. “You were ready to get married at eighteen. I was convinced you’d find someone and settle down within a few years.”
“I thought I would, too. I concentrated on my career at first. By the time I was ready to date, I started noticing the crumbling of too many marriages. Granted, some were doomed from the beginning, naive, immature people marrying on a whim without serious thought to the hard work and sacrifice it would require. Brett’s experience gave me serious misgivings. If anyone was going to make it, it would’ve been Brett and Marlene.”
Her brow puckered. “You used to be the optimistic one.”
“And you, the realist.” He lined the deal cards in a neat row beside the board. “About Patrick... You never answered my question.”
Her lashes sweeping down, she toyed with the die. “Our relationship wasn’t a love story for the ages. We had fun together. We bowled in the summer and ice-skated in the winter. Ate our weight in barbecue. Funny, I didn’t realize until after he went to jail that we’d rarely spent time alone, certainly not enough to build a solid foundation on.”
Cade was ashamed of the jealousy her words evoked. Somehow, spending the past few days in her company had made the idea of her with another man more difficult to swallow.
“But the breakup hurt you.”
Her father had been the first to instill distrust in Tori. Cade had been the second, when he’d embarked on a new—and binding—career path without consulting her. Patrick had compounded the problem. Tori would have trouble forgiving herself for not seeing the signs.
“Because I allowed myself to be fooled by him.”
He blew out a breath. “You can’t blame yourself. People with secrets can be masters at hiding their true agendas.”
“Maybe.”
He received a call from Claxton, preventing him from arguing the point. Tori sat up straight and listened to his side of the convers
ation.
“A homemade explosive device was used to blow up my car,” she said when he’d pressed End.
He nodded. “Aaron and his buddies had to have a working knowledge of explosives and the means to obtain the C-4. These days, you can find specific instructions on the internet.”
“This doesn’t help us identify who he’s working with.”
“Claxton’s going to work with the Provost Marshal’s Office on several fronts. They’re looking to see if there have been reports of missing explosives on base. They’re also going to dig into the lives of the two Marines who lodged the complaint over in Afghanistan. Lamont’s married and living in base housing on Tarawa Terrace. Truman lives in the barracks.”
Abandoning the game, Tori got up and paced to the window facing the parking lot. The curtains were drawn, however, so she faced the room.
“You served with them. Do you think they’re guilty?”
He slowly stood to his feet. “Lamont can be a hothead, but he’s also a family man. He carried around a photo of his wife and sons and talked about them incessantly. I can’t see him jeopardizing their future. Truman, on the other hand, is a wild card. He was the last one I’d expect to play the blame game.”
“He’s single, since he’s living in the barracks. Does he have a girlfriend? Kids from a previous relationship?”
“No kids. No romantic ties that I’m aware of.”
“Which means he has less to lose.”
“We know Aaron’s motivation. He said that he and William were like brothers. As for the others, their involvement could boil down to a hefty payday.”
“Aaron would need access to a lot of cash,” she mused, hugging her middle. “We know he didn’t get rich on military pay. Claxton should look into whether he comes from a wealthy family. Or if illegal activity is cushioning his accounts.”
“It doesn’t have to be about money,” Cade said. “Aaron could have dirt on the others and is coercing them.”