When Shadows Fall (Cherry Creek Series Book 3)

by Callie Rae

  “Cason, what the hell is going on?” I demand, holding onto the door and trying to wrangle my seatbelt around me as my mind starts to race.

  “Jesse called,” he grits out.

  I notice the white in his knuckles and that his shoulders are so tense they don’t even touch the seat.

  Cason’s hand slams into the steering wheel. “Damn it! I should’ve gone with him. I should’ve known that James was up to something.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jade asks. “To golf? They always play golf. This isn’t new.”

  Cason growls. “He’s in jail. He got picked up by Cherry Creek PD.”

  His panic is palpable. My stomach drops.

  “I don’t understand. Dad has PD on the payroll. It has to be a mistake. Just call him and ask him to clear it up,” Jade says.

  If only it was that easy. If only James played by the same rules. I know he is their father, and a part of Jade still believes her daddy would protect her. She knows that James is not so innocent, but I can’t blame her for holding onto whatever hope she has left.

  “That’s just it. He asked for us. He specifically said to not tell James or Mom.” He grips the steering wheel tighter. “Why would they even take him in if James wasn’t behind this? We’ve had how many encounters with the local police? And how many times have we actually been picked up?”

  “None,” Jade whispers.

  Cason looks at Jade in the rearview mirror. “Exactly.” He navigates us in and out traffic quickly. He looks at me out of the corner of his eye. “This can’t be good.”

  No, this isn’t good at all.

  Cason slides into a parking space on squealing tires and barely has the keys out of ignition before he’s out of the vehicle and running toward the front door. I look over my shoulder at Jade, who is curled into her seat looking heartbroken. Up until this moment, she’s been that little girl who just wants to believe her dad is a superhero; now she’s being forced to face the fact that he's really the villain.

  I turn completely in my seat and reach out to grab her hand. “Hey. It’ll be okay. He’ll be okay.”

  She shakes her head. “None of this is okay.”

  She pulls her hand away and pushes her door open, then hops out of the vehicle. I do the same and follow her all the way into the station. Both lost in our own thoughts, it takes us a few moments to realize that Cason is yelling at an officer.

  I look up at the same time Jade does and we both run to his side. I pull Cason away from the desk just as the officer tells him he’ll need to calm down or he’ll have to leave.

  “They won’t let us back there, and they won’t let Jesse go,” Cason growls. “They know who we are. They know how much trouble this could cause if they don’t cooperate.”

  I continue to hold Cason back as he rants.

  “He won’t even tell me what they’ve detained him for. What kind of bullshit police station is this?”

  “Cason, I get it. But the last thing we need is you back there in cuffs too. That won’t help Jesse.” I stay calm to make sure he understands every word.

  He looks at me like he wants to argue with me, but then his body relaxes. “You’re right. I just don’t know how to handle this besides doing the one thing he specifically asked me not to do.”

  “Call Dad?” Jade asks.

  He nods. “Call James.”

  I shake my head. “No, we’re not calling him. Let me see if they’ll talk to me.”

  Cason tries to refuse me, but I quickly shut it down.

  “Cason, I’m not asking. I love you, but that is my boyfriend in there and I am telling you not to call James yet. Let me try.”

  For the first time in months, I feel completely powerless, and I think Cason notices it. I hate it, but for some unknown reason, it feels better than the emotionless state Marcus left me in.

  “Cason, let her try. It can’t hurt anything,” Jade says softly.

  “Okay, fine. Be my guest. But if this doesn’t work, we’re calling someone. Mom, James. Someone.”

  I nod before heading back towards the front counter. I grip the hard surface and breathe deeply.

  The officer behind the counter doesn’t even look up. “I already told your friend there that he’s in booking. You’ll have to wait for an update.”

  I decide it’s now or never. “Listen to me closely, because I can’t speak any louder than this. They can’t hear me say this. My name is Fallon Blake, and I’m an informant for Detective Cruise. By holding Jesse, you are interfering with an ongoing investigation and risking not only my life, but also the lives of several people I care about.”

  He looked up as soon as I said Cruise’s name, and now he’s leaning in to hear me.

  “Miss, look—I’m not even supposed to tell you this, but Detective Cruise is the officer who brought Jesse in.”

  I gasp. “What?” I shake my head. “That can’t be right.”

  “It says right here on the booking orders that Cruise detained him.”

  “Is he here? Cruise?”

  “I can’t,” he says.

  “I know he’s back there. So either you tell him to get his ass out here or I will cause a scene that could end up being quite detrimental to the police department's budget. And by budget, I mean I’ll tell a whole lot of important people who donated to the department that you’re investigating them.”

  “That’s not true. Detective Cruise isn’t operating under this precinct.”

  “It doesn’t matter. If a Callaway says it, your entire department’s salary will be gone. And I just happen to have two Callaways sitting in your waiting area.”

  “Stop threatening the officer, Fallon. I’ll let you come back. But just you. Your friends will have to stay out here.” Detective Cruise’s voice cuts through the tension in the room like a sharp knife.

  I look to my left and see the cocky grin I know too well for my liking.

  “What is he doing here? This wasn’t part of the plan,” I hiss.

  “Well, you were supposed to keep your boyfriend out of it. Yet here he is, snooping around. What was I supposed to do?”

  “Fallon? Who’s this?” Cason says.

  I freeze.

  Shit. Cason. I’d forgotten about them. I watch Detective Cruise’s reaction and it’s obvious he hadn’t. Cruise stares intently at Cason for a moment before stepping toward the locked door, keycard in hand.

  “Fallon, we need to go back.”

  “Fallon, who is that? He looks—” Jade stops herself mid-sentence.

  I know exactly what she’s thinking.

  “Look, I can’t really explain this right now, but I need you to trust me. Okay?”

  “They’re letting you go back? How?” Cason directs his question at me, but he isn’t looking in my direction. He’s staring at the detective standing by the door waiting on me.

  “I promise I’ll explain everything to you, but I need to get back there. I’m sorry. Just let me…” I throw a thumb over my shoulder before turning around and meeting Cruise at the door.

  I felt terrible lying to them. Part of me wants to tell Cruise that if I go, they go. But I know that’s not how this works.

  And Cruise isn’t under the influence of this town like the rest of the department, so any threats are useless. I glance back at my friends as Cruise slides his card across the pad. Cason’s face is expressionless, but his eyes tell me a whole lot. He feels betrayed. He knows I lied to him.

  Jade looks between us, clueless what to do. So she just stands there watching. I don’t blame her. Hurting Cason isn’t a joke. Once you’ve hurt him, that’s it. You get thrown into the “mommy issues” pile with no hope of ever working your way back up.

  That’s where I am right now, layered among all the bullshit his mom ever put him through.

  There is no going back.

  Chapter 30

  Jesse

  They’ve had me back here for at least three hours. White room, mirrors on the wall. Fuck, I know people
look at me like I’m a god, but I can’t stand staring at myself that long. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Staring at myself. It’s fucking weird, and I’m officially over it.

  They won’t tell me why I’m here. They won’t let me leave. Hell, the last time someone came in was only because I banged on the mirror for ten minutes straight asking to be let out so I could go take a piss. I may have threatened to piss all over the table in here if someone didn’t let me out.

  An officer promptly unlocked the door and escorted me to the nearest bathroom. I then asked for a phone, and they said I could make one phone call. So I called Cason. I knew he’d take care of it. I told him not to let James know; after our round of golf, the last thing I need is for James to have any other reason to keep me away. I asked him not to tell Mom because I knew she’d panic and call James.

  I mean, this obviously isn’t a speeding ticket. They wouldn’t have detained me. They didn’t even use cuffs; the officer asked me very politely to get in the cop car, but it was clear I didn’t have much of a choice. I doubt even James would be able to pay off the department enough to get me out of an officer assault charge. So here I am, sitting in a white room, wondering what the fuck is happening.

  The door jiggles and clicks. I might finally get some answers.

  At least, I think I might…until the door opens. I realize the answers I’d thought I wanted are not answers I’m ready for. Not at all.

  A man that looks like an older version of Cason walks through the door, followed by Fallon.

  “Hi Jesse. I’m Detective Cruise.”

  The man—no, detective—holds his hand out to me in a friendly fashion, but I’m not feeling so fucking friendly right now. Cruise? Last name Cruise?

  Instead, I turn to my girlfriend, who will be in so much fucking trouble when we get home. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “Jesse, I…” She swallows hard. “I wanted to tell you, but not this way. But apparently, the plans changed and someone didn’t tell me.”

  “Tell me what? Why am I here? Why are you here? And why is this older version of Cason in my face?”

  “She’s here because she wants to be. You’re here because you have information that I need,” the detective/Cason lookalike says.

  “What the hell is he talking about?” I ask my girlfriend again, but she just stands there looking guilty.

  “You see, Fallon has been working with us since shortly after her accident,” Fuckface Cruise says.

  “Why are you still talking to me? I asked my girlfriend a question,” I say to the overdressed detective. “Why are you here, Fallon?”

  I don’t know what hits harder—my words or my anger. But it doesn’t matter, because she actually opens her fucking mouth to speak.

  “I—I was just so tired of it all. I was tired of the pain and hurt. I was tired of watching y’all battle it out for me. I just wanted to do something to help. When Detective Cruise approached me, I saw a way to help you. The deal was that they would keep all of you out of this if I kept quiet.” Fallon narrows her eyes at the officer. “But it looks like I was wrong to trust him.”

  “Things have changed since your mother brought you in. Jesse here has been snooping around while he works with his father. He even interrupted a raid in the middle of the night when he decided to break into his father’s office.”

  I tense in my seat.

  Fallon wasn’t supposed to know what I was doing that night. She wasn’t supposed to know about any of it, because I was doing the same thing she was doing for me. Protecting her.

  “Is that where you were that night? I woke up and you were gone, but I didn’t think—”

  “Yeah, well, your boyfriend here messed up an ongoing investigation by showing up. We were pulled off the moment he entered the building. A week of prep work, wasted.”

  “Fuck off. If you had anything worth a damn, you wouldn’t need to raid his office in the middle of the night. Let’s be honest. If you’d raided his office, he would have found out you were investigating him. And don’t think he doesn’t already know, because that’s just who James is. But you risked him figuring out just who’s been digging around, which means you're desperate. You have nothing on him, or me for that matter.

  “So, here’s the deal: I can sit here for the next forty-five hours and say nothing until you’re forced to let me go. That’s if I even make it that long before they need the room and have to let me go early. Or you can start being upfront with us.” I lean back into my chair. “I’m assuming it’s no coincidence that you have the same last name as my brother, or the fact that y'all look eerily alike. There is more to this than you’re letting on.”

  He winces. I wonder if his supervisors know about Cason. There’s no way to hide the connection; anyone with eyes can see he’s Cason’s father.

  “Jesse,” Fallon sighs, sounding exasperated. “Just listen to him. He’s not the bad guy.”

  “Says who?” I turn to her. “He went after you when you were most vulnerable.”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  “He just told me he did,” I grit out through my teeth.

  “I called him. Yes, he approached me, but I ignored him. But then your mom said something to me that…you know what? It doesn’t even matter. I called him. I wanted to help. So do me a favor and stop for a minute. Just listen to him.”

  She closes her eyes and slouches into a chair on the other side of the table. She looks so tired—emotionally exhausted. She needs this to be over.

  I sigh. “Fine.” I look over to the detective. “You have one chance to be honest with me. With her.”

  He stares at me. I stand my ground and stare right back. Then he nods.

  “Turn the recording off,” he says into the room. “I want this off the record.”

  Shit just got real.

  He throws a file he’s been holding under his arm on the table in front of me.

  “I guess it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who I am,” he mumbles. “I never wanted it to be like this, but that’s just the way it worked out.”

  “You see, about nineteen years ago, I went off to the police academy. I had a tryst with a woman. It was one night, and the next morning, I left for the academy. The academy was only for a few weeks.” He leans down and rubs his hands through his hair.

  I take that moment to open the file he threw in front of me. The first item is a picture of me at the docks. The next is a picture of James and Vic talking.

  “When I got back, I did look for her. I felt bad about leaving her like that. But she had literally disappeared. I couldn’t get in contact with her. I couldn’t find her. She was just gone. At first, I was concerned. I even tried using my police resources to find her, but I always came up empty.

  “After a few years, I had forgotten about her. I was so focused on my career at that point, I was rising through the ranks fast. I made detective a few years later and got my first few cases. That case led me back to Cherry Creek. That’s when I saw her again. She was on the sidewalk holding a little boy on her hip. I didn’t even really get a good look at her, because all I saw was the blonde hair and blue eyes on that baby boy.”

  “But then she got into a vehicle and left. That was the last time I saw either of them until recently. You see, that case I was working on was for a smuggling ring. But the trail went cold. Well, up until a few weeks ago. We got a fresh lead that led us back to Cherry Creek. That’s when I learned about Fallon. And that’s when I saw him again. I knew who he was the second I laid eyes on him. He was at the door watching you. The moment you ran out, he was there making sure you were okay.”

  I look at Fallon. A single lonely tear slides down her face.

  “We found firearms in a storage container mixed in with a few ancient artifacts as part of another case. After a quick search, we found the artifacts had been checked into customs. We traced them back to their original destination. Can you guess what we found?”

  “Shit,” I sigh, shaking
my head.

  “You know,” Detective Cruise says matter-of-factly.

  “No,” I say. “Maybe. I’m not sure what I know.”

  I glance at Fallon, who is watching me intently. She takes a few moments to study me before she nods her head slightly.

  “Tell him what you know, Jesse. It’s the only way we end this.”

  I hold her stare as I wonder what the point of all of this is. What is this detective going to do differently than anyone else who has ever tried to win a case against James?

  Despite my doubts, seeing her fight again feels good.

  “He sent me to the docks to bring in those artifacts. It was being shipped in by a big buyer, and he wanted me to make sure everything went well,” I say through gritted teeth.

  I’m not a snitch, but Fallon is right. This might be our only way out.

  “I saw the boxes. Nothing was shipped in that container besides those artifacts. I checked each one myself.”

  Detective Cruise watches me before speaking. “But you have a theory.”

  I nod. “When I searched his office, I found a few things. A map of a dock that I had never been to or seen before. It’s a few miles down, but it's definitely there. I think he’s swapping containers out to another boat or small barge and bringing them into that dock. It’s off the grid, so no one will notice.”

  “And the other thing?”

  I tilt my head. “What?”

  “You said a few things.”

  I nod. “The other thing is Cason’s to share.”

  He pauses, then clears his throat.

  “There’s one more thing,” he says before looking over at Fallon.

  I tense. This can’t be good.

  “We have reason to believe that James was behind Fallon’s accident,” Cruise states.

  Fallon gasps. I look to her to make sure she’s okay. She grabs onto the table to steady herself.

  “You had to do that?” I asked.

  Fallon’s head whips in my direction, shock and hurt on her face. “You knew?”

  I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “I overheard him talking in his office one day. It was vague, but not so vague I couldn’t realize he meant you.”