When Shadows Fall (Cherry Creek Series Book 3)

by Callie Rae

  “I wanted to give you something.” Jesse pulls a folder out from under the map and hands it over to me.

  I open it up and read the contents inside. “This is…”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Why are you giving this to me?” I ask him.

  “Because you’ve done more for him than any of us could have ever done. He needs you. He needs whatever connection y’all have. He needs his person, and you’re it for him. As much as I don’t understand it, I love you both. I need you both. This is the only way I know how to do what I do. To fix it.”

  He leans in, pressing his lips to mine. It’s soft, it’s sensual, but it’s not needy. He doesn’t take; he meets me halfway. Before I know it, the kiss is over, and he leaves me sitting on my bed with a bomb in my hands.

  Well, shit. What the hell do I do now?

  Chapter 32

  Fallon

  It’s been a week since Jesse got picked up by the police. Things have been tense, but besides the dumpster fire we all know is coming, everything has been normal. Wake up, go to school, therapy, homework. The only thing that’s not normal is the silent treatment I’m receiving from Cason. The only time he speaks to me is when it's about this situation with James.

  He hasn’t gone back to James, but he certainly has made a dent in our couch. He stares at me, he frowns at me, and then he walks away. It sucks.

  Jesse is actively playing the good prince with James. We haven’t seen each other much. Only stolen moments at school. We have to make James believe Jesse and I are truly over; it’s the only way this works. But I’m convinced that as long as James’s family is here, he will try find a way to destroy me.

  Regardless, it will help us when it comes time. We need James to trust Jesse enough to let him in on the shipments.

  My phone beeps. I look down at it and see a text.

  Jade: He’s halfway to the best night's sleep of his life.

  Cason: WTF did you do?

  Jesse: Cason, just grab Fallon and get over here.

  I can hear the growl in Jesse’s voice as I read that last text. Lately that’s all he does: growl at everyone and everything like he’s trying to hold pieces of himself together. I close my eyes and breathe in. I’m not sure I’m ready for any of this.

  “You coming or what?” Cason’s bored voice makes my eyes jerk open.

  I nod and stand, and before Cason can turn and walk away, I say the few words I have in me.

  “I’m sorry, you know. It hurts me too.”

  He pauses with his back turned. His shoulders tense up. His hand forms a fist and then he releases it, stretching his fingers open.

  “Let’s just get there. They need us.” And then he walks away.

  I sigh as I follow.

  He’s never going to forgive me.

  When we pull up, Cason cuts the lights just in case James is still up. We don’t want him to know I’m anywhere near this place.

  It doesn’t take long before Jade opens the door and hangs her head out, waving her hands like a wild person. I swear, there is nothing subtle about that girl.

  Cason and I get out of the Jeep and head inside. The moment we step through the door, Jade ushers us into the office.

  The first thing I see is Jesse standing next to the leather couch situated against the wall in the office. He has a frown on his face.

  “You didn’t, like…kill him, did you?” Jesse asks when he sees Jade come in behind us.

  Jade rolls her eyes. “I’d expect a dumb statement like that from Cason, but not from you.” She rounds the desk and sits in her father’s chair. “No, I just slipped him one of Mom’s sleeping pills.”

  Jesse’s head whips around. “Mom has sleeping pills?”

  Jade rolls her eyes again. “Of course she does. She’s lived with James most of her adult life. If I had to share a bed with him, I’d need something to help me sleep too.”

  I watch Jade go through each drawer searching for what I assume is the tablet. Halfway through her search, she hisses.

  “What? Losing your spy girl mojo?” Cason asks.

  For the third time tonight, Jade rolls her eyes. “No, but the tablet isn’t in his desk where he usually keeps it.”

  “What do you mean it’s not where he usually keeps it?” Jesse hisses.

  “I mean it’s not here,” she says.

  “Then where could it be?” he says.

  I reach over and grab his hand. He’s been tense. This week has been hard on him.

  “I don’t know. You work with him! You tell me.” Jade leans back in the chair looking far too comfortable behind that desk. She looks like she belongs there. All she’s missing is a gold nameplate with the title CEO.

  “Fuck. I don’t know. He’s still guarded with me.” He threads his fingers through his hair and tugs, his frustration clear.

  I step in front of him and grab his wrists, pulling his hands down. I see the stress in his eyes. He wants this over with, and I don’t blame him. But he needs to calm down and think.

  I release his hands at his sides and cup his face in mine. His stare is fixed over my shoulder at some unknown point on the wall behind me.

  “Look at me, baby.”

  His jaw tenses. When he doesn’t immediately look into my eyes, I tug his face down until he’s forced to make eye contact.

  “Look at me,” I whisper again. “I’m here. I’m with you.”

  His nostrils flare, and he closes his eyes.

  “Think for me, okay?”

  He nods.

  “Think about the last place you remember seeing the tablet.”

  He takes a few deep breaths and then opens his eyes. For a brief second, I see the frustration flare, but then his eyes clear and he pauses.

  “His briefcase. Where is his briefcase?” he says.

  We all start searching the room.

  “Got it!” Cason pulls it from the side of the desk. “Shit, it’s locked.”

  The sound of James mumbling something from the other room makes us all freeze.

  “Jade, how long is that sleeping pill supposed to work?” Cason whispers.

  “I don’t know! I’ve never taken them before,” she hisses back.

  “Well, don’t you think you should’ve looked that up before we snuck in here?” he hisses back.

  She scowls. “I didn’t see you over here throwing out any ideas on how to get past him.”

  “Can both of you shut up?” Jesse growls just as James rolls over onto his side and begins to snore softly.

  “He’s just talking in his sleep, but let’s hurry up before he really does wake up,” I say.

  “It’s a four-digit code. Any ideas?” Cason asks.

  “Try our birthdays,” Jade says.

  Cason turns the lock, trying each of their birthdays. On the last one, he pushes hard, but nothing happens.

  “No bueno.”

  Jesse stares at his father.

  “What about Mom’s birthday?” Jade says.

  “No,” Jesse mumbles.

  “No? You don’t think he’d set it to Mom’s?”

  “No, he’d set it to something no one would figure out. Well, something he hoped no one would figure out.” Jesse is still staring at his father’s sleeping form.

  “What do you mean?” I ask.

  “Try 0526,” he says.

  Cason sets the numbers in place and hits the lock. It pops open. He looks up in surprise. “What was that?”

  Jesse swallows. “Jax’s birthday.”

  Everyone sobers just a bit. Jesse was right; James never thought they would find out about Jax. It was the perfect code.

  Cason pulls the briefcase open and set right on top is a black tablet, just like Jesse thought. Cason immediately grabs it and hands it over to Jesse. Jesse carries it over to his father and very carefully lifts his finger.

  He places James’s finger onto the tablet, letting it scan. I hold my breath as I watch James snore, hoping he won’t wake up.

  T
he tablet unlocks, and Jesse slowly lowers James’s finger. Just as he lets go, James rolls onto his back and snores once loudly, sucking the air out of the room with him.

  Jesse freezes, afraid to move if James is stirring. Once his snores come back even louder, we all relax. Jesse quickly hands the tablet over to Jade.

  “Hurry up before this fucker really does wake up,” Jesse says.

  “I’ll do the best I can,” Jade mumbles as she starts working on the tablet.

  After about five minutes of us all intently staring at her, Jade suddenly stands up.

  “Yes!” she squeals.

  We all immediately hush her.

  She winces. “Sorry.”

  “Are you in?” Jesse asks.

  “Yeah, I’m in,” Jade tells him. “But you aren’t gonna like this.”

  “What?” Cason asks.

  Jade hands the tablet to Jesse and he looks down at the screen. “That can’t be right.”

  “What?” I ask.

  He looks from me to Cason and then back to me. “The next shipment is tomorrow.”

  “What?!” I squeal a bit.

  “He changed it. We don’t have a shipment coming in tomorrow at the docks,” Jesse mumbles.

  “So, what does that mean?” Cason asks.

  “It means we don’t have a lot of time. He either knows there’s heat or this shipment is big,” Jade says calmly.

  “Heat? Are you a gangster now?” Cason asks.

  Jade huffs indignantly. “I watch Good Girls. I know how this works.”

  “Seriously? You watch a TV show and now you’re an expert?” Cason says.

  “Can y’all focus for one single moment in your lives?” Jesse whisper-growls.

  Jade and Cason both shut their mouths and look to Jesse. He’s visibly stressed as he processes the fact that we are out of time. His hand tugs his hair, and the pacing begins. This just went from “we have a few weeks to figure this out” to “this shit is happening now.”

  We’re fucked.

  He stays silent for a moment longer before he nods his head. “All right. It’s all right. We just tell the detective and then we’re done. Right? I mean this is their problem, not ours. They should have the resources to handle this.”

  He looks to me for some kind of approval, like he needs me to confirm what he’s saying, but I can’t. I have no idea what comes next.

  I shake my head. “I don’t know. But we can’t stay here all night. He’s going to wake up. Why don’t we head to the moms’ house? And then we’ll make the call.”

  Cason and Jade both nod in agreement. We put everything back the way we found it. Jade takes a blanket and covers her father with it before placing her hand to his face. She’s saying goodbye. We all feel it; this is going to break her.

  We reconvene at the moms’ house. Jesse doesn’t go inside. He stands next to the SUV and pulls out a phone that I’ve never seen before. It's black and basic.

  “What’s that?” I ask.

  “A burner phone,” Jade whispers.

  Cason looks at Jade. “Seriously?”

  “James isn’t stupid. He’s probably got all our phones tapped. I can’t risk James changing the shipment once I make this call,” Jesse states.

  He dials in the number Detective Cruise gave us. He picks up on the first ring.

  “This is Cruise.”

  “It arrives tomorrow at noon,” Jesse says, skipping pleasantries.

  A curse slips out the phone. “A car will be by in one hour. Pack a bag.”

  “Wait, no. That’s not the deal. We stay out of this. My family stays out of this.”

  “You need to be in protective custody until it’s done. I can’t risk you or your friends being hurt, or James finding out we’re onto them. A car will be by. Have everyone packed and ready. That includes both of your moms.”

  Cruise drops the line. Jesse grips the phone, and before I can blink the phone is flying across the yard.

  “Fuck!” Jesse roars. “He’s going to know.”

  I immediately reach for him. “Hey, it’s fine. It’s just a precaution. We’re all going to be fine.”

  He looks over my shoulder, but gives me a slight nod. “Wake your mom up. Tell her as little as possible. Cason, gather up our phones and leave them here.”

  “What about Mom?” Cason mumbles.

  “I’ll handle her. Jade?” Jesse looks over to his sister.

  She’s standing there, staring off into space with her arms wrapped around herself.

  “Jade?” he asks again.

  This time she startles and looks up at her brother.

  “Jade.” He slowly goes over and wraps her up in a hug.

  Jade begins to shake in his arms until she can’t contain the sobs any longer.

  “I know,” Jesse mumbles into her hair. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “How can you say that? We just tore our family apart. Nothing about this is okay.”

  He pulls back and looks at her. “He isn’t our family, Jade. Cason is our family. Mom is our family. Fallon is our family. He will never be our family. He’s never even cared about us. It’s always been about him.”

  I feel the warmth of the tear unexpectedly. It slides down my cheek as I watch my friends break. I look over at Cason, and though it appears he’s holding it together, underneath it all, he’s breaking too.

  Once Jade calms enough to go inside and grab her things, we all get moving. We do our best to assure both moms that everything is okay. They have questions that we all think are best to let the police answer.

  Right on time, two unmarked, armored black SUVs rolled into the driveway. The darkness of the night wraps the vehicles in a way that, hopefully, no one has noticed. We leave our phones on the kitchen table and meet an officer at the door. He escorts all of us into the waiting vehicles.

  I look at Jesse as we back down the driveway. He reaches over and grabs my hand. It tightens, his grip almost painful, but somehow, it’s not hard enough. I squeeze back, and we both hold on for dear life.

  Chapter 33

  Jesse

  We roll up to a house on the outskirts of town. I’m not sure what I expected, but a plain white house wasn’t it. It has a long driveway leading up to the house, which is situated out of sight from the road.

  The drivers roll to a stop and the front door opens. Detective Cruise steps out of the house. He takes a few steps, then pauses, waiting for us to exit the vehicles. I help Fallon out of the car just as I see our mothers exit the other SUV. We start walking up to the house, Fallon’s hand firmly in mine. I refuse to let go.

  I don’t know if it’s because the last time something big went down, I nearly lost her, but right now, I need to feel her.

  I stop in front of the detective with my family behind me. I’m not sure what we look like, but I can feel each of them at my back, poised and ready to fucking ram anything that tries to tear us apart.

  Detective Cruise winces slightly and tries to recover, but I see it before he can pretend he’s the big bad cop he thinks he is. He looks over our group and his eyes stop when they land on my mother.

  She gasps the moment he makes eye contact. Of course they know each other.

  “Grayson?” my mom asks, her voice laced with confusion and panic.

  Cason has been her baby. She never once hesitated in accepting him as her son.

  “Hello, Catherine,” he says with a nod.

  She immediately responds with the fierceness of a mother ready to do battle to protect her offspring. I hear it, he hears it, we all hear it.

  “What is going on here?”

  “Maybe we should all go inside and talk. It’s long overdue,” he says, looking weary.

  “Oh, we’re going to talk, all right. You’re going to tell me why my children got me out of bed to pack a bag and get hauled off to the middle of nowhere. And why it has anything to do with you,” she snarls.

  Cason reaches over and wraps his arm around her. His voice is soft. “Mo
m, let’s go inside. We’ll tell you everything, I promise.”

  I don’t watch Cason as he guides both moms inside the house. I watch Cruise take in the interaction between my mother and my brother. His face is trained to show no emotion, but I’ve been watching people, learning their weaknesses, in order to survive throughout my entire life. He hides it well, but not from me. I see the hard swallow that follows their interaction, the pain hidden beneath several layers of stoicism. It’s all there; this hurts him.

  Good. He doesn’t deserve to feel happy about this.

  I let them all go in, but I grip Fallon's hand harder. She leans into me and places her other hand on the center of my chest. It has a calming effect I’m not sure she’s even aware of.

  Cruise meets my eyes and holds his stare. We stand there like that for a few moments, the intensity high on the scale as we size each other up.

  “He’s been through a lot. He has her. And he has us. If you’re here to tear that apart, we will all fight you. He deserves that much—for someone to fight for him. I’m only going to say this once. You will go in that house and maintain the façade of simply being an officer of the law taking down a bad man. You keep your emotions out of it. And you let him decide what he wants from this. You make one wrong step that affects my brother in any way, and it won’t matter what side of the law you are on. I will destroy you.”

  He watches me for a few moments, processing my words and judging their meaning. But he doesn’t comment. The only acknowledgment I get is the quick drop of his chin as he nods.

  I readjust my grip in Fallon’s hand, and I tug her inside the house, leaving that man out there to do whatever it is he needs to do to get this right.

  We all sit down with our bags in the living room. The place is small and plain. No decorations. It’s basic, barebones. Two other uniformed officers are watching the scene unfold from the kitchen.

  We’re at a safehouse.

  Cruise comes inside a minute later and stands where he can see everyone. He stays silent as he takes us all in.