by Jae
Del didn't look at Kade, but in the mirrored walls of the elevator, Kade could see her dark and turbulent eyes. "It's the best for all of us."
The elevator doors pinged open. Del resolutely stepped forward, wanting to escape the confines of the elevator and the discussion, but Kade quickly blocked her way. They stood very close, almost touching in the close quarters of the elevator. Kade's skin started to tingle, but she ignored it. "Talk to me, please." She reached out and gently touched one of Del's hands that were clenched around the pizza box. "You've been there for me, and now it's my turn to be there for you. Isn't that how a relationship, romantic or otherwise, should work?" If you want us to be friends, or maybe, one day, something more, you sometimes have to let me be the strong one too, Del Vasquez.
The elevator doors closed again, with them still inside.
"I feel like a bottle of champagne someone shook a little too hard," Del whispered into the confines of the elevator. "All the bottled up feelings inside of me... if I go see my father, I'm afraid they'll explode out of me, and I don't want to yell at a dying man. Or maybe the exact opposite will happen. Maybe I won't be able to utter a single word because I don't know what to say to him."
Kade smoothed her thumb over the back of Del's hand. Del's hand was cold, despite the warmth of the pizza box. "I don't think it's important what you say or if you say anything at all."
"Then what is important?" Del asked, not moving away from Kade's touch.
"To face your past and your father and to say good-bye to both. You have to let go of your old feelings to make room for new ones." Kade wished someone had told her that before her own father had died.
"I already have let go of my past," Del said.
Kade shook her head. "No, you haven't. If you had, this wouldn't hurt you so much. I don't have the best relationship with my own family. I'm not close to anyone, and maybe I'm not the best person to ask for advice about this, but one thing is becoming clearer and clearer to me: you can never escape blood ties. Your father will always be your father, no matter how much he or you dislike it."
"So you're saying I should go and forgive him because he's the man who fathered me?" Del didn't sound convinced.
"No. This isn't about forgiveness," Kade said, still holding on to Del's hand. "Well, maybe it is, but not for your father's sake. You'll have to live with your feelings long after your father is gone. If there's a chance you could bury the anger, the hate, and the resentment, maybe you should do it. For your own sake."
Del squeezed her hand, then pulled away to press the button that opened the elevator doors. "You're probably right, but... I just need a little more time." She stepped out of the elevator and looked back at Kade.
Kade smiled and walked toward her. "That's all r –" She stopped abruptly and stared at the door to Del's apartment. "Jesus! What happened here?"
Del whirled around.
Someone had sprayed "She's mine!" and "Leave her alone!" in bold, blood red letters on Del's door. The wall next to it was now decorated with a skull and crossbones and other symbols of death.
"Shit. Stay back!" Del threw down the pizza box and pulled the gun that she always seemed to carry these days. She reached out to Kade with the other hand, forcing her back while she protected her from whoever might lurk in the corridor with her own body.
Kade leaned against the wall. Her fingers wrapped around the small gun in her purse. Her eyes never left Del, feeling at least marginally safe as long as Del was in her line of sight.
Del checked the stairwell and the corridor before she returned to her apartment door. She carefully touched the paint and looked at her fingers. The paint was dry. The stalker was long since gone. Del exhaled sharply, her whole body tense. Slowly, she put away her gun. "Your stalker is getting creative."
"Creative? He's threatening you!" Kade shuddered as she stared at the death's head. "Hitting you over the head when you visited my apartment was a warning. Next time, he won't let you live. I should go." She turned back around toward the elevator.
Del hurried after her. "You're not going anywhere!" she shouted.
Kade turned slowly and fixed Del with her coldest stare. "What did you just say?" she asked with lethal gentleness. She knew the tense situation had both of them on edge, but she didn't appreciate being yelled at and ordered around like a naughty child.
Del took a deep breath. "Kade..." She ran her hand through her hair in frustration. "I'm not ordering you around, but I don't think you should go anywhere, at least not alone."
"If you don't stay away from me, you're a target!" A picture of Del lying unconscious and covered in blood in front of her apartment flashed through Kade's mind. She never wanted to experience something like that again.
"And if I stay away, you are a target!" Del shot back. "Don't you see that this is what he wants? I bet he knew you'd come here with me tonight. He knew you'd see his little message to me. He wants you to order me to stay away so he can get to you."
Kade forced herself to calm down and think about it. What Del said made sense. "He's not your average run-of-the-mill stalker," she finally said with dread.
"No. This is one clever son of a bitch." Del stared at her apartment door with narrowed eyes.
Kade bit her lip. "What are we going to do?" She had no intention of just waiting to see what the stalker would do next. Not when it put Del at risk.
Del bent to pick up the pizza box. "We're going to enjoy our dinner, and then I'll call one of my friends from CSU over to dust for prints and take some photos. Not that I expect to find anything, but it's worth a try. My apartment building doesn't have any cameras and no doorman, so prints are all we can hope for."
"And after that?" Kade asked. She didn't like having no plan at all. As a prosecutor, she never stepped into a courtroom – or any other situation – without a precise plan of action.
Del unlocked her apartment. She waved at Kade to stay back until she had made sure nothing had been disturbed inside, then she firmly closed and locked the door behind them. "I think it would be best if you left the city for a few days."
"Leave the city?" Kade resolutely shook her head. "No. I won't run away from this sick bastard! And I can't just up and leave anyway. I have three arraignments first thing tomorrow morning; the Wright trial starts later this week, and if I don't turn in my motions in the Finlay case by Wednesday, Linehan will –"
"Kade," Del interrupted. "Is your pride or your job worth getting killed over?" Her dark eyes seemed to burn with intensity.
Is it worth getting Del killed? The thought shot through Kade's mind, and there was just one answer for it. No.
"This can't go on like before, Kade," Del continued. She still looked at Kade imploringly as if she could convince her just by the power of her concerned gaze. "We're no closer to catching this guy than we were when you told me about him. He holds all the cards. He knows where I live and where you live. He could hurt either or both of us in the blink of an eye."
Kade sighed. She hated to back down, but she knew Del was right.
"It's only for a few days until Aiden and Ray can find out more about the stalker's identity. I know they're investigating some leads right now. Maybe one of them will turn something up," Del said, unaware that Kade had already made her decision.
"Okay," Kade said.
Del turned in the middle of her living room to look at her. "Okay?" She raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"We Matheson women can be reasonable if we want to," Kade said with a half smile. "Maybe I could take a little road trip and visit my mother." If she was honest with herself, she knew a visit was long overdue. Or do you really want to wait until your mother confronts you with what she heard from Laurie about your newly discovered sexual orientation? She thought about what she had told Del about playing chess: you can't win if you're always reacting instead of acting, always one step behind. Maybe it's a good life philosophy after all. She sighed. "I'll handle the arraignments tomorrow and then try to hand over the
rest of my cases before I hit the road."
"Before we hit the road," Del corrected.
"We?" At no point had there been a mention of Del coming with her.
Del grinned at her. "I'm inviting myself along," she said.
Kade gave her a skeptical look. "Just like that? Can you even take the week off on such short notice?" It wasn't that she didn't want Del's company, but it was hard to believe that Del could – and would – drop everything else just to drive all the way across the state with her. In her own life, very few things had priority over her job, and to see Del so willing to put everything else aside for her was a little scary.
"I haven't taken off more than two days in a row for the last two years. The captain has been on my case about taking some time off anyway." Del shrugged casually. "So if you don't mind, I'll tag along when you visit your mother."
"Isn't it a little early in our relationship to meet the parents?" Kade asked, playfully arching her eyebrows at Del.
Del coughed, surprised by the bold answer. "I'm not coming along to meet your mother. I'm accompanying you for safety reasons. But if you want to introduce me as your live-in lesbian lover, that's fine with me."
Now that would go over well with my mother. Kade tried not to picture that scene. "For now, I'll just introduce you as my friend if that's all right."
"Very all right." Del smiled warmly. "At least then I can eat my dinner without being afraid it's poisoned."
Poison? No, much too obvious. My mother could find a hundred much more creative ways to destroy you or chase you out of my life. Kade sighed. At least Del would be safe from the stalker in Ashland.
"So we're starting on Tuesday?" Del asked.
Kade just nodded.
Del grinned. "A road trip with Kade Matheson. Yay!"
CHAPTER 25
"SO..." DETECTIVE Jorge Moreno shifted in the driver's seat of the unmarked car they were sitting in. He fingered the plastic top of his coffee cup. "Do you still have that hot partner?"
Aiden widened her eyes in mock surprise. "Why, Moreno, I didn't know you're batting for the other team, but Ray will be flattered you think he's hot," she said tongue in cheek.
"What? Oh, no, no, no!" Moreno quickly lifted his hands. "I meant your life partner... your girlfriend, not your work partner. I just saw her dropping off food for you and the rest of the squad earlier, and I thought..."
"That she's hot," Aiden finished the sentence for him. Not that I don't agree. But she enjoyed the young cop's discomfort too much to let him off the hook.
"No. Yeah. I mean –"
Aiden sharply nudged him with an elbow. "Hey! Our target is getting some action." She pointed at the man standing in front of a coffee shop. He was part of the drug dealer ring they were after. Aiden looked across the street at the other inconspicuously parked car, where Ray and a narcotics detective waited.
They watched as the drug dealer casually took a bundle of money from a young man and handed him a small bag in exchange.
Aiden reached out to open the door.
"Wait!" Moreno's voice stopped her. "He's just a small fish. We're waiting until he meets with his supplier, who's a little higher up in the food chain. An informant tipped us off."
"All right." Moreno was young and a little overeager, but he was good at his job. He was the narcotics expert, so Aiden was willing to trust his word.
They continued to watch the coffee shop. Aiden knew it could take hours. It was beginning to look as if she wouldn't see Dawn today. She suppressed a sigh. At least it gave her some time to think about the progress they had made on Kade's stalker. Or rather, the lack of progress. They had checked out two of the three suspects from last October's cases who fit the doorwoman's description. The first one had died in a prison fight last month. The second had been in and out of courtrooms so often that it was hard to see why he would stalk Kade but none of the other prosecutors.
Aiden almost hit her head on the side of the car when her cell phone began to ring. Shit. She had forgotten to turn it off before beginning the surveillance. With a sheepish grimace, she flipped the phone open. "Carlisle."
"Aiden? Hi, it's Kade."
"Hey, Kade. Do you need something?" Probably the arrest report that was still lying unfinished on her desk. "The lieutenant didn't tell you we're helping out narcotics again?"
"No. I'll call you later," Kade said quickly.
A little too quickly, Aiden thought. This must be important. Kade doesn't just call me because she's getting bored on a Sunday evening. "No, I have a moment," she said with a quick glance at Moreno, who nodded tolerantly.
"I just thought I should tell you that I'm going out of town for a few days. Ford will take over the Wright case for me, but don't worry, I'll bring her up to speed before I leave," Kade said as if she did things like this on a daily basis.
Aiden shook her head in bewilderment. The Kade Matheson she knew wasn't spontaneously going on vacation in the middle of a trial. "What's going on, Kade?" she asked suspiciously. "Is everything all right?"
Kade was silent for a few seconds. "The stalker... he left a nice little message on Del's apartment door. Del thinks it's best if I leave the city for a few days until things calm down a little. It'll give you some time to find out more about the stalker," Kade said, sounding much calmer than she probably felt.
Aiden sucked in a breath. The stalker was escalating, so that meant they had to pick up the pace of their investigation. Instead, she was sitting here, caught up in a drug surveillance. She stared out the window in frustration. "I'll talk to the lieutenant. Maybe I can get a few days off on short notice and come with you. I don't feel comfortable letting you leave the city on your own." She knew Kade would probably protest and resolutely refuse to be babysat, but she was equally determined to get her some police protection.
"That's not necessary," Kade said as she had expected her to.
"Oh, yes, it is!" Aiden said forcefully. "We know he's watching you seemingly twenty-four/seven, so it's possible he'll be aware of you leaving the city. Going alone, without any protection, could be exactly what he wants you to do."
To Aiden's surprise, Kade didn't object. "I know. I won't go alone."
Oh. Aiden finally understood. Del is going with her. Kade is allowing Del to go with her. Aiden stared out the window, trying to think of something to say. "Oh. That's... good." It is good, she told herself. Del will keep her safe while Ray and I are going to speed up the investigation. Still, it was hard to get used to not being the one Kade came to for protection anymore. "Be careful," she said to Kade. "And tell Del to be careful too. She's a target now too."
"We'll be careful and take every precaution to make sure he doesn't follow us when we leave the city," Kade promised.
Outside, on the street, another man was strolling toward their target.
"That's the supplier," Moreno said into his walkie-talkie. "Get ready."
"Kade, I have to go." Aiden hastily ended the call. Then she saw another person walking toward the drug dealer and frowned. Something about the tall, lanky figure with the confident stride was oddly familiar. The person looked around to see if anybody was watching before handing money to the dealer, and Aiden caught a glimpse under the hood of the sweatshirt. Evan! Shit!
Aiden let go of the cell phone and jumped out of the car just as the command to move came from the walkie-talkie. Chaos broke out. Half a dozen detectives from narcotics and SAD and a DEA agent rushed toward the drug dealer, his supplier, and Evan.
One of Moreno's colleagues pushed Evan against a wall and pulled his handcuffs from his belt.
"Stop!" Aiden ordered. She grabbed his arm and pulled him away from Evan.
The narcotics detective pulled away from Aiden's grip. "What are you doing, Carlisle?" he asked, very irritated that a sex crimes detective had stopped him from doing his job.
Evan struggled against the detective's grip but said nothing.
Aiden had to think fast. "She's my..." Aiden stopped. Confessi
ng that Evan was her sister wouldn't stop him from booking Evan. "She's my informant," she told him as firmly as possible.
"Your informant?" the narcotics detective repeated very skeptically.
Jorge Moreno came over to them. "Problems?" He looked from Aiden to his colleague who still had the struggling Evan in his grip.
"She," the narcotics detective angrily pointed a finger at Aiden, "says that she," he now jabbed his finger at Evan, "is her informant."
"Jorge..." Aiden knew she couldn't beg Moreno to help her. Not in front of the other narcotics detective. Come on, Jorge! she mentally beseeched. I let you call my girlfriend "hot." Now you have to do something for me.
Moreno looked at her for a few moments, then he shrugged. "If Carlisle says she's her informant, we better let her go." He gestured to his colleague, silently ordering him to remove his grip from around Evan's arm and to put his handcuffs away.