Echo: A Linear Tactical Romantic Suspense Standalone Page 14

  “Do you need money too?” Jess whispered as she picked up one of the small wastebaskets in the Linear office and dumped it into the bag Cade held open.

  “Not so much,” he responded, keeping his grin to himself. “But it never hurts, right?”

  Jess shook her head. “Then you must be in trouble with Mom.”

  “Daughter.” Peyton shook her head from the other side of the office where she was dusting. “Just because you have to work when you’re in trouble with me doesn’t mean everyone has to.”

  Jess shot him a side-eye look, like she couldn’t decide if he actually was in trouble or not.

  “I am a little bit in trouble with your mom,” he whispered.

  That certainly piqued the little girl’s interest. She gestured for him to follow as she walked to the next trashcan. “What did you do?”

  “Jess. Manners.” Exasperation was clear in Peyton’s tone.

  “I don’t mind answering, if it’s okay with you.”

  Peyton turned around to look at him. They’d already agreed they’d wait until the time was right to tell Jess he was her father. Peyton said it was because she wanted to ease her daughter into the idea—which was probably true. But he suspected she also wanted to make sure he planned to stick around.

  There was no way to prove that except to do it.

  He gave Peyton a nod. He wasn’t about to let her down by blurting out the truth to Jess. He wanted what was best for Jess too.

  “I’m a little bit in trouble with your mom because I’ve been a bad friend.”

  Jess’s blue eyes grew wide. This was obviously something the little girl understood and took seriously. “Why?” she whispered.

  “I made some bad choices.”

  Jess made a grim face and glanced over at her mom. This was something she obviously understood also.

  Peyton nodded at both of them like a wise monarch overseeing her subjects.

  “Sometimes I make bad choices too.” Now her face scrunched up. “Sometimes I have to sit in timeout. Or sometimes I can’t play with Ethan for the whole day.”

  Her little eyes filled with tears. This was obviously a cruel and unusual punishment.

  “Is Ethan your best friend?”

  “Yes.” There was no hesitation in her answer.

  “You want to hear something cool? Do you know Ethan’s uncle?”

  “Uncle Baby?”

  He held the bag out so she could dump another small can. “Yup. He’s my best friend. We went to school together.”

  Jess broke out in a big grin, all sign of tears gone.

  “Uncle Baby is the most fun. He lets Ethan and me. . .” She looked over at her mom, then her voice dropped to a whisper. “He lets us sit in his lap and help drive the tractor.”

  “Sounds like Uncle Baby’s going to be doing some work for me also,” Peyton said from across the room.

  Cade stared at Jess, and they both opened their eyes wide. Jess burst into giggles.

  He’d bonded with his daughter for the first time at the idea of his best friend getting into trouble. There was a beautiful symmetry to that.

  When Ethan had arrived a few minutes later, Peyton excused Jess to go play.

  Jess had given him a hug and fist bump—he tried to give her a high-five, but she looked at him like he was the biggest nerd on the planet—before running out. All he could do was stare.

  Peyton walked over to him. “That was Jess.”

  “She’s amazing.” He stared at the door she’d just run out of.

  “Yeah, she is pretty great.”

  “You’ve done a terrific job with her. Of course, I’m not surprised.”

  Peyton shrugged. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  He turned to look at her. “Do you really mean that? Do you resent what you had to give up in order to have her? Did you ever think about having the abortion?”

  She turned back to her cleaning, and he thought for a minute she might not answer.

  “When Dennis hit me and knocked me down the stairs, I had just found out I was pregnant. I hadn’t tried to contact you yet. One of the first things they told me at the hospital was that after the trauma, it would take a miracle for the pregnancy to go full-term. But Jess was a fighter.”

  “Jess’s mom is a fighter too. A survivor.”

  “After surviving all that, I just couldn’t even think about terminating the pregnancy. I never considered it again, even after watching that plane take off for London without me. Even after signing papers to you saying I would have an abortion.”

  “I’m so glad you didn’t. I know that’s a day late and a million dollars short, but I’m so glad you didn’t.”

  She reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing his fingers. “So am I.”

  He’d seen both Peyton and Jess almost every day since then. Jess had so many of the Linear Tactical guys in her life that one more was no big deal. She was friendly and vivacious and everything Cade could’ve hoped for in a child. They were becoming closer by the day.

  Peyton, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as easy a nut to crack.

  There hadn’t been any more make-out sessions, but he’d been able to steal as many pecks on the cheek as he possibly could.

  And that was perfectly fine. He’d continue his slow and steady onslaught for as long as it took. Until the day Peyton told him she only wanted to be friends, he was never going to let up.

  He had to face the fact that she might say that to him. He’d been loath to actually bring it up because she might tell him that he would be permanently parked in the friend zone. If so, that would suck, but—

  The power went out.

  “Fuck.”

  He gave his eyes a couple moments to adjust, then made his way along the kitchen island to the junk drawer near the side door, wishing he hadn’t left his phone on his bedside table.

  He froze when he glanced out the window and saw someone outside near the small barn a few dozen yards from his property. The person eased around a corner—caught by a patch of moonlight as the moon came out from behind the clouds for a second.

  Who would be out there at this time of night? A little suspicious, given that the power had just gone off. He knew for a fact it wasn’t because the bill hadn’t been paid.

  Cade grabbed the flashlight from the drawer but didn’t turn it on, not wanting to tip off whoever was out there that he’d seen him. He moved quickly into the pantry, accessing the gun box on the top shelf.

  He was a country music singer, but that was because he was a country boy at heart—and this country boy always tried to be ready if trouble came his way. He didn’t ever want to be dependent on someone else to defend him, no matter if he was living in Nashville or here.

  Of course, he hadn’t planned to need protection literally in his own backyard.

  The Glock 9mm was comfortable in his hand as he kept it low to his side and made his way back to the door. He silently eased it open and stepped out into the darkness. He kept to the shadows, aware he was not in good tactical position if someone was watching for him.

  He might not be the only person out here who had a gun.

  Then again, it might just be one of the guys—Everett or Lance or one of the security team. For what purpose, Cade didn’t know—they would’ve joined him in the kitchen for a sandwich. He’d never known any of the other men to turn down a sandwich.

  He moved south, staying behind trees so he could get a look at the barn’s far side.

  There. He spotted the person again—definitely a man—coming out from the far end of the barn, walking toward the house with some sort of box in his arms.

  Cade stilled and silently pivoted on the balls of his feet, changing direction. Going back toward the house wouldn’t provide him much tree coverage, but Cade would be damned if he was going to let the perp near the house with whatever was in that box. He moved silently toward the man, keeping the gun loose in his hand, ready if needed.

  Cade stepped out from behind the coverage of the last tree, crouching low and sprinting to the side of the house to stay in the shadows the house provided from the moon’s light. He kept as silent as possible, but something tipped off the guy. Cade froze as the guy looked in Cade’s direction.

  Evidently, he didn’t like what he saw because he took off running.

  Shit.

  “Hey! Stop!” Cade left the shadows and ran full speed after the guy. The guy dropped the box and sprinted toward the woods. Bastard was quick. He still had a substantial lead when they hit the main tree line.

  But this fucker would be hard-pressed to outrun Cade in these woods. He’d been running around here his whole life.

  He moved as fast as he could until he was nearly twenty yards inside the forest area.

  Then he stopped and listened. This was what he’d been trained to do. He may not have been in the military, but that didn’t mean Cade didn’t know how to fight an enemy.

  He focused his senses, slowing his breathing so he could hear everything around him more clearly.

  There. To the southeast, broken branches from footsteps.

  He bolted toward the sound.

  He wasn’t silent, it was impossible to move silently that fast through this much forest, but he was quiet enough that he was close to the perp before he heard Cade. Cade could tell the exact moment the guy realized how close Cade really was. He stopped all pretense of keeping quiet himself and made a dash for it.

  You can run, you bastard, but you can’t hide.

  Cade was going to catch him.

  The guy headed farther south, making a loop back toward the house. Good. That would make it easier for Cade to call Gavin and have the guy arrested once Cade took him down.

  He ignored the discomfort of pushing his body hard. His body could wait. This had to be the stalker who’d been plaguing him for weeks. Had put Doug in the hospital.

  It would end tonight.

  Cade caught sight of the guy up ahead and took a sharp turn so he could cross the small stream between them and pick him off on the other side. He forced another burst of speed from his body as he leapt over the water, careful to clear it so he didn’t splash and give away his exact location.

  He darted around some large boulders—yeah, buddy, keep heading back toward the house—then cut, ready to make his tackle.

  Instead, he found himself being tackled and thrown back onto the ground.

  Shit, had the guy known where he was all along?

  Cade grunted and threw up an arm to block the fist flying in his direction. He shifted his weight to his side, bringing up his knee and catching the guy in the waist. It wasn’t a great hit but was enough to get him off of Cade. Cade shifted his weight to get back onto his feet, keeping his torso low. This perp was much bigger than he’d originally thought and would go for a blow to the head.

  He did but followed it up with a combo punch to the ribs that Cade hadn’t seen coming.

  “Fuck…” The word blew out of him with his breath. He waited for another fist, but it didn’t come.

  “Cade?”

  What the fuck?

  “Mark? What the hell are you doing running away from me like that?”

  Both of them were breathing heavily as they stared each other down. “I saw that guy take off into the woods and ran after him. I heard you yell for him, but it looked like you weren’t going in the right direction, and I thought I could cut him off.”

  “I was basically trying to do the same thing, but from the other direction.”

  “Sorry about the punch, boss.”

  Cade shrugged. “Sorry about the knee.”

  They both looked around.

  Cade bit off a curse. “Guy would have to be a freaking idiot not to have used this distraction to his advantage to get away. He’s gone. I can do some tracking, but probably not fast enough to be very effective.”

  Mark looked as frustrated as Cade felt. “Yeah, urban jungle is more my speed, not actual forests. We need to get back to the house. I’ve already called Sheriff Zimmerman. He’s on his way out.”

  “For trespassing? Gavin might give us a hard time about that.”

  “He won’t when he sees what’s in the box.”

  Oh shit. “What’s in the box?”

  Chapter 20

  “There was a fucking dead cat in the box. Dead. Cat.” Everett paced back and forth, running his hands through his hair.

  It was one of the few times Cade had seen his friend looking like anything less than a GQ model. Everett was like a lot of Nashville—very concerned about fashion without looking like he was concerned about fashion. His skinny jeans and Henley shirt looked a lot more rumpled than usual.

  “And something similar happening at the house in Nashville a couple days ago? This shit is getting weird, Cade. Cut up cats. That’s right up there with boiling bunnies.”

  Cade raised an eyebrow at Mark and gestured that he had the floor to speak.

  It was four o’clock, and the all-hands meeting was in full swing. Everyone had already had a full day searching the forest for any sign of the perp while Gavin had gone over the box—treating it as a crime scene.

  Cade had paid extra, including a signed CD and photo op, in order to get an electrician out to his house at the crack of dawn to get power restored.

  They were all shook up. Mark’s news that something similar had happened two days before at the Nashville house had not helped the situation.

  The big man crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, almost exactly the same in Nashville. Someone cut the power to your house and left the box. Freaked out Daniels when he came by as his normal routine.”

  Everett threw his hands up in the air. “Don’t you think that’s something you should’ve told us, Outlawson?”

  Mark’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve been writing, Everett. I haven’t seen you for two days since you made it abundantly clear you didn’t want to be disturbed. Not to mention, I don’t work for you, I work for Cade.”

  Everett blew out an exasperated breath and went back to pacing. Mark looked over at Cade. “You’ve got your hands full here too. No one in Nashville was hurt—”

  “Except for the cat,” Everett muttered.

  Now Mark let out a sigh. “Okay, granted, that seemed pretty sick. I had one of my men take the cat to a vet. It was cut up like this one, but the vet was positive the cat was dead before it was butchered. It was an old cat that had been euthanized.”

  “Great, so we’ve got a card-carrying PETA member psycho.” Everett shook his head, glaring at Mark. “I feel so much better. This is bullshit.”

  “Ev,” Cade said. “We’re all on the same side here. Mark would’ve told us as soon as he had something concrete to say.”

  Cade hoped.

  Then stopped. No, of course Mark would’ve told him right away if there was danger. Mark was one of the most highly-respected security team leaders in the business.

  “There was no message, no fingerprints, nothing concrete.” Mark shrugged. “And yes, you would’ve been getting this information in the weekly security update. I would’ve preferred to have given you all the facts once we had actual facts to give.”

  Everett was about to lose it again. Cade held out a hand to stop the eruption.

  “Mark, from now on with anything weird like this, please go ahead and provide immediate updates. Don’t wait for the security briefing. No matter how busy I am.”

  Everett cleared his throat.

  “And keep Everett in the loop too,” Cade said.

  Mark nodded. “Understood. You’ll both be the first to know from now on.”

  Lance finally spoke up. “I can talk to the label and have more security brought in to assist Mark and his team. Nothing’s more important to the label than your safety, Cade.”

  Cade looked over at Mark. “Want them?”

  Mark shook his head. “No, I’d prefer to keep a close team. but I will take them up on the offer if I feel it’s needed.”

  Cade didn’t want to tell Mark how to do his job, and honestly, he didn’t want more strangers around the house. “I’d prefer to keep the security team small also. There hasn’t been a direct threat yet.”

  Everett scoffed but didn’t say anything. Everyone ignored him.

  “You’ve got people here too, Cade. You’re one of us, don’t forget that,” Baby said.

  Gavin had left after inspecting the scene this morning, but had come back to get the full info from Mark when he’d found out about the other incident in Nashville. Baby had come with him.

  Cade nodded at his friends. “Thanks, guys. Hopefully, it’s not going to come to that.”

  “But it is something we want to take seriously,” Mark said. “This is the next level of escalation with the stalker. This may sound uncaring, but I’m less concerned about the animal in the box and more concerned about how this person found your house out here so quickly. I made sure that info was not readily available.”

  “He’s right, Cade,” Gavin said. “This person knew where your house was, how to cut the power, and how to come at it from the woods. We’re talking about some extended planning or some knowledge he shouldn’t have.”

  Baby nodded. “Oak Creek isn’t like Nashville, though. I’ll talk to Finn, make sure all the Linear guys are keeping a lookout for anyone around town who might be suspicious.”

  “The stalker’s probably not going to be wearing a T-shirt announcing his identity,” Lance said.

  Gavin slipped on his hat and headed toward the door. “The Linear guys are much better trained than your average civilian,” he explained. “They know who belongs around here and who doesn’t. Moreover, they’ll be able to spot the difference between someone acting casual and someone truly being casual. I’ve got to get back in town.”

  With that, the meeting unofficially adjourned.

  Baby clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a nod on his way out. They would talk more later. Lance was already on the phone, probably with the label, and Mark walked with Gavin to the door, still talking details.

  Cade and Everett walked out of the living room together.