Echo: A Linear Tactical Romantic Suspense Standalone Read online

  Cade studied the situation at the picnic tables. “It looks like Gavin and Heath have it under control. Yeah, Dorian and Ray look a little nervous, but I think you’ve got enough professionals here to handle any trouble that might arise. Plus, Aiden or Baby have already gotten themselves into a tactical position in case any further uninvited trouble arrives.”

  She looked back out at the situation and was surprised he was right. Surprised not because Aiden and Baby had planted themselves somewhere to take out potential threats, but that Cade had been aware of it. “I didn’t even know you knew Heath and Dorian and Ray. I thought you were a silent financial partner.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t teach the classes or do any of the day-to-day Linear activities, but I’ve spent some training time with all the guys.”

  There was a hard look in Cade’s eye. She recognized it from working around warriors all the time—focused, alert. Deadly, if needed.

  God, it was sexy.

  She needed to get out of here.

  “I hope you’re doing well, Cade. But I really have to go.”

  Because her poor, tin shell of a heart couldn’t bear the tiny reverberations his presence was causing.

  “You have every right to hate me. I thought you were happy off in London pursuing your passion, but that wasn’t the case. I should’ve been more diligent.”

  “You know what?” It wasn’t as hard to force the words out as she thought it would be. “Our past is over. We don’t need to talk about it, don’t need to rehash things. What happened five years ago. . . It happened. Things are different now, but I’m okay.”

  That was so true and so very, very false. But she wasn’t about to get into it with him.

  “Peyton, I —”

  She held out a hand, stopping him. “Water under the bridge. Things don’t always turn out the way we plan, but you have to make the best of the situation.”

  “I heard you with Cecelia today. That you’ve been cleaning her house.”

  “That’s right. I clean houses for a living. I even clean for Linear Tactical. You have a problem with that?”

  She’d done it because they allowed her to bring Jess with her to work. The guys at Linear had given her a job back when she really hadn’t had many options at all.

  “No, I have no problem with that if it’s what you want to do.”

  She rolled her eyes. “What I want to do? No, this is not exactly how I saw my life turning out back in high school.”

  “So you would still make films if you could.”

  “Of course I would, dumbass.” She slapped a hand over her mouth. What was it about Cade O’Conner that had always brought out a sass in her? No one else had even come close.

  He gave her a little half smile. “That’s the mouth I remember from all those hours in the editing suite.”

  She shook her head. “That girl doesn’t exist anymore.”

  He took a step forward, intent—intent focused on Peyton—clear in those blue eyes. Her cavernous tin heart shuddered again at the reaction he stirred in her. And this time her equally-as-rusty lady parts followed suit. Everything in her body was aware of him.

  “You’re not quiet and shy. You’ve trained yourself to come across that way because it garnered you the least amount of attention. But I’ve always known that wasn’t who you really were.”

  He was the only one who ever had.

  She had to get out of here. There was much more danger in this room than there was outside with the stranger.

  “I’ve got to go. Take care of—”

  “I want to talk to you about something.”

  His voice held none of the teasing lilt it had a few moments before. Her panic threatened to swallow her. Did he know about Jess?

  “Cade, I—”

  “I want to offer you a job.”

  Peyton’s mouth popped open; she forced it shut. That wasn’t even close to what she’d expected him to say.

  “A job? Like, cleaning?”

  “No, like making a music video and a mini-documentary about the song. I want you to storyboard it out and have creative control. Direct it.”

  She stared at him. “Did you miss the part of my past where I didn’t attend film school?”

  “You and I both know that when it comes to the arts, school only helps so much. You have one of the greatest film eyes I’ve ever seen.”

  “But…but I don’t have any equipment. I don’t know anyone in the industry who could work on a production. It takes—”

  He stepped closer. “I’ve made a number of music videos now. I know how many people it takes. And the label has them. But I want you to take creative control of this. Your artistic eye is what I want, Peaches. You haven’t lost that. Don’t even try to convince me you have.”

  She hadn’t lost it. She still looked at everything through a filmmaker’s lens—it was how her brain worked. She even had her own Instagram account where she posted stuff and had a pretty large following.

  But this. . .

  “Cade. There’s so many reasons this is a terrible idea.” The biggest of whom might come running through the door and calling her Mom any second, and then this whole jig would be up.

  But God, how she wanted to do it. Just one project—to use the creative muscles that had become so atrophied from nonuse.

  “The label would pay well.”

  “The label won’t want to hire me at all.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not true. The label is always on the lookout for new talent. I’ve used debut directors before.”

  Gah! It was so hard to find good arguments when she wanted this so much. “I have responsibilities. I couldn’t just drop everything and do this. I can’t leave Oak Creek. Everything would have to be brought here.”

  It was all true. She was still going to need a source of income after Cinderella’s castle up and vanished, and she couldn’t leave because of Jess.

  But her requests were unreasonable. She was a nobody, less than a nobody in the film industry. No one would take her requests seriously.

  “Peyton.” He put his hands on her shoulders lightly. “We’ll work around your other needs.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. Why would you do that? I don’t understand why you’re even suggesting any of this to me.”

  His hands dropped from her shoulders. “I’ve been wanting someone with a new and different eye. Someone not already jaded by working in the business. It’s only three or four weeks of your time.”

  “I just. . .” She couldn’t articulate what she was feeling.

  “Don’t give up this chance because it’s me. Surely, we can work together for a month. It’s a chance to do what you love and get paid pretty well.”

  If it had been anyone else, she would’ve already said yes.

  Was she really going to do this?

  “What have you got to lose?” he asked quietly.

  Everything. “Nothing, I guess.”

  He stuck out his hand for them to shake on it. “Let’s do this. It’s the perfect opportunity for us both. I’ll make sure you have what you need.”

  “Okay.” She took his outstretched hand, both terrified and thrilled.

  “You won’t regret it.”

  That she wasn’t so sure about.

  Chapter 10

  It was perhaps his greatest idea ever.

  Cade hadn’t gone to the picnic with the idea of asking Peyton to be the creative force behind his latest music video or the documentary the label had been clamoring for, but damned if it hadn’t worked out perfectly.

  Of course, nobody was going to take the news well that Cade wanted to bring on a literal unknown to helm it. Not Lance, not Everett, not the label, but that was the good thing about where Cade was in his career; he had the pull, the freedom, to make demands he hadn’t been able to make when he was first starting out.

  Peyton had said yes, so this was going to happen.

  Because hell if Cade could escape the thought of Peyton almost dying. From the moment Riley had told him, it hadn’t been far from his mind. Peyton had almost died, and he’d had no idea.

  The thought would be keeping him awake for a lot of nights to come too.

  But it was more than Peyton’s injury. Everything had changed in his mind—what he’d thought of as reality was wrong. Peyton’s life was completely different than what he’d thought. For five years, he’d believed himself to be the injured party in their relationship.

  He wasn’t.

  She’d been willing to forgive him for being MIA when she’d needed him most. He wouldn’t take that for granted.

  But despite her forgiveness, he’d known down to his core that if he’d let her walk away from him today at the picnic, that would be it. She would be gone for good.

  And maybe he would’ve let her if it hadn’t been for how she’d clung to him for a brief moment when he wrapped his arms around her. Nestled into him like they’d never been apart. Should never be apart.

  He’d felt the same.

  But then, way too soon, he’d felt her erect walls around herself, pulling herself together, remembering the truth about them.

  Withdrawing.

  Panic had coursed through his system like a waterfall. He would’ve done anything to keep her with him. To keep her from walking out of his life. He’d had no idea what that was.

  All he was trying to do was give her the chance she should’ve rightfully had in the first place.

  They hadn’t discussed the details, which was probably good since he didn’t have them. Then some little girl had yelled about Charlie peeing herself, and everyone had packed up the picnic and headed to the hospital where Finn and Charlie’s son, Thomas, had been born.

  Cade grinned. All in all, a great day. The stranger who’d showed up at the picnic causing tension hadn’t posed a threat, Cade had secured a definite way to keep Peyton in his life for a while, and he’d become an honorary uncle.

  “Now that’s a big smile.” Lance had a beer in one hand as he walked into the kitchen with Everett by his side. “Haven’t seen that for a while.”

  Cade’s smile didn’t dim. “The smile has its reasons.”

  Everett walked to the fridge and pulled out stuff to make sandwiches. “Have fun at the picnic? Find your girl?”

  Cade caught the beer bottle Everett tossed to him. “Yes, to both.”

  “We’ve been going through that new stuff you wrote.” Everett slapped mustard onto the bread before piling on ham and cheese. For as long as Cade had known him, the guy had loved his sandwiches. For someone so skinny, Everett ate like a linebacker. Sandwiches were a nightly ritual when they were on tour.

  Lance nodded. “That’s some of your best stuff. ‘Echo’ especially.”

  Everett glanced up from his sandwich prep. “We know what you put down was rough, and ‘Echo’ isn’t finished, but—”

  “No, I’ve got what I need to finish it.”

  Everett and Lance thought “Echo” was new, but really Cade had been trying to piece that song together for years. Only right now did he realize what had been missing from it: Peyton.

  “I’m going to finish it, probably tonight,” Cade continued. “And I’ve decided this is the song I want to do the documentary around. And I want to do it here in Oak Creek.”

  Lance pushed away from the counter, excitement lighting his eyes. “Finally! And given that ‘Echo’ is undoubtedly going to be a hit, I’m sure the label will be fine with sending a crew out here, rather than Nashville. However you want to do it, we’re behind you one hundred percent of the way.”

  Cade took a long drag of his beer. “Glad to hear that. Because I have a pretty unorthodox plan I want to put into action.”

  Two hours later, Cade was sitting out on the back porch, nursing another beer. The first one had gotten warm and eventually dumped during the debate with Lance and Everett about Peyton taking on the creative director’s position for the video and documentary.

  “Sure you don’t want something stronger?” Mark closed the door behind him as he walked onto the porch, moving completely silently, impressive for a man of his size.

  “Heard all the discussion, did you?”

  Mark chuckled. “The conversation was. . .heated.”

  Heated was an understatement. Neither Everett nor Lance thought using Peyton for the documentary was a good idea. The stakes were too high. They didn’t understand why Cade would want to bring in a literal unknown. This wasn’t the time for nepotism.

  Cade shrugged. “They had a lot of reasonable arguments against this.”

  Mark walked over so he was standing next to Cade on the railing and looked out into the night Wyoming sky. “But you don’t care about their arguments, reasonable or otherwise.”

  Cade took a sip of his beer. “Honestly, no.”

  Mark chuckled again slightly. “Well, it’s your choice. Plus, I believe in giving the underdog a chance. The person with the most to lose will fight the hardest.”

  “Peyton has an amazing eye when it comes to film. I’m not doing myself a disservice by putting her in charge of this project. It won’t take Lance and Everett long to realize it.”

  “Not to mention they don’t have any choice about it.”

  Cade tipped his bottle in Mark’s direction. “Exactly. The label is going to want final approval, but they would’ve wanted that no matter who was directing. And since I don’t play the star card very often, they were willing to appease me this time. So Peyton gets to show what she can do.”

  He didn’t doubt for one minute it would be nothing less than amazing.

  Mark looked over at Cade like he had something to say, but then looked away.

  “What?” Cade asked.

  “Nothing. Never mind.”

  Mark wasn’t the talkative sort, on any given day, but it wasn’t like him to be coy.

  “Spit it out, Outlawson. Everybody else has chimed in on the plan.”

  “I have no problem with the plan. You know what you’re looking for and what’s at stake. If she’s the one who you think is best, I support that.”

  “But?”

  Mark’s lips pursed and he ran a hand through is short cropped black hair. “I need to tell you I ran a background check on Peyton Ward when I found out she was of interest to you.”

  “That was unnecessary.”

  Mark shrugged one large shoulder. “Given the situation with the possible stalker, I’m pretty much looking into everyone connected to you. It’s what you pay me to do.”

  Cade took another long drag of his beer. “Peyton and I went to high school together.”

  “Yes. When did you last see her?”

  “Five years ago. Right after she graduated.”

  Mark didn’t say anything, just nodded slowly. Cade knew the man had something he wanted to say.

  Cade decided he didn’t want to know. Not this way.

  “Look,” Cade said. “Whatever it is you found out, keep it to yourself. I’ve already done everything wrong when it comes to Peyton. Starting a second time by invading her privacy isn’t the move I want to make.”

  Mark sighed and turned to lean back against the railing. “Fair enough. She’s a law-abiding citizen. I didn’t find anything I would insist you know before working with her. Her stepdad, on the other hand, is an asshole.”

  Cade’s hand tightened on the beer bottle. “That I already knew.”

  “Yeah. The incident with him wasn’t pretty. And evidently, it wasn’t a one-time thing with either Peyton or her mother.”

  Cade wasn’t surprised. Peyton had never once talked about her home situation except for insisting that she would be putting it in her rearview mirror as quickly as possible.

  Which she hadn’t.

  He wanted her to trust him enough to tell him about all this herself. Wanted to get to know her now as the person she’d become. He didn’t care how she made a living, but he’d like to know why she’d given up on her dream. Maybe London had been out, but surely there had been other routes she could’ve taken.

  There was so much about her he didn’t know and wanted to learn.

  He looked out over the Wyoming scrubland surrounding his house, gently illuminated by the light of the moon. Despite his heated discussions with everyone tonight, he was at peace.

  Because getting to know Peyton Ward was finally going to happen.

  Chapter 11

  What the hell was she doing?

  Ten days after Cade offered her the directing job, Peyton stood at the storyboard table for the “Echo” music video and documentary.

  It had been a crazy week. A few days after the picnic, Gavin’s sister, Lyn, was kidnapped, and it had taken nearly all of the Linear Tactical men, not to mention help from law enforcement from all over the country, to shut down a massive criminal ring intent on perfecting mind control.

  As usual, Peyton only knew the peripheral details. The Linear guys tried to shelter her as much as possible. She was just glad everyone was back safely. It had been rough and had slowed down work on the film project somewhat.

  She’d been afraid it wouldn’t happen at all. That someone would clarify to Cade just exactly how crazy this plan was.

  But instead, the production company had people in Oak Creek two days later. They’d rented and renovated part of a warehouse on the outskirts of town. A preproduction team had been sent in to get everything started. Real professionals. People who had been working in the business for years, some of them decades. And every single one of them was looking to Peyton for creative direction.

  The temptation to turn and run out of the room had threatened to swamp her daily. But so far, she’d managed to stave it off and direct people as needed.

  “You’ve got that I’m-in-over-my-head look.” Everett Templeton—the Everett Templeton who’d also had songs on the radio for years—nudged her gently with his shoulder as he came to stand beside her in front of the large table they were using to map out the shots they’d need to film.