Run, Hide - By Carol Ericson Page 0,44
your boy, and I’ll hand him over and get my money. You give them whatever it is they want in exchange for your son, and then I’ll split the cash with you.” He poured himself another beer, which foamed over the side and puddled on the table. “Doesn’t that sound like a good plan?”
Cade’s lips twisted into a smile. “You’re really a dumb SOB, aren’t you? Do you really believe these people will let my son live? Wait, wait. I know you don’t care about that, but do you really think they’ll let you live?”
Kevin’s face paled beneath his tan, and the lines on his face deepened.
“These people aren’t like some hick in Vegas you can fleece out of his first jackpot.” He gripped Kevin’s wrist in a vise. “Where are they now? Do they know you’re meeting with me here?”
Kevin jerked his arm but couldn’t break free of Cade’s grip. “I told you. I blew them off. This is my scheme.”
“It’s not a very bright one. Did you really think I’d turn over my son for money?”
“You abandoned him once, didn’t you?”
A cold anger crept over Cade’s flesh. He threw Kevin’s arm back at him and slid from the booth, pocketing his weapon. “Not for money.”
Kevin rubbed his wrist. “Whatever you tell yourself to get through the night, boy.”
Cade leveled a finger at the man he’d never call father. “If you come near me or my family again, and that includes Kyle, I’ll kill you.”
He spun on his heel and stalked out of the bar just as a cheer went up for the basketball game.
When Cade got into the car, he slumped in the front seat and dug his cell phone from his pocket. He called the hotel room and Jenna answered on the first ring.
“Is everything okay there?”
“Everything’s fine. Gavin is still out, and I’m watching a movie. I-it’s still early. Is everything okay there?”
“I’m on my way home.” He’d already decided not to tell Jenna about Kevin’s betrayal. Why add to her worries?
“It didn’t go well, did it? I can tell by your voice.”
“Once a scumbag, always a scumbag. I don’t know why I thought it would be any different.”
“Because he’s your father and you wanted to salvage something of that relationship.”
He put his cell on speaker and wheeled out of the parking lot. “There’s nothing to salvage there.”
“That bad, huh?”
Worse. So much worse. “Yeah, that bad.”
“Is he really dying?”
“As he put it, we’re all dying from the day we’re born.”
“Seriously? What did he want from you?”
“Money.”
“Oh, Cade, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not. Seeing him for what he really is freed me. I don’t have to wonder anymore.”
She sucked in a breath over the phone. “I can hear it in your voice—closure. Hurry back.”
“Why?” He’d blurted out the word in a sharper tone than he’d intended. What if Kevin had been lying? What if he’d told Zendaris’s men about their meeting?
Jenna paused. Then her low voice poured into his ear like sweet honey. “Because I’m your wife, and we haven’t been together for three long years.”
His anxiety morphed into desire in a second, and he let the car have its way on the highway. “I’ll be right there.”
He’d already made sure no one followed him out of the bar’s parking lot. His lead foot got him back to the hotel in less time than it had taken him to get to that sports bar. He met the security guard doing another round on their hallway.
“No trouble tonight?”
“Everything went just fine, sir, and management never noticed I was spending most of my time on the ninth floor.”
Cade slipped the man another bill. “Thanks.”
He tapped on the door, and several seconds later Jenna opened it against the chain. “Just want to make sure what I’m seeing out of the peephole is the real thing.”
He spread his arms. “I’m for real.”
She shut the door, and the chain scraped. This time when she opened the door, he stepped through, slamming it behind him. With one hand, he reengaged the chain, and with his other arm he swept Jenna against his chest.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and he buried his face in the honeyed strands of her hair. He should’ve never left her for Kevin, for some illusion of a father who didn’t exist, who’d never existed.
Turning her face to his, she cupped his jaw with one hand. “Are you okay?”
“I have you and Gavin. That’s all I need.”
She stood on her tiptoes, her body leaning against his, and kissed his