Run, Hide - By Carol Ericson Page 0,47
can pause this and rewind.”
Cade pushed up to a sitting position, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Why would Ted’s Sports Bar be on TV? He blinked and squinted at the neon snake frozen on the screen, emergency vehicles parked in front of the bar.
“What the hell is going on? What’s this story?”
She kept the remote pointed at the TV as she twisted her body toward him. “Th-there’s been a murder.”
Cade felt as if he was falling and he grabbed the sheets in his fists. Wait. It could be anyone. It was a bar.
“Can you play it back?”
She fumbled with the remote until the figures on the TV sped in reverse. Then she stabbed another button and the morning news anchors changed their demeanors from happy to serious.
“In other news, a man’s body was found in the alley behind Ted’s Sports Bar in the early morning hours when one of the employees went out to dump the trash. Colleen Temple is on the scene. Colleen, has the man been identified?”
Colleen adjusted a strand of hair and arranged her face into a frown. “Pat, the man, in his early sixties, has been identified from his driver’s license, but police are waiting to contact his next of kin. One bar patron, who was here last night, is claiming the man’s alligator boots were stolen. A charge the police will neither confirm nor deny.”
Cade’s gut rolled and he yanked the sheet, ripping it in half.
“Cade?”
“It’s Kevin. They murdered him and we have to get out of here.”
Chapter Twelve
Jenna’s knees buckled and she dropped to the bed. Had Cade lost his mind? What did Kevin Stark have to do with Nico Zendaris?
“How do you know it’s Kevin? Th-there could’ve been plenty of sixty-year-old men at the bar last night.”
“The alligator boots, Jenna. The murdered man had alligator boots and so did Kevin.”
“Still, there could be lots of older men wearing alligator boots in New Mexico.”
His dark eyes drilled her. “Really?”
“Why would Zendaris kill your...Kevin?”
“I can give you plenty of motives. I should’ve gotten you and Gavin out of here last night. What reason did he give me to trust one word out of his mouth?”
Cade’s naked form, his muscles hard and ready, looked untouchable. His tight jaw and blazing eyes made him look unreachable.
“I don’t understand, Cade.”
“Get Gavin ready. I don’t have time to explain.”
And just like that, the husband she’d reclaimed in body and soul last night had hardened into this stranger, giving orders and keeping her in the dark.
This stranger had kept her and Gavin safe, so she followed those orders.
She pulled the hotel terry-cloth robe over her nakedness and stumbled into the adjoining bedroom. Gavin had had his bath last night, so she could get him ready to go in minutes. But why did she have to?
Cade directed tight smiles at Gavin and perfunctory pats on the head, and Gavin picked up on his tension. Then he reacted by refusing to put on his jacket and kicking his mittens across the floor.
Jenna cracked. “You pick those up right now.”
Cade parked the new suitcase stuffed with their new clothes in the corner of the room and crouched before Gavin. The lines that worry had carved in his face the past hour softened. “Why did you do that, Gavin?”
“I wanna stay.”
“In this place? I’ve got a better place, and we’ll stop at a ghost town on the way. Do you want to go to an Old West ghost town?”
His eyes wide, Gavin nodded. “Are ghosts there?”
“Just a couple of small ones.” Cade pointed to the scattered mittens. “Now pick those up like your mother asked you.”
Gavin galloped across the floor, scooped up the mittens and shoved them in his pockets.
Jenna blew out a breath. One small crisis averted. If only Zendaris could be distracted by ghost towns.
“That’s better. Pancakes or eggs this morning?”
“Both!”
As she slid into the car next to Cade, she touched his arm. “Thanks for defusing that back there. That could’ve wound up in a major tantrum, and you do not want to see a three-year-old boy throw a tantrum.”
“It’s not pretty when someone else’s kid does it, so I can’t imagine it would look any better on my son.”
Jenna glanced over her shoulder. Had Gavin noticed Cade calling him his son? They needed a quiet moment to tell him together, but when exactly would that be?
Cade needed to tell her why Kevin had been murdered and what it had to do with Zendaris and why it prompted