CHAPTER FOUR

Cas

For the last two months, I’ve convinced myself I blew Jade out of proportion. I put her up on this pedestal as the unattainable, perfect woman—the only woman for me, and time and distance would reveal how wrong I am.

I’m not wrong though.

She’s as perfect as I remember. Maybe more so. I underestimated time. Or perhaps I miscalculated how far gone I was when it came to Jade Dunn. Either way, our separation hasn’t obscured the softly angled face I remember, the silvery voice I used to eagerly look forward to hearing. Even perfect doesn’t capture her as well as it ought to.

My beyond perfect girl is in the arms of another.

I twist from surveying her car. I recognized its make and build, and its license plate is seared into my memory, like the smooth texture of her mouth and the press of her breasts against my chest, and the taste of her sweet pussy on my tongue.

Scowling at the group, I size up the man who’s holding her, and the second guy by his side. The men don’t pay me heed, their steps taking them farther down the empty lot. Other than my Audi and Jade’s older Toyota, there are two other vehicles—a black pickup truck and a forest green Beetle. They’re heading for the truck.

“Cas,” Jade calls for me again, her smile as gentle as her voice. She sniffles though, and the sorrow winds through my name.

She has to be upset at my appearance. And why not? Last time we were together, I tossed her out on her ass. A deserved punishment, some might say. Not that anyone else knew. Jade’s immediate, quiet resignation hasn’t been connected to the con job she pulled on me.

I clench my teeth at that fateful night. The angry disappointment and self-loathing has mostly abated. Now and again, it catches me off guard.

It doesn’t help I haven’t seen hide nor beautiful hair of Jade since.

She’s hot. A fucking stunning woman, inside and out. I’d like nothing more than to take on the competition, compare dick size, and challenge them to a dead weight lift. The caveman in me craves punching the guy holding her, ripping her free from him and carrying her back to the hotel with me.

So, why doesn’t she sound happier?

My feet move on their accord, my intuition souring in my stomach. Something isn’t right with this picture, it tells me.

I study her. “Jade,” I say, rolling her name over my tongue, recalling how much pleasure that alone gave me. “We need to talk.” It’s true. We do. I didn’t drive all this way, spend the time before that tracking her new workplace, to have her leave me out in the cold.

The glassy look in her eyes clears.

“Cas?” she speaks my name more urgently. She straightens up, her hands pushing on the back of the dude with the man bun. She widens her eyes, and the small, beautiful smile is wiped away. She opens her mouth, a horrified expression overtaking her features. “They’re kidnapping me!”

It’s all I need to hear to spring into action.

The man trapping her to his shoulder rounds to face me. “Turn the fuck around, and walk away, man.”

His friend doubles back to ensure I get the message, loud and clear. What better way to do that than to pull a weapon? The knife appears in the second guy’s hand like magic. The small blade can still do damage, and he holds it confidently enough to cool my ideas of a fast approach.

I slow down, forcing myself to a standstill. I’m helpless as Jade angles her glance backward. “Help me, Cas! Please!”

Gritting my teeth, I suck in a fortifying breath via my flaring nostrils. Pushing it out, I ask, “What is it you’re after? Money?” It’s always money.

“Nothing you can give us.” The man holding Jade palms her ass and she screeches, wriggling in his clutch, her legs flailing, her fists raining down on his back. He grunts, steadying her, but nowhere close to losing his grip.

It leaves me with very little options when his buddy grabs a fistful of Jade’s curls and he tugs her head up. He rests the tip of his blade behind her ear. Then, as if I can’t grasp his too-obvious threat, he says, “My hand slips, she dies.”

“And don’t think about calling the police,” he adds, the growled warning enough for them to start toward their truck again. Jade is facing me once more. She stretches out her hand. I find my fists clenching, the urge to rush them and risk death for her safety too strong.

My mind blanks is the only way I can explain it.

One second I’m watching them take her from me, and the next my Italian hand leather shoes are eating up the distance, pounding pavement to get to Jade.

The thug with the knife is on me first. He hollers for his friend to “beat it” when he gets in my path, swishing the blade in the air between us. He motions with one hand for me to draw in. “Come closer. My knife is thirsting for blood, asshole.”

Not as much as my fists are hungry to smash that smug smile off your face.

He strikes out with the knife, calling my bluff when I sway near to him. I pivot out of the way, my Marine training and the hours I’ve been keeping in the gym as a civvie coming to me naturally. I grab his arm, finding the pressure point in the inside of his elbow that rips a roar out of him. His hand slackens and the knife slips loose and clatters to the ground. I give it a swift kick and it skids across the pavement, far from his reach.

Not that he’ll be using his dominant hand any time soon. He catches me in the temple as my fist connects with his jaw.

We stumble apart.

The gunshot locks my every muscle. Icy dread dances her bony fingertips over my spine. I’m afraid to glance Jade’s way, fearful to witness any harm coming to her on my watch. Still, I look toward her…relief sweeping through me a second later.

Jade’s fighting off her captor, refusing to enter his truck. My spitfire girl is making this hard for them. Good. Give these bastards hell, babe.

“Don’t move!” The crisp, anxiously-pitched voice is new.

I confront the source of the gunfire. He’s short and slim, his head full of salt-and-pepper hair pointing up in all angles. He has both hands on his handgun, a derringer by the looks of it. Splotches of red break up his wan cheeks. Still, despite how nervy he appears, his hands don’t shake. Little man knows how to hold his gun.

He isn’t pointing it at me either. Though he does give me a sharp glare when I shuffle in place. “Either of you move, and I’ll shoot. I swear I’ll make you eat lead.”

I have to roll my eyes at that hyperbole. So, he knows how to pack his firepower. Clearly he needs help with his tough-guy image. I wouldn’t be telling him. No point in having him train his gun on me. I’m happy where he’s got it fixed.

The thug won’t quit either. He backs from the knife toward the truck and his friend.

Trigger Happy fires off to the side this time. “I said, stop.” He moves then, passing me, training the gun on us both before expanding further to include Jade’s captor. “Release her right now, you Cretin! Raise your hands up where I can see them. I’m a damn good shot, so don’t risk it. Your number is up.”

Punctuating his cheesy statements are police sirens. I sigh, all too happy to get this over with, to get Jade in my arms. No. Not my arms. Near me, for a chat. A very important, professional chat. We’ll be keeping our clothes on for it, too.

With a dark scowl, the guy with the man bun raises his hands and Jade darts from him, seizing her opportunity to flee for safety. She runs…straight for me. I have my arms open at the last second, realizing she doesn’t mean to stop until we’re embracing.

Honeyed jasmine and spiced citrus infiltrate my nose. A hint of soap and faint coffee curls through it all. It’s like she’s never left my side. It brings back that week of memories. They’d kept me going for the last two months, held me off from plunging into the edge of broken-hearted despair.

She moves back too quickly for my liking, lifting her head, peering into my face. “It is you.” The awe shines at me. There’s a wondrous reverence in her voice. She cups my cheek, her smaller, soft palm the cushion to my beard-roughened jaw. “You came for me,” she says.

I’ll take the credit of being her savior so long as she promises to never betray me again.

“Yeah,” I hear how husky my voice has become. It’s all her fault. “It’s me, Jade.” I gaze at her mouth, still as plump and juicy as I remember it. I forget the hell she put my head and heart through; I need to kiss her. My head lowers, my tingling lips seeking hers, my heart thumping, counting out the seconds to landing and making contact.

Then she pinches my short beard hairs.

The zapping shock of pain lurches my head up and back, her hand falling away. “What the fuck?” I absorb what she’s done. She pinched my fucking cheek.

Jade gives her head a shake, stepping from me. She ducks her head, her shyness overwhelming us both. The sirens pierce the air now, loud and insistent. Still, I’m able to catch what Jade says, “I thought you weren’t real.”

I’m about to show her how real I can get, but the first of a trio of police cars peels into the back lot from around the bend of the squat building housing Samson & Sons Auto Sales. Six cops jump out, all their holsters emptied with guns aimed at anything breathing that won’t bleed blue.

This “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality irks me. As an ex-Marine, I’ve done five tours over my thirteen years of decorated service. I get how easy it can be to rely on a gun, especially when facing off against uncertainty. Nevertheless, I push Jade behind me. At least that way I can take a stray bullet for her.

We hold up our hands as per their instructions.

I glance back, Trigger Happy on his knees, the derringer a meter away from him. Everyone’s cuffed, Jade and I included. She’s more of a victim than me, but I don’t struggle when they slap the shackles on her, too.

It takes some sorting out at the police station. With our statements, and that of Trigger Happy—Jade’s boss as I learn—the three of us are released. The real criminals are kept under lock and key, a court date set, and the notification delivered that our statements and presence might be needed for the judge at a later time.

I don’t tell them there’s no fucking way Jade’s going to face those cowardly bastards again. I’m polite straight through to catching a ride back to the dealership’s lot. As soon as the police car leaves, I ignore Jade’s boss, Alan, and signal for her to follow me. “We need to talk.”

“Hey.” Alan steps in my path. He hides his trembling lip, holding himself taller under my glower. “Just where do you think you’re taking her? She needs to rest. Not be dragged off by the likes of you.”

Likes of me?

I almost agree. It might be dangerous for my restraint to have Jade alone. But it doesn’t change that I need to talk to her though, does it?

“I might be grateful for your save, but I won’t tolerate you standing in the way of my business.” Because the only thing I have planned for Jade is business. I’m not here to rock that beehive, shake loose and infuriate the stinging pain she left in her wake the first time.

Alan puffs out his chest, raising his chin higher. It won’t cover our vast height difference. “Jade isn’t going anywhere with you.”

“Jade is standing right here,” she pipes up, lowering her hand and scowling at us both. “I think I’m capable of making this decision on my own, gentlemen.” She spears her glare at us both. “I’ll be heading home.”

I’m on her in a moment, trailing her to her car. Alan keeps up pace with me, his shorter legs needing to compensate by marching faster. Ignoring him, I narrow my eyes at the back of Jade’s headful of lively dark chocolate curls, the ends tipped a golden brown. “Jade, we need to talk.”

I come off as a broken record, I know. But this woman is so damn frustrating. What happened to throwing herself on me? She can’t give me five fucking minutes to spell out why I tucked aside every survival instinct to see her myself. I could have easily sent along hotel security, like my buddy and head of security, Nolan, suggested.

No. I made it clear to him Jade was—is—my responsibility.

Catching up to her, I tear her wrist from the door handle, tugging her away from her car. “We need to chat.”

Jade’s eyes spark with her wrathful fire. “Leave me a message then.” She yanks at her wrist, frowning when I don’t release her. My fingers tighten, and Alan steps up, his fists bobbing in front of his face. I’m glad he doesn’t have the derringer. The police held it back as evidence to confirm they matched the bullets he’d fired to scare off the bad guys.

“Jade, give me the word and I’ll toss this guy on his ass.”

I snort. “I’d like to see you try.”

Her gaze flickers to her boss, and the anger softens to annoyance. “It’s fine, Alan. You can go.” She sighs. “No point in both of us wasting our time here.”

“But Jade,” Alan drops his fists, the fight draining from his face and his fists relaxing, “I can’t just leave you…with him.” He hisses the last part, glaring at me.

“He won’t hurt me.” Jade’s conviction has Alan’s shoulders sagging. He raises a hand and mumbles a “goodbye,” shuffling away, his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets.

Soon as his Beetle leaves us on the lot, Jade rips her hand free from mine. Rubbing at her wrist, she stares down at her kneading fingers, asking, “Why are you here?”

Wishing she’d face me, I curb a sigh. I’ll have to take her whatever way I get her. “It’s about your boyfriend, Tyler Wagner. Also, our ex-employee.”

Jade snaps her head up, her dark brown eyes narrowing. “He’s not my boyfriend.” She pauses, and then adds, “If that’s why you’re here, to question me about him after…” she trails, and plucks up her train of thought elsewhere, “you wasted your time and mine. I have places to be.”

“I never waste my time.” It’s true. The secret to carrying my workload is multitasking effectively. Like how I lean in and pop open the locks of her car. Rounding her vehicle, aware her gaze follows me, I open the passenger door and scrunch my taller frame into her compact space. Adjusting the seat to give my legs breathing room, I spare a glance at her wide-eyed, open-mouthed shock.

“Get in. Don’t you have ‘places to be?’ We’ll talk while you drive and run your errands.”

“What about your car?” she asks.

I shrug, reaching for the seatbelt and buckling in, the snap of the lock punctuating how dead serious I am. “Though it’s not your concern, I’ll have someone come around for my car.”

“But,” Jade pouts, her brows knitting, her teeth working her bottom lip. She’s deep in thought, considering the dangers I present to her in the car. If she’s picturing how I’ll grope her over the gearshift, she’s got another thing coming.

Reaching to pat the driver’s seat, I say, “We have a lot to talk about, Jade, and now you’re really wasting time by standing out there.”

She slides in as I move my hand back. Closing the door, she starts the engine, and silently backs out of the drive. As soon as we’re on the blacktop, she hedges, “So? What’s so important you’re leaving your car behind?”

I lean back, pretending to be getting comfortable while I’m angling myself to see what her reaction will be to what I say next. “For starters, I’d like you to tell me about Tyler.”

“Tyler?” she echoes, her frown back in full. “I told you, we’re not dating. We haven’t been for three months now.”

“He used to work for us, too. Long before I started. And he was fired.”

Jade tightens her hands on the steering wheel.

I rub my beard, taking in the convulsions of her throat. She’s working down something. Another secret that’ll devastate me, I feel sure. Her scowl is infectious. Tired of beating around the bush, I say, “He showed up at the hotel a few days ago.”

“Yeah?” Jade drawls. The casual tone doesn’t work on me. Something’s up.

“Yeah,” I say. “He came and went, but like you, he’s been made aware that he’s never to set foot on Eveningstar property.”

Jade shifts in her hot seat. But I’m nowhere near close to raising to the top temperature of awkward interrogation. She thinks this is getting her hot and bothered; she better wait until I’m finished.

“See, that’s what I don’t get.” I narrow my eyes. “Why would he risk us raining hellfire down on him for a walkabout through the casino? Call me crazy, but I like to rely on my instincts. You know what they’re telling me right now?” I lean toward her, her eyes shifting from the lonely road to catch mine in that heartbeat.

Only this time, her incessant sweetly-scented body soap, wide dark eyes, and her rosy lips don’t lure me into a trap. “They’re telling me you know what’s up, Jade.”