Chasing Bliss

Chapter Nine

Cade felt the water. Cold. He came to. His head felt like it had been cracked open. Where was he? Why was he so wet?

“I’m stuck, Cade.”

His sister. He heard his sister’s voice, but it was different. She was always bitching at him. He never did anything right. He was always in her business. He was the little brother. It was his job. But Annie didn’t sound mad. She sounded almost sad.

And what was the rushing sound?

“Cade, you have to get out of here.” Pleading. He almost never heard that from his close-to-perfect sister. She was everything Cade wasn’t. Perfect grades. The apple of her parents’ eyes. She never got in trouble. She was going to some fancy college.

Except maybe she wasn’t because they were stuck in a car and water was rushing in.

“Cade!”

He finally turned and looked at her. She reached out for him. “What happened?”

His sister’s hands found him. She had everything ahead of her. A brilliant future. A wonderful life.

The light in her eyes faded, and he was alone.

Cade came awake, sitting straight up in bed. He was coated in sweat. He hated that fucking dream. He took deep breaths to calm himself down. He could still taste the river water that had coated his throat that night. The water had come from every angle, encompassing him like the vines of a carnivorous plant. They tried to drag him down to the depths.

Where his parents and his sister waited for him. Where Nancy now resided in his dreams. Though she had died in a nursing home, he saw her in the river now. Forever lost with his family.

Gemma stirred beside him. She turned as though realizing her comfy pillow had other things to do, but all she had to do was shift to find another. Jesse sighed in his sleep, and his arm went around Gemma’s shoulders.

Cade glanced at the clock on the bedside table. Just after nine. It was the latest he’d slept in forever. He tended to get up at the butt crack of dawn, but then he also tended to wake up numerous times at night in a cold sweat because of the dreams. He almost never slept more than two or three hours at a time before he woke up, but he’d finally fallen asleep at two in the morning the night before. Apparently fucking Gemma numerous times had calmed his brain enough that he’d managed a whole seven hours of uninterrupted sleep.

He stretched and looked back down at the sleeping couple. He could get back in bed. He could climb back in and roll Gemma over. He could be inside her before she was awake. She would greet the day with his cock thrusting deep, rocking them both to pleasure.

Yeah, he wasn’t going to do that because not a damn thing had changed. He didn’t want to settle down. He didn’t want to get into that bed. It wouldn’t be fair to Gemma. He’d told her what he wanted. A little fun. A night of sex. He’d gotten it. He still wasn’t good for her.

But maybe she’s good for you, you stupid fuck.

He wasn’t listening to his potty-mouthed inner voice, either. He simply wasn’t built to do the family thing. Shit like that didn’t work out. Sure, it might for other people, but he’d made his bed long ago, and he knew he would sleep in it alone.

He would be really alone. Jesse wasn’t going to hop on his bike this time and follow Cade.

As quietly as he could, he snuck out of the bedroom and nearly screamed at the sight of a small woman standing at the stove. Lynn Wells glanced back, her eyes widening slightly, but then she shook her head as though he were a naughty boy and not a six-foot-plus naked man. “Cade Sinclair, you put on pants when you walk into the living room.”

“Don’t bother,” another voice piped up. Naomi sat on the couch, her ebony hair shining in the early-morning light. “I like the view.”

“You hush now,” Lynn said. “That weirdly large man part does not belong to you. I’m rather surprised my daughter didn’t run when she saw that thing.”

This was just another dream. Yep. It was another horrifying dream. Damn it. He needed to wake up.

Lynn turned, a spatula in her hands. “Cade, I am serious. That nude thing is fine on the mountain, but I do not need to see it. Pants. Now.”

Naomi winked at him as she tossed him the jeans he’d slung over the couch the night before in his haste to get naked so Gemma would wrap her lips around his dick. And now her momma was standing at the stove attempting to make something. He shoved his legs into his jeans and zipped them up. He crossed the space between them, picking up his shirt along the way.

“I am very sorry, Mrs. Wells.” He felt like a sixteen-year-old caught by his girlfriend’s mom. “Obviously I didn’t expect anyone to be out here. I’ll just be on my way. I need to get to work.”

He felt the heavy weight of judgment in those blue eyes. They were so close to Gemma’s eyes that Cade felt himself flush with shame. Would Gemma look at him the same way the next time she saw him? The night before those blue eyes had been so warm. Would they go back to arctic because he was the man who’d fucked her and left?

“It’s Saturday, Cade.”

He shrugged. “Cars still need fixing on Saturdays.”

Naomi whistled. “Damn.”

He’d stepped into something. Lynn picked up an egg and cracked that sucker in two. “I talked to Roger last night. He said the shop is closed on weekends.”

He thought seriously about making a run for the door. He was fast. He could run and just keep on running. He could run straight to the shop, hop on his bike, and flee Bliss altogether. He would leave the car to Jesse and Gemma.

His father’s car. Damn it. The minute he’d brought that car out, he’d screwed up. He should have kept it simple. Just him and his bike and whatever transitory experiences he could have. He should have taken shit jobs just long enough to save some money and move on to the next town, but no, Jesse had talked him into fixing up the car and now he had more than two keys and had to deal with judgmental mothers and their horrible cooking techniques. He shook his head. “Give me those eggs. You’ve already got shell in there.”

Lynn passed him the bowl and ceded her place with what he would have sworn was a look of triumph. “I was trying to make French toast. It’s Gemma’s favorite.”

“Does Gemma have cinnamon?” He took stock. There was a loaf of sourdough bread but nothing else.

Lynn laughed a little. “Cinnamon? No. Gemma doesn’t cook. I brought over the bread and eggs and milk and some vanilla.”

Naomi shook her head. “Gemma believes cooking is setting her microwave timer. And she screws that up most of the time. I’ll get the cinnamon.”

Naomi glided gracefully out the door in search of cinnamon. Cade got rid of the shelly eggs and started over, neatly cracking them with one hand.

“Do you have a whisk?”

Lynn opened a drawer and handed it to him. “Who taught you to cook?”

“My foster mother. She was a great cook.” She’d been surprised when he’d shown an interest. He’d never told her, but he hadn’t cared about cooking at first. He’d just wanted to be around her. He’d hated being alone. Alone meant thinking about everything he’d lost. Over time, he’d grown to find cooking soothing.

“Tell me something, Cade. Is your friend still in bed with my daughter?”

Oh, how he wished he hadn’t slept in. If he’d followed his pattern, he would be safely at home and Jesse would be the one dealing with the suspicious mom. “Yes.”

“Will he wake up and run, too?”

“I wasn’t running. I just have things to do.” He whisked the eggs. He had lots of things to do. Like figuring out what the hell he was going to do when Jesse moved in with Gemma. He would do it. Jesse had been in heaven last night. He’d finally found exactly what he’d always wanted—a woman he could top during play and who challenged him outside of the bedroom. There was zero question that Jesse was falling for Gemma, and Cade wasn’t sure where that left him.

“Does Jesse have other things to do?” Lynn asked.

“No, ma’am. Jesse will take care of your daughter.” He poured the proper amount of milk into the egg mixture. He noticed the small bottle of vanilla Lynn had brought and picked it up.

“Gemma tends to think she can take care of herself.”

He tried to concentrate on his mix, but found himself thinking about Gemma. It was pretty much all he did these days. “She’s wrong. She needs someone to look out for her. She’s smart. Maybe too smart. She doesn’t consider the bad things that can happen. She seems to think that if she does everything right, she’ll get what she wants. Sometimes that doesn’t work out.”

“Are you talking about that business with her fiancé?”

“Ex-fiancé. That bastard used her and tossed her aside.”

Lynn’s eyebrows arched.

“Damn it, I’m not doing that. Gemma and I have a deal. I haven’t lied to her. And I can’t even sneak out now. You manipulated me into cooking so don’t compare me to him.”

Lynn shrugged, a little light in her eyes. “I might have heard you’re a very good cook. Most good cooks can’t stand to watch a bad one screw up food. You can’t blame me. She’s my only child. And I think you’re right about her. She’s too smart for her own good sometimes. I never liked that Patrick. He was too slick, but Gemma thought she could handle him because she was smarter.”

“Book smarts doesn’t always equal street smarts. He ran a con on her. He got her to do all the work, took the promotions and accolades, and planned on dumping her when he couldn’t use her anymore.”

“I’ve always wondered about that.”

“Wondered about what?”

“If he really intended to dump her. I guess I’ll never know.”

Cade put the bowl down and checked the burner. Lynn had it way too hot. Did Gemma have sugar? He could make a caramel sauce. Gemma liked sweets. He’d noticed it. Her eyes lit up around decadent desserts. And she seemed to be addicted to Trading Post fudge. “It doesn’t matter. He was cheating on her. He used her. She needs someone who can watch out for her, keep away the people who would just use her. If she’d been with me and Jesse, Nate would never have been able to pull that crap on her.”

Lynn waved that off. “I think working for the sheriff is going to be very good for her. I feel better knowing she’s at the station house. Nate and his deputy are already watching out for her. They checked her locks the other day and made sure she got home when they realized she was walking. Either Cameron or Nate drops her off and picks her up. Such nice men.”

Nice men who should have pointed out the problem to him or Jesse. This was Bliss. The men of Bliss had taught him long ago that they had to stick together or the women of Bliss tended to run all over them. He and Jesse had received the lecture of a lifetime from the entire male population after the Christian Grady incident. And Jamie Glen had damn near broken his nose for not bothering to mention he knew Grady was in town. It didn’t matter that it was just a friendly gesture. It only mattered that those men were horning in on his woman. On Jesse’s woman. Damn it. He was just watching out for his friend. “Jesse or I will take her from now on, until we can find a car for her. I thought she had one.”

Lynn smiled brightly. “Oh no. We have one between the three of us, but Gemma insists on leaving it behind, and Naomi has been looking for a job, so she needs it right now. I think she’s going to take the doc up on his offer. The clinic is close to the sheriff’s office so they can share. I’m just so grateful to the sheriff. He’s been kind to us since the nasty threats started.”

Cade stopped. “Threats?”

Lynn nodded. “Oh, yes. She’s had some nasty letters in the last few days, but nothing that compares to the heart in the box. She thinks it has something to do with a case she worked on when she first started at her firm.”

Cade felt a little vein over his right eye start to throb. “Heart in a box? Tell me you’re talking about a heart-shaped box of candy that some asshole sent her. Was it expired?”

“Oh, it was expired all right. Doc Burke assured me it was probably from a cadaver.”

So Nate and Cam and now Caleb all knew something about Gemma that no one had bothered to tell him. That spot over his right brow ticked away. He couldn’t have heard the word cadaver. “Someone sent Gemma an actual heart and no one bothered to tell me or Jesse?”

“Well, Gemma didn’t want to bother you with it. Nate wanted to haul Jesse in since he was the one who brought the box to her, but Gemma asked him to just ask the questions in a way that didn’t alarm the two of you since what you had was so casual. I guess she was right since you were going to leave. Do you have something wrong with your eye?”

Nothing spanking the ass of one very naughty blonde wouldn’t solve. Jesse. He needed to wake up Jesse so Jesse could start punishing her in a manner that would assure the next heart in a box she received would be immediately brought to her men’s attention. Man’s attention. Fuck it. He could figure it out later. Right now all that mattered was he’d fucked her the night before and not once had she bothered to mention to him that someone was sending her creepy serial-killer love letters. Somewhere in between all the moans and groans and “yes, please, yesses,” she could have worked that little fact in.

And he and the sheriff were going to have a long talk.

“I think you should get that eye checked out. When Naomi comes back, she’ll take a look.” Lynn smiled like they were talking about the weather and not the fact that her daughter had received a death threat. There was no other way to interpret it. He was just about to go and wake Jesse up when Naomi walked back in, carrying the small bottle of cinnamon. Almost as soon as the door closed, it opened again and Nate came running in. He was red in the face as though he’d sprinted the hundred yards between their cabins.

He held a hand out. “You slept with Gemma?”

Lynn folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t think there was much sleeping involved.”

“Heart in a box. Gemma got a heart in a box and three really threatening letters and I didn’t break the code because you weren’t sleeping with her.”

“What?” Jesse stood in the bedroom doorway. At least he’d had the good sense to wrap a sheet around his waist.

“Get dressed, man,” Cade said. “This is not a conversation you need to have looking like that.”

“What’s wrong with your eye?” Jesse asked.

Cade turned back to his cooking. Soothing. He needed soothing. “Nothing. And I’m going to need more eggs.”

Jesse stared across the table at the sheriff. “And you didn’t bother to tell me, why?”

The last ten minutes had been an exercise in patience. What he really wanted to do was punch his fist through something.

Nate took a long sip of the coffee Naomi had made and sat back. “You weren’t sleeping with her.”

“I had made my intentions plain.”

“And Gemma was skittish. She asked me not to tell you. I felt all right honoring her wishes because she hadn’t made any sort of commitment to the two of you. When your car was spotted last night and was still here this morning, I ran because now you meet the criteria for being her man. Dating does not equal commitment.”

Jesse wasn’t completely convinced. “By your rules, Ty is responsible for about twenty women.”

Nate rolled his eyes. “Ty isn’t responsible for himself. Damn it, Jesse, you have to understand my position. She’s my employee. She asked me not to talk to you about it.”

“But you did talk to me about it.” Now Jesse could see he’d been carefully interrogated. Nate had asked him about how he’d come to handle the package, giving Jesse some lame-ass story about potential mail fraud. He should have known something was up.

“I did. And I honored Gemma’s wishes right up to the point where you became responsible for her.”

“He’s also been taking her to and from work,” Cade called out from the kitchen.

Nate shrugged. “She needed a ride. She’s working the day shift all next week. I expect her to be there at nine.”

“She’ll be there.” She would have a sore ass, but she would be there. “Now, what have you figured out about the threat?”

Naomi and Lynn were sitting at the table, praising Cade for his culinary skills. He’d apparently made some fancy French toast and now he was in good with Gemma’s mom. Bastard. From what he’d heard, Cade had been halfway out the door before Lynn had stopped him. Jesse had thought the night before had been a turning point, but Cade still tried to run.

At least he didn’t have to explain that to Gemma. It was a damn good thing because she had a whole lot of explaining to do.

“She thinks it has to do with a case she worked a couple of years back. It was an intellectual property case. She was an intern, but she came up with the argument that won the case. A man claimed that he invented a new material used in heart valves. The big medical tech firm that marketed it claimed they invented it. Gemma won the case for the medical firm.”

“And now this guy is angry.” At least he understood the heart imagery. “What are you doing about it?”

“Rafe called some friends with the New York FBI field office. They’re looking into it. This guy’s name is Paul Johnson. According to records, he lives in an apartment in Buffalo, but the package was sent from St. Louis. That’s easy enough to do.”

“And the letters?” Jesse couldn’t help but notice that Cade was leaning over, listening in even as he flipped pieces of toast.

Nate sighed. “They come from all over the country. One from Virginia. One from Pennsylvania and the last from Oklahoma. No rhyme or reason. They all say the same thing. I hate you. I want you dead. Blah blah blah.”

“It’s good to see you’re taking it seriously.” Jesse went through a mental checklist of the private investigators he and Cade had hired to track down Christian Grady. They’d gone through three utterly useless PIs before they’d found the Dawson brothers of Dallas, Texas. The twins had not only managed to find evidence to support that Christian was alive, but they’d tracked Hope McLean to Bliss. Ben and Chase were still on his speed dial.

Cade put down his spatula, sending Jesse a look that told him he was thinking the very same thing.

Nate shook his head. “We are taking it very seriously. Come down to the station later, and I’ll walk you through everything I’ve done. I wasn’t being blasé about the threats, but there’s something off on the whole thing. Why don’t we give Cam a call? He can explain it better.”

Lynn sighed as she looked out the door. “No need. He’s running this way. Cade, we’re going to need to set a few more places.”

Nate shrugged. “That’s the valley. Get used to it. We’re all up in each other’s business. I’m just surprised it took him so long to figure it out.”

Sure enough, Cam was at the door in two seconds. He wore a pair of pajama bottoms, his sneakers, and nothing else. He took a deep breath as he walked in the door. “Gemma got a heart in a box.”

Well, at least now Jesse knew the parameters of the bro code around these parts. “Yeah, I got that.”

Cam’s eyes went to Nate. “Damn it. I shouldn’t have slept in. I saw the Camaro last night and I figured it was time to tell them, but I thought I should wait until morning.”

“I appreciate that.” He would have been way more pissed had all of this come to light before he’d gotten inside Gemma. “Now, you two better give me one good reason why Cade and I don’t pick Gemma up and haul her off someplace safe.”

“Because I want to keep my balls on my body,” Cade muttered.

Naomi laughed. “He has a point. She’s not leaving her mother.”

Jesse could fix that problem real fast. “Lynn, pack your bags. We’re going to leave this afternoon.”

Lynn finally looked at him with something other than vague amusement. Her eyes widened and she stood. “You can’t just order us to leave.”

“Watch me, ma’am. I care about your daughter. She trusted me with her body. That damn well means something to me. I can and will do whatever I need to do to protect her and her family, and if that means pissing the both of you off, then so be it. We can do this one of two ways. You can pack or we can pick you both up, shove you in the car, and neither one of you will have your things.”

Cade had a little half smile on his face as though he really wanted to see how that particular plan would work out. “You’re forgetting Naomi.”

“No, I’m not. Naomi is the reasonable one. I give her logic and she’ll go.” He’d figured that out after five minutes worth of conversation at the diner one day.

Naomi smiled slowly. “I do believe in running when it’s time. I’m not so sure it’s time yet, Jesse. Why don’t you talk to Laura and Rafe? They’ve been working on this, too.”

The whole damn town had known, but no one mentioned it to him. He rather liked his plan.

Lynn stared at him. She was an older, more peaceful version of Gemma. “You would really do it.”

Cade stepped in. “He would and I would help him. No matter what I said before, I wouldn’t let anyone hurt Gemma. If she needs to disappear, then we can make that happen.”

A serene smile came over Lynn’s face, and she sat back down, picking up her fork. “Let me know what you decide.”

“Just like that?” Cade asked.

“Just like that. I like a protective man. And I certainly want one for my daughter. But she will not be as reasonable as Naomi and I. She’ll think she can meet this head-on.”

Nate sat back, seemingly unaffected by the swirl of emotion around him. “Why don’t you take a look at the case and then decide? I’m sorry we didn’t bring you in earlier. If it makes a difference, Cam thought we should, but I didn’t want to break Gemma’s trust before I had to. She’s a skittish one. She needs to feel safe.”

Jesse sighed, rubbing a hand over his face and wishing he’d never left bed. “And she doesn’t feel safe with us?”

Naomi answered that one. “She didn’t want to scare you away. Look, you don’t understand the world she’s been in. I do. She was ambitious and working in a cutthroat place. She learned to hide any weaknesses. It doesn’t say anything about you. It says something about the people she knew.”

He softened a little. How hard had it been on Gemma, always having to be perfect, never allowing herself a moment’s weakness? Not even with the man she’d intended to marry.

“Don’t,” Cade said, pointing the spatula his way. “Don’t you go soft on her. She lied to us.”

“She didn’t lie.” Her mother attempted to defend Gemma.

But she had lied to both of them. “I asked her every day how her day was and every day I got the same line of bullshit. It’s great, Jesse. Couldn’t be better.”

Lynn sighed. “So she lied a little.”

But she’d had her reasons. He looked at Cade. “I’m not going soft. She’s going to feel it, but I’m also going to listen to her.” He looked at Nate. “We’ll be at the station at noon. I want to talk to everyone who has a toe in this thing. For now, I’m going to wake our sleeping princess and let her know just how much trouble she’s in. Cade?”

He hesitated for the briefest moment before pulling the skillet off the burner. Cam looked down but was blocked by Cade’s spatula. “Don’t you think about it, Briggs. That’s for Gemma.”

Cam shook his head. “Why does everyone feed Gemma? She’s tiny. Do you know how many calories it takes to keep this body going? No one ever thinks to feed Cam. I’m headed to Holly’s. I smelled banana bread.”

Nate perked up when banana bread was mentioned. “I’ll go with you. Thanks for the coffee. I’ll see you both at noon. We’ll all be there. Hey, don’t you run. I want some of that bread, too!”

Nate and Cam started a footrace to get to Holly’s cabin.

Jesse was starting to understand that this was the way things worked in the valley. The small valley nestled on all four sides by mountains contained a little village of cabins, and the neighbors had formed a tight community. If he lived here, he could expect any one of them to pop by during the day.

They were bastards, but damn if he didn’t want to be a part of this.

Gemma and Cade needed it, too. They just didn’t see it yet.

Cade followed him back to the bedroom, where he would make his intentions plain.