Concealed (12 page)

“For the last time, I’m not flirting with Wade!”

With impeccable timing, she heard in her ear, “Here’s your license back, ma’ am.”

“Jesus, you need a bell around your neck!” Sydney spun around in her seat, too startled to be embarrassed. Her look dared him to say something but instead he was kind, and all business.

“Everything seems to be in order.” He passed the papers to Sydney through the car window and she hoped and prayed he hadn’t seen her huge sigh of relief. That relief was short lived however thanks to Faith.

“If mom makes you a pie can you not give her a ticket?”

Wade dipped his head down to Faith’s window, ignoring Sydney’s sputtering from the front seat. “Did Mrs. Whittman explain to you the repercussions of bribing an officer?”

When Faith’s head shook from side to side she asked, “A repercussion? Is that like a drum?” Wade couldn’t help but laugh at the innocent question.

“Oh, give me a break. It’s not a bribe if a beautiful woman wants to cook for you, Wade. It’s called your lucky day,” Cara chimed, throwing in her two cents. Sydney swore she could hear Melissa half-way across the planet, laughing at all of it.

“Just give me the ticket, please. Or shoot me. A bullet might be less painful than this,” Sydney mumbled through her hands which were covering her face.

Ignoring everyone, Faith kept right on talking. “So Sheriff, do we have a deal?” She thrust her crumb-covered hand out the window, nearly poking Wade in the eye. Someday the child was going to be a lawyer.

“A pie for no ticket?” He winked at Sydney who was now staring at him open mouthed through her window. “I think that can be arranged.”

“That has to be illegal,” Sydney said, angrily shoving her paperwork back in the glove compartment, “or at the very least coercion.”

Wade put his face right up to hers, his massive shoulders easily filling the window. “Relax, I’m just kidding. No pie required. I’m letting you off with a warning. You were going pretty fast back there.” Her heart fluttered when he reached in and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

“T-Thanks.”

“Be careful,” Wade said as a goodbye with a tip of his hat to both Cara and Faith.

“He’s so nice, Mommy!”

“Yeah, Mommy,” Cara teased as Sydney started the car and slowly pulled back onto the road. There was no sign of the car that had been the cause of the whole situation to begin with, which was fine by Sydney. She had enough trouble on her own. She didn’t need any ghosts from the past chasing her too.

“Sheriff Jenkins is very nice, Faith. If you ever need anything, he’ll help you.”

They drove in silence for a few minutes while Sydney tried to clear her head. Everything was fine. Wade didn’t suspect anything, neither did Cara. Faith was happily kicking her feet and singing in the backseat. Everything was all right.

Except Sydney couldn’t shake that feeling of dread that had been lingering for the last few weeks. The picture of Faith, the phone calls, the murders, and the mystery cars, all of that, looming large on Sydney’s conscious. She felt the safest she ever had in Elton before all of that had happened. So would it be better to stay there and fight, if that’s what it came to, or was it time to run? Even if it broke Faith’s heart.

Her serious thoughts were interrupted when Cara erupted in a flurry of words.

“I’ve been biting my tongue so hard it’s starting to bleed, so I’m just gonna say it because it’s what Melissa would do. The two of you are making me worry myself gray.” She took a deep breath and made sure Faith was occupied before she launched into her lecture. “You care about Wade and don’t even try to tell me you don’t. It’s written all over your face. And that man cares for you, deeply. Even if you aren’t in a relationship with him, I’ve seen the way he looks at you while you’ve been hiding from him. The way he took care of you after they found the girl at the diner.” She shook her head. “He treated you like the most precious thing in the world. A man doesn’t do that for someone he doesn’t care about.”

Tears began to fill Sydney’s eyes. Cara was right. Sydney did care about Wade. More than she ever had cared for another man in her life. She could even picture herself sitting on the porch swing with him in the summertime as a hot breeze blew across the yard. And it killed her because she knew she could never have that.

“Cara,” she tried to interrupt, but Cara’s hand flew up to halt her words.

“Sweets, I know you have a secret and it must be a whopper from how closely you watch Faith.” The tears were flowing freely now and Sydney didn’t even try to hide them. “But Pete and I love you like you were one of our own. I swear, you deserve to be happy, to have a life, and maybe if you tell me about what it is you’re hiding from, maybe I can help you.”

The words were on the tip of Sydney’s tongue, about to spill out. The whole ugly truth. She was ready to get the crushing weight off her chest and be free of it once and for all. But then she thought about the way Cara might look at her if she knew. The disappointment, the terror, the disgust. When she left Elton, she wanted them to remember her as she was, not like a fleeing criminal. Somehow losing her and Pete, and Elton, would hurt worse than it ever had before. They were different. She was different.

She couldn’t lose that.

“Cara, I’m fine. Really. This thing with Wade, I don’t know. I think we’re too different.” When Cara started to protest, it was Sydney’s turn to interrupt. “No, you’re right. I have secrets. Ones that keep me up at night. And Wade deserves better than that. You all do.” She turned onto a familiar road and counted the mailboxes until Cara’s house. “If I was a better person, I’d pack up and go.”

“Don’t say that,” Cara pleaded. Sydney had hit a nerve with Cara when she mentioned leaving. “Elton is your home.”

Sydney gave her a sad smile. “I know. That’s the problem. We love it here. You, Pete, and Melissa, you are our family. But it’s selfish for me to stay. It would be better for all of you, and that includes Wade, if we left.”

“Just tell me what it is, Sydney. I can help you.” But Sydney was already shaking her head before Cara finished.

“No one can help me, Cara.” The car came to a stop outside her house. Pete was still at the diner so the house was dark. “Thanks for coming with us. It really helped me clear my head, spending time with you today. You’re the closest thing to a mom I’ve ever had.” It was a small detail of her past, but it was all she could give the woman who meant so much to her.

“Nothing you tell me will ever change the way I look at you. You need to know that. If you ever want to share your burden with me, I’m here for you.”

“You have no idea what that means to me.” Sydney wiped the tears streaking her face and put on a brave smile like the chameleon she was. “Faith, say goodbye to Miss Cara.”

“Thanks for the doll. I’ll take good care of her.”

Cara opened the backdoor of the car to get better access to Faith. She gave the little girl a kiss and welcomed the huge hug Faith wrapped her up in. “You be a good girl for Mommy. I can’t wait to see you in those fancy shoes at your birthday party in a few days, sweets. I still can’t believe you’re going to be six!”

Sydney gave a wave as Cara made her way up the steps to her front door. She was a genuinely good person and she meant every word she said, but it was too dangerous to have her involved with the truth. Her past was a living, breathing entity, set on her destruction. No way she’d let Cara and Pete get caught up in that.

Or Wade.

WADE DRANK THE LAST
of the coffee in his mug and slipped a few dollars under the saucer for a tip. He had lingered at the diner as long as he dared. Sydney had been avoiding him since he pulled her over the day before, but if he looked back, the distance started the night of their date. She had definitely put up a wall between them and Wade found himself banging his head against it ever since.

He retreated to his cruiser and parked just around the corner from the diner. To kill time until her shift ended, he ran through the list of things he knew about Sydney in his head, trying to figure out what he was missing. She hadn’t existed until eighteen months ago so she was living under an assumed name. He was convinced someone was after them, or at least he knew Sydney believed someone was after them. Her erratic behavior and overprotective nature toward Faith said it all. The obsessive way she left work just to take her home from school and the conversation he overheard between Sydney and the principal all but confirmed it.

He had felt guilty lifting her fingerprints off her driver’s license when he pulled her over, but the prints were the best way to get answers. If he came right out and asked her, he knew without a shadow of a doubt Sydney would stay silent and he’d never see her again.

The prints had come back as belonging to a Sydney Jackson who was born outside of Boise, Idaho. It took Wade calling in countless favors, but he finally made progress. Her grandmother’s maiden name had been Ross. She hadn’t lied about her age. She was twenty-four and had left home right after her high school graduation. The prints were on file for a juvenile arrest for petty theft; charges that were later dropped. As far as family went, her father hadn’t been in the picture since she was an infant and her mother wasn’t the greatest role model. A religious nut who Children’s Services believed suffered from some mental illness. Sydney’s life sounded like it was anything but stellar. When she took off late in her senior year she was pregnant, had been shunned by her mother, and was forced to live on her own.

Everything after that was a mystery.

Putting the pieces together wasn’t easy, but a rough idea of her life started to form in his head. When she left home, she was pregnant. Odds were, if she was hiding from someone, it was probably Faith’s father. Maybe he had been abusive. Just the thought of someone hitting Sydney made Wade livid. The other possibility was Faith’s father had wanted custody of her, and maybe Sydney feared he might get it, so she took off running. Or maybe he simply wanted her. Neither scenario sat well with Wade. Either way, it seemed highly likely that another male was after Sydney and he might mean her harm. Jealousy and anger collided inside Wade.

Drama was never his thing, and Miss Sydney Ross was a walking drama department. If he was smart, he’d cut and run. There were plenty of women in the area who’d see to his needs when the occasion arose. He didn’t need anything long term or exclusive. It hadn’t worked out so well in the past. Why would he think this time would be any different with all the baggage Sydney was carrying?

Unfortunately he still found himself wanting Sydney. Even though it had disaster written all over it, he wanted her in his bed but even more frightening, in his life.

Wade glanced at his watch. It was almost time for Sydney to get off work. He didn’t want her to notice him lurking outside the diner, so he found an empty parking lot and waited for her car to pass.

Fear and danger must have shaped her life and hiding was so engrained in who she was that Wade doubted she even realized she did things anymore. Sydney never drove home the same way. There were multiple routes she took and he could find no pattern to how she traveled. When she got out of her car, she was always aware of her surroundings which was why he had to be so careful to not be spotted. Anything out of the ordinary caught her eye.

By the time she drove past, he’d finished his coffee. When he saw her car turn left to take the long way home, he grabbed another cup of coffee from the gas station before making his way to her street. He was about a quarter mile away when his phone rang. The number that flashed brought with it another kind of drama.

“What?” he growled, not in the mood for this conversation.

“Now, Wade,” the voice on the other end sneered, “is that any way to talk to your wife?”

He debated throwing the phone out the window. His emotions were already out of control, and she was like gasoline on a fire. Always had been, but he’d been too stupid to see it back then. Wade braced for the explosion. “Ex-wife, Tara. What do you want?”

She tsked him under her breath. “Why are you so crabby? Am I interrupting something?” When Wade didn’t answer her voice went up an octave. “Are you with her?”

Her games were getting tiring. “I’m working, Tara.” He missed the turn to Sydney’s because he was so annoyed. “You have thirty seconds, and then I’m hanging up.” He pulled into the nearest driveway and wheeled around to backtrack.

“Who is she? That little waitress who’s caught your eye. Did you forget my parents are still in the area and I hear things?” He wanted to ask her if she forgot the part where they got divorced, but he learned a long time ago to not engage her in an argument or that would simply draw things out longer. She kept griping then finally exploded. “Damnit, Wade. Answer me!”

He knew it would piss Tara off, but he didn’t care. Sydney’s house was up ahead and he was done dealing with her insanity. “Your thirty seconds are up. Bye, Tara.” As soon as he hung up, the phone rang again. He let it go to voicemail. Wanting no part of Tara, he tucked his phone into the cup holder and put it on silent. Parking his car in the shadows, Wade watched Sydney and Faith move through their house and begin their nighttime routine.

Once darkness fell, Wade could make out Sydney’s silhouette at the kitchen window, washing the dinner dishes. The blinds were closed tight, the house he knew was locked up like a vault, but on occasion she would stop and listen. While her protective mother was watching everything around her, Faith ran around the house, flitting from room to room, without a care in the world. She liked to leave a trail of lights blazing in her path which made her easy to track, the shadows of her dolls’ heads bobbing up and down as she played.

Wade stretched his legs out under the dashboard as best he could, trying to get more comfortable, but it was nearly impossible. A man his size should not spend this much time in a car. It was getting to be pathetic and borderline stalker-ish. However Sydney was already edgy and if she knew that he had dug into her past, she’d vanish. The only option he had left was to spend hours in his truck, watching her. Or that’s what he told himself to justify his growing obsession. His phone buzzed against his thigh. Tara, again, but this time it was a lengthy text going into great detail about how little she thought of him. He scrolled through to get her latest threat and then, as the ultimate sucker punch, she attached a picture of Max.

He should have deleted it and not even looked, but when he saw the cake covered face, he couldn’t help himself. Max had turned three years old yesterday. It didn’t take a picture sent in anger to remind him. He couldn’t possibly forget the little boy, even if he wanted to. The boy’s birthday marked a beginning and an end for him. His thumb swept over the image with longing. Could he have done something differently? Beating himself up wouldn’t change the past, he needed to remember that. He tucked the phone away and returned to his vigil. His body froze and went on high alert when he saw a hooded shadow move through Sydney’s kitchen.

It wasn’t Sydney, it couldn’t be. The height was all wrong. He quickly scanned the house, looking for her shadow. Dinner was over so she would be upstairs with Faith. The figure was much taller and definitely bulkier than Sydney. There was also no tell-tale ponytail hanging down her back. The roll of the shoulders, the stance, were all masculine. No way were those movements Sydney’s. He’d studied her body enough these last few months to know how the woman moved through a room and that was not it. His heart began to pound with worry. It looked like Sydney’s troubles might have finally caught up with her.

“Shit,” he growled, leaning forward in his seat to get a better look at the home and confirm his suspicions. The trail of lights Faith had started downstairs was now off, and the only illumination came from the upstairs bathroom where Sydney was probably giving Faith a bath.

There was a second of pause where his jealousy had him wondering if it was possible that this man was an invited guest in her home. A lover. Wade saw red at the mere thought of another man kissing Sydney, or making love to her. His possessive nature and past betrayals clouded his thinking but he forced all of that out of his mind. He had been watching her for over an hour and seen no contact between Sydney and this individual. Whoever it was, Sydney and Faith had no idea he was there. And with two unsolved murders in the area, irrational or not, Wade needed to check it out.

Even if he ended up looking like a fool.

Wanting to be prepared for anything, Wade grabbed his gun and slipped out of his car, taking great care to remain camouflaged. All he needed was a neighbor coming out and drawing attention to his presence for this thing to go south, and quick. He approached the house and immediately found signs that someone had tampered with the security system around back. It wasn’t a high tech approach, but it had gotten the job done.

Wade slipped inside, gun in hand. It was a challenge entering a house where there was at least one unknown intruder as well as a woman and a young child. If he wasn’t careful, this could end badly, very badly. Common sense told him to call for backup, but he had rushed out of his car without his phone. In his annoyance with Tara, he’d taken it out of his pocket: a careless mistake he hoped wouldn’t be fatal.

The house was meticulously kept with no extraneous things in sight. The furniture was minimal, with very few personal items decorating the space. It made it easier for him to move through the unfamiliar house without knocking things over or missing potential hiding places for the intruder. He could hear the soft sounds of Sydney and Faith’s conversation upstairs. Occasionally the gentle splash of water would break the silence as he crept through the house, clearing each room. From the stairwell, he heard a creaking noise and went on high alert.

The kitchen still smelled of the pizza Sydney had baked for dinner. A small plate of uneaten vegetables sat on the otherwise empty counter. Wade slipped past the bar stools and cautiously approached the stairs. When a switchblade struck out at him from the darkened stairwell, he let his instincts take over.

In a flurry of motion, Wade reached into the shadows, making contact with flesh and bone as he grabbed the attacker’s wrist and wrenched the person to the floor, landing on top. Once he immobilized their hands over their head so there was no chance of them drawing another weapon, Wade paused, until a knee landed hard on his inner thigh. Years of discipline kept him from budging. He tightened his grip and growled, “Don’t move.” When he felt the body beneath him shudder, he paused.

There was little muscle on the person pinned beneath his chest. Instead of the hulking form he saw in the window, soft feminine flesh pressed against his straining muscles. Something wasn’t right. It didn’t even dawn on him that could have been Sydney until he heard her whisper his name.

“Wade?”

“Shh, don’t move,” he whispered in her ear, now more concerned than ever about the intruder. Faith was unprotected upstairs.

“I swear I would have made you that pie. You didn’t need to break in and take it by force.” She tried to laugh off his rough handling but he could feel her body trembling beneath him. She was terrified.

He lowered his head until his lips were pressed against her ear. “Someone is in the house.”

“Faith,” she gasped and with a rush of adrenaline, she gave a shove to try and get him off of her, but her effort was futile. She was pinned there until he wanted her to move. “Let me go.” The desperate tone in her voice was like a punch in his gut. When he moved his leg, she scurried to the wall and pressed herself tightly against it.

“Listen,” he said, his voice leaving no room for doubt or question of who was in charge. “I want you to get Faith and...” Their conversation was interrupted by a wet little girl in a towel who appeared on the stairs beside them. Wade hid the gun behind his back and tucked it into the waistband of his jeans so Faith didn’t see the weapon. Sydney took his hand and he felt her press the cool steel of the blade to him.

“Mommy? Why did you scream?” Water still dripped off her wet curls as Sydney pulled her into her arms.