Framed (28 page)

“Harry, I think that’s a brilliant idea,” Mike agreed as he flexed the hand that Kade had shaken and followed my father to the stairs.

Thankfully, Kade moved to the side to let them pass, so I called out, “Take care, Mike,” as he headed down the steps.

Mike looked back and gave me a warm smile, then looked at Kade and replied, “I’d say take care of yourself, too, honey, but I don’t think I need to worry anymore,” before heading down the stairs.

Kade and I waited in silence, assessing each other as Dad and Mike descended. Not one to stand still and wait, I, of course, began to ramble to break the ice and to gauge how much trouble our relationship was in.

“On a scale of one to ten, how much did it kill you not to punch him?” If he said anything below seven, I knew we were in trouble. I really should have thought twice before I took him down.

“Fifty,” he answered back between gritted teeth.

“That’s good to know,” I answered in relief. “Thank you for not punching him.”

“I’ll survive.” He shrugged, taking a step towards me. “The day’s not over yet and the way D keeps running off at the mouth, I can take out my aggression on him.”

“Again?” I questioned taking my own step forward.

“He compared your breasts to firm melons.”

I had to bite my lips to keep from laughing. Mickey definitely was an idiot.

“That man has foot-in-mouth disease.”

“He’s gonna have foot-up-his-ass disease if he keeps it up,” Kade vowed, taking the final step and reaching up to run his thumb across my mouth. “I’m an ass,” he muttered low, then raised his other hand to cup my face.

“Sometimes,” I answered truthfully. “But in this case, it seems I overreacted. I’m sorry, Kade. I’m just frustrated with the whole situation and I took it out on you.”

“We both did,” he replied, leaning his forehead against mine. “I’m frustrated we can’t find this guy and it’s seeping into every aspect of my life. I need him found to find closure and to move forward, but more than anything, I need to find him so I can protect you.”

“You’ll find him, I know you will. Karma’s a bitch and she likes a hot guy as much as the next woman. She’ll come through for you.”

Kade chuckled, drawing me into his arms.

“Did I hurt you when I swept your legs?”

Kade grinned.

“I was surprised how easy it was.”

He grinned larger.

“Maybe you should wear pads or something when we train. I don’t want to hurt you.”

He bit his lips to keep from laughing.

“What?”

“Babe . . . I let you.”

“Uh, no, you didn’t.”

“If you’d been a man I’d have knocked you on your ass before you had a chance to knock me to the ground. But I won’t put my hands on you in anger, so I let you.”

“So I didn’t execute a perfect sweep?”

“Are you ready to go home?” he asked, ignoring my question.

“Did I or didn’t I?” I pushed.

“Thirteen,” he answered oddly.

“Thirteen? Is that like on a scale of one to ten my technique scored a thirteen?”

“You have thirteen flecks of gold in your eyes.”

“What? You’ve lost me. I thought we were talking about how skilled I was in hand to hand combat.”

“I’m trying to avoid a fight.”

“Whatever, I know I took you down correctly.”

“You have thirteen flecks of gold in your eyes. I’ve counted every one of them more than once.”

“You have?” I breathed out. Then I narrowed my eyes. No man was this hot and this amazing.

“The one on the right has the largest fleck; it shimmers in the sun like gold.”

Sure it does.

“Wow, I must really be bad if you’re resorting to likening my eyes to gold.” I sighed. “Very smooth, Kingston.”

“Is it working?”

“Oh, yeah,” I grinned. “So I’m that bad, huh?”

“Good enough to practice with D.”

“I thought you wanted me to stay away from him?”

“You have my permission to
practice dropping him to the floor and kicking him in the balls whenever you want.” He grinned. “Now, are you ready to go or do you want to practice your takedown here in your bedroom?”

Tempting, but not with my father and ex-husband downstairs.

“That depends.” I sighed dramatically.

“On?”

“Can you be reasonable?”

“I can do reasonable.”

“All right . . . Does the bed have to be perfectly made by oh eight hundred or can we split the difference and say ten at the latest?”

Kade rolled his lips between his teeth, but his eyes told the truth. He was trying to keep from laughing.

“Fine,” he finally answered.

“How about washing the dishes as soon as we’re done eating? Can I soak them for a bit so they’re easier to wash?”

“No.”

“No, they have to be washed ASAP or no, they don’t have to be washed immediately?”

“You can wash them when you’re ready,” he chuckled.

“What about forced to stay inside twenty-four seven? Am I allowed on the beach?”

“Yeah,” he answered, but that one came out in a strangled voice.

“Can I wear a bikini?”

“No,” he returned without hesitation.

“Well, that was a short-lived reconciliation,” I teased.

Kade tilted his head back and looked to the sky for answers. Not finding divine intervention, he looked down at me, sighed with resignation, then leaned in, and nipped my bottom lip before grudgingly answering, “Fine.”

“That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”

“Excruciating.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” I purred, wiggling my eyebrows.

“Keep talking.”

“Hmm, wanna go skinny dipping in the moonlight?”

Kade’s mouth pulled into a slow, sexy grin and he whispered, “As you wish,” before lowering his head as if to kiss me, holding my eyes with his as he inched closer. Without warning though, he bent at the waist, put a shoulder to my stomach, and pitched me up and over, locking my legs with his arm.

“Kade, the dogs . . . and my bag,” I cried when he tried to go down the stairs. He turned around, walked into my apartment, and grabbed my bag without putting me down. Then he whistled for Buttercup and Buck to follow. They rushed down the stairs in front of us as Kade continued to carry me.

“I can walk, you know.”

“We cavemen like to carry our women,” he answered with a whack from his strong hand to my ass.

“You’re crazy,” I yelped.

He didn’t put me down until we were next to my Jeep, but not before Dad and Michael had turned and gawked. The dogs were bouncing around our feet, waiting to for us to load them. I started to turn to open the Jeep door, but Kade hooked me around the back of the neck, crushed me to his chest, fisted his hand in my hair and tugged, kissing the bejeezus out of me. When he broke from my lips, I stumbled backward and stared, blinking rapidly until I recovered. Kade’s face turned smug when he took in my dazzled face and he winked. Then he turned, jerked his chin at Michael, and grunted, “Later,” before loading the dogs.
Ha, I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist asserting his “she’s mine” towards Michael.
The only thing missing from that message was Kade pounding his chest and a club. Total caveman. At least he was
making progress though; he didn’t punch Michael for calling me “honey.”

***

“Harley,” I heard Bette shout from inside the house.

“On the deck.”

I was lounging outside, catching some sun, while Kyle studied in his room. Kade was off doing who knows what, and I’d finished my work for the day. That left me with time on my hands and nothing to do, per usual, but at least now that I knew it was for my father’s benefit, I didn’t feel so frustrated about being left out.

“Life of luxury,” Bette said as she plopped down onto the lounger next to mine.

“It’s overrated. I’m sick and tired of just sitting and doing nothing.”

“Really? Then why am I busting my ass trying to become a famous tattoo artist if doing nothing when you’re rich enough to
do
nothing is a fuckin’ bore?”

“Notoriety?”

“I thought it was for the hot men I meet?”

“There’s that,” I answered, throwing my magazine on the deck.

Bette scanned the beach as she leaned back and propped her feet up. “There are worse places to be held prisoner.”

“This is true. I could be in The Pit of Despair.”

“The pit of what?”

“The Pit of Despair. You know, the Albino held Westley there.”

“Are we talking reality or fiction?”

“We’re talking The Princess Bride, so fiction.”

Bette smiled. “You know you’re very Edgar Allen Poe these days.”

“No, I’m more Etta James Stormy Weather these days. I hate this limbo. Kade can’t move forward and I can’t leave. Something has to give soon or I’ll go on a shooting rampage at Consolidated until the bastard shows his face.”

“Speaking of moving forward, has Kade decided what he’s going to do once all of this is over?”

“He has actually. After what he went through, he wants to apply to the police academy.”

“So, he’s gonna trade in one uniform for another?”

“He is, that’s why we need all of this settled. Having the real killer behind bars will help with his application to the academy. As Dad said, he’s been exonerated, but there will be some who will still see a guilty man until those at fault are caught. His life is on hold until we find this guy.”

Bette became quiet, her eyes unfocused. Buck crawled up on her lounger and she ran her fingers through his coat as she appeared to contemplate the meaning of life.

“What’s got you so quiet?”

“You know what you need, don’t you?” she finally said. “You need someone on the inside who can look around. Someone you can trust.”

“I don’t think Kade trusts anyone at this point and I don’t blame him.”

“You have me.”

“You?”

“Yeah, what if I applied for a job? I could look around, maybe catch a glimpse of this pirate man.”

“Oh, no. No way. This guy is dangerous, Bette.”

“To you maybe, but he doesn’t know me. If I’m there looking for a job, maybe ask to look around while I’m there, I’d be in no danger. You need someone they don’t recognize to get a look inside, then you’d know for sure.”

“But there’s no guarantee this guy would even be there,” I pointed out.

“Hell, Harley, where’s your sense of adventure. So he might not be there. You won’t know unless you try,” she argued as she grabbed my glass of tea and took a sip.

Looking back into the house to make sure no one was coming, I whispered, “Okay, say I agree with this plan of yours, you’re forgetting one thing; there is no way The Brute Squad will allow it. They’d stop you before you entered the building.”

Bette rolled her eyes, clearly not worried about the boys.

“Jesus, Harley. We don’t tell them what we’re doing. Of course, they’d throw a fit. I’ll sneak in or you can create a diversion.”

“Bette, Kade won’t let me out of his sight. How am I supposed to get past him and cover you?”

“Can you keep the guys occupied tomorrow morning so they don’t ‘storm the castle’ as you say.”

“How am I supposed to do that? They take shifts watching Consolidated.”

Bette bit her lip as she contemplated that. A slow smile grew across her mouth after a moment, which meant I wouldn’t like her plan.

“What?”

“We need a diversion.”

“Okay.”

“What would send all the boys running, abandoning their post?”

“World War three?”

“Nah, that would be too easy,” she laughed. “But if you slipped out the back door and took a walk down the beach and stayed hidden they’d send out a search party, leaving Consolidated ripe for the pickings.”

“I don’t know. I promised I wouldn’t leave again.”

“Look, just go a mile down the beach to the Crusty Crab and wait there for me. When I’m done at Consolidated, I’ll pick you up and you can blame me for kidnapping you.”

“That might work, but I have a feeling it’ll take more than skinny dipping in the moonlight to assuage his anger this time,” I mumbled.

“Harley Davidson, you slut,” Bette laughed.

“Takes one to know one.”

“President of the chapter and proud of it. You wanna be my Vice President?”

“Pfft, if you drag me into your schemes, I’ll be president for life, what with all the creative apologies I’ll have to come up with.”

“So you’re in? You’ll slip out tomorrow morning and distract The Brute Squad?”

I knew better than to agree, but I couldn’t see the harm. The beach would be packed and if I left out the back, no one would see me leave.

“I don’t know, what time?”

“What time does Kade normally leave?”

“It changes daily.”

“Okay, I’ll be on standby if you agree. Once he leaves, you just sneak out and then text me. I’ll head to Consolidated and when I see D or Prez leave, I’ll go in.”

I stared out at the ocean, trying to decide. The chances were miniscule she’d even be successful. She probably wouldn’t get past the front desk. Was it worth the wrath of Kade and my dad to get proof this guy worked at Consolidated? Proof that could put an end to the last two years for Kade.

“Well? Are you in or out?”

“Yeah, I’m in, but under one condition, though.”

“What’s that?”

“The minute you see this guy, you get out of there and call me so I can call the boys and let them know he’s inside and that I’m okay.”

“I can do that.”

“I mean it Bette. No trying to follow him. If he leaves while you’re there, I want you to get in your car and come to the Crusty Crab.”

“Scouts honor,” she replied, crossing her heart.

“Okay,” I said, grabbing my glass of tea and raising it in a toast. “Here’s to catching this guy off guard.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Bette replied, then opened her purse and pulled out a beer, popping the top.

“Drink to what?” Kyle asked as he stepped out onto the deck.

“The tattoo of Kade’s face I’m gonna ink on her breast.”

Kyle looked at me then back at Bette. “That’s, ah, great,” he stammered.

“She’s kidding,” I chuckled. “Everyone knows if I ink his face on my body, it would be on my ass so he’s kissing it daily.”

“Who’s kissing your ass?” Kade rumbled low as he stepped out onto the deck.