Silenced (Alaskan Courage Book #4) (20 page)

Kayden hobbled down the pier, frustration searing inside. She hated being on crutches, hated feeling weak and dependent on anything or anyone.

It was chilly and starting to get dark, and Jake’s home—a forty-two-foot converted trawler—sat moored at the end of the dock, a light shining inside.

She tried to tell herself she was there because she was interested in the case, and she was, but that wasn’t the real reason she was approaching his houseboat at ten thirty on a Thursday night. It was
him
. She missed him, and it’d only been a day.
Pathetic
.

As she hobbled down the gangplank, her foot caught on a raised board and she went tumbling, her jaw colliding with the wood. Heat and embarrassment flushed through her. She scrambled for her crutch and pulled somewhat to her feet as Jake came running out.

“Kayden?” He squinted in the dim light. “Is that you?”

She blew the hair from her eye, horrified by how she must look. “Hi.”

“What are you . . . ?” He stepped toward her. “Are you all right? I heard a thump.”

“Yeah.” She ignored the stinging along her right arm. “I’m fine. Just tripped.” Embarrassing as it was.

He inspected her more closely, and she tried not to revel in the warmth of his intent gaze.

His eyes filled with worry. “You’re bleeding.”

“What?” She gingerly touched her bandaged head wound.

“Your chin.”

“My . . . ?” Her fingers skimmed it.
Ow
. It must have busted open on the planks.

“Come on, I’ve got a first-aid kit inside.” He moved to help her.

She instinctively pulled back. “I’ve got it.”

“I’m resanding and revarnishing the planks, and I’m only halfway done. The surface is uneven. I’m sorry.”

“I’ll be okay.” The last thing she wanted was Jake viewing her as helpless.

He lifted his hands in surrender but watched with a tense jaw as she made her way inside. Her jerky movements would never be deemed graceful, but at least she’d made it on her own.

The inside of his houseboat was warm and welcoming. White paneling covered the walls instead of the traditional darker wood.

“Here.” He moved some files off a futon couch. “Take a seat. I’ll grab the first-aid kit.”

She lowered herself onto the futon, amazed at how plush and comfy it was. What appeared to be case files were strewn out on the old trunk serving as a coffee table in front of her.

She leaned forward, lifting a picture of Joel and Angela
Markum. Their clothes were fancy, and they appeared to be at some sort of high-society event. She never would have pegged the man as a murderer.

“It was taken at a dinner to benefit the college where Markum was president,” Jake said, returning with the first-aid kit that looked like it’d seen its share of wear. “I first interviewed him that night. Not as a potential suspect, but as the college president.”

She shook her head. “I’d never guess he was a killer.” He was dapper with a rather charming smile.

“I don’t think Joel intended to kill her—Candace Banner, the co-ed.”

Kayden shifted as Jake sat beside her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, he liked things rough in the . . .” Jake cleared his throat.

“Oh.”

“I think things got out of hand with Candace and she ended up dead.”

“It doesn’t make it any less horrible.”

“No, it doesn’t.” He shifted to face her. “Let me take a look at that chin.”

“It’s okay. I can take care of it. Just need a mirror.”

He rested his hand on hers. “Stop being so stubborn. Let me wipe up the blood.”

Before she could argue, his hand was on her chin, wiping delicately at the blood with an antiseptic towelette. “This might sting.”

It did, but it was nothing compared to the overwhelming tingling jostling inside her at Jake’s tender touch.

He took great care cleaning out the wound and then applying antibacterial cream, his fingers firm yet gentle.

She studied him as he worked, his strong jaw and soulful green eyes. She’d always considered him handsome, but she’d never let herself take pleasure in viewing him—to really see
him
. He was gorgeous, masculine, and kind.

“There,” he said, topping off her wound with a Band-Aid. “All good.”

She sat back with a jolt. Had she just let someone, let
Jake
, take care of her? What was wrong with her?

She stiffened. That couldn’t happen again.

Jake put everything back in the kit and shut it. “I’m glad you came by.”

“Oh. Yeah. I just thought I’d see how everything’s coming with the case.”

He smiled, seeing right through her. As always. It was so annoying.

“You’re really hooked, aren’t you?”

She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “I beg your pardon?”

“On the case. It’s got a hold of you.” He set the kit up on a shelf.

Something had gotten ahold of her, all right.

He stepped back toward her. “Do you want to stay awhile and . . . ?”

“I . . .”

He stepped closer still. “. . . work through the case files with me?”

She swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, that’d be good.”

“Great. Would you like something to drink? Juice? Ice tea?”

“Ice tea, if it’s unsweetened.”

“You got it.”

She settled back in, wondering what she’d gotten herself into.

Angela stood on the dock, watching. Weren’t they sweet, huddled over her husband’s case files.

This was going to be even better than Jake’s wife and unborn child. He’d been too young then to truly realize what he had.

Now . . .

She shifted the binoculars to rest on Kayden’s face. He’d soon know the depths of what he’d lost, and it would be exquisitely painful.

Jake refilled Kayden’s ice tea, pretty sure he’d never been happier in his life. The time alone with her had been amazing, even if the time had been spent looking through files of the case that had nearly broken him.

Was this God’s way of giving him a second chance? Was catching Angela this time going to finally lay his demons to rest? Could he rise from the ashes and begin again with Kayden? It seemed too good to be true, and until it actually happened, he wouldn’t dare believe it.

“So how did you know she was involved?” Kayden asked, lifting Angela Markum’s photo.

“I didn’t, at first.” Jake sat back, resting his hands behind his head. “Not until Joel Markum killed himself.”

“How did that change things?”

“It showed us that someone else with strength and ingenuity was involved. If Markum was too cowardly to stand trial, I questioned whether he had been in it alone.”

Kayden stretched beside him. Her neck was stiff, hurting,
tired from bending over case files for the past two hours. He could tell by her tentative movements.

“Here.” He gently placed his hand on her neck, praying she didn’t bolt. He started rubbing as she started to protest, and she fell silent after a moment, leaning into his massage.

Jake focused on taking care of her and the tightness in her neck, not on the sensations or emotions racing through him.

“You were saying?” she asked.

“Right.” He tried to refocus his thoughts. “Angela Markum. I took some time away from the case after Becca’s . . . death. And when I returned, we were close to proving the alibis Angela had provided for Joel for both the night of Candace’s murder and Becca’s hit-and-run were false. Joel must have learned we were closing in and decided to take his own life rather than face the consequences.

“When we arrived to arrest him and found him . . . let’s just say the maid showed more distress than Angela. Her lack of compassion and emotion led us to reconsider whether Joel would have been solely behind the ingenious burial location and the strategic moves that followed the murder—and suddenly it all pointed to her. Luckily the evidence did too.”

“How’d she react when you arrested her?”

“She was cold and calculated. Very calmly swore she’d get revenge.”

Kayden shifted to face him. “And now she’s back.”

He scooted back. “Yeah.”

“And this time?”

“She wants to take away everyone I love.”

Kayden swallowed. “Because she blames you for her husband’s suicide?”

“Maybe. But more likely, because she thinks I destroyed her perfect life, she’s bent on destroying mine.”

And Kayden, whether she knew it or not, had become his life.

He looked at the clock. “It’s late. I’d better get you home.” He needed to keep her safe.

“Piper dropped me off. I’ll call her to pick me up.”

“No need. I can take you.” Jake grabbed his keys.

“It’s no problem.” Kayden reached for her cell.

“No problem for me to take you.” He jangled his keys.

She relented. “Okay. Thanks.”

Jake watched with frustration and pride as Kayden made it to his truck by herself and climbed inside.

He drove her the ten miles home and escorted her to the door.

“I had fun tonight,” she said, clearly without thinking. “I mean, going over the case files was interesting.”

He exhaled. “Right.”

“I can tell you were a really good detective. Still are.”

“I don’t know about that.” Back then he’d been arrogant and cocky, and his job had gotten his wife and child killed.

“The way you caught Joel Markum and his wife. That was brilliant.”

Had Kayden just complimented him twice? He slipped his hands into his pockets, fighting the urge to reach out to her. Now that he’d held her during the dance at Cole and Bailey’s wedding, held her in his arms, he never wanted to stop. The urge to pull her into an embrace was always there. “You better get some sleep. It’s been a rough week.”

“I’m—”

“Fine.” He smirked. “Trust me, I know.”

A smile tugged at the corners of her full lips, but she held it in check. “Good night, Jake.”

“’Night.”

She shut the front door and he moved back to his truck, every fiber of his being alive and tingling.

“You two kids have fun?”

Jake whirled around with gun drawn to find Gage standing ten feet away.

Gage lifted his hands. “Easy there, cowboy.”

Jake holstered his weapon. “You shouldn’t sneak up on someone like that.” Especially not him.

“I assumed you heard me coming. You always hear me coming.”

“I was . . .”

“Distracted.” Gage grinned.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m staying at Cole’s while he and Bay are on their honeymoon. With everything going on, I felt better staying closer to the girls.”

“Good idea.” Cole’s cabin sat on the other side of the tree line, only a few hundred feet away from the girls’ place.

“Piper said she dropped Kayden off at your place hours ago.” Gage leaned against the grill of Jake’s truck, his grin still beaming. “That’s gotta be a first.”

He and Kayden had been experiencing a lot of firsts lately. “Yeah. She came over to go through the case files with me.”

“Uh-huh. I saw the way you two were looking at each other on the porch, all googly-eyed.”

That was the second time Gage had said “looking at
each other
.” Was there a chance Kayden really was interested in him? Might she love him the way he loved her? It would be
too good to be true. But the last time he’d been in that position, he’d lost everything.