Turn On A Dime - Kade's Turn (Kathleen Turner Series Book 7) Read online

“I walked in, said about five words, and she hit me from behind. Next thing I knew, I was waking up inside a closet. I managed to get out, and that’s when I found her. Dead. She said she was being threatened, too, that she was supposed to testify against Kyle.”

  “And you were so sure she wouldn’t hurt you,” Kade couldn’t help reminding her. Her lips thinned but she didn’t respond. “I’ll check her phone records, too. But why would she knock you out? Were there signs of a struggle?” He was thinking out loud.

  “You mean other than her slit throat?” Kathleen’s dry retort had Kade smirking again.

  “Smartass,” he said. His brain was working, playing out the scene from what she’d told him. “If she knew her killer, she would have trusted him, let him into the house. Otherwise, there would have been signs of forced entry, a struggle, something to signify she’d fought.”

  Kathleen frowned and Kade could practically see her thinking, remembering what had happened. “I don’t think there was any kind of a struggle,” she said at last. “Her body was right outside the door of the closet she’d stowed me in. Maybe she was going to show him she had me when she turned her back and he took advantage of the moment, killing her before she could tell him about me.”

  Kade had come to the same conclusion, and he wondered if she realized just how close she’d come to dying. He’d felt the breath of death on his neck too many times to not feel its cold whisper now. “So it seems you’re lucky to be alive this evening,” he said.

  She just shrugged, though her face paled, and guilt rose in him again. If he’d been there, she wouldn’t have gotten in that situation. And yet, she wasn’t dumb. She knew this case was dangerous and had elected to go anyway. It was a no-win situation for him.

  “Any luck finding Bowers?” she asked.

  Kade shook his head. “These guys are good. If he doesn’t want to be found, I don’t know if I’ll be able to find him.” Finishing his beer, he dug a ten from his wallet and tossed it onto the bar. Kathleen immediately snatched it back up and handed it to him.

  “The drink’s on me,” she said. “It’s the least I can do.”

  “The sooner I can track down who’s making these calls, the sooner we can catch whoever’s doing this,” he said. He’d slip the money in her purse later.

  “Then go do it,” she said, waving him away. “I don’t need you dogging my every move anyway.”

  “Since when?”

  “Go home, Kade,” she said, taking him by the elbow and steering him toward the door.

  He wasn’t letting her out of his sight, not after today, but if it made her feel better to think he had then Kade didn’t see the harm.

  The thought again of how she could be dead on a slab in the morgue right now had him pausing on his way out the door. She looked up at him, her hair curling softly around her bare shoulders, her eyes so blue they appeared silvery in the low light.

  Kade pressed his lips to her cheek. Her skin was like downy velvet and he lingered longer than he should have.

  “Car’s parked out front,” he murmured in her ear. His hand brushed her shoulder and he felt a shiver run through her at the touch. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  He felt her eyes on him all the way to his car.

  Not too long after that, he saw her leave. He wanted to watch her reaction when she saw the car and he wasn’t disappointed. At first, she looked around as though expecting something else. Then she pressed the key fob and the SUV’s lights flashed. Her mouth dropped open in a little O and then she hurried as fast as her little legs would take her over to the vehicle.

  She looked ridiculously tiny inside it, which was a good thing. If she got in an accident, chances were good she’d walk away. Kade imagined her checking out the interior—fully loaded, of course—and adjusting the seat and mirrors to suit her stature.

  He followed at a respectable distance as she drove home and he waited in the lot the usual amount of time after her light went out before getting out of his car. He was nearly at her door when he saw a car swing into the parking lot.

  Easing into the shadows, he watched as a man got out of the car and jogged up the steps.

  Blane.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” he blurted as Blane stepped onto the landing.

  Blane looked just as surprised to see him. “What are you doing out here?” he asked, ignoring Kade’s question.

  “I always wait until she’s asleep before I go in,” Kade answered. “It’s not like she’s rolled out the welcome wagon for me.” The words popped out without him really thinking about it first, and he wondered at his instinct to lie about the state of his and Kathleen’s relationship to his brother. Blane thought Kathleen hated him, and suddenly Kade didn’t want to alert him otherwise.

  “I thought you two had declared a truce,” Blane said.

  Kade shrugged. “You didn’t answer me. What are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”

  “She called me.”

  Kade’s gut twisted and it felt as though someone had sucker punched him.

  Kathleen had called Blane. Her ex. She wanted him, not Kade.

  It seemed Kade had been quite thoroughly friend-zoned.

  Fuck.

  “Yeah…yeah, sure, man,” he said finally. “You, uh, want me to stay?” Please say yes please say yes please say—

  “I’ve got it from here,” Blane said, passing Kade to stand in front of Kathleen’s door. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  It was hard to breathe, a sharp pain digging into the center of his chest, but Kade forced himself to nod, act normal. “Got it. Okay then. Later.”

  Jogging down the stairs, he didn’t turn to look back as he heard Kathleen’s door open and close. Gazing up at the apartment windows, Kade started the Mercedes. No way was he going to stick around, knowing Kathleen and Blane were having make-up sex just yards away from him. With one last glance to her darkened windows, he peeled out of the lot.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  It was the first night he’d spent in his own bed in weeks. The last person to have lain between the sheets had been Kathleen.

  Kade stared at the rumpled covers for a long moment before sliding in. He pressed his nose to the pillow and inhaled deeply. Perhaps he only imagined it, but it seemed he could smell the faint trace of her perfume.

  Turning on his back, he folded his arms behind his head and stared at the darkened ceiling.

  It seemed impossible that this had happened, that he’d allowed himself to fall for some chick. Worse than that, she wasn’t even aware that Kade was in love with her. She still thought she was in love with Blane and hell, maybe she was. Enough women had fallen for Blane before, there was no reason why she’d be any different.

  But she was attracted to Kade. She couldn’t hide that. And if she’d been a woman with fewer scruples, he would’ve had her in bed last night.

  An image of her naked, Blane pumping between her thighs, flashed in his mind. It made him wince. Jealousy was a hot torrent in his veins, an emotion he’d rarely experienced. To feel jealous implied that he actually cared, and Kade didn’t care about much. Somehow, Kathleen had added her name to his very short list, then squirmed her way right to the top.

  Tragic, innocent, vulnerable, good. All those wrapped up in a package so beautiful, it made his chest ache, and all of it equaled Kathleen—a woman he could never have.

  He’d laugh at the irony, if it wasn’t so fucking pathetic.

  Kade was up early. He showered and threw on a pair of jeans before going to work on cracking the phone Kathleen had lifted. He’d also finally gotten a trace on one of the numbers used to call Freeman that had been stonewalled behind a labyrinth of government agencies. He hadn’t yet found a name, but it was worth following up on.

  He heard from Blane around mid-morning.

  “Kathleen’s staying home today,” he told Kade, “so you’re off the hook for bodyguard duty.”

  “Awesome,” Kade said flatly, ignoring the tw
inge of disappointment that he wouldn’t see Kathleen today.

  “She’s got some date tonight,” Blane said, “but I don’t think she’ll be out long.”

  So they had made up, or were at least well enough on their way to inspire that confident tone in Blane’s voice.

  “Yeah, I know,” Kade said, leaving it at that.

  “One more thing,” Blane said, then seemed to hesitate.

  “What?” Kade prompted.

  “Kathleen. I think…well, it seems likely anyway…that she’s pregnant.”

  Kade’s stomach dropped to his feet.

  He’d lost her.

  “Please tell me you’re joking,” he said at last, belatedly hearing the rough aggression in his voice.

  “Pregnancy is not something I joke about,” Blane said. “I just thought…with how much you detest playing bodyguard…that you should know.”

  “You think I’d do a better job if I knew she was having your baby, you mean,” Kade said bitterly.

  “That’s not it,” Blane said. “I just thought you’d want to know that she may be carrying your niece or nephew.”

  “I hate kids.”

  Blane laughed lightly. “You won’t hate your own flesh and blood, I guarantee it.”

  Kade didn’t smile. He was still reeling from the fact that Kathleen was now permanently and forever beyond his reach. He’d thought he’d accepted that last night.

  Guess not.

  “Gotta go. I’m due back in court.” Blane ended the call.

  Kade stared blindly at the four computer screens in front of him, the dead phone still in his hand.

  Kathleen was pregnant. With Blane’s kid.

  She wasn’t his, was never going to be his. He’d been deluding himself last night. Deep down, he’d been nurturing a persistent hope that once Blane was through, Kade could make a play for her.

  Not anymore. Even Kade drew the line at going after another man’s pregnant girlfriend.

  It suddenly occurred to him—he assumed Blane would marry her if she was pregnant, but this was Blane they were talking about. He’d been on the ropes with Kandi for years. No way was he just going to throw her over for Kathleen, no matter how beautiful she was, pregnant or not.

  Which would leave Kathleen a single-mom, just like Kade’s own mother had been.

  Kade tossed down his cell and scrubbed his hands over his face. His loyalty should come first and foremost to his brother. He knew that. So why did he feel like he wanted to kill him?

  Pushing aside thoughts that made him feel like the shittiest kind of brother, Kade went back to work, his fingers flying over the keys as he routed his IP address through China and Eastern Europe before attacking the firewalls protecting the network at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

  Kade wondered if he’d hear from Kathleen, but not once did she call him. Maybe she wasn’t even thinking about him and hadn’t thought of him at all today. Pregnant with Blane’s child, he guessed she probably had other things on her mind, which didn’t stop him from reaching for his cell a little before seven o’clock. He hit the number for her speed dial.

  “Nice of you to tell me the big news,” he said when she answered.

  She paused and Kade wondered if she was surprised that he knew.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” she said, and Kade could tell she was lying through her teeth. She knew exactly what he meant.

  “I talked to Blane,” he said. “He told me.”

  “I-I’m sorry, Kade,” she stammered. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I’m not trying to get Blane to marry me, if that’s what you’re upset about.”

  Kade mentally cursed. He wished his anger was so righteous and noble as to be protecting his brother. Instead, he was just mad. Mad that she was pregnant with Blane’s kid. Mad that he’d missed his shot. Mad that she was about to become another casualty of the Kirk family.

  “Damn it, Kathleen, that’s not why I’m pissed. Blane knows better than to be so careless.”

  She didn’t reply for a moment, and when she did, it was almost as though she’d seen through his excuses.

  “It’s not for sure,” she said quietly. “Probably just a false alarm. I’ve been under a lot of stress, you know.”

  No shit. “Yeah, I know.”

  “Ryan’s here,” she said. “Gotta go.”

  Ryan Sheffield.

  Supposedly a JAG officer, but his interest in Kathleen seemed a bit too…convenient.

  Kade turned back to his computer. A few minutes later, he’d gotten into the personnel records for the Navy, based out of Tennessee. Ryan Sheffield pulled up okay and he seemed to check out.

  Following his gut, which had turned out to be right on more than one occasion, he traced his service record back a few years...and hit a brick wall. Grabbing his cell, he dialed.

  “Hey. Remember me?” He asked when the person picked up.

  There was a pause. “Um, yeah,” the guy said.

  “Remember when I said I’d call one day and you could do that favor you owe me.”

  “Yeah.” The man’s voice was hesitant, slightly afraid.

  “Today’s that day.” Kade went on to explain what he wanted to know.

  “But I’m not supposed to access those files,” the guy protested.

  “So be sneaky about it. I’ll call back. You have ten minutes.” Kade hung up.

  The phone’s code had cracked while he’d been busy, and Kade picked it up to scroll through its contents.

  They’d been careful, whoever they were. There were no emails or texts and the dialing history had been erased. Even *69 to redial the last number led to a disconnected line with the number blocked.

  Pulling up software he’d written himself, Kade accessed the phone’s memory. Not something just anyone can do with just any tool and most people wouldn’t know to look there anyway, but it proved fruitful for him.

  “Well, look at what we have here,” he murmured to himself.

  A photograph had been left in memory. A naked woman who didn’t seem to mind at all that she was having her photo taken.

  Adriana Waters.

  The photographer could be seen in mirror on the wall. It looked like a generic hotel room. Enlarging the photo, Kade scrutinized the somewhat blurry reflection. He’d bet a thousand bucks it was Ryan, but he needed more proof.

  Grabbing the phone, he dialed his source again.

  “What do you have for me?” he asked when the guy picked up.

  “Yeah, that guy is like a ghost,” his source said, speaking furtively in an undertone. “His record is bullshit. Says he’s served for six years, but none of the places he said he was stationed have any record of him.”

  Kade digested this, the bad feeling that he’d felt when Kathleen had said Ryan was picking her up now growing.

  “So I kept digging,” the man continued in a hissed whisper. “And, well, I think the guy is CIA.”

  Fuck.

  “I haven’t had a chance to get any further, not enough time, but does that give you enough?”

  Kade’s reply was curt. “Yeah.”

  “So we’re square?”

  “For now. Catch you later.”

  Kade was already typing on his computer, disconnecting the call with a flick of his finger. Ryan Sheffield may think he was smart, but he wasn’t smart enough. He may have deleted the phone numbers he’d called from his phone, but he hadn’t been thorough enough to get a burner phone, and the record company would know who he’d called.

  Soon, Kade was staring at the phone number for the Bank of Grand Cayman. This was going from bad to worse to downright shitty. Grand Cayman was a pain in the ass to hack into and took some time, which he didn’t have. So instead, he called a woman.

  “Nicole. Guess who.”

  There was a fluttering of rapid French and Kade had to cut her off.

  “You know I love that shit, but I’m short on time, sweetheart. Been shopping lately?”

  Nicole was an expatri
ate from Paris with a taste for the finer things. Her job didn’t come with a salary to finance her habits, so she supplemented in some creative ways.

  “You know I have not, Kade,” she said in a throaty purr. “Perhaps you come take me, no?” Which she meant literally and sexually. As he recalled, she was particularly flexible.

  “I’ll send you on a spree to Tiffany’s if you’ll look up a phone number for me and tell me the name on the account,” he replied.

  She laughed and he could picture her swinging back her long, chestnut brown hair. Nicole was tall and lean, with bedroom eyes and a smile you could feel.

  “Okay, but you promise not to tell,” she said.

  “Would I do that to you?” Kade drawled before reading her off the number. He glanced impatiently at his watch while he waited. Kathleen had been with Ryan for almost thirty minutes. Pulling up the GPS on his computer, he saw they’d ended up at some restaurant north of downtown, at least thirty minutes from him.

  He was up and grabbing his keys before Nicole even came back on the line.

  “That account belongs to a Ryan Sheffield,” she said. “Perhaps a rich friend of yours? He has over five million dollars in the account, new deposits within the past two weeks.”

  Shit! “Thanks, Nicole. Hit Tiffany’s up this weekend and give them your name. I’ll make sure you’re on my list.”

  “Merci, Kade. Though I would prefer if you were to take me.” He could hear the French pout in her voice.

  “Some other time, sweetheart. Gotta run.” He ended the call and hit the door at a dead run.

  The elevator seemed to crawl and blocked his signal. He was dialing Kathleen as he ran to his car and jumped inside. To his relief, she picked up on the third ring.

  “Get out of there, Kathleen,” he said. His tires squealed as they spun on the concrete floor of the parking garage.

  “What? Why?”

  “I cracked that phone you lifted,” he said, burning straight through a red light. Cars honked as he flew past. “It belongs to Ryan Sheffield. From the photo I found, he’s been sleeping with Adriana Waters.”

  “They’re having an affair?” she asked.