Lone Star Christmas Mission (Hard Justice #9.5)

Chapter Four

Kayla woke up in pain. Her head was throbbing, and every muscle in her body seemed to be twisted and knotted, screaming for her to move and try to untangle them. It was like a dozen Charley horses going on at once.

She jackknifed to a sitting position. And instantly regretted doing that. The sudden movement made the pain so much worse, and she gasped to try to catch her breath.

“It’s okay,” someone said.

Cash .

He was right there, easing to sit down on the bed next to her. His weight shifted the soft mattress so that she slid against him.

She latched onto the sound of his voice, his face, his scent, using all of those things to ground her and bring her back from the pain. It worked. It worked even better when he took hold of her hand.

No panic came rushing over her. Just the opposite. His touch was more effective than those other three things had been.

Well, almost.

Panic was rarely her default when she caught a glimpse of his face. And what a face it was. When she’d been a teenager, she had thought Cash was the hottest guy she’d ever seen.

And he still was.

That black hair, stubble, and piercing gray eyes hit all the right notes. His body did, too. Not overly muscled, just toned and perfect.

Yes, Cash still had her hormonal number despite all the other stuff that happened when he touched her. Correction—the stuff that usually happened when he touched her. The panic and the flood of memories of Kira’s murder. But all of that wasn’t rearing its ugly head now. Nor had it when they’d been at the hospital.

“The hospital,” she repeated aloud now that she had some breath.

She wasn’t there in the ER, and it took her brain a couple of seconds to catch up. She had been treated at the county hospital and released, and Cash had brought her to his place. She had showered, changed into one of his t-shirts and a pair of his boxers, and he had helped her to bed in his guest room. A very dark guest room with the curtains closed and the only light coming from the slightly ajar door of the bathroom.

During the night, Cash had woken her several times, asking her to tell him her name or his. That was a blur in her mind now, and she’d been able to fall right back to sleep. But he’d done that to follow the nurse’s orders, to make sure she was all right.

That mental recap had Kayla searching for the time, and she finally saw it on Cash’s watch. Nine AM.

“Good grief,” she muttered, trying to push the hair out of her eyes without touching the stitches. “I slept longer than I thought I would.”

“I’m glad you did. You needed it.” He glanced at the bandage on her forehead. “You also need some pain meds.”

It wasn’t a question, and he was one hundred percent correct. Cash immediately reached over to the nightstand and took two tablets from a bottle of some extra-strength over-the- counter meds. He handed them to her along with the glass of water that he had ready and waiting.

Kayla gulped them down while she studied him. That hot face could definitely be a distraction, but she could still see the worry in his eyes.

And maybe something else.

“You’ll need to eat,” Cash insisted before she could ask him about that something else .

He took hold of her hand again, his grip ever so light, and he eased her out of the bed and to her feet. Thankfully, his t-shirt was huge on her and went halfway down her thighs. Not that she would have been overly concerned about modesty right now, but she also didn’t want to try to have breakfast while she was half-naked.

Despite the hours of sleep, she still felt sluggish and slow as if she were walking through thick syrup. Cash helped with that, too, by leading her into his kitchen and having her sit at the counter.

There was the strong scent of coffee in the air, and she spotted a half full pot of it sitting in the fancy-looking stainless steel maker.

“Juice and toast for starters?” he asked.

She nodded, and her stomach must have also heard the question because it growled, causing Cash to smile.

“Maybe some scrambled eggs, too,” he added.

That actually sounded good, and Kayla couldn’t recall the last time she’d eaten. “I wouldn’t say no to coffee,” she let him know.

He poured her a huge mug of it, and with his back to her, he got to work prepping her breakfast.

“Have they found Harvin?” she asked.

Cash shook his head. “Not yet. Ruby’s got a full team working on finding him.”

She wished he’d been looking at her when he said that. Then, she might know if their not having located Harvin was the reason she was getting this vibe from him. A vibe that he was holding onto some bad news.

Kayla downed enough coffee to give her a nice jolt of caffeine, and it also seemed to help with her headache. She sipped some more before she stood, went around the counter and stopped right next to Cash.

He looked down at her, and she didn’t think it was her imagination that he seemed to be steeling himself up for something. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.

The apology confused her, and maybe it was the mix of everything—the pain, the worry, the fear—but Kayla found herself setting her coffee mug aside and moving even closer to him.

Then closer still until she stepped into his arms.

Behind them, she heard the toast pop up, but neither of them moved. Not at first, anyway. Slowly, gently, Cash’s arms finally came around her.

Both of them sighed. His seemed to be a mixed bag of comfort and attraction. Hers had some of the same, but there was also relief. She felt a lot of things, but thank sweet heaven, panic wasn’t on the emotional radar.

She stayed there, letting him soothe her. And arouse her. It’d been a while since she had felt this strong pull. Fast and hot. Probably fueled by, well, everything else, but it was a nice buzz that she wanted to hang onto for a moment. Much better than the other stuff she’d been feeling.

“We’re playing with fire,” he let her know.

They were. That didn’t have her moving away either. But she did move. Kayla leaned back her head enough that she could look him in the eyes. Still, no panic. Just the exact opposite.

And that fast and hot tug in her body just kept on going.

Before she even knew she was going to do it, she came up on her toes and brushed her mouth against his. Definitely playing with fire, and that buzz went wild, sliding through her body, straight to her center. Kayla would have added some pressure to that kiss. She would have turned it into a real one. Long, deep, and filled with the need building inside her.

But it was Cash who stopped it.

He took hold of her shoulders, and this time, the eye contact wasn’t a lust-filled gaze. She saw that something else again. The bad news.

And this time, she got out the question she needed to ask. “What’s wrong?”

Cash didn’t jump to answer. Not a good sign. Added to that, he pulled in a long breath. “Ruby found something on the dark web. Live feed from a staged scene. It was Harvin,” he added a heartbeat later.

She shook her head. “But you said you didn’t know where he was.”

“We don’t. The live feed was from a concealed IP address.” Another pause. Another breath. “The feed was a message for us. Harvin wants us to surrender to him.”

A burst of air left her mouth. A laugh but not from humor. “And why does he think we’d do that?”

Cash didn’t dodge her gaze this time. “During the live feed, he shot a man wearing a Santa suit, and Harvin said he’d shoot others if you and I didn’t surrender.”

Oh, God.

Kayla’s breath vanished, and she would have staggered back if Cash hadn’t kept his grip on her shoulders. Now, the panic did come, and she had to fight to stomp it down. Had to fight, too, just to think this through.

“It could have been a hoax,” she managed to say. “Harvin could have shot the man with blanks.”

Cash was quick to shake his head. “At the end of the live feed, Harvin said where the cops could find the body. They responded right away, but by the time they got there, Harvin was gone, and they found the man dead from a single gunshot wound to the head.”

Kayla let each word of that sink in. It didn’t sink in well, and she moved out of Cash’s grip so she could sink down onto the floor. She sat, anchoring her back against the island while she tried to regain…everything.

“The dead man has been IDed,” Cash went on, “and he appears to have no direct connection to Harvin and his shitbag gene pool. The guy was heading to a costume party at a bar, and according to the security camera feed, he was abducted at gunpoint in the parking lot.”

So, he was someone out for a night of fun, and Harvin had ended his life even though the man had had nothing to do with Alvin’s and Virgil’s deaths.

“You’ve seen a recording of the shooting?” she asked.

“I have,” he confirmed. But he didn’t add more. Wouldn’t. He was trying to protect her again.

“I want to see the feed,” she muttered.

Cash gave a heavy sigh and sank down on the floor next to her. “No, you don’t. And I’m not going to show it to you. There’s no reason for you to have that in your head.”

Kayla could have said she was mentally seeing it all anyway. And she was. But viewing it wouldn’t be just a gut punch for herself but another one for Cash as well. Besides, by now Cash, Ruby, and the Maverick Ops’ techs had no doubt examined and reexamined every frame of it while the cops processed the scene for anything they could use to find Harvin.

“So, what do we do?” she came out and asked. “How do we surrender?”

His mouth went tight. “We don’t. You don’t,” he amended. Then, he stopped and cursed. “Right now, even if we wanted to hand ourselves over to that asshole, we wouldn’t know where to do that. Harvin hasn’t spelled out any details.”

“But he will.” Kayla was certain of that.

You didn’t murder a man in a Santa suit, someone who was perhaps even a stranger, unless you were sending a strong message. And that message was that Harvin wanted Cash and her.

“Harvin intends for us to pay for what happened to his father and uncle,” Kayla went on. “Ironic, since his father started all of this. And I’m not the least bit sorry that Virgil and Alvin are dead,” she tacked onto that.

Cash made a sound of agreement. “Now, we need to let Ruby’s team find Harvin so he’ll be stopped, too.”

That made it sound so simple. So attainable. And clearly it wasn’t or they would have already found Harvin.

“Does Harvin have the resources to hide from Maverick Ops?” she asked.

“He has resources,” Cash admitted. “His grandparents left him about a quarter of a million two years ago, and he’s had extensive firearms and combat training.”

“More training than you?” But she waved that off. She doubted anyone had more than Cash in that department.

Since she’d followed his career, she knew he’d been a decorated Navy SEAL and had followed that up with an equally stellar career for Maverick Ops.

“Harvin must be delusional or cocky to go after a former SEAL,” Kayla concluded.

“He’s both,” Cash was quick to admit. “And he’s very dangerous. Added to that, we can’t exactly put out a warning for anyone in a Santa suit to be careful. It’s Christmas Eve.”

Cash was right. There’d be hundreds of Santas out and about. No way to protect them all, which meant Harvin likely would have no trouble coming up with his next victim.

Or rather his lure.

Because that’s what the next one would likely be. A way to get Cash and her to do that surrender .

The next wave of emotions surprised her. Kayla had figured on some fear, anger, and panic coming along with the threat of death. But other things flashed into her head.

“After I just kissed you, I wasn’t thinking about Harvin,” she admitted. “Or the past. I was thinking that I might finally be ready to start living again. An actual life without all this baggage and nightmarish smudges.”

Kayla didn’t say the rest of what she’d been thinking. No, the timing sucked for him to hear all of that. But she had been considering that she wanted that actual life to be with Cash.

The silence came, settling between them. But not for long. His phone buzzed, and Kayla got a fresh sense of dread. The dread went up when he took out his cell from his pocket, and she saw Ruby’s name on the screen.

Cash answered it and immediately said, “Ruby, you’re on speaker. Kayla is right next to me.” He’d no doubt added that in case Ruby could soften whatever she was about to say.

“We just got a call from Harvin,” Ruby explained. “He’s set up another live feed on the dark web, and he wants Kayla and you to tune in.” She paused. “Brace yourself. He has another victim.”