chapter Four
“Grab Gavin.” Cade tilted his head back and forth, following the sound of the helicopter as it swooped toward the roof of the warehouse and then began descending for a touchdown.
Had they given up their search by car and brought in the big guns? Unfortunately, this patch of land had just enough room to put down a chopper.
Jenna had scrambled from the car, clutching a bundled Gavin to her chest. “There are a bunch of barrels over in the corner.”
“Is Gavin awake?”
“He’s getting there.”
“Is he going to be able to keep quiet if someone comes in here?”
“He’s an old hand at hiding.”
She couldn’t resist twisting the knife, could she? And he felt every serrated edge.
“You’re right. Those barrels are the best location because they’re near the entrance.”
He scrunched up Jenna’s blue jacket underneath the blanket in the back to make it look as if someone was beneath it. He dragged his bag and backpack from the trunk. Then he locked all the doors. Might as well make them work to get in, providing a distraction.
Jenna had stopped short of the barrels. Couldn’t she hear the blades of the helicopter slowing down? They were minutes away from game time.
“Let’s move.”
She pointed to a plastic jug nestled between the barrels. “Gasoline?”
Cade strode past her and with the toe of his boot nudged the jug. Liquid sloshed against the side. Leaning over, he twisted off the plastic lid on the spout. He sniffed the contents. “It is gasoline.”
“W-we can use it to our advantage.”
“Especially with the lighter I have in the glove compartment.” He strode to the car to retrieve it, grateful that Coburn and Prospero had taught him well to prepare for anything.
Jenna’s years on the run with Gavin had taught her well, too. And although Cade appreciated having a partner instead of a liability, her transformation caused guilt to flood his senses again. She’d been a pampered princess when he’d met her, with rows and rows of expensive shoes and designer dresses. Now she was on the road with not even an extra pair of underwear to her name.
As Cade returned to the barrels, Gavin stirred in Jenna’s arms and yawned. Cade didn’t want his son anywhere near this dangerous situation, but right now he didn’t have a choice.
Pressing his hand between Jenna’s shoulder blades, Cade said, “Duck behind the last barrel in the corner. I’ll be right in front of you.”
He crouched behind one of the barrels and pulled the gasoline container toward his feet. He withdrew his weapon from his waistband just as someone tried the handle on the warehouse door. A thump and a zipping noise told him someone had shot through the lock with a silencer.
Were they hoping to take Cade and Jenna by surprise? Hoping they hadn’t heard the chopper’s approach?
Gavin coughed and mumbled some words, and Jenna whispered an answer.
Cade clenched his muscles in readiness and against another wave of guilt. He couldn’t afford to be sidetracked right now by emotion. As Jack Coburn had taught him and all the Prospero team members, you had to allow instinct to take over in life-or-death situations.
And this was life or death—his and his family’s.
The doors to the warehouse creaked despite the stop-and-go approach used by the intruders. Light from the waiting helicopter crawled across the warehouse floor as the door widened.
“It’s the car.” The voice, slightly accented, had Cade gripping his gun even tighter.
Cade couldn’t see the entrance to the warehouse and didn’t dare make a move, but from the footsteps creeping across the floor, he could tell two people had entered the warehouse. The same two from the truck?
“Lots of places to hide in here.” Another voice, this one with a Midwest twang. Zendaris had recruited far and wide for his henchmen.
“Then you’d better keep a lookout. They probably heard the helicopter.”
“They? She has someone helping her, doesn’t she? Do you think it’s him?”
“I think you need to shut up and keep watch while I check out the car.”
A figure outfitted in black from head to toe, his gun leading the way, moved into Cade’s line of vision. Cade curled his fingers around the handle of the plastic jug, the thumb of his other hand rubbing against the grooved wheel of the lighter.
The man sidled against the car, disappearing from
Cade’s view. Then he hissed, “Someone’s in there.”
The lookout took a few steps toward the car, and Cade nudged Jenna in the side and pointed toward the warehouse door with the lighter.
On her knees clutching Gavin to her chest, she hobbled behind the next barrel.
A muscle in Cade’s jaw twitched. He had to time this just right. The second man took one more step toward the car, and that’s all Cade needed. He flicked the lighter once and held the dancing flame to the edge of a handkerchief he’d dragged from his pocket.
He turned his head toward Jenna and dipped his chin to his chest. Then he swung his arm, tossing his homemade Molotov cocktail toward the nondescript car with the souped-up engine.
Shouts echoed in the warehouse. With his bags strapped across his body, Cade hunched forward, running behind Jenna and Gavin, blocking them from anything that might hurtle from the belly of the warehouse.
The makeshift bomb exploded behind them, and the heat of it scorched Cade’s back. He took a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure the wall of fire had created a barrier between them and Zendaris’s men. Then he launched out the doorway, shoving Jenna in front of him.
“Keep moving. There might be another explosion if the fire reaches the car.”
Gavin started yelling, fully awake now. His inarticulate cries washed over Cade, but Cade didn’t have time to process them. Didn’t have time to feel guilty. Not now.
Jenna headed toward the unpaved road, the brown hair of her wig flying behind her.
Cade caught her arm. “Where are you going?”
She turned, and the flames from the warehouse shimmered in her eyes. “Away from here.”
“I’ve got a faster way.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the helicopter perched in a clearing beside the warehouse.
“Are you kidding?” She stumbled back, and he scooped Gavin from her arms.
“Nope. Hop inside the passenger seat. I know this type of chopper and there are a couple of seats in the back where we can secure Gavin.”
Looking into his son’s frightened face, he touched his nose. “Do you want to ride in a helicopter?”
Gavin nodded, but then cranked his head to the side, his eyes widening as they took in the blazing warehouse.
Gunshots pierced through the roar from the fire. “They might be trying to get out the back way. Hurry.”
Jenna scrambled for the chopper, and Cade ducked inside to settle Gavin on a jump seat in the back, tossing his bags in the other seat. “Buckle his seat belt, Jenna, while I get this bird in the air.”
Cade dropped onto the seat and started flicking switches. He’d had helicopter flight experience during both his SEAL and Prospero trainings. Zendaris’s cohorts couldn’t have chosen a better getaway vehicle.
Jenna slammed into her own seat and pulled the seat belt over her head. She grabbed a pair of headphones and held them up. Cade nodded, and she slipped them on over the wig.
The engine sputtered and the blades started cranking. Cade thrust the throttle forward and the chopper lifted from the dirt.
Jenna tugged on his sleeve and pointed to the ground. Two figures were stumbling from the back of the warehouse, which was belching black smoke. In unison, the pale circle of their faces turned toward the sky. One of the men raised his weapon.
Jenna screamed and reached into the back, as if she could protect Gavin from a bullet with her bare hands.
Cade shouted. “It’s okay, they can’t reach us. They probably can’t even see straight.”
The chopper continued its climb, swooping and bobbing, leaving behind the glowing warehouse, the puffs of black smoke and two angry men.
Cade took a deep breath and stabilized the helicopter. He buzzed over the snow-covered ground, avoiding the highway. He had to get Jenna and Gavin away from here. Where? He didn’t know yet.
He checked the fuel gauge. At least they had enough fuel to get them out of this area.
Jenna tapped him on the arm and shouted, but the noise drowned out her words.
He pointed to his own headphones and pulled the microphone down, positioning it in front of his mouth. She did the same, and Cade reached over and pressed a button on her headpiece.
He spoke into his mic. “Can you hear me?”
She shouted back, “Yes!” and he jumped in his seat.
“You don’t need to yell anymore.” He tapped his headphone on the right side. “I can hear you just fine. Are you okay?”
“Perfect, Cade. I’m riding in a helicopter over snow-covered mountains to God knows where with my son stashed in the back like a piece of luggage. Perfect.”
“Could be worse.”
“Yeah, it could always be worse.”
He squeezed her knee. “I meant are you okay physically? No smoke inhalation? No burns?”
“I’m fine.” She reached back and pulled the blanket around Gavin. “Where are we going?”
“Our options changed with the acquisition of this chopper.” He snapped his fingers. “There’s a place not too far from here but just far enough where we can regroup.”
“Does it happen to have a landing pad?”
“Not exactly, but I’ll be able to put this baby down nearby. How’s Gavin holding up?”
“He’s wide-awake and staring out the window.”
“We’ll have him wrapped up and snug in front of a fire before too long.”
“We just left a fire. That one didn’t work out too well.”
Cade clenched his teeth. Would she ever forgive him for abandoning her and Gavin?
Would he ever forgive himself?
* * *
SOONER THAN JENNA EXPECTED, Cade began bringing the chopper down for a landing. Her neck ached from twisting her head around every few minutes to check on Gavin. He’d caught on pretty quickly that she couldn’t hear him above the noise in the helicopter, and had contented himself with leaning his forehead against the fiberglass window and staring at the darkened landscape whizzing below them.
Even though Cade could hear her through his headphones, she’d kept mostly silent. Her grandmother always told her if you didn’t have anything nice to say, keep your mouth shut.
Cade’s smooth voice flowed through her headphones once again. “I’m putting her down right here. We should be safe, for now.”
He just had to add the for now. Not that she hadn’t figured that out for herself. Sometimes she felt as if she and Gavin would be on the run forever. Until she died.
She pressed her nose against the fiberglass. The dark splotch on the ground must be a clearing. Cade knew what he was doing. Cade always knew what he was doing—except for the night he married her.
The helicopter descended in a vertical line and touched down like a feather landing on the grass.
Cade flipped some switches, adjusted some knobs and the thwacking sound of the blades slowed to a hiss.
Jenna peered out the window at trees on all sides and marveled at Cade’s skill in landing this contraption. How had he known precisely where to put it?
Then another question crowded out her admiration for Cade. Where the heck were they?
Before she could give voice to her concerns, Cade hopped out of the helicopter and circled to her side. He pulled open the door. “Everyone doing okay?”
“That was fun!” Gavin bounced up and down in his seat.
An ear-to-ear grin split Cade’s face. “Glad you enjoyed the ride. Now we’re going to get some sleep.”
Jenna jabbed a finger toward the trees. “In there?”
“There’s a cabin nearby.” He snapped open her seat belt. “It’s about half a mile. I’ll carry Gavin and my bag if you get the backpack.”
Tugging her jacket around her body, Jenna scooted toward the door. Cade held out his hand and she took it as he helped her to the ground. Then he reached into the back of the chopper and freed Gavin from his seat belt.
Cade hoisted his black bag over his head, strapping it diagonally across his body. He slipped the straps of the backpack over Jenna’s shoulders. She staggered back under its weight.
Cade steadied her. “Sorry. I’ve got my life in there right now.” Then he lifted Gavin from his seat and clasped him to his body once outside.
“Are you ready for a short hike?”
“What’s a short hike after what we’ve been through tonight?”
“Can we take the helicopter?” Gavin wriggled in Cade’s
arms.
Too much excitement had flooded his little body with adrenaline. Welcome to life with Dad, kiddo.
“Too many trees, Gavin. Choppers need wide, open spaces.” Cade pulled a flashlight from his pocket and aimed it at the ground. “I’ll lead the way. Stick close.”
Stick close? Three years of abandonment, and now she was supposed to stick close?
She grunted a response and lined up behind Cade as he made his way through the trees, following some obscure trail only he could see. She stumbled a few times and bumped her forehead against his back once, but they didn’t stop.
After about fifteen minutes of heavy breathing and scuffing through pine needles, the trees abruptly ended. Jenna glanced up from the ground to catch sight of a small log cabin nestled against a boulder of about the same size. Despite its darkened windows and cold chimney, the cabin exuded a cozy vibe.
“What is this place?”
“It’s a Prospero safe house.”
“Prospero and safe house in the same breath is an oxymoron.”
Cade hoisted Gavin in his arms and lifted one brow in her direction. “Then you don’t know much about Prospero.”
“I know more than I want to know.”
Cade blew out a breath, which puffed away in the cold air.
“Are we still in Utah?”
“Yeah, but farther south than Salt Lake.”
“Do you have a key to this place, too, or do you just mumble the secret Prospero code?”
“You’re funny, Jenna, always were...in a sarcastic kind of way.”
“Yeah, I’ve been a barrel of laughs the past three years.”
He chucked her under the chin. “You couldn’t have been jumping at your shadow all that time or you never could’ve raised a confident boy like this one.”
Pleasure crept across her skin at the compliment, but she shook it off. He always did know how to butter her up.
Cade swung Gavin to the ground. “You and your mom wait at the front door, okay?”
Gavin scampered toward the cabin and hopped up the two steps.
“Where are you going?” Jenna grabbed the slick sleeve of his down jacket.
“No secret Prospero code. I have to break a window in the back. I’ll open the door for you and Gavin.”
“Sh-should I have a gun or something?” She rubbed the arms of her own jacket, as her gaze darted around the perimeter of the cabin.
“Nobody knows where this place is...yet.”
He’d used that word again. She guessed he didn’t want to inspire a false sense of security.
She joined Gavin on the wooden porch and leaned against the post that ran to the roof. Someone had been maintaining this place, which meant someone else knew of its location.
The dead bolt on the inside of the door snapped, and Jenna jumped.
Cade poked his head outside. “Welcome to my humble abode.”
“Any abode is better than sleeping in a car in a cold warehouse.”
“Exactly.” He swung open the door. “So thoughtful of our pursuers to loan us their helicopter.”
Jenna scooped up Gavin beneath his arms and swung him over the threshold.
Cade snapped the door shut behind them and hunched forward to click on a lamp. The yellow glow spilled across the floor.
“Electricity?”
“Electricity and water. I can’t vouch for what’s in the fridge, but there should be some imperishable snacks in the kitchen and there’s a stack of wood on the hearth.”
Jenna gave an involuntary shiver. The cold had seeped so far into her bones that she’d forgotten it had taken up residence until Cade had mentioned the hearth. The thought of a warm fire, a friendly fire, caused her skin to tingle.
“So, first things first.” Cade crouched by the fireplace and began crumpling newspapers from the stack in the corner. He glanced at one of the headlines. “Four months ago. I wonder who used it last?”
“I’m just glad whoever it was didn’t gobble up all the wood.” She settled Gavin in a chair facing the fireplace. “You stay here while your...Cade and I get this thing started.”
She’d have to break it to Gavin at some point that the man whizzing them around in fast cars and helicopters was his father. Then what? Introduce him to a father just in time for that father to disappear?
She scrunched a newspaper in her fists and shoved it beneath the grate. “Is this enough?”
“I think that’ll do.” Cade dragged a split of wood from a brass holder on the hearth and tossed it onto the grate. He stacked three more on top of that one, and touched the flame from his lighter to the paper beneath them.
The ends of the newspaper curled and large, pillowing ashes drifted up the chimney.
“Mommy.”
Jenna turned to find Gavin positioned at the edge of the chair, his eyes wide, reflecting the burgeoning fire.
She walked on her knees toward him, arms held out. When she reached her son, she engulfed him in a hug. “This fire’s okay. It’s in a fireplace and it’s going to stay right there.”
He squiggled out of her grasp and peered around her shoulder at the blaze crackling to life.
Reaching around her, Cade grabbed the legs of Gavin’s chair and scooted it forward. “Take your boots off and warm your toes.”
Cade collapsed on the floor, dug his elbow into the area rug and rested his chin in the palm of his hand. “Feels good, huh?”
Gavin kicked his legs. “Shoes, Mommy.”
“You got it.” She untied Gavin’s boots and pulled them off his feet. She stripped off his slightly damp socks and chafed his toes between her palms. “Better?”
He nodded and snuggled against the back of the chair.
Jenna wrapped the blanket around him, but he shoved his legs forward, his toes curling in the warmth of the fire.
She pressed her back against the bottom of the chair, crossed one leg over the other and untied her own boots.
Cade hopped up from the floor. “I think there are some blankets in the closet.”
Did he expect her to cuddle up with him in front of a roaring fire? She tossed aside her second boot. She wanted nothing more at this moment.
Gavin’s outstretched legs drooped, his feet skimming Jenna’s shoulder. Turning, she pulled the blanket over his legs. He shifted to the side and curled his legs beneath him, resting his head on the arm of the overstuffed chair.
Cade returned and shook out another blanket, which he laid over Gavin. “Electricity’s on, water’s on, but not the gas, so the only heat we have in here is this fire. He’ll be warmer sleeping in the chair than in one of the cold bedrooms back there.”
Her cheeks warm, Jenna busied herself with tucking the loose ends of the blanket around Gavin’s body. And where would she and Cade be warmer sleeping?
He pulled another chair close to the fireplace and dropped to the floor in front of it, wrapping a blanket around his shoulders. He shoved another blanket toward her with his foot. “There are a couple more blankets on the beds, if you’re still cold.”
Folding her legs on the thin area rug, she dragged the blanket toward her. “Maybe another one on top of this rug.”
“Yeah, too bad it’s not one of those bearskin rugs.”
He pushed to his feet again, the blanket hanging from his frame like a serape. He returned a minute later with a patchwork bedspread. “I’ll cover the rug with this.”
Jenna scrambled to her feet and took the other end of the bedspread from Cade. They spread it out on the floor, and Jenna sank down on the fluffy softness, parking her back against Gavin’s chair again.
Cade propped himself against the other chair, stretching his long legs toward the fire. He’d removed his boots and his bare feet poked out of the end of the blanket.
“Are you sure you don’t want to remove your jacket? It’s warm enough now without it, and yours has to be as wet as mine was.”
She didn’t want to remove any more clothing than necessary, but he had a point. Her damp jacket felt soggy next to the warm, dry blanket.
She shrugged off the blanket and unzipped her jacket. She spread it out on the floor to the side of the fireplace. Then she tugged the wig off her head and ran her hands through her short hair. “How long are we safe here?”
Cade tapped the side of his eye. “Do you want to remove the contacts, too? You probably don’t want to sleep in them and I think you can dispense with the disguise.”
Jenna reached up and pulled down her bottom lid while running her index finger over her eyeball to remove the lens. She repeated with the second eye and flicked both brown contacts onto the table next to Gavin’s chair.
Did Cade suggest that to distract her from her question? He had the wrong fugitive. “How long are we safe?”
“With that helicopter parked a half mile away?” He snorted. “Not long. They may even have a tracking device on it.”
“Long enough to get some sleep?”
“Absolutely. It’s going to take them some time to round up more transportation, especially another helicopter.” He dragged a gun from beneath the chair. “You plan to sleep sitting upright like that?”
“Do you?”
“I could sleep hanging from my thumbs with one eye open.”
“You’re not going to sleep, are you?”
“Sure I am—with one eye open.”
No point in arguing with the man. She knew better. Hadn’t she tried to talk him out of that whirlwind marriage four years ago?
Puffing her cheeks and blowing out a breath, she scooted away from her backrest, clutching the blanket around her body with one hand. She tipped over onto the floor, curling her legs to her chest, her back to Cade.
“Comfortable?”
“Uh-huh.” How could she possibly be comfortable with her long-lost, sex appeal–oozing, magnetic husband breathing down her back?
He rustled beside her and she tightened her fetal position. Her eyes flew open when a soft pillow hit the back of her head.
“Sorry about that.” He plucked the round pillow from the floor and dangled it over her face. “You might be more comfortable with this wedged under your head.”
“Thanks.” She snatched the pillow from him and scrunched it beneath her cheek. “Much better. Wake me up when the bullets start flying.”
For the second time that night, Jenna drifted off with Cade just inches away from her. She tugged the blanket toward her chin, a smile curving her lips. This was easier than she’d expected.
Her husband didn’t have the same impact on her as before.
She unfurled her legs and straightened her back. Her limbs felt heavy and her eyelids heavier as she succumbed to heavenly sleep.
* * *
THE LAST WISPS OF A PLEASANT dream floated out of her grasp, and she sighed. She snuggled into the warm, comfortable pillow and it shifted beneath her.
Fluttering her lashes, she smoothed her hand across the pillow, which had somehow made it beneath her blanket during the night.
The pillow shifted again.
She blinked her eyes and rolled to her back. She gulped and tension seized every one of her muscles, dragging her out of her drowsy comfort.
She wasn’t staring down the barrel of a gun, but this was worse. Much worse.
She was staring into the dark eyes of Cade Stark, her head was in his lap and it felt oh, so good.