And I cringe the moment I see it.
“This kid.”
I stare into Cade’s mugshot, his disheveled hair and dopey smirk setting off a rage in my chest. “What about him?”
Wilkerson tenses, slapping the folder down on the desk. “I know this kid was working at your tree farm over the holiday season. I saw him with my own eyes, Cal. I’m not a fucking idiot, but I’m starting to thinkyoumight be.” He retrieves the notice of Cade’s status.
Wanted. AWOL. Two-time capital murder in Texas.
He shoves the notice at me. “What the fuck, Bradford? I know you help the crazies, and I know you run your business, but this? This is a lot. Why are you fucking around with this guy?”
I eye the little shit in the picture once more. “I don’t recall that guy.”
He waits, and when I don’t respond with more, he shakes his head. “This pattern,” he pulls out another photo, “has triggered somepeoplein the area. They’re now running with the idea thatthe AWOL murderous Marine is in the area. I can’t cover for you with all these goddamn agencies coming in here.”
“What agencies and people?” My mind runs back to the break-in. “All badges?”
Wilkerson grows quiet, and the conflict warring in his expression tells me that he’s now hung between a rock and hard place. “You need to figure your shit out, Calvin. That’s all I’m going to say. I don’t want to lose the job that I worked my ass off for, but whoever this Kellan kid is, you need to understand that he’s got a long history of bullshit. Prior to the two Marines being killed in Lubbock and his enlistment, he was a person of interest in a boat-fire that involved the death of his sister’s boyfriend, and then when he was eleven, he lost his biological father in a housefire as well. He was never charged on the two fires, but I think there’s something there.”
“Huh.” I purse my lips, appearing unbothered. But internally? I’m freaking the fuck out. Every siren is sounding.Why the hell did Ben not tell me this? Does he not know?
“I’ve always supported you,” Wilkerson straightens in his chair, his thin frame half of mine. “But this… This is a lot, Cal. I get that you have contracts that I don’t understand, and I’m all for your rehab-shit. But you’ve never been involved with someone with active charges? A fucking fugitive?”
Tell me about it. It’s a goddamn lot.
And I need to get a better grip on it.
“Could you send me those case files?” I stand to my feet, ready for the meeting to be over. “I’d really like to take a closer look.”
“I can.” Wilkerson eyes me. “But you’re not gonna win this one. I ain’t going down with you on something like this.”
“That’s fine. I’m not asking you to.”
Because I’ll eliminate the problem before any of us go down with it.
“Have a nice day, Cal. And get some sleep,” he calls after me. “You look like shit.”
I give a wave over my shoulder, and then leave by the front. Out in the parking lot, I spot an unmarked gray SUV parked at the far end, a dome camera mounted low on the windshield, its black eye aimed right at my truck. It doesn’t belong in this town or county.
Well, fuck.
I roll my shoulders, then fish my keys from my pocket and walk out, keeping my hands in the open and my face blank. I slide into the truck, start it, and let the heater run for a few minutes before pulling out. In the mirror, the SUV doesn’t move.
And only when I hit the turn for my own road do I let myself feel the stress.
I try to process the whole thing—the Kellan folder, the arson signature, the cross-pollination between Texas and here. A dead father. A dead boyfriend.
Who the fuck is Cade? He’s got demons I didn’t even know existed.
I need to call Knight. Or maybe not. Maybe I just need to cut the loose threads, all of them, before the net closes around my own neck.
But there’s some reason to keep the stupid kid alive. Hecanbe good at eliminating bodies… When he doesn’t lose his head and ruin it at the scene.
Then again, even some good ones have to be put down.
I drive past my own driveway, keep going, hit the state highway and keep my eyes on the rearview. Still nothing. But that doesn’t mean they’re not watching.
At the next crossroads, I pull over, kill the engine, and sit, the mountains glaring at me in the distance. How fucking nice it would be to disappear into them and never coe back.
