Colorado, here I come.
Chapter 3
Bradford
“Hey,”Cade rips his helmet off his heat, his eyes jumping to the hole in the earth. “What’re you guys doing?”
“Who the fuck is that?’ Turnter demands, his gaze landing on me.
“Cade,” I mutter under my breath. “Cade Kellan.”
Turner blinks a couple of times, and I can already see the wheels turning in his head. “You mean… Is this… Is this the Marine from thenews?”
“Yep. Keep going,” I let out a pained sigh and jump down from the truck. “You were supposed to show uphoursago.” I shoot a nasty glare at the cocky motherfucker perched on his little dirt bike. “This wasyourjob.”
Cade shrugs, his blonde hair stuck to his forehead in a wet mess. “Yeah, I got caught up, and missed my appointment. Sorry, Doc.”
I fucking hate that nickname.
“You need to stop coming in and out,” I chide him, as Turner continues to finish dropping bodies. “You’re gonna blow my entire operation.” My voice is calm, but internally, I feel like I could put one right between his eyes and never regret it.
“Oh, chill the fuck out,” Cade shakes his head. “You’ve got connections all over this place, and no one here knows who I am.”
I stop a couple feet short of him, my boots buried in the mud. “You’re fucking everywhere, in every system, and if I knew what I know now, I’d have never agreed to help Ben get you out of there.”
He rolls his eyes. “Benny still checking up on me?”
I grit my teeth, my lost cause radar going off. “Knight is the only reason you’re not being strung up for murdering two Marines.”
“Wow, how kind,” he leans back on the seat of the dirt bike. “You want me on my knees with gratitude for you?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I snap at him, and then turn to peer up at Turner, who’s wiping his hands and watching us with curiosity etched in his expression. “You take this dirt bike back to the office and call it a night. Cade and I will finish it from it here.”
Turner nods, not bucking my orders. “Got it.”
“You,” I rip the helmet from Cade’s hands. “Get your ass off my bike.”
Cade lets out some incoherent noise but obeys. I hand the helmet to Turner and drag Cade back by his jacket. I wait for Turner to get settled and take off into the night, before I shove Cade forward.
“Where thehellhave you been?” my voice cuts through the empty area, as Cade trips and falls forward in the mud. “You’ve missed two fucking jobs, and I can’t risk you being caught—not on my watch.”
Cade tips his head back and lets out a laugh, clambering to his feet. “Well, quite frankly,” he brushes off cakes of mud from his jeans, “You’re too controlling.”
I glare at him, the rain dripping off the brim of my hat. “Not buying that, Cade. I don’t know who you’re getting mixed upwith around here, but I’m serious. You’re one wrong step from the Marshals picking you up.”
He tilts his head at me. “And that would ruin your happy home for the mentally deranged, yeah?”
I clench and unclench my fists. “Just get in the truck.”
“Sure thing, Doc.”
I walk around to the driver’s side and pull the keys from the ignition. If there’s one thing I know about Cade, it’s that I absolutely willneverfucking trust him. Ever.
He gives me a cocky grin as he climbs into the passenger seat. I survey the bed of the truck, which has been washed out by the steady rain. I shut the tailgate but leave the bedcover open.
It’ll need to dry out. The stench of death shows up everywhere, if you let it.
I head right back to the excavator then, and within about ten minutes, I’ve got the hole covered. It’s not great, but it can be smoothed out once the rain stops and the ground dries up some. When I finish, I park it, lock it back up, and trudge back to the truck.
