Looks like it was time for me to leave a clue for Nikki about Urban.
But when she went to investigate, I’d be there to protect her.
NIKKI
Giddy like a schoolgirl, I leaned against my front door frame, watching Cade make his way up the short cobble-stoned pathway, the stones darkened and slick with moisture from the light afternoon shower. He had stepped out of a large white moving truck parked outside my place, a rare free spot. Cade’s smile flicked on and off, a similar reaction happening to the frown that came and went from his brow. My grin dropped as I watched him. It was near impossible to tell what he was thinking, but Cade had become my escape from reality, as well as much more than that, and I half expected him to jump me and fuck me on the floor the second he arrived. But something was on his mind.
As he passed my mailbox, he gestured vaguely at it, and I shrugged. “Haven’t checked it in a few days.” Without a word, Cade nodded and opened the rusted white dome top, pulling out a small handful of envelopes and handing them to me as hereached the porch. “Hi,” I said.
“Hi, angel.” His eyes were on mine, and I tilted my chin up expectantly. With a smirk, Cade traced his thumb along my jawline before pressing a kiss to my lips, sweeping his tongue across mine and humming. “I’m going to taste your sweet cunt tonight,” he whispered against my lips, and I shuddered, barely managing to stumble inside and close the door behind us.
Flicking through the mail, I stopped in the hall before it opened to the living room. Cade turned around a moment later. “What’s up?”
Frowning, I dropped the letters onto the floor, stepping over them and rummaging through a drawer to pull out some gloves before picking them up again. Discarding the junk mail and a bill I’d like to hope I’d already paid, my fingers trembled as I ran them over the edge of the final envelope.
Cade came up to my side and slid an arm around my waist. I leaned into him, but when he went to touch the letter in my hands, I yanked it from him, crying out, “Don’t touch it!”
“Why?”
“Fingerprints.”
Was this fromhim?The man who had threatened me earlier? My name was simply printed on the front with a thick black pen that had run slightly with the droplets of rain. No logo, no return address, not even a stamp. The letter had been hand-delivered.
Had he been here?
Trembling, I tore the letter open carefully and read it. One line only.
If you’re looking for whoever killed your father, go to Urban.
Cade read over my shoulder, his back tensing as I stared intently at the paper in my hands. Pulling away from him, I found a resealable plastic bag and dropped the letter and theenvelope inside, adding it to one of the new piles of paperwork we had made near the fireplace.
“Urban,” I said.
Cade nodded. “I saw.”
The adrenaline was surging through me. Where had the note come from? And why now? With the recent deaths of Kim and Torres, maybe someone was getting cold feet. Maybe the mystery man’s endeavor to clean up all his loose ends had resulted in some guilty consciences coming to the surface. Even if they were simply hoping I’d catch him before he got to them, it was the first new clue I’d had in years.
Urban,why didn’t that sound familiar? I knew there were buildings in my father’s name I didn’t know of, and while he owned several clubs, I’m certain Urban wasn’t one of them. Not one of the ones I could trace anyway. The properties I had been able to track from him had all disappeared under networks of name changes and paperwork. I’d even checked under my brother’s and mother’s names, and Urban didn’t appear anywhere.
Still, the note didn’t say it was one of his buildings but simply indicated that whoever was there might know something. I’d need to find the new owner, no sense in wasting my time with staff anymore. I had to go straight to the source.
A new energy was pulsing through me just when I was on the verge of giving myself a break before it destroyed me entirely. While I tried to calm myself to let the logical part of my brain remind me that this could be nothing but another dead end, I needed to believe it was more than that.
“I’m going,” I said, grabbing a jacket from the nearest pile.
“Now?” Cade’s eyes widened, and I threw him an impatient look.What difference did it make?
“The club is more likely to be occupied at night.”
Cade was clenching and releasing his fists, and I stared at himfor a moment before grabbing my keys and phone and shoving them in my jacket pockets. For a moment, I contemplated taking a weapon but thought the better of it. Chances are I’d be patted down before even stepping foot in the club.
“Are you coming or not?”
Cade’s lip lifted into what was almost a snarl, and my eyebrows involuntarily shot up. “Of course, I’m coming.”
“Good.” I strode toward the front door, grabbing his hand on the way. “You can drive.”
Cade’s hand gripped mine, and with strength I’d only seen hints of, he tugged me back toward him, spinning me until I collided with his chest with a grunt. As I went to squirm away, he grabbed my shoulders and waited until I looked into his blazing eyes. “If anything happens, you get behind me, okay?”
