Hell Bent (21 page)

“Just tell me what I can do to help.” She smiled over her shoulder at him as she pushed the button for the top floor.  With every day that passed, every fucking hour, she was becoming more and more like the woman she used to be.  “I sure hope the fifty cops I gave a statement to tonight are up, working on finding her too.”

And with every change, he realized he missed a lot more than her hugs.  He missed
loving
her, having her love
him
, warts and all, and he had plenty of them.

Goddamn, not now. 

Cade forced
those emotions away with a huffed breath.  But he knew they’d be back as soon as things settled down.  For two damned weeks those old feelings had been trying to force their way back, and he’d been fighting them for all he was worth—because he knew he could be leaving when this was over, or
she
could be leaving if things didn’t work out with her brother.  

Letting those feelings consume him again, encouraging her, wouldn’t do either of them a damned bit of good if that happened.

No, I’m not having sex, Cade.  I’m making love to the only man I’ve ever loved in my life.

Cade’s chest got tighter, his eyes burned and he fought harder as the elevator door opened, but when he walked into the hallway and she immediately wrapped her arm around his waist again, he gave up, and they exploded inside of him in a rush of heat that made him stagger.

“You really are tired, aren’t you?  You’re tripping over your own feet,” she said, with a laugh and a squeeze.

They stopped at the hotel room door and she opened her shiny gold purse to pull out a key card.  She slipped it into the slot, then turned to smile up at him, and Cade fell—head over heels in love with Cecelia Logan again.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Cade huffed a breath as he walked into the darkened bedroom, which was only dark because of the blackout drapes at the window.  It was nearly seven in the morning and he was now so tired he wasn’t even sure when he shut down his computer, that he could walk to the bedroom. 

And for what?  A list of numbers for Dexter to compare to the list he already had from the phone found in the truck, which may or may not lead them to Allison.  Cade gave him twelve hours to do his comparison, because the longer she was held captive, the more likely she’d be found dead.  He started to just pass out on the sofa, but thought about Cecelia in here in the bedroom and that gave him that last energy burst he needed to get up. 

Walking over to the bed, he smiled when he heard her soft snores as he shrugged out of his shirt and dropped it to the floor, then laid his pistol and holster and cell phone on the nightstand.  He quickly shucked his tux pants, knelt on the bed and eased down beside her. 

She mumbled as she rolled over to slide her arm over his waist and suction herself to his side.  Cade sighed as he worked his head into the pillow and tugged the covers over him.  He’d just closed his eyes when his phone rang and he groaned. 

“Let it ring,” Cee Cee mumbled into his chest, snuggling her face there. 

Cade did because he had nothing left to force himself up to answer it.  The ringing finally stopped and he relaxed.  His breathing evened as Cecelia’s warmth surrounded him and the gray edges of blissful unconsciousness curled in on him.  That lasted two seconds before he was jerked back to reality when the phone chimed again.

It must be important since they called back, so he forced himself up, flicked on the lamp and forced his eyes wider as he picked up the phone.

“Winters,” he growled.

“Cade, this is Levi—there’s a problem.” The sickness in his tone made Cade’s stomach roll too.  Perfect, just what he needed, a problem on a different front.

“What is it?” he asked, with a sigh, expecting to hear about some woman drama going on at the shelter.

“Lou Ellen decided to wait until Sunday to transfer the women back to the shelter because  she wanted them to help her put the house back in order.  We loaded them on a bus and headed out early this morning but when we got to the shelter and were unloading, some men—a whole
gang
of them—rushed the bus.”

“Anyone hurt?” Cade asked, sitting up straighter as his heart skidded to a stop thinking about Amelia and the baby who he’d been told were dropped off at the mansion on Friday.

“Three of the tangos, and Caleb.  I took one out, Caleb took another but was grazed in the shoulder, and Lou Ellen wounded a guy that the cops sent to the hospital.”

“And the women?” Cade demanded, more worried about the women than the bad guys they killed.  Dead silence on the line tightened Cade’s gut.  “Tell me!” he shouted, fully awake now as he tossed back the covers. 

Those
unholy
bastards had just pushed the envelope of their craziness too far.  Whatever their fucking cause, preying on defenseless women and children was
inexcusable
.  He wasn’t going to stop until he killed every fucking one of them Cade thought, as he rolled out of bed to go to the chair and jerk up his jeans to slide them on.

“Talk to me, dammit!” he growled, as he looked back to see Cecelia who was also gathering up her casual clothes and dressing.

“They took the five women who’d already gotten off the bus and shoved them into a white van.  We didn’t have a vehicle so we couldn’t chase them.  I ran to try and get a plate, but it didn’t have one and I didn’t fire because I didn’t want to accidently hit one of the girls.” He let out a shuddering sigh.  “The police are here and the women are scared shitless.”

Cade didn’t want to ask, but he needed to know.  “Was Amelia, the woman who came to the mansion with the baby on Friday…one of them?”

“They got her but not the baby.  One of the others was holding him while she got down the bus steps.  We jerked her and the baby back inside…but they got the mother.”

Sickness swirled in Cade’s stomach and he gritted his teeth.  Thank God they hadn’t gotten the baby—but he was a newborn and needed his mother.  Cecelia stopped beside him and put her hand on his arm, and his dazed, exhausted brain finally kicked into gear. 

“Do you have descriptions of the men?  Did you give that to the police?  Did you tell them that this could have something to do with the Sovereign Soldiers?”  Cade had told them that after the shooting, but this might be a new set of officers working this newest incident.

“A Latino street gang, I think, if their neck and face tats were any indication.  Lou Ellen said one of the women thinks she recognized one of the tangos, so she gave that information to the police.”

“
Latino
?” he repeated, his brain refusing to process that. Adding more confusion was the question—why would one the women recognize those men?  His body tensed when he remembered something from the shooting. 

I saw one of the men remove his mask before he got back into the van. 
A white van—probably the same white van that carried the gang to the shelter this morning
.  I didn’t see his face, but he had dark hair and was dark-skinned, Hispanic, I think…or maybe Arab.” 
Cade had wondered then why the shooters would be Hispanic, but dismissed it. 

He wasn’t dismissing it now. 

These men had come back to
take
the women—not kill them—because they could have. 

That would’ve been what the radicals would’ve ordered, but not a single woman was shot or injured, so those men evidently had a different agenda than the Sovereign Soldiers.  Cade needed to figure out what that included, and the only way he could do that was talk to one of the gang.  The only one he had access to was the man Lou Ellen shot, who was at the hospital in Dallas. 

If the police wouldn’t allow him to talk to the man, Cade would find a way to get in to talk to him—and
make
him talk.

“We’ll be there in four hours or so,” Cade growled before he hung up the phone to look at Cecelia. “Grab your stuff, Brat—we’re going back to Dallas.”

Cade skidded to a stop in front of the shelter, and Cecelia woke up rubbing her eyes.  They’d had a battle royale in the parking lot when he insisted on driving at the hotel in Austin, because she declared him too tired.  But he won—and after he’d given her a rundown of what happened, she’d gotten some sleep.  He needed it too, but with the amount of adrenaline and caffeine in his veins right now he might not sleep for a week. 

The more he thought about it, and he’d plenty of time during the drive to Dallas, Cade knew he was right.  These incidents at the shelter had
nothing
to do with the bill, the funding or the cause of the vigilantes. 

Most likely, this had to do with these women and where they came from. 

The FBI was on a major push to raid cantinas all over Texas, which had to be hurting business for the cartels who set them up.  Those cartels were hooked up with local street gangs in every city who worked as their foot soldiers.

That
had
to be what this was about. 

But Cade needed verification and to know which cartel was involved because there were
plenty
of Mexican cartels with arms in Texas, and every one of them was now into human sex trafficking to the cantinas to supplement their drug income.  This shelter was housing those women, feeding and clothing them, taking them out of the trade, so that was their beef.

The threat received by the admin of the shelter from the Sovereign Soldiers was the red herring that threw him off to the fact that this was a two-pronged attack.  And that fish could cost the five women the cartel recovered—including Amelia—their lives if Cade didn’t figure out fast who took them and where they were being held.  Otherwise, the cartel would probably have them brought back to Mexico for reindoctrination before they were placed in another cantina somewhere and he’d never find them.

“Why are we here?” Cecelia asked, with confusion.

“This is where you get out, Brat,” Cade replied, and she frowned. 

“I want to go with you,” she said, crossing her arms under her breasts.

“I really need you here, baby.  Caleb is hurt and is probably getting checked out at the hospital so Levi needs help guarding the women.…and I need you to help them take care of Domingo.”  He let go of the wheel to reach into the back seat and grab the brown paper sack he’d put there a few minutes ago.  “I stopped at a convenience store and bought some formula because I’m, ah, sure Amelia was breastfeeding.”

Cecelia’s eyes softened, as she unfolded her arms and took the bag from him.  Cade was relieved when she didn’t argue, but she also didn’t make a move to get out.  Instead, she pushed up to her knees, grabbed the back of his head and pulled his mouth to hers.  There was so much she communicated to him in that kiss, Cade’s toes curled inside his boots.  When she finally pulled back, he wanted to lay her seat back and do something about the storm she’d created inside of him, but she put a hand on his chest and her smile squeezed his pounding heart. 

“Don’t get yourself into trouble or killed, because we won’t be able to finish that,” she said with a laugh as she pulled the door handle and quickly got out.

“Brat,” he grumbled, putting the car in gear but waiting until she was safely inside and had locked the door. 

No, he definitely wasn’t getting himself killed before he and Cecelia Logan finished
everything
going on between them.  This new adult version of their love was hotter, sweeter and a helluva lot deeper that what they had in college.  Cade couldn’t wait to explore it further if things worked out and if they had the opportunity.  Those were two big ifs though, and they had a lot of ground to cover and a two-pronged war to fight before they made the decisions they both needed to make. 

As he pulled onto the main road, Cade glanced into the rearview and a tug of fear gave him the urge to stay with her to make sure she was safe.  But he hit the gas—because he knew one thing now without a doubt—the new and improved version of Cecelia Logan could take care of herself.  If things didn’t work out between them, he could at least leave knowing that this time.

He pulled up at the hospital and parked, then stared at the two police cruisers under the canopy.  They were probably there for the injured criminal who was being treated—if he stayed overnight they’d probably stay to guard him until he could be arrested.  

Cade wondered how badly the thug was injured, if he was still in the ER, in surgery or in a room, because that would determine when and how he could question him.  There was only one way to find out, he thought, jerking the keys from the ignition before he got out.  He walked through the automatic glass doors, and went to the information desk. 

He pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head and reached behind him to yank out his wallet then flipped through until he found the right ID.  He flashed it under the receptionist’s nose then quickly put it away—hopefully too quick for her to see anything except the star.  He leaned on the counter and gave her a grin as he held her gaze.

“A Latino man with a gunshot wound was brought in five or six hours ago.  Any idea where I can find him?” he asked.

“The one who came in with the police?” she asked, her eyes wandering down his chest to the counter, then glancing at his left hand before she met his eyes again with a smile.

“That would be the one,” Cade replied, his fingers curling into his palms.

“You a cop?” she asked, tilting her head to the side as she typed something into her computer.

“Sort of,” he replied, with a laugh. “You a nurse?” he shot back, so she didn’t ask more questions.  “If you are, you’re probably the prettiest one here.”

Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes flew back to his before she looked back to the computer.   “No, not yet, but I applied to go to school.” She leaned in closer to the screen, clicked a few more keys.  “It looks like your
perp
—” She looked up and smiled again. “That’s what you cops call them isn’t it?’ she asked.

“Among other things,” Cade replied, wishing she’d just give him the damned information.

“It looks like he should be out of surgery now.”  She looked up and widened her green eyes.  “He’ll be in the recovery area on the sixth for an hour or so more…maybe two.”

“Thanks for the info.”  He tossed her a wink which caused her flush to deepen, and grinned as he turned toward the elevators.

“
Hey
!” she yelled and Cade sighed as he turned around.  “I didn’t get your name, you were too quick with that badge.”

“It’s Cade,” he replied, then turned back because he had all he needed from her and he didn’t have time to waste flirting. 

“Well, that’s a locked unit,
Cade
…so I’ll have to ride up and swipe you in,” she said, and he stopped in his tracks.

She walked up beside him to put her arm through his and flash
her
badge.  Maybe he did need more from her.  But not the cleavage she was showing him when she leaned around him to push the elevator button.  That vee-necked scrub top was definitely lower than it’d been a minute ago, he thought, as he followed her inside the car.