MARCUS (Dragon Security Book 4) Read online

  I sat beside him.

  “What happened?”

  He shrugged. “Shooter was in a car. He got off two shots. I pursued, but he disappeared in traffic.”

  “You didn’t stick around to watch your target?”

  “I’m not supposed to get close to her.”

  “Yes, but you had no idea if there wasn’t another shooter on the ground. You left her vulnerable.”

  “There was no one else there.”

  “How do you know?”

  “She was surrounded by restaurant patrons within seconds.”

  “And one of them could have been a second shooter. You don’t know.”

  “I did what I thought was best.”

  I dragged my fingers through my hair, lifting it off my shoulders in an attempt to cool myself as my mind raced. My assets are supposed to be well trained. They’re supposed to act on instinct. If he thought chasing the shooter was best…I wasn’t there. I don’t know what the situation was like. But when you’re paid to protect someone at all costs, then that’s what you do.

  “Do I need to replace you with someone else?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “This target is important, Marcus. You must protect her before anything else. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Let the police chase the shooters. You stay with the target.”

  “Even if it means exposing myself?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded. “Okay.”

  I slapped his knee as I stood up. “Check in with the office daily, please.”

  “I will.”

  “And next time something like this happens, I’d rather get the report from you than the client.”

  “Sorry, ma’am.”

  “And quite calling me ma’am, it makes me feel old.”

  He cracked a smile, the first I’d seen on his handsome face. I smiled, too, dropping a wink before I slipped through the triage doors again. Blake was still pacing, still worrying outside the exam room door. I touched his arm, forced him to stop and focus on me.

  “My asset has everything under control. Miss Price is perfectly safe.”

  He studied my face for a long moment. “If this happens again…”

  “It won’t. But if you would reconsider—“

  “We’ll stick with things the way they are.”

  I nodded, telling myself there was nothing I could do about it. If this girl was hurt because Marcus wasn’t allowed close to her, that wasn’t on me. It was on Blake.

  I patted his arm. “Okay. Let me know if you need anything else.”

  I walked out of the hospital, my thoughts already back to my bedroom and the man I left lying in my bed.

  Chapter 4

  Cadence

  Blake drove me home, helping me out of the car and slowly up the stairs.

  “The doctor said you could take two of these pills as soon as we got home.” He held up a prescription bottle. “Water? Or do you want something else?”

  “There’re water bottles in the fridge.”

  He went into my kitchen as I settled on the couch, lifting my foot to the coffee table. You wouldn’t think that a flesh wound would hurt that much, but this thing was on fire. My entire leg ached, deep down in the muscle. I ran my hand over the bandage the doctor had put on it, feeling the tender area where they’d placed fifteen stitches.

  “You are lucky,” the doctor had said. “A few inches up and to the left, you might have severed an artery.”

  Yay.

  Blake came back with the water bottle. He handed me a couple of pills and I swallowed them, closing my eyes as I chased them with the water, wishing it was something stronger. I’d given away the few bottles of booze I owned in anticipation of the pregnancy, but now I regretted it. I wasn’t pregnant yet.

  “I’m worried about you,” Blake said, settling on the couch beside me. “I don’t like this.”

  “I’m not too thrilled about it, either.”

  “I’m glad you called me, though.”

  I nodded. “I don’t understand why someone would want to shoot me like that. The cops said it was probably a random drive by. Do you think that’s what it was?”

  “It’s possible. Those things happen, unfortunately.”

  “I know. I just…it was scary.”

  “I know.” Blake took my hand and held it for a long moment. “I want you to get out of town.”

  “What about the procedure?”

  “It’s two weeks before the doctor can do the insemination. You don’t have to be in town during that time.”

  “True. But—“

  “I have a cabin in Ruidoso. I want you to go up there, try to relax. Start the hormone therapy and prepare yourself for the insemination. Then you can drive back down the night before.”

  “But my friends are here.”

  “It’ll be safer there.”

  I couldn’t argue with that.

  Blake squeezed my hand. “I’ll drop the keys off in the morning. Until then, keep your door locked, okay? Don’t let anyone but me in.”

  “Do you think I’m in danger?”

  “No. But it doesn’t hurt to take precautions.”

  He leaned close and kissed my cheek. Then he got up, heading for the door.

  “I’ll call you before I come over.”

  “Okay.”

  He left and I hobbled over to the door to lock it. The pills he’d given me began to kick in as I undressed, preparing for bed. This quiver of fear came to live in my chest, making my stomach a little uneasy. I could see the outline of the man who shot at me. Brown hair. A long, patrician nose. But that was about all I saw. He was wearing sunglasses that were large and hid most of his face.

  But he was looking right at me. Like he was targeting me.

  Why would someone want to hurt me?

  I crawled into bed, careful with how I place my injured leg. Blake’s decision to make me leave town was almost as frightening as the shooting. It was as if he knew something and he was trying not to tell me. And that scared the crap out of me.

  Did all this have something to do with Blake? Was it someone who didn’t want me to be his surrogate? But what business was it of anyone but Blake and Annie? Just because he was something of a celebrity…

  None of it made sense to me. All I knew was that I was rattled and the idea of getting out of town no longer seemed outrageous.

  I slept off and on, often waking in the dark, afraid of something I’d seen in my dreams. I finally got out of bed and made myself a cup of tea. I stood at the kitchen window, looking down on the parking lot below me. My car wasn’t there and that felt strange. They’d towed it to the police impound to check it for evidence. I don’t know what they hoped to find, but I couldn’t imagine there’d be more than just broken glass.

  Movement pulled my eyes to the back of the parking lot. There was a line of trees along the back of the lot with just a small section of asphalt behind it. There was a car parked there, hidden mostly from view. But I could see light coming from behind the wheel, like someone was sitting there watching video. I leaned closer to the window and stared until my vision seemed to cross and blur. It had to be my imagination. People parked there all the time to protect their cars from the unrelenting sunlight, especially during the summer. But it was fall now, turning cold. I couldn’t imagine the benefit of parking so far from the building now. But there was clearly a car there, though the light…could have been a trick of the light from the street lamps.

  I was growing paranoid. I needed to get a grip.

  Blake knocked on the door at just before eight the next morning. I was curled up on the couch, floating on the wave of the painkillers. They weren’t putting me to sleep, but they took the edge off the fear as well as the pain.

  I stumbled to the door and smiled when I saw his face.

  “Morning,” he said, brushing past me, his eyes moving all around the room. “You okay?”

  “I’m good.”


  He walked around, glancing out the windows, checking the bedroom and bathroom with little glances through the door. He was making me a little nervous.

  “Is something wrong?”

  He focused on me. “No, of course not.”

  “You’re making me nervous.”

  “Sorry.” He came over to me and took my hands, leading me to the couch. “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. You know how important you are to our future plans.”

  “I know.”

  “Really, I can’t tell you how grateful I am. I’ve always wanted to be a father.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Since I was a kid. I come from a big family—five brothers and two sisters. My parents, they were great. Always there for all of us, always patient and understanding. And I have all these nieces and nephews now. I want one of my own, a child I can give everything I have to, just like my parents did for us and are doing for their grandkids.”

  “I understand.”

  “What about you? I’ve never asked why you’re doing this.”

  I sat back on the couch, running my hand over my injured thigh. “I don’t know. I’ve always wanted to have kids, but I never thought about doing something like this. But when you were talking about it in Dr. Martinez’s office, it just seemed like the right thing to do.”

  Blake studied my face for a long moment, his eyes moving slowly over the curves of my jaw. Then his eyes met mine.

  “I hope this doesn’t offend you, but my lawyer had a private investigator check you out pretty thoroughly when I first presented your name as a possible surrogate.”

  I shrugged. “I’d be surprised if you hadn’t.”

  “He said that you were raised by your grandmother?”

  I nodded. “My mom was a drug addict. She became addicted at a young age and was never able to shake it, even though my grandparents sent her to rehab half a dozen times. Then my grandfather died and she disappeared, showing up on my grandmother’s doorstep five years later, me as an infant in her arms. She swore she wanted to straighten her life out and my grandmother took her in, hoping to help her. But she died of an overdose a month later.”

  “That’s tough.”

  “I want to be sad about it, but the truth is I don’t remember any of that. I don’t remember my mother or the life she lived. I only knew my grandma and that was all I really needed.”

  “It’s good that you had someone who was so willing to take you in.”

  “I was. That I understand and I was always so grateful. My grandma…we had a special relationship.”

  “It must be hard for you, now that she’s gone.”

  I tilted my head slightly. “She was very sick at the end of her life. I think she was relieved to finally pass.”

  “What about you?”

  I ran my hand slowly over my leg again, thinking how I’d wanted to call her last night when I was in that ambulance and they asked if there was anyone they could call. But that was the first time in a long time that I’d missed her quite like that.

  “I have friends. I have people I count on and who count on me.”

  “But last night you called me, not one of them.”

  I glanced at him, wondering what he’d gotten out of that. I hoped he didn’t think I had some sort of strange crush on him or something. He was cute and everything, but not really my type.

  “Should I have called someone else?”

  “No, I’m glad you called me.” He took my hand again. “You should feel free to call me any time you need someone.”

  “Thank you.”

  I stood up, stumbling a little as I put weight on my injured leg and it protested. “Can I get you a cup of coffee or something?”

  “No. I actually need to go. I just wanted to drop off the keys to the cabin.” He stood and set them on the bar between the living room and kitchen. “It’s just a small place, one big room, really. It’s just for the occasional weekend hunting trips, that sort of thing.”

  “That’s fine.”

  “You’ll have to stop in the town to pick up groceries. And to call—please call me when you get there. But you likely won’t have cellphone reception at the cabin itself, so be prepared to drive down to town a couple of times to keep in touch.”

  “Of course.”

  “The place has central heat, but the electricity tends to go out when the weather turns bad. In that case, there’s a potbellied stove that’ll keep you from freezing. And there should be a stack of wood outside the back door.”

  “Okay.”

  “If you have any problems, feel free to call me whenever.”

  “I will.”

  He studied my face for a moment. “I’m sorry about all this mess, Cadence. I know it’s a nuisance.”

  “Don’t worry about it. A few days in the mountains never hurt anyone.”

  He smiled. “I don’t suppose so.” He touched the keys, pushing them a little. “The address is on there. Just plug it into your GPS. You shouldn’t have any problems.”

  He showed himself out and I…was it wrong that I was relieved to see him go? There was something about him that was incredibly intense. It was exhausting.

  Packing took twice as long as it probably should have because of the slow movements I was forced to make because of my sore leg. It seemed to get stiffer and more painful as the day wore on, but I was determined not to take any more of the pills the doctor had sent home with me.

  Once in the car, it was a long afternoon as I stopped by the pharmacy, the bank, and the mall. I didn’t have a winter coat and finding one in Houston that was appropriate to a mountain winter was almost impossible. But I was finally on the road by three, my paranoia forcing me to look in the rearview mirror every few minutes, watching for a four-door sedan, green, like the one that had carried my shooter last night. I never saw one, but there were a lot of black SUVs on the road today. I drove just past Abilene, and then stopped at a small roadside motel for the night. One of those black SUVs pulled off just a few minutes after me.

  Had to be a coincidence, right?

  “How’s it going?” Blake asked when I called—in response to three calls he’d made to me.

  “I’m in Abilene. It’s a much longer drive than I expected.”

  “Nearly twelve hours. I guess I should have warned you.”

  “It’s alright. I don’t mind a road trip.”

  “So, I have a little news for you. The cops investigating your case called this afternoon.”

  “Oh?”

  “They found the car that was used in the shooting. It was stolen from a business just down the street from the restaurant.”

  “Stolen?”

  “Yeah. And the guy clearly wore gloves because they haven’t been able to pull any prints.”

  “Okay.”

  I didn’t know what else to say. What do you say to something like that? Obviously the guy was smart enough to cover his tracks. If they ever found him, it would be a surprise.

  I curled up in bed that night, wondering what I’d gotten myself into. Why would someone care whether or not I was to be Blake Zimmerman’s surrogate? Celebrities did this sort of thing all the time. No one ever tried to hurt those surrogates. Why me?

  I felt like I’d walked into something I didn’t fully understand here. Blake. He knew something more than what he was telling me. I didn’t like that. I didn’t like the feeling that he was lying to me. Lies are the root of all evil. That’s what my grandma always told me. She didn’t want me to turn into my mother, and that was how it started for her. Lies.

  What if Blake was lying to me? I was less than two weeks from having his baby potentially implanted into my belly. Did I really want to do that if I believed he was lying to me? No. But I didn’t know how to confront him and force him to tell me the truth.

  And that was the true conundrum.

  The drive was truly beautiful. I started out early the next morning, driving into the barren landscape of the desert and then slowly making my
way up into the mountains. It was truly beautiful up there, truly peaceful.

  Midmorning, I pulled off the road to get some gas. Another car pulled up alongside mine, a dark SUV driven by a man who looked vaguely familiar. He had dark blond hair and intense blue eyes that seemed to look through me when he offered a slight nod of greeting. I quickly filled up my car—the borrowed Ford Escape that Blake had given me to use—and pulled out, anxious suddenly to get to the safety of the secluded cabin.

  The town of Ruidoso was beautiful. There were quaint little shops along the main street and several restaurants, all nestled under the beautiful architecture of a large casino. I stopped at a small grocery store and stocked up on necessities, texting Blake as I made my way through the aisles.

  “They’re calling for a storm in Ruidoso,” he said when he called in response to my text. “Be sure to check the wood pile the moment you get there, just to be sure you have enough wood to make it a few days. If not, call my caretaker. He’ll be happy to come up and do whatever you need.”

  “Okay.”

  “Be careful, Cadence. And enjoy yourself.”

  “First time in here?” the cashier asked as I piled my purchases onto the counter.

  “It is.”

  “Where you staying?”

  “A friend’s cabin a little further up the mountain.”

  “Well, be careful. They’re calling for blizzard-like conditions beginning tonight.”

  I just nodded, not even sure what that meant. I’d never seen snow before. I grew up on the beaches of Galveston. The worst storm I’d ever seen was the hurricane that hit a few years back, the winds strong enough to knock a couple of the neighbors’ houses off their pilings. But snow? I had no idea what that was like.

  The air was cold as I walked out to the car, shoving the groceries into the backseat of the Escape. And there was a smell that made my head spin just a little bit. It was fresh, light. It felt good in the same way that the heavy, humid air of Houston made me feel weighted down. Anchored, really.

  I drove the ten miles left on my GPS, following the winding mountain roads until they dead-ended outside a private drive. I got out and unlocked the gate with one of the keys Blake had given me, leaving it unlocked as I drove through. I figured I’d be back down in a day or so. I could lock it up then.