Page 46 of Honor ’N’ Duty

“That way you’re less likely to be disappointed by them. Or hurt,” Kade tacked on.

“Exactly.” He really did understand her, and it felt good to know they were so in sync.

“You’ve been through a lot. Raising a child all alone can’t be easy,” he said. “And you’re right. I should have been there for you.” When he cupped the side of her face, it was all she could do not to melt into him, to absorb his strength and the safety that came with it. “But I’m here now.”

He brushed his lips across hers. Unlike their frenzied make-out session on the sofa the night before, this kiss was soft, exquisitely gentle, and yet so full of emotion and unspoken words that she dared to think—

Kade pulled away, then tugged his ringing cell phone from his pocket to take a call. “Sampson.” His brows lowered, and for the next few minutes, all he did was listen. “Thanks, Chief. Let me know if you turn up anything else.” He stuffed the phone back into his pocket. “That was the chief of the Asbury Park PD. He put a rush on the prints pulled from your house.”

“And?” she asked hopefully, but her hope died when Kade gave a grim shake of his head.

“The adult prints match yours and the sample taken from Alvita. The others were small, probably Rosa’s and Alvita’s kids.”

Her heart sank with disappointment. “So that’s a dead end. We have no way of connecting Fernando Colon with whoever broke into my house.”

“Maybe not. But I have another idea. The cartel didn’t find what they were looking for at your house. Otherwise they wouldn’t have tracked you to my house with the intention of breaking in.” He pointed to the duplex. “But Josh never lived in this house. So it makes sense that the ledger and the cash aren’t here.”

“What’s your idea?”

“Federal agents searched your Rumson house, but we should go back there anyway.”

“Why? If the ledger or the cash was there, wouldn’t they have found it?”

“Maybe. But they didn’t have what I have.”

“What’s that?”

“Smoke.”

Chapter Fourteen

During the drive to Rumson, they barely exchanged three sentences, and that was okeydokey with Kade. His brain was on overload.

Executing a search warrant inside Laia’s mouth hadn’t been the plan, but when she’d looked up at him, so forlorn and at her wits’ end, his heart had cracked wide open, and his lips had taken a walk all by themselves and unerringly found the way to her mouth.

At the time, he’d told himself he’d done it because he didn’t have any response that could possibly alleviate her fears. Colon would keep coming until he found what he was after. If he didn’t find it, Kade had no doubt the powerful drug lord would mow over anyone who either got in his way or was useless to him and had to be discarded. Including Laia and Rosa.

But if Kade was truthful with himself, that wasn’t the only reason he’d kissed her.

Where Laia was concerned, he was weak. He’d successfully managed to avoid her for two years. In the span of less than three days, all his efforts went down the drain faster than flushing the toilet. The brain inside his skull kept reminding him in no uncertain terms to keep his distance. His other brain was failing him. Bigtime.

He took the turn onto Laia’s former street, at the end of which was her former house—the one she’d lived in with his brother.

The SUV’s tires crunched on the sparkling white stone driveway that had to be a hundred yards long. That was more than enough white marble stone to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool.

He continued past the neatly pruned boxwoods, the perfectly manicured lawn dotted with pine trees and decorative Japanese maples, to the circular parking area in front of the house, then parked behind a shiny red Mercedes AMG GT Roadster. The last issue of Road & Track he’d flipped through listed the starting price of that car at a mere $130K.

Laia peered out the window at the massive three-story gray stucco house. Unbeknownst to her, Kade had driven by many times after Josh died and before she’d been forced to move. Just checking up on her, he’d told himself at the time. He’d sat at the end of the driveway in his vehicle under the cover of darkness, much like a criminal would, ironically, but he’d never driven up to the house. Never had the balls to knock on the door.

She took a deep breath, as if to fortify herself. Laia had been forced out of this beautiful mansion most people would never have the opportunity to live in. Now she was living in one half of a rented duplex. Coming back here after all this time had to be difficult, but the expression of sadness and longing he’d expected wasn’t there. Something else was, although he couldn’t put his finger on precisely what.

“Are you anxious about going inside?” If she was, he and Smoke could do this alone.

“Yes. And no.” She continued staring out the window, taking in the long porch with its dozen or so white square columns, the second-story balcony with its arched windows, and finally, to the enormous twin chimneys.

“It must have been something to live in a place like this.” Behind the house, he could just make out the Navesink River and the long wood dock where Josh had tied up his sailboat. “There have to be some good memories here to go along with the bad.” Standing by helplessly while federal agents tossed your house couldn’t have been easy.

“Some.” Her brow creased. “Life here with Josh…wasn’t easy.”