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He hadn’t forgotten the look of terror on her beautiful face when he’d first seen her at the store last night. Nor did he take lightly that she’d opened up to him about her most painful secret. What she told him still boggled his mind, and the fact that she’d actually saved Blake’s life - he could barely wrap his head around that. Every one of his friends, except Orly, had been so wrong about her, and he’d ignored his own gut feelings, allowing this to come between them, and adding to her pain.
Caden wanted Hallie more than he’d ever wanted another woman in his life. And he’d have her. Forever, if he had anything to say about it. But right now, she needed time to heal. To recover. To get her bearings. The way she was throwing herself at him, he didn’t doubt her attraction to him, but he also wanted to make sure it wasn’t some kind of response to the trauma she’d just been through. He never wanted to do anything to hurt her. And if waiting to have sex with her helped her gain some confidence while at the same time gave her time to heal, then he was more than willing to give her that. Because from now on, she came first. Always.
A little while later, they were sitting on her couch, eating pancakes and watching cartoons. But he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He watched as she ate her pancakes, her face filling with joy at every bite of the things he made every weekend. It was just something he did to help pass the time because he didn’t have to rush off to work. That she took such pleasure in them only made him want to find other things he could do for her.
She caught him staring at her and smiled. “They’re really good. I only ever get pancakes when I go home to visit my parents, so they’re special to me. I know, it’s corny.”
“Not corny. I can make them every weekend for you if you want.” Her face lit up and that glow in her eyes sent a surge straight to his heart. No woman had ever looked at him like that.
After breakfast, Hallie showered and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, while Caden cleaned up the kitchen. She had offered to help, but he’d insisted, more out of a need to get her dressed and out of those cute pajamas and as far away from that damn jacket of his as possible. Just the thought of how stunningly sexy she looked when he’d turned around and saw her wearing it was enough to give him a massive hard on.
Once she was settled down with her taxes, surrounded by papers and her laptop, Caden went home to shower and change for the funeral. He spent a little extra time in the shower, relieving himself as he thought of Hallie wearing his jacket, the image still etched into his mind and making him hard as a rock even after coming twice in ten minutes.
After his shower, he had a little time before he had to be back at Hallie’s to pick her up for the funeral, but he didn’t want to spend a second longer in his dank apartment than he had to. Everything he wanted was in a studio apartment across town, and nothing was going to keep him from her. He changed into a clean pair of jeans and a freshly laundered t-shirt, and brought a fresh black suit, a crisp white button down shirt, a black tie, black socks and dress shoes with him to change into right before it was time to go.
He checked his messages on his way back to Hallie’s. The texts that had come in last night were from Luke, telling him he’d hadn’t found much on the woman in the newspaper clipping.
Caden didn’t think he would, but he wanted to approach it from a different angle. He called Luke.
“Hey,” Luke answered.
“I was thinking instead of looking into Molly Edgar, I’d do a search on Edgar Pharmaceuticals. She might not be connected to Russell Graham, but maybe her company was.”
“That’s a great idea, and it might be our only hope,” Luke said. “I did a quick search for her on social media, and it looks like she mostly kept to herself. She even took one of those wine and painting classes a few weeks before she was killed, by herself. From what I understand, that’s something usually done with friends.”
Caden sighed. Women who kept to themselves were some of the hardest murder cases to solve. “I’ll see what I can find out. Listen, before I let you go, I wanted to ask if you could pull Ethan’s file for me. We arrested a perp the other week, and I want to double check to see if he was mentioned anywhere in Ethan’s case.”
Luke was quiet for a minute. “Sure, I’ll pull the file for you. Was he a friend of Ethan’s?”
Caden swallowed. He had no idea what the connection was, but it had been on his mind ever since the day Beeker was killed, and Caden wasn’t going to let it go until he looked into it.
“Caden?” Luke asked, when he’d been quiet for too long.
“Sorry. It was just something the perp said when we arrested him.” Caden let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. The guy was probably just yanking my chain, but I’ll feel better if I can take a look at the file again.”
“No worries.” Luke assured him. “I’ll pull it Monday morning and you can stop by anytime to take a look.”
“Thanks.” Caden had the file memorized, but seeing it might help put his mind at ease. His cousin, Tyler Hadworth, had been with Ethan the day of the armed robbery, but while Ethan paid with his life, Tyler was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Thanks to family money on his father’s side and a hotshot attorney, Tyler got paroled after only eleven years, and was now out, living his life, making millions with some app he designed after learning code behind bars.
Caden tried not to let it bother him, but he just couldn’t bring himself to believe Tyler’s version of what happened that night. Ethan was not a killer.
“Anyway, how are you doing?” Luke’s voice broke through Caden’s thoughts. “How’s Hallie? You took her home last night, right?”
Caden smiled at his friend’s questions. For the first time in a long time, he was actually feeling more like himself, and he had Hallie to thank for that. “Yeah, we’re both good.” He wasn’t quite ready to talk about it, but it made him smile just knowing Hallie was back in his life.
Luke seemed to understand and let Caden off the hook. They ended the call, and Caden immediately called the real estate agent and left her a voicemail letting her know he wanted to put an offer on the house with the creek. Then he tossed his phone aside and focused on the road ahead, eager to get back to Hallie.
He was dreading the funeral. He’d avoided going to the last one, when another agent had died of cancer a few years back, only because he hated funerals as much as some people hated hospitals. They were usually creepy with the dead body on display for all to see, not to mention they were depressing as hell. It didn’t help that every single one he’d ever gone to reminded him of his brother’s funeral, and all the grief and anger he’d felt back then as a nineteen-year-old kid who’d just lost his best friend.
If it was anyone but Beeker, the guy who’d literally died in his arms, Caden wouldn’t even consider going. But he felt he had to, and with Hallie by his side, he knew he’d get through it.
***
“I’m almost done,” Hallie said when she opened the door for him. “I just have two more forms to fill out and most of it looks repetitive. You can hang your suiton my coat rack and then...” She looked around as if trying to find something he could do to occupy himself.
“Thanks,” he said, hanging his suit on her coat rack. “And you don’t have to entertain me. I can watch TV or play a game of chess on my phone.”
“You play chess?” Hallie asked.
