Free Turning Point (The Kathleen Turner Series) by Tiffany Snow Page B

Kade. I belong with Blane.”
    “Who are you trying to convince?” he asked. “Me? Or yourself?”
    When I didn’t answer, he abruptly stood. “I’ll be back,” he said, shrugging on a shirt and grabbing his gun and jacket. He didn’t even bother buttoning his shirt before he was out the door and gone.
    I couldn’t sleep after that, so I took a shower. Kade still hadn’t returned by the time I got out and had pulled on a T-shirt and sweatpants. I checked my cell phone and saw that it was really late, and I had three missed calls, all from Blane.
    Feeling guilty for missing his calls, and for a great many other things, I set my cell back down on the table. I thought about Kade’s parting shot to me and shook my head. He was wrong.
    The door opened and Kade stepped inside. He shot me an unreadable glance.
    “We have to go,” he said. He began throwing my things into the suitcase.
    “Right now? Why?” It was barely after four in the morning.
    “The guy—Parker—knew I was coming.”
    I digested this as I searched for shoes. “How do you know?”
    “His phone. I checked it. He got a text.” Kade zipped the suitcase. “He was told to kill me.”
    “By who?” I grabbed my purse, shoving my cell phone inside.
    “I don’t know, but someone knows I’m in town, and by now I’m guessing they’ve figured out I’m still alive.”
    “But why?” I was alarmed. Kade was moving fast, and that more than anything else told me there was definitely something to worry about. “Why would they try to kill you?”
    “Because I’m getting too close. Too close to finding out who was pulling Sheffield’s strings, trying to get Blane to lose that case.” He set the suitcase beside the door. “I’ve booked you on a flight back to Indy. It leaves in two hours.”
    “What about you?”
    “I’ll lead them a different direction.” He peered carefully through a slit in the side of the curtains.
    My stomach wound itself into knots at his words. “Why can’t you come with me?”
    “They know who I am, they’re looking for me,” Kade said flatly. “Getting on a plane would lead them right to me, and to you. I shouldn’t have brought you here.”
    I couldn’t think, couldn’t process all he was saying. “But… but… how? How do they know about you?”
    Finally, he turned to look at me, and the ice in his gaze chilled me. “Only a handful of people knew what I was looking for. Someone betrayed me, and they’re going to wish they hadn’t.”
    Fear lapped at me. I couldn’t decide if Kade thought he was invincible, or if he just didn’t care whether he lived or died.
    “You can’t take them on alone,” I protested. “Let me stay. I can help.”
    “Forget it, princess,” he said, looking back out the window. “And it looks like we’re going to have to travel light and exit out the back.”
    Leaving the suitcase, he grabbed my arm and hauled me toward the bathroom, where he opened the window and popped the screen onto the concrete outside.
    “And this is why I stay in cheap motels,” he said, boosting me up into the window.
    I dropped onto the concrete in a crouch, remaining that way until Kade landed silently beside me, his gun in his hand. He took my hand in his and we crept along the back of the building.
    It was dark and sinister at this hour of the night. The motel was near a residential neighborhood of old, run-down houses separated from us by a rusty chain-link fence. A lonely streetlamp cast a weak pool of light nearby and I heard the distant sound of cats fighting, their yowls giving an eerie quality to the scene.
    “Stay here,” Kade whispered to me, dropping my hand and moving away.
    I grabbed a handful of his jacket. “Where are you going?” I couldn’t keep the fear from my voice.
    “Two guys were in the parking lot. I want to know who sent them.” He gently but relentlessly unclenched my fist from the soft leather. “Don’t worry. Stay put.”
    I watched him disappear