Chapter 13 #2
By the time I park outside Rourke Securities, I have the plate, the route, and the timestamps logged. The fact that I came here first instead of going back to the station is an issue, and I have less room to pretend otherwise with every step toward the lobby.
Kade meets me like he knew I was coming before the front desk called.
He’s in a dark sweater with the sleeves pushed to his forearms, his jaw rough from not shaving, and the second cedar reaches me, the hallway kiss comes back with enough clarity that I look toward the security desk before I look at him.
His eyes narrow. “What happened?”
“I picked up a tail on the way over.”
He looks past me once, toward the front doors, then nods toward the secure hall. “Office.”
Sloane is already upstairs with a laptop open and exterior feeds pulled across the screen. Kade gives him the plate while I walk through the route. There’s no small talk, and for once I’m grateful for it. The three of us stand around Kade’s desk while Sloane pulls footage from the night before.
I catch the sedan passing just as I pulled into the lot, Sloane rewinding the tape slowly. He stops it when the sedan passes the company’s exterior camera just after eight. Same make, same small dent near the rear quarter panel, different plate.
Sloane’s expression tightens. “That’s not a casual pass.”
“No.” I lean closer to the screen, keeping my coat on because taking it off feels too much like settling in. “Fuck. When did you get in, Kade?”
“Around eight,” he grumbles.
I gesture to Sloane to rewind further, back to the last time I was here. He complies, the next clip catching the sedan rolling by maybe fifteen minutes before I showed up. Another plate. Same dent. Same tinted back window. Sloane exports both clips and labels them without asking for instructions.
“I’ll send clean copies to Baxter and Dana,” he says, glancing between us just long enough to prove he has noticed the charge in the room and is choosing to live. “Do you need me?”
Kade’s gaze stays on the paused footage. “Go home.”
Sloane shuts the laptop halfway, then looks at me. “Try not to get followed twice in one day, Detective. It makes our camera review untidy.”
“I’ll keep your workflow in mind.”
He leaves with a faint smile and closes the office door behind him. Kade moves to the other side of the desk, inches from my side, the lie on my tongue about only coming here to warn him about Morrison right there. He throws me a look and I just sigh.
“I came because… I’m not sure but it felt right but there was a reason, okay? Morrison’s still got her eye on you for some reason. I don’t know why.”
His expression tightens a little. “There’s something else and maybe they’re connected.”
I look up from the footage. “About the sedan?”
“Maybe. I don’t know yet.” He rests one hand on the back of his chair, his thumb moving once along the seam.
“A scent’s been bothering me. Flattened, chemical edge under it.
Cleaner or blocker, maybe. I caught it in the alley when I pulled the man off Emrys, but there was too much rain and panic to place it.
Then I caught something similar near the building after I got back, and again here near the entrance. ”
I open the private file. “Inside the company?”
“Not past security. Maybe someone passing through. It wasn’t strong enough to track.” His jaw tightens, his frustration sitting in the room without him needing to raise his voice. “The problem is that I know it and I can’t place where, but I’ve smelled it before.”
I open my parallel file and stuff that information in there as well before looking up at Kade.
“I meant to go back to the station after the sedan,” I start.
“I had the plate and the route. I could have started pulling cameras from my desk or even called you for access. I came here instead. I told myself it was because your cameras are better,” I continue. “That’s true. It just isn’t all of it.”
The office settles around the admission. Kade crosses to the desk and turns one of the chairs so it faces me, then sits on the edge of it instead of standing over me. He is giving me room. I hate how much I notice.
“You’re not here only because of the cameras,” he says.
“No.” My throat works, and I look down at my hands because they have started to feel like someone else’s.
“I keep meaning to do the correct thing. Go back to the station. Keep distance. Make cleaner choices. Then something pulls, and I end up at Emrys’ apartment or here, and I don’t have a framework for that.
I’m not an Alpha. I’m not an Omega. I’m not supposed to be this easy to redirect. ”
Kade takes that in, tilting his head to the side as he studies me. “Nature started forming us into a pack,” he says finally.
I laugh once, but it doesn’t have much behind it. “You say that like it is simple.”
“It is. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.” He leans forward, forearms resting on his thighs. “You seem used to being useful. You know what to do with that. This is different because it’s not asking you to prove your place before you are allowed to have one.”
That hits too close to what Emrys asked in the kitchen.
My mouth opens, then closes again. For once, I don’t have a joke ready.
He lets the silence hold for a moment before he continues. “You don’t need to understand the whole shape today. You don’t need to promise more than you have. Just start being real about why you’re here, that you want to be here.”
I hate that it’s nearly the same conversation we had yesterday, my insecurities trying to undermine a good thing before it even starts. “I don’t know how to do this,” I say.
“Then learn slowly.”
“And if I make a mess of it?”
“Then we clean it up slowly too.”
Kade reaches over with his palm up, offering me something no other Alpha ever has. A choice. A real one. I stare at it for a beat too long before interlocking my fingers with his.