Turn On A Dime - Kade's Turn Read Free

he’d vowed to never let it happen again. But he was stronger, colder, than the woman who lay innocently oblivious beneath his blade.
    Slowly, he withdrew the knife. Another flick of his wrist and the blade disappeared.
    He’d let her live, for now, and dig into who she was, her past, her friends, every move she’d ever made, every mistake she regretted, every guy she’d fucked, every friend she’d betrayed—Kade would find out. And so help her, if she wasn’t everything she appeared to be—what he couldn’t help hoping that she was—then she’d pay, and pay dearly.
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER ONE
     
     
     
     
    Two Months Later
     
     
    “Kathleen is in danger.”
    Blane’s words ricocheted inside Kade’s head as he drove. It took about seven hours to get from Buffalo to Indy. A quick glance at the clock said Kade would make it in six.
    He didn’t want to go, but Blane had left him no choice. Kade couldn’t refuse Blane’s plea for help, and wouldn’t. If his brother needed him, then he’d be there, no matter what. It had always been that way, and it always would be that way.
    Alone in the dark silence of his Mercedes, the road nearly empty of cars, Kade allowed himself to acknowledge the ridiculous surge of anticipation inside at the thought that he’d get to see her again.
    Her. Kathleen. A woman who’d haunted him since he’d first set eyes on her. He remembered now how close he’d come to killing her that one night, the night she’d ran from Blane’s house, and a chill ran down his spine.
    She’d become his obsession after that night. He’d found everything out about her that was possible to know, determined to dig up something that would prove she was a fraud, something concrete he could take to Blane.
    But there was nothing.
    Born an only child, she’d been raised by two seemingly happily married people. Her father was a cop who died in the line of duty; her mother a stay-at-home mom who’d passed from cancer not long ago. Though she’d grown up in a small town, she’d left soon after the death of her mother to move to Indianapolis, selling the family home and using the money to try and make a dent in the mountain of bills left from her mother’s cancer treatments.
    She’d done well in high school and even spent some time at college studying prelaw of all things, before her mother had taken ill. Then she’d left to go back home and care for her. Working as a bartender in the small town of Rushville, her time had been consumed with work and nursing her mother, friendships falling by the wayside. Not one of the popular kids in school, all accounts said she’d been quiet and reserved, though everyone had seemed to like her well enough. Kind and sweet were the adjectives most often used to describe her.
    Such an out of character thing for her to do, selling the home and moving away from everyone she knew. It puzzled Kade. Why had she done that?
    Kade had been intrigued by her, absurdly glad that she’d come across him holed up in the law office that night he’d been snooping around. Of course, she’d been on a date with James-the-douche, but God she’d felt good in his arms. He’d thought it was pure coincidence, a twist of fate, then she’d shown up again the day he’d been following Mark.
    Wincing a little at the memory of Kathleen cracking him over the head with a chair, Kade’s lips twisted at how she’d gotten away from him that day. She’d listened to that little voice inside her head warning her that Kade was dangerous, and had taken steps to escape. From time to time Kade had wondered which “guy on TV” he supposedly looked like because those teenage girls had swarmed like flies. He’d even had to scrawl a dozen or more illegible autographs—he’d drawn the line at posing for photographs—before he’d managed to extricate himself.
    Seeing her do the dead-on Britney impression on Halloween in an honest-to-fucking-god schoolgirl costume had just