Bluegrass Undercover (13 page)

“
Yes, sir.”

“
How is the boy doing with the heart problem?”

“
Better. He still isn’t back at school yet and may not be able to for a while.”

“
Okay. I will send someone from the office to the rehabilitation center to talk to him. I will let you know what we get from him. You’re doing well Blake. Call in next week at the scheduled time.”

“
Yes, sir. Good-bye.”

Annie hung up the phone and put her feet up on the desk. Crap. She had really wanted to act more aggressively, and she had a feeling Cade would not be happy with doing nothing to protect his kids. She picked up the files on her desk and started reading them. She wanted to know all about these boys before she began calling them in to talk to them.

Annie put the file she was reading down and looked at her silver watch. It was past six o’clock. She had probably missed football practice, and there was a good chance Cade was already gone for the day. She stuffed some more files into her bag and ran out the door. She raced across the parking lot and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Cade’s SUV was still parked by the field house. She pushed open the door to the locker room and wrinkled her nose. It smelled like sweat, dirt and grass. The smell was overpowering.

“
Cade?” She peeked around one of the lockers but didn’t see anyone. She went off in search for him, passing rows of lockers and benches. There was a large meeting room with plastic chairs and a chalkboard covered with X’s and O’s that took up most of the wall.

It looked like she turned the wrong way so she headed back for the door and then kept going past it. She looked down more rows of lockers until she saw a light coming out of a door at the end of one of the rows. She headed toward the light and noise reached her ears. As she neared the light, she heard singing, very bad singing. Was that Taylor Swift? No, couldn’t be.

Annie paused to smile to herself as he continued to sing. She walked through the door and froze in her tracks. Cade was singing alright, singing butt naked in the middle of a huge room with shower heads lining the three walls.

“
Oh my God!” She felt her cheeks go bright red at the sight of him. He was even better without his clothes on. His muscled arms, his chest sprinkled with dark blonde hair that came together in a tiny trail that led past his well-defined abs straight to his…

“
Annie, can I help you?” he laughed. He turned to her fully so she got an eyeful and then some. She covered her eyes with her hands, more to hide the fierce blush than to prevent her from looking. It had been a long time after all, and this was, well, this was art and it deserved to be appreciated.

“
I’m sorry. I was just going to tell you about the conversation with my boss.” She shifted her ring fingers slightly so she could peek out and study the artwork.

“
Okay, so what did he say?” She heard him chuckle, but she was really busy appreciating the artwork to look up and see his face.

“
Oh, um, he wants you to take the deal with Trevor. He wants us to gather intel and evidence so we can bring the whole ring down at once. I know you won’t like it, but he does have a good point.”

“
If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s keeping my head down and gathering intel, even though all my instincts tell me to do something to protect the people.” Damn. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist. She dropped her hands and realized why it was so hard for some guys to keep their eyes on her face, 'cause his muscled chest was not allowing her eyes to go any further upward.

“
What did you do for the Rangers? Both my boss and I tried to access your whole file and we couldn’t. Everything is sealed.”

“
It’s not sealed. It’s just not written down. The things I did were off the books. Surveillance, rescue, and well, things that may make the paper, but you’d never be able to connect it to the United States.” Cade shrugged and pulled on a t-shirt.

“
Well, I guess this isn’t as important as what you did, but you are saving an untold amount of children’s lives.”

“I know. That’s the only reason I’m going along with it.” Annie watched as he walked out of the showers and felt an odd sort of panic as she realized she didn’t ever want him to walk out on her. And she certainly didn’t want Miss Perky, the chemistry teacher, seeing what she just saw.

Chapter Ten

Annie pulled on her KHS sweatshirt and clapped her hands together as Trey Everett ran for eight yards. The crisp mid-October air mixed with the scent of leaves covering the ground, the noise of the band playing, and the crowd cheering was warming. It filled her with the feeling of being a part of something and she loved it.

She wasn’t so much in love with the fact that over the past six weeks she hadn’t gotten any closer to learning who the boss of the drug organization was. It had been quiet. No other contact with Trevor, no thugs stopping by, nothing. She had tried poking around at the Café for the local gossip. She did hear an interesting story of some drunken horse groomers riding a horse down Main Street, and teenagers tipping cows, but there was no talk of any drug use.

The big talk recently had been about the Homecoming Parade and game. And, what a parade it had been! Each class built a float that carried its Homecoming Court, and the football team had three floats. A lot of the area businesses built floats as well. Ashton Farm had a float pulled by horses. Henry Rooney shined in one of his suits on top a gavel-shaped float. Paige Davies put together a Derby hat float for her store, Southern Charms, and Pam Gilbert was dressed up as a referee on a soccer field float for the Parks and Recreation Department.

People lined Main Street decked out in blue and white. They cheered the floats, waved to the people on them, and talked to all their neighbors. The Rose sisters had set up an outdoor food booth and showed the Homecoming Court what it really meant to hold court. Everyone in town made sure to stop by to pay their respects before heading home.

The town was excited for Homecoming. The team had gotten off to a rocky start but had won the last five in a row. They had squeaked by in a couple of them, and it still looked like they were trying to find their groove, but a win was a win. Cade had told her that he didn’t know whether to be thrilled or horrified, thrilled they were winning, horrified that they still didn’t seem like a team after all this time.

She enjoyed their talks at night when he walked her home from their standing Wednesday night dinner at the Café. They would have dinner, and he would walk her home. They’d sit on the porch and talk about the team and her guidance counselor job. It seemed like that was the only time they could talk. It seemed like every time she tried to talk to him at school, Stephanie would come and sit down and start chatting with them. Every now and then she’d see that flash of desire shoot across his face, but then it was gone before she could decide what to do about it. It really was better this way, though. She had a job to do and romantic entanglements would just hinder her.

Annie had been interviewing the team over the past months and had found a few kids that had more information than they were sharing. Teenagers. They always thought they were so smart. In reality, they were so easy to read. She knew they were lying to her the second they started spinning their tales. They were so cocky that they hadn’t even noticed when she tricked them up on their story. No reason to lie about what you did over the weekend or what you do at the gym, but they did.

Right now it looked like Cade was going to kill one of those kids. Cade had his hand in Austin Colby’s facemask and was forcibly trying to get him to pay attention while he explained something. But even from the stands she could tell Austin was having none of it. His body language shouted defiance.

“
Hey. What did I miss?” Paige Davies slid into the seat next to her.

“
Well, Cade seems to be struggling to get Austin to do what he wants. We were down by ten, but Trey just ran it thirty yards for a touchdown. The fourth quarter is about to start. What were you doing? You hardly ever miss a game.”

“
Cole and I were in Tennessee visiting his mother. I made him turn on the siren so I could catch the end of the game.” She grinned and Annie instantly saw the family connection. She had gotten to know Paige over the past couple of months. They sat together every game and sometimes McKenna joined them. It was strange to have girlfriends. She had never had any before.

“
Colby! Jesus, are you trying to kill me? I called a running play! Are you blind?” Cade screamed. He could feel his blood pressure rising more than it did when he was under enemy fire in Afghanistan when he rescued an ally prime minister who should have known better than to enter a war zone without having the area secured.

“
I thought I was open for the run, so, it was still a running play.” Austin refused to look at him. Instead he kept his eyes on the cheerleaders. He had refused to take any criticism and instead blamed every other player on the team.

Cade looked at the clock. There were two minutes left in this game and they were down by three. “Okay, now listen. I want you to call a slant rout to Hall. Got it?” Austin didn’t bother to acknowledge him as he ran onto the field after practically tripping over his ego. Cade took a deep breath. They hadn’t been covering Hall very closely, and if Colby would actually pass the ball, Hall would make good yardage.

The ball was snapped. Austin stepped back to throw to a wide open Hall and tucked the ball and ran instead. He barely made it back to the line of scrimmage before he was taken down.

“
Time!” Cade yelled to the referee. The whistle was blown and the team made their way toward the sideline. Cade took a deep breath and counted to ten. He would not kill Austin… he would not kill Austin, he chanted in his mind.

“
You’re busting my rhythm, Coach. Let me do my own damn thing.” Austin yanked off his helmet and glared.

“
I’m going to say this once Austin. Once. So help me, if you do not do what I tell you, I will run you to the ground at practice and then make you run more.”

“
Yeah, right. I am the best player on this team. I don’t have to do nuttin'.”

“
Try me,” Cade barely whispered as he hardened his gaze. Austin rolled his eyes and put his helmet back on. “Slant route to Hall. Got it?”

The team lined up and the ball was placed on the line. Cade heard no noise but the whistle of the referee starting the clock. The ball was snapped. Hall took off. With a quick stutter step he lost his guard and was headed for the end zone. Austin raised his arm back and threw the ball. It spiraled through the air and bounced off the ground on the opposite end of the end zone from a wide open Ryan Hall.

The crowd groaned as the band picked up. A loss that should have been a win. Cade was livid. The team gathered around him for the post game prayer, all except Austin who headed straight for the tall Devon Ross in his Cincinnati Bengals warm-ups and gold chains. Cade looked into the emptying stands and immediately focused in on Annie. She saw it too.

“
Amen,” Parks said. The team broke and headed for the locker room.

Cade watched as Trey Everett headed straight for Austin. Devon nodded at him, and Trey sent him a look that could freeze Hell. Austin turned to Trey, and Trey grabbed his jersey at the neck and dragged him by his pads away from Devon. Cade watched as Trey yelled at Austin until something hit home, and Austin reached out and shoved Trey. Trey took a step back and then shoved Austin hard. Austin went flying and landed on his butt on the field.

A couple of people in the stands clapped, and Austin hurried to stand up and stormed off the field in a huff. Devon came over to Trey and Cade figured it was time he got involved. He headed over toward them, but before he got there, Trey shot Devon the finger and walked to the locker room.

Cade looked back to Annie and their eyes locked. They both understood what had happened. Austin was on S2 and Trey knew about it and didn’t like it. She had found her weak link, and he would bet Trey would be in her office first thing Monday morning.

“
Tough loss Coach.” Stephanie saddled up next to him and slipped her hand through his arm. “It’ll be okay though.”

“
No, no it won’t. I’m watching my team implode.”

“
But they were great! It was just one bad play.”

“
I wish. They’re aggressive and not listening to us. Instead they are fighting with each other and not using their heads. They have talent, but they just need to get out of their own way.”

Forty-five minutes later Cade hurried out of the locker room. Tonight settled it. He needed to see Annie and tell her they needed to work on this together. He was hopeful they could work together
closely
. They had been talking and getting to know each other more over the last couple of months, and what he discovered was that he liked her. They worked well together and he knew it. He looked out over the parking lot to where kids were getting in their cars, parents were chatting and tires were squealing. Squealing? Cade watched as a black Escalade turned down a row of cars and headed straight for him.