Harley (West Coast Rock Star #1) (12 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Nerves hit her like a battering ram. Nothing was going right. The throbbing in her head pounded at her like a jackhammer. All she wanted to do was figure out what happened that morning.

Where was Harley?

Cade poked her head out of the car even though the tinted window hadn’t rolled down completely. The bumper-to-bumper traffic stretched down the street. She checked her phone again. They’d been stuck in traffic for a half hour. She’d called Jax to let him know she had arrived, then asked if there was any news from Harley.

“Nothing yet,” Jax had replied. He sounded glum. Worried as all heck.

Cade pulled herself forward to chat up the driver, “How far is the hotel from here?”

He pointed a finger. “Four blocks that-a-way.”

With determination and gratefulness that she had put on her running shoes instead of her loafers, Cade grabbed the handle of the car door, checked the blind spot, and stepped out.

“I’ll run from here. See you there!” she shouted through the opened window, then started off in a run.

This was when time spent at the gym came in handy. She was fit. She was a runner. She was positive she’d reach the hotel faster than the stalled car.

When she got off the elevator, the hallway was abuzz. Uniformed cops, suited up detectives, and a few recognizable faces from Mac Security milled about the hallway. She was readily stopped by one of the police officers.

“Can’t let you through, ma’am,” the man who looked about eighteen told her.

Ma’am? Ma’am was the wrong thing to say but Cade sucked up her anger and pride, and calmly told the officer her name. It didn’t ring a bell. She was met with indifference. The folks from Mac didn’t pay any attention to the woman standing in a sweat-soaked tee and jeans. So Cade knew she needed someone to recognize her before she blew a fuse.

“Zee? Jax? Bruno?” she called out.

One of her coworkers looked up from his phone and walked to the officer. “Let her in. She’s the one they’ve been waiting for.”

Damn right, she was! She wanted to yell at the cop but she knew the man was only doing his job. Cade pushed past the two men and headed straight to Jax’s suite. There she found a lot more action, bordering on chaos.

“Jax! Jax?”

“Cade!” Jax appeared from the bedroom, rushed to her and raised his arms to hug her but stopped.

Cade glanced around. There were too many people around them. Too much curiosity. She ached to hold him, comfort him somehow, brush off the worry from his eyes, and kiss it off his lips. She decided it was best to get down to business. “Anything?”

Jax guided her towards the couch and sat her in front of three laptops on the coffee table. He pointed at the one on the left. “This was earlier in the morning,” he began, “Hotel CCTV found her exiting the premises at eleven a.m. The guys and I were at rehearsal. Tina was here. Har was staying with Penny across the hall.”

Cade looked up and found Penny standing in front of them, sullen, defeated. No words were spoken between them but by Penny’s rolled shoulders and furrowed brows, Cade knew that Penny was embarrassed and ashamed that she had let an eight-year-old out of her sight. Penny was also sorry. More sorry than she could tell Cade—at least not in front of all these men. The apology passed between them in a silent understanding.

Jax continued to the middle monitor. “Again, hotel CCTV caught Harley catching a cab.”

“She’s on the phone with someone.” Cade pointed out.

“Yes.”

“Can’t you access that? Track her?” Cade asked.

Jax sighed before answering, “It wasn’t the phone I got her.” Zee stepped forward and handed Jax a cellphone. “This was the phone I asked her to carry around. I don’t know where she got that phone.”

If she could pull her hair out, Cade would have but she didn’t want to show how frustrated she was. They had underestimated the little girl. Harley had been right. Everyone thought she was incapable. Well, they would think otherwise now.

“Did you get a hold of the taxi company?”

“We did,” Zee answered this time. “The driver told us that he had dropped off Harley at the airport.”

“The airport? Where the hell would she go?”

“She had bought tickets to Vancouver with my credit card, but when we checked all the flights out, she wasn’t in any of them.” Cade couldn’t tell if Jax was frustrated, annoyed, or proud of his daughter.

“A diversion?”

“I think so,” Jax answered, “This last feed was from the airport. It shows Harley getting off the taxi, then going straight to the bathroom. But she didn’t come back out.”

Cade played the video, fast forwarded it, rewound it and played it again. She was eerily aware of all eyes on her. The entire suite had gone quiet. They awaited her input. If they had taken the time to get to know Harley, they wouldn’t have been in this predicament. The fourth time she played the video, she paused and waved at the screen. “There!”

Zee, Penny, and Jax all huddled over the monitor and peered at the figure Cade had pointed at.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Zee muttered.

“Is that her?” Penny asked.

Yes, it would have been easy to miss Harley disguised as someone older, taller, and blonde, but Cade had watched her enough to know her little nuances. Cade could tell from miles away how Harley walked, her left leg dragging slightly before clearing the floor. It eluded the others because they didn’t know that Harley had twisted her ankle the day they arrived in LA, when she and Cade had a bout of the giggles, and Harley jumped off the bed and mis-stepped. It was a minor sprain but clearly, it still bothered Harley.

Also, Harley tended to pull on the hem of her shirt when she was nervous. In the video, she had done it a few times in the span of two minutes. Whatever she had planned to do made her nervous. But where was she going? Cade continued watching the feed, keeping an eye on the girl, disguised in a pink halter, matching leggings, denim fringed jacket, and platform white shoes. The outfit was clunky and not very Harley. Harley made it through security, showed her ID—most likely fake—and proceeded into the bowels of LAX.

“Any more tapes?” she asked Zee.

“No. That’s all we could get for now. It would take hours to get our hands on the proper recordings,” Zee replied. It wouldn’t take a genius to guess that Zee had asked for numerous favours to get a hold of the ones they had now.

Cade sat back on the couch, letting her mind wander to the hours of talks she had had with Harley. Was there a specific place she would want to visit? If she hadn’t intended to use the flights to Vancouver as a distraction, why would she go there? Harley despised Fiona. She wouldn’t go to her. Fiona caused Harley a lot of grief. It was only at that moment that Cade had noticed that Fiona wasn’t anywhere to be seen in the suite. Cade was thankful for that, but as far as she knew, Fiona was still in the city. It would have been catastrophic if Fiona had been involved in Harley’s search. Although, Cade wondered whether Jax had told his ex at all. Jax wanted Fiona out of Harley’s life. He did everything to keep his ex’s claws away from their daughter.

With those thoughts, something clicked.

“The cellphone. That’s the one Cade had before you got her the new phone. That’s her old cell phone. You changed the number too, right, Jax?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“She didn’t get rid of the phone. She kept it. Do you have the tracker on it?”

Jax pondered for a moment. “I think so. Zee…” Jax turned to his bodyguard but the big man was ahead of him. He’d turned one of the laptops around and began typing.

“Got it. What the hell?” Zee’s voice boomed in the room, catching everyone’s attention.

Jax sat on the edge of the couch, and Cade found herself doing the same thing. Zee flipped the laptop again and showed them the destination where Harley’s phone was. Before Jax could ask what Harley would be doing in New Jersey, Cade was on her feet, dialling a number.

***

Her presence alone made Jax calm. Once Jax was informed Harley was missing, he hadn’t hesitated to call Cade, regardless of what had gone on between them. He watched her pace the floor, ear pressed on her cellphone. He had no idea whom she was speaking with, but he trusted Cade, more than anyone in the room, even himself.

As soon as she’d walked in, yelling out his name, he’d wanted to hold her, press his body against hers, and kiss Cade until spots appeared before him. But Cade had left him. She had left them. She’d packed up and gone back to Vancouver without hesitation, without a single word to him or Harley. Now that she was back, could he convince her to stay?

With Harley’s disappearance, could Jax use it as an excuse to make Cade realize how much Harley needed her in her life? And as soon as Cade was comfortable, could Jax propose something else entirely? Something more permanent?

Despite Cade’s reluctance, he knew the attraction wasn’t one-sided. Her body responded to him as much as his did to her. He had been right with his assumptions. Cade knew Harley more than anybody did, simply because Cade had taken the time to get to know his daughter beyond what was expected of her. There didn’t seem to be any secret to what Cade had done, but Jax was willing to learn as soon as they found his daughter.

“Benny,” Cade sighed out the name on her third call. “Are you up to speed now?” Jax watched her nod, bite her lip, pause her pacing, then continue again. “Yes, I’ve tried calling her and she isn’t picking up. Yes, I’ve done that as well. I know. I know…” Cade glanced his way, making him sit straighter. Was this Benny person asking about him? Cade pursed her lips and turned her back on Jax, but her voice was loud enough for him to hear. “Don’t you think I know that? Okay…I’ll see you soon.”

When Cade faced him again, she stuffed her phone in her pocket and explained, “Benny’s a cop friend of mine. I think I know where Harley is heading, and I’ve asked him to put an APB on Harley.”

“Where is she going?” It was Penny who asked the question.

Cade stared straight at Jax. An understanding passed between them, which made Jax lean back on the couch and let his head sag in his hands. “She’s coming to see me,” Cade answered.

“I should have known she’d do something like that,” Jax expressed as he looked up.

“You couldn’t have known. There’s no sense beating yourself up over it. My friends are on it. They’ll keep an eye out for her. Benny has contacts in all the nearby airports. Jax, I know you have a concert tomorrow, so I can go on my own to get her back.”

Jax stood abruptly. He was hurt by the assumption, especially coming from Cade. Did she really think that low of him? Did she see him as some useless father? A selfish man only concerned about the fame game? “If you think I give a damn about a concert more than my own daughter then you don’t know me at all.”

Cade raised her hands in front of her. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I’m going.” The tension built up between them too quickly. Not only did Jax feel like he had to fix his relationship with his daughter, he would have to sort things out with Cade too. Both would be worth it. It wouldn’t be easy. Nothing in life is ever easy, but he would surely try. He addressed Bruno, standing between Tina and Zee, “Have a private plane ready to go to New Jersey and a car waiting for us in Princeton. We’ve wasted enough time.” He gave Cade one last glance before heading back to the bedroom.

He had no real purpose to go to the room except to pull his mind out of the fog. Jax didn’t realize that someone had followed him until he heard Cade speak.

“Jax, I didn’t mean to insinuate—” She stopped and stayed still once Jax turned to her and cleared the space between them.

He grabbed her arms with both hands and did what he had wanted to do. He kissed her. And when she didn’t fight him, he kissed her harder, deeper. He put all his soul into it until he felt her melting in his arms.

“It might not be the best time to do that but I had to,” he told Cade, pressing her forehead with his, and taking in her fragrance.

She nodded, licked her lips, and cleared her throat. Her hands found their way around his neck while his hands moved down to circle her waist, keeping her flush against his body. “Let’s get Harley back, then we can finish what you started.” Cade took his hand into hers and led them back out, not bothering to care what other people would think of either of them.

Chapter Nineteen

Fatigue nagged at Harley when her bum hit the hard, dark grey chair. She glanced around the small terminal. She eyed the family of four across from her and bit at the envy that bubbled in her chest. Why couldn’t she have a family like that? The parents, she guessed, were older than Cade and her father, but they seemed content. The man had an arm over his wife’s shoulder while they both read from their own books. The two kids, a boy and a girl who were most likely younger than her, were alternating between bickers and laughter, just as any other normal siblings would.

Harley folded her arms over her chest and thought to herself,
if Cade married my father, would they have a kid together?
She would certainly prefer a little sister, as a brother could be a handful. Harley would learn to braid hair like Cade did, so she could do it with her sister. What would she be named? Harley liked the name Molly. It was simple and sweet. Harley and Molly, yes she liked the sound of that. Would they become best friends despite the age difference?

Harley felt stupid. Those weren’t the right questions to be asking at the moment. She was lost. She was hungry, and more seriously, she had forgotten to take her medications with her. Maybe she hadn’t thought out this plan, now a cockamamie plan, fully.

How could she think that the little knowledge she possessed about Cade would be enough to find out where her former bodyguard lived?

After getting off the plane at Newark, she’d given Niki the ‘okay’ to return to LA. Niki, to Harley’s surprise, hugged her before wishing her good luck. Harley handed her the video copies. In a way, Harley was glad it was all over. Blackmailing someone was something Fiona would do. Harley did not want to become her mother. She wanted to be like Cade.

Now, if only she could find her, so Harley could eat, rest, and once she was strong enough, she could convince Cade to return to LA with her and later on, make her marry her father. It turned out Niki hadn’t hugged her to show some kind of affection. No, Niki robbed her. She picked the few bills she had stuffed in her pocket.

Harley knew that Cade did not live in Newark, but her grandmother lived in one of the boroughs, one that was close to New York City, and she recalled Cade talking about some of the tourist attractions in her hometown. Before letting Niki go, she purchased a flight to Trenton and from there, she’d hoped that something would jog her memory, and she would know which direction to head. But her mind was tired. Her body was getting weaker by the minute. There was a reason why she chose Trenton Airport, but at the moment, she couldn’t figure it out.

Her stomach grumbled, and her head throbbed. Harley bent down to remove the ill-fitting shoes so she could rest her aching feet. How other girls survived in platform shoes all day was beyond her. The action of bringing her head down caused dizziness, and Harley couldn’t stop herself from falling over, banging her head right on the hard floor.

Someone went over to her, a woman, and asked if she was okay. Harley grumbled a response before passing out.

***

Jax rubbed the tiredness from his eyes with both hands. Someone sat beside him, even without seeing who it was, he knew it was Cade. He removed his hands from his face and admired how calm the woman was next to him. She’d kept it together. If she hadn’t come, they wouldn’t even know where to start searching for Harley.

“How are you?” Cade asked, lolling her head to one side before glancing around them, and taking his hand in hers.

“As good as I can be, given the situation.” Jax, without a care to check who was watching them, leaned over to press a quick kiss on Cade’s lips. “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come, Cade.”

She patted his hand reassuringly. “She’s safe now, Jax. People I trust are looking after her until we get there.”

“She eluded all of us. I think Zee was about to rip Penny’s head off when she told us that Harley had gone missing. I’ve never seen him lose his cool.”

“Zee? Lose his cool? Unlikely,” she joked, and Jax couldn’t help but chuckle.

What were the chances that Cade’s contacts were checking the smaller airports when Harley fainted? And better still, Cade’s neighbour was a nurse in the hospital where Harley was taken. Everything was fitting well, because of Cadence.

“Why don’t you rest up? I’ll wake you up when we land,” Cade suggested.

“Rest while you’re around me? Do you know how impossible that is?” Jax enjoyed seeing the blush colour Cade’s cheeks. He reached up and ghosted the back of his hand over her smooth skin. Cade leaned her head to his touch. In that moment, Jax knew what he needed to do to keep Cade. Never again would she leave his sight, or his side. All he had to do was convince her it was the right step to take.

***

Noises began trickling into her waking senses. There were murmurs and beeping sounds around her. The room she was in when she came to was dark, illuminated by a single lamp on the bedside. Harley’s hand went immediately to her forehead. She winced when she felt the goose egg just beneath her hairline. When she moved to sit up, there was a pinch on her arm. She was hooked up onto a heart monitor and an IV drip.

Harley grunted, pushing herself higher up on the bed.

“Har, try not to move, baby.” The voice in the dark startled her.

“Dad?” Her voice came out hoarse. She blinked to clear her vision. Sure enough, her father sat on an armless chair beside the hospital bed. As she settled back down, he moved over to her side, squeezing her hand.

“Hey, you.” He smiled at her. Harley tried to ignore the weariness around his eyes. “You gave us quite a scare, Har.”

Harley nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. I missed Cade and I thought if I visited her, I’d get her to come back.”

“I should have thought of that too. It wasn’t until she came to help us that I realized how special she is to you and me.”

“She helped?”

“Yes, if it wasn’t for her, things could have been a lot worse. Next time, kiddo, if you have an idea, come to me first. I would have gone with you, you know.”

Harley bit the inside of her lip. She felt the guilt eating at her. How could she not have trusted her father?

“Where is she now?”

Jax raised his head and nodded at the door. “She’s just getting coffee. She’ll be thrilled to see you up. I have to let your doctor know that you’re awake.” With another squeeze of her hand and a gentle kiss on her forehead, Jax straightened and walked out of the room.

Harley might not have been proud of the actions she had taken. She considered herself one lucky duck. Everything could have gone completely wrong. Minus her fainting at the terminal, she’d been able to get Cade back into her life. Yet, now she wondered if she would choose to stay.

She looked wistfully at the door where her father and a doctor were talking. Cade appeared by Jax’s side, and as surprised as Harley was, she couldn’t stop the smile spreading on her face when Cade intertwined her fingers with Jax’s. Yes, Harley was indeed one lucky duck. Now off to phase two of her plan.