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I Can Still Feel You Chapter One | page 1 | page 2 | page 3 | excerpts
Ranger Cade Dillon stopped short in the doorway of Macy Chandler’s kitchen. It took him a moment to absorb the TV crew and the lights, another to figure out that a cooking show was being filmed. The sharp stab of fear that had caused him to sprint up the front walk gradually eased. His partner Nate Blackhorn had told him that Macy had been appearing on the News at Noon, but he hadn’t expected to find a TV crew filming in her kitchen. Her front door had been wide open. Anyone could have walked in. He had. So could Elton Leonard, the eccentric and slick bank robber Cade had been chasing for the past two years. Cade could have been too late. He quickly scanned the crew standing elbow to elbow in Macy’s small kitchen. Behind the island, two people were deep in conversation with Macy, blocking her from his view—a short balding man with a long pony tail Cade didn’t know and a taller man he recognized as Macy’s assistant, Alan Garner. Alan was tall, blond and handsome to the point of being pretty. Cade also knew that he was in a long term relationship with his partner Martin. Cade purposely didn’t look at Macy; instead, he shifted his attention back to the crew. Only when he’d satisfied himself that Leonard was not present did he lean back against the door jamb. Elton Leonard was back in Austin. An informant had spotted him in the area three days ago, the same day Cade had received another anonymous email—“PS, This is Austin.” Cade had been receiving the cryptic emails—sometimes a Country Western song title, like the “PS, This is Austin” message and sometimes an old saying—ever since Leonard had jumped bail and disappeared from Austin two months ago. The gut instinct Cade had honed in his fifteen years as a Texas Ranger told him that Leonard’s return spelled big trouble for Macy Chandler. Before Leonard’s arrest, the media had dubbed the unknown perpetrator of a string of Texas bank robberies “Clyde without Bonnie,” thus romanticizing the exploits of one of the most elusive criminals Cade had ever run into. In the beginning Cade had been the only one who’d suspected Elton Leonard, a reclusive and purportedly brilliant heir to a fortune in Texas oil, was “Clyde.” Leonard wasn’t a large man, and in his rare public appearances, he wore glasses and projected the image of a rather harmless nerd. But Cade had learned that one of Leonard’s talents was his almost chameleon-like ability to shift himself into different personas. When he donned a disguise, he actually became the person. Leonard’s other characteristic—the one that was going to lead to his downfall—was his arrogance. He had a vast collection of cars and he used them to make his getaways. Twice a witness had gotten a partial plate number, and both times, Cade was able to link the numbers to one of Leonard’s cars. It hadn’t been enough to make an arrest, but it certainly pointed a finger. In Cade’s opinion, robbing banks was a game to Leonard—a way of proving that he was smarter than the police and the Texas Rangers, a way to demonstrate that he was above the law. But his last bank robbery in Austin hadn’t gone so well. First off, he’d shot and killed a bank guard, and then Macy Chandler had spoiled his fun by pulling her catering van into an alley behind the bank just in time to see Leonard exit the building, change out of a disguise and drive away. Because she’d thought the behavior odd and more than a little suspicious, she’d noted down the license number. Leonard had once again been driving one of his own cars. Later Macy had picked him out of a lineup, and Cade had made the arrest. Leonard had been charged with armed robbery and murder. “Ready everyone?” The short, pony-tailed man Cade figured for the director backed around the island. “Give me a moment.” A camera man moved closer to Macy, and Alan Garner rearranged some dishes on the island counter. One of the crew members adjusted a light. Thanks to Macy, Elton Leonard had run out of luck. His team of top flight attorneys hadn’t been able to prevent the indictment. If the billionaire hadn’t jumped bail and disappeared, he’d be behind bars right now. And if Cade hadn’t been distracted by sleeping with his star witness, Macy Chandler, Leonard might never have succeeded in skipping out of Austin. “Ready on five,” the director said. A hush fell over the room. That was why Cade had kept his distance from Macy Chandler for two months—so that he could do his job. The attraction they’d felt and acted upon had been too intense, too consuming. Shed interfered with his work which was getting Leonard behind bars. That’s what he’d told himself night after night when Macy had filled his dreams until he ached. “One, two.” He’d given the same explanation to his partner, but Nate wasn’t buying it. Nate had told him flat out that he was running scared from the only woman who’d ever gotten past his guard. “Three, four, five.” (continued...) |
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