CHAPTER 26

As they’d stood togetherat the top of the bluff, Cassie could have sworn Wade had more he’d wanted to say. But he’d stood there without speaking for so long that she’d grown self-conscious. When she’d suggested they head back, he’d almost looked disappointed. But then he’d seemed completely distracted during the hike back down. To cover the awkwardness, she’d randomly talked about her latest psych class. But he’d barely uttered a word of comment.

Now, he was lingering beside her car, looking unsure of herself.

“Uh...Cassie?” he said.

“Yeah?” she said, opening her car door to let Angel hop up onto the seat. The little dog waited patiently while Cassie detached the leash. Then Cassie stood and looked at him. Wade’s deep golden eyes burned with a sun-like intensity. She noticed that his arm muscles were taut. He looked like a coil about to spring.

“Wade, what’s the matter?” She was suddenly concerned.

“Nothing, I—” his voice faltered. “You said that you’re used to handling things on your own. And I understand that it’s hard for you to let other people into your world.”

“Yes,” she prompted when he stopped talking.

He looked down and dug the toe of one shoe into the dirt at their feet, his color deepening. It never ceased to amaze her how this big, beautiful, capable man could seem so incredibly boyish at times.

“What is it, Wade?” she said, her voice gentle.

He lifted his head and looked her in the eye. “Are you willing to let at least one more person who truly cares for you into your world, Cassie? Will you let me in? Because...I love you.”

She stared at him. He’d just said the “L” word. She couldn’t believe it. Ever since Ani forced her to recognize her true feelings for Wade, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. But she’d been so angry with him. And then she’d said such cutting things to him. She hadn’t dared to believe there was any chance that he felt the same, or that they’d have any kind of future together after that. Yet here he was, confessing that he loved her.

“Wade, I—” Her gaze suddenly shifted to a point beyond him. “Oh my gosh!”

“Look, it’s okay if you don’t feel the same—” he started to say.

“It’s not that. It’s Brett!”

He turned in the direction that she was looking and saw Brett coming out of the woods at the far end of the parking lot.

Ever since the altercation with Zack at the restaurant, he’d disappeared. And now, here he was. And he was carrying something.

“Wade, that’s Olga’s package!” Cassie said as they watched Brett load the wooden crate into the back seat of his car.

Before Wade could do anything, Cassie shouted across the nearly empty lot, “Yo, Brett! What are you doing with Olga’s package?”

Brett looked up in shock, but he recovered quickly and opened the driver’s side door.

“Oh no you don’t,” Cassie said, getting behind the wheel of her car and starting the engine. “You’re not getting away this time! Especially not in those wheels.”

“Cassie, let me drive!” Wade stood beside her, hand on her door.

“Are you kidding me?” she said, and jerked her thumb toward the passenger seat. “Hurry up and get in!”

Wade dashed around the front of the car and hopped inside just as Brett roared past them out of the lot. “Buckle up,” Cassie said, punching the clutch and shifting into first. “And hold onto Angel!”

She drove after Brett as he raced toward the park exit and out onto Lakeshore Drive.

“That’s the car he uses for street racing,” she said, picking up speed.

“I guess you’d know,” Wade said grimly.

Cassie shot around a slower moving car that was between her and Brett.

“You need to stop chasing him, though, Cassie. It’s dangerous and illegal.” Wade said. “I’ll call it in and...blast it!”

“What?”

“I left my cell phone in my car. Where’s yours?”

“Glove box,” she said, following Brett onto a gravel road that angled off to the left. She fishtailed a little as the road curved sharply north again. “No way am I losing him, Wade. You can arrest me once we catch him.”

The gravel road dead-ended onto a paved one, and Brett made a quick right turn. So did Cassie. Her engine revved as she dropped a gear, giving her the torque she needed to accelerate faster. Then she went full throttle after him. She could see Wade in her peripheral vision, holding Angel with one hand and fishing around in her glove box with the other.

He pulled out her phone and groaned. “Cassie, it’s dead.”

“I know.”

He tossed it back inside and slammed the glove box shut in frustration.

Brett made a turn, swerving into a hard right, and tore down another straight. She followed.

“I can’t believe I forgot about his hiding spot in the woods,” she muttered.

“What hiding spot?”

She was accelerating again and gaining on Brett. “When we were in high school, Brett used to boost cars and steal stuff out of them like laptops and car parts. Then he’d sell ’em. He kept his stash in this secret spot off trail in the woods.”

She was almost on him when Brett surprised her, making a sudden left from the right lane to shoot straight up Main Street.

“Hold tight!” She’d already blown past the intersection. So, she yanked up the emergency brake. Tires squealing, she spun a one-eighty, racing back to follow him. She saw Wade grip the armrest.

Despite the speed they were driving, Cassie was calm at the wheel, weaving through traffic like she was a machine. Angel watched the scenery flying by the window, completely unperturbed.

Brett sailed through an intersection, but the light ahead turned yellow, then red. Cassie’s horn was a banshee wail as she pushed past slow-motion traffic and flew across the busy intersection, traffic to the left and right braking hard. But they were across and still giving chase, with only a couple of cars between them now.

Cassie saw Wade lean over to look at the speedometer as she hit seventy miles per hour. Then eighty. She could tell he didn’t like it. But he didn’t speak, probably for fear of distracting her. Coming up to the next intersection, Cassie suddenly swerved right onto a side road. Then made a quick left onto an empty road that ran parallel to Main Street. It held a few boarded up businesses, interspersed with empty fields.

“What are you doing?” Wade asked.

“Trust me,” she said. Cassie reached her hand down near the left side of the steering column and flipped a tiny switch there. She downshifted and slammed the accelerator. The engine screamed. With a sudden burst of power, the Mustang leaped forward and they flew up the street.

“What the heck?” Wade shouted over the roar of the engine. “Are you using nitrous?”

“It’s not illegal!” Cassie shouted back. They sailed through three more intersections at over a hundred miles per hour before she took her foot off the gas and spun the wheel hard left onto a road leading back to Main Street. Another hard right and she was literally on Brett’s tail. They were outside the downtown area now.

Cassie was unable to suppress the grin on her face or the wicked gleam in her eyes as she moved into the empty oncoming traffic lane and began inching up alongside the white Evo.

Wade looked over at her again. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”

“Shhh.”

She stayed toward the back end of Brett’s car. Then with a quick spin of the wheel, she steered her front bumper into his car, just behind the rear wheel. She broke quickly as Brett’s car went into a tailspin and the engine stalled out.

“Got him,” she said with satisfaction, as Brett’s car came to an abrupt halt.

She was out of her car in seconds. But Brett had already leaped from his and was racing off down a side street, cutting through yards and jumping over fences parkour style. She ran after him, but he was faster. To her frustration, he disappeared into the growing dusk.

“Cassie!” she heard Wade shouting for her.

Lungs burning, she jogged slowly back to the two cars which were now blocking traffic.

Wade was still holding onto Angel, who was trying desperately to lick his face, while he directed cars past the scene.

“I’m so...mad....I lost him,” Cassie gasped, grabbing at the stitch in her side.

“Don’t worry about it,” Wade said. “We’ll get him. And at least now we’ve got the painting.”

“Right!” Cassie walked over to look into the back of the car, then grinned over at him. “I can’t wait to tell Olga!”

“That’s great, but remember it’s evidence. So, first, we need to take it to the police station.”