Feign

Chapter 2

2

Cade found a seat at the back of the church for the funeral. It was a huge celebration of life for a woman who touched many in the community. Some of her patients spoke about how beloved she was. A friend talked about how amazing Karli had been. Her brother shared how proud he was of his sister and how hard she’d always worked.

All of it made Cade wish he’d met the woman. She was clearly someone who gave of herself. Someone who was generous and kind and good.

After seeing the news report about her, Cade looked into Karli Sloane. She shared the same address as Raina London, which piqued his curiosity even more than her similarities to Tonya. Even though Cade gave Raina’s name and address to Tonya, the fact that Karli lived there, too, made Cade pause and wonder about the woman. About both of them.

He wasn’t sure what he thought he’d find at the funeral, but he walked outside feeling like he didn’t find it. The afternoon was bright and sunny and beautiful. A light rain began to fall as he made his way toward his car. Cade hurried before it got worse, and then he saw her.

Tonya.

She was on the other side of the parking lot, walking away. But it was her. He rushed to catch up to her, but she was too far away.

“Tonya!” he called out.

Someone glared at him as he rushed past them, clearly too loud for a funeral. Cade waved in apology and kept going.

“Tonya!”

She didn’t stop. She didn’t even slow down. It was like she hadn’t heard him at all.

What the hell?

He finally made it to where she was, but she was gone. Lost in the crowd of mourners walking toward the graveyard.

Cade abandoned his decision to leave right after the funeral and joined the others heading to the burial site. He hung back, looking for Tonya in the crowd. He didn’t know how Tonya knew Karli Sloane, or if she even did, but if Tonya was there, there was a reason. He just had to find out what it was.

Karli’s family sat together, but every time the funeral director asked a question, they looked at another woman, a white woman Cade didn’t know. She was the one calling the shots.

Cade pulled out his phone and took a picture of her without anyone noticing. He didn’t know her connection, but there was one. And if she had a connection to Karli, she might have a connection to Raina or Damon or Tonya’s cousin.

Cade scanned the guests once more. He didn’t see Raina London, which was odd since they’d been roommates. He didn’t know anyone else in Karli’s life, but he’d expected to see Raina. Most of the others were wiping their eyes and focused on the coffin as it was carried toward the hole in the ground where the woman inside would rest for eternity.

Funerals were an odd thing for Cade. The finality of it. He could still remember his grandmother’s funeral when he was nine. She was the only person in his life who acted like he mattered when he was a child. His parents were wholly focused on Cade’s older brother, Jackson, Jr., and everything JJ did. Cade was an afterthought at best, but usually not even that.

Except with his grandmother. Her entire face would light up when Cade walked into a room. She always looked for him. He was her favorite person in the entire world. She said he reminded her of her late-husband, the grandfather Cade never met. She told Cade stories about him and made him feel like he could do anything. He was the reason Cade joined the Army. His grandfather had done the same, and the stories his grandmother told him made him want to be a hero, too.

When she got sick, Cade was the only one who could make her smile. And when it was the end, she wanted him there with her. He missed three days of school to be by her side for her last days.

Her death rocked his world. Everything changed overnight for Cade. Instead of having someone who adored him, he was alone. That was what death did. It stole people. It left the ones behind feeling like a piece was missing.

And watching as Karli’s family and friends mourned her was like losing his grandmother all over again. He couldn’t explain it, but after researching her for an entire day, he felt like he knew Karli Sloane. The woman she was and the one she would have been.

Cade was so busy watching the coffin that he almost didn’t notice Tonya standing on the far side of the graveyard, away from the guests. Cade couldn’t call out to her in the middle of the ceremony, but he had to talk to her. Find out where she’d been for two days and if she went to Raina’s apartment like he assumed.

Maybe also find out why another woman was dead.

He moved toward the back of the crowd, keeping his gaze on Tonya. When he reached the edge of the gatherers, he moved around the group and started toward her. He glanced back when a bell sounded. The coffin started to sink. Slowly.

Cade closed his eyes and said a prayer for the woman in the coffin. That she would find peace.

Then he turned back to Tonya. She was gone. Again.

“Dammit,” he hissed, earning a glare from the people near him.

He pressed his lips up into an apologetic smile and moved away from the group. He had a camera in his SUV. Tonya couldn’t have gotten far. Maybe she was still there. And maybe he could find her.

The lot was quiet when he got back to it. His SUV wasn’t blocked in, but he wasn’t as ready to leave as he’d been after the service.

Cade grabbed his camera from the front floorboard and adjusted the focus. He took pictures of the entire crowd around the graveyard. From the family and friends to patients and parents. He didn’t see Tonya, but he kept taking pictures.

The crowd finally started to disburse. He sat in his vehicle, but he couldn’t take pictures without someone noticing. He watched, waiting for Tonya to reappear.

One by one, the vehicles in the lot pulled out. People hugged and cried and shared words, but they all left. When Cade was the only one left, he knew it was time to go.

He turned toward his apartment and remembered he needed dinner for the night. Groaning since the store was the other way, he decided to run into the big box store. If he was lucky, it would be quiet since it was only three o’clock.

Cade grabbed a basket and headed for the frozen foods aisle. He stared at the choices, none of them overly appealing. He had to eat something, though. He grabbed five options and tossed them into his cart. He went to the back of the store and picked up a six-pack of local beer. He was on his way up front when he saw the hair again.

Tonya. What the hell was she doing there?

He followed her down an aisle, but she turned at the other end before he could say something to her. He rolled his eyes at himself and kept going, spotting her again in the chips aisle.

She glanced up when he turned the corner, but she immediately looked away. She busied herself looking at chips.

There was something about the way she was standing there that tugged at him. She was familiar, but not. He thought she was Tonya, but for the brief moment she met his gaze, there was no recognition in hers. Even if Tonya had been avoiding him, she would have reacted to seeing him.

Which meant the woman in front of him wasn’t Tonya.

And unless she had a twin, Cade had a sinking feeling he knew exactly who she was.

He walked closer to her, pretending he was just looking for chips. He grabbed a bag from close to where she was standing, knowing she would look up at him if he moved into her personal space.

He flashed her a smile. “Sorry. These are my favorites.”

She smiled back and nodded, moving a few feet away.

He pulled out his phone and swiped to open the camera app. “What else is on my list?” It was a crappy ploy, but if he was lucky… Yes!

She looked up, and he snapped a picture of her face.

“Apples. Love fresh apples in the fall. My favorite time of year.”

She smiled again and nodded.

Point taken, and mission accomplished.

“Have a nice night,” Cade said as he turned.

She didn’t reply, but she didn’t have to. Cade got what he needed. Confirmation she was not Tonya, and a picture to prove what he already knew.

Karli Sloane was alive.

* * *

Karli watched the man retreat and finally let out the breath she’d been holding. She wasn’t usually the woman men noticed or spoke to in the grocery store. With her thick legs and wide hips, she was ignored more than anything else. Unless she was blocking an aisle. Then she was granted a dirty look.

The man who walked away was just being friendly. She knew people who would talk to anyone and figured he had to be one of those people. That’s the only reason he said anything to her.

She hadn’t noticed him before he spoke and barely saw him after. Her head was spinning. She’d actually attended her own funeral. People always said they wondered what others would say about them, and Karli knew the answer. But it wasn’t real.

Her parents and brothers came, which she appreciated. There was a part of her that wondered if they’d even bother, but obviously Stacey had contacted them. Karli’s cousin, Lorelei, was there, too. They’d been close once, but it had been a while since Karli had spoken to her. Stacey was the one calling the shots and had obviously been the one to make all the arrangements. Karli appreciated it, more than Stacey would ever know. Raina wasn’t there, and neither was Jessica. Karli wasn’t surprised, but she wanted to see her friends. To know they were safe.

Karli hated seeing all her patients there. To know they all thought she was gone. She adored each of them and almost lost it when they started talking about how great she was. For all the times over the last few days she’d felt like crap for running instead of facing the woman in her apartment, none were as bad as knowing her patients were suffering.

But the more Karli thought about it, the more she knew she had no choice but to stay hidden.

Karli continued to stare at the chips as her stomach rumbled loudly. She hoped no one heard. There were times it was tempting to grab something off the shelves and eat it in the store, but Karli couldn’t handle the idea of stealing.

When she was sure the man who’d spoken to her was gone, she moved away from the chips. She went to the baby section and touched all the soft, pretty things. Then she went to office supplies. After walking around for an hour, she decided to get more fresh air before finding her hiding place for the night.

Karli was sick of finding food and starving. She was sick of sleeping in a chair. She was sick of walking hours a day. She wanted a shower and a bed and a good meal.

But more than all of that, she wanted to stay alive. So she kept going. Walking and scavenging and sleeping wherever she could.

* * *

Karli finally had enough after almost a week of hiding in plain sight. She ended up in a long line of fans heading toward the high school on Friday night. She had no idea what was going on, but there was a crowd and they were all distracted.

The school was open for people to use the bathroom. Karli went in and found herself in a locker room instead of just a regular bathroom. She nearly cried when she saw the open lockers with clothes and food inside.

Glancing around to make sure no one else was there, Karli grabbed a granola bar from one locker. She snagged a bottle of pop from another. A third came up with an apple. An empty string bag with the high school logo on it was sitting on the end of a bench. Then she found clothes. A sweatshirt, pants, even a t-shirt.

Not all of it was exactly her size, but it was close enough.

She kept moving through the locker room and found the showers. It was an open space, but it was separated from the rest of the locker room. She felt like she’d hit the jackpot.

Without thinking about what she was doing, Karli turned on the shower. She had to be quick, but she didn’t care. It was better than trying to clean herself in the bathroom at the big box store and always feeling like she wasn’t clean enough.

After her shower, she dressed in the borrowed clothes. She felt guilty taking things from students, but her righteousness was slipping the longer she was on her own, scared, hungry, and dirty.

One day, she’d repay all the people who unknowingly helped her.

She checked to make sure the locker room was still empty, then left. She made it outside and hoped the crowd was still lingering so she could disappear into it again.

Thankfully, there was a small group just outside the door. She walked past them, pumping her fist when they cheered for the school she’d just adorned herself as a fan of.

Karli pulled her hood up and glanced around. It was risky sneaking into the high school for a shower, but it had been too long since she had one. She needed to feel clean. Or cleaner.

She turned toward the baseball field and ducked her head, hoping to blend into the crowd and disappear before anyone recognized her. The sweatshirt she swiped from the locker room was big enough that she could wear her pilfered backpack underneath and hide that she was carrying her dirty clothes and not much else with her.

“Good game, huh?” a guy asked her.

Karli nodded. “Definitely.”

“Think they can hold on to the lead?”

“I hope so.” Karli flashed the guy a smile, avoiding his gaze. She hoped that was the right answer. She didn’t know what the score was or who was winning, but she was going to play along.

“Me, too. My son’s the right fielder. He said the team really wants to win this game for Coach Tom. They want to make it to the playoffs for his last season.”

“That’s nice of them,” Karli said. She kept pace with the guy. In another lifetime, she might have let herself think he was cute. Short dark hair, a nice smile, and the kind of eyes a woman could get lost in. If she wasn’t already lost. Or trying to be.

“Yeah. He’s been a great coach. Definitely goes above and beyond for these kids. Do you have a kid who’s playing?”

Karli shook her head. “No. I’m here with a friend.”

“Oh, yeah? Does your friend have a kid on the team? Jake has all the kids over sometimes. I probably know him.”

Karli searched her mind for the little she knew about baseball. “Um, yeah. He’s the pitcher. One of them.”

“Roger? Nick? Antonio? Jerome?”

“Yeah, Jerome.”

The guy nodded and kept walking with her.

“So, I should go find my friend. Enjoy the rest of the game.”

“You, too, Karli.”

Karli stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “What? Um, what did you call me?”

“Karli. Isn’t that your name? Karli Sloane?” He turned and looked at her, crossing his arms over his wide chest. He raised one eyebrow.

“How… I mean, no. You must have me confused with someone else.”

“Actually, no, I don’t. Because you’re Karli Sloane.” He took a step closer to her.

“Isn’t that the woman who was found dead in her apartment a while ago? Her friend killed her, right?” Karli tried to play off the accusation even as her entire body flushed hot and broke into a sweat.

“Except her friend didn’t kill her. But you already know that, Karli. Since, you know, you’re not dead and Jessica didn’t kill anyone.”

“Who are you?”

He smirked, the edge of his lips turning up. He knew he caught her. They both did.

Every instinct in her said to run, but there was something about the look in his eyes that said he was smirking because he figured it out, not because he was going to turn her in.

“What do you want?” Karli asked.

“Answers.”

“What kind of answers?”

“The kind I think you can help me get. Starting with who actually killed the woman in your apartment.”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know who she was.”

“Her name was Tonya Warren. She hired me to find her cousin. She thought you knew something. Or the woman who was staying with you did.”

“Raina?”

The man nodded.

“Wait a minute. How did you find me? How did you know who I was? How do you know all of this?”

“Because I’ve been following you, Karli. And you’re the only one who can help me. Will you? Please?”

Karli looked at him. He was a stranger. He’d been following her. He hadn’t turned her in, or outed her. He wanted to help her. If they worked together, she could get her life back.

But first, she had to trust him.