Bluegrass Undercover (8 page)

Annie couldn’t believe it. Shock had her frozen as she stared at the computer monitor in front of her. “Son of a…,” she groaned. She buried her face in her hands and muttered, “I told him to learn self-defense, and he’s a freaking national hero with a higher clearance level than I could ever dream of. He must have gotten one heck of a good laugh at my expense after I told him he couldn’t protect himself from a kid.”

She lifted her head from her hands and sat there for a minute staring at his military photo. Wow. She might have to make that her screensaver. He was lean and muscled, his face tight and his hazel eyes serious as he stared into the camera wearing his Ranger’s beret.

“
Well, I might as well find out who else is in town.” She tried to remember the guy’s name Lily introduced her too. “Ahmed, that’s it.” She typed in his name and gasped at the data that came back.

No wonder the name sounded familiar. He was famous for his interrogations. No one knew how he operated, but he had led the security teams that kept the Rahmen family safe and the country of Rahmi free of terrorist activity for the last ten years.

She searched Cade’s brothers’ names and couldn’t stop the giggle that escaped. She couldn’t decide whether to be angry or embarrassed at herself for thinking she was the only one who knew danger and the seriousness of law enforcement, so she just laughed. What else could she do when she was actually surrounded by military heroes?

Annie pushed back her chair on the old hardwood floor and walked over to the front window. What must he be thinking of her? More importantly, how was she going to face him again? She had insulted him and he’d never said anything. Not too many men with his resume, or without for that matter, would let a woman take a bite out of their pride like that.

“Well done, Cade Davies. Or should I say Captain Davies.” He was definitely different from all the other men she knew. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as she first thought.

Chapter Six

Cade placed the royal blue KHS hat on his head and took a deep breath. He hated television interviews, especially because he knew they would ask him about the dismissal of three of his players and the horrible loss they suffered last week during the scrimmage against a far inferior team. It had been a rough couple of weeks.

“
Hiya, Coach.”

“
Hi, Steph. What’s up?” he asked his fellow science teacher.

Stephanie Long taught chemistry. She was nice and loved to flirt with him, pretty even. She was petite, only about five two and had beautiful blonde hair that she kept in a French twist during school days. She always wore a pencil skirt and heels when teaching. After school, however, she wore her long hair down and switched out her tight skirts for tight jeans. She was every male student’s teacher crush, and he could see why when looking at her. But, for some reason he just never felt any chemistry with her. So, he was polite but distant to make sure she didn’t get the wrong idea.

“
I just wanted to wish you luck for your first game. I know it’s hard being the new guy, especially after losing three of your best players. What happened to them?”

“
Sorry, Steph, I can’t get into it. It was just a violation of team rules and was handled internally. But, thank you for wishing me luck – I’ll need it.” He looked nervously over the local news crew and tried to keep his stomach calm.

“
You’ll do fine during your interview. You’re so handsome and nice that the camera will love you. Just pretend you’re talking to me.” She gave him a little wink and he couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“
Thanks. I do feel better. I guess I’ll go get this interview over with. See you on Monday.” Cade smiled and walked away from the small field house to the camera crew setting up along the sidelines where his players were warming up on the field.

“
Coach Davies. Could we have a few minutes?” the sports reporter asked. He looked just like any other sports reporter: middle aged, small gut, big hair and a really weird colored tie.

“
Sure.” Cade stopped next to him and waited until the camera was recording.

“
How do you think you’ll do tonight against Oakdale High School?”

“
I think it will be a tough game. They are returning twelve senior starters compared to our three senior starters. They have a lot of experience.”

“
It has been reported that All-State linebacker Corey Bonner, offensive lineman Lee Faust, and senior wide receiver Dan Likens have all been dismissed from the team. Can you tell us why and how you will make up for their loss?”

“
They violated team rules. We cannot make up for the hole left by their dismissal. They were wonderful players and have now been replaced by less experienced players. Our freshman wide receiver, Ryan Hall, has stepped up in practice and is showing a lot of promise. Running back Trey Everett is the heart and soul of this team and will provide the leadership we lost with Bonner’s departure. We’ve taken some of the defensive players and converted them to offensive linemen. They have a lot to learn, but again, are showing great promise after only being in this position for a month.”

“
Thank you, Coach.”

Cade nodded and headed out onto the field as the reporter wrapped up his pre-game comments.

He took in the scene and his nerves steadied. Assistant Coach Parks was warming up the offense. The defense was stretching out. The smell of the fresh cut grass mixed with the aroma of popcorn coming from the stands now filling with people. This was it, the first home game of his coaching career, and boy, did he love it! He placed the silver whistle in his mouth and gave it two short bursts. His team responded immediately and circled around him.

“
Okay, men. I want to focus on execution tonight. Hit your marks, block your targets, and make your tackles. Okay, Trey. You and Ryan head out there for the coin toss. Break!” The deafening sound of clapping and cheers arose from his team as they pumped each other up.

Annie took her seat in the stands. She opted for the highest row in the bleachers so she could see everything that happened around her. Maybe, just maybe, the boss or some more of the soldiers would be here tonight. If she kept an eye on who was in the crowd, and if she could identify anyone who looked like they didn’t belong, she could then also keep an eye on which people the players looked at. Then maybe she could figure out who the dealer was.

She looked around the small stadium. Apparently the first home game was a big deal in Keeneston. The place was packed. People mingled with each other, kids ran around the bleachers, and signs and pompoms waved in the air. She heard cheers as the game started and cheered when others did. She knew football. She loved football, but tonight she was not here for fun. She was here for surveillance. She glanced down at the field and saw Cade coaching one of the boys before sending him into the game. Unlike a lot of coaches she’d seen, he didn’t yell at his players. He taught them. He pulled them aside and showed them what they did wrong and how to do it right. That was just the kind of person he was.

They had talked quite often since the night of the thugs. He had stopped by her office to talk, and she had politely excused herself as fast as she could. She just didn’t know how to act around him. After learning who he was, she knew he would have the smarts to figure out who she was and she didn’t want to risk it. He was nice, polite, and the farthest thing from the egotistical men she was used to.

Every time he saw her at the Blossom Café, he would expertly remove her from whatever grilling she was receiving from Daisy or Violet. He always would walk her home, claiming he had to protect her from errant thugs. Which, in turn, would fuel the gossip flames at the Café and cause her to listen to lectures of not buying the milk when the cow was free – or something like that from the Rose sisters.

She and Cade liked to talk about the team, and she tried to dig around to learn more information on the town. The way he would describe his childhood adventures with his brothers, or the way he helped teach Paige how to outshoot them, always had her laughing. It would only be later that she would realize they had been talking comfortably for almost an hour each time he walked her home. She would scold herself and try to remember to keep her distance. She had a job to do after all. She shouldn’t be looking forward to nights on the porch with Cade.

Annie had to shake her head to focus herself on the task at hand. She was doing it again. She was here to keep a look out for drug dealers, not watch the way Cade’s butt looked when he crouched down to watch a play. She didn’t know why it was so hard to keep her eyes off of him. She’d worked with plenty of attractive, masculine men before. She never had this kind of physical reaction to them though. Well, maybe it was because he wasn’t exactly like those men. They were macho, egotistical and always cocky.

If anyone had a reason to be cocky it was Cade. She’d seen all the medals and awards he had won while in the Army. However, he never mentioned it. He never mentioned his accomplishments and he always talked to her about the accomplishments of the kids in his class or his family. He was kind and caring and staring right at her! She felt her cheeks redden as she realized he’d caught her staring like a doe-eyed teenager at him. Oh God! This was so embarrassing. She scanned the field and clapped when the receiver caught the ball. Maybe he would think she was just watching the game? She took a quick peek and saw he was still looking at her. Before she could look away, he smiled and gave her a wink.

She felt all eyes in the stadium turn on her. People stared at her and started whispering. They poked the people in front of them and they turned to look at her. Some smiled, some winked, and she felt her face turn an even brighter shade of red.

“
You go, girl!” Miss Lily stood and waved from the front row. This couldn’t be happening! Annie tried to make herself shrink as people laughed and shouted encouragements. It turned out Cade was quite the catch, but she already knew that.

She was watching him. He never thought he’d feel such pride as he did now. Cade turned back to the game just in time to see Austin throw an interception. He groaned as the safety ran into the end zone. Oakdale was now leading 21-10. The game had started off strong with a touchdown by Trey, but after the second quarter, things began to fall apart. Austin was sloppy. He wasn’t seeing the field. He thought he was a running back instead of a quarterback and tried to run the ball every down.

Cade was undecided about what happened at half-time. Austin was an arrogant ass. He refused to admit he needed to hand the ball off to Trey, the actual running back, or that he was refusing to throw the ball to Ryan. Trey had stepped forward and given an emotional speech to try to charge the team. It had worked. They had run out in the third quarter and put together a great drive until Austin decided to play running back again. They had to settle for a field goal. And now here it was nearing the end of the game and Austin throws and interception.

“
Austin. What were you looking at when you threw that? There wasn’t a receiver around?”

“
Ryan missed his route. He should have been there. He just lost the game for us, so go yell at him.” Austin yanked off his helmet and threw it to the ground. It rolled over to the metal bench and came to rest at the feet of a very upset Ryan.

“
Ryan didn’t miss his route. He was to run a fifteen yard post, and you threw the ball right into the middle of coverage while Ryan was still five yards from his mark.”

Cade saw Ryan pick up the helmet and head over towards them. Austin was a strong guy. He was around Cade’s size but still needed muscle. Even though Ryan was two years younger, he was much more developed. He was already Austin’s height but probably had twenty pounds on him. Cade was sure by his senior year Ryan would be All-State.

“
You dropped this.” Ryan shoved the helmet at Austin. “And try to show some leadership. Stop blaming others for your mistakes.” Ryan turned around and headed back over to Coach Parks. He also had a maturity Austin was lacking.

“
Take the bench, Austin. I’m putting your backup in if we even have another chance to score.” Cade watched as Austin sulked his way to the bench and sat down, ignoring all his teammates.

Cade took a quick glance back at the crowd and saw Annie scanning the people in the bleachers. He smiled as she evaluated the threat level of every person. At least one good thing came out of this game – he knew Annie was interested him thanks to Miss Lily! He turned his attention back to the game and watched as his defense managed to hold Oakdale to a field goal as the last seconds ticked off the clock.

Annie didn’t know what she was doing. She was hanging around teenagers too much because she was starting to act like a lovesick girl. She leaned against the bleachers and sighed. Maybe he would think she was just slow to leave? Maybe she could say she was talking to the parents, who were the only ones left milling around the parking lot?

“
Waiting for me?” Annie almost jumped as Cade came up behind her.

“
Um. No. I was talking to some of the parents.” Annie took a step away from him. She couldn’t think straight when she was so close to him.