Even so, seeing Garrett’s gun pointed at him had left him rattled. And that he had raced out to the crime scene yesterday without a disguise?

The hell of it was, he probably hadn’t needed to. Once his panic and adrenaline had faded, Cade had considered the layout of the forested area near the river dump site. There was no way Garrett could have seen his face. He’d done all that nonsense last night for nothing.

Disgusted with himself, he pushed his plate away, no longer hungry as he read the Ledger’s headline: KEY WITNESS MURDERED. He let out the breath he’d been holding as he scanned the article. Nobody had seen him enter or exit the house.

It had been a clean kill. The article did mention the 911 call and quoted Garrett as saying, “I was afraid you’d come,” speculating that the man had recognized his killer. That was okay, though. Nobody knew who the intruder was. Garrett’s security cameras had captured him, but the picture quality was poor and his face had been covered with the ski mask anyway.

Cade clicked to the TV news website to see if they provided any more detail. When the home page loaded, his breath froze in his chest.

“Oh my God,” he whispered. Because there he was.

My face. It was there. For everyone to see.

For a long moment, he could only stare. It was a sketch, but a damn decent one. Anyone who knew him would recognize him. Anyone who saw this sketch would know he was a person of interest.

He gritted his teeth, breathing through his nose to calm his suddenly racing pulse. No one can find me here. This place still belonged to the old pedophile, who, as far as the government knew, was still alive and collecting his social security. Cade kept the taxes and the utilities paid. There was no one to tie him to this house. His check from the casino went to a PO box. The address the nursing home kept on him was his childhood home—not that he would ever set foot in that place again, unless it was to burn it down.

Which he’d considered doing, many times. But the equity in the house was keeping his father in the nursing home. Without it, Cade would be expected to care for the old bastard. Which was not gonna happen, because—

Dammit. Pay attention. He jerked his focus back to the very real and present danger—that his face was on the news.

Garrett had seen him. But how? And was that even important anymore? He’d killed the man. Garrett couldn’t testify against him. But that wouldn’t stop the cops from putting Cade in a cage.

“I need to get out of here.” Merely starting a new job somewhere else was no longer an option. Run. He needed to leave the country. He needed a new life.