Her head whipped to the side. “Absolutely not. This is my family. My business. My town. I refuse to lose any more of it, especially if there was something I could’ve done.”
Both of his hands shot up as a show of resignation topped off with a look of astonishment sent my way. Not many women after being threatened—after having their loved ones threatened—by a member of a drug cartel would be the first to jump to do something about it.
“This is a huge operation we are dealing with here,” he began slowly when I didn’t contradict her. “Blackman is like the outer ring on a Redwood—there are hundreds of rings after him before you even get close to the center.” He bent forward, locking his hands on the table in front of him. “We know he’s on their payroll in some way. I don’t know if Roasters was only his idea or if he’s taking orders from higher up. I don’t know if we take him out if there will be a hundred more like him coming down the line. We need to be smart and, more importantly, you need to be safe.”
“Okay,” she agreed begrudgingly. “But he’s expecting me to change my mind by tomorrow—to call him tomorrow.”
He huffed, rubbing his fingers along themselves, trying to piece together a plan. Tomorrow wasn’t a lot of time—to gather more information nor come up with a way to stop this before Blackman made good on this threat.
I felt Laurel perk up, and I knew what was coming before she even began. “What if I call—”
“No!” Both Ace and I spoke at the same time.
“You didn’t even hear—”
My hand gripped her shoulder. “Laurel, you’re not going to call him. You’re not going to lure him out.”
“But it makes sense,” she insisted, pulling out of my grasp and folding her arms, determination etched into her features. “I’ll tell him that I’ve changed my mind and I’ll sell him the building. When we meet to do that… so I can sign over the deed… you can be there to arrest him. What other choice do we have?”
The tic in my jaw was strong and steady. The idea made sense. The idea was a good one. Simple. Effective. I hated it.
“I don’t like it,” Ace interjected, speaking my thoughts. “I don’t like it, but I also don’t know what other option there is. It’s her name on the deed. It’s not like I could send someone else.”
“Yeah, and what if he just kills her and takes the paper?” I demanded roughly. “Because you have to think about that.” I looked to Laurel. “Now that he’s threatened you, maybe he’s not interested in making this legitimate. We can’t rule that out.”
“We won’t,” Ace told me tightly. “We won’t rule it out, and we won’t let it happen.”
I looked between them. I was outnumbered. Both were determined for different reasons, but there was no arguing with them. Especially when I didn’t have a better plan.
“I don’t like it,” I bit out.
Laurel turned in my arms and cupped my face. I could practically hear the ocean of calm echoing in her eyes and still, it didn’t get rid of the fear that pierced my heart.
To think that I was the one reassuring her earlier today that she wouldn’t lose me, and now, I was the one petrified of losing her.
“It’s going to be okay, Eli,” she murmured like we were the only two in the room. “I’m going to be okay.”
My gaze warred with hers, both loving and hating her strength in that moment. With a deep, uncomfortable sigh, I bent down and kissed her forehead. A reluctant concession.
“So, how is this all going to work?” I turned and demanded of Ace.
If this was going to happen, not only was I going to know each and every step along the way, but I was going to be there the whole damn time.
“Let me get back with Dex and figure out the safest way to make this happen. We’ll figure it out tonight and reconvene in the morning. I don’t want them to suspect that she’s been in contact with us. I don’t want them to suspect she knows anything about the drug connection,” he said firmly.
We both nodded and the large tattooed man disappeared with the promise to return soon.
As soon as he was gone, Laurel sagged against me, the strength she’d mustered over the past half an hour dissipated now that we were alone. She leaned into me, and I stood there with my arms wrapped tightly around her.
“Thank you,” she murmured against my shirt.
“Why are you thanking me?”
Her head tilted up from my chest to look at me. “For letting me do this. For letting me do something to stop this. To save my legacy.”
Like I could stop her.
She’d faced every imaginable loss in her life. I wasn’t going to be the one to stand in her way from stopping another one.
“Don’t thank me, Laurel. Honestly, there’s still time for me to change my mind,” I grumbled even though we both knew that wasn’t happening. “Whether you remember it or not, I promised you the night we met I wouldn’t let this town take anything else from you, and that includes this—your decision to do something about it, to try to right a wrong. I’d never be the one to take that from you, even though I wish like all hell there was another way.”
“I love you.” The words shone from her soul right through her eyes and it was that love that resisted fear.
“I love you, too.”
I’d promised her she wouldn’t lose anything else from this town. And I prayed I could protect her well enough to keep my word and keep her safe.
Laurel
“You sure you want to do this?” Eli asked for the millionth time.
I nodded and gave him a brave smile even as the nervous sweat seeped from my fingers into that horrible man’s black business card. The second one I’d had to touch when he’d left it with me yesterday.
Yesterday, the plan seemed simple and sure. Today… now… as I was about to call the number while Eli, Ace, and his brother, Dex, all sat around my dining table… it was overwhelming.
“Yeah,” I added as extra reassurance—for them and myself.
“You sure you don’t want to go through it again?” Ace asked, with zero judgment in his voice if I needed to practice one more time.
“No, I’m good.” I nodded and unlocked my cell, tapping in the number.
Determined, I jabbed forcefully on the call button before I could hesitate any longer and held the phone up to my ear.
Those two rings could have been heard on the other side of town for how loud they seemed to me and how silent my companions were. And if looks could murder, Blackman would be dead on the other end of the line right now.
“Miss Ocean.” The voice slithered over me, threatening and soft.
Deep breaths, Laurel. He’s not here. He can’t hurt you.
“Mr. Blackman,” I greeted coolly with only the slightest quiver at the end.
“I was hoping to hear from you.” He spoke smoothly, like an oil spill on the ocean, the dark and deadly liquid suffocating everything it touched. “Have you thought about what I said?”
Or the way you almost strangled me?
“Yes, I have.” I glanced at Ace who was nodding encouragingly. “I’ve decided you’re right. I don’t belong here, and I have no idea how to run a coffee shop. I think it’s best if I just sell and move on with my life and your offer was very generous.”
The moan of satisfaction on the other end of the line made me want to vomit.
“Wonderful,” he encouraged.
“I-I don’t have the deed,” I lied, praying that the shake in my voice came out less than how it sounded to me. “I have to get it from my lawyer on Monday, but then I can meet you at the coffee shop to sign it over.”
There was a pause and I held my breath, hoping—praying he believed me.
“I will meet you there at noon.”
The breath I hadn’t realized was bound in my chest let loose. “Great. I mean, that works,” I stuttered. “See you on Monday.”
Just as I was about to pull the phone down, that oily sound smeared over me once more. “Oh, and Miss Ocean?
This business is better handled between just the two of us, don’t you think? If you choose to bring anyone else into our arrangement, I’m afraid I will have to, too.” I could hear the menacing smile on his face. “And I don’t think my friends are as nice as yours.”
My stomach dropped, bile rising in my throat.
He didn’t bother to wait for me to agree before hanging up. He knew he had me.
Eli reached for my hand as soon as I set the phone down, and I latched on to his fingers tightly as I took my first full breath in several minutes.
“Are you alright?” He wouldn’t let me look away or share anything until I answered him—until he knew I was okay.
“Yeah.” I refused to not be okay. Not now. “Roasters. Noon on Monday.” I gulped and looked to Ace. “He… he told me not to bring anyone. He said he’d have to bring someone then, too.”
He nodded, and it comforted me to see he must’ve expected that. “It’ll be okay, Laurel. He doesn’t know you have someone to bring, aside from Eli. He doesn’t know what we know.”
“You sure you want to do this?” Eli questioned. “We can find another way.”
“I’m okay.” I reached for and squeezed his hand.
“Alright, let’s go over everything again,” Ace suggested, and I agreed. Focusing on the details is what would keep me sane through today and tomorrow, knowing this would all be over come Monday as long as I stuck to the plan.
Even though Ace and Dex walked me through what would happen on Monday when I met with Blackman again.
He went over the wire I was going to be wearing. He reiterated where he and Dex and Eli would be waiting. He reiterated that the cameras would be watching and capturing everything, too. All I had to do was get on tape either a threat or confession and give him a fake deed and a tracker. By the time he realized it wasn’t the real one, the police would be arresting him.
If only Covington could locate where he was. But Dex had checked everywhere. They’d even sent a man over to the resort, but Blackman was nowhere to be found.
We needed to be able to find him and solid evidence before we could go to the police. Blackman was important to the organization, and if we could get any information about the extent of the cartel’s presence in Carmel Cove, that would be even better.
“Drink.” I looked up to see that Eli had made coffee for everyone, the aroma dousing the tension in the room.
Coffee wasn’t magic, I reiterated to myself. Just like marinara sauce wasn’t magic. Still, as the first sip touched my tongue, I let the lie fall in its tracks and admitted that this was magic—magic like a wardrobe turning into a doorway to Narnia.
Because only magic is able to take something ordinary and make it do the extraordinary.
And this ordinary cup of coffee accomplished the extraordinary task of calming me in the middle of this storm, of giving me strength when it was perfectly legitimate to be afraid, and of making me feel nothing but the love that surrounded me even though I now had everything to lose.
Laurel
It felt like only minutes had passed since I’d called Blackman, yet somehow it was Sunday night and in a little over twelve hours, I was going to meet the man who’d threatened me. The man who’d destroyed my family’s coffee shop. The man who’d destroyed the last thread of my grandfather’s failing sanity.
An anger like I’d never felt pooled in my blood, pulling my cells taut with anticipation and anxiety. Each minute was another step across a tightrope to Tuesday, just waiting to get to the other side of the chasm.
Eli was right. Grief clarified what was important in life.
It clarified my place here in my hometown.
It clarified my future at Roasters.
And it clarified my capacity to love—my need to love again.
Carmel Cove was where I belonged. And I belonged here with him.
“I got it, sweetheart,” Eli insisted as I rose to help him clean up from dinner. We’d spent the whole day making magic marinara so we could have spaghetti and meatballs tonight.
It was my pap’s traditional Sunday meal, and if I had anything to say about it, it would be ours, too. It was a silly little thing, but I was starting to see all those silly little things as reminders that even though he wasn’t here, he wasn’t gone.
“Thank you,” I murmured, reaching up on my toes, pressing my lips to his.
“You sure you’re okay about work?” He arched an eyebrow.
Resting my hip on the edge of the table, I rubbed my hands together. “Yeah. I’m not sure why I was so nervous. I knew Rachel would understand.”
In fact, my boss replied to my call informing her of my resignation with a sigh and an ‘It’s about time I got this call.’
Maybe because it was her job to see trends before they arrived, she’d picked up enough pieces from my calls and emails over the last several weeks to realize that Carmel Cove was no longer a layover in my life; it was my final stop.
No matter what happened with Blackman and Roasters tomorrow, it didn’t change that Carmel was where I needed to be, and I wasn’t going to let uncertainty stop me from taking the steps to finally come home. For good.
After letting her know I would be back in LA in another week to wrap up what was left of my life there and square away my things, I thanked her for everything that she did for me with tears in my eyes. Even though it hurt to say goodbye to a woman I liked and admired, this was the right move—the only move—for me.
Eli gave me a long hard look before nodding and turning back to the sink.
Neither of us brought up the meeting tomorrow. It was the elephant in the room that had already been addressed but stood there, waiting patiently for his time to leave.
Eli had been tense since the moment Ace and Dex and I agreed on our plan. He didn’t have to say anything, it pulsed in every breath. It hummed in every touch.
He was always touching me no matter where we were, whether it was holding my hand at the grocery store or playing with my hair as we tried to work through some of my pap’s unfinished crossword puzzles last night.
And in the moments when he couldn’t reach me, Eli looked at me with an intensity that, if it could be converted into something physical, the strength of his love would create a magical shield to protect me. But because that wasn’t possible, he touched me to let me know he was there to give me strength and at night, he took me to let me know he was mine.
“I’m going to change. I’ll meet you on the couch,” I murmured, and he shot me a wink that sent the butterflies in my stomach springing to life.
I felt my cheeks heat and the insistent pool of heat lower in my body begin to swell.
I’d never get tired of how this man could make the worries of the world drop like a curtain, leaving only him and me on the center stage of life.
And I’d never stop sending up silent prayers of thanks to my pap for giving me this man to move forward with. Because if I couldn’t be grateful for what he left me—the memories, the people, the business, Eli—then what was the point of grief?
Pausing in the living room, I pulled out the book of crossword puzzles we’d been engrossed in last night from the top of the puzzle-book stack. I went to set it on the couch and caught sight of my phone ringing; the sink and the clatter of dishes hid the vibration.
Grabbing it, I hesitated when I saw the caller ID.
Jules.
I glanced at the kitchen. I didn’t want to put Jules in any more danger than she was already, but I hadn’t heard from her in so long I was already worried if she was okay.
Pulling my lip between my teeth, I swallowed an apology and prayed I was doing the right thing.
“Hello?” I answered before I could think twice.
“L-Laurel?” My cousin’s subdued voice faltered as she replied.
“Hey, what’s up?” I sat up straighter on the couch. “Are you okay? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for days.” I winced, my frayed nerves getting the best of my tone.
“I know, I’m sorry.” She paused and I shifted my phone to my other ear. “And I’m sorry to bother you so late,” she continued without further explanation of her absence. “I was wondering if you could meet me? To talk…”
“Right now?” My stomach cinched. “Is everything okay?”
Another pause that felt stretched too thin. “No… I mean, I don’t know. I can’t… I can’t talk about it here.” Her voice grew softer, weakened with worry and threaded with fear.
“Okay.” I nodded, my mind shifting into overdrive, all thoughts of Blackman gone in the face of my suffocating concern for my cousin. “Does it have to do with your family? Are you okay? Are you safe? Do you need me to come there? To get you?”
Questions fired like bullets from my lips. Delusional images of her locked up in a tower flashed through my mind.
“No. I mean, I’m okay, but no, I don’t need you to come here,” she clarified, sucking in a quick breath. “But can you meet me somewhere? I can’t stay here, and you shouldn’t come here.”
“Of course.” There was no question. Even though this had nothing to do with Blackman, I wasn’t going to put her off when she sounded like this.
I could hear her uneven breathing through the line and my chest ached.
“I’ll meet you at Roasters.”
“Absolutely.” I rose and bolted for the kitchen. “I’ll see you there in ten minutes.”
Eli’s head whipped to me, eyebrows raised and his hands mid-dry on a plate, as he pinned me with a sharp stare. Holding his gaze, I grabbed my coat from off the hook.
“Please, Laurel. Don’t tell anyone. This is… my family. I don’t know what to do… who to trust…”
Oh God. It was her family.
“Of course. I’ll be there in ten.” With my heart hammering, I hung up and leveled with Eli. “It was Jules. Something happened, and I have to go meet her.”
“What do you mean? What happened?” he demanded, emptying his hands and approaching me.
“I-I don’t know,” I admitted. “Honestly, I don’t know. It’s something with her family and—” I broke off with a huff as I shoved my arms into my jacket sleeves. “I knew it. She practically admitted to being trapped there when I talked to her the other night. I knew I should’ve stopped her then.”
Beholden: A Small-Town Standalone Romance (Carmel Cove Book 1) Page 28