Love like Yours Series (Box Set #1-4)

by Nicole S. Goodin

  “Nothing,” he grumbled. “Let’s go.”

  ***

  God I felt so much better for the change of scenery – I was getting some serious cabin fever. I hadn’t been out for a real-life run since before we went away and I needed one soon. I absently wondered if Lawson would go for a run with me when we woke up at his place tomorrow morning.

  I began mentally writing a list of the things I’d need for my sleepover when my office phone rang.

  “Ellerslie Rush,” I answered

  “El.” Quinn’s voice was barely a whisper.

  “Quinn, what is it?”

  “Come to my office. Get Law.”

  “Quinn, what the hell—” I was cut off by the sound of her hanging up on me. In a flash I was on my feet and out the door.

  “Get Lawson to Quinn’s office now!” I yelled to West as I ran past. I saw his shocked expression before he snapped out of it and picked up the phone.

  I ran the few doors down to Quinn’s office and threw the door open. She was seated at her desk looking at her laptop. Her face was white as a ghost. I choked out a tortured sounding noise and moved to crouch down in front of her. “Quinn what’s going on, honey? Are you hurt?”

  She just stared at me for a few beats, her eyes wide with shock.

  “Quinn,” I demanded. “What’s happened to you?”

  “It’s not me. It’s you,” she whispered.

  I had no idea what was happening here. Quinn was freaking me out.

  Where the hell was Lawson? Maybe he could get her to make some sense.

  “Look,” she said as she pointed to the screen of her laptop.

  I pulled my eyes from the terrified face of my best friend and gasped. It was a photo of Lawson and me from only an hour or so earlier – we were sitting inside the small café at a table, smiling across at one another. But it wasn’t the photo that had me shaking. It was the words typed underneath it.

  ‘TELL THEM THEY SHOULD BE SCARED. I’M COMING.’

  My skin broke out in goosebumps as I read it over and over again.

  Lawson bounded into the room. “Are you hurt?” he demanded to Quinn as he took in the two of us.

  We must have looked a sight. Quinn was still sitting in her chair looking far too pale, and I was crouched on the floor in front of her, literally shaking in my boots.

  Neither of us spoke.

  “Ellerslie, is she hurt?”

  I snapped out of my trance. “No. No she’s not hurt.”

  I pushed the laptop across Quinn’s desk. “You need to see this.”

  I watched the rage spread across Lawson’s face as he saw the photo and read the threat. “Fuuuuuuck!” he roared as he ran his hand through his hair and paced the room. He stopped and looked back at the screen again. “Fuck.”

  Quinn began sobbing, and I jumped up to wrap my arms around her.

  “Shhh, Q. It’s okay. We’re both okay,” I crooned to her. We stayed like that until Lawson pulled us both up and wrapped his strong arms around us.

  Quinn calmed down after a few minutes – but I knew it might not be long before the hysteria crept back in. “We need to get her home, Lawson. She’s losing it.”

  He nodded and let us go. “Pack up her stuff, Ells. I’ll go and tell Macie and West to sort everything out.”

  I gently pushed Quinn back into her chair and began packing up her stuff. I peeked over at her and tears were streaming silently down her face. I stopped and crouched down in front of her again. “It’s okay, Quinn. Lawson won’t let anything happen to any of us. Neither will I.”

  She looked at me with glassy eyes. “How are you not freaking out right now? Someone wants to hurt you,” she said in a shaky voice.

  “Right now, Q, the only thing I’m freaking out about is you. Can you calm down for me?”

  She took a deep breath and tried to steady herself. I finished picking up her stuff and it wasn’t until I tried to zip up her bag that I realized how badly I was shaking.

  Lawson’s hands closed around mine. “I got it, baby.”

  I nodded at him and helped Quinn up out of her chair. “We’re going home, girls.”

  “Yeah, I want my bed,” Quinn murmured.

  “No. You are both coming to my house. El already was, and there is no way in hell I’m leaving you at your place, Quinn.”

  I was one hundred percent with him on this. There was no way I was leaving Quinn either – she didn’t argue.

  We made it to the elevator with only a few curious glances. Most people saw Lawson’s angry glare and looked away quickly.

  “You packed her laptop right, Ells? We need to call Mark.”

  “Yeah, I got it. It’s in the bag.”

  “Good, I grabbed your stuff too.”

  We stepped into the elevator and I felt Quinn relax a bit. She took a deep breath. “I’m really sorry for losing it like that back there. God, you two are everything to me and I just couldn’t imagine anything happening to either of you. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine, Quinn. I’m sorry that this bastard has dragged you into this.” Lawson hugged her. “I’ll take care of this,” he growled. We stepped out into the parking garage and Lawson nodded to the security guard. “Shit. We have two vehicles. Are you okay to drive, Ells?” Lawson asked me.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I can go home and get Quinn and me some stuff if you want to take her straight to your place?”

  He just gave me a look that screamed ‘Are you kidding me?’

  I quickly held up my hands in surrender. “Fine. I’ll see you at our apartment. Are you taking Quinn?”

  “Yeah.” He pulled me to him and kissed my forehead. “No stops. Straight home. I’ll be right behind you.”

  “I don’t doubt that for a second.” I smirked at him. He smacked my ass as I turned away from him and I laughed – it lightened the mood for a minute at least.

  46. Lawson

  Jesus, my sister was fucking crazy – as if I was going to let her stay home by herself... she’d lost her mind. She kept going on and on about invading mine and El’s time together. I had told her I’d just planned some DVD’s and was cooking dinner – maybe a walk along the waterfront in the morning. There was no reason Quinn couldn’t join us.

  She had eventually stopped whining and sat in a sulking silence instead.

  We got to the girls’ apartment, got their shit packed and got out of there within half an hour. El had left her Jeep behind and got in my truck with Quinn and I.

  I was pissed off that I wasn’t going to get to show Ells my house under different circumstances. I wanted tonight to be relaxed and fun – not tense and scared.

  I’m not letting him take any more control.

  “Okay, girls. This is what’s going to happen. We’ll call Mark, send him what he needs and then we are going to forget this shit for a few days.” I looked quickly back to Quinn. “Q, you’ll stay with me unless you are with either Reeve or Colt. Do you understand? I’m not having you on your own.”

  Quinn rolled her eyes but nodded in agreement.

  I grabbed El’s hand. “I want you with me. No arguing.”

  She squeezed my hand and grinned at me. “You’re lucky I like you bossy. I’m okay with it. I want you with me too.”

  My stomach did a flip. At least I was getting to spend more time with her – it was the one positive to come out of all this bullshit.

  We drove the rest of the way in silence. Quinn was texting and El was humming along to the songs on the radio. As we approached my neighborhood I began to get really nervous.

  What if she doesn’t like my place?

  Shit... what if she doesn’t like Zefer?

  “We’re nearly there,” I told El.

  She sat up a little straighter and looked out the window. “Wow, this is a really nice area.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, it’s awesome out here.” I tried to calm my nerves as we pulled into my driveway. I stopped at the gate and keyed in the pass code.

  1987 – Q
’s birth year.

  The gates opened and I drove the truck down the drive.

  My house was big and classic. It was two stories and painted a light gray-blue color. The window frames were white and their style complimented the colonial look I had been going for. It had brick trim features on the built-up garden beds that matched the brick chimneys on the house. I’d done a lot of planting around the place; there were trees scattered over the large lawn – I even had an orchard out back that was quickly becoming established.

  “This is home,” I announced. I couldn’t wait to show El the view out the back of the house; the porch wrapped around and overlooked the waterfront. It was my favorite part. It was a beautiful day today, the sun was out, but it was still freezing.

  First, I would call Mark and deal with this bullshit, then I was showing my girl around.

  Ellerslie still hadn’t said a word. “What do you think?” I prompted.

  “Are you kidding?” She gaped. “This is your house?”

  I chuckled nervously. “Ah, yeah. This is it.”

  She moved her lips as if she was saying ‘wow’, but no sound came out. “Lawson, this is amazing.” She looked around in awe. “I’d imagined something really modern, sleek, you know? Not this.”

  “I like classic better.”

  She smiled a sweet smile at me. “I like classic better too.”

  I knew she’d like it.

  I pulled into the garage and put the door down behind us. I jumped out and rounded the front of the truck just as El was getting ready to hop out. I frowned at her.

  “He’s gonna get pissed if you don’t start waiting for him.” Quinn laughed from the back seat.

  “What?” El looked confused.

  “The door.” Quinn nodded in my direction. “He’s gonna get cranky if you don’t wait for him to open it for you. Country boy, remember?”

  El's mouth fell open and she looked back at me. “For real?”

  Bloody Quinn. She was always opening her big mouth.

  I rubbed the back of my neck and gave El a guilty smile. “Kinda... yeah. My grandfather raised me to always open the door for a lady.”

  El’s eyes shined at me. “Well then, if you’ll excuse me.” She gestured for me to move back.

  I gave her a confused look but she waved me away with a flick of her hand. I stepped back and she pulled the door shut again.

  I couldn’t help but laugh at her, sitting in there looking adorable.

  God, I love the sight of her in my truck.

  I opened the door for her and held out my hand. She took it, with a huge smile on her face and kissed my cheek once she was standing on the ground. “Thank you, Lawson.”

  I shuddered slightly at the sound of her using my name and turned to open Quinn’s door.

  “Does Colt open your door, Q?” El asked.

  Quinn laughed loudly. “Ah, no. But I’ve never given him the chance to.”

  El giggled and looked around at my garage. “Holy shit! You really are from the country.”

  “How’s that?” I asked quizzically.

  “Look at you.” She poked at my chest. “You’re massive, your truck is massive, and holy shit this garage is bigger than my last apartment.”

  I chuckled. She was right, I liked things big – back home, shit was always big.

  I was about to make a dirty joke about how big I really was, but El got in first.

  “I know what you’re going to say, Lawson Pierce, and if you make a joke about the size of your junk I’m gonna scream.” She had a teasing look in her eye.

  I held my hands up in mock surrender. “I wasn’t going to.”

  She knows me too well already.

  “Uh huh. Sure you weren’t, cowboy.”

  I pulled out their bags and gestured for them to follow me inside. “We need to go and call Mark.”

  ***

  “Quinn, did you let Colt know you won’t be coming to the club?” I heard El ask from the living room.

  Quinn seemed to be getting back to normal. She had taken a bath while I called Mark – he’d had us forward the email to him and I’d organized for my tech guy, Alex, to try and trace the email address that was used to send it.

  Since we’d left the office early, and we didn’t want to leave the house, we’d all just got changed into comfortable clothes and curled up on the couch watching a movie while we waited for any news from Mark or Alex.

  “Yeah, I called him. He can’t leave till the night manager arrives at nine, but he asked if he could come and see me then. I told him I wanted to go with him to his place. I want to give you guys your space.”

  “Honestly, Q, it’s fine. We’re just hanging out,” El replied.

  “Pinkie promises don’t get broken, El.”

  What in the hell are those two going on about?

  I heard El sigh. “I know. I’ll tell him. I’m just scared.”

  I walked into the living room. “Scared of what?” I asked. El jumped, she hadn’t seen me come in.

  “Ah, um... just that this person might try and hurt us.”

  I didn’t think that was what she was really scared about, but the thought fired me up none the less. I looked at her with my eyes blazing as if I was ready to hunt. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, El.”

  She’ll tell me when she’s ready.

  She nodded and bit down on her lip. “Anyway, we’re forgetting about all of that for tonight, what should we do now?”

  “How about I show you around the house? I’ve got someone I want you to meet.”

  El looked at me in confusion. “What? Like a cleaner or something?”

  I laughed at her. “No, El. Not my cleaner. C’mon, I’ll show you.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. “Are you coming, Q?”

  “Nah, I’m good. Me and him don’t see eye to eye anyway.”

  She was right about that.

  I pulled El by the hand out of the lounge and into the games room. “This is the games room.” I gestured across the room. “And that, is Zefer.”

  El ignored the room and zoned in on my dog, sitting on his big padded bed.

  I was suddenly nervous again. I loved this dog, and I really had no idea if she even liked dogs at all. “Are you okay with dogs?”

  She ignored me and walked over to where Zef was still sitting. I hadn’t given him the command to move – he would sit there until I did.

  “Hi, Zefer,” I heard her say in her sweet voice. She crouched down in front of him and held her hand out for him to sniff. “I’m El.”

  He looked at me for permission and I nodded. He sniffed her hand and she patted his head. That was all it took. Zefer pushed up against her hand and begged for more attention. Bloody dog was as much of a sucker for her as I was.

  I made my way over to them and I heard her crooning to him, “Oh you are just so handsome, aren’t you? What a pretty boy.” I grinned.

  Thank god for that.

  “He’s a Doberman, right?”

  “He sure is. He’s about two years old. I got him a few months ago from a rescue centre. Someone had dumped him, he was a little bit skinny, but otherwise fine.”

  “He’s gorgeous.”

  “Yeah, he’s a lot like his owner.” I smirked.

  She rolled her eyes at me and carried on patting Zefer.

  “He’s been awesome to train. We’ve got a few basic commands down. He’s eating well and seems to have bonded with me, but he doesn’t seem happy when I leave.”

  “What do you do with him while you’re at work?” she asked.

  “He has free run of the house, and if I haven’t had time to walk him, I have a young boy from down the road come down and walk him after school.”

  “So he’s here on his own a lot?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, he is.”

  “That’s probably what the problem is. Dobermans are pack animals. You’re part of his pack now – but when you’re not here, he’s all alone. You might need to consider getting another dog for comp
any, or looking into dog daycares.”

  I stared at her.

  “What?” she asked. Zef had rolled over now and El was scratching his belly.

  “I shook my head. “Nothing. You’re just amazing.”

  She smiled at Zefer. “Your daddy is crazy, isn’t he?”

  My heart leaped in my chest – I had a vision of her talking like that to our children. The clarity of it took me entirely by surprise. But what surprised me the most was that I wanted it. I wanted it all with her. It completely shocked me. I’d accepted a long time ago that kids weren’t on the cards for me, but now...

  She’s the difference.

  I watched her turn my big, strong guard dog into a complete ball of mush and I felt myself fall for her a little more. My phone rang in the lounge and I froze.

  “Go and answer it, cowboy. We’re fine here.”

  I jogged out of the room and scooped up my phone.

  “Lawson Pierce.”

  “Lawson, it’s Mark.”

  “Hey, Mark, tell me you have something.”

  “I do, but I doubt it’s going to be very helpful. The photos were taken on a high-quality Canon camera, with a long-range lens. It’s not cheap, so whoever this is, they haven’t spared any cost on their equipment. The photo was printed at a small print center a few blocks over, the order was submitted online and picked up ten minutes later – the problem is, they don’t have security cameras. One staff member thought they remembered a male, the other thought female. So obviously that is a dead end.”

  “Dammit,” I muttered.

  “I looked into Piper’s phone and mail and there’s nothing to find there. It’s possible she’s using other inmates, but without going through the entire place we just don’t know. It doesn’t seem likely to me, so at this stage I think we should put her out of our focus.”

  “I agree. I don’t think it’s her. She never gave a shit about me anyway so it makes no sense that she’d threaten El or me now.”

  “There’s still the possibility of Ellerslie’s ex-husband. Should I look into it?”

  I deliberated for a minute. I knew I shouldn’t agree to it without asking El first, but I already knew she’d say it was a waste of time. I decided to go with my gut on this one. “Yeah, I want you to look into it. El probably won’t be happy, but regardless of what she says, I need it checked out.”