The Unforgettable Ex (Captured by Love Book 5) (Volume 5)

by Miranda P. Charles

  Natasha’s heart galloped in her chest as Carter left the room, her mouth hanging open. Did that conversation mean what she thought it did?

  No. How could it, when Gavin had a new girlfriend that he was close to introducing to everyone?

  Argh, she was more confused than ever.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Gavin sped along the road that would take him to a five-star hotel in the city, still playing the conversation with Carter in his head.

  Third-month anniversary. Ugh. How could Carter think that Natasha wasn’t getting serious with Leo when she was celebrating monthly anniversaries with the guy?

  “Shut up,” he ordered himself, not wanting to remember his own monthly celebrations with Natasha. But he couldn’t stop the images that flashed in his mind with stunning clarity.

  He’d never been one to make a big deal of monthly anniversaries, but when Natasha had surprised him thirty-one days after they’d officially started dating, he’d become a convert. How could he not, when Tash had slaved for hours to produce a visually stunning, mouth-watering three-course meal to commemorate their first month as a couple? Then there’d been the sexy lingerie underneath her beautiful dress, with a promise that she’d wear a new one every month for him to peel off her. She’d kept her word... until he’d had to shatter their bliss.

  His heart squeezed even as his dick got hard from the pictures in his head. Lucky he’d become so good at hiding his love and desire for Natasha from everyone, even when his feelings had only gotten stronger despite the distance he’d had to maintain. He wished he’d stop feeling heartsick whenever he remembered what he’d planned for the one-year anniversary they’d never got to celebrate—a luxury romantic weekend getaway and a diamond necklace. He’d been so excited to top the efforts she’d made to make their monthly anniversaries momentous, but he’d never gotten that chance.

  Had she made a similar effort for Leo tonight?

  “Argh!” He banged the heel of his hand on the steering wheel.

  Damn it. Why did he always have to react like this every time Natasha dated a new guy? Why couldn’t he just... get over her?

  Perhaps he should call on one of his playgirl acquaintances for a discreet bout of casual sex? He snorted. What was the point? Try as he might, being with other women had never helped alleviate his pain. All it had ever done was cover up his heartache for a short period of time. Besides, he was too upset right now to enjoy no-strings sex with anyone.

  Third-month anniversary. Did Natasha go shopping for sexy lingerie for Leo?

  “Shut the fuck up, Gavin. What’s the matter with you? Think of something else!”

  Okay... well... what about Carter’s opinion that Natasha was not all that keen on Leo? Since Carter was great at reading facial expressions and body language, that could be a real possibility, couldn’t it? Plus, Carter knew his sister well.

  He shook his head, frustration mixing with annoyance. Carter wasn’t objective when it came to this. His best buddy wanted him and Tash to end up together, so no doubt Carter’s opinion was coloured by wishful thinking.

  And even if Carter was right, first things first. Biggs had to be caught. That was the priority.

  He exhaled harshly as he drove into the underground car park of the hotel where he was to meet up with Molly—an “ex” he was “chasing”. Better stop thinking of Natasha and concentrate on tonight. It was imperative that he didn’t stuff this up.

  *

  Gavin walked towards the open-spaced lounge bar, strategically positioned in view of the hotel’s reception area. He instantly spotted Molly. The pretty, petite brunette was moving with practised efficiency as she prepared a drink. He pasted a smile on his face as he approached her, his gaze flicking casually to the man working with her behind the bar.

  There he was. Austin Sharp. It wasn’t hard to recognise the tall thirty-three-year-old with spiked blond hair.

  Thank God for the recently caught drug-dealer-turned-informant who’d coughed up the name Austin Sharp as one of Cameron Biggs’ trusted connections. The authorities had never had cause to check out Austin before, and it showed just how smart and careful the criminals were.

  Austin himself had never been sighted with Biggs. But when detectives had tailed him, their curiosity had been spiked when he’d met briefly with an elderly lady at a shopping centre. Austin didn’t look like the type of guy to have coffee with a seventy-something-year-old woman for no reason, so the detectives had decided to follow the lady home instead of continuing to watch Austin. She had stopped by an address that wasn’t associated with any criminal activity and, lo and behold, none other than Biggs’ mother-in-law had come out to usher her in.

  It had been a lucky break, and the police now had someone who could lead them to Biggs—as long as they kept Austin in the dark about the fact that he was known to the authorities and was being watched.

  Unfortunately, after a few weeks of shadowing the guy and the elderly women, none of them had led them to Biggs’ hideaway, so the police had decided on a plan to lure him out, and they needed Gavin’s help.

  Gavin was grateful for the official partnership. After years of privately working on the case himself with some help from Carter, he was keen for more resources to be thrown at finding Biggs.

  He stood in front of the bar, positioning himself close to where Austin was fixing a customer’s bill. Then he waved to get Molly’s attention.

  “Gavin!” Molly said, sounding surprised.

  He smiled at her, making sure he had on a longing, puppy dog look. “Hi, Molly.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to see you,” he answered, speaking loud enough for Austin to overhear.

  Molly let out a heavy sigh and bit her lower lip, looking uncertain.

  He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the bar, giving Molly a beseeching gaze. “I was wondering if we could talk after you finish here?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Austin give Molly a sideways look, grinning lopsidedly. Good. The man was listening in.

  “What exactly do you want to talk about?” Molly asked, crossing her arms on her chest.

  “Us.”

  “What specifically about us?”

  “I can explain everything later.”

  “Tell me now, Gavin Redford,” Molly said in a hard tone, enunciating each word.

  He caught the sharp glance Austin gave him. Excellent. Austin had reacted to his name and was now inching closer to where he was standing, failing to notice the outstretched arm of the customer trying to hand him her credit card. Hopefully it meant that Austin had recognised him as one of the people Biggs had been wanting to exact revenge on.

  “I miss you,” he said to Molly, pretending not to notice or care about anything else going on around him.

  Molly grinned shyly. “Really?”

  He nodded, smiling at her. “No more hiding.”

  “No more hiding? Seriously?”

  He nodded again. “I’ll tell you more later, okay?”

  “But there’s still two hours to go before I finish here. And I can’t leave early because it will get busy soon.”

  “I’ll wait for you.”

  “Okay,” Molly said happily. “You can come back for me in a couple of hours.”

  “Hey, how about offering your man a drink, Molly?” Austin interjected, winking even.

  “Of course,” Molly said with a laugh. “Your usual, Gavin?”

  “Please,” he answered, grinning at her. This was the first time he’d worked with Molly and he was glad she was a competent undercover cop. Well, she had to be, considering how risky this operation was. Hopefully it would only be a matter of time before Austin informed Biggs that one of his co-workers happened to be Gavin Redford’s new “girlfriend”.

  Problem was, they had no idea if or when Biggs might make a move to kidnap Molly, like he’d done with Amber—and if kidnapping would be all Biggs would want to do. Everyone involved in this operation had to be on their
toes. Molly’s safety was on the line.

  “Here, hon,” Molly said, placing a glass of beer in front of him. “It’s on me,” she added with a smile before leaving him to check a touchscreen monitor for orders.

  “Excuse me,” he said to Austin when Molly had her back turned.

  “Yes?”

  He leaned close and tried to hand Austin some money. “I’d like to pay for this.”

  “Molly said it’s on her,” Austin answered.

  “I know for a fact she has a few bills due this month so I’d rather get this.”

  “Sure,” Austin said, taking his cash and working the register. “What’s your name again, by the way? Gavin Redford?” Austin asked as he handed him his change.

  “That’s right,” he answered, extending his hand for a shake.

  “Austin.”

  “Good to meet you, Austin. Molly did talk about you guys and said she enjoys working here.”

  “She’s a good worker, and she’s become popular with some of our regulars in a short time. In fact, a few of the guys would be disappointed that you’re back in the picture.”

  He grinned. “Too bad for them.”

  “So you’re Molly’s invisible boyfriend.”

  “Invisible?” he asked with a chuckle.

  “Well, when she first started working here a couple of months ago, she used to gush about her wonderful boyfriend. But we never saw you visit her here and she’d always refused to tell us your name. Said she couldn’t because of your work. When she said she broke up you—when was that? Three weeks ago?”

  He nodded.

  “Well, I even teased her then that you probably never existed. But here you are in the flesh.”

  He smiled cheerlessly. “That was all my fault. I really couldn’t blame her for splitting up with me. But things are different now.”

  “So are you a secret government spy or something that she had to keep your identity a secret from us?” Austin said in a teasing tone.

  He laughed. “No. I’m a private investigator.”

  “Oh, really? Sounds exciting.”

  “If you call following husbands to see if they’re cheating on their wives exciting,” he said, chuckling. Some of his clients were indeed mistrustful spouses, but those cases were handled by his employees. The matters he personally dealt with involved high-profile individuals or corporate security concerning multimillion-dollar assets. But Austin didn’t have to know that, or the fact that he still worked with the police sometimes. He just needed to give the man something truthful to gain Austin’s trust and avoid arousing suspicion.

  “So what’s with all the secrecy before? I heard you say to Molly no more hiding. Were you married or had another girlfriend?”

  He hid his smirk at Austin’s attempt at prying. “Believe it or not, it was a case of mistaken belief.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well...” He pretended to hesitate, taking a gulp of his beer. “Let’s just say that I thought certain nasty messages that I’ve been getting online for five years were from a particular person. Turns out that they were actually from a twenty-year-old Internet troll who’d been posting on hundreds of blogs just to get attention. He was caught recently, cocky as hell, and admitted to a lot of different cases.”

  “Really?” Austin said with a comical smile, although the intense look in his eyes betrayed his engrossment.

  Gavin chuckled as if he still couldn’t believe the absurdity of it all. “There I was, thinking that an old enemy who’d promised to make my love life hell was the one posting the warnings for me online. The bastard happened to have the same initials as the troll, you see. That was why I tried to hide my relationship with Molly, so the bastard wouldn’t know about her. But apparently, I was just being paranoid all those years.”

  “Wow. So this old enemy of yours is not after you? You must be so relieved.”

  “I can’t tell you how liberated I feel right now. But I still feel foolish for believing something that wasn’t true for so long.”

  “I suppose all’s well that ends well,” Austin murmured. “Anyway, I better get back to work. Great meeting you, Gavin.”

  “You too,” he answered, walking away from the bar to find somewhere to sit.

  He found an available armchair near the periphery of the bar area, perfectly positioned to give him a view of the hotel’s front entrance. People watching should make the downtime bearable. He doubted Austin would make any contact with Biggs while at work and he had two hours to kill before Molly clocked off. He wanted to look like the smitten boyfriend who didn’t mind waiting for his girl.

  He leaned back, relaxing against the bulky backrest of his seat as he let his mind wander. With any luck, Austin himself would go straight to Biggs with news such as this. Biggs might even ask Austin to help with his next steps. After all, Austin was the one who worked with Molly and had the opportunity to lure Molly into something sinister without raising undue suspicion.

  He sighed. This was the part he hated the most—the uncertainty of what Austin and Biggs would do next with the new information regarding Gavin and Molly. He could only hope and pray that Biggs would be caught soon. After five years of Biggs messing with his life, he’d had more than enough.

  Many a time, he’d been sorely tempted to throw caution to the wind, rock up to Natasha’s place, and tell her everything. But he simply couldn’t relax when Cameron Biggs himself hadn’t let up. With him not being seen with a steady girlfriend since Amber’s disappearance, Biggs appeared to think he was still into Amber.

  There was no doubt that Biggs was the anonymous person who still posted comments two or three times a year on Amber’s now-inactive travel blog. The comments were always identical in content, stating how unfortunate it was that Amber could never ever be with the man she loved, no matter how hard he tried to be with her. With the most recent post being only three months old, Gavin knew Biggs was still intent on revenge against him.

  But where the hell was the man hiding?

  Hopefully, Biggs had already heard the news about the Internet troll he’d mentioned to Austin. The whole point of spreading that contrived story was to make it believable that he no longer felt threatened by Biggs, and that he had good reason to believe he was finally free to openly date Molly without fear.

  Well, if Biggs hadn’t stumbled on the news yet, surely Austin would let him know—

  He sat up straight on his chair, his heart banging hard in his chest. Natasha and Leo were walking out the front entrance. They must have had their anniversary dinner in the hotel’s restaurant.

  But... was Natasha upset? Or angry, or even scared? She most certainly didn’t look relaxed or happy.

  His brows furrowed when he saw Leo trying to grasp Natasha’s arm. Natasha stepped away from him, walking faster and shaking her head. Then Leo put his arm around Natasha’s shoulders. She clearly didn’t like that either and shook Leo off, but Leo tried again. Natasha appeared to be pleading with Leo, who refused to let her go.

  Heat rose up Gavin’s face. Without hesitation, he got up from his seat and followed the couple. He waited until the two were out the door and out of sight from the bar before hurrying to catch up to them.

  What the fuck did Leo think he was doing? Natasha obviously didn’t want Leo touching her, and the idiot wouldn’t take the hint.

  His jaw clenched. No one messed with his Tash.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Leo, please.” Natasha twisted her body, attempting to once again get rid of Leo’s arm around her shoulders.

  Just as she’d suspected, Leo wasn’t giving up so easily. But, geez, she hadn’t been expecting this kind of persistence and he was starting to creep her out. To be fair, Leo had downed more wine tonight than she’d ever seen him drink before. But drunk or not, his actions were not acceptable.

  “Natasha, please. You said you’re not going out with anyone else. Why can’t we keep seeing each other if that’s the case? I’ll prove to you I’m the man y
ou’re looking for.”

  “There’s someone else out there for you. Unfortunately, it’s not me,” she said with some force as she stopped to look for a taxi. Ugh, there was none in sight. She’d have to call for one or get the hotel concierge to do so.

  Leo faced her and grasped her upper arms. “I’m falling for you.”

  She let out a heavy sigh. “I’m really, really sorry. I did try. But the feeling’s not mutual and it’s time for us to move on. Please accept that.”

  “Give me one more month. I’ve just been holding back too much and I think I haven’t shown you how much you really mean to me.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head. Gosh, what more could she say?

  Leo’s arms went around her, trying to draw her into an embrace.

  She pushed hard at his chest. “Leo, stop it!”

  “Hey!” an angry voice called out.

  Her head whipped to the direction of that familiar voice, her heart beating faster from an altogether different reason. “Gavin!”

  “What’s going on here?” Gavin barked as he approached them, glaring at Leo with a fierceness she hadn’t seen before.

  She stepped towards Gavin to put herself between the two men. “It’s okay. We’re just having a discussion.”

  “Didn’t look like it to me,” Gavin said, his deadly glare still focused on Leo.

  “Just a lovers’ tiff, Gavin. We’re trying to work it out,” Leo answered, his voice cold.

  Gavin glowered at Leo for a long moment before finally switching his gaze to her. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded, gulping at the look in his eyes—a look that was making her want to jump in his arms to feel safe... and loved.

  “What do you want to do?” Gavin asked, his tone gentle.

  She smiled at him, relaxing considerably from his presence. “I just want to go home.”