by Debbie Zello
He was certain he knew that face and that smile. He saw the man reach across the table to take her hand. He watched as she pulled it away and placed it in her lap. He saw her expression fade from happy to something sad or disappointed.
Pete took out his phone and dialed. “Hey, what are you doing?”
“I’m still working, you fucktard. What are you doing?” Aiden said, joking. Pete was only gone a day and he missed talking to him already.
“Ask me who I’m looking at right now?”
“What is this, vacation trivia or something? Fine, my guess is Maria von Trapp,” Aiden says laughing.
“Wrong! Besides, I think she is dead. One more guess,” Pete said, still watching Briah and Stu as they order their dinner.
“Jimmy Hoffa, I hear he likes the cold,” Aiden said cracking himself up.
“Wrong again, my friend. I happen to be looking at Briah Spencer, in the flesh. Now what do you think of that?” Pete said holding his breath. He looked over at the car. Clair was motioning to him. He held up his finger for one more minute.
“That’s not funny, Pete. Not even close to being funny.”
“Can you hear me bro, ‘cause I’m not laughing. I’m telling you straight, she is right inside a restaurant and I’m just outside. I’m looking directly at her through the fucking window. I wouldn’t yank your chain like this, Aiden.”
“Holy fuck, Pete! Has she seen you?” Aiden said, standing up from his chair.
“No. Of course not, she isn’t looking for me either. She is having dinner.”
“Can you take a picture and send it to me?”
“I can try. That won’t look obvious or anything. Christ, I hope she doesn’t look up at me,” Pete said snapping a picture with his phone. “I’m sending it.”
Aiden opened the picture and there she was, just as beautiful as she was the last time her had seen her. Just before he’d cut her with his words, and ended their relationship. “Oh my God, it is her. They sent her to Vermont. The other side of the country. She has snow there,” Aiden said, thinking aloud.
“They just sat down to dinner. I’m going to drop Clair and the kids off at the condo and come back here. I want to follow her home. That way, when you get here, you’ll know where she lives,” Pete said walking back to the car.
“They are having dinner. Who are they?”
“Briah and some dude. They don’t look close. I’m guessing just friends. He wants more but she pulled her hand away,” Pete said backing the car up.
“She pulled her hand away? He tried to hold her hand and she pulled it away?”
“That’s what I said. I’m driving now, so I’m hanging up. I’ll call back when I’m back at the restaurant. You make plane reservations,” Pete said ending the call.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Why won’t you let me hold your hand?” Stu asked, leaving his hand on the table inviting her to give her hand back to him.
“That’s part of what I want to talk to you about. You’ve been so very tolerant with me. Waiting patiently for me to make up my mind and move on. Keeping me company and entertaining me,” Briah said looking down at her lap.
“I haven’t been keeping you company and entertaining you, Cherie. I’ve been dating and courting you. I’ve been falling in love with you. Biding my time, hoping that you would fall in love with me,” he said staring at her.
Briah looked up and into his eyes. She took a very deep breath and let it out slowly. She had been on the receiving end of what she was about to say. She knew first hand how her words would cut and wound him. “I’ve tried to forget and move on. Tried to let you in. But I find that I can’t right now. I don’t know if I will ever be able too. I do want to remain friendly with you. I don’t want to lose that, but if you can’t, I understand.”
“So that’s it? You’re done trying? There’s no future at all between us?”
“Please don’t be angry with me. I’m trying to explain how I feel to you. You’re a wonderful man and I was a very lucky girl that you’re interested in me.”
“But you don’t share those feelings. So you’re saying, here’s the door and don’t let it hit you in the ass on your way out!” his voice rose as his eyes pierced hers. Briah looked away. The hurt in his voice and eyes were more than she could stand.
“I am so very sorry if you feel that I led you on. I thought I was up front with you right from the beginning. If you feel I wasn’t, I’m sorry for that too.”
“No, I knew you were unsure of your feelings about the other man. I did think I might have a chance at changing your mind. I see now that wasn’t the case.”
“I am sorry,” she said so sadly it nearly broke Stu’s heart.
“Stop saying you’re sorry. I know you are. It’s all right, I’ll live. I’ve gotten use to disappointment,” he said finding his understanding. “I can do the friend thing. It’s probably a good thing we never slept together because I wouldn’t be able to if we had.”
“No, that would have been difficult. I wouldn’t have been able to remain friends with Aiden,” she said forgetting herself.
“His name is Aiden? I don’t think you ever mentioned that before.”
“I didn’t but yes, that’s his name,” she said figuring a first name wouldn’t matter much.
“Well, Aiden is a lucky man if you can still have feelings for him months after breaking up with him,” Stu said smiling. Briah just nodded as she wondered if he was lucky at all.
Pete explained to Clair that he was going back to the restaurant to follow Briah home. “Do you think that is a good idea?” she asked.
“Aiden doesn’t know her name, where she works or lives. If I don’t, he won’t have any starting place,” Pete explained.
“I don’t know if you should get involved in a Federal thing, Pete. What if there is some obscure law about it? Or, what if she sees you and calls the local cops?”
“Thanks, I do stakeouts for a living, you know.”
“I’m not criticizing your skills, baby, I’m just saying it could backfire on you. I don’t want to spend my vacation visiting you in jail,” she said placing her hand on his.
“I’ll be fine, darling. You start a fire and I’ll be back in an hour or two. Then I’ll take care of you,” he said with a wink.
“Mmm-hmm okay, please don’t make me say, I told you so!” she said getting the kids out of the car. Pete watched her get them inside before he backed out of the driveway to drive back to Gracie’s.
When he drove into the parking lot, he backed into the first space he found. He left the car running but turned off the lights. Quickly he got out and walked up to the window to make sure they were still inside. They were, so he walked back to sit and wait hoping he wasn’t parked right next to them. He didn’t know which car they’d arrived in.
Pete’s wait was short, as ten minutes after he parked, Briah walked out of Gracie’s. Pete watched as they walked to a car that was parked a few spots down from where he’d first seen her. As they pulled out, Pete pulled in far enough behind them so as not to raise their suspicion that they were being followed.
They drove out to the main road and turned left. A few streets down, they took a right. A few more turns and they pulled up in front of a house on the right-hand side of the road. Pete drove slowly past them and into a driveway several houses down the street. He backed out and parked on the opposite side of the street facing them. Pete watched as they exited the car and walked up the sidewalk and steps. At the door, the man kissed Briah’s cheek and walked back to his car, as Briah went in the house.
Pete’s phone rang. “Hey, I’m in front of her house. The dude dropped her off. He didn’t go in with her,” Pete said figuring that information would ease Aiden’s mind.
“Thanks. That’s a relief. The thought of another man touching her was eating at me. I’m on my way to the airport. I got a seat on United at five-forty. That puts me into Vermont at ten-sixteen. I’ll rent a car and be at your place by noon,
I hope. Do you have a couch I can crash in for the week?” Aiden asked.
“Yeah, sure. But you won’t need it for a whole week. As soon as she gets a look at you, you’ll be in her bed.”
“No, it’s going to take more than a week for me to mend that bridge. You didn’t see her face the way I did. That kind of pain doesn’t go away just like that.”
“She loves you, Aiden. Love doesn’t go away like that,” Pete said, watching the lights go out one-by-one in her house. “She is going to bed. I’m going to go back now. Do you want me to come back over early to watch her?”
“No, but thanks. I’ll do the watching once I get there. You’ve done enough, Pete. Thank you. I’m going to kiss your mother-in-law the next time I see her. If she hadn’t sent you there, I would have never found her.”
“Let me talk to him,” Roland said watching out the windshield of his rented car. A few minutes passed before he continued, “Have you put anyone else on this, boss?”
“No, why?” the voice said.
“I got company tonight. It smells like a cop but why would a cop be tailing her?” he asked thinking aloud.
“No clue. Maybe you’re wrong about that. The Feds usually stay as far away as they can once they have placed someone. They don’t want to draw any unnecessary attention.”
“Right. Then who? He is definitely tailing her. He left the restaurant right behind her and I’m looking at him now a few houses down from her house.”
“Has he made you?”
“Not likely, boss. I don’t think I’m dealing with the brightest bulb in the box. This one looks like he ate a tire. He just started his car. She went to bed. You want me to follow him?”
“Yeah, find out where he lives. Keep me informed, Ghost. We may have to move up the plan. I hate to change things but we may have no choice.”
“Will do,” Roland said, ending the call. He pulled out behind the other car and followed him. He smiled to himself. He always loved to hear his family moniker, Ghost. The family Dom had branded him with it many years ago, after he silently killed a Dom from another family, leaving no trace behind, like a ghost.
Roland followed the car back through the town and up a hilly side street. At the top was a huge complex with a main lodge and condos on the left side of the street. The car he was following turned into the condo’s main road. He watched as it zigzagged through the complex and eventually pulled into the driveway of one of the units. He waited for the guy to exit the car and walk in the front door. Then Roland drove down to the unit to get the number off the front.
Any time that you are waiting for something, it takes forever. Waiting for his flight was no exception for Aiden. He stopped at a sandwich shop in the airport to get a grinder, chips, and some snacks for the flight. Then he sat in the waiting area, eating his sandwich and watching planes land and leave.
Finally, his flight was called and he made his way down the skyway and onto the plane. He found his seat, and stowed his bag in the overhead. He’d brought a book to read, although he doubted he would. He was too on edge to concentrate on reading. The plane loaded and taxied out to the runway with the usual flight safety speech given by the perky attendants.
As the plane left the ground, he thought about Briah, asleep in her bed or reading with a small light on. She was so beautiful propped up against the headboard as she read. He loved taking the book from her hand and pulling her to his chest for some skin-to-skin contact. That always led to hand-or-mouth contact and that led to the best contact of all.
He must have had one hell of a look on his face because the older woman that took the seat next to him said, “I don’t know what you’re thinking about, but I can almost guarantee it isn’t the safety talk.” He chuckled.
“No, it’s not the safety talk. In fact, there isn’t anything safe about my thinking,” he said, smiling at her.
“She is a lucky girl, then. Are you flying to her?” she asked.
“Yes, I am. I’m flying to be with her. Hopefully forever.”
It was about forty-five minutes of snow-covered highway driving to reach Pete’s vacation spot. Pete gave very detailed and accurate directions; he was after all, a detective, and used to details being important. Aiden pulled into the driveway and shut the car off. Getting out and walking to the door, he got a birds-eye view of the beautiful spot the resort was nestled into. He rang the bell and a minute later, the door opened. “You made it!” Pete said smiling at his partner and friend.
“I did. Wow, it sure is swanky here,” Aiden said, whistling as he walked in.
“It is all that. Good thing it’s not my dime. How was the plane?”
“Long. I couldn’t enjoy any part of it because I just wanted to get here. Where is everybody?” Aiden said looking around.
“Out skiing, and Clair is taking pictures, I’m sure.”
“Do you want to show me where she is?” Aiden asked cutting right to the bone of the visit.
“Let’s go,” Pete said, grabbing his coat. The two men walked out and got in Aiden’s rented car. With Pete giving the directions, they soon found themselves driving slowly past Briah’s house. A car that was there last night was still in the driveway. Pete wrote the marker number down, as he could see it in the daylight.
Aiden drove back around the block to enter the street from the same side again, thereby keeping him semi-hidden in case she happened to be looking out the window. “It’s a cute place for her. I can see her decorating the windows for all of the holidays. God, I want to hold her. Just knowing she is behind that door is making me crazy.”
“Then stop the fucking car and go knock on the fucking door!” Pete said plainly.
“And say what? I was in the neighborhood and thought I would stop by. Oh and by the way, I didn’t mean any of the shit I said to you that day, so can we just forget I said it?” Aiden said giving Pete a stupid look.
“I think between the two of us we can come up with something better than that. I can be pretty fly when I want to be, you know!”
“Oh dear God, please don’t talk all street to me like that. It’s just not right!”
“What ‘chu talkin’ ‘bout Willis?” Pete shot at him.
“I can’t take it. I’m starving. If she’s here, that means we can eat and not run into her. Was the food good where you ate last night?”
“It was great. I’ll take you there.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Monday morning, Briah stood leaning against her car with her head raised. The powdery snowflakes fell on her face and eyelashes like feathers. She stood there for several minutes savoring the feeling. It was one of her many loves of winter. She was so engrossed in her pleasure that she hadn’t noticed the car parked down the road, nor the one parked even further down the road. She broke her trance and got into her car for the short drive to the mountain.
Aiden started his car as soon as she pulled out of her driveway. He pulled out a discrete distance behind her, following close enough not lose sight of her, yet far enough to not arouse her suspicion.
Roland never even turned his car on. He simply took out his phone and dialed. After a few rings he heard, “Ghost.”
“Yeah. Her tail got younger and in better shape. This one has cop or Fed written all over him. I can’t figure out why they are watching her. I know I haven’t been made and I know she doesn’t know they’re here either.”
“And how do you know that?” the voice asked.
“She keeps putting herself at risk, for one. The tail thinks he’s the only one here. He’s so fixated on watching her, I could walk right up to him and he wouldn’t even know I was coming.”
“Then take him out.”
“Nah, he isn’t going to be a problem. Why waste a good bullet? I’m going to take her out right in front of him. He won’t see it coming and he won’t be able to stop me,” Roland said grinning.
“You scare me, Ghost; you take too much pleasure in your work.”
“It’s a good thing for yo
u that I do. You have been keeping me very happy, Boss. Just don’t run out of snitches,” he said hanging up. Roland started the car and slowly pulled out. He wasn’t in any hurry. He knew right where they were headed.
Briah turned into the parking lot and parked in her usual spot at the far end of the lot. This early in the morning, there were just a few cars there. Mostly the night crew that cleaned and restocked shelves. Briah was usually the first one that arrived for the day shift.
Again, she didn’t notice the car that pulled in a few seconds after she had begun walking to the front door. The man behind the wheel watched her every move with a small smile on his face.
Aiden had all he could do fighting the urge to grab her, kiss her, and take her right there in the lot. He knew it would not be that easy to ask her to forgive him. To explain to her why he’d acted the way he had. To tell her why he let her just walk out of his life like that. If he could get her to stay long enough to give him a chance to explain, it would be a miracle.
Briah got into the rental shop and began her usual morning activities of checking the reservations for the day. She began gathering the equipment and placing it in the appropriate slots for the customers.
She checked the boots toe and heel lugs for wear, as well as making sure each buckle closed properly. She could guess, fairly accurately, the size ski that would be needed by the size of the boot. The larger the boot the longer the ski. She checked that the bindings worked properly before standing them up with the boots. Lastly, she grabbed a pair of poles and checked them. Placing them next to the skis.
This was going to be a very busy week at the mountain. Every holiday or school vacation was exceedingly busy. Stowe was very close to Canada and only a four to five-hour drive from the lower New England states, so it was a favorite ski destination.