by Unknown
A woman staggered back, holding a fireplace poker in a death grip. He spotted Abbey next. She stood by the wall, a bloody knife locked in her hands as, wide-eyed, she waited for the man on the floor to attack. Holding his throat, he tried to stem the blood seeping through his fingers as he gasped for air.
Blake put his palm out to the woman, barefoot, brunette and filthy in a sequined top and black skirt. “It’s okay,” he croaked, rolling over gingerly to get to his knees.
She grabbed the banister for support as she looked around. “Where are they? There’s more of them.” She sounded on the verge of hysteria as she lifted the poker again, her gaze scanning the rooms surrounding the staircase.
“This is it. It’s okay.”
She took a ragged breath before easing down to the steps. “I want to go home now.” She looked up at him with tortured eyes as if he could just whisk her away and grant her wish like some cosmic genie.
Where the hell had she come from?
“Help’s coming,” he told her as sirens stopped in front of the house. “Abbey.” Blake barely got her name out as he crawled toward her just as cops burst into the room, their weapons drawn as they yelled out orders. None of which registered with Blake. All that mattered was seeing Abbey alive.
Abbey rushed to him, her eyes bright with panic and fear. “Lie down, lie down. Don’t move!” She eased him down with his head in her lap and she stroked her fingers through his hair. God, it felt good. Every stinking inch of him was on fire, but her touch gave him a comfort that nothing else ever could.
“Hey.” Troy crouched next to him. “Paramedics are on their way in. You doing okay?”
“Don’t I look okay?” Blake mumbled, his jaw clenched tight against the pain.
“You look like shit, kid.” He pinned Abbey with a hard gaze. “And you…you’re in a boatload of crap. Just wait until I tell Julie what you did.”
“Leave her alone,” Blake said. “She saved my bacon.” He glanced up to find her smiling down at him, her eyes bright with tears.
“I think we saved each other’s bacon,” she whispered. “It’s a good thing I like bacon.”
“Another joke…” Blake grinned through his swollen, split lip. “She should get her own show on Comedy Central.” A tear slipped down Abbey’s cheek and Blake squeezed her hand.
“Don’t cry,” he told her. “S’gonna be okay.” The room started to spin too much for his liking.
Paramedics came in and Troy moved back as they crouched next to Blake. “How ya feeling?” one guy asked as he took his pulse. Another guy readied a needle for an IV.
“Prolly about as good as I look.” Everyone’s heads started moving with the room and Blake saw the writing on the wall. “Don’t mind me. I think I might just pass out for a sec.” His words got thick and slow on his dry tongue. “I’ll catch…you all…lat—”
Stephanie’s alive. Stephanie’s alive. The words ran a continuous loop in Kim’s head.
Leo pulled up to the emergency room and she hopped out while he found parking. She told the nurse behind the glass partition that she was Stephanie’s sister and they let her in.
Kim found her sitting up on a bed in the last treatment room, a blanket covering her from the waist down. Her breath caught when she saw Stephanie’s face. The fading bruise along her cheekbone and the dark circles under her bloodshot eyes said she’d been through hell. She wore the same clothes from the last night they spent together in Carl’s club. Stephanie’s face crinkled up as Kim moved toward her and pulled her close.
“You’re safe now,” Kim whispered. It was the only thing she could say. As much as she wanted to know what happened, she didn’t want to push Stephanie into reliving whatever trauma she’d been through. “You’re safe.” She noticed the IV that fed into Stephanie’s hand and could only imagine the antibiotics and any other medications she’d need to counteract disease.
Stephanie wiped her eyes and pulled back. “I think they’re going to keep me tonight for observation. Then I can leave tomorrow with some preventative meds.”
“That’s good.” Kim gave her a reassuring smile, trying her best to be positive.
“The police asked a lot of questions about Carl,” Stephanie said.
“What kind of questions?”
“Like…did I know his VIP table at the club had several microphones placed in the booth?”
Kim’s eyes widened as she rifled through memories of their conversation in the club. “So Carl heard you talk about his mistress and that you planned to divorce him?” The implication kicked in. “You’re telling me the police think he was the one who arranged to have you kidnapped?” That seemed like a stretch.
“Apparently, my husband is involved in more than I thought. Since he wasn’t sure what I knew besides his affair, they think he opted to just get rid of me. And make a profit while he was at it.”
Stephanie wrapped her arms around Kim’s waist and they held each other tight.
Kim couldn’t believe Carl would go to those lengths. Actually…come to think of it, she could. It was just scary as hell. “Where is Carl?”
“He’s on his way. You beat him here. I think the police plan to arrest him.” Her bottom lip trembled. “I called my sister and she thinks I should stay with her for a while. She’s making airline reservations for me tomorrow. She wants me as far away from him as possible.”
“Wow. New York. Tomorrow.” The surprises kept coming.
A few minutes later, the nurse came in with a rape kit and asked Kim to leave.
Kim found Leo outside the double doors of the E.R. leaning against the wall. She didn’t think too much about it when she walked right into his arms and let him hold her. His solid warmth gave her security she hadn’t realized she needed until right that moment.
Two days later, Leo drove Stella to LAX with Kim sitting shotgun. He buzzed into the lot nearest her terminal, parked, shut the car down then ran a nervous hand through his hair.
Kim had spent nearly every minute with Stephanie before taking her to the airport yesterday. Carl had been arrested not long after Kim and Leo turned in the flash drive. Incriminating evidence implicating him and his partner—a man named Michael Facinetti, who was part of a large crime family—in a human trafficking ring led the judge to deny his bond. Investigators had found hidden microphones at his private booth in the club and theorized that Carl heard Stephanie talking to Kim that last night before she disappeared. He worried that she’d not only discovered his mistress, but his illegal activity as well. Police were still searching for Facinetti.
With nothing left to keep Kim in town, this was the big goodbye. There’d been no melodramatic moments from their other night together. Kim acted like the sex never even happened. Like she hadn’t blown his mind under the sheets. Or out of them.
“You’re sure you can’t stay longer? I’ll double your salary,” he said. It was possible he already tried this route, but he was willing to try again.
Kim canted her head to the side. “I don’t think I had a salary to start with,” she reminded him with a soft smile. She got that pitying look in her eyes and Leo looked out the window as he wiped his palms against his jeans to keep from reaching for her. A giant sinkhole began opening up in his chest and with it came a feeling of abandonment that Leo had never experienced. “Besides, I don’t want to be around for another earthquake. You couldn’t pay me to live in this city.” She exhaled a short breath. “You’re going to be fine,” she told him quietly. “You can call me anytime you want. Day or night.”
Sure, he could call her, but would he ever see again? “As long as I remember the time difference,” Leo replied.
She grinned and her pretty green eyes sparkled. “It would be nice, but if you don’t, I won’t hold it against you. Not unless it becomes a habit.” She patted his knee. “You’re going to be all right. You’ve already got people interested in all the properties. You’ll get those sold off and we’ll take it one step at a time.”
; But she wouldn’t be here to help him with it. He wasn’t comfortable sharing this crap with anyone on his team and he didn’t want pity from his few real friends. Kim had worked her butt off and methodically taken the steps to keep him out of financial hot water.
He had to downsize. Dramatically.
The one thing he couldn’t budge on was the Marion Institute, but he still hadn’t mentioned it to Kim. He was still in the hole for forty-one grand with them too. His stomach cramped.
She checked her watch. “I guess I should get going,” she said, but she didn’t make a move to leave.
“Yeah. Security can be a bitch sometimes.” They’d left extra early in case of traffic and they’d breezed in with plenty of time to spare.
Kim unfastened her seat belt and turned toward him. “Maybe that movie offer you were telling me about will come through. That should help even you out a little more.” She hesitated as if she meant to say something, but got out of the car instead. Leo pulled her bag from the backseat and turned to find her standing next to him. “Thank you,” she said.
He didn’t expect to hear that. “Why are you thanking me? All I did was put you to work—for no money I might add.”
Her soft smile cut a path of something warm and unfamiliar through his heart. “You gave me a place to stay after…” She looked down. “You put me up and took me shopping—”
“Where I made you buy clothes that cost the equivalent of your next vacation.”
“Shut up,” she said, smacking his chest, but she was laughing and he liked that. She had a great laugh. Low and husky. It matched the rest of her very sexy self. She straightened his collar and her fingers lingered. Then her green-eyed gaze locked onto his.
Leo took her hand and held it against his chest. Usually, he couldn’t get away from a woman fast enough after he slept with her. But he’d never run across a woman who wanted to get away from him.
“So I guess I should go,” she whispered, but she glanced at his lips and heat simmered under his skin.
“Yeah,” he said. Only he didn’t mean it. Maybe he could keep her here, maybe if he… Leo bent his head and she leaned up and before he knew it, their lips brushed in a soft tantalizing taste. He still had her bag in one hand and couldn’t—fuck it—he dropped the bag and wrapped an arm around her waist, bringing her flush against his chest as he took the kiss into hotter territory. Tonsil territory.
He let go of her hand just so he could wrap her up tight in his arms and feel her heat. One of her warm palms cupped his nape while the other fisted the collar she’d recently tried to fix. Everything faded away except the taste and softness of the woman in his arms. The way she kissed him back with the same amount of need, the same desire.
A couple of flashes and clicks brought Leo out of the moment and he looked up to see a guy with a camera. One more flash that nearly blinded Leo and the kid took off running.
“Great,” he muttered.
“Who was that?” Kim asked. She cleared the husky out of her voice.
“Paparazzi, probably.” He looked at her. “Sorry about that. Be prepared to be page one of a rag magazine.”
She shrugged it off. “Whatever. I’m nobody. Doesn’t matter. And I’m leaving,” she reminded him. She started to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her go.
“Wrong.” He searched her eyes. “You aren’t a nobody to me.”
Her soft smile cut that same path deeper in his chest. “I better not be after the past week. I better be your best friend. Or at least a good friend.”
That’s what it was. She’d become his friend. He admittedly didn’t have too many of those. But Kim had forced him to sit down with her and she’d shown him everything he’d been too busy or bored or not interested enough to learn when it came to his money. She’d forced him to grow up.
He nodded. “A great friend,” he said. A great friend he’d laughed with and made love to. “And to think you didn’t like me,” he said, teasing her as he nuzzled his nose against hers.
“Yeah, just goes to show you that I am occasionally wrong about things.” She leaned up and gave him a soft kiss. He was a heartbeat away from diving in for another hot, slick tonsil tango when she stepped out of his arms and reached for her bag.
He snagged it out of her hands. “I’ve got it. C’mon, I’ll walk you in.”
“You told me you hate airports,” she said, falling into step next to him. “You don’t have to walk me in. I’m a big girl.”
“Trust me. I know that. I want to.”
The mile-long security line gave Leo a few more minutes with her. The people around them asked for pictures and autographs.
Kim grabbed his shirt and tugged him close after the last few left. “Go home. I know you don’t want to be here.”
Wrong. He wanted to be wherever she was even if he had to put up with strangers. “We’re almost at the end. I’ll take off when they send you through. Another ten yards.” God, he was pathetic…and so fucking scared to face this mountain without her.
She looked torn. Maybe he had half a chance of her changing her mind. “You’ll call those numbers I left on your desk and finalize the pick-ups for the auction items?” A subject he didn’t want to talk about.
He caught her gaze and nodded. “Check. Numbers on the desk. Finalize the pick-ups. Anything else?”
“The list is in the file on the desk. You can’t miss it.”
They moved up in line and Kim reached up and kissed him softly. “Go,” she said at his lips. “Go home.”
The place that wouldn’t be his home much longer. He hated the sympathy in her eyes.
Fuck that.
He slapped on the Leo smile that wooed millions of women around the world. “I’ll see you around,” he said with a casualness that implied they’d never made love or kissed or done anything else that two people who had been highly intimate would do. He sauntered out of the line and walked out of the sliding doors without a backward glance.
Just one more Oscar winning performance.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ten days after the ordeal, Abbey slipped into Blake’s old room at his parents’ house. His bruises had almost all healed thanks to his mother’s holistic cream. The royal blue paint brought out the color of his eyes as he eased up against the headboard of the double bed. Tons of trophies, pictures and sports books filled the giant oak bookcase on the sidewall.
After his five-day hospital stay, his mom had insisted he come home to recuperate. Blake hadn’t argued. He’d told Abbey no one argued with his mother when she gave the finger. Her index finger. She didn’t use it often, but Abbey had learned that when Terry St. John stuck that thing out and gave her famous narrow-eyed stare, it meant the recipient was in for a Battle Royale. Still Blake insisted this was his last night at home and wanted back in his apartment. Abbey suspected he wanted privacy so he could ease the ache he’d been talking about, an ache that only she could relieve.
“Your man parts can wait a few more days,” she’d scolded last week. Besides, his two cracked ribs still made it tough for him to move, and she didn’t see any chance in hell of being intimate with him for at least a week, and more like three.
His face lit up when he saw her. The cuts and bruises had faded. So had hers. The man she adored with all her heart patted the bed next to him. “Are you the evening shift? Because I am in dire need of some TLC.”
Abbey bent low and kissed his lips lightly before sitting next to him. “Not only am I the evening shift, but your mother and father are going out for dinner and a movie. You’re going to be stuck with only me for about the next four hours.”
Blake’s jaw nearly hit his chest. “What? Are you serious?”
She practically saw the word sex written across his eyeballs as he reached for her and she deftly batted his arms away. “They’re still here. Your mom’s getting ready, then she’s coming in to tell you to behave while they’re gone.”
Blake scoffed. “She’s not the boss of me.”
&
nbsp; “Yes, she is,” his father said from the hallway as he walked past the room. “She’s the boss of all of us,” he called as he trudged downstairs.
Abbey could totally see how his mom ruled the kingdom. She’d watched how all of Blake’s brothers had been on their best behavior in her presence and saved the brotherly trash talk for when she left the room. It wasn’t that Terry was mean in any way, but she expected the best from her boys and the people they chose to bring into their lives. Abbey lifted an eyebrow. “I do not want to get on your mom’s bad side.”
“Pfft. She loves you. Are you kidding me? You’re her favorite kind of person.”
“Oh, yeah?” Abbey’s hopes sparked. Though they’d both been fixtures at Blake’s hospital bedside, their conversations had revolved more around Blake. “What kind of person is that?”
“The kick-ass kind.” Blake grinned up at her. “Tell me again.” The unmistakable pride in his eyes made her feel a hundred feet tall. She couldn’t believe this gorgeous man belonged to her.
Glancing at the ceiling, Abbey shook her head. Her first retelling of the story had been scary, but the more she told it, the braver she became. “No. You’ve heard it a dozen times already, I’m not telling you again.”
He stuck his bottom lip out in a little boy pout. “Please.” He pulled her closer and kissed her softly. “One last time and I won’t ask you ever again.”
That was a new one. “Really? Not ever again?”