“Thanks for coming over, Shane,” Rowan said as he closed the door. He waited a beat, but there was no noise.
Slowly, he walked back to his own apartment. The night’s events had left him utterly speechless, or thoughtless, as the case may be. What the fuck was that?
Rowan was, in fact, a mystery. Quite a mystery-all her repudiation just made him more intrigued. And who the hell had just walked in her door? Someone she knew, that was clear. Someone she knew very well.
And who lives that way? Who lives with a stool for a table and bean bags for a couch. He wondered what was in the bedroom; did she sleep on the floor? And who was that guy? What was he to her?
His phone interrupted his thoughts, swearing as he checked the caller ID.
“Yo,” he answered.
“It’s going down wrong. We’re at the corner of Broadway and Willow. Shit’s going to hit the fan.” Rob’s voice was loud and clear.
“Yep. Be there in less than ten.” Shane snapped his phone shut and grabbed his gun.
Dashing to his car, he raced to the corner of Creekbed and Willow, hoping that was far enough away. He checked his gun, this time taking an extra clip, and took off toward his friends.
This is what they did. They worked their own cases, but they were all a phone call away. They had each other’s back. Shane slowed and crouched, listening to the street, scanning the area. He knew his buddies’ MO, knew they’d be under a bush or a dumpster waiting for him.
Sure enough, he found them crouched under an open dumpster that looked like it had been forgotten by the trash company for a month. Shane snuck up to them.
“What’s the plan?’ he spoke in a whisper to announce his arrival.
“About fucking time, Adams.” Rob shot him a smile.
“We got a misper in that house. Looks like she doesn’t want to be here. Looks like she’s being held by that asshole watching the TV,” Cody told him.
Shane reached for his phone, sending a quick text to Brookes.
“What the fuck?” Rob asked him.
“Keeping the locals happy. A new tactic. Plan?”
“Plan isâFuck. Nothing good. We go in heavy. But they’re ready. I think this is something bigger. There’re just too many men guarding the house for there to be one girl in there. There’s got to be more.” Cody strained his neck looking for more angles.
“Call it in?” Shane asked.
“Naw. They’d take too long. And besides. I’m getting paid to get that one in there. I’m getting that one. I just don’t know what kind of hornet’s nest we’re going to kick up.”
“Okay.” Shane pulled out his phone again. Rob threw him another questioning look. “Just anonymous tip. Let’s go in back, heavy but quiet. If we’re lucky, we’re in and out, no one even knows.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too. But, we’re going to need something to distract them,” Cody said.
“Rob, you still got your fire cracker stash in your car?” Shane asked.
Rob smiled, “Always, man. I got that.” He disappeared.
“Let’s move. You and me, in and out. We move on the first pop,” Cody said to Shane.
“You bet man. I’ve got your back.”
Shane followed Cody, moving quickly. They backed up behind the house and Cody handed him a mask. Shane pulled it on and waited for Rob to start blowing shit up.
With the first small explosion, movement in the house was immediate. Cody and Shane slipped in and moved, one after the other, to the bedroom. Shane could hear shouts and more fire crackers going off. They didn’t have a lot of time. Cody struggled to get the door unlocked. Shane wanted to just break it down, but knew it would make too much noise.
The door opened and Cody slipped in. Shane waited by the door. Come on, come on.
“Shit. Shane, get your ass in here.”
He moved in, not liking the idea of leaving the door alone. When he walked in, there were five girls chained to the wall. Fuck.
The girls were terrified. He lifted his mask and held his finger to his mouth. Pulling out his small bolt cutters, he started cutting chains. He heard Cody doing the same, but there was no way they were going to make it before the house got wind that the mess outside was just a distraction.
He glanced around the room and noticed the window was locked, but there was another door. He checked it. It was to a bathroom. He checked the bathroom window, small but open. Moving back to the girls, he took the first two who were free and led them to the open window. He shoved them out, one at a time. He could hear them huddling, waiting for him.
Just as he was ready to go out after them, Cody and the other three showed up. Cody locked the door and Shane pushed his way out the window. Damn, he barely made it out. His hips and shoulders were scraped, but he didn’t feel it just yet. That would come later.
The explosions stopped outside and he could hear the men coming back to the house. One girl dropped out, two more to go. Another fell awkwardly, making too much noise. Shit.
One more to go and then Cody. He could hear shouts from inside the house and banging on the door. Cody shoved the last girl out and Shane caught her. At first he thought she was unconscious, but then noticed her eyes were open. His blood ran cold when he saw the vacant look in her eyes. Cody pushed himself through with a grunt. Shane held on to her as Cody gathered the rest of girls and started running back toward the cars. Shane could hear sirens in the distance.
The group rounded the corner when the first gunshot cracked just over their heads. All the girls dropped and screamed. Not good.
“Up up up. Let’s go.” Cody pushed them up. “Shane, car?”
“Creekbed and Willow,” Shane answered as he dragged two girls with him.
Cody changed direction and headed off toward the car. Just then, Shane heard a man to his right, he turned to fight and Rob slapped his hand down.
“Easy,” Rob said, grabbing the girl with the vacant eyes from him, picking up the group’s pace.
“How’d it go?” Shane asked him.
Rob smiled; the guy was a pyromaniac. “Great until you guys started moving around like a group of elephants.”
Another crack of gunfire blew past them. Shit, where were the damn locals? Cody rounded the next corner and Shane dragged out his keys. He beeped the lock and Cody threw open the door; all the girls dove into the car. Cody and Rob stood outside.
“Meet you at my place. We’ll play hide and seek for awhile,” Cody said.
Shane didn’t wait. He knew his buddies could handle themselves. He shoved the car in drive and took off.
“Stay down,” he told the girls. Some of them were crying, some looked hurt, and he knew that escaping took a lot of effort.
“Who’s hurt?” he asked when he turned out of the neighborhood, slowing down a bit.
“I think my ankle is broken,” one of them said.
“My shoulder is broken, but that was from before,” another one spoke up.
Christ.
“Anything else?”
“Angie’s not good. But we don’t really know why.”
Shane knew who exactly who they were talking about, “Okay. Hang in there. We’re going to an office. We’re PIs and one of you has a family that hired my buddy Cody to find you. I have no idea who. Hang in there, we’ll get to a hospital soon.”
He slowed down to stop at a red light and saw three police cars screaming toward him. Looks like the gunfight attracted some attention finally. His phone beeped.
Shane could guess who it was. He checked it and chuckled. It was Brookes. They had Cody and Rob and the men from the house. But no one knew where the girls were. As soon as he got the word things were safe, he’d contact him.
Pulling up to Cody’s office, his phone rang.
“Yo,” Shane answered.
“10-20?”
“Your office.”
“You have an Angela Wright with you?”
Shane looked in the back seat; the girls were off the floor,
but still all on top of each other.
“Is her last name Wright?” he asked dreading the answer. Angie sat on the seat, looking pretty beat up, her eyes still vacant, her mouth slightly askew. The girls shrugged. “I have an Angie. Not speaking right now. No one knows why. They don’t know her last name.”
“Saint George,” Cody said.
“Roger.” Shane pulled back on the road and headed off to the hospital.
With the girls delivered to the hospital, Cody and Rob got busy sorting out who was who with the locals. Shane was allowed a few moments of quiet to wrap his head around his night.
A cup of hospital coffee appeared in front of his face and he looked up to see Sergeant Brookes attached to it. Shane sat back and took the coffee.
“Thanks,” he said and meant it.
“What a night. You guys did good work tonight.” Brookes sat down next to him.
“Not me. That was all Cody. I was just back up.” Shane took a drink. Hot, but almost tasteless. Perfect.
“Anyway, thanks for the heads up. When we got there, all hell broke loose. When we found the chains, we knew what had happened. Your two guys were playing cat and mouse with the bastards. I’m assuming so you could get the hell out of dodge with the goods.” Brookes spoke without looking at him.
“Something like that. Glad it worked out.” Shane put his head down and let the exhaustion wash over him. “I think I’m going to take off.” He stood and downed the rest of his coffee. “Thanks for this. See you around.”
Shane pulled out his phone to send Cody a text telling him he was cutting out. One thing the night had accomplished was distracting him from the man who showed up in Rowan’s apartment.
“Hey, Shane. Wait up.” Rob jogged over to him. “Take me to my car, will ya?”
He nodded and the two men walked to Shane’s Kia.
“We saw your girl the other day,” Rob started once they got in.
“What girl?” Shane asked.
“The girl from the bar. Ya know, the one you took home a while back.”
“Really? Where?” Shane’s curiosity was piqued.
“Yeah, at first I couldn’t place her, but then Cody was pretty sure it was her. She’s a feisty little thing.”
“What the fuck does that mean, Rob?” Anger spiked into his blood at Rob’s words.
“Easy.” Rob tried to calm him. “We were over at the No Tell, checking on a dickwad, when we noticed a biker dude following this cute chick. Next thing we know, biker dude moves in for the kill and your girl takes him down. She had it all taken care of before we even got to her.”
“What? The No Tell? What the hell was she doing there?” Shane asked, shocked.
“We never got that part of the story. The biker dude said she was waiting for her boyfriend to call at the pay phone and he was just being friendly. She darn near broke his hand. He reached out and she took him out. Some special justitsu shit. It was awesome.” Rob was enjoying the story as he told it.
Shane whipped his head from the road, “Are you telling me that Rowan took down an Angel? A big one? With what, jusjitsu?”
“Yup. That’s what I’m saying.”
“And she was waiting for a call at the pay phone? From her boyfriend?” Shane asked, his mind racing with this new data.
“Well, that’s what she told the Angel. But, she bolted as soon as we got there, so she could’ve just been blowing smoke up his ass.”
“What the hell was she doing there?” Shane asked, almost to himself, as pulled up to Rob’s car.
“I don’t know, man. Thanks for the ride,” Rob said, jumping out.
Shane pondered all the possibilities as he drove down the quiet streets. Pulling into his apartment and shutting off his car, he sat and listened to the silence.
Quietly opening the car, he slid out, glancing up at Rowan’s. He stopped short, surprised to see that her lights were still on. He couldn’t help but think this was the boyfriend that made her wait at a No Tell. Boyfriend? That just didn’t sit right, but whoever she had in there was awake. He watched as shadows paced across the closed mini blinds. Rowan and this Justin were awake and pacing at three in the morning. And Shane wanted to know why.
Chapter Seven
Justin was falling asleep on the bean bag, but Rowan was wide awake and pacing. The news wasn’t all that bad, but shocking. And strange. She just couldn’t figure out what they were playing at.
“So I contacted Jewel, not Lina?” Rowan barked into the brightly lit room.
“No. Not Lina. Ro-it’s 3:30 in the morning. I gotta go to sleep.” Justin moved groggily from his bean bag and started to pick up stuff to take to the back.
“Yeah, okay. Sorry, I just don’t understand why they’re saying those things. Just tell me one more time.” Rowan waited for him to start over with his news.
Justin sighed and turned to face her, his usually bright green eyes tired and faded. “You contacted Jewel because you’re not making it out here, and I ran away from you to live with Talia. You want a meeting with Jolly to make amends, and want to come back and claim your rightful place,” Justin spoke in monotones, then turned toward the bathroom.
“And that’s it? There was nothing more?” Rowan asked again. There was something Justin wasn’t telling her.
“No Ro, there’s more. But I’m going to bed. We’ll talk more after I’ve slept ten hours,” Justin said, slamming the door.
With nothing else to do, Rowan pulled out his sleeping bag and set it up next to hers in the bedroom. Justin was right; she needed to go to sleep. She had to go to work in the morning. She just couldn’t understand why they started such a rumor, and what their end game was. If Jewel was involved, it wasn’t good. She really needed to protect Justin and Talia, something was brewing and she was going to need to find out what.
Justin walked out and collapsed into his bag. She watched him sink into his make shift bed and close his eyes. Only then did she feel bad about keeping him up this long. Sometimes she forgot he really was only a kid. After turning out all the lights and crawling into her own sleeping roll, she kissed his forehead.
“Thanks for coming, Justin. Sorry I kept you up so long,” she whispered.
“Go to sleep Ro. Jeeze.” Justin said, smiling as he fell asleep.
*****
Rowan sat outside on the pool deck sipping exceptionally strong coffee. The air was hot and dry, even at this early hour. She had a long day ahead of her, but first she needed to get her head around Justin’s news. She always knew they would come after her one day, but she thought this was an odd technique. Guilt really wasn’t going to work, especially from the outside. Taking a deep breath, she looked around her apartment complex. They would never think to look here, but just in case, she was really going to have to move. Maybe even change her name. She’d have to start looking for cash only work again. One of the reasons she moved so often was that her paychecks and bank data could be tracked, but now even that was too risky. She had hoped that she could stay just ahead of them for a few years and then they would move on, give up.
Two things were clear: First, she was never going back. Ever. She would not, ‘claim her rightful place’. Nope, not going to happen. Second, she needed to protect Justin and Talia. They were innocents in this, and Talia had kids to worry about. Justin was going to have to leave again. She needed a separate plan for him, a safe place where they would never think to look.
The best thing was his name. Justin Ross was a common name out here, so he could be lost in a sea of Justin Rosses. Hiding in plain sight. Rowan was a little less common, but Baker was a godsend. Talia, on the other hand, was a little harder to hide. But then Talia never had to hide; she never had the same lineage. Same father, yes, but it was their mothers that made the difference. Talia’s mother never would’ve agreed to what Jolly had wanted. Different paths, different places, that one small factor made a life possible for her.
“Hey,” Justin’s voice interrupted her thoughts, making her jump.
“Maybe you’ve had enough of that for now,” Justin said kindly, sitting next to her with his own cup of coffee.
“Hey,” Rowan smiled at him. Here in the light, his bright green eyes shone as if he had a light behind them. So similar to hers, only a different hue, so much brighter, so much clearer.
“You thought it through yet? Come up with a plan? Have a counter attack ready, steps one through six written down someplace?” Justin teased her, looking around as if searching for the list.
“Funny, har har.” They started laughing together. That felt good. Rowan’s bones started to relax.
“Ro, it’s going to be fine. My take? Jolly’s bored and needed to talk about something. What better subject than those who have left him? Of course they’re going to say you aren’t making it. He doesn’t want anyone else getting ideas. And they knew Lina wouldn’t lie for you, but Jewel, she’ll do anything.” Justin laid his coffee cup down and sat back in his chair.
Rowan snorted, “I know. Believe me, you don’t need to remind me about Jewel.”
Justin leaned his head back against the chair and looked up to the sky. “So listen. Keep cool,” he paused, “The guy last night. What was his name? Sean? Shane?”
Rowan stared straight ahead, knowing exactly what he was doing. They used to do that all the time to talk privately. While looking up, no one could read his lips. “Yeah, what about him,” she grunted out.
“Well, he’s watching us right now. Just thought you should know.” Justin didn’t move. Just looked up at the sky.
Rowan nodded.
“Okay. So don’t be pissed, but what I didn’t tell you last night is that Colt and Jewel are together now. Jewel has got him wrapped around her finger. So whatever you told him, they all might know now.” Justin spoke quickly, but kept his casual appearance, leaning back against the chair.
Rowan stopped breathing. The blood rushed behind her ears so loud she couldn’t hear him anymore. As if he’d betrayed her all over again, a hot knife pierced her heart, tearing it apart.
“Wait what?” Rowan asked him again. She was packed and ready to go. For a year, they had been making plans. Stashing food, money, and supplies in airport lockers every time they went to town. They had bus tickets, enough money to get far away, and it was time to go. Justin was waiting for them.
Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set: Love in Bloom Page 115