Arms of Serenity (Rock Services)

by Lynn, Donina

  She had been so caught up in being swept off her feet and falling for him that she had forgotten to consider where he lived. Either that or her subconscious had conveniently whisked that little tidbit away and filed it under the “Do Not Open ‘til Christmas” box.

  Her nagging fears sprang back to life with the reality that eventually he was going to leave her. It might not be his choice, but his responsibility to his company and the security team would obligate him to go.

  As quickly as she had felt hope and believed there could be a happily-ever-after, her castle in the sky came tumbling down and was lying at her feet in a pile of rubble. She could feel herself crumble with it and fought the tears that welled up inside of her.

  Nick brushed up against the side of her face and whispered in her ear. “I love you, Becca.”

  Why did he have to say those words? Why now? Becca’s hand flew to her mouth feebly trying to hold back the sob that escaped her lips. It was too late to protect her heart from the pain that would come flooding in when he left. She loved him, too. But did any of it make a difference? How could their love withstand living so far apart?

  “Angel?” Nick took her shoulders and turned her around to face him. She saw the confusion and hurt on his face when he saw the tears streaming down her cheeks. “Please don’t cry. What is it? Was it too early to tell you? It’s ok if you don’t feel the same yet.”

  Becca shook her head and choked out, “I do …It’s not…” She put her hand on his chest and took a step back to gather her thoughts. All the words she wanted to say to him rushed around inside her mind. More than anything, she wanted to reassure him that she felt the same. Those three little words were screaming in her heart and wanted to be heard. Her fear of what she thought was inevitable kept them locked deep inside.

  Nick’s face was drawn, and she knew he was waiting for her to say something, anything. “Nick, it wasn’t too early. I care about you more than I can say right now. You’ve come to mean so much to me so quickly.”

  “Becca, if you’re scared then we can be scared together. I’ve never felt this way for anyone. You’ve completely blown me away, and being this in love with someone is terrifying the hell out of me.”

  She shook her head and swallowed the lump that lodged in her throat. His words weren’t making any of this easier, but she had to tell him that she feared the future not his love. “It’s not you loving me, Nick. It’s you going back to your life in New York that has me scared.”

  Nick walked over to Becca and cradled her face in his hands. “You had me worried, Angel. I thought you were going to tell me that you didn’t want me or that I had somehow screwed this up by telling you how I feel. As long as you think we should be to be together, we’ll figure it out. I told you I wasn’t going anywhere. Trust me.”

  Becca let him pull her into his arms and rested her head against his chest. She did trust him, but her doubt kept her from believing that they could make this work. Long distance relationships never worked out in the end. What kind of possible future did they truly have?

  Here she was head over heels for him, and they lived hours away from each other. Who was she kidding? They might as well live on opposite sides of the planet. Her quiet little town was a completely different world from the hustle of New York City. If he wanted her to, could she move and start over there? Would she be able to get accustomed to that type of lifestyle?

  She had found peace baking in her shop and the friends that surrounded her. But she had found her true meaning of serenity in his arms. Did she have the courage to leave everything behind to be with him? Could she put that much faith in their relationship to turn her world completely upside down like that? Becca had blindly trusted love once before, and she knew too well how badly that had turned out.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Nick stretched and reached over to find an empty pillow. Sitting up, he listened, waiting for any hint of activity to let him know Becca was in the apartment. With silence only echoing back, he flopped back in bed.

  Over the last few days, Becca had distanced herself from him. She tried to pretend nothing was bothering her, but he easily read the slight difference in the way she laughed, how she responded to his touches, and the faraway look that clouded her eyes when she was lost in her thoughts. The subtle changes weren’t much, but to Nick they represented a gap between them the size of the Grand Canyon, and they had everything to do with her fear of him leaving to go back to New York.

  The only way he could think to reassure her was by telling and showing her how much he loved her. He spent every moment with her, said the words, kissed her, and made love to her each night before they drifted off to sleep. Nothing he did or said seemed to break through to her, though.

  He was more than frustrated and angry with himself at not being able to alleviate her fears. She hadn’t even said she loved him yet, and her hesitance to say those three words seemed only to fuel his frustration. He should be content knowing she felt the same, but there was a part of him that wanted, no, needed, to hear it fall from her lips.

  While he waited for her to come around and his patience had been slowly whittling away, his mind had been working non-stop weighing the possible solutions. The most practical would be to leave Brad run the company while he commuted to the city once or twice a week to handle anything necessary on his end. Companies ran all the time with their CEOs jet-setting across the continents for business and leisure. What was the difference? To Nick, it was a brilliant idea considering he didn’t want to be that involved in the daily activities anyway.

  The only thing that was holding him back from telling Becca his plans was Rock Services Group. He hadn’t quite figured out the logistics on that one yet. Todd was going to lose his mind when he told him that he planned on living so far away. He dreaded that conversation, and the idea of putting on protective gear beforehand wasn’t such a bad thought. Either that, or Nick would take the easier way out, call him, and avoid being in the same room when his friend exploded over the news.

  Much better plan.

  The last time he had spoken with Todd, he had briefly mentioned where he was and who he was with. Todd had suspected that he was serious about Becca and congratulated him on finding someone. Nick dropping the bomb about the move shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Todd might be pissed, but he wanted him to be happy and after some yelling he would calm down. He always did.

  With new determination, he decided that he would sit Becca down and talk to her sometime during the day. He would tell her what he had been mulling over, and if she was open to the idea, he would move.

  A slight hesitation tickled at the back of his brain. Would she think it was too soon to suggest living together? Nick grunted. To hell with that, their whole relationship had been on fast forward. Besides he didn’t need to rent the moving van tomorrow, but he hoped his willingness to do so would finally ease her worries.

  Where was she anyway? Nick grabbed his cell phone to check the time and saw a text message waiting for him from Becca. She hadn’t been able to sleep and had gone down to the shop early to bake his favorite cookies. The message had been sent hours ago, and he groaned when he realized how late he had slept. Nick jumped out of bed to take a quick shower and get downstairs. Fresh baked cookies from the woman he loved sounded like the start of a good day.

  ****

  Nick grabbed the spare key for the back entrance to the shop and headed down the steps. When he reached the door, he smiled when he heard Becca’s radio playing. She always sang when she baked. Correction, she sang badly and so far off key that she was in a completely different hemisphere from the artists’ voices belting out from the radio. But instead of being annoyed, he thought it was the cutest thing he had ever heard. He shook his head and chuckled at how completely hopeless and wrapped around her finger he had become.

  Nick’s smile faded when the scent of something burning reached him. He hurried to unlock the door and called out for her.

  “Angel?”<
br />
  No answer. Becca wasn’t in the kitchen.

  Nick traced the smell to the oven and opened the door to find a tray of cookies singed black from being left in the heat too long.

  Turning the oven off, he grabbed a mitt and pulled the ruined cookies out to lie on the counter next to trays already cooling. There were bowls full of ingredients lining the area, and a nagging feeling started to twinge deep in Nick’s gut. It wasn’t like Becca to leave anything unattended. With all the time he had spent in the kitchen with her, she never once didn’t bake anything that wasn’t perfection. He went to the front of the shop hoping that she was just busy with customers or had nodded off on the couch since she hadn’t slept well.

  Nick pushed on the swinging door to find the room empty and quiet. The main lights hadn’t been turned on, and the sign on the door still read “CLOSED”. The twinge turned into a churning as he called out for her again with no response. His muscles tensed, and his instincts started humming that something was wrong. What could have happened that she didn’t open the shop on time?

  Pulling out his cell phone, he called her in the hope she would answer and that the uneasy feeling crawling around in his gut was over nothing. Her phone went directly to voice mail, and he tried to sound calm when he left a message saying he was checking to see where she was and that he was worried about her.

  Where could she be? What if she was hurt or worse? An endless line of possibilities flashed within his mind: her in a car accident, her in the hospital, her lifeless body bleeding on the ground. He tried to tell himself that she was fine. She could have gone to the store or down the street for a coffee. He was simply overreacting, and his fear was just his past guilt playing on him.

  Shit.

  He needed to calm the fuck down before he went into a full blown panic.

  Running his hand through his hair, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused on a pinpoint of light in the darkness. It was a technique he used in the military before missions. The ingrained discipline and conditioning instantly took over making his body relax while regaining control of his emotions and thoughts.

  When he opened his eyes, he scanned the area until his gaze fell on an envelope with his name written on the front. It had been left on top of the display case, and he walked around the counter to inspect it. Not recognizing the handwriting, Nick carefully felt the contents and then slowly opened the back flap.

  Inside was a folded newspaper clipping. When Nick unfolded the paper, his gut exploded as if he was hit by baseball bat. Nick stared at the security picture of him tackling the kid at the convenience store. Written over it was a phone number.

  Morris.

  Nick started to dial the number with trembling fingers. His heart dropped at the thought of that sadistic son-of-a-bitch being involved with why Becca had gone missing, and he gave a silent plea that she was still alive and unharmed.

  It was his fault. He had put Becca’s life in danger. Morris wanted revenge, and he had led the bastard right to her. He should have never come knowing there was a chance Morris was out there looking for him. How could he have been so careless?

  Nick listened to the endless ringing of the phone on the other end.

  Why the hell hasn’t he answered? Each ring tore away at his already frayed nerves causing his blood to boil and anger to consume every part of his body. He was ready to throw the phone against the nearest wall when a voice came over the line.

  “Hello, Nicholas. How very nice of you to finally call. I had grown concerned that you were going to miss out on the excitement I had planned for the day.”

  Nick barked into the phone. “Where is she, you fucking piece of shit?”

  “Now is that any way to greet someone? You forget who you are speaking to. I think you should hold your foul tongue and speak to me as a gentleman.”

  Nick listened to the self-righteous line of crap Morris was shoveling. He was a bonafide nut case, but to get the information he wanted Nick was going to have play along. Pissing him off wouldn’t help his chances in finding Becca and could mean getting her hurt or killed before he could get to her.

  Bile formed in his throat threatening to choke back his words. “You’re right. Please, what have you done with Becca?”

  Morris laughed into the phone. “That is considerably better. Your lady friend is in transit as we speak and is due to arrive soon. A mutual friend of ours is escorting her. Do you remember Thomas?”

  Who the hell is Thomas? Nick searched his memory for any Thomas, Tom, or Tommy … Pughen. It had to be him. That piss-ant had a rap sheet a mile long. Sure as shit, he had more than a few psychological issues, and add in his abusive nature he was a perfect candidate for Morris’s army.

  “He’s not my friend though I can understand why he is yours. You seem to surround yourself with the weak and mentally unstable. It’s much easier to have them do your dirty work when they believe in your fantasy, isn’t it?”

  “Oh, it’s not a fantasy. I have gone and seen the truth. When I returned, I had been given the power and ability to find those who needed my guidance. In return for the love and leadership I give them, they have committed themselves to me and have joined my ever-growing family.”

  “What do you know about love and family? You’re a drug dealer and a murderer.”

  “That is just an unfortunate and necessary means to an end. Nicholas, you misunderstand the true meaning of my work. I’m simply a humble servant spreading the word of our true savior.”

  Nick shook his head. Either Morris was a very good actor or he actually believed the crap he was preaching. Neither option was any better. He needed to find out what Morris was planning and where he had Becca.

  “Morris, why did you take her? What do you want?”

  “I would think that would be obvious. You hurt someone that I love. You can’t imagine the agony I felt knowing that one of my family members was so badly injured. It is only fitting that you experience the same pain I felt.”

  Nick’s nerves shattered at his words, and the rage he had been barely containing erupted. He was going to hurt Becca. “Listen, you delusional fuck, if you harm her in any way, if there is so much as a scrape on her when I find you, I will personally send you to hell for real.”

  “No, you listen you insignificant piece of garbage. How dare you talk to me like that? You are in no position to threaten me.”

  There was a pause, and Nick heard him breathing hard against the phone. When he continued, his previous calm demeanor returned.

  “I am not an unreasonable man. You have the ability to spare your lady friend by taking her place. You have three hours to arrive at the destination that I will send to you when we end our conversation. Come alone and unarmed. And, Nicholas, calling the authorities would only complicate matters as I would be informed if you do. Members of my family are employed at many levels within the police department among other agencies.”

  “How do I know if she is alive? I want to speak to her.”

  “As I’ve told you, she is not here at the moment, but I assure you she is alive and unharmed.”

  “And I’m supposed to trust you?”

  Nick heard the sadistic laugh again. “Ah, Nicholas, you do not have a choice. However, in the interest of being fair, I will have Thomas send you a picture when she is made comfortable. Until later then. I am so looking forward to meeting you.”

  The phone clicked off, and Nick did a quick calculation. Assuming Morris was in the city, he could make it within three hours as long as there were no obstacles, traffic, or weather to contend with along the way. The phone buzzed with the address that he recognized as an area by the waterfront in Brooklyn.

  Nick ran to his jeep while dialing Todd. He was going to need him and the team. His best friend answered on the second ring.

  “Hey, Boomer, what’s up?”

  “Morris has Becca.”

  “Fuck.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Becca strained to listen to any
thing that would give her an idea of where she was. The last sound she had heard was a door closing after a well-spoken and possibly deranged man had untied her legs. He had stroked her hair telling her that she would soon understand her purpose and how he envied where she would be going. And that she should try not to be frightened when she stood and beheld the face of the truth. She didn’t know what any of it meant, but frightened didn’t begin to cover how she was feeling—she was absolutely terrified.

  Becca hadn’t recognized the man’s voice. She didn’t know who he was or what he wanted with her. The one thing she did know was that it was Tommy who had brought her there.

  Why would he do this? Becca had been friends with Tommy for years. She had just assumed that his previous actions were a misunderstanding or some type of momentary lapse in his judgment. She couldn’t believe that he had changed that much from the frightened boy in school who had needed her help when the other kids were picking on him. He had even come to her rescue once when a group of boys had decided to break in to their father’s liquor cabinets and had surrounded her at the local corner market demanding she’d go for a ride with them. Tommy had happened along and stepped in before things had gotten out of hand. It had been the first time she had seen him stand up to anyone, and in some odd way, she had been proud of him. They might not have been the closest of friends, but they’d seemed to look out for each other nonetheless.

  Sure a lot of time had passed since then, and they weren’t in high school anymore. Tommy now had a long list of prior convictions, including jail time. But anyone can make a mistake or in his case multiple mistakes. None of it meant that the Tommy she knew didn’t exist anymore. And it certainly didn’t mean he would actually hurt her, right?

  Becca shook her head. Tommy had flashed a gun, shoved her in a car, and kidnapped her. Currently, she was sitting in a room, God knows where, tied up, blindfolded and gagged. What other proof did she seriously need to finally realize that Tommy was capable of anything? It might have taken being abducted, but she finally got it. Tommy was dangerous, and that meant it was distinct possibility that her life was in danger.