by Reina Torres
Blake said she’d left her car behind with the older woman. If they managed to track Blake that far, would they be able to find the Bug? “It’s not like they came with GPS tracking back then. So maybe we’re okay.”
“Well, if you’re talking to yourself, I should get you an appointment with a therapist, or maybe you’re losing your mind over Blake.”
Adam turned to look at Hank and saw the other man grinning at him with a knowing look.
“Looks like you’ve fallen like the rest of us.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re-”
“In love, Adam.” Hank’s tone didn’t leave room for an argument. “You’ve fallen for her.”
Reaching out for the first aid kit attached to the wall, Adam popped open the cover and started to root around for the right supplies.
Hank pushed his hand out of the way. “Let me help you or you’re going to bleed all over.”
“Okay, so I fell for her.” Adam stepped away and grabbed a clean cloth to wipe away the water and excess blood. “But it’s not going to work out. We’re not going to work out.” Saying the words only made them feel more real.
Busy setting up the necessary supplies on the clean space beside the sink, Hank didn’t bother to say a word. Adam felt like he was just waiting for something. And normally, he wasn’t a man who just said something to fill a void, but things weren’t normal anymore.
“Just because you and Sadie worked out-”
“Swede and my sister, Allie.” Hank ripped opened a wrap-around finger bandage made to work over a knuckle. “And then Tate and Mia.”
Adam stared at him as Hank sprayed some antiseptic on the cut. “Okay, okay, so a few couples-”
“Duke and Angel,” Hank paused to fold the arms of the bandage down, “and don’t forget Taz and Hannah.”
“Okay!” Adam hung his head and struggled not to say the thoughts that were really on the tip of his tongue. “I get the point, but this is different, Hank.”
Balling up the rubbish, Hank tossed it in the trash can nearby. “Right. We’ve all been there, Adam. We’ve all faced crazy obstacles and we’ve all walked through fire for love. The question isn’t ‘if’ it would work out for you and Blake. The question is are you willing to fight for it? What Blake is going through right now can’t be easy. I know from talking to Sadie that after she moved here Blake and Zoe really leaned on each other. And Blake doesn’t like dragging people into her troubles. That’s probably why she didn’t share everything that happened to her.
“Are you ready to push past that kind of a barrier?”
Adam stared at the bandage on his finger and then looked up at his friend. “I don’t know. When Annalise was pregnant, I promised myself that I would be there for my sister and her baby, and what I feel for Blake is amazing. Crazy and amazing. I never expected to find someone that makes me feel the way she does… but I’m not sure she would even want me to try. I know that I love her and that’s not going to go away.”
His chin dropped down to his chest and he felt his heart pounding almost violently inside of his ribs.
“I’d rather focus on something I can do.”
Hank’s expression was pretty telling, but he added words to it. “And that would be?”
“Keeping her safe from that maniac Seth Coleman. So, tell me what else I can do to help?”
“Right now?” Hank blew out a breath. “Keep her here and safe. I have one of my new men on a plane to Hollywood. Paxton Fullerton has an old military connection to a detective with the LAPD. He thinks he can get through that way and get us either some information to fix this or maybe find another way to solve this.”
There was an edge to Hank’s voice that Adam almost didn’t recognize.
“Coleman’s a predator. Praying on dreams and women too afraid to speak up for themselves. We have to find a way to stop this.”
“That,” Adam nodded, “I can totally agree on. I just wish we could keep Blake out of this. Maybe I can find out where she hid the memory card and retrieve it, turn it into the LAPD myself. The last thing I want to do is let her get within a thousand miles of Seth Coleman.”
Hank agreed. “That might not be possible, but I like the way you think, Adam. I’m just sorry I couldn’t convince you to work with us. You would be a formidable guard with your history.”
Adam couldn’t help the look he directed up toward his apartment. All his thoughts kept drifting back to Blake.
“Honestly, Hank… it’s not my history I’m concerned with, so much as my future.”
Chapter 14
“Okay, so I fell for her. But it’s not going to work out. We’re not going to work out.”
Blake had been half a step away from the door when she’d heard Adam’s words to Hank and that had stopped her in place sending her right back upstairs.
Wow.
Talk about a slap in the face!
No, she couldn’t really blame Adam. He thought he’d fallen for her. Well, she’d fallen right back, but now there wasn’t any reason to tell him. Not when he’d shut the door.
Pushing open the closet door she stared at the handful of outfits dangling from hangers before her, hanging her head. She had to figure something out and quick. The more she leaned on Adam, the more she felt like an albatross around his neck.
The last thing she wanted him to do is be relieved when she finally left. She wanted him to remember her with a smile and maybe even a few ‘what ifs’ and ‘could’ve beens.’ That would be all she would have too.
Taking out the most nondescript thing that Annalise had picked out for her, she pulled open the top drawer of Adam’s dresser and picked out a pair of underwear from the stash that had arrived in the mail. She ignored Adam’s socks and boxer-briefs; it would be too easy to think of how perfect they looked in the same drawer.
With a resolute nod, she closed the top drawer and brought her things into the bathroom. She would shower and then head over to the diner. If she was lucky, she could crawl into one of the back booths and hide out for a bit. There would be enough folks there that she could go unnoticed in the rush and people watching was always a favorite hobby. She could let her mind wander and hopefully figure out some kind of actual plan to get real justice for Zoe and herself out of this horrible, stupid mess.
Not to mention the added bonus, the physical distance from Adam would help too. It was impossible to do much when every room of his apartment reminded her of him. And just how much she’d fallen for him even before he’d shown her that she was desirable just as she was.
No matter what else, she knew he hadn’t faked that between them. That she would hold in her heart forever.
Setting down her clothes beside the sink she turned on the shower.
Adam tipped his gaze up toward the ceiling. The pipes in the building were great, but he could still hear the water coursing through them. Smiling, he thought of Blake in the shower.
He would have loved to join her, but one look at the water coursing over her body and he’d forget what he’d been tasked with, protecting her. Something he’d lost sight of in the need to find his comfort in her embrace. What people and their small-mindedness had done to her spirit was criminal. If they couldn’t see how beautiful she is they should keep their thoughts to themselves.
And he really needed to get his head on straight. His first responsibility was to make sure that Seth Coleman didn’t touch Blake’s life any more than he already had.
After that, well, he’d figure out what to do next when next came.
Picking up his wrench, he went right back to work.
That, he could handle.
No one could ever accuse her of being ready for American Ninja or even American Gladiators, although they had a few girls with curves on their show. Okay, so their curves were mostly solid muscle, but curves.
Yep, she was also delusional when she stressed.
That’s normal, right?
Still, she made it to the bottom of the outs
ide stairs and around the back of the building without Adam seeing her. It helped that he was up to his elbows in foreign car parts.
Cutting through a little alleyway that was just bigger than the width of her hips, she found her way to the front of the diner. Pulling the hood of her hoodie back and away from her face she walked purposefully through the room as if she had been there a thousand times before.
True to form, folks treated her like she was invisible and what normally drove her nuts had become a mark in the plus column for once.
She saw Annalise near a booth at the back of the room. She could only see part of her face, but she could tell her new friend anywhere, there was just something singular about Adam’s sister.
With a smile she walked up to Annalise and popped around front to catch her attention. “Hey, sorry to bother, but-”
She stopped talking as soon as she saw the man sitting in the booth.
“Robert.” That’s right. While she didn’t really know much about Seth’s right hand security stooge, she knew his name and enough about him to realize that she was in deep trouble.
Even worse, Annalise was in danger.
And that wasn’t an overactive imagination or blowing things out of proportion. There was a gun in the shoulder holster that Robert always wore and the way he had his jacket open at the moment, the handgrip of his pistol was a stark contrast to the faded chambray shirt he was wearing.
“Hello, Blake. How lucky to see you here.”
She nodded, slowly, unwilling to make any sudden movements around the security goon. “You must have stepped in a big pile of something.”
He smiled. “You mean like you did?”
She heard the smug tone in his voice and it sliced through her making it difficult to speak, but she had to say something to buy them time. “Well, at least my luck is holding, right?” She licked at her lips and found them suddenly dry. “Is Seth here in Eagle Rock?”
Robert adjusted the hold he had on Annalise’s arm and Blake saw her friend wince in pain. “You think he’d come here?” Shaking his head, Robert gave Annalise a measuring look. “Can you believe how stupid she is?”
Blake saw Annalise’s jaw tense a heartbeat before she tried to open her mouth and speak. She could tell by the look in her friend’s eyes that it wasn’t a good idea to let this go on.
“I didn’t think so. I just thought I’d ask. This would be like his own personal hell, right?”
That got a smile from him. “I doubt we could score him coke all the way out here, and I doubt there’s discreet service for girls either. He’d rather die than set foot in this town.”
Nodding slowly, Blake reached out to touch Annalise in comfort, but Robert saw the gesture first. “Don’t do that,” he warned her, “unless you’re trying to get your friend killed.”
Lifting her hand slowly away from Annalise, Blake gave him a look that said she understood what he was saying, and then she told him, “Okay then. You’re the boss.”
“And the Boss is fucking hungry. So,” he grinned up at Annalise, “you’re going to get me a burger with everything, a pile of fries, and coffee. And make no mistake, I’m watching you, so no passing notes or side conversations. Understand?”
Annalise stood completely quiet and still for a moment, long enough to grate on Robert’s nerves.
“Or I could shoot you dead right here and drag your friend out to the car in a heartbeat.”
“There’s one thing you forget about places ‘all the way out here.’”
“Oh?” He smiled, but the curve of his lips looked more like a coiling snake than a man. “And just what is that?”
Annalise’s eyes flared with hope for a moment. “This is Montana. There’s more cowboys and hunters here than you can literally shake a stick at. If you draw that gun in here, there is no guarantee that you’ll make it out that door.”
Robert turned a little on the bench seat and scanned the diner patrons. Blake watched him assess each and every person in the room.
“Okay,” he spoke to no one in particular, “then this is how we’re going to play it. Blake with her ridiculous new haircut is going to sit down and we’ll wait for you to bring me my food. When I’m done eating, we’re all going to take a walk out to my car. And then I’m going to decide what we do from there.”
Blake couldn’t keep quiet. “You can’t hurt her, Robert. I’ll do whatever you want but you need to leave her here.”
He leaned forward on the table and stared at her. “I’m sorry, but when did you get to be in charge?”
“She’s a local,” Blake argued with a smile trying to keep her expression light enough that no one else would key into the tension she was feeling. It wouldn’t do any of them good for someone to get curious. “If you put her in a car and take her out of town, they’ll notice.”
Robert at least gave it some thought. “We’ll see, but I’m hungry and I don’t think for shit on an empty stomach.”
Annalise looked at him with a nod. “I’ll bring something over for both of you to eat.”
Trying to keep her expression staid, Blake let out a breath. She didn’t want to say anything to upset the gunman.
He had no such worries. “Oh, don’t bother bringing something for Blake. Her fat ass could use a few less calories. Now hurry up.”
Blake gave her friend an easy smile. “Please, Annalise, do as he says.”
When she walked away, Blake sank back against the booth and turned to look at Robert. “How did you find me?”
He gave her a look that made her blood run cold. “I’ve had to track you all over the western half of the country and if you think you’re not going to pay for that, you’re stupider than Seth says you are.”
“I just wanted to know. That’s all.”
“Found your phone. Found your car.”
Blake felt all the blood drain from her face. “My car.”
“Yes, your car.” His eyes sharpened, focusing on her face. “That little old lady was so sweet. When I told her how worried I was about you and how much I wanted you home so I could help take care of our baby, she was so excited she wanted to bake a damn cake. So, I let her start up that oven.”
Blake’s stomach turned over. “No.”
“And when she bent over to stick that damn toothpick in to see if it was done-”
“Please. No.” Her throat burned with acid and she could almost taste the bile climbing up onto the back of her tongue. “Please tell me you-”
“Well, she must have waxed her floors,” he smiled, “because she slipped and her head hit that damn oven door with a smack so loud-”
“Oh please no.”
“I can still hear the crack in my ears now.”
Blake had to swallow back the rush of bile that threatened to make her empty her stomach right then and there. She knew she couldn’t do it. Knew how much danger that Annalise and the rest of the people in the diner were in.
“You can’t really blame me for this, Blake.” He sounded perfectly reasonable in his tone. “I couldn’t exactly leave her to tell tales, could I?”
The world around her dimmed, the sounds of the diner drowned under the sounds of blood rushing through her ears, and there was a taste that erased the acidic crawl of bile on her tongue. Blood.
When Jack Morgan pushed through the door into the workroom, Adam gave him an odd look. “Hey, Jack, long time-”
“Son, you know I think the world of your sister, but is there any chance she can come back and finish out her shift? We got some kind of tour group that showed up and we were already strapped when she left to come and help her friend pack. I didn’t even know you had someone staying with you, but I’ve got a full house and-”
“Hold on!” He knew that he’d added a little too much force behind his words when the older man drew up and nailed Adam with a look that said he’d stepped over the line. “Annalise left with who?”
With a huff, Jack answered again. “Her friend. Short curly hair, kinda big in the h
ips. You know her, right?”
Adam let the slight go, he had bigger issues at the moment.
“Yeah, I do. Anyway. Thanks for letting me know. As soon as I talk to Annalise, I’ll let her know.”
Dropping everything, Adam turned around and headed inside.
Jack called after him. “That’s it? As soon as you talk to her? Don’t you know where she is?”
Adam only heard the last bit of the older man’s outrage as he hustled up the stairs almost three at a time.
When he turned the knob, he called out loud enough to be heard inside. “Annalise? Blake?”
He reached into his pocket and realized that he’d left the keys on his workbench downstairs.
Letting out a shuddering breath, he banged on the door again. “Blake? Damn it! Are you in there?” His heart squeezed in his chest and he mumbled under his breath. “Please, baby, answer the damn door.”
When the apartment remained silent, he lost any semblance of patience. Stepping back, he kicked the door open, blowing it inward on its hinges.
The room was still.
Cold.
Without even going into the bedroom he knew that Blake was gone.
And he had a sinking feeling that Annalise was too.
Stepping over to the kitchen counter he picked up the phone and dialed Hank.
When the phone call picked up he didn’t even wait for a greeting.
“I need your help.”
When Hank arrived, he walked straight through the door since it was still hanging off its hinges. Sadie was only a half-step behind him. “What happened?”
Adam sighed. “From everything I can figure out. Blake went to see Annalise at the diner. Jack told me that Annalise left with Blake to help her pack.”
Sadie and Hank shared a look.
Hank looked back at Adam. “Who else was there?”