“What the fuck is going on here?” Hunter asked.
“Oh, I’m trying to get the drugs out of his system,” Craig answered, stalking toward me to grab me again. I shoved away from him, determined not to be plunged into the water again.
“I didn’t take any fucking drugs.”
“Nah, he’s lying,” Craig said, motioning for Hunter and Derek to help him.
“I’m not fucking lying!”
“Then why the fuck would you cheat on Florrie?”
“He did what?” Derek asked. He turned to me, a scowl on his face and grabbed me by the arm. I fought him off, but then Hunter was grabbing my other arm, and together, they dragged me back to the fucking bucket.
“Stop!” I tried to explain, but I was back in that fucking water before I could get any of them to listen to me. Over and over, they plunged me in the water, letting me up for air, only to shove me back in the water. When they finally threw me to the floor, I was exhausted and my lungs were burning. I choked, coughing up the water I had swallowed and laid on the floor completely wrung out.
“Do you think the drugs are out of his system?” Craig asked.
“You know, I think he was telling the truth. I don’t think he was taking any drugs,” Derek said, standing above me with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Of course I wasn’t, asshole.”
“Which means that he’s a fucking imposter that’s infiltrated Reed Security, because only a fucking imposter would cheat on the woman he loved,” Craig surmised.
I gritted my teeth, but I didn’t have a chance to defend myself before they started taking turns punching me. A few landed across my jaw, others on my arms. At one point, Hunter and Derek held me up while Craig punched me repeatedly in my stomach and kidneys. When they finally dropped me to the ground, I was bloody and feeling every ache in my body. But the guys had made their point and I knew I fucking deserved it.
Craig bent down, his elbow resting on one knee as he got in my face. “In case you were thinking of going over there and begging her to forgive you, she’s leaving.”
“What?” I groaned, trying to push myself up. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“She had a bag packed, said she was leaving.”
I shoved to my feet, holding my stomach as it roiled in protest. “Did she say where she was going?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t ask.”
“Didn’t ask or she wouldn’t tell you?”
“I would say that you might still catch her, but I’m pretty sure she left right after I did.”
“And you didn’t stop her?”
“Hey, she’s not my woman, and I didn’t feel like getting my ass kicked today.”
I shoved past him out the door and hopped in my truck. There was no fucking way I could walk over there after the beating the guys had just given me. I swiped at the blood dripping down my face and drove over to my house, my tires kicking up dust as I peeled out of Craig’s driveway. When I got there, her truck was gone, but I couldn’t believe that she had really walked away. I hobbled into the house, banging the door against the wall as I shoved it open.
“Florrie!”
She didn’t answer. I raced up the stairs and ran into her bedroom. It was quiet. I opened her drawers, noticing that some of her clothes were missing, but she didn’t take everything. I checked her closet, but there was still a lot there. So, she hadn’t left. Not for good. I sat down on the bed and pulled out my phone, dialing her number. It went right to voicemail. I tried again and again, but every time it went to voicemail. I called Rob, hoping he could help.
“Yo, what’s happening?”
“I need you to track Florrie’s phone,” I barked into the phone.
“Okay,” he said, his fingers clicking in the background. “Um…no can do. She’s got it off.”
“Then track her truck.”
His fingers moved across the keyboard again. “Nope. She must have yanked out the tracking. What the hell did you do?”
“What about video feed? Can you see where she went?”
“Hold on. Let me see where she went after she left the property.”
I paced the room as I waited. If he could tell me a direction, or any other information, I might be able to piece together where she went.
“Sorry, man. She headed out into the country, and not the main roads. She headed east, but that’s as much as I can tell you. I can run a search for her plates, but that’s assuming that she drives into a city that has cameras all over the place.”
I hung up without answering. If she was going off the grid, there was no way for me to get ahold of her, no way to talk this out with her. She was gone, and now I needed to wait for her to come back to me. If she came back to me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Florrie
Jamie stared at me in shock as I stood on the other side of his door. I knew I looked terrible. About halfway into my drive, I started crying and I just couldn’t stop. My eyes were bright red and my cheeks were flushed from crying. He stepped back quickly, motioning for me to come in.
“Thanks,” I sniffled. “I’m sorry to just show up like this.”
“Don’t worry about it. Is everything okay? Is Alec okay?”
I laughed humorlessly, shaking my head as the tears started again. I swiped at my face, angry for crying right now. I never cried, but now I couldn’t seem to stop. It was like an endless fountain and I couldn’t understand why. I had been pushing Alec away for months, so why was I so broken over him finally ending it?
“Can I get you a drink or maybe a few boxes of tissues? Do you want to sit?”
Jamie ran his hand through his hair, obviously uncomfortable with this side of me. I nodded and moved to the living room, sitting down on his couch. He sat at the opposite end, arms resting on his knees as he stared at me.
“I just needed to get away, and you were the first person I thought of.”
“Well, I’m flattered. Tell me that you left Alec and you’re running away to be with me, and you’ll make me the happiest man alive.”
I tried to smile, but my face crumpled and I started crying again.
“Oh, shit. You did leave Alec.”
“He…he cheated on me,” I said, trying to stop the crying. “Last night. We had a fight and then he walked back in with lipstick on his face. He didn’t even try to deny it.”
Jamie looked utterly wrecked on my behalf. He sighed and flopped back against the couch. Then he shifted and pulled me across the couch toward him, tucking me into his side. His hand trailed up and down my arm in soothing strokes, making me cry even more. This is what I had needed all along, but since Alec was the reason for me being upset, I never tried to take comfort from him. I thought it would feel wrong.
“What happened?” he finally asked.
“That’s a loaded question.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened between the last time I saw you and last night.”
I sighed and started at the beginning. “I told you that we took in a teenager that we found on the streets.” I felt him nod. “He had family in Utah that came looking for him. I didn’t want Reid to go stay with them. He was happy with us. He liked living with us, but Alec thought that they should have custody of him.”
“Why?”
“Because Alec grew up in foster care. Of course, he never told me any of that. He said that he always wondered if there was someone out there that wanted him, and when no one came for him, he wondered why no one wanted him. So, I guess he wanted that for Reid.”
“But you didn’t agree.”
I pushed away from Jamie so I could see him. “Why would I? I was his mother. I took him off the streets and took care of him for eight months before those people came along. They didn’t know him. They didn’t protect him when they should have.”
“Was there a reason they hadn’t come for him?”
“They gave a reason, but I think they wanted his money. He was a senator’s son and when the
senator died, he inherited everything. They had financial issues, and I think when they found out that he was getting everything, they came for him.”
“And I take it they got custody.”
I nodded. “About two months ago. I wanted to take Reid and run, but-”
“Whoa.” He grabbed my hand and shook his head. “What the hell were you thinking?”
I jerked my hand out of his. “I was thinking I would still have my kid.”
“Florrie, that’s not the way to handle a situation like this.”
“What do you know? You don’t have any kids. You don’t know what it feels like to have your kid ripped away from you.”
“Florrie,” he said sadly, in that same fucking tone that everyone talked to me in. “I may not know what it’s like, but I care about you and even I can see how much trouble you would be in. And since you’re not in jail, I’m guessing that Alec felt the same way.”
“I would have gotten away,” I whispered, the tears welling in my eyes. His betrayal still stung. “I could have-”
“No, Florrie. You wouldn’t have gotten away. You would have gotten caught, and then Alec would have been forced to watch you go to jail. And there’s nothing he would have been able to do to help you. Can’t you see that? He was trying to protect you.”
I shook my head, standing to get away from him. “You’re just like all the rest of them. You know, some of them were on my side. Some of them would have fought to get me out of there.”
“At what cost?”
I swiped at my face, sniffing back the tears again. “I would have done anything for Reid.”
“I know, but sometimes the best thing you can do is let go.” I shook my head in irritation. I didn’t need another person telling me that I was wrong. “Is he happy?”
“I don’t know. I’ve gotten reports, but all they say is what he’s doing.”
“But he’s safe?”
I bristled at his question. Like that was the only thing that mattered. “I don’t know. I know what they tell me, but that doesn’t tell me what’s going on inside the house. I don’t know if he’s happy, and I’m not allowed to talk to them. He hasn’t called, so I have no clue if he’s okay or not.”
“Florrie, I know your boss. I’m assuming that he’s keeping an eye on the situation. Am I right?”
I nodded.
“So, what happened after that?”
What hadn’t happened? I bit my lip, shaking my head slightly as I recalled the last two months. All the things that could have been said, but never were. And the things that shouldn’t have been said, but I threw them out there anyway.
“I couldn’t forgive Alec for not helping me. I blamed him for Reid being taken away. Every time I looked at him, all I could see was his betrayal. And then he would try and do things to make me happy, but it felt like he was trying to make it up to me. He built me a deck and told me that he just wanted to make me happy, but how does building me a deck replace the kid that was taken from me?”
“He wasn’t trying to replace your kid with a deck,” he said slowly, like I was fucking stupid.
“I know that. I’m not an idiot, but that’s what it felt like. And he kept telling me that we could still be happy together. But it’s not enough, not when something has been taken from me that I wanted so much.”
Jamie blew out a breath and sat down on the couch. “Do you want to know what I think?”
I huffed out a laugh, because I was sure he was going to tell me no matter what. “Sure.”
“I think that if it were me, and my fiancé told me that it wasn’t enough to just be happy on our own, I think that would kill me. You basically told him he wasn’t good enough for you.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“Florrie, the two of you can’t have kids together. Now, that’s not a difference of one of you wanting kids and the other not. This is something that you are going through together. And now, because Reid got taken away, Alec’s no longer enough for you? I’m sorry, but when I see the way he looks at you, you move the sun and the moon in his universe. You’re everything to him, and it seems to me like you’re telling him he’s nothing to you.”
Was that really how it sounded? That wasn’t how I meant any of it. I just hated that something I wanted so much was taken away from me. And I hated that Alec had contributed to that. But I was too tired to think about this anymore tonight. I just wanted to get some sleep and forget about my problems.
“Can I stay on your couch tonight?”
He shook his head. “No. Florrie, I’m a millionaire. I have a guest room. You can have a fucking bed.”
✯✯✯✯✯
I had spent two nights at Jamie’s house so far. The first day, I mostly sat on Jamie’s couch and watched TV. He had work to do and couldn’t cancel all his meetings at the last minute. Today, he went in for a half day and then came home to spend the rest of the day with me. I was shocked when he walked through the door just after lunch, and then spent the rest of the day with me on the couch. We watched movies and ate popcorn. He teased me about my choice of movies. Apparently, I was a little cliche in my liking of action movies. So, when I chose a romantic movie and caught him welling up, I couldn’t help but tease him.
“Shut up. That was sad,” he said, wiping at his eyes. “Besides, it was the spice in the popcorn. I accidentally rubbed some in my eyes.”
“The popcorn is flavored with butter,” I pointed out.
“Well, it was spicy butter.”
I nodded, pretending that he was right, even though we both knew that he was full of shit. Although, I liked his softer side. It was nice to be with a man that wasn’t all hard and tough. “Okay, so now I get to choose a movie.”
“Fine, but if you choose Die Hard again, I’m going in the other room.”
“They weren’t all Die Hard,” I grumbled. “It’s a series.”
“And yet they all end the same way, with someone being shot.”
“What’s the difference between that and the movies you watch? Like that last one you chose?”
“P.S. I Love You? How is that like anything you’ve ever watched?”
I scoffed at his reluctance to see what I could see so clearly. “You’re kidding, right? The girl falls in love. She’s disappointed, and then falls in love with a new guy. It all ends in love and romance, just like every other romance movie out there.”
“I beg to differ,” he scoffed back. “I have never seen a movie where you have to watch as a woman gets over losing her husband like that. That was fucking brutal.”
“Oh come on! Every movie nowadays is filled with tragedy. That’s the only way you can make a romantic movie interesting. Look at every Nicholas Sparks movie.”
“Alright, well, you may have a point there, but I still say that my choice was original.”
He yawned and checked the time on his watch. He was used to getting up early, whereas I was always staying up late. I tossed a pillow at his face. “I guess you should get to bed.”
“Yeah, some of us have to work in the morning.” He stood up and stretched, his shirt riding up to show off his abs. He was in good shape, but nothing like Alec. I sighed, wondering if there would ever be a time that I wouldn’t be thinking of Alec. “Are you staying tomorrow or heading home?”
I shrugged. “Do you want me to leave?”
He sat down, one of his fingers brushing across my cheek. His eyes burned as he looked into mine intently. “I already told you, I would take you in a heartbeat. I wasn’t joking about that, Florrie. If this is where you want to be, then you’re always welcome here.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay here permanently, but for now, I would take the room he was offering. It was peaceful being here with him. There was no pressure to be tough around anyone, because Jamie already knew that I was tougher than he was. With him, I wasn’t the woman that had gone crazy and tried to kidnap her kid. I was just Florrie and he didn’t expect anything from me. If I was sad and think
ing about what I had lost, he just sat with me. He didn’t bug me to talk, and he didn’t try to cheer me up with stupid crap. And when I was in the mood to talk about anything, he joined in like he was genuinely interested. Nothing was forced, and it was such a relief to have all that pressure off. And even though I knew that he was interested in me, this was the first time that he actually made any mention of it.
“I don’t know exactly what I want, but I want to stay.”
He grinned and kissed me on the cheek. “See you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Alec
I paced around the IT room, waiting for any information Rob could give me. She’d been gone a week. Every day, I waited for any sign of where she was, but we couldn’t find anything. She didn’t want me to know where she was. I was going out of my mind. What if she never came back? What if I had pushed her away for good with my stupid decisions? Sure, I had walked away because I was tired of chasing her. I was tired of being blamed for everything. But I thought we would take some space and eventually talk shit out. I didn’t think she would run.
“You know, the more pacing you do, the more you’re distracting me. Can’t you go shoot someone?”
“I don’t know anyone that needs to be shot,” I said irritatedly. “Why? Do you have someone in mind?”
“I wouldn’t mind shooting you right now,” he grumbled. “Look, she’s staying off the radar. Wherever she’s hiding, she doesn’t want to be found.”
“That’s bullshit. She didn’t just drop off the face of the earth. I know she’s trained and all, but there has to be some way that we can find out where she went.”
“She might have pulled a Cazzo, just took off and now she’s living under the stars.”
I snorted. “Florrie knows how to rough it, but I can guarantee that she’s not doing that for fun. She still likes her creature comforts.”
“Well, she’s not registered at any hotels, she’s not at any of our safe houses, and she hasn’t contacted her parents. She’s not using her phone and I can’t find her truck on any cameras. She’s in the wind, man.”
Nightingale: A Reed Security Romance Page 27