Okay, so she was slightly appeased. “It must be my wit.”
He took a moment before he chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, there is that.” He raised those green eyes, now warm and sparkling with humor, but there was also another glint in their depths that sent her heart thumping a little too hard in her chest.
She sobered, though, needing to get something straight before she got too sidetracked. “Travis, if you haven’t figured it out, I’m not a fragile helpless woman or a head case that’s going to fall apart because you don’t wake up whispering how much you love me or that we’re meant to be forever blah, blah, blah…you get the picture. I’m…realistic. Pragmatic. So you running out like that before I was even awake—”
“Whoa. Wait. I didn’t run out, Mer. And that’s getting me back to why this isn’t the best timing. I have a job to do. And last night, I was so…distracted that I missed three important phone calls. I was leaving you some time to sleep while I returned those calls downstairs, but then one thing led to another and the next thing I knew my sister and Allie showed up, followed by Meems. The morning just ran away from me. I wasn’t avoiding you.”
She studied him, already feeling infinitely better than she had all day as she’d wrestled with worry over her daughter along with self-doubt she’d scared someone else away. Now that he mentioned them, though… “Three calls? What were they?”
He told her about his day and everything he’d learned that she might have missed. Particularly about Claire’s fiancé.
“I knew it,” she said. “I knew he was bad news.” She couldn’t help feeling the tiniest bit validated by that information but then was chastised as she thought about how it might be affecting Claire. “How’d she take it?”
“She was ready to kill me because she’d distinctly warned me not to look into the guy. And then…she kind of warned me about you.”
She sat up a little straighter. She’d known that Claire disapproved of her, and she hadn’t really cared too much, knowing the woman was loyal to Allie. But now, it felt a little more personal. Especially since—now that she was being honest with herself—she’d developed feelings for the woman’s brother. “What did she say?” she asked, trying to sound offhanded.
“Probably what you would about expect. That you’ve done some pretty mean things in the past, to me in particular, and that I needed to be on guard before you ripped my heart out.”
She swallowed. “Harsh. And…what did you say? About the status of your heart?”
“You’re fishing.” He smiled. “But since you asked, I told her I could handle this. Because now I’m starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, I was wrong. Maybe people can change, if they have the right motivation.”
They looked at each other for a long minute. It was probably as close as it was going to get to him acknowledging—for now—that something was developing here, and her heart swelled the tiniest bit. She stood. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m itching to get to this gala tonight and kick some butt. Whoever this character is, he doesn’t know how much I love my daughter and that I will go to the ends of the earth to make sure she’s safe—and so will you. Oh, and I picked you up something to wear, too.”
She lifted the garment bag that had been slung across one of the chairs and handed it to him.
He held it away from him like it was a rotten fish. “It’s not a monkey suit, is it?”
“Of course it is. I thought baby blue would bring out the sparkle in those eyes of yours. I hope that works for you.”
“Sounds perfect,” he said, not flinching, definitely on to her. “So…shopping. That’s where you went.”
More or less. “And Darcy’s car is parked in the garage. I already checked and didn’t see anything, but it’s still unlocked as I’m sure you’re going to want to check for yourself.”
She reached down and picked up a couple of bags from the floor. He didn’t have to know that the packages had actually been purchased over a week ago and were just waiting for her to pick them up, which had given her a good chunk of time to get what she needed done.
“I had to make some guesses on size,” she continued, “but it should work. Trust me, as well as you work that T-shirt of yours and those tight-ass jeans, you’re going to need to be a little less conspicuous.”
He raised his brows at her veiled compliment but didn’t respond. There was one more thing, though, that she wanted to make clear. “I need you to promise me something. When you find the location where they’re keeping Darcy”—she said this as if it was a foregone conclusion they would find where she was, because anything else would be unacceptable—“you’re not going to leave me behind.”
Travis met her gaze, shaking his head. “Too dangerous, Mer. We already have an idea of how these guys deal with loose ends. They won’t have any mercy on you just because you’re a woman. And you’re not trained or capable of defending yourself if something goes bad. You could get in the way and not only risk your life, but the life of every girl involved, including Darcy.”
“I understand your concerns. I do, but…I have to be there. If Darcy’s there and you recover her, I want to be there to comfort her. There’s no other priority than making sure she’s safe. I’ll stay in the car, out of sight, if you think I’ll be in the way. But I can’t sit at home, wondering how things are going. Waiting for a phone call that tells me she’s—she’s gone. She’s lost to me. I need to be there. Please.”
He stared at her another long minute. Finally, he nodded. “Only if I can keep your position secure.”
That was probably as good as it was going to get from him. She nodded. “Thank you. We’d better start getting ready, then. I need to be there by six.”
She already was feeling infinitely more optimistic that she would have her daughter home and in her arms by morning.
After all, she had Travis on her side. And she trusted him.
Chapter Fifteen
An hour later, he’d checked the positioning of Meems’s cameras through his laptop and called her to confirm that she and her assistant, some tech guy who’d freelanced with her before, were already positioned outside the hotel with her surveillance equipment fully operational.
He checked his watch again and paced around the kitchen counter, trying not to fidget with the tightness of the damned tux around his neck. Meredith needed to be there by six and even if they left right now, they’d be pushing it.