God, the entire situation was messed up. It seemed like something he would see in a movie, not experience in real life. Though after another race car driver had tried to kill Tate, and Alexis’ father tried to use her as a payoff for his own debts, Beau wasn’t quite sure what was a movie or reality.
Soon he pulled up in front of the brick house and parked his truck on the spot across the street he had started to come to think of his own.
With a gentle rub down her back, Beau let Belle know they had arrived. She tucked her head inside the car and he reached over, rolling up the window.
“Ready to see your favorite girl?” Beau asked the dog, not surprised when the animal yipped in excitement. He knew all too well how she felt.
Together they jumped down from the vehicle. Beau reached into the truck's bed and grabbed his duffle bag just as the night shifted into darkness. As someone always on high alert, Beau glanced around the surroundings and into the open field, wondering if someone was right there watching him.
He wasn’t sure if they should be concerned that more threats would happen or brush it off as a one-time thing. Though, he learned this evening that she’d received threats in Baltimore too.
She’d hadn’t disclosed what had been written in the letters, but he didn’t have to be the smartest person alive to know that there wasn’t anything good. She seemed embarrassed when the sheriff said he would read the note when she handed it over. He would also have Jameson Connelly hack the Baltimore police department computer system. Preston didn’t want anyone to know that he was getting information. It was clear that someone on the inside was working with Harposia’s team.
He and Preston had asked the same thing. When would that woman go away? Her entire team was so devoted to her, that even as she rotted in jail, they figured out ways to communicate and push her drugs and humans. It was disgusting.
“Belle, stay,” Beau commanded to the dog as he gently held her leash. He wasn’t sure who owned the animal before she found him, but Belle already seemed to have a good sense of the commands. Since she’d become more mobile, Beau had been working on simple commands with her.
She waited patiently beside his legs, looking directly across the road at the door waiting for them. After checking to make sure no cars were coming, Beau began to walk, gesturing for Belle to join him with a quick tug of her leash.
Just as they approached the front steps, the door to the house opened and Savannah stood there with a large grin. She bent to Belle’s level and held her arms open for the canine. Beau gave the go command and the dog ran up to Savannah and knocked her on her ass just inside the home's foyer.
“Belle!”
“Oh, she’s okay,” Savannah said as she laid flat on the floor with Belle’s large paws resting on her chest.
Beau entered the house and closed the door behind himself, chuckling when he saw Belle trying to lick all over Savannah’s face.
“Belle, down.” The command was met with two frowning faces from the floor.
Beau could see that Savannah wanted to say everything was fine, but with the quick shake of his head, she kept quiet. It was a bit of a staring contest, but Belle finally succumbed to his commands and stepped off of Savannah.
“Good, girl,” Beau said as he retrieved a treat from his pocket and gave it to the dog, who gladly took it and trotted over to the reclining chair in the corner across from the television and jumped up onto the cushions, making herself at home.
Savannah and Beau both laughed at the dog's antics. She’d easily settled into place. Savannah made sure to mention that the chair had been her grandfather’s favorite.
“Here. . .um. . .let me show you where you can put your things.”
He followed her dutifully through the house. The house was well-built, but it had an air of outdated to it. There was a small galley kitchen, a bathroom in the hall, and Savannah pointed out a door leading to her grandfather’s bedroom. The door leading to the clinic was at the other end of the hall. Convenient.
“You can use this bathroom in the hall if you’d like,” she said as she continued toward a set of stairs at the back of the house.
As they reached the landing, the ceiling became more slanted at the back of the house. She pointed out another bathroom and two bedrooms at either end of the narrow hall.
“Show me your room,” Beau mumbled as he dropped the duffle bag at his feet.
The delicate hand resting on the doorknob hesitated, then with a heavy sigh, Savannah pushed the door open wide and stepped inside.
“This is. . .um. . .it.”
Beau glanced around the room that looked to be the same as it had when Savannah was ten. His eyes locked on a poster of a boy band he recalled from his youth and he couldn’t hold back his laugh. She immediately went on the defensive and crossed her arms against her chest, turning back to face him.
“It’s very pink.”
Her arms uncrossed and her shoulders deflated a bit. Beau wasn’t going to share his disappointment that her bed was only a twin size.
“Yeah.” She agreed as her gaze quickly swept around the room. “I hadn’t stayed here since I was seventeen. I guess granddad never changed it.”
Beau nodded. He understood how people wanted to cling to something that brought them a sense of peace and happiness, memories of a better time in their life.
“What kept you from coming back?”
“Ugh,” she moaned as she sat on the edge of the bed, her head bent to study the floor, then she lifted her eyes to look at him. “Time, I guess? And being here reminded me of my grandmother. She died the last year I visited. I spoke to my grandfather on the phone all of the time, but being in this house without her here just didn’t feel right.”
“Is that why you’re so adamant about getting back to the city?”
“Maybe,” she added with a shrug of her shoulders. “What about you? You mentioned at dinner how you were looking to move to Asheville or another bigger city in the south.”
“Small town living isn’t for everyone and I suppose I want to be close to my mom in case things fall through for her.”
“Maybe this time will work.” There was a hopefulness in Savannah’s voice that Beau recalled having after husband number two and three, then there was less and less enthusiasm after each breakup and the subsequent moves to a new area.
“It’s getting late,” Beau said as he glanced at the small alarm clock on her white nightstand. It was only 10 p.m., but with all of the chaos of the evening, he had to guess that she was growing tired. The yawn that escaped from between her lips a few seconds ago didn’t help.
Standing from the bed, Savannah agreed. “I suppose.” She brushed her hands down her linen pants as if there was any chance of dust on the material. “You, um, can use the shower first, if you want. There are towels in the linen closet across from the bathroom. I’ll probably go check on Trisha at the clinic real quick.”
“Okay. Thanks. Don’t leave the property, though, okay?”
“Alright.”
He quickly gathered a towel from the thin closet in the hall, entered the bathroom, and turned on the water to the coldest he could manage in the shower. Just as he stepped under the spray, he realized he’d made a huge mistake. He only hoped that Savannah hadn’t left the house yet; otherwise, he was going to smell like some of the girly shit he found in the nook of the stall.
“Savannah!” he called and then repeated when he got no answer after the first.