Blake stares at me for several long beats before he says, “All right. Memphis is behind the wheel of an SUV outside, waiting on you. He’ll keep an eye out while you sleep. And Kara and I will meet you at your place at noon.”
Memphis being an ex-FBI agent I’ve worked with a few times. I don’t like him or hate him which probably means I like him. I hate pretty fast and hard. “Make it two o’clock,” I say. “And bring lunch.” I catch Candace’s hand and kiss it. “Hang tight while I get us loaded up.”
She hugs herself and nods. A few minutes later, we’re in the back of an SUV, on the way to our apartment, and Candace is plastered to my side. I’m not sure if I put her there, or she put herself there, but I damn sure feel better with her beside me.
The closer she is to me right now, the better I’ll feel.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Candace
Gabriel is dead.
I’m a mix of confusing feelings namely guilt because I feel relief that he can no longer come after me or Rick. He would have come after us. He would have killed us. He would have killed my father. It’s a wicked struggle of logic and emotion, that twists and turns inside me.
And I have plenty of time for such things, too, as the ride into the city is long, the traffic heavy. It’s also silent but for the radio, Memphis—a big, blond country boy from Texas just like us—has country music playing on the radio, which at the moment is Lee Brice’s Rumor. I used to listen to that song and wish Rick would come home, and the whole town would talk. Now, the whole town is hiding or dying which is why I stay plastered to his side. Death has a way of making you hold onto those you love, and that’s what I do. On the ride into the city, I hold onto Rick. I stay close. I just found him again, and I do not want to lose him again. I can’t lose him again.
Rick’s hand rests on my leg, his fingers lazily caressing me and it’s hard to explain how right that feels. Somehow that gentle touch, the touch of a talented hand that can both give and take life, with the same ease, is a butterfly with wings of hope. In this man, is my future, and I don’t believe we have come this far for it to be stripped away again.
I catch his hand now, and I bring it to my mouth, kissing it, and when my eyes meet his, I let him see the hope that he gives me, the love that he stirs so very deep in my soul. His expression softens, he softens. I can feel it and see it. No matter how hard he is, how damaged inside, I believe I’m his butterfly, too.
In that shared moment, the storm inside me begins to calm, the world becomes far more manageable. By the time Memphis pulls us to the front of a brownstone finished high-rise building, I’m eager to see my new home. There’s even a doorman who takes our bags like he would in a hotel. And I allow myself to experience the excitement, and yes hope, that this new chapter of my life with Rick represents.
Once we’re outside the vehicle in the cool, fifty-something temperatures of fall, Rick and Memphis have a quick chat about surveillance. The bottom line: Walker is watching. That’s the general gist, and it’s comforting but so is the level of monitoring by the building. It’s not long before we walk into a small but fancy lobby, with a desk to our left, and elevators straight beyond the checkpoint. On this side of the desk, is a fit, bald man I age to be in his forties, who wears a suit and an earpiece.
Rick pauses to greet the man. “Baby, this is Dandy Randy. He’s a dandy dude in his suit, and he even knows kung fu. We’d recruit him for Walker but the dandy dude owns stock in this here building. He’s not going anywhere. He’ll make sure you’re safe and all the bozos stay outside. Right, Randy?”
“A little stock. Enough to keep me loyal, and I had enough of the bad guys in the Army. You know that, Savage.” His gaze shifts to me, his eyes narrow curiously on me, an awareness there that I don’t quite understand. “As for keeping you safe here in the building,” he adds. “Always.”
“Good,” Rick approves. “Because she lives here now. And if she says yes, I’m marrying her.”
His talk of marriage only sets those butterfly wings of hope to fluttering all the faster while Randy’s eyes light on me and his lips curve. “I’m going to dare to say, that means you’re Candace.”