She retraced her steps through the lobby looking for him so they could enter the meeting together. She shouldered through, searching. She peeked into the gathering area, rows of folding chairs and a refreshments table, but no sign of Carson.
Maybe he'd gone outside to take a cell call. She stepped through the double doors into the parking lot, her heels crunching on gravel as she pivoted to look...
She bumped against someone, a hard-bodied guy. "Carson?"
A hand clamped on her arm, steadying her as she came face-to-face with…Kevin Avery? His cologne stung her nose, his blond hair glinting under the street lamp. "What are you doing here?"
Her question slammed around inside her brain, words spoken now and echoed in her mind from a night nearly three weeks ago.
His grip bit into her flesh. "I've been looking for you."
The ground spun under her feet, memories ricocheting around inside her head. Memories of him, a man she'd once dated because he resembled Carson.
She opened her mouth to scream, but he cut the shriek short with a hand clamped against her lips. Hard. Unrelenting. And horrifyingly familiar. She struggled, wrenching to the side, kicking out.
Releasing her arm, his hand swung down. A dull pain crashed through the base of her skull, once, twice. The edges of the parking lot fuzzed, narrowing along with consciousness. Her dream-vision of the night Gary died now made total sense as she remembered...
Kevin Avery standing over Gary Owens's dead body.
Where was Nikki?
Carson peered over the crush in the corridor for the second time, having already checked the social hall. He'd only turned away for a minute to talk to Vic, and now he couldn't find her. He'd even sent someone into the restroom to look for her. She couldn't have left after she'd been so emphatic about staying.
Damn. Damn. Damn it all, he didn't like this one bit. Where was she and how could someone have plucked her from a group this large?
He didn't like the itchy premonition scratching along the back of his neck. They were in a public place, for God's sake. He pushed through the crowd, making his way toward the double doors.
Stuffiness and noise of the packed social hall gave way to the crisp night air and silence, no sounds other than the occasional whoosh of a passing car. Unease kinking tighter, he scanned the packed lot of empty vehicles all the way to his truck parked at the end with someone inside.
He exhaled a long stream of relief into the freezing night.
Through the back window, he could see Nikki's outline. A stab of disappointment followed.
She'd already given up?
As quickly as the thought slithered into his head, he nixed it, making his way across the dormant lawn toward his Ford. He'd always been the one to walk away, not her. She'd taken a lot of grief from him in the past and still she'd given him another chance. A chance he didn't deserve in any universe.
If she was in the car, then something must have happened to upset her or she wasn't feeling well. Either way, he needed to quit thinking about himself and get over there.
She was right. He'd given up on the two of them before giving them a decent chance. He'd thanked her for trusting him, but what about returning the emotion?
He'd been let down by his parents so many times, let down by adults who should have been there for a kid, somewhere along the way he had stopped putting faith in anyone when it came to relationships. Sure he was a delegation kind of guy at work, but there were tangible gauges of levels of success.
No score guides existed when it came to this whole love gig. He'd told himself he loved her, but hadn't done a thing right in committing. In order for this to work—and hell yes, he wanted Nikki, forever—then he needed to start giving one hundred percent.
He slid into the driver's side behind the wheel, but Nikki kept her face turned to look out. Damn. He had some major backpedaling to do.
"Nikki, listen, I'm sorry about earlier." He stroked up her arm to cup her neck. Was she asleep?
She sagged limply against the seat belt. Strangely slack, not even startling at his touch.
The premonition blasted into full scale alert a second before a looming form rose from the backseat of his extended cab. Carson jerked, ready to launch, attack.
A gun pressed to his forehead stopped him cold. Avery at the other end stopped him colder.
"Major, I'm really sorry it's come to this, but Nikki's enjoying a little nap from a tap on the head." The traitorous lieutenant shifted the gun ever so slightly until it pointed at unconscious Nikki. "Drive, or I'll be having a piece of her while you watch."
Chapter 16