Calling Kupid (Kupid's Cove Book 1) (13 page)

I stroked her hair to keep her relaxed or maybe it was to relieve some of the anxiety I had listening to the snowmobiles outside the hotel. The sound of the motors revving had me at my wits end. I was sure there were hours of the event left to go, which only fueled my agitation. I couldn’t hear anyone who might be sneaking up on us. Every sound around me was drowned out by the incessant buzzing of the nonsensical machines.

“I think I want to go home. Those engines are driving me mad,” she said as soon as the credits started to roll.

She sat up and stretched her legs out from under the covers. I rubbed her shoulders as I chuckled.

“Funny, I was just thinking the exact same thing. You don’t notice how annoying they are until there are twenty of them all racing their engines at once. I hope it ends soon or I might throw open the balcony doors and scream like a madman.”

She giggled and craned her neck to get a kiss. The quick peck I intended to give her turned into a hot exploration of each other’s mouths. It was all too easy to get lost in her when I should be paying attention to the world around me. I kissed down to her neck and pulled her sweater lower, so I could keep kissing.

“You can come to my apartment. If you want,” she moaned when my tongue trailed her cleavage.

I kissed the pulse that throbbed in her neck. “Oh, I want. I’m just not so sure that it’s smart.”

“Because you don’t want to leave your stuff here with so many people about?” she asked breathlessly.

I took her hand and lowered it to my trousers, where the reason lay. “Because this is what you do to me and I’m trying to be a gentleman.”

My eyes closed automatically when she rubbed across the zipper with the palm of her hand. I moaned audibly, pressing into her hand, aching to make the torture stop.

“Whatever happens, we are two consenting adults,” she whispered.

I leaned back and held her face in my hands. “This consenting adult knows how important it is for you to trust him. He also suspects you’re still a virgin, even if you never answered his question.”

She bit her lip and looked away, a tinge of color seeping into her cheeks. “I wish I hadn’t told you that. I’m so embarrassed.”

I brought her chin back until she was looking at me. “Don’t be embarrassed. Being a virgin is nothing to be ashamed of. I respect the hell out of that decision.”

“Honestly, that’s the reason I’ve never been with a man. I’m ashamed of my body. I never found a man I trusted enough to show it to.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, trying to soothe her. She moved away from me, her body stiff as I tried to rub her shoulder. I didn’t like the distance between us.

“My body isn’t that of a super model, Gideon.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” I insisted.

“You can’t deny that women are bombarded with that message day in and day out,” she said, her voice fierce and angry. I nodded my head in agreement, afraid to speak and have her decide not to finish. “There’s no way I can be a super model. Logically I know that, but emotionally it’s not so logical. I have scars I can’t hide. My chest isn’t symmetrical, which I also can’t hide. Well, I suppose unless I lost my virginity in the dark, or in the dark in the water.”

I sighed when I saw where this was going.

“The only reason you got my clothes off that night is because I was drunk.”

“If you had been sober you wouldn’t have gone with me.”

She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them. “I was messed up that night. I’m probably lucky you came along or I might have walked into the water, and disappeared for good.”

“You were serious about that?” I asked, rubbing her back.

She shook her head then shrugged. “No, I was just really messed up emotionally. Sometimes alcohol clouds our better judgment.”

“Why were you messed up emotionally?”

Her chin came down to rest on her knees. “Freddie was married, so Flynn had officially taken over my job as Freddie’s protector. Suddenly I had nothing in my life but my work. I had no one who needed me. I had no family and no prospects for a steady relationship.”

She looked so sad that it broke my heart. I wondered how I could care about this woman so much in such a short amount of time.

“But you see now that’s not true, right? I mean you were the one who had to take care of her just the other day. Flynn wasn’t who she wanted, she wanted you.”

She nodded her head against her knees. “While everything has changed, I know that she and I will always need each other. Like I said, I was just really emotional that night.”

“Then, when you did reveal yourself to me, I totally stomped all over any trust you may ever have in any man.”

She barely nodded this time and a tear ran down her cheek. “Yup,” she said so softly I could barely hear it. “I haven’t gone out with anyone in eleven months. I tell Freddie I’m dating, but just go to bed with all the lights off. I’m darn good at making up stories about the dates I went on. Maybe I should write a book.”

Heart officially broken.

“Is there anything I can say to you right now to make what I said all those months ago disappear?” I asked, desperate for anything to lessen the sadness on her face.

“You didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, Gideon. That’s the hard part. No matter what, I will always be those things, because of my heart. I try, but sometimes no matter how much will you have, you can’t change nature.”

“Personally, I like your heart. You have so much of it that sometimes I think that’s why it breaks so easily. I just wish I hadn’t been the one to do it.”

“You didn’t mean to,” she said, “right?”

I shook my head and turned her whole body to face me. “You know the answer to that question. If I had a rewind button, you can bet I would take us back to that night and do things so much differently. While that’s my wish, I know I can’t take back what I said.” I rubbed my thumb across her soft jaw and caught a tear, wiping it away. “I know I can tell you those words weren’t true until I’m blue in the face and you will still doubt what I say, so I have to show you. I have to show you that I respect you, your feelings, and your body. In order to do that I have to keep my desires in check while I convince you I’m the right guy for you. That I’m worthy of your trust.”

I didn’t give her a chance to answer, just pulled her into me for a hug, rubbing her back up and down until she relaxed and the tension left her shoulders. I was getting a taste of the pain she’s lived with for the last year. It was bitter, that was for sure.

She took a deep breath, nodding at me as I smiled down at her, like she understood exactly what I was feeling, and she agreed.

I stood slowly, giving her a second to renege on her offer to take me home with her. She didn’t, so I grabbed my backpack, throwing some clothes and shaving kit in it. She watched me earnestly and when I was done, I took her coat off the hook by the door, holding it out to her to slip on.

“I’m going to take you up on your offer to stay at your apartment. This noise is really something.”

She buttoned the coat to the neck, pulling her stocking cap on. “I’m not sure the management took the noise into account when they decided to hold the event. You need to mention how unpleasant it was when you check out.”

I shrugged into my parka, hiking my backpack over my shoulder so I could pick up my briefcase. “You really think so?”

I opened the door and surveyed the hall then motioned her out. We walked to the elevator as if the hounds of hell were after us, while I kept an eye on all the room doors. She probably thought I was being pushy, but the less time we spent trapped in a hallway the better. Once safely inside the elevator, I breathed an outward sigh, even if we still had to get to the car. Chances were good whoever was out for me wasn’t going to try anything in front of all these people.

“I would want to know if I was the management and the guests found the whole experience unpleasant,” she said. I wondered if she had been talking this whole time and I hadn’t noticed.

I kissed her temple and agreed, keeping her next to me tightly as we walked out the front door towards her car. She got in the driver’s side and started the engine while I stowed my bags on the backseat. Nothing looked amiss as I buckled the seatbelt and she put the older, but very well maintained, Honda into drive and headed back through town to the law office.

“It looks like you’ve taken very good care of this car,” I said conversationally.

She shrugged. “It was my mom’s and since it was paid for I decided to keep it. If you hadn’t noticed, Snowberry isn’t very big. It doesn’t get a lot of miles put on it every year.”

I looked out the window at the Main Street and smiled. “No, I suppose it doesn’t. I bet you ride a bike in the summer and leave this parked, right?”

She looked at me as she pulled into her parking space. “How did you know that?”

“Lucky guess?”

I repeated the advance to the side door of the firm after I helped her from the car. It was unusually dark and I pointed up at the light above the door.

“Isn’t that usually on?” I asked, a trickle of apprehension going down my spine.

She shrugged. “Bulb probably burned out. I’ll have Cagle fix it next week.”

It was time to get out of the alley, so I took the key and went to insert it in the lock, but the door swung open.

“That’s weird. I know I locked the door.”

I pushed her to the side and got right next to her ear before whispering, “I’m going to check the vestibule. If it’s empty, we will approach your apartment carefully.”

“Maybe we should call the police,” she whispered, her eyes wide.

I gave my head one shake and pulled a small revolver from the inside of my pants pocket.

“Oh my lord, you have a gun?” she hissed, instinctively stepping back.

“It’s okay, I have a license.” I held my finger to my lips then pushed the door open slowly. I swung the gun around the postage stamp sized vestibule. There was no one there, so I motioned her in, holding my finger to my lips. I checked the door to the law office, which was still locked. I breathed a small sigh of relief. I expected whoever this was would stick to her personal space.

We climbed the stairs to the apartment together. At the top I motioned her to the side of the door again. “Wait here.”

The apartment was quiet, only a small light shining in the darkened room. It was just enough light to tell me the whole game had just changed.

I had a decision to make. Leave her out there exposed to this nut job or bring her in here and hope he had already left. I pulled her in the door and closed it, holding my finger to my lips.

“Stay here,” I whispered. She nodded her head quickly, fear spiraling out of control in them.

I made quick work of checking the small space, making sure whoever had been here was long gone. I tucked the gun back in my pocket as I ran back to where she stood, frozen in place.

I held her eyes. “I need you to listen to me. Don’t interrupt and don’t freak out, okay?”

She nodded, but I knew she could see the tossed room from the doorway. I tried to keep her eyes focused on mine. “It appears someone was here.”

“I don’t understand what is going on.”

I could feel her shaking under my hands as I held her shoulders. I hugged her tightly, trying to offer comfort. “It’s okay. I’m going to take care of you,” I promised. “Someone has been sending me weird stalker-like texts. They started in Chicago and we believed leaving town would make it end. Out of sight out of mind, so to say. It appears that’s not the case because they found me again. Whoever it is always knows whom I’m with and what I’m doing. They send me texts, but by the time I can get Sebastian to trace the number the phone is long gone.”

“Why? Who would want to hurt you?”

“I don’t know the answer to that yet. I’ve made my fair share of enemies in the business world. It could be anyone, but I’m inclined to believe it has to do with a recent resort buyout. I have my assistant Graham doing legwork in Chicago, but we’re getting nowhere fast.”

“So you lied to me about why you’re really in Snowberry.”

I moved her away from the door a little. “No, I didn’t lie. I had to come here to get the pharmacy squared away; you know that part is true. Not telling you about the texts wasn’t a lie. I honestly believed coming here would be the end of it. What you’re about to see tells me it isn’t.”

She pushed me aside, walking farther into apartment. She took in the living room strewn with couch cushions, books, CDs and movies. She was heading for the bedroom and I held my breath when she walked into the room. There was a small lamp on next to the bed and when she saw the message, she froze.

I grabbed her waist as she started to sway. “I’m going to keep you safe.”

“This isn’t good, Gideon.”

I took in the blood soaked bed. Someone had used fake blood to make the shape of a man and a woman lying on the sheet. There was a knife stuck in the pillow with the words, ‘I’m coming for you’, written in blood below it.

She sagged into me. “Why does someone want to hurt me? Just because they’ve seen me with you?”

I turned her around to face me. “They want to hurt me. They think they can accomplish that by hurting you.”

“Would they?” she asked and I cocked my head in question. “Hurt you by hurting me?”

I hugged her trembling body to mine, “Yes, very much so. I couldn’t live with myself if you were hurt because of me. This is proof that it’s time we go someplace more secure, Katie. We need to head back to Chicago until my team of investigators can figure this out.”

“Your team of investigators?” she asked then shook her head. “Forget it, we need to call the police.”

She reached for her phone and I took it from her hand. I checked her settings, making sure the ‘Find my iPhone’ was off, then shut it down and stowed it in my pocket.

“Hey! Give me my phone!” She was grabbing for my pocket like a child trying to get her favorite toy.

I held her arms. “Focus here for me, Katie. I don’t know that he has your phone number, but it wouldn’t be hard to get. I don’t want him to know where we’re heading, so the phone has to stay off, got it?”

She wrenched out of my arms. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

“Okay, Katie, calm down. Let me show you something.”

I opened the texts on my own phone, handing it to her to read. I knew the moment she saw herself in the photos.

“He thinks we’re a couple?”

“I believe that’s the impression he has.”

“But we aren’t!” she exclaimed, the phone hitting the carpet when it slipped from her hands.

She looked at it and a tear escaped from one eye. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“Shhh, it’s going to be okay. I need you to trust me. Do you trust me?”

Her eyes were wide as she contemplated my request.

“I think we should call the police,” she said again.

“How many officers does Snowberry have?”

“We have one full-time and two part-time. Why does that matter?”

“That’s not enough manpower to protect you from this guy. Whoever it is clearly has a vendetta against me. The bed should tell you that.” I motioned at the display again. When I looked back, she had her lip caught between her teeth. “If you come with me, I’ll keep you safe until this gets straightened out. I’m sure it won’t take more than a couple of days and then I’ll personally bring you back to Snowberry, but you have to trust me right now.”

She looked at the phone on the floor again. “Are you a bad guy? Am I just running off with the bad guy?”

I held her hands together and kissed her knuckles. “I’m not a bad guy, no matter what this person thinks. You know down deep I’m not a bad guy; don’t you?”

She nodded, her face scared. “I’m afraid, Gideon.”

“
When I am afraid, I will trust in you
.”

A look crossed her face and her chin trembled slightly.

“Psalm 56:3,” she whispered.

I nodded. “It’s running through my head right now because I’m scared, too. I’m afraid he’s going to hurt you and that scares me more than dying myself.”

I watched the war going on inside her. As anxious as I was to get on the move, I waited as she tried to wrap her head around what was happening. “Would it help if we called my head investigator? He could fill you in on what he knows already, but we can’t stay here much longer. If this nut is triangulating my phone, he knows we’re here. Tell me now if you want to talk to Sebastian.”

I held a new phone in my hand I had pulled from my pocket. When she nodded, I flipped it open to dial.

“What’s that?” she asked, motioning at the old flip phone.

“It’s a burn phone. I bought it at the hardware store this morning. I won’t make calls on that phone anymore.”

To prove my point, I pulled the SIM from the Samsung and took the necessary steps to wipe the phone back to factory settings before powering it down. I tucked the SIM in my pocket before I hit a speed dial preset on the small burn phone.

“Lone Wolf Security,” the caller answered.

I asked for Sebastian, tapping my foot for what I thought would be a long wait. Instead, in a matter of seconds, he was on the line.

“It’s too soon to know anything yet, Gideon,” he said as a greeting. “I’m doing the best I can with what little bit of information I have. I still think you need to get out of that town and get back here to Chicago.”

“There’s been a development,” I answered in response and he waited while I explained.

“You have to get out of there now. Is Katie with you?”

“I’m right here,” she whispered, unsure of herself, and very frightened.

“Get out of there as quickly as possible. Go to the helo. I made sure it’s gassed and ready. Do you have the satellite phone?”

“Yes, of course, I always do,” I answered.

“Good, pull the SIM card from your main phone and wipe it clean. Leave it at her house then get the hell out of there. I have coordinates to a safe house just before the border of Illinois. There’s an empty field behind an old hotel. I want you to land it there and stay in the room until I get there.”

“How do you know it’s safe?” I asked, taking Katie’s hand.

“An ex-ranger runs the hotel. I’ve used the place before. No one will get to you there. When you arrive, he will meet you at the helo. His name is Marcus, he’s my brother.”

“How will I know it’s really him?” I asked, motioning for Katie to get a pen and paper.

“Caucasian, about five six, built, and the left side of his face is scarred. He also has a tattoo on his left hand of the Army Rangers. His safe phrase is, ‘The wolves are hunting tonight’.” When he says it, you’ll know it’s him.”

“Got it. We’re moving in less than five,” I promised.

“This is a new line. Is it secure?”

“It’s a burn phone from the hardware store, just turned it on, so it’s secure.”

“I’ll text you the coordinates for the hotel, then pull the battery and drop it in the snow before you head for the airport.” With that, the line went dead.

Katie bent over and coughed a couple times. I rubbed her back a few times. “Are you getting sick?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m just a little overwhelmed. Will we be safe in Chicago?” she asked, hugging her arms.

“Safer than we are here for sure. You heard Sebastian; we have to move.”

She pointed at the bed. “I can’t leave it like that. What if Winifred came over, or Rosie came up to check on me?”

“Do they have a key?”

“Unfortunately,” she sighed.

I motioned at the bed, “Strip it quickly and hide the sheets. That’s about all we can do for now.”

She stripped the bed, throwing the bedspread back up around it to make it look like she had made it. She went to her dresser next, pulling open a drawer with heavy winter wear. She handed me a pair of wool socks and then pulled off her jeans. Her soft bottom was wrapped in red panties and I nearly lost myself right there. If it weren’t for the fact we were being hunted by a maniac, I would have made her mine on her disheveled bed. She pulled on warm, flannel-lined jeans, and dry wool socks then stuffed some clothes in bag.

She looked up at me. “How far is the airport? We can’t take my car. He’ll know we’re on the move.”

“Dammit, you’re right. He likely knows what we’re both driving.”

She tossed the backpack over her shoulder jogging into the living room, replacing cushions and stacking books up, trying to make it look less trashed. A text came through and I wrote the coordinates of the hotel down on a piece of paper then followed Sebastian’s instructions to disable the burn phone.

I grabbed her arm to stop her movements. “We don’t have time for this. Let’s go.”

“I have to get my medication,” she whispered, worried someone would hear us if we spoke in normal tones. She pulled down a container of pills from above the stove. “How long will we be gone?”

I grabbed a Ziplock and held it open. “Take it all. There’s no time to decide how many you’ll need.”

I stuffed the filled bag into her backpack as she tied on a pair of snow boots.

“There’s a pair of boots at the bottom of the stairs. We keep them there for shoveling snow in the winter. They should fit you.”

“I’ll be okay,” I insisted, looking down at my loafers.

“Wear the boots. You might need them at the airport.”

“I haven’t figured out how to get there yet,” I admitted.

“I have.” She threw on a heavy Columbia parka and handed me a hat and pair of gloves, then tugged on her own.

“Attorney Cagle has an old truck he parks out back. He uses it to haul firewood in the winter and doesn’t have a place for it at home. It has old farm plates that are probably expired. I know where the keys are. Will that work?”

I grabbed her upper arms and kissed her, solidly. “You’re a lifesaver, literally. My helo isn’t at an actual airport. I rent a hanger from a guy just out of town. It’s where a bunch of amateur pilots house their machines. Since I can take off vertically, I don’t need runway space.”

“Where is it?” she asked, still looking dazed from the kiss as she tied on her scarf.

“Off Highway 13. Maybe you’ve heard of Dawson’s Dairy? I would like to avoid the main streets if possible.”

“You rent from old man Dawson?” Her whole body shuddered. “Let’s hope he doesn’t come out shaking a stick at us when we take off.”

I laughed and shook my head. “He’s gone for the winter. Took off for Florida from what I heard. We will be alone out there.”