Charity's Passion (13 page)

“We have a few things to do first,” he reveals. “Some things so that this will be safe for us, and for those that we love. After that we have to go.”

I still have questions. “I get it, I do, but where are we going and how long are we going to be there?” My fingers lazily drift over his chest. “People are going to worry about us, my parents, and your mother.”

“I know,” he breathes deeply. “We’ll take care of that.”

“That’s good to know,” I laugh, teasing him for his vagueness. He laughs with me.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “That’s part of the things we have to do first. We’re going to put some things in motion that will make them all understand before we go.”

I nod my head as it rests on his arm.

“Until we go,” he continues, “keep doing everything that we’ve talked about, stay close. We’ve strangled off nearly every opportunity he would have to get access to us; by now he’s pissed off and looking hard for any crack in the system.”

“He’ll have to
make
a crack if he can’t find one,” I add.

Justin nods his head now. “That’s exactly why we need to go. We shouldn’t be here when he does that. He’ll be angry and dangerous, but he’ll also be reckless and maybe even a bit sloppy.”

“Won’t disappearing without a trace just piss him off even more?” I ask, hearing the sleepiness seeping into my tone.

Justin’s body tenses under me. “Yes—it will, and we need to make sure everyone else is safe so no one is hurt when he finally explodes, but I believe it’s what we have to do. We keep making things harder on him until we make our move.”

“Our move?” I ask curiously.

Now he goes silent again,
really
?

He must sense my frustration because he takes a big, deep breathy sigh. “You know there’s going to be a move at some point, there’s no way that’s a surprise for you. We’re putting walls up around us that he can’t even see through, let alone get through. We’re not doing that for the fun of it,” he says.

“Yeah, I get it,” I tell him, feeling my eyes finally getting heavy. “But it’s starting to piss me off not knowing what the move is going to be.”

He sighs again. “You’ll know when it’s safe for you to know.”

This time I do the sighing. “Just tell me where you’re thinking about taking me.”

“Away,” he says with a chuckle.

“You’re such an ass!” I snap playfully, making him laugh harder. I move my head to his chest, enjoying the way his laugh sounds in my ear.

“Don’t feel bad,” he says after a breath that lifts my head several inches, “no one knows that right now. Not even the team or the people taking us away. Some of them have little pieces, but no one has the whole thing, no one but me knows what the hell I’m thinking.”

That doesn’t help my curiosity.

“We’re going to be moving, I’ll tell you that because I trust you with our lives. The best way to make sure no one knows where you’re at is to not be anywhere in particular. We’re going to be hidden behind a few hundred reservations across multiple cities and countries—even a few continents. There isn’t a soul but us that will know where we are, and by the time someone finds out, we’ll have been to several other places by then,” he explains.

Okay, do I tell him how absolutely fucking hot this is?
I know I shouldn’t indulge, but a big, loud part of me forgets all about being scared and grows thrilled at the thought of jet setting around the world with him.

I should stop, but I can't. Suddenly I'm not so tired. "How will we contact people we need, or have them reach us?" I ask largely to distract myself. I know damn well that Justin always has his ways and I have nothing to worry about.

"Anyone that needs us will funnel to a single point of contact that knows how tip me off. That's the easy part. Then we call in, and there's a lot of technology behind that. I have several numbers to dial, you will have them too. We call certain numbers for certain situations," he says in a sleepy voice. Apparently, this is not as exciting him as it is me.

"The numbers are all virtual forwards?" I ask even though it's obvious.

He nods tiredly. "They'll bounce around over two hundred connections before their final destination. It's overkill—"

"But you wouldn't do it any other way," I finish for him.

So we're gone, but not lost. I feel much better about it now. The
me
of a year ago could never have imagined this, would never have accepted it, but thanks to Justin I've found a strength that I've had inside my entire life. I'm part my mother, part my father—the rest is all me.

Fuck feeling guilty! If I want to be excited about what's coming next, I'm going to embrace it. "I'm ready whenever it's time," I tell him.

"I know you are," Justin says without any doubt in his tone. "You've been ready all along. I'm the one that's terrified. I'm still trying to understand how my life got here—how I was lucky enough to find you. I have a prize that I don't deserve, and I'm doing everything in my damn power to keep it before God realizes the mistake he made giving his angel to me."

Melt. Swoon. Ask me to marry you already!

I toss my arm further around his muscles and squeeze him tight. It's never tight enough to satisfy me. He kisses the top of my head and takes another deep breath.

This is going to be the last hurdle. Once it's over, that's when he will ask me to be his wife, at least that's what I'm telling myself.

I let my brain run, imagining all the places we will see, how beautiful and luxurious some might be—how seedy and dark others will. All of it turns me on.

Above us the fan is still doing its job. The coolness pushes down to our bodies with ease. Justin's breathing begins to grow deeper and I know he's almost out.

"I love you," he whispers lightly, as if he's finishing off a conversation we are having in his dreamy mind.

I know he's not he's hearing me but I tell him I love him too. Maybe it will make his dreams better tonight, give him a little bit of peace before we play this game with Marker
.

W
e're meeting Garrett and Trisha in thirty minutes and my shoes still aren't right. For the Grill I wouldn't care, but Justin is being very secretive—
surprise
—about where we're going from there.

Really I don't need the gesture; a girl needs to know what fucking shoes to have on.

Justin glances over at me again with a face full of pity and agitation.

"What?" I bark. "This is your God damn fault!"

He laughs at me deeply, not insulted at all. "Those—with the red bottoms. Put those on and leave it," he demands.

"You don't even know whose shoes these are," I hiss.

"Of course I do," he snaps. "They’re yours and they look hot as hell on you. There's nothing else I need to know."

Yeah, he has a point.

"If I knew what we are doing later, this wouldn't be a problem," I sneer while slipping on the pair he's suggested.

He laughs again. "You'll get over it," he replies, dismissing me without a care. Of course he's fixing the collar of his Versace sport shirt, so it pisses me off even more that he knows exactly how to dress for his plans while he's leaving me in the dark. There's no clue for me when I look at him; he's dressed straight down the middle of professional and casual.

With my Louboutin's on, I stand in front of our long mirror and judge myself—probably much too harshly. I look good, but maybe not good enough. Maybe I'm over-dressed.

How the fuck would I know?

Suddenly my bag is in my hands; Justin had stuffed it in like a football. "You're perfect; let's go."

"You're sure it's not too much, or too little?" I ask.

"Doesn't the fact that you feel right in the middle tell you all you need to know?" He answers in his soft and confident way. "You look right for anything."

Justin ushers me out of the room before I change my mind and give him ten reasons why he's wrong. Not screwing around at all, he drags me straight out to the elevators and downstairs where Tony is waiting for us with the car.

We use up the last of the time we had in the traffic getting to the Grill. A bottle of Fragolino was open and waiting for us in the car, a sweet reminder of the first time we confessed our love to each other.

Justin lets Garrett know we're just a few minutes late and I'm wondering what Trisha and Garrett are doing while they wait for us. I keep hoping they've broken down to their urges and attacked each other, but they're more stubborn than I want them to be. I think it needs to happen now, before Justin and I take off, because once we do I don't think it will happen until after the Marker thing is completely over. This is going to freak everyone out; if the two of them aren't comfortable now, they certainly won't be while Justin and I are on the move.

Maybe by the time we get to them tonight they will be all over each other. A girl can hope.

Justin grabs my hand in his, surrounding it in his reassuring strength. When I glance at him, I find something different, something I don't usually see on him at all. He always looks so solid and self-assure that anything less, even the smallest hint, stands out tremendously.

For some reason Justin is nervous tonight; his eyes can't conceal it.

It's this Marker thing, I know it. We're getting so that we're afraid to go out at all, and if we much longer we won't feel safe staying in either. No place will offer us any peace.

Tony pulls up right in front for a moment to let us out. There's no place to park, so he will find a place as close as he can to wait and come pick us up as soon as we call him after dinner. For now, he holds our door and waits for us to scurry across the seats and climb out.

Inside, the Grill looks busy. I'm glad Trisha and Garrett went in ahead of us or we'd never get a table. Justin motions me to walk ahead of him, but the second my hand touches the door I see things are not right. There's a sign taped to the glass and the door is locked.

Tonight if all nights—when we're in a hurry?

"The sign says they're closed for a private event," I tell Justin over my shoulder, aggravated and wondering how Trisha and Garrett got in and why they did not bother to tell us.

"Yes," Justin says with a slight tremor in his voice as he sounds further away from me than I expected.

I turn around, fully embracing my complete annoyance until I realize Tony has not left and Justin is crouched down to one knee on a small red throw that Tony must have tossed out for him while my back was turned.

My stomach falls to my feet and my heart jumps up to my head. I think I know what's happening.

I think!

There are tears waiting just inside my eyelids, prepared and ready to leap down my cheeks for their elated suicide.

In his fingers I see a glittery star, maybe it's the sun the way it's catching the street lights.

"We began here," Justin says, finding his normal confidence. "I saw you, and despite all of my issues and terrible beliefs I held at the time, I fell instantly in love with you. Since then you've made my life better with each day. This is the place it all began, and I know better than to mess up a good thing."

My tears launch themselves and my hands try to cover my quivering lips.

"I didn't save you here, Charity, you saved me, and all of our friends and family here to witness this know its true," Justin says.

I turn only the tiniest bit and finally notice all of those people I had seen through the windows and it's everyone that matters, everyone we love. My parents are standing beside Justin's mother. Melissa is with them, along with Tommy and the other members of the Four Guys. Next to her, Lena, Terrence, Trisha, and Garrett, all either smiling, crying, or a bizarre mix of the two.

"The first part of our lives together began here; let’s start the next part off here as well. I love you. I adore you. I need you more than I can express in words. You are my air," he confesses. "Let me breathe. Save me again, Charity, save me by becoming my wife. Mary me—please marry me my love?"

I'm jumping up and down in place and waving my hands like a humming bird on speed. I'm even aware of the stuck pig-like sounds escaping my mouth, but I cannot consciously form the word I need to, the one Justin and everyone else is waiting to hear. I'm too thrilled to speak.

I motion for him to stand up, and he does just in time as my feet give out. I throw my arms around him and he catches me. "Yes!" I finally answer directly into his ear. "Yes, I will marry you. I love you so much!"

Through the glass, I hear everyone inside cheering while my feet find the earth once more. I'm practically blind as Justin slips a beautiful diamond on my finger. Then he hold me again. The smell of his hair fills my nose and makes me feel drunk, but I can't get close enough. If I could crawl inside him right now I would. My arms squeeze into the thick muscles of his shoulders and back.