Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
July 25 th
8:29 A.M.
He was so confused.
Cole couldn’t make out the swirling mess of emotions raging inside him every time he looked at the woman curled up in the passenger seat of his car.
There was definitely no more dislike when he looked at her. Neither did he see his rich ex, who had been annoyed her trust fund wasn't enough to fund the lifestyle she wanted, neither was his career in the military or when he shifted to work at Prey, that she decided sleeping with guys for money was perfectly okay.
Well, not money, she had refuted when he’d found out just how stupid he’d been planning a life with her.
Things.
She only took things from the guys she slept with.
Sparkly jewelry, expensive clothes, designer bags.
According to her, that meant she wasn't a prostitute.
He’d disagreed.
And walked.
Moving out of their shared house and into the apartment where he’d met Susanna that first day. Met her when his emotions were so raw. She’d been standing in the hall outside her apartment, it was the early hours of the morning, and she’d been saying goodbye to a well-dressed, good-looking man.
That was all it had taken for him to make a colossal mistake.
One he wished he could take back.
But he couldn’t.
The way he’d treated Susanna, the horrible words he’d said, and the nasty way he’d intended to make her feel bad about herself, would always be between them. For some reason, that left him feeling unsettled because … maybe he wanted something to be between them.
Cole couldn’t deny he was attracted to Susanna, always had been, which had been part of the problem. He’d started thinking there was something wrong with him that he kept being attracted to women who sold their bodies.
If there was only attraction, this would be easy. Ensuring Susanna didn't get hurt again was at the top of his list, but then he’d just walk away, move to a new building, and maybe try to move forward instead of keeping himself stuck in the past.
There was more there though. A fierce protectiveness he’d never felt toward another person. His problem was, did he feel protective of Susanna because of how he’d treated her and the guilt that urged him to somehow find a way to make it up to her, or did he feel protective of her because feelings were growing?
He wished he knew the answer.
“Your brothers are sure Vinny didn't show up at the building yesterday?” Susanna asked as he turned into their street and their building came into view.
“Positive,” he assured her. She’d already asked at least half a dozen times since he’d told her early that morning that Vinny had never shown up and they were fine to go back home.
After her shower yesterday afternoon, they’d ordered some food from a restaurant down the street, then after eating she’d fallen straight into bed and not budged for twelve solid hours. She needed the sleep, and he was glad she was getting it.
Also glad because if she’d been awake and under the covers wearing nothing but her bra and panties, he might have been tempted to try to kiss her. Which was absolutely inappropriate given what had happened to her just a couple of days ago.
“Do you think he’s going to try to come back another time?” she asked. Although her voice was steady, he detected the underlying fear in it.
“Hey.” Reaching over, he placed his hand on top of hers, which were twisted together on her lap. “If Vinny returns, he’ll have to go through me and my brothers to get to you. Okay?”
Wide eyes stared back at him, and her bottom lip trembled for a second before she pulled herself under control. What he wouldn't give to unravel Susanna’s seemingly perfect control of herself, and make her understand it wasn't a weakness to break down when you’d just been through something horrific like she had. Ensure she knew that if she allowed herself the freedom of letting her emotions out, he’d be right there to help her put the pieces back together again.
The thought shocked him.
Guess he had an answer to his question after all.
After three years of hating on this woman, now, apparently, he had done a one-eighty and wanted to date her.
It would never happen since she hated him, but it wouldn't stop him from doing everything within his power to help her through this.
“You guys don’t have to look out for me,” Susanna said a little hesitantly. “Maybe Vinny came after me to try to get you all to back off from trying to find answers about your mom, but he was obsessed with me anyway, so would have come for me sooner or later.”
“That’s the lamest excuse I've ever heard,” he informed her as he pulled into the underground parking garage.
A surprised laugh burst out of Susanna and then she shot him the first genuine smile he’d seen. A smile that transformed her from beautiful to gorgeous, not even the bruises and lump on her head could detract from her beauty.
“Thank you. I appreciate your offer of help, and I … accept.”
Cole felt those words were hard for her to say, but he was so glad she had said them. Either way, he and his brothers would have protected her, but it would be so much easier if she wasn't working against them.
“It’s no hardship, sprinkles,” he told her as he pulled into his parking spot and turned off the engine.
Annoyance sparked in her stunning green eyes, and he grinned. While he’d started using the nickname because he knew it would get a rise out of her, now it had shifted to become more affectionate.
“I need to come up with some obnoxious name for you,” she muttered under her breath as they both climbed out of the car. Her tone made him laugh and he had to fight the urge to reach for her hand and tug her to his side.
Just because things had softened on his side didn't mean they had on hers.
After all, she’d been the one to suffer his horrible attitude, just because she said she’d accepted his apology didn't mean she wanted to be around him.
Together they headed for the lift and took it to their floor. All the while Cole felt an ache forming in his chest. Once they got there, he’d have to say goodbye. They’d go to their own places and hook up again later to check out the final place on Susanna’s list of possible locations where Vitoli could be hiding out.
The idea of not having her in his direct line of sight had panic coursing through him.
Which was stupid.
They should be safe enough up there. Vinny hadn't come to the building last night. His brothers intended to hook up security in the form of a hidden motion-activated camera pointed directly at Susanna’s door, which would alert all their phones if it was set off. No one was getting to her.
Still …
He needed to be able to watch over her. Maybe to make sure she was emotionally okay as well as physically safe.
Which wasn't his job, he remembered with a sigh. Even if he wanted it to be.
“Umm, well, I’ll talk to you later I guess,” Susanna said, a thread of disappointment in her voice as they reached their front doors.
Or he was just imagining it because he wanted to believe she needed to stick close to him like he did to her.
“You have my number, you’ll call if you need me,” he said in a tone that brokered no arguments.
“Sure,” Susanna agreed, but he could see in her eyes she had no intention of doing that. “We can check out the farm later today.”
“After I check in with my brothers I’ll come over.”
Susanna nodded, and then, with a last somewhat longing glance at him, she unlocked her door, and he turned to do the same, unable to watch her go into her place for fear he’d do something stupid like beg her to stay with him.
Something felt wrong even before he fully opened the door and saw the evidence.
His place had been trashed.
There was stuff everywhere. Furniture had been broken and photos were pulled off the walls. All except for one.
The very picture Susanna had spotted and realized she recognized his mom was still up, and someone had scrawled a message across the glass. The same one Susanna had been given.
Back off.
If they’d trashed his place, had they targeted Susanna again, too?
Cole was moving before he even registered it. Susanna’s door was still open and that’s when he knew he was right.
Shoving through it, terrified that whoever had caused the damage was still there and his sprinkles was in danger, he let out a harsh breath when he found her standing in the middle of the carnage, her place trashed just like his. The words back off were scrawled across her living room wall in what looked like black paint.
Bad idea or not, he kept moving.
Didn't stop until he had Susanna’s trembling body in his arms.
Twice now she’d been hurt because of him and his family and their quest for answers. Rage clouded his vision even as he kept his hold on Susanna gentle. Nobody messed with what was his and got away with it.
These men, every single one of them, were going down.
July 25 th
5:55 P.M.
It felt like she was trapped in a nightmare that was never going to end.
Susanna was wrung out and exhausted.
One step away from crumbling.
Only she didn't have the luxury of falling apart right now. Not when she was back in Cole’s car again, his presence beside her both comforting and stressful simultaneously.
That shouldn’t be a thing.
How could it?
Either he soothed the edges of the fear that had engulfed her, or he made it worse. The two should not be able to co-exist at the same time.
Yet they did.
While she should have fought against his hold when he first came storming into her apartment as she stood in the midst of the carnage whoever had broken in had left behind, she hadn't.
Instead, she soaked it up. Allowed his warmth to thaw the chill that blanketed her when she realized a stranger had been inside her home, his presence to chase away the worst of the nausea that settled uncomfortably in her stomach.
A stranger had been in her home.
It couldn’t have been Vinny because Cole’s brothers had been staking out the building watching for him. That meant it had to be whoever had ordered him to rape her as a warning to Cole and his family that they needed to back off in their search.
“It’s going to be okay, Susanna, we’ll find them. I won't let you get hurt again,” Cole said, breaking the stifling silence in the car as they turned into a long driveway.
He’d said those words to her before and she’d almost believed him.
She’d thought if anyone could keep her safe, it was Cole.
Now …
Now she felt like the ball had already been rolled and was hurtling toward the pins that were her life.
“Hopefully, Vinny is here, and we can get some answers on who he’s working for,” she said. While she appreciated his belief he could fix this mess, she didn't believe it anymore. The only way to stop this was to find Vinny and make him talk.
Just yesterday, the idea of Cole and his brothers torturing answers out of Vinny had made her feel sick even as she’d acknowledged that they had to do what they had to do. Today, she didn't feel so awful about it.
Vinny had raped her.
Was obsessed with her.
Even if he hadn't been the one to shoot at her yesterday, he was involved.
“If he’s not, we’ll find him eventually. He can't hide forever. Not from Prey.”
It would be nice to have the same kind of confidence Cole did in the company he worked for and the people he worked with, in … anyone. But Susanna didn't trust others. Not even a little bit. And because of that, she was much less optimistic about this whole thing than he was.
“It’s clear he’s been living in the house from yesterday, but if he had to run somewhere and he didn't go to his mom’s or dad’s then I think he might come here,” she said as they pulled up in front of an old farmhouse.
It was clear that, at one time, the place had been beautiful. Wide porches, huge trees providing shade in the summer, red trim around the windows, and a bright red door. Garden beds that would have once been a glorious display of color were now choked with weeds, and the fields behind them had been left to go wild.
This was the home in which Vinny had grown up before his parents’ divorce when he was ten. From their sessions together, she knew this had been a happy place for him. He’d had parents who loved him and the freedom of the countryside to play in and explore, it was a good life even if they didn’t have a lot of money.
After the divorce, the place was abandoned as both parents moved on with new partners. The house still belonged to both and from what Vinny had said would one day be his when his parents passed away. He’d seemed happy with the idea of inheriting the house, which was why it was number four on her list of places he may be hiding out.
“Stick close to me,” Cole reminded her as they climbed out of the vehicle. A thread of possessiveness in his tone had warmth pooling low in her belly.
She brushed it off as a result of a long and stressful day, talking with the cops for hours, and explaining everything. From her remembered dream with the warning for Cole she’d been given, to what they’d found at Vinny’s house, to the connection to Cole and his family, it had all come out.
Together, they approached the house, much like they had yesterday, and Susanna couldn’t help glancing around, the feeling of being watched making her skin prickle.
“What's wrong?” Cole asked, noticing her hesitation.
“Not sure. I just …”
“Just what, sprinkles?”
“Would you stop calling me that ridiculous nickname?” she demanded, only there was no real heat to her words. Truth be told, the nickname was growing on her since Cole no longer spat it at her mockingly.
“I think it’s cute,” Cole said, reaching out to feather the pad of his thumb across her cheek. “Your freckles remind me of sprinkles.”
“That’s why you came up with the name?” While he’d tossed it at her continually as soon as he got a rise out of her the first time he called her that, he’d never explained or even hinted at why he’d come up with that particular nickname.
“Yep. Now tell me what's wrong?”
“I just feel unsettled. It’s probably nothing. Just the house is a mess like the one from yesterday and I keep expecting bullets to start flying,” she admitted.
“Trust your gut, Susanna. Always,” Cole said, seriously now. “It could be the difference between life and death.”
“Right now, my gut says we’re not alone,” she whispered. There hadn't been any bullets fired at them, but that didn't mean someone wasn't watching them. Was it Vinny? Had he come out here after raping her? Thought he could lie low, and she would never connect him to the crime?
It scared her to know how deep his obsession ran.
Vinny Vitoli had been a ticking time bomb, and she’d never noticed.
Had he been that obsessed back then, or had he spiraled in the last few years since she’d last seen him?
Was he using again?
Whether clean or not played a big part in determining how dangerous he was and what his next move would be.
“I feel it, too,” Cole agreed, placing a hand on the small of her back and ushering her up the porch steps. “That’s why I said stay close.”
“You think Vinny is here?” The idea of being so close to the man who’d raped her, something she’d had little time to process since she’d had the dream remembering what her assailant had told her, filled her with a dread so strong she could barely move.
Probably would have just stood there, frozen in fear, if Cole’s touch hadn't urged her on.
When Cole kept her tucked at his side, his weapon held out before them as he opened the front door, he didn't have to answer.
Their answer was right there.
The house smelled like someone had been cooking there, and recently.
Nudging her behind him, Cole moved through the house. Susanna gripped his T-shirt and followed, unwilling to be left behind. They moved slowly, the house was dull inside, even with no curtains or blinds on the window, but since there was no furniture, it was easy enough to clear each room.
It wasn't until they reached the kitchen at the back of the house that the evidence that someone was there finally became apparent. There was a pile of blankets on the floor that reminded her of a nest. There was a half-cooked meal on the stove, the source of the fragrance, and she spotted a couple of used needles on the counter.
“He’s been here. Must have heard us coming and skipped out,” Cole muttered angrily.
“Cole, he’s using again,” she said, pointing to the needles. That was the last thing they needed. An unpredictable addict, high on meth, who was known to have hallucinations while using, running around somewhere close by. Close enough that he had been inside this very kitchen, maybe even shooting up as they had driven down the driveway.
Possibly even when they’d been walking toward the front door.
“Has to be close by,” Cole said, already turning for the door. “Stay here. I mean it. This time don’t move.”
Susanna had barely nodded her agreement before Cole ran back the way they’d come.
Just as she heard the front door slam shut, gunfire erupted.