Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
Carter glanced at Mia before he started pulling out the surveillance equipment he’d brought. Color was slowly returning to her cheeks and her hands seemed steadier than they’d been an hour earlier when she’d walked in the door.
He’d waited outside until it started to rain and then he’d picked the lock on her front door, mostly to see if it was as unsecure as he thought it was. He’d been right and was glad he’d stopped at a hardware store to purchase a new one. He’d fully expected her to yell at him for doing it when she’d arrived but instead, she just came in and collapsed on the stool at the kitchen counter. Clue number one about how badly shaken she was. The fact that her hands quivered like leaves in the wind, and her face was chalk white had been the giveaway. Whatever had happened, it had been unexpected and explosive.
And that pissed him off like nothing else.
“Mia,” he called softly.
She opened her eyes. She’d been dozing on the couch. “Sorry. Just super tired. I need to take a shower and then get in bed. I was up all last night, and I actually worked today, so I’m running on fumes.”
Carter nodded. “Go take your shower. I’m going to install some outdoor cameras after I finish changing your locks. I’ll try to keep the noise down.”
“Thanks.” She didn’t move.
“Mia?” He was concerned about her. She looked better but she wasn’t bouncing back the way he’d thought she should.
“Sorry,” she said again. “I’m just a bit…”
“Scared?” he offered.
She turned to look at him and nodded. “Yes. I guess that’s the word. Donny Nakamura freaks me out. I wasn’t expecting him. He’s…a creep in all the worst sense of the word. The way he looked at me earlier made my skin crawl. Now, I just want to vomit. The idea of taking a shower…”
“You don’t want to be vulnerable. You’re afraid to relax just in case something bad happens.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “How do you do it? How do you learn to relax after…”
He blew out a breath as he tightened the last screw on the new lock. “You’re asking the hard questions.” He straightened. “It takes training, honestly. Trusting my instincts to tell me if there’s a problem. Trusting the people around me to have my back.” That had been in shorter supply lately and he’d been suffering for it. He hadn’t been sleeping well for weeks, so it seemed kind of hypocritical to be telling Mia she needed to relax. Gotta practice what he preached. “Look, it’s not easy, but you will learn to adapt. My hope is this won’t go on long enough that you’ll have to learn all that. For right now, I’m here, asking you to trust that I will keep you safe. Donny will not get you while you’re in the shower. I promise.”
She bit her lip but nodded and then slowly got off the couch. “Thanks,” she mumbled, then trudged down the hallway like she had lead weights wrapped around her ankles.
Carter watched her go and then lined up his equipment to install the cameras.
He gave her five minutes, then he walked down the hallway to the bathroom.
She was just coming out of her room to go in. “Oh sorry, do you need it?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m just checking it for you.” He glanced in. It had been decorated in white and grey, sleek white tiles with streaks of gray in them. The shower stall was glass and there was nowhere else to hide. “It’s all clear.”
Was it necessary to announce the fact? Not at all, but he thought it might make her feel better. He walked down to the end of the bath and examined the window there. It was about two feet wide and maybe two and a half feet tall, but the window would only open to about eighteen inches. It was an odd size window, and the lock on it was crap, but he was certain no one was going to be able to climb through it without her being aware.
He turned towards her. “No one is coming in there without you seeing them, okay?” He pointed to the frame. “I can put up a stopper if you want so the window can’t open more than a couple inches. It’ll only take me a couple of minutes. Would you like that?”
Mia glanced at the window and then back at him. “But then I can’t get out if there’s a problem.”
“That’s the downside,” he agreed.
“Just leave it. I’m sure I will notice if anyone tries to get in that way.” She paused, then asked, “Can you install a better lock on it, or an alarm so we’ll hear if anyone tries to come in that way?”
“Sure. Not a problem.” Carter closed the thick gray curtains. “You should be fine in the shower. If you want to leave the door open so I can hear you better, go for it. I promise not to look.” He offered her a grin.
She laughed. “It’s fine but thanks.”
He nodded and left the bathroom. She was coming around, but it was going to be a long couple of weeks if she was this freaked out already. The reality of the situation was sinking in, and he didn’t like the effect it was having. Mia was buckling under the weight. Hopefully, a good night’s sleep, and having him there, would help her rally. All of this made him want to snap Bobby’s neck. He hated the fact that Bobby and his cohorts were terrorizing Mia and her friend. There had to be more that he could do, but first, he needed to get the lay of the land. No, first he needed to secure Mia’s house. Everything else would take time and planning.
Three hours later, Carter came in from installing half a dozen cameras outside. He walked down the hallway to Mia’s room. The door was open a crack. He moved it slightly to check on her. She was fast asleep. That was good.
He moved back down the short hallway to his room, which was at the front of the house. He hated that Mia’s room was on the opposite side, but the cameras he’d installed were operational, the software had been set to notify him. If anything bigger than a squirrel went by outside, his phone should alert him. That was going to have to be good enough.
He took a quick shower and then crawled into bed. He set his alarm for six a.m. and tried to relax. He hadn’t heard from Castle but he hadn’t expected to. Carter did some breathing exercises and then drifted off to sleep.
The sound of voices woke him. He glanced at his phone. Three a.m. He listened. Definitely two voices. His pulse quickened. He checked the camera app on his phone. Nothing. No one had entered the house. So where were the voices coming from? He got out of bed, grabbed his gun off the nightstand, and went into the hallway. The voices were coming from Mia’s room. He quickly checked the rest of the house and then came back. Slowly he pushed open the door. Mia was sitting up in bed watching her iPad.
He put his gun down by his side as she looked up at him. “Sorry, I couldn’t sleep.” She looked guilty. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Not a problem,” Carter replied as he glanced around the room. The bed was huge and filled with pillows. She looked so small among them. “You get any sleep?”
“Yeah, but that’s the problem with staying up all night. It screws with my sleep clock. I’ll be up for hours now and then fall asleep in the morning.”
Carter sighed. That meant he was going to be up for the rest of the night too. “Is there anything I can get you?”
She frowned. “Is there any pizza left? I’m hungry.”
“Yeah, you want me to heat it up for you?”
“No, I’ve got it,” Mia said as she got out of bed.
Carter’s eyes bulged a little as he checked her out. The skimpy black tank top and a pair of sleep shorts clung to her. She was not wearing a bra, which made his mouth water. Yeah, that wasn’t good. With her sleep-tousled hair, her friggin’ sexy appearance had a direct line to his dick.
He moved out of the doorway to let her by. Her scent circled him as she passed by. Something citrusy with some kind of a flower. He ran a hand over the back of his neck, watching her hips as she walked away from him. He’d set night lights around the house to provide a dim light. The one in the hallway showed off how the sleep shorts clung to her ass. Carter decided then and there, he’d better go put some jeans on because he was starting to get hard, and she’d know right away if he stayed in his underwear.
After pulling on his jeans, he made his way out to the kitchen. Mia glanced up at him. She’d only turned on the light over the stove where she was heating up a couple of slices of pizza in a frying pan.
“I thought you might like a slice,” she said as she gave him a quick smile. Her eyes lingered on his chest and her cheeks colored as she went back to staring at the pizza.
At least he wasn’t the only one affected. It made him smile as he leaned against the counter. “I’m always up for pizza.” He was up for all kinds of things at the moment and so was his cock, but he’d take pizza if that’s all she was offering.
Desperate for a topic to relieve the tension, he decided now was as good a time as any to discover more about the sexy woman standing in front of him. “How did you discover you were good at blackjack?” he asked. Maybe talking about gambling would take his mind off how much he wanted to pull her to him and run his hands over her body.
“I used to surf.” She glanced over at him. “I mean professionally. I was a serious professional surfer until I caught a bad wave and it collapsed on me, blowing out my knee. It was a freak thing but that was the end of my surfing career. Akela was surfing then too. We were close. She continued surfing, and I suddenly had nothing to do. No competitions to train for. After years and years of practicing every day, there was nothing to drive me forward. Up at four a.m., out on the water until six-thirty and then back home and off to school, or to the gym, or to see my coach. Suddenly, I had all this free time and I rapidly sunk into a weird depression. It’s like if you drank an entire pot of coffee and then had to sit in a chair and not move.” She shook her head.
“Anyway, someone was having a party and Bobby was there. He had a game going. I started playing. It was poker, and that’s not really my thing but I did well enough that Bobby invited me to one of his backroom games. Eventually, I found blackjack and that was the end. I had found my next obsession. I could focus on playing like I did in surfing, and the high the game gave me was the same kind… I don’t know…euphoria as I got from competitions. And of course, I won. A lot. I have a great memory.”
“You count cards?” Carter blurted out. He could’ve kicked himself. He didn’t mean to interrupt her. Mia obviously wanted to talk, and he loved hearing about her life. He was just so surprised. Card counting was hard, and it would get anyone kicked out of any casino. Management took that shit very seriously.
Mia tilted her head. “Not so much count and just remember what’s been played and what hasn’t. Then it’s a matter of odds. I’ve always been good with numbers, and I bet conservatively.” She shrugged. “It was fun. Too much fun.”
“Too much?”
She checked the pizza. “Not quite ready.” Turning back toward him, she sighed. “I started going to one of Bobby’s games almost every night. I ended up sleeping all day and never seeing any friends. I blew off my parents on a regular basis and didn’t bother to look for a job. As far as I was concerned, I had one. I was a professional gambler and that was what I was going to do for the rest of my life.”
Her face filled with sadness.
Carter touched her arm. “What happened?”
She sniffed. “My parents…” She stopped and cleared her throat and then started again. “My parents sat me down for an old-fashioned intervention. They stood me in front of the mirror and told me to take a good look at myself. For the first time in months, I did. I was shocked by what I saw. Who was that sallow-looking woman staring back at me? Exhaustion hung on me like a cloak. I’d always been lean, but I’d lost a lot of weight. My clothes seemed to be two sizes too big. All my muscle from surfing and working out was gone. I was a shadow of my former self.”
She checked the pizza again and shook her head. “I suddenly could see and understand what they’d been telling me for months. I was out of control and if I didn’t stop it would probably eventually make me super sick or kill me. So, I went to therapy, and went back to school. Since I was so good with numbers I studied accounting. I used the money I’d won in contests and from gambling to start my own accounting business. Things were going well and I had a life again.”
She still looked sad and Carter braced for what was coming. He gripped the counter to stop from hugging her. He wanted to offer comfort and he wasn’t sure she’d appreciate that. Mia was proud and strong. He found that aspect of her insanely appealing, but it also made things a bit sticky when it came to offering her any kind of help or support.
“A couple of years ago, my parents were killed in a car accident.” She frowned. “It’s been tough since then, but I’ve been managing. I’d promised them I wouldn’t gamble ever again so this…situation is hard. Really hard.”
The hell with this. Carter let go of the counter and immediately pulled her into his arms. “Mia, I am so sorry about your parents. About everything,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her.
“Thanks. I don’t think I really realized how tough this has been.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek on his chest. “It’s hard being on my own and this whole situation is just…crazy. I guess I’ve been running on adrenaline.”
He kissed the top of her head. She looked up at him. He smiled. “You’re not alone anymore. I’ll help you get through this. I’m sure your parents would understand you gambling again to help your friends.”
She nodded and her gaze locked with his.
Electricity speared straight to his groin. Before he could think about it, he leaned down and kissed her. Her lips were soft and inviting. They opened under his and he slipped his tongue into her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss. Her breasts were crushed against his chest, and he dropped his hands to her ass and brought her against his hard-on. She rubbed her pelvis against him and a moan escaped her lips.
Suddenly, a loud siren blared through the night. The smoke alarm was going off, and the pizza was billowing clouds of smoke on the stove.
“Shit,” Mia said turning off the burner and coving the frying pan.
Carter grabbed a dish towel and waved it in front of the fire alarm. It took a moment, but it finally stopped screaming. He met Mia’s gaze and the two of them burst into laughter. “So much for pizza,” he said finally.
“Yeah.”
“Wait, that doesn’t go directly to any fire station or anything does it?”
She shook her head. “Nah, I burn food way too much to have that kind of systems. The fire department would be here all the time.”
He grinned. “If you’re still hungry, I can fix you something.”
She shook her head. “No, I think I’m good. I’m just going to go back to bed.” She started out of the kitchen and then turned back. “Carter?” she said. “Thanks for listening.” She gave him a small smile and then turned and headed for her room.
He wanted to say something, to respond, but those words and that smile had left him speechless. If he wasn’t careful, this job was going to rob not only his ability to speak but his heart as well.