Chapter 2 #2
God, he gets me revved up. Almost as much as my car.
Gunning my little Mercedes is quite fun, actually.
I so rarely get a chance to drive her like this, mostly because I like to take the Tube just to piss off my father.
He thinks the Ryans have an image to uphold and that requires us to have the best of everything.
Even though I’m twenty-seven years old, he insists on buying me a new car every year.
The last car he took back to the dealer only had four hundred fifty miles on it.
The look on his face when he saw that was priceless.
I can only imagine his face if he were to see me now.
Maybe I’m dismissing a great opportunity by not enjoying the cars he gives me.
Zipping around like this is thrilling. I don’t think I’d be half bad at driving a getaway car should 007 ever stop me in the middle of the street to chase down a criminal.
Tanner exhales heavily once we’ve finally got a couple miles down the road.
My gaze shifts over to him when he shoves his hands through his long, messy blonde hair that nearly touches his shoulders.
He circles his palms around to scratch through his beard a few times, obviously deep in thought, and I have to will myself not to sneak a glimpse at his unit again.
It’s just sitting there staring at me like a one-eyed monster.
I’ve been driving around aimlessly for five minutes with no direction from him on where he wants me to drop him off. The longer the silence stretches, the weirder it begins to feel, so I say the first thing that comes to mind. “Whose wife did you screw this time?”
He scowls. “No ones.” Discomfort radiates off of him as he drops his hands down to his package now that he has the mind to cover himself.
I roll my eyes and hold the wheel with one hand so I can peel off my black cardigan with the other. I hand it over without looking. I can feel his eyes on me, and I’m praying to God he can’t see my nipples pebbling beneath my thin tank.
“No bra?” he asks.
I jerk the wheel just the slightest bit and swing him unexpectedly into the window frame again. His head makes a satisfying crack.
“You should buckle up.”
He groans and rubs his head. “You should come with a warning label. Dangerous machinery, proceed with caution.”
“Stop looking at my tits and you’ll be a hell of a lot safer.”
“Says the woman who was eyeing my tube steak like she hadn’t eaten in days.”
I bark out an incredulous laugh. “That is disgusting, even coming from you. Is that how you get all those footie slags in bed? Smooth words like tube steak?”
I glance over and catch his satisfied smirk. “No, they take far less effort than you.” He leans closer to me and his voice is husky as he adds, “I bust out the big guns for you.”
Biting my lip, I do my best to hide my grin, annoyed that he still has that bloody charm about him. It’s not the standard charisma that most blokes spread on thick. It’s like a charming Pee-wee Herman…without the kiddie porn charges.
He suddenly takes a sharp breath in and says, “At the risk of bashing this very tender moment we’re having, we need to turn around and go back.”
“To where?”
“To where you picked me up.”
My eyes fly wide and I look over at him. He’s situated my cardigan over his package and his face is all scrunched up as if he thinks I’m going to punch him. Or perhaps it’s from the two goose eggs he has forming on his head, I can’t tell.
“You want to go back? To that madness?” I ask, my jaw slack with disbelief.
He lifts his shoulders. “The paparazzi won’t be there anymore and no one seems to be following us.”
“Why the hell do we have to go back? I swear to Christ, Tanner, if you tell me it’s for some bird, I’m going to send you through the windscreen this time.”
“It’s not for a girl, I promise. Will you please just do this for me, Ryan?”
I want to cringe at how he addresses me. Ever since he blew me off at Old George, he’s refused to call me Belle, or even Dr. Ryan like he so flirtatiously referred to me as when we first met. It’s maddening. He addresses me like he addresses a teammate.
He pierces me with wide, probing eyes, clearly desperate for my compliance. It’s a look I don’t think I’ve ever seen on him, so I can’t help but agree out of sheer curiosity. “This better be good,” I grumble and turn the car around to head back to the circus we just fled.
He directs me back down the streets we had just driven and eventually over to a red phone box near the corner.
“Pull right up to it. As close as you can.”
Frowning the entire time, I do as he asks. When I stop, he rolls the window down and whisper shouts, “Sedgwick.”
We’re met with silence, so he increases his volume. “Sedgwick!”
I hear a rustling coming from inside the box before a head pops up from the ground. It’s sheathed in a grey stocking cap, but I can only make out the face enough to see a beard. The red door swings open and an old man’s head emerges.
“Tanner?”
“Sedg, get in.”
“What?” I screech as I suss out that Tanner is offering up my car to a homeless man. “Tanner!”
Tanner turns to me with a pleading look of desperation. “Ryan, please. Just do this for me. Don’t ask questions. I’ll make it right with you one way or another. Anything you want. You have my word.”
“Tanner, this isn’t safe!” I look around his shoulder and see the man watching us with a curious expression on his face.
“I’ll keep you safe.” He reaches out and squeezes my forearm with his hand as an act of reassurance. It’s the most serious look I’ve ever seen on Tanner. It’s…disarming. And for some reason unbeknownst to me, I feel myself nodding.
Tanner turns back toward the window. “Sedgewick, hurry up and get in before they come back. Bring your stuff.”
“I’d never pass up a tootle in a Mercedes,” he says as he grabs his dirty canvas bag and stuffs some belongings into it. He tosses the bag over his shoulder and hustles over with a sneaky sort of walk, like he’s committing some sort of crime.
“I’ll…erm…open the boot,” I mumble, pressing the button on my hatchback. Of all the things I thought I’d be doing tonight, popping the boot on my over-fucking-priced car for a homeless man never made the list.
“Would you look at that. A hatchback!” Sedgwick says as he dumps his bag in and closes the boot. He folds himself in behind Tanner and his eyes go wide as he takes in the lush interior. “This is some ride you have here, miss.”
“Her name’s Dr. Ryan,” Tanner adds.
I’m momentarily shocked by Tanner’s label for me, but my thoughts are interrupted by Sedgwick. “Oh! A doctor. What kind?”
Tanner frowns at me as if he just realised he has no idea.
“I’m a surgeon,” I reply, turning around to look at Sedgwick.
“What’s your specialty?” Sedgwick asks.
I smile at his question. “Well, I was doing emergency medicine before, but I’ve recently started on neonatal surgery.”
“What’s that?” Tanner asks, interrupting my focus.
“You operate on tiny babies before they’re even born?” Sedgwick’s face is full of awe.
My smile widens further. “I do.”
Sedgwick has kind eyes. They’re the kind of eyes that make me think he only sees the good in the world and none of the evil, which seems impossible considering he was sleeping in a phone box just seconds ago.
He shakes his head in amazement and sits back in his seat like he’s getting comfortable. “What a night this has turned out to be.”
Tanner asks me if I’d mind driving over to Grosvenor Square—a rather posh area in London—and then asks to use my mobile.
I still have no clue what’s going on, but I don’t have a chance to ask because Sedgwick is keeping me busy, chatting about my job and some of the toughest cases I’ve worked.
Tanner remains talking on my mobile the entire time.
I assume he must be cancelling credit cards or something because I can’t imagine what on earth could be so urgent that he’d leave me to tend to our rather interesting car guest. Regardless, Sedgwick and I come to find a lot in common when he tells me about his time selling medical equipment in the 90s.
He actually seems quite knowledgeable about the medical field in general.
After Tanner hangs up, he instructs me through a couple turns.
A few minutes later, we pull up to the valet line of the Grosvenor Hotel.
A red carpet is stretched out below the warm bulbs of the awning.
I’m completely confused as two men wearing formal suits come up to Tanner’s window as if they were expecting him.
Tanner holds up a finger and then turns around. Sedgwick looks as confused as I do.
“Sedg, I’ve booked you a room here,” he says simply.
Sedgwick’s eyes go wide. “Boy! No, I couldn’t.”
“I know the owner. It’s all taken care of already,” Tanner replies firmly. “It’s nonrefundable.”
“You should have asked. This is not the proper way—”
“Sedgwick, you showed me a kindness and I’m showing you one back. That’s all this is. Repaying a favour.”
“A favour? You only used my mobile. You wouldn’t even take clothes from me.” Sedgwick looks at me like he needs to argue his case. “I tried to give him some clothes, I really did. He wouldn’t take them. Said he was getting what he deserved. I think the boy could do with some therapy, to be frank.”
Tanner turns a flat face on me that has me pulling my lips between my teeth to hide my amusement.
“There’s an incredible restaurant here. Order room service. Order laundry service. Go shopping in the stores. Put it all on the room bill. I mean it,” Tanner says. “Please, Sedg. I want to do this for ya.”
“I couldn’t possibly.” He shakes his head and folds his arms over his chest.
“You could!” I add with a smile and a nod. Sedgwick looks right at me as if he can’t believe I’m buying all of this. His brow is furrowed so deeply, it’s folding in on top of itself, so I add, “Do it. Tanner’s a pain in the arse most days. You should definitely enjoy a night on him.”
He harrumphs with a half-smile and eyes Tanner thoughtfully. “I suppose I could enjoy it for a night.”
Tanner beams at Sedgwick and then at me. “That’s the ticket. Now, I’d walk you in but as you can see, I’m a little skint on clothes.”
“No, no, you stay put. I’ve seen enough of you for one lifetime, boy.”
“Off you go then,” Tanner says excitedly as I pop the boot for the man standing at the back of my car.
Sedgwick lumbers out of my car. After he closes the door, Tanner rolls down his window. “Oh, and I’ve booked your room for five nights, not one. I’ll come by and visit while you’re here.”
Sedgwick’s face falls and Tanner swats me lightly on the arm, silently telling me to drive away. I almost feel bad as Sedg comes walking out after us to argue. I roll my window down and give him a jovial wave with a double horn toot that elicits a chastising shake of his head.
I stare into my rearview mirror for as long as I can and am happy to see the valet’s taking care of him. Tanner stares back longer as I pull out onto the road and head toward east London.
An aching in my stomach begins as I evaluate what just happened. Tanner Harris—the loathsome pig whom I’ve grown to detest—did something humane. Extraordinarily humane. I would have never in a million years expected that of him.
“Why didn’t you take any clothes from him?” I ask, unsure why it’s the one thing I have to know after everything that’s just happened.
He sighs heavily. “They smelled like piss.”
And it’s the first time ever that I’ve laughed with Tanner Harris.