Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
LINCOLN
At the sound of Rocky’s bark coming through the closed door to my office, the bad mood I’d been battling instantly fell away. If he was here, that could only mean one thing—Eden was with him. And after the call I’d just finished, seeing her would be a welcome distraction.
Pushing from my chair, I rounded the desk and headed for the door.
The moment I pulled it open and spotted her standing at Roxanne’s desk, her face warm and bright in laughter at something Rox had just said, all that thick, shiny hair trailing down her back, the weight on my chest lifted and I grinned.
Rocky spotted me first and came trundling my way, dragging his discarded leash on the ground behind him. “Hey there, boy,” I muttered, giving his head a pat before moving toward my woman.
Her laughter tapered off as I drew close, but the smile was still firmly in place as she turned to me. “Hey, honey.” Christ, I loved hearing her call me that. “I took a chance that you hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so I got you a meatloaf sandwich from Evergreen.”
“Perfect. I’m fuckin’ starving.” Hooking her around the waist, I pulled her against me and leaned in for a kiss, relishing the sweetness of her lips. “You joinin’ me, or am I eating alone?”
“Joining you, if you have the time.”
“I always have the time for you.” I took the bag from the counter and grabbed her hand, leading her back to my office with Rocky on our tail.
We sat on the couch and I started pulling the containers from the bag, spreading them out on the coffee table in front of us. Then we dug in.
“So how’s your day going so far?” she asked after a couple bites.
I washed my mouth out with a slug from the bottle of water she brought me. “Was shit ’til you showed up.”
Her beautiful face pulled into a frown, and she tipped her head, the parchment-wrapped sandwich in her hands held aloft halfway to her mouth. “What happened?”
“I need to go outta town for a job in DC. Shouldn’t take too long, but I’m not too happy about havin’ to leave you when your brother’s still in the wind.”
Her expression gentled as she reached out and placed a hand on my thigh. “I’ll be fine, baby. I’ve got Rocky, and it’ll only be a few days.”
I knew she wasn’t going to like what I said next, but the only way I’d make it through this job was if I had peace of mind that she was safe. And I hoped like hell Hayes and Trick were closing in on Shepley Brenner and the men after him so we could put this shit behind us.
“I want Rocky to stay with you, but I’m gonna put Cord on you while I’m gone as well.”
She floored me by nodding in agreement. “Okay.” Then she narrowed her eyes in a playful glare. “Just as long as you don’t tell him to annoy the crap outta me.”
“No worries,” I chuckled. “He’ll be on his best behavior.”
She looked off to the side in thought as she slowly chewed the bite she’d just taken. “You know, this might actually be a good thing. It’ll give me a chance to talk to him about Rory.”
“Fuck me.” I groaned, looking up at the ceiling for some sort of divine guidance. “What happened to stayin’ out of it?”
“Hey, that was your idea, not mine. I would’ve been totally fine sticking my nose right in the middle of it. And with you not here to stop me, I’m going for it.”
Trying to talk her out of it would have been like beating my head against a brick wall, so I didn’t bother, but I did issue a warning.
“You’re gonna do what you want to do. Just promise me you won’t do anything that’ll cause him to quit or want to knock my teeth down my throat when I get back, please. ”
She smiled through the bite she’d just taken, making her cheeks puff like an adorable chipmunk. “I promise no such thing.”
Well shit.
She was lucky she was so fucking cute.
Eden
Fall had officially ended, and winter now held Hope Valley in its grip. I couldn’t wait for the first official snowfall of the season. While some people hated the cold, I absolutely loved it.
However, my companion just then wasn’t one of the people who appreciated the chilly temps the way I did.
“Christ,” Cord grunted unhappily from beside me. “This is fuckin’ misery, sweetheart.”
I shook off his complaint with a contented giggle. There was no way Cord was going to bring me down. After being gone for three days, Lincoln was finally coming home this evening, and I couldn’t freaking wait.
Cord had been a much better companion this time around since he wasn’t going out of his way to drive me up the wall.
It was only times like this that things got a little sketchy, seeing as he hated winter.
Too bad for him, I loved it and didn’t let the frigid temps stop me from taking my daily walks.
“Quit your belly aching. It’s not even that bad.”
I saw him shoot me a glare from the corner of my eye. “Speak for yourself. Pretty sure my balls have pulled back up inside my body for warmth.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing, and we resumed walking in silence. It took me a few more minutes to get up the courage to broach the subject that had been on my mind for the past three days.
“So…,” I started hesitantly. “How’re things with Laurie?”
Reading my tone loud and clear, he turned his head in my direction, lifting one of his eyebrows toward his hairline. “She’s fine. Why do you ask?”
I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my thick winter jacket and tried to play it cool as I shrugged. “No reason. You haven’t really talked about her lately, so I was just a little curious.”
Neither of us said a word for a few more yards, then “I’m not stupid, Eden. I know you don’t like her.”
“What? That’s not true!” I lied. He might have been speaking the truth, but I’d come to look at Cord as a friend, and I didn’t want anything to tarnish that.
“Yeah it is,” he chuckled.
It took a while for me to figure out what to say next. Lying was out of the question since he saw right through me, but I needed to tread very carefully.
“Okay, I don’t really care for her,” I finally admitted. “But I’ve only met her once, so I’m willing to keep an open mind and admit that maybe she was just having an off night.” I didn’t believe that. My gut told me that my initial opinion of her was spot-on, but I’d do as I said for Cord.
“It’s a complicated situation. I’ve known her all my life.
We were friends as kids, then a couple all through high school, and went long distance in college.
When we graduated she expected me to come back home so we could finally be together in the same place, but I threw a wrench in her plans for the future when I joined the Army.
There’s a lot of history with us. It’s not as cut and dry as some relationships. ”
“Sounds intense.”
“It is,” he agreed with a nod. “She might come off a little hard, but she’s a good person.”
“All right,” I finally relented. “If you’re happy, then I’m happy for you. That’s all that matters.” I kept the part about Rory having a mad crush on him, and me thinking she’d be a much better fit for him, to myself, Lincoln’s warning ringing in the back of my head.
Cord pulled his hand from his coat pocket a few seconds later and checked the watch on his wrist. “It’s getting late. We should probably be headin’ back.”
“What?” Grabbing his arm, I yanked it down so I could see the time and sucked in a gasp. “Shit! I didn’t realize we’d been walking for so long. I have an appointment at the salon in half an hour. Let’s go.”
We turned and switched course, heading back in the direction we’d come from. Hopefully we’d make it back to the house in enough time for me to get to Nona’s shop. It was time for a touchup on my hair, and if I waited much longer, I’d have a real root disaster on my hands.
We were walking at a quicker clip when I noticed a big black SUV coming around the bend fast.
“Jeez,” I muttered, narrowing my eyes at the car. “They don’t slow down, they’re gonna plow right into a tree.”
“Eden, stop.” Cord grabbed my arm in a grip so tight it made me flinch, and when I looked up to see what was wrong, he was watching the SUV in a way that caused warning bells to sound in my head.
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t know.” The SUV continued right at us, gaining speed as it grew closer. “Get to the trees.”
“It’s probably just some idiot kid.” But I wasn’t sure I actually believed that. Everything in my body was screaming out, telling me something was wrong. And the second Cord laid eyes on the car, he felt it too.
“Trees, now,” he barked in a tone I’d never heard from him before.
I jerked in fright and stumbled a few steps back off the pavement and onto the crunchy, frost-covered leaves and grass that lined the side of the road.
Everything that came next happened so fast, I couldn’t keep up.
A moment later, the SUV came to a screeching halt right beside us. Cord whipped around, planted a hand in my chest, and shoved so hard that I landed on the ground, knocking the breath from my lungs.
“Eden, run!” he bellowed, whipping a gun from the waistband of his jeans. But it was too late.
I scrambled to my feet in just enough time to see two men alight from the SUV, their guns drawn, and they didn’t hesitate to fire.
I screamed at the top of my lungs as Cord’s body jerked unnaturally with each bullet that tore into him. He fired back, but I couldn’t tell if he hit his target before he slumped to the ground.
“Cord! No!” Instead of running in the opposite direction like he’d ordered, I went right for him, screaming his name over and over. But he didn’t move.
One of the men who’d just shot Cord grabbed hold of me before I could make it to him, and I screamed and thrashed with all my might, fighting with everything I had to get to Cord, to make sure he was okay. “No! Let me go! Someone help! Help!”
Fear clawed at my gut as I screamed so loud my throat felt like it was on fire.
A moment later, something hard came down against my temple with a pain so intense I thought my skull had been split in half.
Then everything went black.