Chapter 28
CHAPTER 28
NATE
Snapping my fingers in front of Liam’s face, I watch my best friend return to the present moment. He’s been staring into space for the last five minutes.
I smirk as he blinks at me, then takes a long drag from his beer bottle.
“What’s got you so out of sorts?” I ask curiously.
“Nothing,” he mutters, but a second later he’s drumming his fingers on the countertop. His eyes are glued to the doors leading to the kitchen, and I can’t help but wonder if he knows something I don’t.
I glance at Brody, who looks at me, an eyebrow cocked. He’s noticing Liam’s odd behavior as well.
Leaning against the bar, I grab my glass of water. “C’mon man, seriously. What’s up?”
That makes him stop tapping, only to grab his beer bottle in both hands to still them. “Just a feeling. It’s probably nothing.”
I can’t help my snicker.
“Dude, we knew you were capable of them,” Brody says with a grin, clapping Liam on the back. “We’re proud of you.”
“Oh, fuck you both,” he says, rolling his eyes, and pulling away from Brody’s hand. He seems grouchy, which isn’t normal for Liam, so while it’s fun to rib him, it makes me feel a little apprehensive. Then he asks, “When’s Savanna’s hour up?”
That has me standing straighter, sobering completely. I’m not sure why he knows about that, the uneasiness growing in the pit of my stomach. I’ve been trying not to think about her, or the hour I gave her, because something seemed off when we came back inside. I just couldn’t put my finger on what but decided to shrug it off as her seeing someone overdose and needing some time with it.
Glancing at my watch, I frown. “Another thirty-five minutes. Why?”
“I dunno, man,” he says, drumming his fingers again.
“Liam.” My voice is sharp, unable to hide my growing worry. “What the hell, man?”
“You know what I want to know?” Brody asks from beside Liam, and we both turn to look at him. “Why’d she send Jeremy out here to get you?”
The breath leaves me in one long exhale. I’d forgotten about that. At the time it had scared me half to death because I thought something had happened to Savanna in the back. A myriad of thoughts went through my mind while my heart found a new home in my throat. I know it only took me two seconds to get to the kitchen to find her standing there, but it felt like an eternity. I nearly laughed with joy when she told me what the problem was, but the firefighter in me took over and then I was in work mode.
“Did you guys see the guy in the alley?” Liam questions hesitantly.
Alarm bells louder than we’ve got at the station sound in my head. My hands slam down on the counter as I lean towards my two friends.
“What guy?” I demand.
Liam looks startled at my outburst. “I don’t know. There was a guy at the end of the alley. It looked like he was watching her, but he could have been watching us. I was more concerned with her, so I didn’t pay attention. She was spooked about something.”
It’s all I need. Something is wrong. I knew it in my gut, but I let her talk me out of it instead of trusting my instincts. Christ. If something happened to her, if he somehow found her, if that was him in the alley…
I’m flying through the doors to the kitchen one second, the next I’m in the office. It’s empty, and there’s no sign of her, but there’s also no sign of a struggle. Surely if Vincent had found her and taken her from the office, one of the guys in the kitchen would have said something or would have stopped it.
I’m about to head back into the kitchen when a piece of paper on the desk grabs my attention. The USB on top of it looks like the one I gave Savanna when she asked what she could put everything onto for the accountant, so I take a second to grab the sheet of paper, seeing her flowing script on it.
Nate,
Everything is done and on this USB. The accountant will know what to do with it.
The bar will be fine with a little effort—a fundraiser, your grandparents. I think you should also have a ladies night, and a karaoke night. I was going to talk to you about that when I accepted your offer.
Don’t worry about me. I got this.
Xoxo
Sav
I’ve hardly finished reading the words before I’m out the back door and in my truck. If she’s not here, maybe she’s at home. I have this sinking feeling that if she is there, she won’t be for long. If my hunch is correct, I already know what’s going on in her mind.
By the time I pull into the alley at home, I’ve come to a couple of conclusions.
First, Vincent was in the bar. Second, Savanna saw him. Third, she’s doing to me what she did to her family. At least she’s trying.
That’s the thing when you open up to someone; they can read what you’re going to do before you do it. I know I’m right when I see her car parked in the parking pad at the back, relief causing some of the tension to drain from my body. At least I haven’t missed her.
I throw the truck into park behind her car, effectively blocking her in, and jump out. I’m at the back door in record time, throwing it open and striding inside.
“Savanna?” I yell, quickly making my way towards her bedroom.
Rounding the corner, I come to a halt just inside the door. She’s sitting on the bed, head bowed, an old t-shirt of mine clutched in her hands and held to her face. Her suitcase is open and half packed beside her.
Under normal circumstances the sight would have gutted me, but I’m so relieved she’s still here it’s hard to feel anything beyond that.
I get the same sense I had the night she broke the glass at the bar. A wounded animal who will flee if I move too quickly or do the wrong thing. Moving slowly, I stop in front of her and crouch down, tentatively resting my hands on her knees. Nothing moves except for her eyes. They open and rise to meet mine, and now I am gutted. She’s petrified.
I know better than to push her to talk to me, so I just gaze at her, our eyes locked, until she’s ready. It takes her a minute, but then the t-shirt is coming away from her face, dropping into her lap along with her hands.
“He found me,” she whispers, the sound of her voice destroying me further.
“I know,” I say, then add quickly when she sits up straighter, “Liam. I put it together.”
Giving me a small nod, she casts her eyes downwards. “I was going to leave.”
“I know.” When her eyes pop back up in surprise, I smile gently at her. “Trying to do the best thing for me, right?”
Fresh tears well in her eyes, and I reach up, brushing one away as it falls down her cheek. “I can’t stand the thought of you getting hurt.”
“Do you remember when you sat down in the office and told me that you could help me with the mess in there?” I ask, and she nods, confusion clouding her eyes. “You remember how I put my faith in you because you asked me for that chance?”
Another nod, this time accompanied by more tears. She knows where I’m going with this, the protest already taking shape in her mind. I can see the wheels turning, see her wanting to tell me this isn’t the same, so I press ahead.
“I need you to have faith in me now, to trust I know what I’m doing, and that I won’t get hurt,” I tell her, squeezing her knee gently. “Even if I did, it would be my choice, Sav. I would go through anything, do anything, if it meant keeping you safe, because I care about you. So much.”
The words were right there on the tip of my tongue to tell her that I love her. They almost came out. The only reason they didn’t is because I don’t want those words to have anything to do with Vincent. I want it to be a moment that is just us, because of us.
Just because I didn’t say them out loud, however, doesn’t mean she doesn’t see it in my eyes. I know she does just by the way she’s looking at me.
A sob bubbles up her throat before she’s launching herself at me, causing me to fall back on my ass as her arms wrap around my neck. I brace myself with one arm behind me, the other snaking around her waist to pull her closer as she buries her face in my neck, the emotion bursting out of her.
“Shhh, it’s okay, I got you,” I murmur against her hair, rubbing my hand up and down her back. Shuffling backwards until my back hits the wall, I’m finally able to envelop her in both my arms, tethering her securely to me as she lets go of everything she’s been holding in for so long.
I’m sure we could sit here all night, me rubbing her back, her letting it all out, but a noise from the front room puts me on alert. That wasn’t a normal noise my house makes.
My body stills, listening intently over the quiet sounds that Savanna makes, and I hear it again. I really hate to scare her, but I’m not going to have a choice.
“Sav,” I say gently but urgently, “I gotta get up and check on something. I need you to stay here.”
Before she can fully lift her head, there’s a louder sound that has her jumping against me, then cowering against my chest. Her eyes are wide with fear as she looks at me. “Nate…”
“You need to stay right here,” I tell her, grabbing her hips to lift her off me.
I hate that I’m not giving her the comfort I know she needs, but if that asshole, or someone else, is trying to get into the house, she needs protection before comfort.
Savanna is on her feet at the same time I am. Another noise comes from the front door, and I look around the bedroom doorway down the hall in that direction. I’m not a guy who keeps a bat around, let alone firearms, but right now I wish I were. Doesn’t mean I don’t know how to throw a solid punch, which is going to have to suffice.
With one more look at Savanna, I tell her to stay in the bedroom before I’m slipping down the hall. I stop just before I can see the front door, peeking around the corner to ensure it hasn’t been opened yet, and then I dart across to the dining room where I grab one of the chairs.
I get back to the front door just in time for it to open and a body to walk through it. The chair is over my head and coming down towards the intruder when a second body walks through the door and catches the leg with lightning reflexes before it can smash into anyone.
“Nate!” Brody yells.
“Whoa!” Liam ducks, his arms flailing when he spots the chair looming overhead. He glowers, “What the fuck?”
If it weren’t for Brody, the chair would be on the ground right now as the horror of what almost happened dawns on me. Then anger swells. “What the fuck, you guys? What the hell are you doing here?”
“Are you shitting me right now?” Liam says as Brody takes the full weight of the chair and sets it down. “You took off like a bat out of hell and didn’t come back. Then we find out from Bryn you left, and Savanna was gone. You wouldn’t answer your phone. What did you expect us to do?”
“So you break into my house?” I seethe at them.
Logically I know my anger is misdirected, but that isn’t stopping me from lashing out. There are too many things roiling through my body and mind to find control.
“I have a key, asshole!” Liam spits back, taking a step towards me, feeding off my energy. “And you need to get that front door fucking fixed because it’s a bitch to open.”
No one ever uses the front door, so I haven’t bothered looking at it. “Not exactly on the top of my priority list.”
“Okay, enough. Both of you,” Brody says, stepping in between us, a hand coming to each of our shoulders. “We were concerned, man. That’s all.”
It’s not like Liam and I were going to exchange blows or anything but leave it to Brody to step between us and play referee. It’s not often any of us get truly snippy with each other, but emotions are running high for me, and to Liam’s credit, I did just about take him out with a chair. I close my eyes and scrub my hands over my face, letting out a deep sigh of frustration. I get it. I would have done the same thing.
“I know.” Dropping my hands to my sides, I look between the two of them. “Sorry. There’s a lot going on.”
Like they coordinated it, they both look at the chair sitting there.
“No shit,” Liam says, then glances around the place. “Where’s Savanna?”
She must have been standing right at the edge of the hallway because at the sound of her name, she steps around the corner, her arms wrapped around herself. My heart aches. Her face is ashen and distressed; I’d love nothing more than to see that beautiful smile of hers even for a second.
“I’m here.” Her voice, meek and small, is a nail to my chest.
Brody and Liam both turn, take one look at her, then turn back to me, jaws set, eyes hard.
“Whose ass are we kicking?” Brody says, and it’s so out of character for him that I laugh. Even more than me, Brody is the guy that steps between fights, he doesn’t get into them.
“Close the door,” I tell them, then stride over to Savanna, wrapping my arms around her shoulders to pull her into me.
I take a moment to breathe in her scent, the fruity sweetness washing over me, filling me with strength. I feel like I’ve been put through the wringer tonight, between adrenaline, fear, and relief. I need a moment to collect myself.
Pressing my lips to her ear, I whisper, “It’s okay. We’re going to get through this.” I’m not sure if it’s to convince her, or myself. “I think we should tell them what’s going on, though.”
She stiffens in my arms, pulling back. Indecision battles in the gray pools of her eyes and I realize she hasn’t fully changed her mind about leaving. My heart cracks inside my chest. I thought when she threw herself into me it meant her decision was made. That she would stay and deal with this.
“Sav,” I breathe, my head shaking. I release my hold from around her, my hands coming to rest on her shoulders. “Please. Don’t leave. Don’t run.”
“Nate…” she whispers. I’ve never before heard my name said with so much conflict. It guts me. More than even the terror I saw in her minutes ago.
“Please,” I beg, taking her chin between my thumb and forefinger. “Stay.”
“If you’re going to break his heart and leave us to pick up the pieces,” Liam says from behind me, his words cool and calculated, “At least explain why before you do it.”
Hurt flashes in her eyes, and I throw a warning look over my shoulder at my best friend. When I turn back to her, the pain is gone, resolve meeting me instead.
She steps away from me, wrapping her arms around herself and addresses the two men. “Let’s sit in the kitchen and have a beer.”
It’s not confirmation that she’ll stay, but it gives me more time to convince her not to go. I’ll take it.