Chapter 15 JACQUES
I bought everything I needed to set up the ultimate dad pad.
I had a smoker, a grill, and basically everything else the internet had recommended to me in order to make the best meat.
We’d been in town a few weeks now and nobody was looking at us sideways.
In fact, nobody looked at us at all. Maybe they’d already had their fill of gossip from the couple who’d approached us that first day, but people were treating us like we’d been living in town for years—and maybe some of them truly thought we had been
Ezra was able to go out into town alone, as long as he kept the tracker active on his phone for me.
He checked in every half hour and I’d let him know if it was time to come home.
According to the tracker, he went between the library, the bar, and the ice rink.
He would come home and tell me about his day and the people he met.
Tonight, he’d brought me a case of beer, and some veggies for the meat I’d spent all day cooking.
“It smells delicious,” he said, appearing in the double doors from the kitchen to the back, facing me. “I got supplies. You want a beer?”
I nodded, already holding out a hand for the beer. “How was your day?”
He popped the cap and walked it over. His face was all flushed. “I took the bike again,” he said.
“Take the car, it’s safer when it gets darker,” I told him.
“I like to bike it around the bay,” he said, popping a second beer cap. “And it’s just nicer to have something not actively adding to the pollution.”
I glanced toward all the plumes of smoke coming out of the smoker, all the wood burning to give the meat it’s smoky flavor. “Well, I’ve added to it enough,” I told him. “Neighbors came over again today. I forgot their names. They smelled the food. I think they were trying to get an invite.”
“Did you?” He handed me the beer as I got a better view of the rosy spots appearing on his cheeks.
“No, I’d never do something like that,” I said, taking his hand and pulling him into my arms. I pressed my nose to his nose, feeling the warmth radiating right off him. “So, what else did you do today?”
“I met up with my new friend, Jenny. She works at the bar,” he said. “And I only had one beer. Plus, then I went to the cupcake place. I think those three guys who work there are in a throuple.”
I kissed him, my hand on his lower back, and pushed his hips in deep to my body. “I love you,” I whispered into the second kiss on his lips.
“I love you too,” he said. “How long is it gonna be until dinner is ready?”
“Well, you’ve only just got back with the vegetables, so however long that takes,” I told him, giving him another kiss. “Also, did you check in with the team today?”
“Yes, yes, this morning,” he said, rolling his eyes. “The PR person is doing their best.”
“Riley,” I said. “Yes, they are. I also got a call from them. Apparently my name is out there a little more than it was. I think they’re going to begin a manhunt for you, and say I took you.
” And if we were speaking on technicalities, then sure, I did take him.
“Were you going to tell me what they said?”
“I was gonna tell you, but I know it’s nothing to worry about,” he said, looking all innocent with those big eyes and pout. “I promise, they said it was handled. But we’re probably going to have to go to New York soon. There’s a hearing coming up.”
I nodded. “Yep, they told me.”
“I just—I like this,” he said. “Being here, being with you, being—”
“Just being.” I gave him another kiss. I understood where he was coming from, and I supposed he wasn’t lying, he was just not telling me things I needed to know. “Well, it’s important we put your . . . thing to rest before we continue just being.”
He nodded, still giving me that submissive innocent look—and it fucking worked, like an absolute charm. He was a snake charmer, and I was the snake, just mesmerized by anything he had to say. “I was going to tell you,” he repeated. “I promise.”
“I know, I just hate hearing things from someone else.” I kissed him again. I couldn’t get enough of kissing him, and the warm sensation of his skin on my lips. “Make it up to me by prepping the veg and putting a large pan with water on to boil.”
“Okay,” he said, kissing me.
Before he left we clinked beer bottles. This was everything my life felt like it had been missing. I’d never been able to put my finger on it, but this feeling . . . I was content, happy, hopeful for the future. Those were all things I thought I’d felt before, but apparently I hadn’t.
I’d been smoking and practicing on all different meats.
Today’s meat of choice was brisket. It was a lot of meat.
And I needed the protein, especially after cutting wood all day.
Ezra needed it for his obsession with the bike we’d got.
It was usually paired with carrots, potatoes, whatever I’d seen on the internet about perfect side dish for your—and whatever meat I was smoking.
We sat and ate. We had the perfect little life set up here.
Then the phone rang. It was a wired phone on the wall. I hadn’t touched it. I’d barely even acknowledged it. It was mostly there as a relic of the past. But it worked, and it rang.
Ezra looked at me, the tender meat dripping off his fork. “Who is that?” he asked.
“I’m debating whether or not to find out,” I said.
There were only a handful of people who would call, and spam callers were at the top of the list. The idea that if it was important, they’d call again crossed my mind, but the shrill ring of the phone sent a knife through me. I had to get it—or throw it through the window.
The phone was on the wall in the hallway with a view of the open-plan living area. I picked it up and placed it to my ear.
“You haven’t checked in and your legal team isn’t giving us anything.” The female voice spoke first.
Roughing up my voice, I said, “Sorry, who is this?”
“Let’s not play. This isn’t a secure line. You haven’t checked in. You know who I am. I know who you are.”
“You’ve fucked this,” I grumbled.
Ezra dropped his fork with a clatter, rushing to my side, wanting to know what was going on.
“Your face is about to be printed in all the major papers,” she said. “Get somewhere safe. They’re really trying to find you.”
I hung up and turned to Ezra. “We gotta go.”
His shoulders sank. “Really?”
“They’re running the article. They’re going to start the manhunt.”
“So, what does that mean?”
“I have friends who owe me,” I told him, already scanning the room.
“I got us tickets to watch the Sugar Bay Sharks.”
My focus was completely lost with that single sentence. “Huh? There aren’t any sharks in Vermont.”
“They’re an ice hockey team,” he said. “They’re in the amateur league or something, but they recruited an NHL player and the town is going crazy over it.”
I scratched at my forehead, trying to think. “When?”
“Tonight,” he said.
“And you were—”
“I was gonna tell you,” he said, laughing. “It’s in an hour.”
I could only take my hand and hold his face. “You’re lucky I love you,” I said, kissing him.
“It was supposed to be a surprise, because we’re a married couple and we should be seen together,” he said, batting his lashes. “And I speak about you a lot. I tell people you made money on the stock exchange, and so now you’re like semi-retired and just cook.”
He was so adorable. I could only kiss him again and again, each time trying to get some of his intelligence to rub off on me. I needed to think about what to do—obviously, we’d have to go to the ice hockey game. I was sure he’d bragged about taking me to his friends in town.
“Let’s clean up, get the car ready, and we can go watch the game, but we’re out the moment it’s over,” I told him. “That means anything you leave here, it might be left here forever. But fingers crossed this is all over quick, because I really like it here.”
Ezra looked around and sighed. “We’re gonna have to pack all that meat.”
I laughed. “I will,” I told him. “You go take care of your things. Keep Mr. Thimble on you.”
He nodded. “On it.”
Since the call, I was on alert. If any of the neighbors tried coming over, I feared they might end up with a bullet in their body.
Each of my safe houses had stores of cash, which meant my transactions couldn’t be traced and nobody would know where we were.
Obviously, that didn’t stop the FBI from figuring it out.
It made sense when I thought about it as I packed the smoked meats into Tupperware.
They’d put a tap on Ezra’s legal team, and that gave them a direct link here.
* * *
I’d been to hockey games before. I couldn’t enjoy myself too much, but I encouraged Ezra.
He was screaming in support for the team.
They were playing against the Lexington Leopards.
I’d never heard of either team before, and they played rough—they played like there were no cameras, and there weren’t.
These people were thrashing each other against the boards and whacking the pucks at speeds I thought would’ve burned a hole in their nets.
“Which one is the NHL player?” I asked Ezra through the loud screaming.
“Slayton,” he said. “Twenty-two.”
The speedster. He was in the action, with three men guarding him it seemed, back, front, at the side. He wasn’t just the obsession of the fans, he was the obsession of the team too.
The Sharks won, and before they could even finish getting off the ice, I’d taken Ezra’s hand and we were out of there.
But it was too late. People knew where we were.
They were here. At the exits. We paused in the hallway while Ezra was all giddy about how aggressive the guys were. My look must’ve attracted him.
“Stay right there,” I said.
People were beginning to get out of their seats.
The two men at the end of the hallway saw me and approached. “You don’t have to do this,” I said.
“Reaper,” they said in unison.
“Come on, there’s people here,” I said. “Let’s do this outside.”
“Come with us,” the one on the right said.
“We need to take him in,” the one of the left said.
“That’s where we’ve got a problem,” I said.
“Who are you with? Sanctum? You have a line to Mercy in that earpiece?” They shook their head.
“Who?” I continued. “Zodiak? Illumine? Sorena? Which organization?” I scanned their faces, looking for something to tell me who they were working for.
“Government? FBI?” I shook my head. “If you know me, you know I have no issue with getting my gun out and putting a shot between each of your eyes.”
They both stared at me. I could hear the sound of people moving closer. Their voices getting louder as if they were about to be in view of this.
“Come with us,” they said.
They’d tried that one before, and I wasn’t going to kill them. I popped one of them with a punch between their eyes, and the other got an elbow in the side. Both dropped like sacks. The second one had got my elbow nerve acting up with a slight tingle. “Fucker,” I grumbled. “Kitten.”
Ezra ran toward me and we raced off out of the building. “What happened?” he asked.
“Just knocked their heads a little,” I said, as we made our way out into the parking lot. More people were there, looking through car windows. It was much darker now, but the occasional shine of a torch caught my eye. They were looking for our car—specifically, any sign of Ezra.
“Who were they?” he asked.
“Keep low,” I whispered, dipping behind a car. “I’m not sure. They could be FBI. They’re potentially an agency. They didn’t give anything away.”
“Why didn’t we just go out with everyone else?” he asked in a whisper. “We could’ve snuck out amongst the chaos.”
“Hindsight is a beaut, kitten,” I said, turning to him. “You have Mr. Thimble, right?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Why?”
I had a million different ideas going through my mind. We could jack a car and go, or we could find ours. Jacking a car would be extra effort, but would potentially get us out faster. “Good. You remember where we parked?”
“No. But maybe we should just stay low and wait for people.”
That would’ve been a great thing, if we hadn’t already come out into the parking lot. Right now, the choices were simple, and ideally, we’d take our own car—that’s where all my smoked meats were, and a couple of thousand dollars.
The crunch under gravel came from directly up ahead.
A torch shone on us, crouching against the side of a car.
I leapt from my position, and almost like the beast of all the aggression I’d seen tonight at the game, I punched the man’s face in, pummeling him and his torch into the ground.
The torch flailed around, signaling for the others to come to him.
With everyone racing toward us, I spotted out car up ahead. I grabbed Ezra with my bloody fists and raced to the car. We were there in seconds, but we couldn’t afford to stop and look at my fists or how much blood I’d got on me. We had to leave. Now!