Chapter 5
?
For Andrea, the rest of the afternoon at the police station had been brutal, and everybody there was far more invested in the case than she would have thought possible.
With this showdown at the police station came other revelations too.
Hayden’s team got together and shared what was going on around her car.
Seems three different men were interested in Andrea’s vehicle.
Yet Trent and Oakley weren’t too worried, until Hulk’s theatrics earlier.
Trent and Oakley now think those three so-called random guys around her vehicle were part of the Hulk’s circle.
If not just local one-time hires, they were more middle management, like Hulk.
Hayden contacted David again, the police sketch artist, to get with Trent, Oakley, plus now with Kane and Julius, in staggered sessions, if possible.
The last two had seen another trio of guys lurking around Andrea’s apartment.
Soon those six sketches would be shared with Hayden’s team and with the local authorities too.
Andrea was not happy to hear another six guys were on her tail.
“These are just lackeys, not the big boss guys at the top,” Hayden pointed out. “Don’t worry though. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
With each suggestion as to what should be done, something else would be brought up. Mason had been contacted several times. She knew he was Hayden’s boss and Tesla’s husband, but didn’t know much beyond that.
Once they had her attacker recaptured again, things had gotten far worse in terms of what everybody wanted from her. So her own firsthand explanations had been repeated, as the police realized what was going on underneath their noses. At one point, she collapsed, her whole body giving out on her.
They left the police station shortly thereafter, and he drove her to a safe house in a gated community.
Andrea couldn’t believe how exhausted she was when she and Hayden finally arrived at the designated safe house. It was dinnertime now.
He shuffled her inside and checked out the interior of the place. “We’re clear. And we’ve got a business nook too. Complete with a fax and a printer. That could come in handy.”
Andrea glanced at Hayden, who seemed cool and self-assured as always. “I know that we ate, but it seems so long ago. I’m really hungry now.”
“It was a few hours ago for sure,” he noted. “I considered stopping to pick up food on the way here, but you appeared to be well and truly done, so I drove straight here.”
She nodded. “I am done, … in so many ways, yet I need food.”
“Let’s take a look and see if anything is here to cook.”
“I don’t want you to leave.” She blurted it out before she could rein in her rampant thoughts and regretted it instantly.
Still, Hayden didn’t comment on it. “I am a pretty decent cook.”
“Are you?” she asked, frowning at him.
“Yeah, I am. Necessity, you know?”
“I don’t remember you cooking much before,” she pointed out, staring at him.
“I would have cooked before, but we were always a little busy elsewhere.”
She flushed at that. “I feel as if we were just rabbits last time.”
He burst out laughing. “If we were, so what? We both had a good time. That’s what matters.”
“Yeah, and now everything feels so different, and back then was a very long time ago.”
“We were also younger and a lot more innocent as to the world and how ugly it can be,” he stated. “I had no idea how much I would end up going through myself. So, I understand why you feel that way.”
“I guess you’ve seen a lot, haven’t you?”
“Yep.”
“You weren’t even scared facing the Hulk. He could have pulled the trigger at any moment.”
“He’s thick but not that stupid. Being right there at the police station, especially after disarming one of their own, he would have gotten hit by a dozen bullets all at once,” Hayden shared.
“So, I figured it was a pretty safe bet, and I just couldn’t see him pulling off a kamikaze move by gunning me down, which had him dying seconds later. ”
“Right,” she muttered. “I didn’t even consider that. I guess they all would have shot him, wouldn’t they?”
“Absolutely,” he declared, turning to her. He took off his jacket, hung it up, then grabbed her sweater and did the same. She let him, not even balking that he was taking care of her. That was the least of her worries right now.
He walked into the kitchen and minutes later called out, “We don’t have a ton of choices.”
She sighed. This was their first evening in this safe house environment. “Maybe we need to order in.”
“No, better to avoid deliveries here. However, it’ll be okay,” he shared, “as long as you’re fine with pasta.”
“What can you make with pasta?” she asked, as she joined him.
He hunted through a few more cupboards. “I can do all kinds of things. That’s one of the reasons why having pasta is always huge because you have options.”
“If you say so,” she muttered, sitting at the kitchen table. Meanwhile, he pulled out some tomatoes and other fresh vegetables. “I thought you only ate protein,” she quipped, with a chuckle.
“I don’t particularly care about having any protein tonight. It would be good if we had some, but I can make a veggie carbonara,” he noted, “with fresh tomatoes even. How do you feel about that?”
“You’re speaking a language I don’t know, so I can’t tell you.” She shrugged. “But I’m hungry, so I won’t argue about anything.”
He chuckled and started working away.
She watched as he diced up fresh tomatoes, set them off to the side with a little bit of salt, had the water boiling in no time on the stove, plopping in the dried pasta.
When that was done, he basically dumped the drained noodles into melted butter with garlic that he had sautéed.
Afterward, he cracked four raw eggs into the hot mix and stirred them up.
When he was done, he tossed the fresh tomatoes over the top and sprinkled on a bit of Parmesan.
She stared at it and asked, “That’s it?”
“Yep, that’s it. Of course you might not like it.”
She snorted. “Are you kidding? I could barely stop myself from coming over and stealing a bite in order to figure out what you were cooking. I’m so surprised to find this safe house stocked with more food—and fresher food—than could be found at my apartment on any given day.”
She joined him as he plated their food. “I always wished I could cook but never really had that much interest in learning how. I mean, I can cook the basics, but it’s easier to just order in.
Cooking is one of those things that I always thought I should do, but I never quite got there.
” She shrugged. “Now, I don’t know. Maybe I still should get into it. ”
“If you enjoy it, then get into it. It’s a great life skill.”
“I can do some things,” she noted. “I mean, I won’t starve, but I certainly don’t have a talent for making things out of nothing.”
He laughed. “Remember that I was raised perennially broke.” He waved his hand toward the food on the stove. “So making a meal out of nothing is what you do when you don’t have much to work with. You find what you’ve got, and you make something with it.”
She winced. “And that’s one of the times when a privileged lifestyle just comes back to bite me in the ass.”
He gave a light chuckle. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad about your lifestyle. That isn’t what I’m about. You and I both know that sometimes life is good, and sometimes life is a whole lot less than good. Either way, we still have to make the best of it.”
“I hear you,” she acknowledged, but it was obvious to her that he was doing much better with some aspects of his life than she was.
She sighed as she settled at the kitchen table again, while he placed a big bowl in front of her.
“I’m not sure I can eat that much.” She stared at it in awe.
Yet, as soon as she began eating, it seemed as if she couldn’t stop.
He reached out a hand. “Easy, slow down. You’re putting away a ton of carbs very quickly,” he noted, “and I don’t want you to have a carb crash.”
“Too late,” she muttered. “The carb crash is coming because there’s probably not enough protein here to keep me from it. Plus, I’m so tired that I don’t think anything will keep me from crashing anyway.”
“Okay,” he agreed, “valid points.”
When she finally stopped eating, she sat back and genuinely thanked him. “That was fabulous. Why are we even going out for meals if you can cook like that?”
“Partly because I don’t always want to cook.” He chuckled. “Sometimes it’s nice to go out and to have somebody else cook for you.”
“Right.” She shrugged. “And I spend way too much time going out for meals.”
“That’s also something that a lot of New Yorkers do,” he pointed out.
“It’s something about the Big Apple lifestyle.
You’ve got great street food everywhere, so you can pick up just about anything you want at every corner.
And, if you can’t, some incredible restaurants are all over that you can certainly make good use of.
And that’s why the restaurants are here.
It’s part of the ultimate New York City lifestyle. ”
“Yes, it’s definitely a lifestyle,” she agreed. “Yet an awful lot can be said about having a lifestyle where you are comfortable staying home and don’t have to go out. Cooking the food that you want to have without having to depend on somebody else for it.”
“I won’t argue with that,” he replied. “I like cooking. And nothing’s better for me than a barbecued steak at home with a nice bottle of red wine and a few side dishes, but that’s not for everyone.”
She looked over at him, feeling a bit foggy.
He noticed that right away. “You’re starting to fade.”
“Starting?” she repeated. “Starting to fade is a misnomer, as I faded a long time ago. Will the Hulk still be in jail in the morning?”
“I hope so,” he replied.
She was worried, and he knew too well what she was asking, not misunderstanding anything that she hadn’t quite put into words.