4. Chapter 4
Chapter four
Brooks
She’d bolted.
Aria had snuck out while I’d been sleeping off the best sex of my life. Maybe it was for the best, I thought as I poured my second cup of coffee and looked around the quiet, empty space. I usually didn’t mind it, the solitude, but now it rubbed at me like sand on a sunburn.
Stalking from the kitchen to the sliding doors, I pulled them open and went out on my worn wooden deck. Leaning on the railing overlooking the beach, I could hear the surf, and it immediately called to me. I needed to be out there.
But Rafi and Sloane insisting that I take two weeks of vacation time made it so the only way to be out there was on my own.
Restlessness filled me again. I didn’t want to be alone.
I wanted that blue-eyed beauty with me. Slamming back into the house, I put the coffee cup in the sink and grabbed my keys.
The island wasn’t that big. How hard could it be to find her?
My first stop was Sandbar & Sips, the tiki bar we’d met at. She’d paid for her drinks in cash, but maybe she’d said something that I hadn’t caught. Bill the bartender was not working the day shift, so there was no help there.
Her car. Once I was settled back into the driver’s seat of my Jeep, I pulled up the security cameras at my house.
It was dark, but I could make out the license plate if I zoomed in.
Taking a picture, I sent it off to a tech at Sunbreak Securities.
I hadn’t been fired, just put on leave. Hopefully this wouldn’t land me in more hot water.
Starting up the engine, I pulled out of the bar.
She’d have to stop for coffee or breakfast unless she’d gone to the store or her sister was home when she’d arrived.
Thrumming my fingers on the edge of the steering wheel, I thought about what I could do while I waited for the tech to get back to me.
She could be anywhere. For a barrier island, she was as lost to me without intel as if we were in New York City. Fuck.
Pulling out of the parking lot, I decided to head up to the closest neighborhoods. She probably wouldn’t have driven far from her sister’s yesterday. It was a good starting point.
The first neighborhood was a bust. The second neighborhood had some cars out front but none that looked like hers.
Small, white, and compact. Just then my phone chirped with a message.
I yanked the car to the curb and stopped.
Picking up my phone, I opened the message. Yes! The tech had gotten back to me.
Her full name was Aria Andrews. She was five seven and twenty-eight years old. Last known address was in Boston. Nearest and only living relative was a sister, Allie Andrews, who had moved to Sunbreak Harbor last year. Her address was on Gull Lane. Bingo.
I threw the gear shift back into drive and took off down the road and back to the main street that traveled the length of the island.
I wasn’t familiar with Gull Lane, but as I waited to turn at the light—no right turn on red—I typed the address into my GPS and found it was only a few minutes away.
But the traffic was almost at a standstill.
There was an event starting for the weekend at High Tide Pavilion today, some summer concert, and the cars had started to back up on the roads.
I huffed a frustrated sigh. I should forget about last night.
Forget about her. Let her spend time with her sister.
That’s what she was here to do. Hell, she left while I was asleep.
That wasn’t exactly the action of a woman that wanted to see me again.
What was I doing?
Looking for a distraction to keep my mind off work was one thing, but now I was stalking her.
Fuck.
I sucked in a deep breath and squinted against the sun through my shades.
The waves in the distance called to me like a siren to a pirate.
It was fair to make sure she got back to her sister’s house safely, so that’s what I would do.
Go there, make sure she was okay and that she’d found her sister, and then I’d go home and grab my board.
I turned my head, waiting for the traffic to move. The light had changed to green, but it was bumper to bumper with no room to turn.
I scanned the crowd on the boardwalk out of habit.
That’s when I caught sight of Aria near The Salty Spoon.
The line already snaked past the front windows and the wall of missing flip-flops.
She stood there for a few seconds like she was considering joining it, then shook her head and turned away, shoulders tight and restless energy pouring off her.
She looked like someone trying to outrun her own thoughts.
I threw the gearshift into reverse, parked along a neighborhood street, and hurried to the boardwalk. Even with my sunglasses on, I squinted against the midday sun. She’d been right there, and now she was gone again.
I strode through the crowd with purpose. There, she was moving through a thicker crowd headed toward the pavilion. She veered toward the water. A man in a dark baseball cap and plain clothes closed the distance between them. He seemed…out of place. Not dressed for the beach.
He reached for her arm. She jerked, already twisting to pull free, and his voice carried just enough for me to catch it over the crowd noise.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Allie.”
Allie? The name registered, but I was too focused on him trying to force Aria to go with him. That wasn’t happening. Not today. Not on my watch.
I closed the gap in six strides and caught the wrist of the hand pulling on her. If there was one single bruise on her… The guy swung toward me, and I stepped inside it, using his momentum to slam him hard against the boardwalk railing. It rattled under the impact, knocking the air out of him.
“Who are you?” My voice was low and flat. Instead of answering, he lunged forward, knocking Aria to the ground and pushing into the crowd. I let him go and turned to Aria, helping her up.
“You okay?”
She nodded once, too fast, then shook her head. “He called me Allie. My sister. He thought I was her.”
The protective instinct that hit me in that moment had nothing to do with a job and everything to do with the woman in front of me. It landed harder than I expected, and I didn’t like how personal it already felt.
“Come on,” I said. “We need to move.”
She didn’t argue as I got her to the Jeep, then scanned the street one more time before pulling away from the curb. Aria sat in the passenger seat with her arms wrapped around herself, staring straight ahead.
“I went to her house first.” She broke the silence after a few blocks.
“She wasn’t there, and her house…it was torn apart.
Was it like that yesterday when I stopped by and decided not to go in?
Was she in there, needing help, and I left and went to a bar?
” She shook her head, and a quick glance in her direction devastated me.
A single tear tracked down her cheek. “I didn’t know where else to go so I came into town.
Tried to get lost in the crowds. I just… I need to find her.”
“You will. We will.” I turned my gaze back to the road and made my voice steadier than I felt.
“But you can’t go back to her place, and everything will be booked solid.
Maybe...” I pulled the Jeep into the Dune Garden Inn on the outskirts of town.
They had cottages on the beach that were always booked up, but sometimes the ones closest to the street were still available.
Hopping out, I hurried inside.
There was a teenager chewing a huge wad of gum behind the counter. Her tag said her name was Stella.
“Hi, Stella. Got any cottages left?” I glanced over my shoulder through the glass door to make sure Aria was still there. She’d already snuck off on me once today.
“Nope. Sorry. Booked out for the next three weeks at least.” She popped a bubble. “Can get you in then, though.”
“No, thanks,” I said and left. I got back in the Jeep and turned to face Aria.
“No luck here, sorry. It was a long shot. Look,” I said, taking her hand in mine. “You can’t go back to your sister’s house. It isn’t safe. I know you probably don’t want to come home with me after last night, but I can keep you safe. It’s what I do.”
She looked up at me. Uncertainty and fear and the need to escape all warred in those depths. “Why?” Her voice was soft, but the word dropped between us like an anchor hitting the ocean floor. “Why would you help me? You don’t even know me. If it’s because we hooked up, you don’t owe me anything.”
Because a man tried to kidnap you right in front of me, and it scared the shit out of me. But I couldn’t say that. Because for the first time in a long time, the need to keep someone safe felt like more than just my job. I couldn’t say that either.
I shrugged and went with my gut. “Why not? You need help. I can give it to you. Here’s the thing, though: You have to follow my lead. Deal?”
I let go of her hand and started driving again.
“Deal…on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“No sex.”
While I very much wanted to have more naked time with her, it wasn’t an expectation for helping her. “Okay. No sex.” I let go of her hand and started driving again. “But if you change your mind—”
Aria shot me a look, and I relented. “So tell me, why would that guy think you’re Allie?”
“I-I don’t know.” Aria shot me another look, longer this time. “I mean, we look alike. We’re only ten months apart. If they saw me at her house…” Her voice trailed off.
Her hand shot across the console and gripped my forearm. Memories of last night flashed across my mind, and I fought to keep them at bay. Right now all that mattered was keeping Aria safe.
“They they don’t have her. Whatever is going on, if they’d found her—”
“Then they wouldn’t have gone after you,” I said, finishing her sentence.