Chapter Fourteen #2
I stood there in the semi-silence of fluttering plastic and retreating footsteps, lost in my own thoughts.
What would be the worst that could happen if he found me now?
Arguments and deceit, certainly, but I wouldn’t go back unless I was drugged and dragged.
I had finally seen the light to his true intentions and I didn’t agree with them at all.
No, I wouldn’t run again. I was done with that.
Let his little minions try to take me. I had a butt load of friends now with amazing skills. I say, good luck to them.
I turned to leave, striding determinedly past the kitchen’s missing doorway when two figures shifted in the shadows, one in a dusty cubicle and the other in another doorway.
My pulse surged and I froze, chilling thoughts fresh in my mind, and I abruptly pivoted and started racing away.
A familiar voice penetrated my terror, and I stumbled to a stop.
“Ember! Stop! It’s us,” Brent shouted.
I turned and stared numbly, blinking rapidly, then ran back to him and beat soundly on his chest. He and Cole tried to calm me, but I was too freaked.
All of my hard work at previously securing my scared emotions had pounded so hard when I saw two people lurking where they shouldn’t be.
I had thought for sure I was going to have to race to safety, praying that I found the crew before Daddy’s own crew caught me.
“Ember, calm down, sweetheart. You’re okay. You’re okay,” Cole coaxed softly, his arms sliding around my waist from behind as Brent grabbed my fists and pulled them around his own waist, murmuring, “Darlin’, shh. It just us. You’re safe.”
I choked back a sob, my heart rate barely slowing and my body shaking from the adrenaline rush. “What…the…heck were you two doing?”
It hit me slowly in their silence. “You were spying on us.”
When they still said nothing and just kept my quaking body plastered between them, I asked warily – and a little ticked off, “How much did you hear?”
“Nothing we didn’t already know, darlin’,” Brent whispered, leaning back so he could gage my reaction. “Cole and I were running our own separate intel from…,” he glanced up at Cole, “What? That night of the gallery incident?”
“Pretty much,” Cole answered, rubbing my sides now in slow motions.
“Well, anyway, when we realized what the other was doing, we pulled our resources together. We’ve known that your father hired a team to find you.
We didn’t want to tell you and have you worried for nothing.
” Brent stumbled over his words, looking guilty.
“We’ve had one of our team members watching over you since we got here. ”
He sheepishly cleared his throat, but determination filled his gaze. He wasn’t sorry at all. I glanced back at Cole and saw the same look. Oh!
“You’ve had someone spying on me the entire week?” I asked, shocked and entirely ticked now. They nodded, and I stated angrily, “You should have warned me! Told me! Trusted me to handle it like an adult.”
Cole spoke in a deep, unwavering tone, “Possibly. But, probably not. If you would have known someone was searching for you, you might have reacted differently than you’ve been doing.
We needed you to behave normally, so we could watch over you better.
A scared person, acts scared, and reacts as you did just a moment ago.
You would have been jumping at every noise and running off when you should have stayed put.
You’ve been safe and calm all week by our silence. ”
I blinked and tried to process as Cole spoke to Brent, “Did you get that part of what Mr. Fresby said about a special team member?”
Brent nodded, and then stared down at me, catching my eyes so I couldn’t glance away, asking, “The only part we didn’t understand was what Mr. Fresby said about a man that has ties to you. Who is it? And what’s the connection?”
I fisted my hands. I wasn’t telling them when they didn’t tell me squat. I smiled, but it was more of a baring of teeth and pushed away from their hold, pointing a finger back and forth between them. “You kept your secrets. I think I’ll keep mine for the time being.” There. Take that spy boys.
Cole’s jaw clenched and Brent practically yelled, “This is not the time for games, Ember. Fucking tell us.” Calm he wasn’t right now. “Was there a man in your life back home?” He vibrated where he stood and Cole’s eyes turned icy.
I watched them closely. They each handled jealousy a whole lot different than the other.
“I didn’t lie when I told you both that I haven’t had sex for five years. There’s no man at home that I’ve been interested in since you left,” I stated factually and turned and walked down the hallway.
“You’re behaving like a child,” Cole stated, stalking up behind me on my right with Brent to the left. “This is serious, Ember.”
“Don’t start that crap about me being immature again,” I hissed and kept on hiking through the halls, only to have Brent yank my arm to steer me down another. “Eye for an eye. Get used to it.”
After a few moments of angered silence by all three of us, Brent muttered, “I knew Mr. Fresby was up to something asking her here after we told him she wouldn’t be coming.”
Cole grunted his agreement.
A thought occurred. Now, I knew why they’d had calculation brewing in their eyes this morning.
They had been expecting something like this.
They were too cunning for their own good.
They had kept silent even on this and dangled me in front of Mr. Fresby to bait the shark and find out what they wanted.
They were going to pay.
And I knew just how to do it.
***
“Where are we going again?” Brent asked nonchalantly from my right, staring out the cab’s window the next evening after Mr. Fresby’s pronouncement.
“Nice try,” I grumbled, sulking back in the seat between their hulking forms. Try as I might, I still hadn’t been able to figure out who was watching over me today. Wherever they spied from it was darn concealed. And annoying. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Is it someplace to eat?” Cole stretched his legs out as far as he could, squashing me further. “I’m famished.”
Even dressed down from their suits into something casual – as I had requested, they both looked like a million bucks.
Cole had chosen a pair of dark jeans that cost at least three hundred dollars and a black and white graffiti shirt that was straight from Bloomindale’s.
Brent wore tan cargo shorts that cut off a few inches below his knee that probably cost just as much as Cole’s jeans and a white V-necked tee that was by the same designer.
Their shirts and pants accentuated their muscular builds, but still spoke of money.
I, on the other hand, had done some laundry today and wore my black cargo capris, flaming yellow shirt that had Count Dracula’s smiling face printed on it, fangs and all, a black scarf twisted through my hair to hold it back from my face, and black converse with frilly black socks, silver studded belt and wrist bands.
My make-up was fixed extra dark, including my lips, which I had painted in black.
Normally, I went with a simple lip gloss, but I had felt a little festive.
And again, no one would ever point us out in a line-up as having ties to one another.
“Well, there will be food involved,” I supplied and shrugged as best I could since my shoulders were trapped under theirs.
Possibly, a bigger cab would be ideal next time.
We had only ever gone out to dinner with the entire group before, so this was our first “date” without anyone else.
I didn’t hold it against them, though. Half the time they worked so late into the night they barely stopped to even eat dinner.
Or watch Peter squirm and yelp from the kitchen when Ally made dinner.
Peter wasn’t one to back down from a debt owed, though.
I’m fairly sure he had a few new scars from the ordeal before he had wised up and started wearing a hockey mask and pads that he purchased from a sporting goods store.
In his defense, it had only taken him one night to figure that out.
But, that had been a pretty entertaining evening with only minor bloodshed.
Peter currently said a small prayer before every meal wishing Sam a quick and safe flight here.
He seems to think having her here will help Ally.
I didn’t think so, she had always been that way, but you never know.
“Food will be involved…” Brent murmured, trying hard to figure out my secret.
“I hope that includes a delicious steak and a large glass of wine,” Cole said dreamily.
“A filet mignon would really hit the spot right about now,” Brent agreed and rubbed his flat stomach.
I tried not to smirk. This was going to be fun.
A few minutes passed by in companionable silence, when Cole broke it to ask, “Sweetheart, are you sure you gave the driver the right address?” He was staring out the window, his eyes turning to slits as he angled his body protectively against me.
Brent opened his eyes and inclined his head from its rested position. He tensed, grabbing my knee and angling his own body so that I was boxed into the seat, completely without a view of the dregs of the city currently passing by.
I tried to push them away, but it was like two actual boulders had become their bodies. Rock-solid and immovable. I huffed. I was tempted to tickle Cole, since I had that insight, but that wouldn’t be nice since they were just being protective. Neanderthals, yes. But, only protective Neanderthals.
“Will you two cut it out?” I squirmed some more when they started to give the cabby a hard time. “He’s driving us exactly where I wanted him to!”
Unbelievably, both boulders tensed even more.
Brent asked in a soft, soft voice, “And where would that be, darlin’? A drive-by shooting?”
The cab stopped then. Thank goodness, since I was starting to sweat between their combined body heat.