Chapter Sixteen #2
“He works for Red Snake Investigations,” I told them, noting that Scott was no longer in the kitchen. I didn’t have time to look. “Okay, I have to go. He’s waiting for me. See you in a bit.” I pulled off my apron, ran to my locker to grab my stuff, and met Ash in the dining room.
He was standing in front of the wall of windows, looking out at the ocean, his hands in his pockets.
His suit jacket was hanging over his strong forearm, giving me a chance to ponder how his shirt hadn’t managed to tear around his broad, muscular shoulders and back.
As I slipped between the empty tables, getting closer, the ridges and dips of his large body became more prominent.
My eyes lingered on the back of his strong neck for a few seconds before I called his name.
“You ready, gorgeous?” he asked.
“Yes, I—what are you doing?” His hand slid underneath the straps of my purse and the medical bag on my shoulder, pulling them away from me. “I can carry those.”
“I know,” he said, taking my hand in his. He led me to the parking lot and steered me toward the docks.
“Where are we going?” I asked, looking up at him. The sky had gone gray, the first round of weeklong storms coming earlier than I expected. My eyes followed the dark trail in the sky, finding a terrifying wall of clouds hovering over the water toward the horizon.
“Parked my truck at Margo’s place,” he answered, his shoes thudding against the wood planks while my heels followed in time. “Your feet okay?”
“They will be when I change out of them. I just…I don’t know. When I stepped into the kitchen, all I wanted to do was cook. I forgot about everything else.”
He grunted and let go of my hand. “Right,” he muttered.
“Ash, what—ah!”
I was cradled in his arms then. My hands locked around his neck as I gaped at him. “Y-you just—you’re carrying me,” I sputtered, my chest heaving.
The small lines around his eyes crinkled as he smiled at me. “Yeah, I am.”
“Why?”
“Because those shoes are killing you and we still have a few minutes of walking.”
“I can walk, Ash. It’s not a problem,” I argued.
“I know, but I don’t like seeing you in pain.”
My fingers curled into his hair as I scanned his face. “Ash,” I murmured.
He looked straight ahead, walking like normal. The wind blew then, ruffling his thick hair. I watched it in fascination. Then I pressed my lips to his cheek. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“Don’t thank me for taking care of you, beautiful,” he said, stepping around a pile of coolers.
I looked back, watching the cute seagulls land around them, hopping from one to another, tilting their heads back and forth as they assessed how to get the fish inside.
A few of the fishermen called out their greetings. Some whistled at us and some clapped.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” a boat captain hollered. “Caught yourself a beauty, boy!”
With heated cheeks, I groaned and buried my face in Ash’s neck. “Can you put me down now?”
“No.”
“Ash—”
“I’ll bend you over the hood of my truck and redden that ass if you ask again,” he warned in my ear, his voice low. “Been waiting for years to take care of you. Let me have this.”
Goose bumps scattered across my skin, my nipples puckering underneath my dress.
I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth, listening to my heart pound in my ears as my body hummed with desire.
All I could do was nod, and just as the sky opened up, the first raindrop landing on my arm, Ash stopped in front of a black Ram pickup.
He brought his hand to the handle, and a faint click echoed through the air.
Then he pulled open the passenger door and set me inside.
My bags were gently placed in my lap. Then his hands cupped my face and his lips were on mine.
This kiss was different from the other five we’d shared over the last week.
His lips moved softly against mine, as if we had all the time in the world.
My fingers wrapped around his wrist, feeling his strong pulse, the heat of his skin.
My tongue shot out, touching the top of his lightly.
A heavy, dark grunt left him, and he pulled me closer, angling my head, his tongue diving into my mouth.
He drank from me with greed unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
I turned in the seat, my knees resting against his side as my arms snaked up and around his neck, my fingers locking.
My back arched, my breasts against his chest, our tongues dancing.
By the time he pulled away, one of his hands was at the base of my throat and the other had let my hair down and was fisting it.
My eyes dropped to his lips, loving how swollen and wet they were.
Because of me.
We were both out of breath, unsure of whether we should take more or give it up.
I wanted more.
I yanked him back down, his mouth colliding against mine. He let me take control, my teeth taking his bottom lip, nibbling it.
“Fuck.” He pulled back, removing his hand from my hair. It fell around my shoulders as I stared up at him, hungry for more.
I tried bringing him back down, but he didn’t budge. Instead, he chuckled, the sound raspy and heated. “You’re gonna do me in, Angel Howell.”
My hands dropped down his chest, feeling his heart underneath my palm. “You started it,” I shot back, breathless.
He grinned and dropped his head. We were both silent, our bodies trying to calm down. “I’ve never felt this way before,” I confessed, savoring the feel of him.
“Yeah,” he whispered, as if he could feel it too.
Before I could say anything more, he lifted his head, gave me a quick peck while putting my legs back into the truck, and shut the door.
As he got behind the wheel, I saw Margo walk out of the Buoy, an old man in overalls trailing behind her with his head down.
She raised her arm and pointed toward Main Street and barked something at him.
“I see Richard is back on his bullshit,” Ash muttered, chuckling. He started the engine, and Margo’s head snapped in our direction, her black hair flying around her. Her green eyes landed on me, and she gave me a two-finger wave. I smiled and gave her one in return.
When Ash pulled out onto the street, I asked, “Is this a new truck?”
“Sorry?”
I gestured to the fancy leather seats, the large touchscreen on the dash, and all the fancy buttons. “I’ve never seen this before.”
He glanced at me, one hand on top of the steering wheel, the other holding mine. “This is my work truck,” he told me, pausing for a moment. “After tonight, I may have to drive to Portland, so I switched them out.”
“Why? Did Grayson give you another assignment?”
His eyes remained on the road. Astoria was quiet this afternoon.
There were no signs out on the sidewalks, and the flowers hanging from the lampposts were limp, their beautiful petals curled downward.
To my surprise, Rossy’s Bookstore was closed.
As we drove by, shadows loomed over the bookcases, not a single lamp on in the window.
“Rossy closed the shop out of respect for Margie,” Ash explained.
I nodded. “I figured.”
“And to answer your questions, no, Gray didn’t give me another assignment. I have to go check on my apartment. I haven’t been there since I got home from my last job.”
“What? Why?”
His fingers tightened around mine. “I didn’t feel comfortable leaving you alone.”
I leaned forward in disbelief. “But you live in Portland, Ash. Where the hell have you been sleeping at night?”
“On Carrie and Grayson’s couch, baby,” he whispered, stopping at the light. He looked at me, his features soft. “There was no way in hell I was going to leave you alone. Not after you just lost your friend.”
“But your life…what about your needs?”
Another chuckle left him as he lifted his eyes to the sky. “She still doesn’t get it.”
“What, Ash? What don’t I get?” I pushed.
The light turned green, but we were the only ones out. Since the funeral this morning, downtown had been empty, a ghost town. He didn’t take his foot off the brake. His jaw worked as he watched me, taking me in. “We’re not talking about this right now.”
“No,” I snapped, yanking my hand from his. “You can’t just put your life on hold to take care of me, Ash! That’s not fair to you. You’ve been sleeping on a couch for the last ten days, and you didn’t tell me?”
“Angel—”
“You can’t just uproot and desert your life because of me.”
“Baby, I did that five years ago,” he confessed harshly.
I stared at him, my heart jumping into my throat. “Wh-what?”
“The second I lost you, my life was over. Spent three years hunting you, turning over this entire country looking for you. Red Snake exhausted every damn resource we had trying locate you, Angel. Every lead we came across ended up being a dead end, and after a while, my anger morphed into grief. The day you walked into the Rossy’s was the day after I’d given up on you. ”
Lost me?
He—he hunted me?
My mind, memories, the past, all of it swirled together, raging inside my skull as his words seeped into me, mixing with my blood. He broke our gaze, and I fell back into my seat. My breath caught in my throat as questions shot off, each one more damaging than the last.
Why had he hunted me?
Why had he been looking for me?
I looked down at my lap, panic jumping under my skin, prickling and poisonous. The answers slammed into me, the conclusion to the clusterfuck of the last five years of my life.
They’d never gone back for him.
They’d promised me they would.
They’d left Ash there to die.