All the words I wanted to say clogged my throat, making it impossible for me to speak. Impossible for me to thank him. And since I couldn’t express my gratitude I nodded.
“I’m going to take Anaya and Maxine and go to Wyoming. When we get there I’ll explain what’s going on.”
Right, he didn’t want me around his wife and daughter. I understood but it still broke my heart. I missed my friend and really wanted to see Maxine in person.
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t. You think I want to keep her from you but we’ve had this vacation planned and I’m using it as insurance to prevent Anaya from jumping in on this crusade. You know my wife; she catches wind you’re here and why, there will be no stopping her. She’ll be in the thick of it plotting and planning and next thing I know she will have talked you into flying to Timor-Leste to kick rebel ass. That is, after she secures a prescription for sleeping pills so she, Tatiana, and Emerson can carry you on the plane. It’s my guess Eva would stay behind but that would only be the case because someone would have to babysit. I’m saving myself from the ass-kicking I’d receive from my team when my wife ropes all of theirs into whatever revenge you’ve planned.”
Well, when Kyle explained it made sense. Anaya was the adventurous one. She was brave and smart and wouldn’t bat one of her pretty eyelashes flying back to Timor-Leste.
“When you get to Wyoming may I speak to her?”
“Absolutely.”
“Thanks.”
“Did Gabe tell you he’s taking you to a safehouse?”
“Yes.”
“Good. He and Cooper will stay there with you.”
Wait. What?
Gabe was staying there, too.
“The house isn’t far from here. I called Thad, Max, and Brooks. They’ll be keeping an eye out and working with Gabe’s team. This shouldn’t take long and you’ll be safe to go back to your normal life before you know it.”
There it was again—back to my boring, humdrum, lonely life.
But before I could sink too far into the miserable thoughts, my mind wandered back to Gabe staying at the safehouse with me.
And suddenly the house didn’t feel so safe.
Whatever strange feeling I got when he was next to me, and the way my body reacted to him, was more than worrisome. It was downright terrifying.
Scarier than having a gun to my head.
A pull of the trigger would’ve ended my life.
But falling for Gabe would cause a lifetime of hurt.
Chapter 7
“Brother, you staring at the door isn’t gonna make her materialize.”
My gaze went from the master bedroom door to Cooper then back to the door.
“What the fuck is taking her so long?”
“You’re asking the wrong man. Women are a mystery to me. She said she was gonna shower, right?” Instead of answering, I looked down at my watch which for some unknown reason made Cooper chuckle. “It’s only been five minutes since the last time you checked.”
It’d been six.
But who was counting?
“It’s been over an hour,” I noted.
“And?”
Maybe I was being irrational.
Actually, there was no maybe about it. I’d lost my ever-loving mind.
Or maybe she’d crawled out the window and I had a right to worry.
No, the windows in the bedroom didn’t open and they were bulletproof. As a matter of fact, all the windows in the house were a combination of acrylic and polycarbonate double-pane. The doors, including the interior, were steel with a thin laminate wood veneer. The finish was Ivy’s doing. If Zane had it his way he wouldn’t have bothered with putting “lipstick on a pig” as he called it. I had to admit Ivy had been right; the house no longer looked like a holding cell and now looked like a home.
“Seriously, Gabe, what’s wrong with you? The woman’s taking a shower, and did you see all that shit Ivy gave her?”
Ivy had come over to drop off provisions for Evette. Three bags of what Ivy called necessities. I’d only seen the contents of one of them and it was filled with bottles. Evette looked pretty damn excited and thanked Ivy profusely. Shortly after that Ivy had left and Evette said she was taking a shower. All three bags had gone into the bedroom with her.
As far as what was wrong with me, I had no clue.
But an unease had settled in my gut.
So what if Evette had been out of my sight for an hour? I was acting like a goddamn crazy person.
I was acting like Owen.
The guy hadn’t been able to take his eyes off Natasha from the moment he wiped away the blood from her forehead back in Alaska. After that, he never stopped watching her. If Nat was near, Owen’s eyes were on her. But the man had been able to work. I couldn’t stop staring at a damn door long enough to get my thoughts together.
We had things to go over, plans to make. Yeah, that was why I was so anxious to see her.
It wasn’t because Evette had locked herself in the bedroom and I was jonesing to see her.
Nope.
It wasn’t that.
I settled back in the recliner deciding I was behaving like an idiot. I shifted my eyes away from the door and looked at Cooper Cain. He looked a lot like his brother Jaxon—same blue eyes, same height, only Cooper’s hair was a few shades darker than Jax’s. They also shared the intensity.
He’d only recently moved to Maryland from Tarzana, California, leaving behind a job Jax had always said his brother would never leave.
“How are you making out with the new house?” I asked.
“It’s a pit but the garage is finished,” he returned.
For years Jax had bragged about Cooper’s skills rebuilding engines and bodywork.
“When are you gonna invite us around so we can check out all these cars of yours?”
Coop’s posture stiffened and his right eye twitched—a movement I would’ve missed if I hadn’t been paying attention. Then as quickly as the discomfort came it went.
“You wanna see my cars?”
So it wasn’t discomfort. It was something else.
“And that surprises you, why?”
“Didn’t take you for a car guy.”
That was bullshit. He’d seen my Lexus LC500. Further, we’d had a conversation about why I’d purchased that car and the engine work that had to be done after the previous owner had blown the engine. He knew I did that work myself.
“There a reason you’re trying to bullshit me?”
A wide familiar smile appeared. Familiar in the sense I’d seen that same smile on his brother years before I’d met Cooper. The similarities were eerie as fuck. Watching Coop was like watching a younger version of Jax.
“Yep.”
“You care to share those reasons?”
“Nope.” Then the smile faded and he contradicted himself and went on, “If I shared, I’d have to explain what it’s like living in my big brother’s shadow. And that would make me sound like a pussy so I’d rather not discuss why I’m surprised you’d want to see my garage and how I’m trying to sort out if you’re doing that because you wanna get to know me or if you’re doing Jax a favor by welcoming me to the team.”