Desperate (Cunningham Security Series Book 3)

by A. K. Evans

  Apparently, I was seeing the error of my ways because my bad luck was making an appearance once again.

  I woke up a little earlier this morning so that I could make a quick stop at the diner for breakfast on the go. I hadn’t had an opportunity to go grocery shopping. I hadn’t felt up to going during my day off from school during the week, so planned to do it on Sunday. And I would have gone on Sunday, but I had to spend Sunday doing schoolwork. Schoolwork that I would have usually completed on Saturday. That didn’t happen when Kendall and Jojo ended up changing plans on me last minute and my time with them ended up being much longer than I had originally anticipated.

  When I made my plan to stop at the diner this morning, I accounted for a little extra time so that I’d be able to chat for a few extra minutes with my old co-workers, which is precisely what I did. I also managed to fulfill my promise to George because he was also at the diner this morning. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stay long and ended up leaving before I’d even gotten my breakfast. Even still, I was happy that I had the chance to see him, even though it was brief, and I’d had such a great morning catching up with everyone else. Of course, I was now regretting that because when I went back out to the parking lot, my car wouldn’t start.

  I couldn’t be late for work.

  I also couldn’t go back into the diner and ask for a ride.

  They were right in the middle of the breakfast rush and one of the waiters had called out this morning. There was no way they’d survive the rush with another staff member down, even if only for thirty minutes.

  The bus stop was right down the road. I wasn’t the best with distances, but I didn’t think it was more than a mile away. I could walk to the bus. It was bitterly cold, but I didn’t have any other choice. I grabbed my things out of the car, locked it, and took off.

  About ten minutes into my walk, I was frozen and ready to cry. I wasn’t going to make it to work on time. I needed to call and let them know, so I dug my phone out of my pocket.

  Just as I was about to dial the number, I heard a man’s voice call, “Ekko?”

  I looked up to see a familiar face looking at me from the truck pulled up alongside the curb. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the name of the man and my face must have made that fact known.

  “It’s Pierce,” he reminded me.

  “Right, I’m so sorry. Hi Pierce.” He was one of Dom’s co-workers. One who had been there the day I had my standoff with Ryan.

  “What are you doing walking out here in this weather?”

  I looked down the road to where I needed to go. “I was just at the diner and my car won’t start. I’m walking to the bus stop because I need to get to work on time, but I’m going to be late anyway.”

  “The bus stop is at least another mile down the road, so I’d say that’s an accurate assumption. Hop in,” he urged.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Get in the truck. I’ll take you back to your car so we can see what’s wrong with it. If it’s not fixable, I’ll give you a ride to work.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to do that.”

  “I do,” he corrected me. “Because if Dom finds out that I knew you were walking out here in the cold and didn’t make sure you were taken care of, he’d kick my ass. Please help me out and get in the truck so I don’t have to end up in a fist fight today.”

  Evidently, Dom hadn’t shared the news of our breakup with his co-workers. I didn’t want to break the news to Pierce that it wasn’t likely Dom would fight him, so I simply rounded the front of his truck and climbed in.

  “Thank you,” I offered.

  Pierce noticed I was shivering, turned the heat to full blast, and began driving back toward the diner. When he pulled into the lot and pulled up next to my car, he ordered, “Give me your keys so I can check it out. Stay here and warm up.”

  I felt bad that he’d be out in the cold for me, but had a feeling he wouldn’t be swayed. In addition, I didn’t want to be the reason he ended up getting to work late as well, so I handed the keys over.

  While I tried to regain the feeling in my feet, hands, and face, Pierce inspected my car. A few moments later, he was opening the door to his truck and popping his own hood.

  “Your battery is dead,” he declared. “I’ll jump you and you should be good.”

  “That’s about the best news I’ve heard in quite some time,” I practically cried as I put my hand to the door handle to get out.

  “Don’t even think about it. Stay where you are until I get it fired up and we get some heat in that car.”

  I stayed put and waited while Pierce ran jumper cables from his truck’s working battery to my car’s dead one. He got in on the driver’s side of my car and the next thing I knew it fired up. Relief swept through me. I didn’t really have the time or the money to deal with car troubles.

  After unhooking the cables and closing the hoods, Pierce climbed back in his truck.

  “You should be good to go now. Your lights weren’t left on, so there’s a draw on the battery somewhere. As soon as you can, especially if it’s been a while since it’s been replaced, you should get a new one in there.”

  “You’re a lifesaver, Pierce. Thank you so much for helping me.”

  “It’s not a problem.”

  “Is there anything I can do to thank you?”

  He shook his head. “Actually, yes. If you have any more car trouble, don’t go out walking in this weather. We’ve got a nasty storm coming tonight. If you need help, call someone.”

  I gave him a nod and replied, “I will.”

  At that, I moved to get out of the truck. When I opened the door, Pierce called out, “Ekko?”

  I turned back to look at him and answered, “Yeah?”

  “He misses you,” he stated and paused a moment. “I know it’s not my business and it’s probably not my place to get involved, but he’s my friend. I hate seeing him so upset because it’s just not who he is. I’ve never seen him like he is now. Dom’s always been one to roll with the punches and not let things get to him. You’ve gotten to him, sweetheart.”

  I was wrong. Clearly, Dom had shared what happened between us.

  “It’s not that easy, Pierce.”

  He threw his hands up and said, “I know. I’m not going to pretend to understand what’s going on. I just thought you should know that if you’re having any doubts or regrets about your decision, you should call him. He loves you, misses you like crazy, and will do anything to make it right for the both of you.”

  I was going to cry if I didn’t get out of his truck. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I promised even though I knew that there were some things that couldn’t be fixed. I was broken and, no matter how much he might have wanted to, Dom couldn’t make this better.

  Pierce gave me a friendly smile and a nod.

  “Thanks again.”

  With that, I got out of the truck and hopped into my car. Then, I took off to work and arrived only two minutes late. I explained what happened and found that nobody was even remotely upset with me.

  Throughout the day, particularly during the downtime, I found my thoughts drifting to the words Pierce said to me that morning. In my haste to free Dom from a life of struggle if we ended up together for the long-term, I never really took the time to consider how it would affect him now.

  And it seemed that everyone around us believed I was making a huge mistake. When I took the time to think about it, I had to seriously consider that they couldn’t all be wrong. I couldn’t deny that there was a lot of love between the two of us, even if I hadn’t had the chance to tell him how much I loved him.

  My mind took me back to my conversation with Kate and how she had said that I needed to let Dom decide what he was or was not prepared to go through. I not only took his choice about it away from him, but I also took me away from him. If I hadn’t seen Pierce today, I wouldn’t have known just how much our separation was hurting Dom.

  The thought scared me, but I realized I needed
to do the right thing and give Dom the truth. What he decided to do with the information would be his choice and I’d have to trust that if he wanted to try to work things out between us that he would be doing it because he loved me and not because he felt obligated. I also had to be prepared for the fact that I could tell him the truth and he might not want to stick it out with me.

  My day at work flew by and it wasn’t long before I was walking out the front door to head to school. As I walked to my car, I pulled out my phone. I found Dom’s name, tapped on the screen to call him, and waited as it rang. I ended up getting his voicemail.

  “Hey Dom, it’s me,” I began. “Listen, I know we haven’t spoken in a while, but I was hoping we could talk. I made a mistake and I just want the chance to apologize to you and explain myself. I don’t know what will happen between us once I tell you the truth, but I’m prepared for whatever that is. I guess if you could give me a call when you get this, I’d really appreciate it. I’m leaving work now to go to school, but I was thinking maybe you could either stop over tonight or sometime this weekend so we can talk. I can come to you as well. I know there’s that snowstorm coming later tonight, so I promise to be quick about it if you can make it tonight. Please just call me. I really want the chance to explain and I hope you’ll be gracious enough to give that to me…even if I really don’t deserve that from you right now. I’m sorry for—”

  Before I had a chance to finish my sentence, my phone was pulled from my hand and an arm wrapped around my waist. I twisted my neck to look and see who was behind me, but the man’s face was covered. The only thing I could see was his familiar eyes.

  “George!” I shouted. “What are you doing?”

  “He needs to know what it feels like,” George seethed as he began pulling me away from my car.

  “Who? George, please, let me go!”

  I struggled against him, but even for an older man, he was too strong for me. I had no idea what was happening or with whom George was angry. All I knew was that he was not the sweet man that had been one of my regulars at the diner or the man who stopped into the library just to see my pretty face as he put it.

  Despite my fight, George got me in the back of his car. I crawled across the seat and tried to get out the opposite side, but the door was locked. He must have put the child safety locks on because I couldn’t get it open. Just as I turned my body to crawl up into the front so I could get out that way, I realized I wasn’t alone in the car. Another man I didn’t know sat in the front seat with a gun pointed at me. I immediately froze.

  “Sit back and behave or I’ll put a bullet in you,” he threatened.

  George got in the car and I sat there terrified, realizing that this was, by far, the worst bout of bad luck I’d ever had. Bad luck of epic proportions.

  And while it might have been the oddest thing to think about, all that was running through my mind was that I never got to tell Dom how much I loved him.

  My brain felt so muddled over the last several days, I sometimes didn’t know if I was coming or going. For starters, it was one day shy of three weeks since I’d seen or spoken to Ekko in person. I wanted, more than anything, to go after her and fight for us, but I still had no idea what battle I was fighting. Sadly, I couldn’t even begin to figure that out either.

  The case at work had taken on a life of its own. I still did not have the final piece of the puzzle and I had been spending my days recently trying to narrow down the homeowners. Most of them were either young families or elderly couples. Nothing stood out to me as odd and their names weren’t familiar.

  I knew that my tolerance for just about anything right now was lacking. Normally, a case like this would bother me, but the unresolved situation with Ekko made it worse.

  I missed her so much. As each day passed and I didn’t see her face or hear her voice, I became more and more agitated. The guys at work knew what was happening and they did their best not to get in my way. I hated that I’d become that guy and I knew that if something didn’t give soon, I was going to lose my mind.

  It was approaching the end of the normal business day on Friday and I was still no closer to having any answers. Realizing that I’d been spending countless hours on this case lately, I decided it might be a good idea for me to head out early and take a break from it for a few hours.

  I went back to the break room, grabbed a bottle of water, and started walking back to my office to get my phone and my keys when I saw Levi walking toward me with Pierce. Levi was carrying an envelope.

  We walked into Levi’s office instead as he explained, “I was just about to head out and I found this outside on your truck.”

  I took the envelope from him and tore it open. When I pulled the final piece of the puzzle out, the back of it was facing me. There was an entire message on that single piece.

  Now it’s your turn to see what that feels like.

  I flipped over the piece and my heart began racing. As I had suspected, my house was in the picture, but that wasn’t the problem. This picture was of Ekko and me standing outside next to her car. The picture had to have been taken from sometime between her birthday and Thanksgiving. She had her arms around my waist and was smiling as she looked up at me.

  “What does it say?” Pierce asked.

  I handed the piece over to him and he read it as Levi looked on.

  “The other pieces said, ‘You took everything from me’ and this says, ‘Now it’s your turn to see what that feels like.’”

  “You’ve got to make sure she’s alright,” Levi suggested.

  “I’ve got to go,” I stated as I started walking out of his office.

  “I saw her today,” Pierce chimed in.

  I stopped in my tracks and turned toward him. “What?”

  He gave me a few nods before he explained, “I was on my way into the office this morning and I saw her walking by the diner. Turns out her battery died on her car and she was planning to walk to the bus stop so she could get to work.”

  “The bus stop is nearly two miles down the road from the diner!” I declared, even though Levi and Pierce already knew it. “Why wouldn’t she call me? Was she okay?”

  “Yeah. She was shivering when she first got in my truck, though. I made her sit in the truck to warm up while I took care of her car and jumped the battery.”

  I closed my eyes and dropped my head, trying to process the information that Pierce had just given me. What was going on with her? Ekko was in trouble and needed help and she never reached out to me. Instead, she risked her safety and thought that walking in below freezing temperatures was a better choice.

  “Thank you for taking care of her.”

  Pierce shook his head and insisted, “It was no problem. Really.”

  “I’ve got to go check on her. Until I figure this case out, I’m going to see if I can convince her to move back in with me. Something tells me that it’s not going to be easy.”

  “If you need anything, Dom, just let us know. And if moving into your place isn’t an option for her, she’s welcome to stay with Elle and me,” Levi offered.

  “Thanks. Hopefully it won’t come to that.”

  I walked out of Levi’s office and back into my own. I grabbed my keys and phone off my desk. The display on my phone lit up when my finger bumped it and I saw that I had a missed call and a voicemail.

  Ekko had called me.

  For three weeks, I’d been hoping she’d call. The moment she did, I missed it.

  I tried to call her right back, but her phone went right to voicemail. She had school today and while it was still too early for class to start, maybe she shut the phone off ahead of time.

  I decided not to leave a message. Instead, I went to my voicemail to listen to the one she left. The second I heard her voice, my heart began racing. I felt alive again. Ekko wanted to get together with me and explain why she ended things. She made it sound like there was a possibility of reconciling. I was so caught up in the first part of her message that I nearl
y missed out on the second part of it.

  “Please just call me. I really want the chance to explain and I hope you’ll be gracious enough to give that to me…even if I really don’t deserve that from you right now. I’m sorry for…George…What are you doing?”

  My body was on alert as I listened to Ekko’s voice get farther and farther away. I heard a man, who I assumed must have been George, say, “He needs to know what it feels like.”

  Then, just barely, I could make out words from her terrified voice.

  “Who? George…please. Let me go.”

  I listened until the message ended and only heard Ekko’s screams before the line went dead. I ran out of my office yelling for Pierce and Levi as I took off toward Trent’s office. Thankfully, he hadn’t left work yet.

  “You’ve got to get me the camera footage for the Windsor Public Library now,” I demanded. “Ekko’s in trouble.”

  “What’s going on Dom?” Levi asked.

  “Someone named George has Ekko,” I explained. “She left me a voicemail just a few minutes ago as she was leaving work.”

  I played the end of the message for them.

  They looked at me in horror. “I’ll grab De Luca and Locke since they’re still here. We’ll go through the files and see if we can find someone named George in them,” Pierce announced.

  “You’ve got to get that camera footage,” I pleaded with Trent.

  “I’m close, man. Just a few more seconds.”

  “Fuck, Levi. What am I going to do if he hurts her?” I asked as I began pacing in Trent’s office feeling my rage build.

  “She’s a fighter, Dom. You know that better than anyone. We’ll find her. She’s going to be alright.”