by Kaylea Cross
Ella swallowed, her eyes going blurry. She’d wondered sometimes, wondered what she’d done wrong when she was a baby to make him leave. That maybe she’d been a bad baby and wouldn’t stop crying or something.
She blinked fast, trying to force the tears back. “It’s okay,” she whispered, even though it wasn’t. But she didn’t want to upset him. She liked him and wanted him to like her too.
“It’s not,” he said, “but thank you. And I’m glad you got to meet me now, instead of back then. Back then you wouldn’t have liked me much, but now you might.”
Even though she’d just met him she could hear the slight teasing note in his voice. She looked up at him, shared a little smile.
After that, the rest of the visit was easy. She asked more questions about baby Eddie and Alex, asked about their dog Sammy and told him all about Walter and Bruce, and how she had wanted a dog for as long as she could remember but now she wanted Bruce more than anything. Cats were easier to take care of anyway.
“It’s four o’clock,” Miss Lindsay said with a soft smile. “Time to go, Ella.”
“Oh.” She didn’t want to, but she knew her mom would worry if they didn’t get home soon. Ella couldn’t wait to tell her and Mac all about the visit. Well, maybe she’d just tell Mac. She didn’t want to upset her mom.
She stood, then stopped and held out a hand to her father, because it was good manners to shake hands when you met someone. “It was nice to meet you.”
He grinned and shook her hand. “Very nice to meet you, Ella. What do you think, would you like to meet up for lunch or something again next time I’m in town? Maybe we could talk on the phone if you want, too. Whatever you’re comfortable with. You can talk it over with your mom first.”
“That sounds good.” Better than good. She had a dad. Not the same kind of dad as most kids had, and she didn’t love him the same way she loved Mac or even Mr. Beckett, but he was her dad and no one could change that.
She couldn’t wait to tell the kids at school about this on Monday.
She said goodbye to him and Miss Poppy and held Miss Lindsay’s hand on the way out of Whale’s Tale, feeling like she had swallowed a bite of sunshine. She was all warm inside, and happy. As soon as she told Mac everything, she would go see Bruce and Walter and tell them all about her dad too.
“Let’s get you home, Ella,” Miss Lindsay said.
“Okay. I want to tell Mac everything.”
“Is Mac that man who was on the porch with your mom?”
“Yes. His house was damaged in the earthquake, so he’s staying with us.” She was about to say he was her mom’s boyfriend, but she wasn’t sure so she didn’t say anything, just in case.
But she really, really hoped Mac would be her mom’s boyfriend, because she wanted Mac to be her real dad. The one she lived with and saw every day. The one she talked to and asked about tricky math questions.
Mac listened to her. He paid attention. Didn’t just brush her off like her mom’s other boyfriends had, only being nice to her in front of her mom.
If Mac was her dad, he would never leave her and her mom.
In the back of the car she buckled her seatbelt and took out her calligraphy book to read on the drive home. Mac probably wasn’t very good at calligraphy but she’d bet her mom was. Her mom could do lots of cool things.
“Okay, I’ll drive you straight home then,” Miss Lindsay said as she pulled out onto the street.
Ella didn’t pay much attention to where they were, she was too busy reading the instructions on how to make the letters for her name.
“Ella?”
“Hmm?” She looked up, realized Miss Lindsay was waiting for an answer to something. They weren’t on Front Street anymore. There were no more shops and she couldn’t see the ocean, just trees and the occasional house. They were close to her house. “I didn’t hear you. Pardon?”
“I said I’ll talk to your mom for a few minutes and then—”
Ella gasped when something slammed into the back of their car. The seatbelt jerked hard against her shoulder. The calligraphy book shot from her fingers.
“Oh my God,” Miss Lindsay cried, and turned the wheel.
They skidded. Ella tensed, grabbing for the door handle as the car spun. Her head jerked sideways, a cry ripping from her as something hit them a second time.
Tires squealed. Ella froze and held on as they spun faster, afraid to move, her gaze shooting to the window beside her at the car that had hit them.
A swarm of hot, angry bees poured into her stomach when she saw the driver’s face through the back window. A scary face that she sometimes still saw when she had bad dreams at night.
Brian.
Chapter Eighteen
Gotcha.
The elation pumping through his system almost made Brian dizzy, penetrating the fog of all the booze he’d consumed.
This was it. After almost two fucking days living in his car, unable to leave, trapped like a rat in a maze because of blocked roads and the possibility that the cops were looking for him.
He’d started to worry about whether he’d ever get out of here to start his new life. That he’d be apprehended again and have to spend the rest of his life in prison. That he’d die there.
But now she would pay.
Everything had changed when the woman had come to pick Ella up a little while ago. As soon as the car had started backing out of the driveway, he’d known what he had to do. He’d raced back through the woods to his car and made it to the intersection on the opposite side just as she turned off Salt Spray Lane.
Now all his patience had paid off.
He would catch Ella, and wait for Tiana to come for her. Then he could kill her. Or both of them.
Wait, maybe he’d kill Ella in front of Tiana first, make her watch, so he could drink in her pain and use it to live on if he was locked up for the rest of his life.
His breathing was erratic as he jumped out of his car and raced for the other vehicle, riding the biggest high of his life. He’d never felt a rush like this, and it wasn’t merely the alcohol in his bloodstream. Not even when he’d been forced to satisfy his urges when they became too strong.
No. This was powerful. Vindication and vengeance all in one.
The front end of the car Ella had been riding in was crumpled where it had plowed into the telephone pole. He could see the deployed airbag in the front. The driver was pushing at it. And in the back…
A pair of huge blue eyes stared out at him through the rear window.
He latched onto that terrified gaze, adrenaline punching through his veins, giving him an added burst of speed. There were a few people around, watching from down the sidewalk behind him, but he didn’t care.
A fresh wave of rage swamped him when he thought of how his life had fallen apart while everyone else’s just went on as normal. He couldn’t stand that Tiana would get away with doing this to him. He wanted to hurt her. Hurt her as much as he could, and that meant taking Ella.
It was the little bitch’s fault, after all. If she’d kept her stupid mouth shut, none of this would have happened. Well, now he would show her what the real meaning of suffering was.
An engine raced behind him, then tires screeched. He didn’t slow, didn’t look around, all his focus on Ella. The soles of his shoes pounded over the pavement, his elevated breathing loud in his ears.
In the backseat Ella spun around, leaned over and quickly pushed down the locks. As if that would save her.
He laughed and grabbed the front passenger door handle before she could lock it and wrenched it open. Ella screamed and scrambled into the back to cower against the door.
“Don’t!” the female driver cried, appearing dazed as she tried to climb over the console to block him.
Brian punched her in the face, the satisfying crack of knuckles against bone singing up his arm. Her head snapped back and she lay still, moaning.
Drawing back his arm, he locked gazes with Ella, feeling as if he
was floating. “You’re mine,” he snarled, and lunged between the front seats to grab her.
She yanked the lock up and pushed the door open at the same moment he reached for her. His fingers closed around the back of her hood. She cried out and wriggled out of the hoodie before he could grab her, slid out and darted onto the road.
Brian bellowed in rage and followed, propelling his body through the open door as she reached the opposite sidewalk. “You little bitch.” He tore after her, caught her around the waist and clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her shrieks.
She fought him like a wet cat, biting and clawing but he crushed her to him and turned for his car.
“Let her go, you bastard!”
The enraged male voice had barely registered when a heavy weight slammed into him from behind. He lost his grip on Ella as he fell, the breath momentarily whooshing from his lungs as he hit the ground. Fire streaked over the side of his face, knees and palms as he skidded over the pavement.
Strong hands grabbed his shoulders and flipped him over. He blinked up into Evan’s incensed face just as a fist came hurtling toward his nose.
He turned his head just in time and slammed his hands out, knocking Evan off him. The other man fell on his side but grabbed Brian again, dragging him down once more.
Brian let loose with a flurry of punches, absorbing the blows he got in return, barely feeling the pain. Evan wasn’t going to stop him. Ella was his, and both she and Tiana would pay for what they’d done to him. For what was going to happen to him.
He drove his fist into Evan’s gut, making the other man double over with a pained grunt. Brian scrambled to his hands and knees, narrowly avoiding Evan’s hand as it swept out, trying to trip him.
“You bastard, leave her the fuck alone,” Evan rasped.
Brian didn’t answer. He shoved to his feet, already searching for Ella, his heart jackhammering against his ribs. People would have called the cops by now. He was running out of time.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught the flash of her pink shirt and blond ponytail just as she disappeared around the corner up ahead.
Swearing, he raced for his car, hopped in and gunned it. “No way, little girl,” he panted, steely determination driving back the fear and uncertainty eating its way through the alcoholic haze. He’d already come this far. He had to see this all the way through.
He had this one last chance to even the score, and he was taking it. “You’re mine,” he repeated, speeding after his target.
****
“We didn’t get very far, did we?” Aidan said with a smirk as Tiana settled beside him on Beckett and Sierra’s couch.
“No, but you’re right, I needed to get out of the house and this way I’ve got company to distract me.”
He gave her an affronted look. “And what am I? I’m not capable of distracting you?”
Her heart softened, fluttered. She smiled. “You’re lethal at it. But in a different way.”
“Sure I can’t get you guys anything else to eat?” Sierra asked as she came in from the kitchen to hand Tiana a glass of white wine and placed a platter of cheese and crackers on the coffee table.
“No, this is perfect, thanks,” Tiana said. It was only when Sierra’s sharp eyes moved between her and Aidan and settled on her with an unspoken question that Tiana realized she was pressed up against his side.
Busted.
She gave Sierra a tiny smile and received one in turn, but her friend was way too classy to say anything in front of Aidan. Tiana expected to be fully grilled later, first by just Sierra, then again later in front of her, Poppy and Molly. She didn’t mind. Aside from Lizzie, these women had become her closest friends. “Where’s Walter?”
“Beckett took him out for a walk. Old guy usually hates walks, but it’s better than being surrogate mom to the kittens, I guess, because he seems happy enough to get out of here now.”
“You talking about Beckett or the dog?” Aidan asked.
“Funny,” Sierra deadpanned.
They stayed and visited for a while. They helped feed the growing kittens some wet food and Tiana kept checking her watch. How was it that time could move so slowly sometimes?
“Are you leaning toward letting Ella have Bruce, or what?” Sierra asked her.
“Leaning. Haven’t quite made up my mind, though.”
“I hope you’ll let her have him. She’s been an amazing help and she loves him to death.” Sierra covered a yawn for the third time in ten minutes.
Tiana nudged Aidan. “Well, we should get going,” she said to Sierra. “Aidan promised me a walk on the beach before Ella got back, to clear my head.”
“Aye, I did,” he agreed, and pulled her up off the couch.
“Are you really wanting a walk on the beach? Or did you change your mind about a different kind of distraction?” he asked as they walked up the lane together a minute later, bouncing his eyebrows.
She laughed. “I’m tempted. But I think we should take a walk.”
“All right.” He laced his long fingers through hers, tugged her closer to him. “Letting the anticipation build will only make you want me more later.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Pretty sure of yourself.”
“Aye.” He shot her a charming, sexy grin. “I know exactly where all your sweet spots are now.”
Yes, he certainly did. And the thought of him putting that expertise to good use later sent a flood of heat spearing between her thighs.
Determined not to let her worry about Ella spoil the afternoon, she tipped her head back and closed her eyes. “That sunshine feels so good,” she murmured. Opening her eyes a moment later, she was startled to find him staring at her with such longing that her pulse tripped. “What?”
“You’re so damn beautiful,” he said with a slight shake of his head.
Blood rushed to her cheeks. “I—thank you,” she said, barely stopping herself from brushing off the compliment. Was this real? Could she actually trust her feelings and instincts this time? Or did she only feel this way because it was new, and because he was leaving in another two weeks?
She stopped walking and faced him, the question nagging at her. They’d both been hurt before. Had both gone through their share of heartache. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course you can.”
Her heart picked up speed. “This…thing between us,” she began, unable to put a definition on it. “I’ve never felt anything like it. Have you?” She held her breath, awaiting his answer.
Heat and possessiveness filled his eyes, building the want inside her. “Never.” He raised their joined hands to his lips, pressed a lingering kiss to the back of hers, his gaze on hers.
A smile spread over her face, his admission lowering the walls around her battle-scarred heart. “Ever?”
He shook his head, his lips still on her hand. “Not ever.” He lowered her hand and cupped the back of her head with his other, bringing his mouth down on hers.
Her eyes closed as need shot through her, as intense as this crazy, stunning chemistry and deep connection between them.
Her cell phone started ringing.
She broke away, scrambling to pull it from her front pocket, expecting to find Aidan’s number on the display. But it wasn’t Ella calling.
“What’s wrong?” Aidan asked.
She stared at the screen, torn. “It’s Evan.” Should she answer? Did this mean the meeting had gone well, or badly?
Does it matter? He’s probably going to be part of Ella’s life now, whether you like it or not. It’ll be much easier on everyone if you can be a grown up and put your own feelings aside for Ella’s sake.
Taking a steadying breath, she answered. “Evan. How did it go?”
“Tiana.”
The sharp edge of fear in his voice ripped through her like a lightning bolt, making her heart lurch. “What? What’s the matter?”
“Brian’s after her. He must have been watching us.”
All the bl
ood drained from her face. “What?” she whispered.
Frowning in concern, Aidan took hold of her shoulder.
“Jesus, he chased after the liaison’s car,” Evan continued. “I followed him but he crashed into them—”
“What?”
“—and tried to drag Ella from the car. She got away and I tackled him, but he broke free and chased after her.”
The world tilted on its axis. Aidan grabbed her, his expression and voice urgent. “What is it?” he demanded.
“Did you call 911?” Tiana demanded, too focused on what Evan had said to answer Aidan.
“Yes, the cops are on their way. Shit, I—I lost sight of her.”
Her mind raced. “Where are you?” she demanded, icy panic raking over her skin.
“Cedar Ridge Drive, about two blocks off Front Street. Last I saw, she was running west toward the water.”
“I gotta go,” she rasped out, her heart in her mouth. “Call me if you find her.”
“Wait—”
She hung up, wanting to scream, her heart threatening to explode. “Brian attacked Ella,” she blurted out. “He’s chasing her. She’s on foot, maybe coming this way.”
Aidan’s jaw set. “She’s got my phone. We can track her using my phone.” He snagged her phone, grabbed her hand and started running up the lane.
“Who are you calling?” she said, on the verge of tears.
He didn’t answer, her phone pressed to his ear, his expression grim and determined. “I need you to trace my phone,” he said to whoever answered. “Ella’s in trouble. We need to get to her before Brian does.”
Chapter Nineteen
He was getting closer.
The breath sawed in and out of Ella’s lungs as she ran, her leg muscles burning and her heart slamming so hard against her ribs it hurt. She could still hear Brian behind her, chasing after her through the woods like a hungry bear.
No matter what, she couldn’t let him catch her. She’d seen that terrible look on his face when he’d tried to grab her in the car. If he caught her, he would hurt her. She knew it.
