“You’re lying.” My statement came out with bitter and bite as I dared him to contradict me.
“I wish I were,” Hugh said, sipping his tea. “They found him dead in the laundry room the morning after he told me about the ledger and gave me your name.”
I narrowed my eyes and shoved off the ground. “That’s convenient. He told you about me before he died. Are you sure you didn’t beat it out of him?”
“Wait….” Hugh set his fork down. “I didn’t have anything to do with his death, but I do think there might be some prison guards on the take. After they found him, I got sprung from jail, and it wasn’t long after that I was being followed by some of Victor’s guys. Apparently, the crime boss is desperate to get the money.”
“They think you know where the book is? Maybe you’re the one that brought trouble to my doorstep and not Teddy. If you’d just stayed away, they wouldn’t be looking for me.”
“Relax, Lizzie. They don’t know where I’m holed up,” Hugh said.
How did I know this guy wasn’t one of Victor’s guys and playing me from the start?
“I only allowed Teddy called me Lizzie. You can call me Honor.”
Chapter Seven
There comes a time in life when you can’t expect anyone to be your savior, instead, you have to save yourself. And that time was now.
“How do I know you aren’t one of Victor’s guys?”
He shrugged and kept eating. “You don’t. That’s the smartest question you’ve asked yet.” He chewed and swallowed, wiping the spaghetti sauce from his chin with the back of his hand, then lifted a fork in my direction. “Thinking like that just might keep you alive.”
Imposter or not, I didn’t trust him. If Teddy and this ledger detailing the laundered money were the only reason Hugh was sitting at my table eating my leftovers for tomorrow, then there was no reason not to give him what he was after. What did I care if he got his hands on the hypothetical ledger? It was stolen money, after all.
I dug my fingernails into my palms as anger stirred in my gut. The devil on my shoulder nudged a little deeper. Not giving this guy the ledger might just be the only thing keeping me alive, assuming I could actually find it.
“I’m going to go see if I have one of Teddy’s shirts packed up.”
“You need any help?” Hugh asked, wincing while trying to stand.
“Nope. You keep eating, and we’ll rewrap your wound when I’m done.”
Hugh eased back down into the chair. “He told me you were beautiful, but he didn’t tell me you had a kind soul.”
“I don’t,” I said, leaving him in the kitchen. I jogged upstairs and pulled down the ceiling stairs that led to the attic. Climbing up the steps, I paused inside the room overrun with cobwebs.
Boxes stacked on boxes were pressed against the wall. I might not be the most organized person, but I kept everything like a packrat, and it was probably good I did. Had I not and been angry at Teddy, I might have burned the ledger. The thought had crossed my mind to do that to all of his things, after discovering his betrayal.
Gram’s old rocking chair sat in the corner of the room. One of the wooden spindles were gone. I rubbed at the indention in the chair’s arm as I passed.
The chair had been well used over time, and the wear and tear called to me like a beacon.
Grams would know what to do. She always did.
In a perfect universe, the rehearsal dinner wouldn’t have been cancelled and I could have asked her how to handle all of this.
Lord knew she loved to give her opinions.
Next to the chair sat an old trunk that Grams had gifted to me long ago. I slid down to my knees and ran my finger over the design carved into the wood.
“She’s always had great taste.” I lifted the lid and smiled down at the satin and lace wedding gown stashed inside. I’d been the only sister growing up to even care about the gown. I’d begged Grams for years to have it so that when I found my guy, I could wear it down the aisle.
I’d been so naïve back then. Those days would never come.
Heat crept into my cheeks, remembering the day Teddy came home to find me wearing the dress with the zipper stuck. He’d thought I’d started planning a future wedding when he’d no desire to propose.
A smile split my lips. I’d looked like a crazy lunatic.
I moved on to a shoe box sitting beside the gown to find what I was looking for. The revolver that Grams had gifted me as my first gun. She was versatile that way. Giving each of us a present when we’d graduated and a gun before shipping us off to college. Protection and family mattered most to her, and she’d instilled the idea into each of us.
I shoved the gun into the waistband of my jeans and pulled the shirt over it, keeping it out of sight.
Closing the lid, I moved to the boxes and began my search for the elusive box with Teddy’s name. The one where all of the leftover things got thrown inside after most of his belongings had been moved out.
I pulled open the third to the last box and sighed in relief. Inside was a framed picture of Teddy and me. He’d claimed it was his favorite. We were both happy and smiling in the picture.
I ran my finger over his face. Not because I missed him but because the thought of him dead sat heavy on my heart. No matter his mistakes, he hadn’t deserved to die.
I pulled out a couple of shirts and a jacket and had set them aside when I felt the necklace box. I pulled it out and popped it open. Sitting inside on a bed of satin was a necklace he’d given to me on my twenty-fifth birthday a couple years ago. The beautiful locket pendant had a lighthouse etched into the piece. He claimed that, like the lighthouse, I was the light in his darkness.
Why hadn’t he trusted me with the truth? The anger I’d harbored over the last two years at his betrayal was now a gentle simmer.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Hugh asked from behind me.
“Sorry, I got lost in memories,” I said, slipping the necklace over my head and tucking it into my shirt before shutting the box. I picked up the clothes and rose, turning to face him. “I had a couple shirts and a jacket, but they smell like attic. Let me wash them for you.”
Hugh was in no hurry to leave. He lifted the lid on the ornate box my grandmother had given me.
“Was this your mother’s wedding dress?” he asked.
“My grandmother’s,” I corrected. I didn’t like that this stranger was getting personal and I hated that every time I looked at his tattoos, I wanted to trace them with my fingers. It was official. I was losing my mind, and this man needed to go.
I cleared my throat and toughened my resolve. Another couple of hours and Hugh would be gone like a bad memory. “I only had one of Teddy’s boxes up here. The rest are in storage. This box is just stuff I found after moving out all of his things.”
“The memories you didn’t want to see every day?” Hugh asked.
“Something like that,” I said, swallowing around the forming lump in my throat. I was having a hard time resolving the stranger in front of me as the man in my dreams. The magnetic pull from him was even stronger in person. He was a beautiful danger and I needed to keep my distance.
I started to head for the stairs when Hugh’s hand landed on my arm. He turned me to face him and lifted my chin with the crook of his finger. “He loved you very much.”
I shook my head. “Am I supposed to believe that he told the criminal he was sharing a cell with about his love life?”
Hugh’s gaze softened. “It wasn’t in his words. It was in the way he spoke about you. The look in his eye while remembering. He did love you, make no mistake about it.”
His words implied feelings I refused to entertain.
I stepped out of his hold, descended the stairs, and headed into the laundry room to move his jeans out of the dryer. I folded them before starting a new load of Teddy’s clothes.
Hugh appeared behind me. His arms trapped me against the machine, his words hot in my ear. “I promised to
keep you safe, even if that means from yourself.”
He removed the gun from beneath my shirt. His warm fingers touched my skin, and I held my breath as my heart hammered in my chest. I stilled myself from moving closer into the warmth of his touch like a moth to a flame.
He didn’t bother trying to hide his curiosity. He leaned over me, his nose in my hair and inhaled. “He said you smelled like sunny days on the beach, but I disagree. I think it’s more like a rainy lazy afternoon in bed.”
He reached for the folded jeans and stepped back. I hauled in a shaky breath.
I lowered my head, not ready to look him in the eye. What the hell did that say about me that a simple touch against my skin from a stranger had turned me on?
“I’ll put the gun under your mattress so you can reach it quickly. I can’t have you shooting your pretty little ass off.”
A string of curses left my lips as I followed Hugh up to my bedroom. A place where we shouldn’t be together. It was too dangerous. He was too seductive.
I stopped just inside the doorframe, fighting the urge to move closer and make good on those sexual dreams we’d once shared.
No, no, no. Not going to happen.
Hugh checked the chamber. “You have six shots. Don’t waste them.”
He slid the gun beneath the bed and glanced up at the windows. His lips twisted at the corners. “You sleep during the day?”
“I prefer it that way.”
He nodded and walked toward the door. “It’s better that you’re awake to fight the monsters at night.”
He had no idea what monsters I was hiding from. If he had, he would have kissed me in the laundry room. One kiss, and it would have sealed our fates for good. There wouldn’t have been any walking away, not for him and not from him. One kiss would have given me a taste that I’d compare all men against and crave even more.
One kiss like what we’d shared in my astral state and I’d be fighting for more than my life. I’d be fighting for my heart.
A slow shudder racked my body as Hugh left my room and headed for the bathroom. I plopped down onto my bed, thankful that I’d dodged that bullet.
Chapter Eight
Hugh
She was a promise that was going to be difficult to keep. Keeping her alive wasn’t going to be the hard part. Keeping his hands off of her was going to be the worst of it.
He’d lied.
She’d figure it out soon enough.
Anger rippled through his body. He’d thought it would be easier than this. Meet the woman, explain his needs, and get the ledger, regardless of whether she gave it willingly. He needed that book, and she was the only person standing in his way.
Hugh dropped the sheet and struggled to pull the jeans up with the bandaged bullet wound in his shoulder. He gritted through the pain, clenching his teeth with each painful tug.
Just another reason why he needed to keep his eyes on the prize.
He rested his hand on the bathroom counter and kept his head lowered while he tried to catch his breath and calm his thoughts of seducing her.
Teddy hadn’t lied when he said Honor was beautiful and feisty. Hugh could handle beautiful and feisty. All of her pulled to him like a seduction he wouldn’t be able to refuse.
She was a liability. Just like Teddy had warned.
Hugh could do this. He had less than twenty-four hours to get the ledger and get out of the girl’s life. Twenty-four hours or Honor would be dead like her ex.
“Are you all right in there? You haven’t keeled over and died, have you?” Honor called through the closed door.
“I’m fine.” He gusted out a hard breath.
“Pity,” he heard her say. Footsteps moved away from the door; the sound of her retreat punctuated by her mumbling.
A smile he hadn’t been expecting shifted on his lips. He liked her. He wasn’t immune to her charms like he’d promised he would be, and the only way that could end was in disaster.
Fifteen minutes later, Hugh pulled open the door and headed back into the living room. Honor was sitting on her sofa with a glass of wine next to her. Her head was propped in her hand, and her eyes were closed, her breathing steady and sure.
If Hugh could have picked her up and carried her to bed, he would have. Assuring her she was safe enough to fall asleep would be hard. So, he eased down into a chair and watched her until her arms turned boneless and she snuggled, resting her head against the couch cushion.
Goosebumps rose on her arms. Hugh grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch and rested it over her relaxed body.
The gloom from the storm-soaked sky outside would hopefully be enough to keep her asleep until the rain stopped and the sun returned. That time wouldn’t be quick enough.
When her little snores pierced the silent living room, Hugh rose from his seat and headed back upstairs into the attic. If the ledger was in the house, he’d find it.
The sooner, the better.
He bypassed most of the mess that Honor had left. The opened boxes helped in his search. She’d been telling the truth. There was one box that had a guy’s things inside. Teddy’s things, if the picture frame laying on top was any indication.
Hugh skimmed his finger over Honor’s face. Her gaze was so expressive, vibrant, and, dare he say, happy. Teddy had coaxed that smile out of her. It was evident in the way she was looking at him.
Hugh ignored the tightening in his chest and popped the back of the picture frame off and slid the picture out of the casing.
In the bottom corner was the code he needed, just like Teddy had promised. It should have been easy to guess. TeddyNLizzie4Ever.
It was easy to remember, yet Hugh folded the picture and shoved it inside his wallet. A memento of their brief time together.
He searched through the rest of the box, coming up empty. The ledger wasn’t in the box with the remnants of Teddy’s life. He could only hope it was among the other things Honor had packed away in storage.
Teddy hadn’t had a reason to lie. It had to be somewhere in Honor’s possession.
Hugh eased down the stairs, stopped in front of Honor’s bedroom, and stepped inside to double check it wasn’t hiding somewhere else beneath this roof.
He lifted the mattress. The gun was still beneath it. He moved to the drawers and pulled them open, rummaging through each of them. His fingers struck a hard cover beneath her lingerie. Hope soaring, he pulled it out, thinking he’d hit the jackpot, only to discover that it was Honor’s personal journal.
He snapped it closed and put it back before he continued to look through the room and in her closet. He pulled down shoeboxes as he went and checking everywhere he could think that someone would hide valuables. His last resort had been to check the vents, and he still came up empty-handed. His head hurt as bad as his shoulder, which was a searing flame of pain after his exertions.
Maybe Honor had been telling the truth. Teddy’s belongings were stashed away somewhere.
He needed to figure out where and get to them before Victor and his band of thugs beat him to prize.
Chapter Nine
I was taking a chance letting myself fall asleep on the couch. I knew it before my eyes ever slid closed.
I stood in my astral state, closely watching Hugh.
The way he was watching me from across the room.
The way he covered me with a blanket.
And then the way he searched my house. Without permission.
A guy like him probably figured it was easier to ask forgiveness. It was advertised in the way he carried himself and in the way he had no problems stealing my breath and making my heart beat out of my chest.
It was evident he was on a mission. He wouldn’t stop for anything until he found the ledger.
In my astral form, I observed as he rummaged through the attic and stole Teddy’s picture and then went through my room. I watched as he settled onto a chair in the living room and gazed out the window, his gun laying across his lap.
He was conc
erned for his safety, regardless of whether he was concerned for mine.
I played sleeping a bit longer, contemplating my options. I didn’t have many. Stay and help the stranger or leave.
The downpour outside would provide cover, even if it was stupid and dangerous. The water would cover my tracks. I used my astral projection to move across town. Floating over a vast darkness and through the city. Thanks to the storm, no lights to be found anywhere.
Mercy was standing at the window when I appeared behind her. She turned as if sensing me. Her eyes widened.
“What’s wrong?”
I glanced over my shoulder as if the sound I’d just heard was behind me.
“There is a stranger in my house who claims I’m in danger.”
“Get out at the first chance you get. I’ll call the police,” Mercy yelled as she reached for her phone and began to dial.
One look told me she didn’t have reception either.
“Mercy, he’s armed and hurt. He was shot by some mob types who are looking for me. He’s says he’s there to keep me safe.” I whispered.
“Honor, you get out now and head for our safe place.”
The safe place. I hadn’t thought of that location since I was ten and my parents had died. The safe place wasn’t far from where I was. Just a few miles into the woods. I could make it there.
I nodded and let my spirit be pulled back into my body like it was rubber band being snapped back into place. It was always jolting when it happened. My entire body tensed.
I peeked beneath my lashes and found myself alone in the living room. I strained to listen for a sign as to where Hugh was in the house, and then I heard the creak. The floorboard in my bathroom.
I sprang up from my spot and hurried to the closet, silently opening it. I grabbed my raincoat and slid it on. Picking up my cell phone, I shoved it into my shirt as I headed out the back door. I opened it and heard the familiar creak on the stairs.
Hugh was coming.
I left the door open and splashed into water that rose to my thighs. Arms spread for balance, I slogged through the new lake surrounding my house.
Train Wreck: Bennett Dynasty Book 6 Page 3
