Cease Fire

by Janie Crouch

  “No, you’re not making a mistake. I want to go. I will make sure nothing happens to her.” There was no one else Roman would trust with the job.

  Andrea nodded. “That I believe. Or at least believe that you believe it.”

  “Good. Because it’s true.”

  “Keira might not think she needs any help. She’s pretty independent,” Andrea said.

  Brandon chuckled. “That’s putting it mildly.”

  Andrea ignored her husband. “But despite what she says or how she acts, she’s not invincible.”

  “None of us are,” Roman said. “Believe me, I know that better than most. I won’t let her turn me away, Andrea.”

  “Good. Despite what anybody might think because of her past profession, Keira does not open herself up to people. I’ve never known her to date, never really known her to have a man around.”

  Roman didn’t judge her for being a dancer. It wasn’t illegal; she’d been an adult. If that was how she’d needed to make money, fine. He had no problem with it.

  “There’s something you need to know about Fresh Starts salon before you go out there,” Brandon said.

  “Keira started it with her own money. Bought it free and clear with the inheritance she came into when she turned twenty-five.” Andrea sat back down next to her husband on the conference room table. “Keira opened the salon and bought the entire building so that no one could ever take it from her. She uses it as a sort of shelter.”

  Roman almost did a double take. “You mean like a battered women’s shelter?”

  Andrea nodded. “Yes, exactly. She provides a home and sanctuary for women who are on the run or have been trafficked.”

  Brandon grasped his wife’s hand. “She uses the salon to teach the women a skill so they can support themselves. It’s smart. Staying at Fresh Starts isn’t a handout, it’s a complete change in these women’s lives.”

  Andrea smiled. “Sets their lives on an entirely new course.” She stood and took a couple steps closer to Roman. “Keira doesn’t talk about her past much. But she helped me live through a time of my life that I might never have survived without her. She opened Fresh Starts because it’s deeply personal to her. She seems so tough, so strong. But be gentle with her, okay?”

  Roman nodded, just hoping he could make up for the mistakes he’d made two months ago.

  Chapter Seven

  “Oh my gosh, Keira!” Annabel’s high-pitched voice carried easily across the room. “You totally could’ve been killed.”

  Keira swept the body of the large spider she’d just crushed into the dustpan. “I don’t think my life was in actual danger from this guy.”

  Annabel shuddered. “Well, you just make sure he’s completely dead before coming over here.”

  “Don’t worry, he’s dead.” This was one of the bad things about being the sole owner and proprietor of the Fresh Starts salon and the entire building. Anything that had to be taken care of—today it was spiders—had to be taken care of by Keira.

  “You know, they say that bad things happen in threes,” Annabel chirped, as she went back to the register and got it ready for the day’s work. She had been one of the first women to stay with Keira at the shelter. She’d been on the run from an abusive ex-boyfriend who couldn’t seem to take no for an answer. The woman was young and would be fine, Keira had no doubt. She’d become such an integral part of the salon in the last two months that neither of them were anxious for her to leave.

  Even if her nonstop chatter sometimes drove Keira crazy.

  The woman had short, spiky blond hair and piercings going up both ears from the bottom to the top, giving her a punk-rocker look. But her rebel appearance hid a kind heart.

  “You know you should put a raw steak or something on that black eye,” Annabel continued, barely taking a breath. “I know a thing or two about shiners, thank you very much, Michael.”

  Annabel stuck both middle fingers out in front of her toward an invisible Michael. Keira just laughed. She’d rather see a woman mad at her abuser than browbeaten by him, the way Annabel had been when she first arrived.

  Keira’s black eye wasn’t from the spider that had made its way into the corner of the salon, but from a predator of the two-legged kind who had decided to break into the salon in the middle of the night. A vandal intent on robbing or vandalizing or something equally as nefarious.

  Keira had heard the ruckus from her apartment upstairs and had rushed down to see what was going on. Blame it on sleeplessness or the terrible heartburn she’d had for the last week or just sheer stupidity, but she hadn’t thought someone was actually breaking in when she had made her way downstairs. And it probably hadn’t been the greatest idea to chase the intruder with a broom when she did realize someone was there. The absurdity of her plan became particularly apparent when she’d pursued the guy around the corner and he’d clocked her on the cheek as she followed him.

  Thankfully, he’d left. Maybe because by that time Annabel and the other women staying in the rooms upstairs had heard the commotion and made their way down. The cops had been called and definitely eliminated any possibility of getting sleep for the rest of the night.

  Which didn’t help Keira’s seemingly perpetual exhaustion these days. It was a lot of stress, running both a functioning salon and a shelter.

  When Keira had heard Annabel shrieking from the salon this morning, she’d feared the worst. And again, still not thinking very clearly, she’d rushed downstairs into what could’ve been another dangerous situation.

  Of course, to Annabel it had been the most dangerous situation. A spider. Granted, a pretty big spider, but maybe the shrieking wasn’t necessary after what had happened just hours before.

  “I think this is the third bad thing. If you count my phone getting stolen last week and the guy breaking in last night, and now the spider. That makes three.” Keira dumped the spider into the trash can and then went back to finish her opening duties.

  “But your phone was returned. So that doesn’t really count as a bad thing. So I’m just afraid that there’s going to be something else.” Annabel crossed her fingers in front of her as if to ward off evil spirits.

  “Let’s not invite trouble.” Keira shook her head, taking a sip of her coffee.

  Then Roman Weber walked through the door.

  And there was the third bad thing.

  They both stood staring at each other across the room. Not unlike what they had done at the wedding.

  Except things were much different now.

  How dare he just waltz into her salon looking all tall, dark and hot the way he always had? As if he hadn’t called her for two months.

  Okay, that wasn’t quite fair. He had texted her a couple times and she hadn’t responded. After what had happened with his family at the country club, she’d had no interest in pursuing anything further with him.

  Which was good, since he hadn’t made a single move. Even though that was what she’d wanted, it had stung a little.

  “Well, hello there,” Annabel said to Roman. “Do you have an appointment? If not, I’m sure we can find an opening for you. You’ve gotten here early enough to avoid the crowd. Smart thinking.”

  Roman tore his gaze away from Keira to look at Annabel. “No, I’m here to talk to Keira.” His eyes came back to hers. “It’s important.”

  He said the last part as if he expected her not to talk to him at all.

  Smart man.

  “What happened to your eye?” he asked, as he took a couple steps closer.

  “Oh my gosh. You won’t believe what happened last night...” Annabel started to tell the whole story, but Keira held out an arm to stop her.

  “I had a slight accident,” Keira responded. “It’s no big deal.”

  Annabel looked back and forth between her and Roman, finally realizing there was some history
here that she didn’t understand. Keira was just glad she didn’t launch into the story again.

  “Annabel, what’s my schedule for this morning?” she asked.

  Annabel rushed to the computer to look up the information. “Well, you have a client in about fifteen minutes, and after that you’re supposed to help Heather with some techniques. It’s a light day because of the storm coming.”

  Heather was one of the women staying in the apartments upstairs, along with her newborn daughter. A trafficking victim, she was just starting to learn some of the hair-care trade.

  “Okay, I’ll be in my office with Agent Weber. Please let me know when my client gets here.”

  If anything, Annabel’s eyes just got bigger. “Oh. My. Gosh.”

  Keira just rolled her eyes at Annabel’s words, not knowing if it was because he was in law enforcement or because he was so handsome. The other woman was nothing if not dramatic.

  Keira’s office wasn’t very big. She didn’t use it much, since both her work and her home were in the same building. It was really more of an extra supply closet that she turned into an office for situations just like this.

  Situations where an insanely hot guy she hadn’t seen in two months now had something “important” to tell her and might want to talk. Just what she had always envisioned this office for. She pointed to the one visitor’s chair in the room and sat at the chair behind her small desk.

  “I never expected to see you here again. Slumming?” Keira knew she was being unfair, but she didn’t care.

  Roman grimaced. “I never felt that way. Never. I don’t care what my mother said.”

  “You couldn’t seem to run away fast enough two months ago.”

  Roman’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not completely fair and you know it. I tried to call you and text you a couple of times. I never heard a single word from you after that day at the country club.”

  He was right; she couldn’t deny that. “Well, you didn’t really try very hard, did you?”

  Not that it would’ve mattered how hard he tried. Keira had had no intention of remaining involved with someone from a wealthy and powerful family like Roman’s. That had just been reinforced when she’d done a little research after that day and discovered that his father had once been in the Colorado General Assembly. His family was the very epitome of political power.

  She’d already had that relationship. Had the scars to go along with it.

  Keira pinched the bridge of her nose. “You know what? I’m sorry. Forget I said that. We had a good time for a week and then it ended, and let’s just leave it at that.”

  Roman pinned her with those ridiculous blue eyes of his. “I was an idiot two months ago. And you’re right, I didn’t try hard enough. But it had nothing to do with what my mom tried to insinuate.”

  Keira raised one eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? It didn’t bother you at all when she dropped the bomb that I used to be a stripper? Didn’t think that was going to taint your family name?”

  Roman shook his head. “I don’t care what you used to do. Everybody everywhere has something in their past that’s not their most shining moment.”

  “Oh, yeah? What if I consider my stripping to be my most shining moment?” She had no idea why she was egging him on. She just knew that his answers to these questions were important to her.

  Although she had no idea why. Their relationship was over. Done. She’d made peace with that.

  Even though she hadn’t stopped thinking about him for the last two months.

  He refused to get drawn into her obvious argument. She had to respect him for that. “If it was, then fine. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. My mom can say all that she wants about anything you’ve done, or anything I’ve done, or anything anybody has done. But it’s really none of her business.”

  “Well, that’s all water under the bridge now. Right?” Keira didn’t give him a chance to answer as she continued. “You said you were here because of something important.”

  He looked like he wanted to say more. More about that incredible week they’d had, that had been so much more than just a physical attraction. But she couldn’t allow him to do that. Couldn’t go back there and revisit those feelings. It was too dangerous.

  And it wasn’t why he was here. They both knew it.

  “Damien Freihof struck again. He killed—brutally murdered—Grace Parker, Omega’s psychiatrist, two nights ago.”

  Keira felt the blood leave her face. “Oh my gosh. I didn’t know the woman, but Andrea talked about her. She was one of the people who first saw Andrea’s potential for working at Omega Sector.”

  Roman nodded. “Trust me, Grace wasn’t loved just by Andrea. She helped me a great deal after the explosion. Was important to a lot of people.”

  “I’m really sorry, Roman.” Keira wished she hadn’t been trying to pick a fight earlier.

  He nodded at her. “That’s why I’m here. At the crime scene, Freihof left a clue leading to you. A business card from your old club with your name on it. We think you might be in danger.”

  “Me? Why would Freihof come after me? I’m not an Omega Sector agent.”

  “Freihof is targeting the loved ones of Omega Sector members. Instead of coming after the agents themselves, he’s trying to make us feel the pain he felt when his wife was killed.”

  “Was my card the only thing found at the crime scene?”

  “No. The team is still working their way through other artifacts Freihof left. But Brandon recognized yours right away.”

  “So what does Omega Sector want me to do?”

  Roman stood, as if his body couldn’t take being still in the chair any longer. “The very best thing you could do would be to go into a safe house until this is over.”

  “I can’t do that. I have responsibilities here, with the salon and other things.”

  Roman nodded. “I know. Andrea and Brandon filled me in about this place. About what you’re doing here. That’s incredible, Keira. Amazing.”

  Keira shrugged. She thought it was pretty awesome, too. Not because she thought highly of herself, but because she knew how important the work here was. “Thanks.”

  “Andrea and Brandon also told me that you’d be unwilling to leave. And I understand.”

  “Okay. Good. Because I really can’t leave.”

  “I would like to give you a tracker. I know that can seem like a little bit of an invasion of privacy, but if Omega knows where you are at all times, it’s a huge step toward keeping you safe.”

  Keira thought about that for a minute. Although she wasn’t thrilled, she could see the advantages. Besides, it wasn’t like she went anywhere secretive.

  “Okay.” She nodded. “I’m not necessarily enthused, but I can agree to it. Is that it?”

  “Yes, I’ll put it on your phone. I’m also going to put one on your car, if that’s okay.”

  She handed him her cell and watched as he slipped out the battery section and put in a small transmitter.

  Roman handed her back her phone, but she didn’t look him in the eyes. “We also want to leave some sort of protection detail here with you 24/7. Since you and I already know each other, Omega thought I’d be a good fit.”

  Keira stared at him. She couldn’t allow it. Couldn’t allow Roman to be around her all the time.

  “No.”

  “Keira, this is for your own safety. Freihof is not someone to be trifled with.”

  Right now Freihof didn’t worry Keira nearly as much as having Roman as a constant presence in her life did.

  “I don’t mind having the protection detail here. Just not you. Tell Omega to send somebody else.”

  Chapter Eight

  She couldn’t do it. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Roman to protect her, it was that she didn’t trust herself around him.

  What happen
ed two months ago had thrown her for a complete loop. The feelings she had allowed herself to have for him? Those didn’t come easily to her.

  And then to have them jerked away again, to find out that his family was just like Jonathan’s?

  No, she couldn’t afford to be around Roman all the time. She might end up alive at the end of it, unharmed by a psycho who was after her, but at what price? She wasn’t sure her mental or emotional health could take it.

  “Because of what happened between us?” Roman asked. “Look, Keira, I know I screwed up. And that’s on me. But this is important. I want to make sure you are safe.”

  Those blue eyes staring at her with such honest intensity. With such protectiveness. This was exactly why she couldn’t be around him.

  A tapping on the door saved her from having to come up with the words.

  “Um, Keira?” Annabel’s voice came through the door. “Summer Worrall, your ten o’clock appointment, is here.”

  “Summer, as in Ashton’s fiancée?” Roman asked.

  Keira nodded. “A lot of people associated with Omega come here for hairstyles. I have to go.”

  “We need to finish talking about this, Keira.” Roman shook his head. “I need to know you’re safe. I’m the best person for that.”

  “I...” Keira trailed off. “I can’t talk about it right now. I need some time to process everything.” To find the words to make Roman understand, without explaining everything.

  “Fine. I’ll wait out in the car while you have your appointments today and then we can talk about it.”

  “No. Don’t wait out in your car. You know that blizzard is coming in later this afternoon and the temperature has already dropped.” He would be miserable out there. “Just stay in here or in the reception area if you want to.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Is your punk rocker assistant going to chat at me the whole time if I stay out there?”

  Keira couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Oh, definitely. Annabel rarely stops talking, although I don’t know what I’d do without her around.”