Ultimate Courage

by Piper J. Drake

  Rojas didn’t lean back or away from her, instead reaching forward to brush Elisa’s hand on the table with his fingertips. Hopefully, she’d take it as a comfort. Whoever this Julie was, she’d caught Elisa by surprise and the tension was becoming palpable.

  “I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch with my mother.” Elisa didn’t take her hand away from his, but she didn’t look at him, either. “But I did share my reservations about checking in with her.”

  Julie rolled her eyes. Hard. “Which is why we are all incredibly worried about you. Disappearing without any warning. Leaving your fiancé. Hopping all over the country over the last few months. You were under a lot of stress planning your wedding, and I really think taking all those pills was getting out of hand.”

  Rojas went cold. “Pills?”

  No. Absolutely not. If there was one hard line he had, it was abuse of those damned medications.

  “Oh? Don’t worry, they’re all prescribed medications.” Julie fluffed her hair. “Taking a couple a day is no big deal. I took a diazepam before I hopped on the flight over here. Couldn’t fly without it. But, really, it got to a point where every time we saw Elisa, her eyes were vacant and glazed. She was always bumping into something.”

  “I was depressed, not drugged. And I don’t bump into things more often than anyone else does. When I’ve gotten distracted, I’ve bumped into the front desk back at work even. You know this.” Elisa tried to turn her hand to catch his, but he withdrew it. “Joseph got the medications for me, but I wouldn’t take them.”

  He didn’t want to hear it. The words “prescribed” and “medication” echoed inside his head, and all he could think of was his late wife’s slurred voice yelling at him over the phone, telling him it was his fault she needed her pills. After all, he was never home, always out of communication when on missions. They’d never known exactly when he was leaving or when he’d be coming back.

  “Please.” Julie’s tone turned sarcastic. “You expect us to believe the way you changed, the way you were walking around like nothing around you was touching you, was because you were depressed? I don’t think so. Your mother was already talking to Joseph about maybe limiting those prescriptions. He said you insisted you needed them to cope.”

  Rojas stared at Elisa, hard. He’d told her about his late wife. She knew how he felt about those damned pills. “You should have told me.”

  Elisa’s eyes widened, hurt flashing, but he clamped down on the part of him that cared whether he hurt her or not.

  She set her jaw. “There’s nothing to tell. This is completely out of context.”

  Of course there wasn’t anything to tell. He didn’t want to listen to any lies. “No one with a drug problem thinks there’s actually a problem.”

  His wife hadn’t, right up until her problem killed her.

  Elisa’s breath left her in a whoosh, like he’d punched her in a gut. “You don’t believe me.”

  “I think the way a person reacts when they’re caught by surprise says a lot.” He snapped.

  He stood up abruptly, and Souze scrambled to his feet to join him. The woman, Julie, stood her ground just long enough to brush against him accidentally before taking a few steps back. “Oh, are you leaving?”

  He glared at the woman. “I think the two of you have some catching up to do.”

  She smiled, fluttering long fake eyelashes at him. “We do. But after she’s checked back in with her mother and her fiancé, maybe Elisa could introduce us properly and we could get to know each other.”

  Disgust filled him. Scavenger. “Pass.”

  Elisa came to her feet. “Alex. Please don’t leave.”

  He took a couple of steps away. Hell, he couldn’t even look at her. “I need to clear my head. Text me when you’re ready to head back.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, I have a rental car. I plan to take her to wherever she’s staying and help her pack up.” Julie brushed a hand down his back, and he stiffened. Souze growled. Her touch disappeared. “Elisa should really go back to where she belongs.”

  Red haze crept across his vision. Suddenly, the café was too crowded. Conversations, whispers going on around him left him vulnerable, exposed. There was no room to get clear and no place to take cover. He’d just get enough distance to cool down and she still had her phone. Rojas left before he exploded.

  * * *

  Elisa watched Alex leave, incredulous. He didn’t believe her.

  Julie, who was supposed to be her friend, let out a disgusted sigh and sat in Alex’s seat. “He’s got a crappy attitude. Where did you even find him?”

  Elisa closed her eyes. “Why are you here, Julie?”

  It didn’t make sense. Julie had been a friend since her last year in college. Elisa had shared everything with her about getting her first job, dating, even meeting Joseph. Julie had been excited for her through it all, supportive. But when Elisa began to see the reality of belonging to Joseph, Julie had been more inclined to make the same arguments as Elisa’s mother so the two of them had grown distant.

  Once Elisa had left, she sent Julie one e-mail to let her friend know she was okay, but she hadn’t been in contact since. Her being here made no sense. Her being in communication with Joseph was crazy.

  “I told you, your mother and your fiancé are worried about you.” Julie’s voice dripped with sweetness.

  It probably wasn’t worth noting that Julie hadn’t claimed to be concerned about Elisa’s well-being. Wouldn’t want to be struck down by lightning or anything.

  “My mother, I’d believe. Joseph wouldn’t be worried about me so much as concerned about what people would think when they found out I left him.” Elisa pulled out her purse. Hopefully she had enough cash to cover dinner so she could go after Alex. They needed to clear the air, at least, even if he was done with her. And he shouldn’t go walking through New Hope angry the way he was. She’d promised to help him tonight and she would, even if he was beyond angry with her.

  “See, I don’t understand why the fuck you would leave Joseph.” Julie leaned forward and took a spoonful of Elisa’s dessert. “He’s got money, influence, looks. He’s the full package. He had the most incredible house set up for you.”

  “A house surrounded by guard dogs as likely to keep me from leaving as keep anyone from coming in.” Elisa tasted bile as she thought about it.

  “Obviously, you don’t mind dogs.” Julie waved a spoon in the general direction of where Alex and Souze had gone.

  Everyone had their own definition of what they were looking for. Elisa had been happy exploring the connection she shared with Alex, but it wasn’t until he’d walked away, believing awful things about her, that she realized how much his opinion mattered to her. The absence of his trust left her aching, hollow. Worse, she was angry. Betrayed. He could’ve at least listened to her. But like everyone else, including the former friend sitting across the table from her, he hadn’t.

  “You have no concept of the difference.” Elisa glared at Julie. “You didn’t understand when I tried to explain why Joseph wasn’t the right partner for me in the first place, and I don’t expect you to now. But I’m assuming he told you how to find me. Didn’t you stop to wonder how he knew? Or how incredibly insane his behavior has been, chasing me from state to state across the entire country?”

  Julie sighed. “You don’t appreciate the attention people give you. You never did. I don’t see how you even deserve it.”

  Elisa waved at the waiter and mouthed a request for the bill. She couldn’t just leave without paying for dinner, and she was starting to be afraid Alex wouldn’t come back. If he didn’t, she wasn’t sure what she’d do but she definitely wanted the chance to talk this through with him.

  The mix of anger and fear churned her stomach. Part of her wanted to stand up for herself and the other wanted to beg him to realize he’d been misled. And, honestly, she had a right to both emotions at the moment. She embraced that at least and figured she’d untangle the whole mess once sh
e talked to him. It could fix things or they might be broken past mending, but at the very least, with Alex she wanted understanding.

  “I don’t think you’re done with dessert yet.” Julie took another spoonful. “Or at least I’m not. Is this any way to treat a friend who’s flown across the country to find you?”

  Elisa glared at her. “I don’t even understand you. But let’s get this clear. We are not friends.”

  “No need to find the waiter, dear.” A voice come from over her shoulder, and her heart stopped. “I’ve already taken care of the bill. You can have another bite of dessert, but then we have to be going.”

  Elisa turned in her chair but the newcomer was standing so close, she couldn’t rise without stepping right into him. “Joseph.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Rojas wasn’t even sure how many turns he’d taken down the side streets leading away from New Hope’s main street. He’d barely had the presence of mind when he’d gotten clear of the crowded café to turn left and head away from River Road. That was where most of the evening’s foot traffic was and that was exactly where he didn’t want to be.

  God, he was so angry. It’d taken several blocks before he could think at all.

  Elisa should really go back to where she belongs.

  Maybe Julie, whoever she was, was right. He’d known Elisa for all of a week. Okay, a week and a day. They’d never run a background check on her, only taken her at her word. She’d played them all for suckers. Played him. The others only followed his lead.

  As he walked, Souze kept pace. The big dog had liked Elisa, though, and Boom would be heartbroken when Rojas returned to tell her she couldn’t spend time with Elisa anymore. It’d rip him up to hurt Boom, but he absolutely would not expose her to another adult abusing drugs or indulging in any destructive addiction. Boom had lost her mother. She didn’t need to start caring about another woman who’d progressively destroy herself.

  Elisa’s face rose up in his memory, the look of hurt in her eyes when she realized he didn’t believe her.

  He drew a hard line with addiction. He wouldn’t, couldn’t get sucked into another life and expose Boom to it all again. He’d have to talk to Forte. Find a new administrative assistant and maybe help Elisa get a new job, assuming she didn’t leave town. Her friend had come to help her pack, after all.

  Something about his line of thought bugged him, though. He was pissed, too angry to run through it again for another couple of minutes. And then he came to a stop and cursed.

  Forte would hate having to get a new admin assistant. And whoever it was would need to figure out Elisa’s organizational system and the spreadsheets she’d set up. They’d need the computer skills to keep up the newsletters and update the websites. In the space of a week, Elisa had overhauled the way Hope’s Crossing Kennels did business, for the better. The clients loved the new check-in process and were relieved not to have to fill out the same forms by hand every time they came to a class. It was seriously possible they were getting more return clients because Elisa had made checking in so much easier. She’d changed the kennels.

  And if she had proven herself and those skills, didn’t that indicate a certain level of honesty? Integrity?

  His phone buzzed in his pocket and he answered without looking to see who the caller was. “Elisa?”

  “No, man.” Cruz’s voice came through the phone. “Isn’t she with you?”

  Rojas swallowed another curse. “Long story. What did you need?”

  “I got information back on the agency behind the private investigator you spooked last week and those two out-of-town cops.” Cruz was tense, worried. “The agency specializes in discreet services. High-level executives contract with the agency and the agency hires the actual resources to go and carry out the dirty work. If anything backfires, there’s a degree of separation so the executives can keep their hands clean. Plausible deniability or some shit.”

  “Sounds in line with what Elisa told us about her ex.” Rojas considered his own words. Elisa hadn’t done or said anything yet to deserve having her word questioned.

  “Yeah well, you didn’t exactly make great friends with those two officers. I’d be more worried about them than the PI. For the PI it wasn’t anything personal. He took his contract money and went on his way. He was local staffing and has plenty of business chasing adulterous spouses.” Cruz sounded disgusted. “The officers, though, we’ve got positive ID on them based on the security feed from Revolution MMA. They’re out of Richmond, Virginia, and were off-duty on vacation when they happened to stop by.”

  “Long way out of their way for a visit.” Rojas didn’t like the sound of it.

  “Yeah, Ky didn’t like it, either. He’s going to take it internal.” Cruz didn’t sound sad about it.

  “As long as they don’t come back, I’m okay with that.” Rojas had plenty to worry about as it was. “What else is on your mind?”

  Because Cruz hated talking on the phone as much as he did and his friend was lingering.

  “This is a shit-ton of effort and resources to track down one woman.” Cruz let the air out of his lungs in a whoosh. “This is beyond early stalker behavior. He doesn’t just want to keep tabs on her. It’s escalating in an insanely short period of time and all signs point to him wanting to have her back in his hands ASAP.”

  A cold knot started to gather in Rojas’s stomach. “Is there more information?”

  “I did some digging and called in a favor or two. This guy is a textbook narcissist. I’d bet megalomania isn’t far off the mark, either. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself and it shows in his business.” Cruz’s voice turned grim. “Corbin Systems contracts services to several private military organizations. Everything on the record is too clean to believe.”

  Meaning there had to be shady shit going on behind the scenes, just as Elisa had told them. Rojas didn’t like where this was going.

  Cruz continued, “The CIO himself has been on a couple of discreet news releases as heading up a massive two-year project on some new weapons system design and integration. So there’s Elisa’s story confirmed. But here’s the catch. Phase one of the project just completed, and he is on the brink of closing a huge deal for phase two. It’s enough to take up the time of five heavy-hitting project managers. Why is this guy splitting his focus between the project and Elisa?”

  A good question. “She’s an obsession.”

  He could sort of relate to that. He’d thought of little besides Elisa since the night he’d met her, Boom being the number one exception.

  “True. But why not be satisfied with knowing exactly where she is and what she’s doing? Why not be satisfied with occasionally messing up her head with the texts? Why escalate right now when focus is needed on this huge business deal?” Cruz’s questions all hit hard.

  “He needs her. In person.”

  “Didn’t Elisa say he took her everywhere with him? And she’s his biometric key, right?”

  “Yes.” Rojas barely choked out the affirmative.

  “This guy has high security at almost all of his facilities. The research and development plants all require fingerprint and retinal scan.” Cruz picked up momentum. “If you wanted to breach any of those security systems, who is the first person you’d grab?”

  “Him.” Easy choice. The man probably had access to everything.

  “Uh-uh.” Cruz was starting to sound very worried. “He hasn’t taken a tour of the facilities in six months or more. It’s mentioned in the a few speculative articles regarding the upcoming deal.”

  Six months. Because Joseph Corbin Junior couldn’t access his own facilities. Elisa wasn’t with him. It was her fingerprint and retinal scan that were required.

  “No.” Rojas shook his head, searching for holes in the theory. “They’re his companies. He could have the systems re-keyed. There’s always a password reset, even for biometrics.”

  “For access to the facilities, yes.” Cruz shot back, ready for the challeng
e. “But he’s been able to keep tabs on her all this time. He knew where to find his key when he really needed it. But what if his pride and his obsession push him to go get his property, especially with phase two of his particular pet project about to be finalized?”

  “Shit.” Cold spread through Rojas’s chest and out toward his limbs. “And this time it’s different. He’s losing control of her. He doesn’t know where she is all the time.”

  “He’s on a time crunch now,” Cruz finished.

  Her friend had walked in and pushed a button for him. And he’d completely gone ballistic. But it was too damned convenient for the woman to have found them away from Hope’s Crossing Kennels, in a restaurant in a completely different town.

  He turned on his heel and started back, cursing himself as he went. Souze kept with him watchful in response to the sudden urgency. “Get a hold of Ky. I think there’s a problem. Tell him to head to New Hope.”

  “You need me and Forte?”

  “Stand by,” Rojas responded. “I’d appreciate it if you could keep an eye on Boom for me.”

  “Always.”

  Rojas ended the call and started running back to the café.

  * * *

  Joseph leaned in, grabbed Elisa’s arm just above the elbow, and whispered in her ear. “Continue to make a scene and I will be forced to create a distraction. A horrible accident, perhaps. It would be terrible for business if a random driver were to lose control of their car and drive directly into the dining room. People could be hurt. The business would have difficulty recovering. You would be responsible.”

  His lips brushed the shell of her ear as he spoke, and she trembled. He’d do it. She wouldn’t doubt him there. And he probably had a driver waiting outside because in all the time she’d been with him, he’d always had a driver and a backup mode of transportation ready in case something happened to the primary. Flat tires, bad traffic—Joseph had always been prepared to do what it took to get where he was going.