by V. Hunter
I waited to make sure Tomas and Garret got out first, then I climbed out and went around to the other side of the SUV to help the girls out. Brooke took my offered hand to help climb down, but when it was Sofia's turn she jumped out the second the door opened. Being out in the real world seemed to bring out a whole new energy in her.
She bounded towards the building, grabbing Brooke's hand to drag her along.
Tomas went ahead of them while Garrett stayed back to walk in with me. There were already several guys waiting inside, another stipulation of our trip. They'd arrived earlier to check the place out and put in safety precautions the best they could. I did consider taking Brooke up on the suggestion of having the place closed down for only us, but Tomas talked me out of it.
Apparently, that defeated the whole purpose of trying to spend time with Brooke outside of the confines of the house.
Damn him and that logic.
By the time I stepped inside, Brooke and Sofia were already sitting on either side of a booth. As I got close, Brooke looked up at me and patted the spot next to her on the bench seat. I slid in next to her and tried to relax but it felt like a big fucking deal to be sitting down to a family style meal. The dynamic felt nothing like our first awkward dinner attempt.
Sofia talked a mile a minute about all the things she loved about the kitschy pizza place. I struggled to keep up with her rapid monologue, so much so that it was a relief when a waitress turned up to take our orders.
As soon as she stepped away, Sofia turned pleading eyes towards me.
"Can I please, please, please go play that?" She pointed to an old Pac-Man arcade machine in the back corner.
"Of course you can," Brooke answered for me.
I was about to say no. I'm sure Brooke probably realized that, too. It was hard to kick the instinct to hover over Sofia as a means of keeping her safe. Reluctantly, I dug into my pocket for a handful of change and handed it over to Sofia, who was still patiently waiting for confirmation from me.
She might idolize Brooke, but I was relieved she still respected me enough to let me have a say. Not that I really had one anyway. I couldn't go against Brooke's decision without looking like a real asshole to the both of them.
"Have fun," I forced out, trying to ignore my unease.
I didn't miss the look of surprise in Sofia's eyes when I didn't object. Apparently, she thought of me as a real ogre. My eyes tracked her across the floor as she ran towards the retro game. Brooke nudged me and motioned for me to let her out of the booth.
"I can go with her," she offered.
I shook my head and angled my body more towards her. "No, it's okay. Tomas will keep an eye on her." I needed to trust him to do his job. Otherwise, the whole day would be a wash for trying to get closer to Brooke.
Sofia was only a few dozen feet away with three of my biggest security guys watching her. She really couldn't be any safer.
"I'm glad you agreed to this, Jairo. Sofia needed this."
"I didn't just do it for her." I traced up her jaw and over her cheek with my fingertips and she leaned into my touch.
"I know," Brooke said. “And I needed this, too."
I let my fingers slide around her neck and pulled her to me for a kiss. She came easily to me, but after the kiss her eyes darted nervously over my shoulder.
"You probably shouldn't do that," she said. "Sofia might see and it will only confuse her."
"Confuse Sofia... or confuse you?" I asked.
Brooke sighed and leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder as she scooted closer. I put my arm around her and inhaled the scent of the shampoo she'd been using. I wanted to remember every detail in case memories ended up being the only thing I got to keep of her if she decided to leave.
"I don't want to be your prisoner," she said softly.
"You wouldn't be," I vowed.
I was desperate to give her anything she wanted if it meant she would stay. I didn't need her to be my prisoner, I just needed her to stay. We could figure the rest of it out. I wouldn't deny her anything that made her happy
"Brooke, I'll agree to anything you want if you'll just stay. Not because I'm making you—but because you want to." I stroked her hair back gently, trying to read the expression on her face for any hint of what she was thinking.
"I'll think about it," she answered eventually.
It wasn't the answer I was looking for, but it was better than having her outright refuse. If she was willing to think about it, I still had time to convince her. She seemed content enough to not be going anywhere just yet. At least time was still on my side.
I held her close until our pizza came and Sofia came running back.
Even then, I held her hand under the table all through dinner. She didn't try to pull away, either. She wrapped her fingers tight around mine like she needed the physical contact just as much as I did.
I hoped like hell that was true.
Despite my concerns, the entire evening passed with absolutely no problems. No one bothered us at all and I finally managed to fully relax and let my guys be the ones on high-alert. It felt nice to cut loose with Brooke and Sofia, not having to feel like the villain in my own story for once. I was almost sorry when we returned home.
Almost.
"I want to reward you for today," Brooke whispered in my ear as the three of us went upstairs.
I barely held back a groan. Her words held a promise I was more than happy to collect on, especially since there was nothing hotter than Brooke being the one to initiate things. I'd learned that awfully quick after her little blowjob stunt. I wondered if a repeat performance might be in order.
We put Sofia to bed together before heading towards the master bedroom hand-in-hand. I let her step in and front of me and turned to close the door. Before I could, Tomas stepped out of the office with a grim look on his face. Brooke noticed him, too, and stepped closer to lean against me. Her hand fisted my shirt like she wanted to hold me there. She seemed to already understand I was going to have to leave again.
"I just got a call," Tomas said, his face giving away too much. It had to be bad for him to not make any effort to hide his concern in front of Brooke. I could feel her worried eyes looking at me so I squeezed her tight with a reassurance I had no right to give.
"Sleep in my bed," I told her with a quick kiss to the lips. "I'll join you as soon as I get this taken care of."
"Promise?" she asked in a quiet voice.
We both knew I couldn't.
22
Brooke
“We have to go!” an urgent voice barked near my ear.
“Hmm?” I sleepily struggled to untangle myself from the covers so I could sit up. My hazy brain couldn’t make sense of the voice.
“Brooke?” Sofia called my name nervously.
Now, that voice woke me right up.
My eyes burst open to find Sofia standing next to Cooke.
“What’s going on?” I asked, noticing their panicked expressions.
“We have to get out of here now,” Cooke said, helping to drag the covers down out of my way.
I was thankful I ended up putting pajamas on instead of climbing into bed naked. I rubbed my eyes and stood, still trying to make sense of things. Jairo was supposed to join me in bed after he took care of things, that was what he'd said. But his side of the bed was empty and clearly hadn't been slept in. I stared at the empty spot for a beat too long.
“Where’s Jairo?”
Cooke shook his head and glanced at Sofia in a universal sign that he couldn’t say in front of her. My stomach flipped as my knees nearly buckled. It was bad. It had to be really bad if he couldn’t tell me with Sofia there.
But Sofia was a very perceptive girl. When I asked about Jairo, her eyes had dropped straight to the ground. She didn’t know the details, but she could tell something major was wrong.
Now that I was fully awake, I could hear an alarm going off in the distance. It sounded far enough away to not be coming from insi
de the house, but since nothing else was close, I knew it had to be coming from somewhere on the property.
Nausea nearly overtook me, but I reminded myself I needed to make sure Sofia was okay. If she saw me fall apart she wouldn’t be far behind. We couldn’t do that at the moment. I needed a second to breathe and to think, but there was too much happening at once.
I needed my phone. Did I know where Jairo was keeping it? I racked my brain but couldn’t think of a single clue of where it might be. His office, probably? But I was sure his drawers would be locked. How hard would those be to break into? Probably not easy considering my lack of experience with breaking-and-entering.
“Brooke, please, we can’t stay here any longer.” Cooke threw a quick look over his shoulder like he thought the worst of the danger might pop up behind him at any moment.
I could hear chaos in the rest of the house, too.
“Okay,” I said, grabbing Sofia and pulling her towards me. I needed to keep her close. I had no way of knowing what would happen to her if Jairo was… gone for good, but at least for the moment I could make sure she was taken care of.
“This way,” Cooke instructed, leading us into the next room.
It was another bedroom. I looked at him in confusion as he pried open a window and waved us over. It wasn’t until I peeked out that I realized there was a fire escape. I hadn’t noticed it because it sat on the side of the house that was hidden by the garage from the front.
I helped Sofia out onto the metal landing first, then followed closely behind her. Cooke went last, pulling the window closed behind us.
When we reached the ground safely, he pushed me forward towards the side of the garage, propelling me into motion. There was a car waiting there for us, one of Jairo’s SUVs. Cooke opened the back door just long enough for Sofia and I to jump in. Then he slammed it shut and hopped into the driver’s seat.
Adrenaline made my heart beat so fast that I could barely hear myself think. I ducked low in my seat and made Sofia do the same, but peeked out over the ledge of the window to try to see what was going on. Cooke pulled out of there so fast everything turned into a blur.
I thought I heard someone yell as we pulled out past the front gates, but by the time I turned to look we were already too far away to tell. I put my hand over my chest to try to steady myself.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“There’s a safe house a little ways away, we’ll go there to wait.”
Jairo never mentioned a safe house. “Wait for what?”
“Safety,” he mumbled, sounding surprisingly irritated as he answered what amounted to a simple question. It was also much more vague an answer than I was expecting. I wished Jairo or Tomas were there. They both always tried to give me clear answers and I needed that comfort as I anxiously waited for whatever would happen next.
Several cars whipped past us going so fast that our SUV shook in the wind they created. I counted at least three of them headed in the direction of the house. They were SUVs just like the one we were in.
My gut told me something wasn’t right.
I sat up a little bit straighter and took a good look at the man in the driver’s seat. Cooke had been serving us meals ever since I arrived, but he didn’t seem to be a core member of Jairo’s team. Why would he be the one taking us to the safe house?
He wouldn’t, I realized with a start.
Oh god, no.
I had a flashback to the night on the porch when Jairo warned me I should only leave the house with Tomas or the feds. How the hell had I forgotten about that? In the chaos of everything going on back at the house, I didn’t stop to second-guess what Cooke was telling me to do.
Now that was all I could do.
There was something else nagging the back of my mind, too…
Cooke glanced quickly at the arm on his watch, giving me a good view of it, too. His watch. I’d seen it before. Not the band which was plain black like any old watch, but the clock face. The design was unusual, which was exactly why I recognized it immediately.
If I thought I felt sick before, it was nothing compared to how I felt at the realization that Cooke was wearing the exact same watch as Barron Duffey.
It couldn’t be a coincidence.
What had Jairo said about the governor? He hadn’t acted like he was a fan, I remembered that much. And Jairo was a good guy. Regardless of what went on behind the scenes of his business stuff, I couldn’t picture him being buddied up with someone like Barron.
“Do you know where Tomas is?” I asked, hoping that maybe Cooke would say something to reassure me that I was jumping to the wrong conclusions.
His answer was short. “No.”
There it was, then, confirmation that Cooke was not one of the good guys. Everyone reported to Tomas. If something happened to him, everyone would know. If he gave an order, Cooke would have been able to say that.
Tomas didn’t send him.
That meant Jairo didn’t send him.
We weren’t safe, and we would only be less safe the further away we got from the house.
I scanned the SUV for something to use as a weapon but the car was completely clear. I could feel anxiety trying to overtake me as I realized how dangerous a situation we were in. We had no way to contact anyone and there was no way to know how quickly anyone would realize who we were with.
I couldn’t fathom what Cooke planned on doing with us, but if it had something to do with Barron, then I knew it couldn’t be anything good. I had to keep Sofia safe.
Think. And more importantly, think quick.
We didn’t have much longer before we would reach town. There was nowhere to turn off before that, but once we reached town he could plan to take us in any direction. I only had that long to figure something out before our situation would get immeasurably more difficult.
I glanced over at Sofia. She seemed just as upset as she was back at the house, but no more so. That was good. I didn’t want her to pick up on my growing panic and end up drawing attention to it from Cooke.
He didn’t seem to notice the epiphany I was currently having in the backseat.
As if he sensed me attention on him, Cooke’s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. I forced my best impression of a grateful smile. I needed him to think everything was going smoothly. The less suspicious he was, the better.
He looked excessively relieved as he turned his eyes back to the road.
Sofia was looking between the front seats at the road ahead of us. I took advantage of both of them being distracted and soundlessly unclipped my seatbelt.
Trees lined either side of the road. I stared out the window for any sign of landmarks, something that would be familiar enough to let me know how far along the road we were. I paid close attention on the drive in and when we left the night before for dinner. Years of family camping trips made it so that I knew the importance of tracking my location.
When we passed a huge tree that looked like it had been split by a storm, I knew exactly where we were. Up ahead, there was a steep hill that would force the SUV to slow on the incline.
I looked up front and was satisfied that Cooke's full attention was still on the road.
I reached over to Sofia and tapped her arm softly so I wouldn't startle her. When she looked over at me, I carefully held up a finger to my lips and was unbelievably relieved when she went wide-eyed and nodded. I silently unbuckled her seatbelt like I had my own.
Cooke glanced in the rearview mirror and I froze, horrified that I hadn't been quiet enough. His eyes didn't even land on us. He was only checking behind him. Probably to make sure no one was following. I let a quiet breath out as I watched more of the scenery pass us by. I saw the dead patch of grass out in a field where it looked like someone had held a bonfire at some point.
We were getting close.
I tucked my arm behind Sofia and edged her closer to me so that she was pressed fully into my side. I was glad I'd put her in the middle when we got into the car be
cause it would make what was about to come next go much easier.
The nose of the SUV went up as the tires hit the beginning of the hill. I counted to three, squeezed Sofia tighter, and yanked the door open.
There was no time for Cooke to react as Sofia and I went tumbling out of the backseat. I fell with my shoulder to the ground as I rolled to keep Sofia safe. The fall sent a sharp shooting pain from my wrist to my shoulder but I couldn't let myself think about it. If Cooke caught up to us, a broken arm would be the least of my worries.
"Run," I said, half-dragging Sofia into the tree-line beside the road.
I could hear Cooke cursing as he stumbled out of the car to follow us. He was a bigger guy, not exactly fit, and I could only hope that would give us some small advantage.
I wasn't sure running into the woods was safe, but it was the only option we had.
Sofia and I both struggled for our feet to gain purchase as we attempted to make our way down the decline through the trees. It had rained recently, so the woods were covered in a slippery mud that made it near impossible for us to maintain any real speed. Running wasn't a sustainable option. We needed to be able to hide.
My eyes darted nervously around as we continued to move, hoping that I might see something that could give us cover. I couldn't risk looking back to see how far away Cooke was, but from the sounds of it we would have mere seconds to hide if we found something. I could hear him huffing and puffing as he continued to chase after us.
"Brooke," Sofia said in a hoarse whisper. "Look."
She pointed towards a cave in the side of the hill that we were moving towards. It looked pretty deep, the mouth of it shrouded in darkness only a foot or two in. I kept hold of her hand as I turned us slightly towards it.
"Please work," I prayed under my breath.
We were running out of options and we couldn't keep scrambling away indefinitely. The idea of crawling into a dark cave gave me the creeps, but not as much as the idea of whatever Cooke might have in store for us.
As we reached the mouth of the cave, I dragged Sofia down with me so we could crawl in on our hands and knees. We stayed pressed together side-by-side, an unspoken agreement not to separate. The further in, the lower the top of the cave got. I had to army crawl the rest of the way, doing my best to ignore all the things I could feel touching my bare skin as my pajama shirt rode up.
