Tayler walked over and planted her hands on either side of the chair he was sitting in. “Even though we’re essentially going to be followed by a Pinkerton guard, this will be my first taste of freedom in a while. I really need this, Gage.”
He stared into her eyes, which had already begun to recover some of the warmth they’d lost in North Carolina. He heard her words, understood her need, and knew that he would eventually have to give in if she was going to be happy. But it was still difficult to have her so far away from him when the chapter on the east coast was still wide open.
“Plus,” she leaned in and touched her lips to his, “you know I’m pretty handy with a gun, and that I can kick some ass.”
As she backed away, he scooped his hand behind her head and pulled her lips back to his, deepening what he knew she thought would be a simple kiss. With Tayler, it was never going to be a simple kiss. Her mouth tasted like a fruit ripening in season, and her lips against his were as soft as dandelion seeds. It made him wonder what it felt like for her to kiss him if she thought a peck would ever be sufficient to satisfy his thirst for her.
“I think that’s a ‘fine, I won’t fight you on it,’ ” Mo said, deepening her voice to mimic Gage’s.
“That was right on the money,” Tayler said, licking her lips and backing away.
“I don’t sound like that.” Gage glanced over at Mo. “Tell Giorgio not to fall too far back.”
“Really, Gage? It’s Giorgio,” Mo reminded him. When angry lines began to form in his forehead, she added, “But I’ll let him know what you’ve probably already told him several times anyway. Trust me, we’re two women shopping. He won’t want to get too close anyhow.”
“Since that’s settled, I’m going to grab a snack for the ride,” Tayler said, leaving the room.
Mo crossed over to where Gage was now standing.
“Keep your eyes open,” Gage cautioned.
“You really think this guy would travel all the way out here just to finish what he started?”
“I think a lot of things, Mo. Half of them are making me start to rethink not coming with you two today. But I know she needs this. I like seeing her happy. Plus I need some time to meet with Julien.”
Mo covered her mouth with both hands, and her eyes began to fill.
“Don’t start,” Gage warned.
“I can’t help it, Gage. I was so scared when you left. I thought I’d never see you again. Me and Mum spent hours on the phone crying and praying that you would come back to us in one piece. I’d like to think that maybe that’s what brought you to Tayler, and her to you.”
He pulled her to him while she regained her composure.
Back then he hadn’t been lucid enough to care that there’d still been aspects of life worth clinging onto. Nothing had been able to suture the gaping laceration the loss of his parents and brothers had left. He’d felt heartless. Yet, that day in Tayler’s office, she’d looked at him like no one had in a long time. She’d looked at him like a person. A person with worth. It had caused a slight hitch in his chest, which had alerted him that there’d been an organ beating there…one that he’d neglected for years.
“I’ll take care of her,” Mo said, stepping back and dabbing at her eyes. “Let me know what Julien says.”
“I will. And, thank you.”
Outside the door, Tayler leaned against the wall next to the door frame. She pressed her hands into her chest as though the pressure would slow her heartbeat. Her stomach muscles squeezed as her diaphragm rhythmically contracted in quick spurts. Even if denying her feelings for Gage was still an option, knowing that his cousin had seen her as the reason Gage was still alive today brought tears to her eyes.
“I stole one of those organic bars you had in your pantry,” she said, rounding the corner after her eyes dried. “Gage, I’ll see you for dinner?”
“You will,” he replied. “You do still owe me, especially since you’ve been known to ‘throw down in the kitchen.’ ”
One of Mo’s light eyebrows arched and Tayler shook her head. “I’ll explain it to you on the way.”
Gage walked them to the car and reiterated the directions to Giorgio who’d respectfully nodded even though Gage knew he was getting frustrated with being told the same thing over and over. He considered leaning into the back window in search of Tayler’s lips again, but figured that both Mo and Giorgio had grown tired of that too.
“Before we go,” Tayler called after him, “I noticed those bikes in the garage. When do you think I’ll get a chance to ride one?”
He couldn’t help himself. He leaned through the window and found her lips. Her hand brushed against the side of his face as she leaned into the kiss.
“We’ll see,” he answered.
She gave him a final peck before rolling up the window.
Once they were out of sight, he went inside to get ready for his meeting with Julien. Then he walked to the garage and stood in front of the three bikes that he currently owned. There was a red Diavel Titanium, a black Monster 1200 S Stripe, and a yellow Ninja. He wondered which color Tayler would pick as he contentedly grabbed the key for the Monster.
After having to deal with humidity and cold air in North Carolina, he readily sped off with the sun beating down on his bare forearms.
*****
Each time Tayler tried to walk past a store that she thought was too expensive, Mo would grab her by the shoulders and steer her inside. Although she did quite well for herself on a physician’s salary, she obviously didn’t do quite as well as Gage and his cousin. She was used to shopping in the department stores in New Orleans and Baltimore, and small, family-owned specialty shops in Yearwood. This mall, with its multiple-stories, trendy independent boutiques, and array of luxury model cars parked out front, screamed at her to turn the other way and go back home.
“What about this one?” Mo asked, holding up a dress that would have hit her a bit past mid-thigh. It was peach with draped sleeves, and it belted at the waist. At her lack of enthusiasm, Mo placed the dress back on the rack and snapped her fingers.
“I completely forgot that Gage said you liked long dresses.”
“Hold on, Gage said what?” Tayler asked, following her. “He told you that I like long dresses?”
“Was he wrong?”
“No, but you have to admit that you can’t just throw that into the conversation without giving me background first. If you’d said that Gage grunted or growled about something, that I could let slide, but not this.”
Mo chuckled and fished out a dress. This one was long with a high waist. It was unbelted and decorated in Aztec print. It was a dress that she would have easily picked herself.
“When we were talking about me taking you shopping, he just casually tossed in that you liked long dresses, so I should take you somewhere you can buy long dresses.”
Mo looked up and Tayler’s complexion had taken on an even more pronounced hue. “Confession?” Tayler asked, taking the dress and draping it over her arm while Mo continue to browse. “I overheard you and Gage talking this morning. He told me a little bit about the times that he goes dark and what happened with his family, but I noticed that he doesn’t have any pictures at his house. He doesn’t really talk about them either. There are times when I feel like he’s stepped into the shoes he wore before any of that happened, like when we went crab-hunting, but then he goes right back.”
Mo pulled out another dress, this one a plain yet bright yellow, and handed it to Tayler. “He took you crab-hunting?”
“Yeah. Is that…surprising?”
Mo pulled her phone out of her purse and checked the time. “Yes, it is. Let’s pay for these and then grab something to eat. He’s done more than I expected, but there’s a lot you still don’t know. It’s also a lot I believe he wants you to know.”
They went to the register and Mo stepped in front of her, handed over a credit card, and had the purchases paid for before Tayler even had a chance to pull out her wall
et. She then ignored Tayler’s shocked expression as they left the store and Giorgio, seated on a nearby bench, rose and tailed them.
They slipped into a restaurant and Giorgio took a seat at the bar, ensuring that he was in a position to see them. An assortment of inquisitive gazes landed on him as people walked past, no doubt recognizing something slightly out of place about the six-foot-plus, neck-length dark-haired Adonis wearing the black shirt, dark jeans, and scowl.
“Gage told me to take care of you, so I’m paying for lunch too,” Mo revealed. “And before you argue with me, pretend that I’m him and you’re trying to tell me that you’re going to have your own way.”
Tayler laughed and skimmed the lunch menu that their server had dropped off. “You’re too pretty to get your face to that level of angry-stubborn,” she replied.
To her surprise, Mo blushed. “Thanks, Tayler. But, you don’t think Gage is attractive?”
Tayler partially regretted that the server hadn’t yet arrived with their drinks. It would have given her a good excuse to cover up the real reason why she was choking.
“I take that as a yes,” Mo added, grinning.
“Let’s just say he’s more than easy on the eyes,” Tayler explained, clearing her throat. “And that’s just from the neck up.”
“And you love him.”
Tayler’s eyes widened. Her initial instinct was to deny it, but that suddenly seemed reckless. Being exposed to the fragility of life over the past several weeks had done a lot to warp her outlook on the future. It was now a glaring myth that thoughts such as, I’ll do it tomorrow, were guaranteed.
“Yes,” she confessed.
“Good.” Mo’s eyes fell to her menu. “He’ll need it.”
“Why is that good? And you’re not going to tell him, are you?”
“I would never tell him that you love him. It’ll be so much sweeter coming from you.” Mo leaned closer to the menu as if studying a dish when the lunch options were already pretty limited. “But, it’s good because when Gage’s parents and brothers were killed, I think it blocked his ability to see how much other people love him. I love him. My family loves him. But none of that mattered after his family died. He turned away from everything. He even suppresses his accent and hasn’t been back to Australia since.”
The server appeared with their drinks and gave them the complimentary, “Your food will be out shortly,” before sauntering off.
“You and your mother were afraid that he would do something to hurt himself?” Tayler asked.
“Trust me, Tayler, you would have thought the same thing if you’d seen him the two weeks leading up to when you found him.” Her eyes filled. “He was so low. He’d go from staying up for hours on end, to sending us all into a panic when we tried to wake him one morning and he didn’t stir because he’d crashed into an alcoholic coma. He wouldn’t eat. He wouldn’t shave. He wouldn’t shower. He wouldn’t leave the house. He drank heavily. Very heavily, and Gage barely drinks socially. He was just angry. It was as though all of the agony he’d been showing throughout the years took those two weeks to express themselves at their worst, back-to-back, without him ever returning to the Gage everyone knew.”
Tayler’s throat tightened.
“When you found him, how did he look?” Mo asked.
“Exactly like you described. Unkempt. Desolate. Reeked of alcohol.”
“Why did you help him?”
“At first, it was because of my profession. You know, do no harm. But then as I was kneeling next to him, he asked me to let him die. And the craziest part was that he was smiling when he asked. That moment spoke to something inside of me and somehow, I knew that I had to save him. Somehow, I just knew that what he was asking had come from somewhere painful and distorted that he could be pulled from.”
Their orders arrived and were placed in front of them. Neither acknowledged the food. Mo was busy studying Tayler’s eyes as though, in them, she could see Gage lying in front of Tayler asking for death. Tayler’s attention was directed behind Mo’s head and slightly off to the left as she came to grips with the fact that the man she’d just confessed to loving had wanted to die. It was impossible to now think of him with the reserved feelings she’d possessed that night. She could no longer remember what not loving him had felt like.
“Call me a kook if you want to, but you two meeting that night was preordained,” Mo spoke up.
“It was a lucky coincidence,” Tayler attempted to justify.
“Fate is never coincidence, Tayler. Gage laughed this morning as though there’d never been a time in his life when he’d stopped. When I started to cry, he hugged me as though it hasn’t been years since that’s happened. The only thing that saves us from darkness is light, and you’re his light. The reason he’s working so hard to save you, whether he realizes it or not, is because you saved him.”
Tayler felt her heart again, thumping wildly against her ribcage as though it had a not-so-secret death wish. Gage wouldn’t be the first man she’d ever confessed to loving as there’d been a couple of men before him what seemed like eons ago. But he would be the first man she’d ever found herself falling in love with. Now, all she wanted was to go back home to him. Her skin, without his touch, felt foreign.
“You’re ready to go back, aren’t you?” Mo asked.
Tayler finally looked down at her plate. She barely registered the wrap on the green porcelain staring up at her, and hardly remembered what was in it.
“Yes, but not yet. There’s a place we passed that I’d like to check out. But, I have one condition. I’d like to use my own money.”
Mo squinted at her as she thought over her request, and then brought a spoonful of minestrone to her lips. “Fine. Just this once.”
Tayler smiled and finally bit into her wrap. If it had a flavor, she had no idea what it was. Her brain had allocated all of its energy to the prospect of seeing Gage again.
*****
After having to meet Julien in places ranging from makeshift helipads and dilapidated buildings made of sandstone that, at any point could collapse, meeting him at a bounce house with around a dozen children was completely left-field.
Gage navigated through the maze of family rooms filled with children screaming on air-filled contraptions that looked like giant balloons. He pushed through the glass door to the room where Julien’s daughter, Thandie, was celebrating her fourth birthday. Julien was sitting on a bench looking simultaneously amused and exhausted as he watched Thandie descend a long slide.
Out of the group of men, Gage was the only one that had come from an initially intact family. Julien was born in Johannesburg to a mother of Swiss descent, which was the extent he knew of his background. When he was barely a year old, he was smuggled to New York and left in an alley to die after an illegal adoption deal fell through. A woman who’d been working as a housekeeping attendant at the hotel next to the alley found him, took him in, and raised him as her own after the state could find no record of his birth anywhere in their system. It was the woman’s fascination with technology that eventually led him to start tinkering with devices around the age of three. It was also why the only thing he couldn’t do with technology was manipulate it telepathically.
“Nice location,” Gage said, sitting next to him. “When did the FBI get new agents? They’re kinda tiny.”
Julien laughed and patted his friend on the shoulder. “I can’t tell you the last time you made a joke, Wolfe. I’m glad to see you getting back to your old self. I’m guessing that a beautiful woman has something to do with taming your beast?”
“I plead the fifth.”
Julien laughed again. “And that tells me everything I need to know.”
“Well, then that means it opens up the floor for you to tell me what I should know.”
“Did you see me do a flip, Daddy?” Thandie yelled from across the way.
“I did, sweetheart,” Julien answered. Then, he lowered his voice. “You’ve got less than twenty-four
hours before the FBI comes knocking at your door.”
“They found out about Tayler?”
“They found a body in North Carolina in Tayler’s cottage. The woman has the same strangulation marks as the other victims.”
“Did you overhear the woman’s name?”
“No.” His eyes followed Thandie as she climbed an inflatable staircase. “But they said that she’s local. The feds are sending their own guys down to check it out. A few agents are flying out here in the morning, though. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put it all together that they’ll be on your doorstep.”
“Or a genius,” Gage said, referencing Julien’s high IQ. “And you didn’t hear anything, not even a description, of the woman’s body they found?”
“No.” Julien glanced over. “You think Tayler might know her?”
“It’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“If I hear anything, you’ll be the first to know.” He snapped his fingers. “Also, they don’t know why he started doing the note thing. Turns out that the first five victims didn’t have notes. They still believed that he stalked them, but any contact he might have had prior to abducting them isn’t anywhere on record.”
“Does he have a profile?” Gage asked.
“The only thing all of the women have in common is that they’re ethnic minorities over thirty. They all worked in different fields, had different sexual orientations, different marital statuses…it’s like he’s being purposefully random.”
“And what about suspects?”
“None. His episodes are sporadic. It’s like he’s on some kind of east coast tour, but that’s about it.” Julien sighed. “Between this and a human trafficking case I’m working, the world looks like an even shittier place now than how we left it all those years ago. I had to take a step out of the fray to spend some real time with my wife and kid.”
Gage leaned back, allowing all of the information to saturate. Once he returned home, he would take a minute to sit down with Tayler and have her go over what she would say to the agents when they arrived. How she would explain the confrontation in the woods, and if they should throw in the knife attack. He also hoped that they would shed some light on the woman they’d found in the cottage and that it wasn’t someone Tayler knew. Anya hadn’t showed up at the emergency vet’s and though he and the woman hadn’t seen eye to eye, she was fiercely protective of Tayler. It was odd that she hadn’t been there that night.
Angels & Assassins: BWWM Romance Page 13
