by Dale Mayer
He shook his head. “You don’t open the door anymore. Remember that.”
He directed her to look at the peephole in the apartment door.
“I was going to do that,” she muttered, feeling foolish because she’d obviously not been going to check out the peephole. Her hand had already been on the doorknob to open it.
“I already know it’s Markus out there,” Chase said. “But next time it might not be.”
He popped the door open and let a huge man inside. She gasped and stepped back, her eyes widening. In a way they both had the same tough hard ass look to them, but when Markus’s gaze landed on her there was a gentleness to it that softened the predatory down to gentle giant.
“Hi, I’m Markus.”
“Markus is part of my unit and a good friend. We can trust him.”
Markus raised his eyebrows at that. Obviously he hadn’t been told much so far. She was glad. She didn’t want Chase talking to everyone. Not at the stage when she had no idea what the hell was going on. It made her feel like they all knew something she didn’t.
“Hi, Markus. Nice to meet you.” She motioned inside her apartment that was getting smaller as each man arrived. They were big and although she was not tiny they made her feel small and her apartment even smaller. Hopefully Markus didn’t want to stay overnight too. She laughed out loud at the thought of both men trying to find space only to realize both were studying her strangely.
“He’s making me crazy,” she said to Markus. She smiled and offered him a cup of coffee.
“Thank you, I’d like that and he makes all of us crazy.” Markus dropped the bag on the hallway floor and said, “This is for you, Chase. Should be good for a couple of days.”
“Thanks.” Chase seemed a little distracted. Vanessa watched him carefully. “What’s the matter?”
He went to answer but there was that bright friendly smile on his face. She shook her head and said pointedly, “Stop. Don’t lie to me.”
Instead, Markus gave a bark of laughter, patted her gently on the shoulder and said, “I like her. You should keep her.” He walked into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee making her realize she’d offered one but hadn’t gotten to the point of actually pouring a cup.
Thrown by his words and yet not by his actions she apologized. “I’m sorry, I meant to get it for you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I can use this. Thank you.” He walked over to the love seat and sat down at one end. “Chase, fill me in.”
Not a request, but a statement. It was her turn. She gave a bark of laughter, walked over, sat beside him and said, “Chase, I like him. You should keep him.”
Markus howled like it was the best thing she could possibly have said. She gave him a strange look then shrugged. Men – who understood them?
Chase sat down on the chair opposite her love seat and told Markus what Ronnie’s visit was all about.
The smile fell from Markus’s face. “You know there’s only one answer?”
Chase nodded. “I’ve already started the process. But it will still take some time.”
“When is the trial?”
Chase shrugged. “Next week but I’m not exactly sure yet. I’m waiting on answers.”
His gaze shifted toward Vanessa then back to Markus. She sensed some hidden communication going on between the two men and she didn’t like it. “Please don’t keep any secrets from me. At this point in time I’m involved even though I don’t want to be. Secrets are just going to make me more edgy.”
“I spoke to Mason,” Markus said.
Chase’s gaze sharpened. “That was next on my list to do but I haven’t had a chance yet.”
Markus nodded. “Mason is collecting photos, IDs and contacting the commander.”
Chase winced. “Great.”
“Hey, you can’t hide this kind of stuff.”
“I wasn’t trying to hide it, I just didn’t want to make it public.”
“Are you ashamed?”
Vanessa was fascinated at this back-and-forth. She watched as Chase dropped his attention to the coffee table in front of them, but he answered readily enough.
“I was a terrified kid back then, trying to stay alive in a world that ate young boys for dinner. Ashamed?” He studied Markus and then her. “No, I’m not ashamed. But I wish I’d had more options so the outcome could have been different.” His face hardened. “And I wish I’d thought to do something about this earlier.”
“Don’t we all?” Markus smiled. He picked up his coffee cup and downed the rest of the brew. Then he stood up, took the cup to the sink where he washed it and placed it upside down in the dish rack.
Vanessa hadn’t thought him to be so domesticated. Not with that element of a caged animal to him.
Markus pulled out a phone from his pocket and tossed it to Chase. “Got thirty minutes on it. You know what to do when you’re done.”
At that note Markus walked to the front door, smiled at Vanessa as she trailed behind feeling helpless. These men were in a world all their own and at the door he said, “Thank you for the coffee. Please look after Chase.”
Then with a flashing grin he opened the front door and walked out.
“Wait, don’t you want a picture of Ronnie or description?”
“Nope, got one already. Thanks.” He hit the button on the elevator, the doors opened and he stepped inside. And there disappeared one of the most mysterious men she’d ever met. She turned to face Chase who was standing with a frown on his face as he watched the elevator doors close behind his friend.
He nudged her back inside the safety of the apartment, closed and locked the door behind her.
“He’s interesting,” she said.
“That’s one way to look at him.” Chase walked back over to where Markus had dropped his bag, picked it up, put it on the kitchen table and opened the zipper. There he proceeded to pull out a laptop and the adapter before he zipped up the bag and tucked it behind the table out of the way. He sat down and plugged in his laptop. “I hope you don’t mind, but I need to do a bit of work on this mission.”
“Mission?” she questioned. “Is this a mission now?”
“Absolutely.” He hit the power button to bring his laptop to life and raised his gaze to look at her. “One of the most important of my life.”
*
Chase brought up an old file. One he’d held onto for years. It contained every bit of information he’d been able to remember about his life with the gang. He’d kept it on a floppy disk for a long time then transferred it to a hard drive and now kept it stored in the cloud. A sign of the changing times.
Just before he’d escaped the gang he figured one day he might need the information about his life. He’d written down a journal of the gang’s activities. It was likely that journal was why Ronnie had tracked him down. He’d seen it a couple of times back then. Might have wondered if it was still around. It was, but it wasn’t anywhere where the gang could find it. He kept the original in a safety deposit box with other important papers. Something he’d forgotten about until Ronnie showed up out of the blue.
Checking his email he realized he had heard an answer from the prosecutor’s office. “Shit,” he said under his breath. “Of course you want to meet me.”
Why the hell had he thought maybe he could get away with just sending the information on. Even if he got called out of the country on a secret mission chances were he wouldn’t get out of a court appearance. He sure as hell would like to though.
“But the right thing to do is give evidence. And if they want me to do that then I will,” he muttered under his breath. But not low enough as Vanessa heard him.
“If you’re talking about turning evidence against your old gang member then, of course, he wants to meet with you,” Vanessa said. “I had to attend a couple of court cases myself. They aren’t fun.”
He shrugged. “But they are necessary. In this case very necessary.”
She reached across the table, covered
his hand with hers. “And I admire that you are doing this. Letting go of your childhood is never easy. Turning around and creating a future for yourself from those early beginnings is even harder,” she said. “But to become the man you’ve become…” She settled back and studied his face. “That’s truly amazing.”
He shifted uncomfortably. Compliments were not something he’d ever become accustomed to. Compliments were to give to other people for jobs well done, pretty girls and cute babies. He’d rarely been on the receiving end and found that as much as he might like to hear them, they didn’t sit well on his frame.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “You’ll get used to them over time.”
Her words echoed the thoughts in his head. He frowned at her. “Used to what?”
She patted his hand and sat back with a smile. “Compliments.” She stood up and reached for the coffee pot to refill their cups. “You don’t look like you’ve had much approval in your life.”
“If it wasn’t a necessity – if I couldn’t eat it, couldn’t drink it and couldn’t fight back with it, it wasn’t part of my survival kit.” At her gasp of surprise he shrugged and turned his attention to the documents he had opened.
What happened to Ronnie since he’d been gone? Chase started an Internet search to see what he could come up with. The images hit first, several dated back ten years. Next he searched for his name. Results were minimal. Of course there wasn’t any page that said Ronnie was a gang member either, but there was plenty of images that clearly depicted his attitude in life.
And that wasn’t good. The images over the years said he’d developed a surly deeper, darker attitude. The discontent in his eyes and on his face showed. Chase wanted to feel sorry for his old friend but knew life was about making choices and as he’d made a choice to get out and have a life, Ronnie had made a choice to stay in.
Chase buried himself in research and lost track of time. When his laptop closed suddenly in front of him he sat back with a jolt.
“What did you do that for?” He looked up to see Vanessa standing with a robe wrapped around her, making him suddenly aware of just how late it was.
“Good Lord, I’m so sorry,” he cried. He stood up immediately and felt like such a heel. Here he was in her apartment and had ignored her. He’d been so worked up about his problems he hadn’t given a thought to the beautiful woman and her hospitality. And what kind of an idiot did that make him? That he’d used the research to keep his mind off the intimate setting and the sexy woman was already something he was trying to avoid looking at too closely.
“Not to worry,” she said. “It’s not that late but as I haven’t been sleeping well, I’m going to head to bed early. I wanted to give you the blankets and a pillow.” She pointed to the love seat where she’d stacked them. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
She turned and headed to the only bedroom. He checked his watch and realized he’d only been doing research for an hour. Feeling foolish and not too sure of what to do he watched as she closed the door securely between them.
Damn.
Actually double damn. Her short robe had hidden whatever she was wearing underneath – but not the long length of leg… And that had been just enough to make sure he wouldn’t be sleeping anytime soon.
He adored long legs and heels. Giving his head a shake and telling himself to keep focused on the job, not get sidetracked by the beautiful woman lying in bed only a few feet away, he sat back down at the laptop and started attaching documentation to emails. It wasn’t the best way to do it, but he was afraid if something happened to him this information would be lost forever. That couldn’t be allowed. Adding Markus’s name he quickly sent the emails off.
Then just to be safe he took a backup copy of all the material, put it in a zip file and emailed it to Mason with a quick note. “Better safe than sorry.” He got a response from Mason almost immediately. “The boys will be looked after. You take care of your own skin. We’re here if you need us.”
With that he sat back, a half-smile on his face. He had friends – good friends now. Not those men from his teen years that called themselves his friends but only if it served their purpose. Relaxed he sat and sifted through his emails. As he was ready to shut down the laptop he heard an odd cry. He listened closer and realized it was coming from the bedroom. He got up and walked over to lean his head against the door. And it came again.
Vanessa was crying out in her sleep. A nightmare? He frowned. He didn’t want to open the door and scare her, but it went against the grain to let her suffer.
If he woke her up gently it might pull her out. When she cried out again, and this time with a note of terror in her voice, he opened the door quietly enough for him to slip his head around the corner.
She tossed and turned, her arms flailing as if fighting off an attacker and he realized there was much more going on in her world than he knew. He walked over to her side and shook her shoulder gently, calling to her, “Vanessa, wake up. Vanessa. It’s Chase. Take it easy.”
Instead of hearing him she seemed to struggle harder, stronger. He shook her again a little firmer but not wanting to hurt her and said, his voice close to her ear, “Easy, honey, you’re having a nightmare. Wake up.”
As he pulled back slightly she turned her head and opened her eyes – her gaze unfocused and startled. He sat back and picked up her hands, gently stroking the soft skin. “It’s okay. You were just having a bad dream.”
She gave a half cry and threw her arms around him. He hugged her gently, and tugging her across his knees held her while she cried. He didn’t know where the nightmares were coming from, but they were obviously deep and painful. He waited until the storm passed.
Finally, she lifted her head and looked at him. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why?” he asked quietly. “Everyone needs comfort from time to time.”
She shrugged. “Then I should be sleeping with you every night because these nightmares are getting worse, not better.”
He grinned and responded with a lopsided smile. “You know, that just might work out well for me.”
Chapter 7
She felt like a fool. What was wrong with her? She’d never clutched a stranger like this before. That was not her way. Normally she kept everything locked down. But there was something about a nightmare that allowed the vulnerabilities of the dark to creep in and turn her into this frightened woman she would never acknowledge in the bright of day.
“Do you get nightmares often? If so maybe you should get some help?”
Chase rubbed her shoulders, and she realized she was still sitting on his lap with her arms still wrapped around him. She shook her head. In a muffled voice, she said, “I tried that. It didn’t work for me.”
He nodded. “Are they work-related or personal?”
Her laugh when it came out was broken and pained. “Both.” She tried to explain. “The work is everything I’ve always wanted to do but is probably the worst thing for me to do as it brings up lots of painful memories. It’s partly what spurred me into my field. I do suffer from nightmares. I thought I’d dealt with them, but there’s something about my caseload that’s bringing them back up.”
“I’m sorry. That’s got to be tough.”
She eased off his lap and settled back against the headboard. “I’m sorry for disturbing you,” she said. “You need your sleep too.”
“I was actually just heading to bed now.”
He leaned forward so he could look into her eyes – those huge confident baby blue orbs made her want to just melt, but at the same time it was his very capableness that attracted her. And that wasn’t right. She didn’t want to lean on anyone. She shifted her gaze away. “I’ll be fine now. Thank you.”
“Are you sure?” He didn’t appear to know what to do with himself. Then again the sense of discomfort was mutual.
She motioned at the doorway. “It’s fine. Go back to sleep.”
He s
tood up and frowned. “Would you like a light on?”
“No,” she whispered softly. “I’ll be fine in the dark. Thank you.”
She watched as he closed the door quietly behind him. Then she tucked herself down into the covers, mortified she’d actually been heard. Still, the subconscious fears would rise again as soon as she closed her eyes and that was enough to keep her awake for a long time. Finally she started to drift off and that’s when she thought she heard a sound on the balcony. Then heard it again.
Catching her breath she slipped out of bed in the dark, grabbed her robe and walked over to the bedroom door. She opened it quietly and peered around into the living room.
And caught sight of Chase watching something outside on the patio.
Right, she wasn’t alone anymore. Relief washed through her. Only to drain away in shock as he lifted a finger to his lips and held out his hand for her to walk to him. Hugging the walls, she crept closer. She reached up and with her lips against his ear, she asked him, “Is there someone out there?”
He nodded and wrapped his arm around her, tucking her up close.
“Shouldn’t we call the police,” she whispered, pressing closer to him.
“Not yet,” he said, his breath at her temple. “I’d like to see how far they are going to go.”
She was surprised anyone could get up this high, but it was a small deck close to the adjoining apartments. She’d often thought it would be easy to jump from one to the other in which case he could’ve come onto hers from any one of the other apartments.
Grateful she wasn’t alone, she watched the tall shadow by her patio furniture and waited. “It’s not Ronnie. It’s too small of a man.”
Chase nodded. “They have lots of men. This one looks like Monkey. He used to do a lot of the B&E’s for them as he’s well-known for getting into and out of tight places.”
Nervously she looked back at the front door. “Do you think Ronnie will come in the front door as Monkey approaches from the back?”
“It would be good if he did. He’d meet Markus then.” And that explained why he wasn’t concerned, and his tone of voice was confident and calm.
