Whatever he was hearing, though, erased the smirk off his face. “No, we sent Webb to get the cat. He was taking it to a friend’s, then driving down to meet me at Daytona Beach for the handover.” Pause. “He left before we did.” Another pause. “Fuck, I’ll tell Elijah. Okay, keep me updated.”
Before he’d even ended the call, I was up and pacing. “What?”
“Seems Orson broke into Sadie’s apartment in Gonzales and deactivated the security she set up without tripping any of the signals. Levi and Archer went to go and check on the place, and he’d…” he stopped talking and winced, checking to make sure Sadie was still asleep. This time when he spoke, he whispered so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him. “He put a photo of Sadie as a kid on her bed and did the dirty all over it.”
Panic is a strange feeling, and it almost suffocated me as it engulfed me.
“Did the dirty?” I hissed. “There’s a lot that counts as dirty.”
“You don’t want to know.”
I didn’t, but at the same time, what I knew of criminals, how they did ‘the dirty’ said a lot about their emotions for the victim. For example, tearing up her place would be a sign of anger or frustration, maybe even intended as a message to scare her. He’d know she wasn’t there, though, so it would definitely be the first two emotions. If he’d defecated, that was considered more of a negative emotion, one of disrespect and resentment. It didn’t always fit into those boxes, sure, but usually, it did.
“I need to know where his head’s at emotionally.”
Looking at me like I’d sprouted horns, Jesse asked, “What? Do you want to call him and have a heart-to-heart? Seriously, Elijah, he didn’t go on Jerry Springer and reveal—”
Holding a hand up, I stopped him mid-rant. “What he did gives an idea of where his head’s at, you moron.”
Growling, he ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “He masturbated on a photo of Sadie from when she was younger on her bed.”
Either I was having sympathy nausea with Sadie, or…
Gulping in a deep breath, I shook my head to get the mental image out of it.
“How safe is the house in Sarasota Bay, Elijah?”
Looking up at my brother, I saw that he was as worried as I was by this development. Orson’s actions were out of passion, and using the photo showed us he was committed to getting to her.
“When me and Coop bought it, we signed an addendum that gifted our half of the property to the other one in the event of our deaths, so I own it outright and all of the land. We were looking for an investment to rent out while we were away, but we never got around to doing it. While I was there this time, I got a friend of mine to bury the paperwork and put a dummy company as the owners on it until this shit gets sorted out in case we needed a place to hide.”
Jesse didn’t like what our brother’s best friend, Remy, could do with his computer skills, so the less I said about what he’d done, the better.
Groaning, he tipped his head back and looked at the ceiling. “At least it’s safe.”
“I also had security put in all over the property, including in the trees behind it.”
The small house sat on a lot of land in Sarasota Bay. For years they’d been developing it, but this plot had belonged to an older couple who couldn’t afford to maintain it anymore but didn’t want to see it turned into a mansion. We had a yard and a small beach at the front, but behind it was half an acre of wooded area, so ensuring it was secure all round was a must.
Nodding, he rubbed the back of his neck. “I think we’re going to have to delay getting the weird-looking cat from Webb. We don’t know when he broke in because none of the sensors went off, so he might have seen him picking up the beast and followed him.”
Agreeing that this was a wise choice, I thought about what to do next.
“I think, just to be on the safe side, we should take a detour. We’re in Mobile right now, so tomorrow, we head to Tallahassee and spend the night. The next day we’ll hit Starke for the night, then onto Sebring where we’ll split up.” When he nodded at my suggestions, not fazed about the length of our journey, I relaxed.
“There was something else, though, Elijah.”
Bracing, I jerked my chin at him to continue.
“He left some postcards with photos on them that were taken in what was Sadie’s bedroom at her mom’s house. Her room had a door that led to sort of an attic room, and on the back of it, he wrote: You can’t hide from me, little one. He also had one of her mother’s grave.”
Feeling my hands shaking, I fisted them and clenched my jaw to hold back the roar that wanted to burst out of me. That fucker was defiling everything she held sacred.
Once I had full control of my anger, I ground out, “He’s a fucking dead man.”
“Ned’s sent his men to bring in her sister and nephew, so they’re safe. At this moment, we don’t know who he’s going to go after, so we need to brace.”
“She’s got a grandmother still in the UK, speaks to her every couple of days.”
Pulling out his phone, he hit the screen and typed something on it. “I’m texting Gramps to get Tom or Cole to help him get a message to Ned about it. Hopefully, Orson won’t know what we’re doing. I doubt the asshole has the resources, but he had them to get here, into her old house, and to block her security, so maybe we’re underestimating him.”
And that’s what worried me. Before, I was scared for Sadie—now, I was scared for her and my child.
“I can’t lose them, Jesse,” I croaked. “She’s my everything. They’re both my everything.”
Coming over to where I was standing, he clapped me on the back. “Hey, we come from a large family that thrives on insanity and who take care of their own. Trust me when I say he doesn’t stand a fucking chance.”
I wanted to believe him, but he hadn’t seen Sadie after she’d been kidnapped and shot. He hadn’t seen her when she spoke about her mom and what she’d gone through with him. I’d give everything I had to stop her from ever going through something like that again.
Giving me another pat on the back, he nudged me in the direction of the bed Sadie was fast asleep in. “Go to bed. Shit always looks better in the morning.” I doubted I’d get any sleep, but he was right about the last bit. “Oh, and, Elijah?” he called, waiting until I looked over my shoulder at him. “You better be thinking about marrying her. Not because she’s carrying your baby, but because I’ve never seen you look the way you do when you’re with her.”
I’d just opened my mouth to tell him that I was going to, but I wanted to give it time to make sure she knew I was serious and not just doing it for the baby when he shot me a grin and added, “Plus, once she spends real time with you, she’ll realize what a dickhead you are and run. If she’s married to you, she can’t do that.”
Damn, what if he was right?
Chapter Fifteen
Sadie
You know the old chick in the Titanic who says, it’s been eighty-four years? That’s how long it felt like we’d been driving for. We were going from motel to motel, to motel. I can’t say it sucked because I got to see many areas I never thought I’d see unless I was on vacation—which I guess I was. Well, ish.
Plus, Jesse was hilarious and continuously did his best to piss his brother off while talking about stuff he was going to do with the baby once it was born. He didn’t care if it was a boy or a girl, he had uncle plans for both of them. When I’d teased him about being a natural born daddy, he’d just blushed and shrugged. Bless him!
Now, I was saying goodbye to him and doing my best not to cry.
Grabbing me up in a hug that pushed my head into his armpit, he said dramatically, “I know, you think I’m awesome, and you don’t want me to leave. No need to cry and beg, dearest Sadie, we’ll see each other soon.”
How was it possible to laugh as hard as I was and bawl at the same time? Yeah, the hormones were messing with me now big time. Just last night, I’d turned the television on
, and there’d been a rerun of The Crocodile Hunter with Steve Irwin. I’d watched a grand total of three minutes before I started crying because the poor man had been dead for fourteen years. The problem was, even though I told myself I was being dumb, the hormones overrode that rational side, and it was like I was grieving for a man I didn’t know, like he’d just died.
Fucking crazy, I tell you.
Eventually, Elijah had come out of his shower and panicked when he’d seen me, then looked at me like I was crazy after I told him what was so sad. He’d changed the channel to see if it helped, but there was some animal ER program on where a poor Labrador died during surgery. Even thinking about it now made me want to cry harder than I already was.
“Okay, give her back,” Elijah sighed, gently removing me from under his brother’s arm. “We’ll see him soon, baby, don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried, I’m hormonal,” I snapped, wiping my face. “I’m also worried that with my coloring, the baby’s going to come out looking like a sack of flour.”
Did I mention my internal filter was also broken now?
Both men looked at me and then at each other.
“So, good luck with that,” Jesse muttered, backing away slowly.
Waving over my shoulder, I allowed Elijah to steer me to the truck that’d been left for us. I had no idea how they were pulling off all the cloak and dagger stuff, but these guys were the shit at it.
“Do you need a stool or something to get in?” he asked, looking from the ground to where I needed to get my foot to climb in.
“Why don’t I stand on your head?” I asked as sweetly as possible.
Oh, I was also highly irritable.
Fortunately, Elijah wasn’t bothered at all by my mood swings. “I’ll lift you in, my pixie.”
And there was the kryptonite for my bitchiness—he was so good at being sweet to me.
Wincing, I apologized as he swung me up in the air. “I’m sorry for being a twat. I swear it’s like I don’t even know what emotion’s going to hit me next. Your baby’s turning me into the biggest Helen Hunt this side of Bitchville.”
Laughing, he made sure I was in, then closed the door and rounded the vehicle to the driver’s side.
“What’s a Helen Hunt?” he asked as he got in and pressed the button to start the engine.
The car must have been there for a while because it felt like a furnace inside, and to add to it, the air coming through the vents was hot, too. Feeling the nausea starting to come back, I opened a window, not at all surprised that the air outside was cooler than inside.
“I hate the c-word, so I use Helen Hunt because it rhymes with it. It’s a shame really because she’s got a cool name, but needs must and all that.”
Backing us out of the spot we’d been parked in, he started driving us to wherever we were headed next. I always loved watching Elijah drive. Whereas I felt slightly anxious when I did it, he was always relaxed and looked thoroughly in control. And his arms as he held the steering wheel… driving arm porn.
“I thought Brits loved the c-word?”
His question came out of the blue and shocked me. “Where the hell did you hear that?”
“I don’t know, but I know it’s a common assumption.”
Gaping at him, I tried to think why someone would tell a lie like that. “It’s not true! We don’t just go around calling each other a nasty word or dropping it into a sentence. A lot of the people I know don’t use it, just like a lot of people don’t use it here. I think it’s a matter of personal preference, but we definitely don’t use it more than Americans would.”
“Maybe it was Australians who used it all the time, then?” he mused.
“You know we’re different countries, right?” I asked, gasping when he just shrugged. “I can’t with you. All I can say is that I hope the baby gets a functioning brain.”
How he managed to drive and laugh as hard as he was simultaneously, I didn’t know, but it just proved my point that he was in complete control of any vehicle he drove. Lucky bastard.
I’d been to Florida a couple of times, mainly places like Miami Beach, Orlando, and Fort Lauderdale, when I’d come over to visit Dad during school vacations. I liked the state but seeing parts of it that weren’t as tourist driven as those were was eye-opening. Yes, there were still large chunks as we drove from Sebring to Sarasota Bay that were built up for tourism purposes, but I’d never realized how beautiful and peaceful it was here.
“So you grew up in Orlando, right?” I asked him, staring out the window at the place we were currently driving through. “What was that like?”
“It was awesome. Mom and Dad have a place in Kissimmee, far enough outside of the center of Orlando to be separate from it, but not too far that you couldn’t go and have some fun when you wanted to.”
“I remember your mum telling me that. I went to Kissimmee about ten years ago when we went on holiday to Orlando. We stayed at a place called the Liki Tiki Resort, so we were only a short drive away from there, and Dad wanted us to see more of the place than just Disney, Universal, and the resort.”
“I know the place. It’s about half an hour away in Winter Garden.”
“We only spent three hours in Kissimmee, but I remember thinking it was a beautiful place, and I loved how almost every house had a flag flying.”
“Well, you get to go and stay there now,” he patted my leg. “After growing up surrounded by the mayhem of Orlando, I prefer living somewhere quiet like the place I’ve got. But if you decide that you love Florida, we can go wherever you want to.”
There! That’s why I like him so much. Elijah had a way about him that was easy going while being in complete control of the world around him, much like when he was driving.
Shooting him a grin, I went back to watching as we drove toward the house he’d bought with Cooper. The thing was, I was as easy going as he was. I didn’t mind where we lived, so long as everyone was happy. I wouldn’t ever ask him to sell the place he’d bought with his best friend because I’d never sell Mum’s house in West Wickham either. Having those places kept us linked to the people we loved and missed, so why would anyone get rid of that? I know you couldn’t hold onto them through a property, but if it kept us feeling close to them, who cared?
That actually brought up a good question for me. “Hey, Elijah, have you ever thought about going to the UK?”
“I have. I want to go to a few places there to see if they’re like in the movies, I’ve just never had the time to go. Why?”
His reply was a relief. “Just wondering.”
“We’ll go once the baby’s born so that you can see everyone and introduce him or her to your grandmother,” he assured me, glancing briefly at me.
“Not to piss on your picnic, but she’ll be over here as soon as she sniffs a due date,” I snorted. “The woman went insane when Cynthia had Wickham, and I ended up having to drag her back home.”
That was no lie. Nan had refused to give him back at the airport, and if it hadn’t been for security checking passports, she’d have had him on the plane with zero regrets.
“Do you miss your friends from there?”
Angling my body in the seat so that I was facing him, I told him all about my three best friends, Leroy, Brixton, and Grisolm—also known as Snap, Crackle, and Pop because they could beatbox like champs. Thanks to Leroy, Orson hadn’t managed to rape me, so I owed him everything, but I loved those guys like brothers.
Listening to all of the craziness that we’d gotten up to, Elijah laughed most of the time and then asked questions about them. It passed the time and, although I was still homesick, it helped me settle down the emotions that’d been flickering in and out of my body. I knew I had all of them there waiting for me when I went back to visit, but I also knew I still had the three of them with me for my life going forward if I chose to stay here. We had a bond that even distance didn’t have an impact on, and I couldn’t wait to tell them my news once all of this was over.
Elijah
I called the house small because, compared to the other places around, it was the size of a shack, but it had three bedrooms and a study, so it wasn’t all that small.
Showing Sadie around it, I watched her fall in love with the house and location and breathed a sigh of relief.
“When you said the bay, I pictured it as a tiny house on the beach in the middle of nowhere,” she told me, walking up to the large windows that overlooked the water. “It’s beautiful.”
In front of the house was a yard that led onto a small patch of beach and a jetty into the sea. Leaning over her shoulder, I pointed to an enclosed pavilion to the side. “There are chairs and a table in there we can take onto the jetty if you want, or you can just sit on the jetty itself.”
“Can I swim in the sea?” she asked excitedly.
“I wouldn’t, and the only reason I say that is because there’s been a lot of shark sightings this year for some reason, so until they can figure out what’s drawing them in, it’s probably best to keep you and the baby safe, right? But there’s a pool to the right, just behind that panel there. We put it up for privacy because we used to get a lot of people and land developers driving up until we put the fences up further back.”
Smiling widely up at me, she clapped her hands. “I can’t wait to go in. How warm is the water in the pool? Is it a jacuzzi?”
Frowning, I remembered something I’d read online. “Pregnant women aren’t allowed in hot baths, it’s not good for the baby. I’ll double-check the temperatures and then take the temp of the water in the pool—”
“Don’t you dare,” she snapped, the smile gone now. “It’s a swimming pool, not a bath.”
I nodded at her to confirm I understood, but I was still going to do it. I’d learned very early that it was the best way to deal with what she was going through inside her body, so now I just nodded and smiled whenever it happened.
“The kitchen’s through here,” I led her over to the dividing wall between the living room and kitchen. We upgraded it shortly after we bought it, so it was modern and had everything you could imagine in it. “There’s also a half bathroom down here and three full ones upstairs.”
Great Sass: Providence Family Ties Series Page 17
