My heart starts to race wildly and I’m breathless when I say, “Oh God. I’m alone in the bathroom.”
“I’m going to try to distract him with the fake photographer story Savage came up with, but I believe we’re beyond that. If he doesn’t bite, I’m going to get in his face and start a fight. You run for the stairwell because I will likely be arrested. Go to the lobby. Stand in the center of the lobby. Do not leave that public location until Smith walks in to get you. Understand?”
“Yes. Yes, I understand. Thank you, Adrian.”
“Thank me by getting the fuck to the lobby safely. I’m moving now.” He disconnects.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Candace
The sooner I’m out of the bathroom, the sooner I will be on a plane with Rick.
I draw a deep calming breath and then creak the bathroom door open. Adrian is standing in my line of sight, which I have no doubt is intentional. He’s also talking to Alejandro, but I can’t make out what’s being said. Well not until he raises his voice, and pokes at Alejandro’s chest. I know it’s Alejandro’s chest because the beast steps into Adrian, and holy wow, he makes Adrian, who is not small, look tiny. If Adrian notices he doesn’t act like it. “You pervert. You’re a pervert hanging out at the women’s bathroom.” Then even louder, he shouts, “Security! Security!”
Adrian shoves him and the beast actually stumbles backward, out of my view. There are more voices now, and I can feel the chaotic energy, even if I can’t see anymore. I open the door and when I find several men in suits standing with Adrian, all of them surrounding Alejandro, my heart leaps, but I move , quickly darting to the right to run for the stairwell.
“Hey! Stop right there, Candace!”
Oh, God. It’s Alejandro. I grab the doorknob to the exit, and it won’t open. I tug again. Still, it won’t open. I glance right and Alejandro is running at me. Adrian tackles him and shouts, “Run!” I run, down another hallway and thank God, there is another exit sign. Please let the door open. Please let it open. It does. It opens. Relief floods my adrenaline-laced system and I all but fall flat-faced inside the stairwell, but I catch the railing. We aren’t high up and I start running down the stairs. I’ve just turned the corner when I stop dead at the sight of a man sitting on the ground on the next level I must pass. And not just any man. It’s Rick’s father.
“Doctor Savage?”
He breathes out and then looks up at me, attempting a smile. “Candace, dear.”
I hurry down the steps to kneel beside him. “Doctor Savage, what are you doing?”
“My house is burning down. I’m supposed to meet the fire trucks there now.”
My eyes go wide. “Your house is burning down?”
“That’s what they tell me.”
Blood flushes my face and heats my neck. My mind races with all the ways this might be tied to Tag, and my fear for his life is immediate. “Come with me.” I stand back up and grab his hand. “Now.”
“I’ve been drinking. I can’t get up.”
“Get up now or you might die. Any moment now a man who wants to kill me, and I suspect you, will walk into this stairwell. Get up—now!”
“No,” he says. “No. I’m not getting up. If they want to kill me, they can kill me.”
“Candace!”
At the sound of Smith’s voice, I call back. “I’m here.”
“Get your ass down to me, now!”
I tug on Dr. Savage’s hand. He jerks it back. “Go. I’m fine.”
“Please—”
“Candace!”
I turn and Smith is standing behind me. “What the hell?” he demands, looking between me and Rick’s father.
“He was just sitting here,” I explain. “He says he’s drunk. He says his house is burning down. I don’t want to leave him. What if that monster comes after him?”
“Don’t be a fool, little girl!” Rick’s father shouts at me. “Tag needs me. He doesn’t need you or my son. Go the fuck away.”
“He burned down your house.”
“He didn’t burn down my house. I did!”
“What?”
Smith catches my arm. “Savage needs to hear from you now and know that you’re safe and right now you are not. It’s life or death. I’ll send a man for him.”
I’m torn. This man is Rick’s father, but Rick himself and my father are in danger. “Let’s go.”
Smith takes my hand and guides me the rest of the way down the stairs. We exit to a hallway somewhere on the lower level and then exit to a side door. A white truck waits for us there and Smith opens the passenger door.
I climb inside and I don’t know how Adrian is here, but he is and he hands me his phone. “My father?”
“Nothing yet. Talk to Savage.”
But I don’t talk to Savage. I turn to Smith. “Rick’s father—”
“I already sent a message to one of our men to get him. Now talk to Savage. He won’t kill Tag until he hears your voice.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Savage
I’m not even holding the gun on Tag. He’s back to sitting in his chair, in the living room of his rental. I’m in the chair across from his chair, elbows on my knees, that baseball hat I’d put on earlier on the table. The gun is on the coffee table, too, right there beside my hat and right between me and Tag. Adam is on the couch between our chairs. Since we don’t plan to stay around to clean up our mess, Adam and I are both wearing gloves, playing cards but the cards are not what entertains me. It’s watching Tag sit there, his mind racing as he tries to figure out how to get the fuck away from me. In my mind, I’m tormented by what is happening with Candace. I need to hear from her.
The sound of my cellphone rings and adrenaline surges through me with the hope of good news and the fear of bad but I’m an emotionless canvas. Tag still smirks. He knows I’m on edge waiting. I eye the caller ID that reads Adrian and with a steady hand I do not feel, I answer the call.
“Rick.”
At the sound of Candace’s voice, relief washes over me with a force I have never felt in my life. “You okay, baby?” I ask, my eyes meeting Tag’s and delivering a message: now you die.
“I’m fine.” She gives a nervous laugh. “But you can no longer be an asshole to Adrian. He tackled Alejandro. He saved me.”
A muscle in my jaw begins to tick. “That King Kong motherfucker came after you?”
“Yes, but Adrian handled him. Rick, your father—”
I cut her off. “Not now, baby. I have something I need to do. I’ll see you at the airport in a few. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
I disconnect and set the phone down. “She’s safe,” I say, my eyes burning holes in Tag. “He came at her. I know you didn’t have time to tell him you were in trouble. Why did he go after her?”
“I’m not a fool. I know your fucking tricks, Savage. He tried to call me. I told him if I didn’t answer, or call him back in fifteen minutes, to kill her.”
“You know what comes next.”
“You should know that I’ve arranged a large sum of money to be deposited into Alejandro’s account if she dies in the next five days.”
I don’t ask how he would manage that. This is Tag. He’s not lying. He knew I’d beat him, at least in life. He wants me to suffer in his death. I repeat my words. “You know what comes next.”
Tag doesn’t mince words. “You’re going to kill me and he’s going to kill her.” He laughs.
I pick up the gun and shoot him between the eyes, grab my hat, and then stand up. “Alejandro is next.”
We exit the house and walk toward the Porsche 911, and officially a chapter of my life is gone, over, done. I dial Adrian. “Where’s Alejandro?”
“They arrested him.”
“There’s a price on Candace’s head. Get her on the fucking plane and lock her down.”
I hang up and Adam and I climb into the car. I toss my hat in the backseat and by the time I crank the engine I have Ash
er on the line. “Tag’s dead. His men are dead. Any update on the general?” I back us out of the driveway.
“Radio silence right now. I’ll let you know when I know. No red flags.”
I shift us into drive and idle. “Tag left a price on Candace’s head. Alejandro is an assassin. He was arrested. I need to know exactly where they took him.”
“Drive toward the hotel,” he instructs. “I’ll find out and call you back.” He disconnects.
I gun the accelerator. “Tag could be bluffing,” Adam states, but it’s really a question.
And I answer. “No.” That’s all I say. That’s all he needs to hear. He doesn’t ask again. I don’t even bother to tell him that Asher’s locating him. He’ll know. That’s how we operate—like a fucking team that would live and die for each other. When I was with Tag, we were exactly what Alejandro is: a killer. Nothing more. Nothing less. No one wants one of those killers coming for them and yet, one of those killers is after my woman.
I whip us onto the highway and my cellphone rings again. “Bad news,” Asher says. “The cops are dead. Alejandro is missing. A manhunt is underway.”
Alejandro will know we’ll go to the airport. He may even guess that we’ll go to the nearest private strip to our location which was that party. I exit and do a hard U-turn to drive the wrong way down the access road. I have to get to Candace before he does.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Candace
Adrian’s phone buzzes with a call and I hang on every word I can make out, which is not much. All I know is that he’s talking to Rick. He disconnects and I expect an update. He offers nothing. He simply keeps on driving. I can’t accept nothing. Not right now.
“What did he say?”
“He’s on his way to meet us at the airport.”
I rotate to face him. “What about Tag?”
“He’s dead.”
“What else?” I push.
“Nothing else.”
“We both know that’s not true. What did Rick tell you that you aren’t telling me?”
He turns us onto a dark narrow road and with that maneuver the small airstrip that is our destination comes into view, beaming lights illuminating the single field. “Adrian, what—”
Adrian curses and scrubs his jaw. “Alejandro killed the police officers and escaped. Tag has some sort of death price on your head.”
I rotate back into my seat and ball my fingers into my lap. “He killed the police,” I whisper, trying to process what I’ve just been told.
“Holy shit,” Smith murmurs, drawing his weapon.
The weapon’s a trigger, my trigger. Through all of this tonight, I never reached for my weapon. Why? Why was I not properly ready to defend myself? My purse is across my chest, and at my hip, a part of me to such a degree that I have forgotten it right along with the gun. I grab for it now, and open it, pulling out my handgun.
“Oh fuck,” Adrian growls. “Do you know how to use that thing?”
“Very damn well,” I assure him. “Do you want me to shoot you like my daddy taught me or like Rick taught me?”
To my right, Smith is on the phone. “We’re coming in. Code Four.”
Code Four must mean “about to be killed by an assassin.”
Meanwhile, Adrian replies, “Either way you shoot me, sweetheart, I’m dead,” he says. “I always wanted to die at the hands of a pretty girl. Kill me.”
“That’s sick,” I growl.
He laughs. “I guess that was one of my better jokes.” He turns us into the airport, and I glance in the rearview mirror afraid of being followed but there is nothing and no one there. I breathe out in relief that is short-lived. Code Four. We’re coming in and it’s a Code Four emergency.
We’re on a dirt road and barreling toward a plane that sits on the runway. As much as I want to be inside that plane, ready to take off, my mind conjures images of being trapped in that small space and killed. There would be nowhere to go if that monster showed up with a gun. Lights flicker behind us and I whip around to eye the car behind us, as the headlights flick off and on three times. “Chill, baby girl,” Adrian coos. “That’s Savage.”
Relief washes over me, a firestorm of so much relief. Rick is here. We’re getting on that plane and getting out of this city. A city I have always loved, but right now, I do believe I’ve learned to hate it. The truck stops right beside the steps of the plane. Smith exits and by the time I’m at the edge of the seat, Rick is there, big, dangerously perfect, Rick Savage, dressed in all black, and smelling like spice. He takes my gun. I don’t know where he puts it and I don’t care. How can I? He’s pulling me to him, wrapping me in those powerful arms of his and dragging my head back to inspect me.
“You okay?”
“Once we’re on that plane in the air I will be.”
“Then let’s get on the damn plane and get out of here, baby.” He calls over his shoulder to someone. I can’t hear what and I don’t even care either. He lifts me and sets me on top of the steps leading up to the plane, but he stays close, right behind me. I’m just about to enter the plane when I pause, pull Gabriel’s ring off my finger, and twist to show it to Rick, right before I toss it away. Approval darkens his eyes and only then do I turn and enter the small but luxurious cabin, where I quickly inventory my surroundings. To my left are two cream-colored double leather seats. Behind them are a good half dozen single recliner-style seats that lead to the back of the plane. Rick comes up behind me, his hand on my waist, that possessive wonderful touch, everything. He’s everything.
“Get comfortable, baby. It’s a four-hour flight. I need to talk to Adrian and Smith.”
I rotate in his arms. “Can we just shut the doors, please? Before Alejandro gets here and kills us.”
“You do know you’re in love with a damn good killer, right?”
“I thought we were in denial of that fact?”
“Not right now, baby. We’re embracing it and loving it. Doors shut in two minutes.” He kisses me hard on the mouth and rotates me to face my seat.
I turn back around. “Gun?”
He pulls it from his waistband and flips it around to offer me control. The minute it’s back in my hand, the control feels good. Now, I rotate and head to our seats. I set the gun on the shiny table that sits like a coffee table to the duet of seats, I sit back and pull that table close. If I need to shoot, I am going to shoot. I count the seconds like minutes, until Rick is back inside the plane, pulling the plane door shut. He then walks toward the pilot, speaks to him or her, not more than twenty seconds before he joins me, claiming the seat next to me. The engine on the plane roars to life.
“What happened to Adrian and Smith?” I ask.
“They’re going after Alejandro. We’re going to New York.”
“Because he’s coming after me.”
He catches my hand and kisses my now naked finger. “Because we’re going home, baby. And home is good.”
“But is he going to follow us, Rick?”
“Baby—”
“Is he going to follow us?”
“Not if we kill him first.”
“In other words, Gabriel, Pocher, and now an assassin are coming for us.”
“No. I’m coming for them and we’re going home.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Candace
The plane begins to move and a realization hits me. We’re leaving and I don’t think Rick knows what is going on with his father. “Your father. Rick, your father—”
“Smith had some of our guys pick him up. And Smith is taking him to rehab tomorrow. If he won’t stay, I’m done with him. If he does, I’m probably still done with him. And he probably won’t.”
“If you took him, he might.”
His lips press together. “It would not be good for me to see him right now.”
“He was on the floor in the hotel exit stairwell. He said his house was burning down. He said he burned it down.”
“Smith told me what he said
. And yes, it burned down, but he’s a drunk, baby. The only thing you can trust about my father is his need for rehab.”
“I know, but—”
“Not now. I’m not in a place right now to talk about my father.”
“Okay. Okay, I—Oh God. What about my father?”
“No word yet, but we don’t expect our team to break radio silence for at least another hour. Asher is going to call the pilot when we have news.”
“Oh. Okay.”
He brushes my hair behind my ear, a tender touch, which has my stomach doing this butterfly flutter. “It’s going to be okay,” he promises. “Buckle up, baby. The captain said we’re going to hit some turbulence.” He inches over me, his big body draped intimately across my body, and he latches the buckle into place. He doesn’t immediately move.
We linger there, staring at each other, and my fingers trace his goatee. “Rick,” I whisper because everything else I want and need to say just seems like too much.
He catches my fingers and kisses them but his hand is immediately on my face. The plane lifts off and his lips press to my ear. “I cannot lose you again.” His voice is a whisper of desperation and need that I feel clear in my soul. He’s in my soul, a part of me, the other part of me that was missing for far too long.
My hand is on his face now, my fingers curling at his temple and his mouth comes down on my mouth. At that moment, my entire existence fades into him and us, and yet somehow, I don’t lose me but rather find me for the first time in forever. In that kiss, there is the bitterness of loss and fear, the shared relief of finally finding each other again. The plane shudders and shakes around us, the way the world shudders and shakes, but right this minute, it doesn’t matter. A massive sinkhole in the sky could open up and suck us in, we wouldn’t care. Right now, there is just me and him, and him and me, and this kiss.
When our lips part, he whispers, “I love the hell out of you, woman.”
Savage Love Page 13
