He threw the last few things in his bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Don’t go anywhere. Don’t call anybody. Please, Julie. Take the time you need to be pissed at me, fine, but don’t put yourself in danger because you’re angry with me. Please.”
“Now is not really a good time to be telling me what to do. No one followed us here so no one knows where I am. I’m fairly certain I could leave and manage to lay low enough where no one is going to recognize me. You lost any and all rights to an opinion in my life when you lied to me.” She headed out of the room and he followed. Without a glance backward, she opened the front door and waited, stonefaced and steaming.
“I’ll call you in a little while, okay?”
She lifted her eyebrows and her smile was one of pure shock. “I’m going to need more than just
a
little
while
. I’ve said all I plan to say to you for a good chunk of time.”
Troy’s own anger boiled hotter. “I may have lied to you about my occupation, but that doesn’t change the fact that someone is trying to kill you. It doesn’t change the fact that I want to protect you, that I love you. So you think about that for a
chunk
of
time
.”
She met his gaze, no sign of relenting. “Or I could think about how big a fool I was to fall for a man who lied to me just like my father did, a man who was convinced I whored myself for movie roles, a man who didn’t have enough courage to be honest with me from the beginning. There’s lots to choose from.” She held the door wider. Troy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. This was—hands down—his biggest fuckup. Ever. He’d barely cleared the frame before the door slammed behind him.
* * *
Julie leaned against the door and struggled to catch her breath. Her heart pounded out of control.
Deep
breath
in
,
deep
breath
out
. In and out. She would not let this man throw her into a panic. She dug the heels of her hands into her eyes. She would not break down and sob out a broken heart. She wouldn’t. But she felt the moisture against her palms anyway as the knot in her throat got unbearably tight.
“Fuck you. Fuck you.” She didn’t know if she meant the words for Troy or herself. She hated that she’d been duped like a teenager with rampant hormones. “Well, isn’t that what you acted like?” she raged aloud as she stormed back into the bedroom. The room was a wreck. Her things half in and out of both suitcases, socks and underwear on the floor where they’d fallen out of her arms.
“Dammit. How am supposed to stay here?” The whole place reminded her of him. Smelled like him. She snatched her phone off the dresser and punched her speed dial for Cal.
“Hey, there,” Cal answered. “How’s your seclusion going? Ready to come home?”
“You have no idea. Speaking of home, if I decided to fly back, could you pick me up at the airport?”
Silence greeted her question. “Don’t you dare fucking tell me you’re flying back to L.A.”
Julie actually smiled at Cal’s tone. “Okay. I won’t. But I might if I can get a flight out.” Her chances of getting through an airport without being recognized were slim to none. Did she really want to risk it when she’d come so close to losing her life already? It wasn’t like she’d booked the flight. “So can you pick me up if I decide to come back now?”
“Oh, thank God. You scared the shit out of me. What happened? You and the Boy Scout have a fight? It was just a matter of time. I told you not to go with him.”
“Yeah, yeah, you can gloat about being right when I get home. I’m not even sure I’m leaving, but I’m going to check on flights so I know what my options are. I’ll call you right back when I’ve figured it out. I can call Fido if you can’t make it, but I need some girl time.”
“You don’t need to call Fido. And you actually don’t need to call the airlines. I’m about five hours from Massachusetts. If you can hold onto your panties, I’ll pick you up and we can have a girls’ road trip home.”
Julie’s eyes widened. “What! What do you mean you’re five hours away? How could you know I was going to need you?”
Cal laughed. “I didn’t. I was coming to surprise you for your birthday. Happy birthday, by the way. So what did the jackass do? I never liked that guy.”
Even though he’d saved her life. Twice. Stupid thing to think about. Julie’s chest constricted. “Thanks. Uh, I can’t talk about it now. We’ll talk when you get here.”
“Will I need to kick his ass?” Cal asked. “Because I would be happy to do that.”
“You can save your tough girl routine. It’s not necessary. There will be no ass kicking and if there was, I would be more than happy to do it myself.”
“Sometimes you take all the fun out of living,” Cal groused.
“Yep. That’s me. Fun killer.” She couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t about lose control so she cut it short. “Look, I’m going to let you go. Drive safe. I’ll text you the address so you can plug it into your GPS.”
“Sounds good. See you tonight.”
“Bye, Cal. And, Cal... Thanks.”
“You got it. Trust me. It’s my pleasure. We’re going to make this a bang-up birthday.” She disconnected the call.
Julie stared at the black screen of her phone. Nothing beat the friendship of a best pal. Cal had always been there for her, helping her pick up the pieces when things in her life fell apart. She’d have to do something extra special for her, something that would really take her by surprise. Cal deserved it.
But as the seconds passed, her chest got heavy. She’d gotten her hopes up with this man. She would have sworn he was the one for her. Taking a deep breath, she shut her eyes and remembered the devastation on his face, the heartbreak in his eyes. How did he think
she
felt? God, what was she supposed to do? Just forgive him like it didn’t matter that he’d slept with her when he’d been working for the Nepalis, when he’d been paid to
watch
her
, when he’d lied to her about his profession?
She wasn’t an idiot. She knew everything he’d been doing had been about keeping her safe, but he’d done the one thing that hurt her most. So did she risk her safety and leave with Cal?
Her throat tightened, her chest constricted, but she’d be damned before she cried any tears.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Why didn’t you tell her about me?” Allen asked. He wasn’t sure if he was pissed or not, but he wanted to hear Carrie Ann’s excuse.
“I’m keeping you a surprise, remember? For her birthday. Wasn’t that the plan?”
“I guess. It sounded like something was wrong. What’s up? Is she upset?” Frustration and anger already were making his stomach twist. This trip was more brutal than he’d anticipated, but he’d kill anyone who upset Julie.
“The dickwad she came up here with did something. I don’t know what. She wouldn’t tell me.”
“So we’re kind of saving the day. I like that.” It would be the first of many times where he’d save the day for her. She wouldn’t ever want to be without him.
“Feeling like a hero, are you?” Cal’s smirk mocked him.
“Why do you do that? Why take something said out of kindness and make fun of it?”
She glanced at him. “Wow, taking a shot to the kidneys, eh?”
“I’m serious. There’s like this rage in you, but you only let it out in little venomous spurts. It’s not especially attractive.” The killer look she gave him was meant to scare him, but it didn’t. “Fine. Be that way. You know, when we met, you seemed really happy and very focused, but the real you needs a little refining, if you don’t mind me saying.”
Carrie Ann’s killer look turned into a low chuckle as she set her sights back to the road. “Al, you crack me up. You really do.”
He didn’t like her tone at all. He’d given her every last chance to be halfway decent to him and she’d only gotten nastier and nastier. Fine. He could make the trip home with Julie all alone, and that was fine. In fact, once Carrie Ann had her little accident—whatever he decided it would be—Julie would be glad to have a shoulder to cry on. Meeting under such difficult circumstances would bond them in a way that nothing else could. Perfect.
The closer they got to their destination, the quicker the time ran out on Carrie Ann’s life.
“How is this surprise going to work anyway?” he asked. Maybe if he knew her plan, he’d be able to make one of his own.
“I guess we still need to figure that out, don’t we?” Carrie Ann said with a nod. “You should probably stay in the car when I pull up. I’ll go in first so I know what’s going on. Then I’ll give you a sign and bring you in.” Her cell phone beeped. “That’s probably Julie texting me the address. She is efficient, I’ll give her that.” She hit a button on her phone and activated the car’s Bluetooth. “Call Drew,” she said. A few seconds later a phone rang. Voice mail told the caller to leave a message after the tone. “Drew, it’s me,” Carrie Ann said. “I told you I’d get the address. So don’t worry. I’m on my way there now. Everything’s going to be fine. I promise.” She disconnected the call. “You want to put the address in my GPS?”
Allen snatched her phone from the center console and accessed her texts. He entered the address into her system. The car hit a bump and his finger hit the Internet. Her last search popped up on the screen. Al Gates. She’d been searching him. He shouldn’t be surprised, but somehow he was. After spewing the name Gates, he hadn’t thought to go home and search the name himself.
She snatched the phone out of his hands. “What are you doing?” She looked at the screen. “Do you often find the need to Google yourself?” she asked.
It was taking a risk, but he wanted to know what she’d found. Or thought she’d found. “Well, you did. I guess I should ask
you
that question.”
“Other than some Facebook pages and other social media sites and businesses, I couldn’t find any mention of Al Gates having to do with computer software. Want to explain that?”
Explain it? “I don’t have to prove myself to you. The work I do is highly competitive and therefore highly top secret. You’re not going to find my name all over the place in regards to my job.” Let her try and argue that.
“Bullshit.” Her grin carried all the confidence of a woman with a secret. “If you were the big hotshot you claim to be, I’d have found something on you. Hey, I don’t care, one way or the other. I don’t know where you get your money and I don’t care how you live your life, I just know you’re not who you say you are. You are no relation to Bill Gates so don’t even try to use that one again.”
If he hadn’t fooled her with the name, then why had she brought him on this trip? Decision time. Deny all of it or some of it? He needed time to think this through, and he didn’t have it. “You’re right. I’m no relation to Bill Gates, but I do have a game that’s going to make me millions.” He was certain about that.
“Al...” She stated his name. “Al...let me guess. Short for Allen?” She said his name softly as if she needed to run his name through her head looking for something. “You sent those flowers to Julie in the hospital, didn’t you?”
His skin prickled. His face flushed. He felt it heat from the neck up. She knew. Stall. “What?”
She glanced at him and smiled. “You sent her that giant bouquet when she was in the hospital. Oh, c’mon. Don’t be embarrassed. Don’t deny it. She loved those flowers. Couldn’t stop talking about them. They totally made her day. C’mon, be honest. You sent them. I know you did.”
She loved them? “Julie loved them?” he asked. “Really?” He grinned. He couldn’t help it. The fact that Julie loved his arrangement made absolutely every minute with this bitch worth it, especially knowing he was going to see Julie in just a handful of hours.
“Oh yeah. She went bonkers over them. They must have cost you a fortune.”
“They did,” he admitted. But he’d spend that money again in a second.
“And the second bouquet at her house. Gorgeous. She loved those too. Why didn’t you sign your last name though? You were so cryptic. Of course, she loved the mystery. She eats that stuff up.”
“Really?” Allen turned in his seat and faced Carrie Ann. “She liked that?”
“Oh yeah. Well, she’s such a drama queen. Anything with production value is right up her alley.”
“She never really struck me as a drama queen,” Allen said.
Carrie Ann huffed. “Totally. But I have to ask this question. Why the big lie? Why the neighbor routine? I mean, you’re a nice guy, no reason to hide yourself, right? What am I missing?”
“You’re not missing anything. I just think she’d be more receptive to a neighbor than a stranger. I may be a stranger, but then so is the neighbor at the top of the hill. I’m not nuts. I’m just a man who wants to meet her.”
This time Carrie Ann laughed. “I love this. Oh my, God, this is too much. I am such an idiot. Hell, we have a car full of idiots this trip. Ah, Allie baby. What am I going to do with you now?”
“For starters, don’t talk about me like I’m not here and listening to you. Do not call me Allie and do not include me in your idiot rant, because I’m the furthest from an idiot you will ever meet.”
“I’ll have to argue that,” Carrie Ann mumbled. “But it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you will still be a giant-ass surprise for Julie when we arrive because I guarantee you she’s going to be blown out of the water.”
* * *
Troy sat in his car just out of sight of the cabin. He slammed his head against the seat rest three times, then smacked the steering wheel. Beating the shit out of his car wasn’t going to accomplish much, but he had to hit something. Almost four hours of waiting had turned him into a raging basket case. Four hours was usually considered a short wait time, but when the waiting revolved around Julie, every tortuous second hurt.
He had limited options. Find a hotel. Go to Zach’s place or stay here in the car and keep watch over the cabin from a distance. But no one knew they were here so it wasn’t like he needed to keep a physical eye on the property. Unless Julie tried to leave. Which, because she was so ticked off, she might. That knowledge killed him. The fact that he’d pissed her off enough to leave, enough to go back home alone and risk her life, ate him up inside. But she hadn’t bolted so far and if she was going to, then she probably would have by now.
He should’ve seen this coming, been more prepared. But shit, this exact thing was what he’d been trying to avoid. Seeing how badly she hurt—how badly
he’d
hurt her—made him want to crawl under a rock.
Sitting here for more hours beating the shit out of himself and his car wasn’t getting him anywhere. Julie hadn’t bolted like he thought she might. He needed to do something constructive like find out if the police in L.A. had a lead on the shooter and flower sender, but his cell phone had zero bars in this patch of the forest. The cell tower signal crapped out this far from the house and reception sucked. Every minute he spent here was another minute he could be helping to find the suspect.
Okay. Julie was a big girl. She could be in the cabin on her own for a while. Maybe a little distance would help her sort things out and Troy could make some calls and do some digging on his own. He’d been letting the police handle this, because his priority had been Julie. Now it was time to get some facts and get to work.
Twenty-five minutes later, Troy knocked on Zach’s door. His uncl—father opened up almost immediately, a large smile on his face.
“Hey, there. I never heard back from you so...” He caught the look on Troy’s face. “Everything okay?”
Didn’t he wish. “Not really.”
At Zach’s gesture, Troy walked into the small, but comfortable home he remembered well. It hadn’t changed much, unlike the cabin. The same wood paneling lined the walls and worn beige carpeting softened his footsteps. On the left, a large brown leather recliner and sofa faced the fireplace and big screen.
Troy got right to the point. “Julie and I had a fight. I’m giving her some alone time.”
Zach considered that for a second. “Booted you out, did she?”
Clearly his P.I. gene came from this man.
Gesturing toward the sofa, Zach sat in the recliner. “Happens to the best of us. What’d you do?”
Too antsy to sit, Troy paced. He didn’t see a reason to keep it secret. “I may have lied to her about my occupation.”
“May have?” Zach’s brows lifted. “Seems like either you did or didn’t. So you aren’t a bodyguard?”
“I’m a private investigator.”
The words registered with Zach and he looked up to the ceiling and sighed. “Of course you are. Because that’s what I needed to find you all those years.” He laughed ruefully. “And she’s pissed because...” Zach let the sentence trail off.
“Because I was hired by another man’s wife to prove Julie was sleeping with him.”
“And she just found this out?”
Troy nodded.
Zach rubbed his chin and clicked his tongue. “I guess everybody fucks up at one point or another. So, what’s your plan?” He lifted one bushy eyebrow. “You do have a plan, don’t you?”
“I’m going to let her cool off a little more, then go back.”
“She can’t stay mad at you forever. Didn’t she say you saved her life? She just needs a little reminder of that and she’ll get over being mad.”
Troy stopped pacing. “You honestly don’t know who she is?” he asked. At Zach’s blank expression, he continued, “Julie’s last name is Fraser.”
Zach’s eyes rounded like silver dollars. “Julie Fraser? Well, I’ll be a son of a bitch. I thought she looked like her, but I didn’t think she was
the
Julie Fraser. Wow. And now you’ve got her pissed at you?” Zach shook his head again. “Good luck with that.” A trace of grin curved his mouth.
“Yeah, thanks,” Troy muttered.
“Aw, I’m just pullin’ your chain. She’s a woman just like any other woman and you have to grovel like any normal man. It’s the way of the world. Just be honest and sincere. She’ll snap out of it.”
Troy sure as hell hoped so. “Thanks. Look, I need to make some calls, so...”
“Make yourself at home. Don’t mind me. I’m just going to go about my business and make some dinner. I’ll put a steak on the grill for you.”
Troy nodded as he checked the reception for his phone. Full bars. He forced himself to sit at the small kitchen table and called his contact at the LAPD.
Zach’s phone rang at the same time and he picked up. “Hey, Scotty! We still on for tomorrow?” He disappeared into the other room.
“LAPD. This is Bakofsky. Can I help you?”
“Bakofsky, it’s Mills. I know you just got back from vacation, but I was wondering if you had anything new on the Fraser case.” Troy normally didn’t get much help from any officer, due to department procedure, but he’d done a locate for Bakofsky a couple years back and the P3 officer owed him one. Now was as good a time as any to cash in.
“You must be psychic. I was just about to return your call.”
The hair on Troy’s nape stood on end. “Oh, yeah? What’s going on? You find something?”
“More like someone,” Bakofsky said. “We caught your sniper at the airport yesterday trying to board a jet headed to Boston.”
“How do you know it’s the right guy?” Troy asked.
“Plenty of reasons. For starters, his first initial matches up.
A
stands for Andrew. The kicker comes next. He tried to board the plane with a rifle, but his transport case wouldn’t lock and he had a fit at the gate when the agent wouldn’t give him a boarding pass. Security came in and took him aside. The guy freaked, folded like a puppet in interrogation. The rifle matched the weapon used in both shootings.”
“Who is he? What’s his full name?” Troy asked.
“You’re going to find out anyway, but you didn’t hear this from me,” Bakofsky said. “His name is Andrew Larkin. He’s twenty-five. Lives in Pasadena.”
Larkin. Larkin. Why did that name ring a bell?
Carrie
Ann
! Julie had told him her brother’s name was Drew. This had to be her brother. Andrew. So did she know about this? Shit. Troy needed to get back to Julie and tell her the news. This was going to devastate her.
“Thanks for the info. I owe you.”
“Actually, I think this makes us even. We left a message on Ms. Fraser’s home phone, but haven’t heard from her.”
“Yeah, she’s not at home, but I’ll give her the news.” Troy wiped a palm across his jaw. “I’ll give you a call after I talk to her.” He disconnected and didn’t budge an inch. Something didn’t sit well with him. How did Larkin know to book a flight to Massachusetts? How had he found Julie’s location? Unless Julie had told Carrie Ann, and she’d told her brother. If Larkin had tried to board the plane yesterday, how long had he known where they were? They’d only hit town two days ago.