The Tangled Series Complete Digital Boxed Set (Bad Boy Rock Star, Millionaire, and MMA Fighter Bundle) (50 page)

“The batter isn’t good for you,” I reminded her. “Raw eggs, you know.”

“But my friend Jackie’s mom lets her do it,” she pouted.

“I’m sorry, honey. You might get a tummy ache.” I looked at Arlene, who was smiling at Emma sympathetically. “Maybe you can have a couple licks of the frosting, though. If Arlene lets you.”

Arlene’s eyes widened. “Of course she can. The frosting is the best part anyway. Right, Emma?”

Emma grinned. “That’s right!”

“Let’s go inside and change out of your school clothes,” I said to her. “Then, I’ll walk you over to Arlene’s.”

“Okay,” she said, taking my hand and leading me toward the house. She looked over her shoulder. “Arlene! I’ll be over in a minute. Don’t start the cake without me!”

Arlene laughed. “Don’t worry, dear. I wouldn’t dream of it.” 

Thane

I was just stepping out of the shower when my cell phone rang. Naked and dripping, I pulled the towel around my waist and picked up my phone, which was near the sink. It was Sera.

“Hi, what’s up?” I said into the phone.

“About tonight… Emma is having dinner next door with Arlene. So, I was calling to cancel our plans.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“Because, I’m not really hungry and I think I’m going to just take a bath and veg out for a while.”

I pictured her naked, in a bathtub and thought about taking another shower. This time much colder. “You’re seriously just going to veg out?” I replied, trying to erase the image of Sera, naked and glistening with water, out of my sex-starved brain.

“Yes. Is that okay? I’m extremely exhausted.”

“I made reservations. For Oceanside. Had to call in some favors, actually. That place is hard to get into. You have to make reservations usually about two months in advance. And that’s just for weekdays. Sorry, but you’re not backing out that easily.”

She didn’t say anything.

“Come on, Sera. You should really eat. Your daughter needs you to be healthy and strong for her, right? Plus, think of it this way – we can be together if Fred calls.”

“I don’t know. Emma is supposed to be back here by eight.”

“Oh, hell, I’ll have you back before then. We’ll tell them that we need to hurry at the restaurant.”

“Would that really make a difference?”

“It will if I tell them.”

She laughed. “You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“The only thing I’m sure of is that my dinner reservations are not going to be canceled and I’m not calling my buddy up, who had to do some finagling to get us in. He’ll chew my ass out. Now, you and I are going to dinner… and that’s final.”

“Those are fighting words,” she teased.

I grinned. “Damn right they are. Now, if you really are psychic, you’ll know how angry I’m going to be if you’re not ready for me by six o’clock.”

She laughed. “Fine. I’ll be ready.”

“Good.”

“By the way, did you receive any calls from Fred yet?”

“No. I’d have called you.”

“I figured. Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you in about forty minutes.”

“You’re damn right.”

***

Thirty-five minutes later, I pulled up to the house, and as I was getting out of my car, she walked outside.

“Damn,” I muttered under my breath as she drew closer.

She was definitely a vision. One that I hadn’t been prepared for.

Earlier, Sera had been wearing tan slacks and a simple white blouse. She’d since changed into a strapless white dress that hugged her curves and stopped at her shapely thighs. Add a pair of high-heeled silver sandals and an ankle bracelet, and I knew there was trouble brewing under my zipper. One that even a cold shower wouldn’t be able to quell.

This was a bad idea
, I told myself, stepping around the car to open the door for her. Taking one of my employees out to dinner. One who looked like her and was already getting under my skin.

“Hi,” she said, looking slightly flushed.

I forced a smile. “Wow, look at you. Quite a change from earlier.”

She looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry, is this appropriate? I wasn’t sure how to dress. I figured, since it was seafood and hard to get into… I’d better forgo my normal clothes. I don’t really go out much and this is really the only summery dress I own,” she babbled, obviously nervous.

“You look fine,” I said tightly. I was angry, but not at her. This had been my idea and now I wanted nothing more than to drag her into the house, rip off that dress, and find out once and for all, what her real hair color was. 

“Are you okay?” she asked after I helped her into the car and then joined her.

I laughed coldly. Was I okay? Did she not have any idea of how gorgeous she was? Or how thankful I was that I’d worn my shirt
out
and it was covering a raging hard-on. “I’m fine.”

She stared at me and then folded her arms under her chest. “Okay, what’s wrong? Something is definitely wrong.”

I grunted. “Are you reading my aura now? Or getting some kind of psychic impression?”

Her eyes flashed angrily. “No, and would you quit goading me about that! Anyone with half a brain can read you because of that pissed off look on your face and that…” she pointed toward my lips, “that scowl.”

I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face. I was taking my frustrations out on her and it wasn’t Sera’s fault that she looked so totally… fuckable. “I’m sorry. Nothing is wrong. I’m just a little stressed out. This thing with Fred and Sam… you know how it is, obviously.”

Her shoulders relaxed. “I understand…. Uh, you know, I can go inside and change. If you think this dress isn’t appropriate for where we’re going.”

I wiggled my eyebrows. “Oh, it’s appropriate. I’m sure you’ll have the waiter drooling into our water.”

She blushed. “You look very nice, too,” she said, staring at my dark blue Tommy Bahama silk shirt.

I looked down and smirked. “Some would say we make a nice looking couple.”

Sera laughed. “If they only knew, right?”

If she only knew…

***

Sera

Thane pulled out of the driveway and there was an uncomfortable silence.

“Music?” he asked.

I nodded.

He pulled out his iPod. “What kind of music do you like?”

I shrugged. “A little bit of everything.”

He grinned. “Okay, let me ask you another way – if you’re alone in the car, what would you be listening to?”

“Probably pop music, although there are times when I feel like listening to Journey or the Eagles.”

“What about Bob Seger?” he asked.

I nodded. “My mom used to listen to him all the time. She loved him.”

“What about you?”

“I love him… because of her,” I replied truthfully.

“What was her favorite song?”

“She had many, but there was one song that still stands out, especially the last few months we were together, called ‘In Your Time’.”

He smiled. “Well, then, in honor of your mom…”

“You have it?”

“I have every one of his songs.”

Smiling, I sat back as it began to play and closed my eyes, remembering how mom would dance around her trailer with Emma, holding hands as they listened to the words to ‘In Your Time’. I could still remember Emma giggling as mom would twirl her under her arm and the joy on both of their faces. Thinking back at how happy and close we’d been in those last few months, made my chest tighten.

“You okay?” asked Thane over the music.

Smiling sadly, I brushed away a couple of tears and nodded.

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it, surprising me. The gesture warmed my heart and sent shivers of giddiness from my fingers, all the way down to my toes.  I knew he was just doing it out of friendship and to offer comfort, but a small part of me began to wish that it was something more.

He continued to hold my hand as we drove toward the restaurant and I stared out the passenger window, afraid to look at him. Afraid he would see something in my eyes. Something that would make him let go of my hand. Something that would scare him away. I didn’t want to do anything that would ruin this moment or break the spell, and I certainly wasn’t ready for him to let go. It felt good to actually feel safe with a man. One that affected me this way.

When the song was over, another song began to play – one that I also recognized, called “You’ll Accompany Me.” I held my breath as the familiar lyrics began to play. It was a song for lovers. A song of hope…

A gypsy wind is blowing warm tonight…
The sky is starlit and the time is right…
And still you're tellin' me you have to go…
Before you leave there's something you should know…
Yeah something you should know babe…
I've seen you smiling in the summer sun…
I've seen your long hair flying when you run…
I've made my mind up that it's meant to be…
Someday lady you'll accomp'ny me…
Someday lady you'll accomp'ny me…
Out where the rivers meet the sounding sea…
You're high above me now, you're wild and free… ah …but…
Someday lady you'll accomp'ny me…

Surprisingly, it wasn’t the song that made him let go of my hand, it was his cell phone.

“It’s Fred,” he said, turning down the music. “Here, I’ll put him on speakerphone.”

“Thane?” barked Fred’s voice over the intercom.

“I’m here. With Sera. We have you on speakerphone, so you might want to watch your language.”

I smiled. “Hi, Fred. What’s happening?”

He sighed. “Not much to tell, actually. I just wanted to check in.”

“No luck with the searches?” asked Thane.

“No, siree. But, there’s a lot of ground to cover. We’ll search until dusk and then resume tomorrow. I’ve managed to enlist about fifty people from the area.”

“That’s nice,” I said softly. The misery in Fred’s voice was heart-wrenching. I could tell he had already given up on finding Sam alive and that his only hope now was to find a body and any thread of evidence that would link Ray to it.

“What about Ray? Is he still in custody?” I asked.

He sighed again. “Yes, but just for the D.U.I. and the fact that nobody has bailed him out. Not yet, anyway.”

“What about Sam’s phone? Did they find it in Ray’s possession?” I asked.

“No. The son-of-a-bitch must be hiding it somewhere.”

“But, they have questioned him in regards to Sam being missing, right?” I asked.

“Yes. He’s playing stupid. He knows what he’s doing, that’s for sure. A sneaky prick. I’m still surprised he was arrested.”

“It doesn’t surprise me,” I replied. “He drives like a maniac when he’s drunk. The only thing that surprises me is that he hasn’t killed anyone by accident.”

“Or himself,” said Fred.

If only it were that easy to stop Ray
, I wanted to say, and then felt guilty. He was still Emma’s father and she would be upset if he was killed.

“What’s his reasoning for actually being in Seattle?” asked Thane. “He still lives in Wisconsin, right?”

“We think so. He said he thought Sera was still hiding Emma out here, thus the reason for the trip.”

“Yet, he claims he knows nothing about what happened to Sam.”

“That’s right and, unfortunately, we have no proof that he even paid Sam a visit.”

I sighed. “I’m so sorry, Fred. This is all my fault.”

“Don’t say that. It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s but Ray’s.”

“But if I wouldn’t have run away with Emma, your brother wouldn’t be… missing. Heck, he’d probably be happily married to my mother.”

“Now, you listen here… don’t you ever go blaming yourself. You
had
to leave. You had to get Emma out of there, too. This guy is dangerous and he’d have killed you eventually. No regrets, Sera. Everything happened for a reason. You, above all people, should realize that.”

“He’s right,” said Thane as we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. “It sounds like it took a lot of courage to leave a monster like that, and you should never blame yourself for his insaneness.”

“I know you’re right, but I keep thinking that maybe I should have went about it a different way.”

“From his behavior, someone would have still gotten hurt, so forget about what you think you could have done and just help us focus on getting this bastard,” said Fred. “If anyone can do it, I know it will be you.”

“Focus?” I repeated.

“Yeah, see if you can channel some of that psychic ability and… maybe you can actually help find Sam,” replied Fred.

I put my hand to my forehead. “I wish it was that easy,” I answered. “Like I’ve told you before, I can’t control what comes to me.”

Fred sighed. “I understand. If you do sense anything that will help, call me.”

“I will,” I replied.

“Okay. To be honest, I’m not sure at this point when I’ll be back in town. Might be a few more days.”

“Understandable,” said Thane. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on things at home for you.”

“Thanks, Thane,” he replied. “I appreciate it. I’m going to call Arlene back. She was baking with Emma earlier. Heard you two were going out for dinner?”

“Yeah,” replied Thane. “Thought it would be a good way to take our mind off of things for a while.”

“I don’t blame you. You two have fun and I’ll talk to you soon.”