“Leave me alone!” I yelled.
“Alec said to—”
“I don’t care what he wants.” I tried to pull away, but Zoe’s grip tightened. I swore I felt my circulation stop.
“He’s trying to protect you,” she growled.
“You don’t know anything about what’s going on.”
Her expression wiped clean, like chalk off a blackboard. I had no idea what she knew, but apparently, I’d hit on something.
“He doesn’t trust you,” I added.
Something hardened in her eyes. “He sent me after you.”
“That was a real challenging assignment. Track down the bookkeeper.”
Her grip tightened even more.
I winced—and then I slammed my fist into her forearm. She grabbed my other wrist.
“Miss Summers.” The voice was a hardened growl, like a boulder being dragged across cement.
She turned. Alec was walking up behind her.
“What in the hell are you doing?” he asked.
“She was trying to get away.”
“Which was apparent by the fact that she left. My instructions were simply to find her.”
He was right next to us now. He didn’t look at me. His eyes were no longer puddles in stone; they were frozen and covered with shards of ice. I swore I could almost see the fissures in the surface, as if his rage pounded at the ice from underneath.
“I’m sorry, s-sir…” she stammered.
He shifted his gaze pointedly to her hands. She let go, and I stepped back and flexed my hand to bring blood back into it.
His gaze flickered to my hand and then back to her. “Go.”
She hesitated as she glanced at me.
“I’ll handle this,” he growled. “Go.”
“Yes, sir.” She walked away, back down the street.
I glanced past him to her. She was going to have to walk past that group of young men.
Alec’s voice muted, more like the gentle patter of pebbles tricking down a rock face. “She’ll be fine.”
I focused on him. His eyes were mostly melted, maybe just a little ice around the edges.
“She’s well-trained,” he added.
I glared at him. “Obviously.”
He hesitated. Then he nodded toward my hand, now massaging my wrist. “Are you all right?”
I let my hands fall to my sides.
“Do you need medical atten—”
“I’m not a china doll.”
He paused. “No, you’re not.”
“And I don’t need to be babysat like a five-year-old.”
“I understand.”
Agitation crawled up my spine, like a rock climber with a pickaxe. Alec wouldn’t argue with me—and I couldn’t stop looking at him. His top two shirt buttons were undone, showing how his neck curved gracefully down to the clavicle notch at the top of his chest. His beard growth shadowed his jaw line, and his eyes were dark like caverns with the lack of light. I wanted to move closer and try to peer into the caverns.
I kept my expression level. “I’m leaving. I already bought the ticket.” I turned to walk away.
He stepped into my path, but didn’t touch me. “It’s not safe.”
“The bus is headed across the state. And then I’ll take another. Dean will never find me, and he’ll lose interest once he sees I’m gone.” I turned to walk the other way, around him.
He cut me off again.
“Get out of my way.” I shoved at his chest. He didn’t move, not even half a step. It felt like those dreams of powerlessness, how I could never run fast enough or muster any decent amount of strength. “Move!” I screamed as I shoved again. It was like trying to shove a boulder.
“Adriane,” he said gently, “you don’t know what you’re dealing with.”
That was the problem, but it wasn’t about Councilman Dean. “And you do?”
“I have the resources to keep you safe—and to make sure he’s put away.”
“I thought you said you were legitimate.”
He raised his chin. “I’ll do what I have to do.”
“Why?”
He tilted his head.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “You don’t even know who I am.”
“Your father worked for the Kadens. We’re loyal to—”
“Bull.” He expected me to believe he was expending this much effort just because I was his father’s ex-accountant’s daughter? Right.
He paused again.
I didn’t know how much longer I could look at him and keep my attitude. I knew, in order to survive, I needed to get away from him. His presence did too much to me. I didn’t know how to deal with it—I didn’t even completely understand it. Sometimes I liked numbers better than people. People rarely made sense.
“I promised I would keep you safe,” he finally said.
“What if I release you from your promise, tell you I don’t want it?”
“I’m asking,” he said, “not ordering. I never meant to make you feel imprisoned. I’m sorry for that.”
He sounded so sincere… I hated how he did that, made me believe everything he said.
“I’m requesting that you come back,” he said, “but it’s your choice.”
“But you wouldn’t let all this drop, just walk away.”
“No,” he said. “I would make sure Dean never touched you.” His jaw clenched.
“If I leave town, he won’t touch me. I’ll be out of the equation, like you said you needed.”
“He would not simply forget about you. It’s my belief he has connections across the country. Your leaving would only make my job of keeping you safe that much more difficult.”
Which would put him in even more danger. Adriane, you dummy, you’re worried about putting him in danger?
“Why are you doing this?” I demanded.
A long pause. He kept eye contact. “Dean and I have history.” His voice was low, like lava under the Earth’s hard crust. “I want him dead, but I’ll settle for prison.”
“So, you’re using me.”
His eyebrows pulled together. “No.”
“You can use what I found to help put him away.”
His chin slowly rose. “Yes.”
There was something more. I saw in his eyes he still wasn’t telling me everything.
“Will you come back?” he asked.
I looked past him to the bus now pulling into the station. Its brakes squealed. He glanced behind him to the station then back to me.
“Nonstop to Spokane leaving in five minutes,” the loudspeaker said.
“Don’t treat me like a child,” I said.
“I promise I was only ever trying to protect you.”
The bus rumbled in the background, and I heard as people started clambering on, with their bags. The sun continued to rise. It tumbled over the city’s skyline behind me and flashed across Alec’s face. I swore I could see through his eyes to exactly what was in his mind—he was honestly trying to protect me. No matter what else was going on, I trusted he was being truthful about that. And it would be stupid of me to deny help when I was ignorant of the players in the game. Maybe if I stayed with Alec, I would be able to figure the details, how to protect myself from Dean.
“All right,” I said.
“Thank you.”
I started walking back toward the station. He slipped off his suit jacket and draped it around my shoulders. “Are you warm enough?”
“Fine.” His scent wafted to me from his jacket, warm and musky.
“Leave your hood up and keep looking at the ground.” He matched my pace and stayed close to me. Then as we approached the group of boys just outside the bus station platform, he moved a little ahead of me. There was a gun tucked in his belt. For one wild second, I thought about grabbing it.
As Alec approached, the boys all looked at him with expressions of recognition and even fear. They scattered, and they didn’t call after me this time. The fear that had pounded through my chest all night was gone.
He led me to an SUV parked along the road just outside the station. He held the door for me, and I climbed inside. No one else was in the car, except Anthony in the driver’s seat. Alec sat next to me and closed the door, and the car immediately lurched forward.
I put my hood down and looked over at Alec. “Will Zoe get back all right?”
His voice was hard. “She’ll be fine.”
***Alec***
She was sitting next to him, by choice, and Alec felt confident she wouldn’t try to run. He could breathe again. He was impressed with Adriane, at how she had avoided detection and made it all the way downtown, on foot. He’d underestimated her. He couldn’t afford to do that again. He, of all people, should know better.
He worried his anger at Zoe had bothered Adriane, but she seemed fine, calmly watching the freeway flash by. Thankfully, Adriane didn’t ask more about Zoe.
As the car turned onto the road that led up into the hills, Adriane’s posture drooped; her head leaned against the seat. Her breathing was deep, the first time she had relaxed in his presence.
He took the opportunity to appease his conscience. He took his phone out and dialed.
“Yes, sir,” Zoe answered in a tight voice. When Alec had first met her, he’d thought it was funny someone had hired her to be a waitress, to be in any kind of hospitality position.
“Are you all right?”
She paused, and her voice calmed. “Yes, sir.”
“Miss Graham was worried about you.”
“Tell her not to.” Then she added, “Sir.”
“You needn’t call me ‘sir’.”
“Oh.”
“None of you are required to.”
She hesitated. “Yes, sir.”
He rolled his eyes. “If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to speak with Vincent.”
Her voice tightened. “Yes, sir.”
He ended the call. Fucking great. She seemed more pissed than before. He just had to accept that he possessed no ability to put people at ease. He’d gotten on much better with Zoe when he was a teenager and she’d worked in that shitty diner off Cheney Street. Of course, his goal at that time was not exactly to put her at ease.
Adriane shifted slightly in her sleep, and he looked over at her peaceful face.