“Don’t try and call the lawyer for help either. We have people watching him in case you decide to be difficult. He’s our plan B.”
At the reminder that Quaid was in as much danger as my parents were, I suddenly had an idea. It wasn’t the best plan in the entire world but it was the best I could come up with given the circumstances.
“All right, I’m headed out to the SUV. I’ll give you what you want.”
“See how easy that was? And to think everyone told me you weren’t a smart girl.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and tightened my fingers around the phone. “Not smart enough to keep everyone I love out of another one of my fuckups. I’m leaving now.”
I hung up the phone and whirled on Rome and Church. “I need you guys to head over to my mom’s house. My dad really needs your help with something.”
I felt guilt threaten to choke me as words shot out at them. I couldn’t call the police, but I could send two highly trained former military men to the rescue. I had to do it without alerting them to what was really going on because there was no way they were going to let me out the door if they discerned what was waiting for me on the other side of it.
“Um, yeah, he’s run into a situation and he needs you both there. I have to go back to the courthouse. They have more questions for me. Jared’s attorney even sent a car. I have to go.” I rushed towards the front door with both of them calling my name and moving after me as I did so. I looked over my shoulder and told them, “Also, you need to hurry and don’t try and call him because he won’t be able to answer.”
“What in the actual fuck just happened, Avett?” Rome officially lost his patience and I had to dodge out of the way as he reached for me.
“Go to the house … and you both need to be very, very careful. It’s a bad situation and you’re the only ones that can help him, so promise me you won’t call the police. If you do, his situation is going to go from bad to worse. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?” They both gave me hard looks, accompanied by angry and confused scowls. “When you get there tell him I’m sorry. So sorry.”
I pushed through the door and hit the parking lot at a run with both of them hot on my heels. I saw the big, black SUV idling on the street and made a beeline for it as my heart crawled into my throat. I grabbed the back door handle and looked back at Rome and Church, both of whom had their phones to their ears as they paced the asphalt like uncaged predators. I should’ve known they wouldn’t listen to me after my less than subtle freak-out and all I could do was hope they didn’t call the police before going to check on my dad themselves. As I was getting into the SUV I screamed, “Stay safe!” and hurled myself into the backseat and the unknown. I would never forgive myself if something happened to either of them but I had to do something.
A guy that couldn’t be much older than me sat in the seat next to me and I tried not to throw up when my gaze landed on the wicked-looking gun that he held in his hand. The driver turned around to look at me through mirrored sunglasses and the passenger turned around to smirk at me. I recognized him from the attack at Jared’s apartment and everything inside of me froze and went startlingly numb.
“Where to?”
The driver pulled the big vehicle into traffic as I gulped and tried to make my unresponsive body respond. I curled my shaking hands into fists on my lap and kept my eyes locked on the gun that was trained, unwavering, right on my side.
“Do you have a full tank of gas?” I finally got the words loose and they had both the men in the front seat turning to look at me.
“Why?”
I exhaled and could taste terror and panic bright and crisp across my tongue.
“Because we’re going to the mountains.”
Not just any mountains. We were going to go to Quaid’s mountains. I was going to take these thugs on a wild-goose chase so I could hopefully buy Rome and Church time to help my parents out. There was a pretty good chance I wasn’t going to see tomorrow, and if that was the case, I was going to spend my last moments in the place where I fell in love and felt more loved than I ever had.
It was the easiest decision I ever made.
CHAPTER 17.5
Church
She told you not to call the cops.”
I shot Rome a look out of the side of my eye. It had been a long time since the big man had been my CO but some habits were hard to break, and ever since I came to Denver to work for him I often found myself looking to him for direction and guidance. The man had saved my life more than once, so it was a rare occasion I questioned him. That’s why I was sitting next to him in his big-ass truck as he raced across town towards Darcy’s house based on nothing more than Avett’s cryptic words and odd behavior. He thought something was wrong and I hated to think he was probably right.
He tossed his cell phone on the seat next to him and met my look with one of his own. The scar that bisected his eyebrow and slashed across his forehead always made him look fiercer and more terrifying than he actually was. Rome had settled into full-on civilian life since leaving the Army. The man had a forever kind of girl and a growing family, not to mention he was pushing paper and paying bills like an average Joe, instead of doing things that a man trained to kill in a variety of ways could be doing with his time. Maybe I should envy him. It was clear Rome had found not only peace but his place since getting out, but none of that was for me.
In fact, speeding towards the unknown, handguns stealthily tucked away as we tossed around various hostile situations that could be waiting for us when we reached the house, was the most alive, the most invigorated, I had felt in way too long. I wasn’t sure what kind of sick fuck that made me—the fact that I missed dodging bullets and the sounds of bombs going off way too close to where I was trying to sleep, but I did. What I didn’t miss were my friends dying and fighting a war that felt like it would never end. If I never had to make another phone call to a surviving wife and family again, I would be a happy man. A bored man, an unfulfilled man, but a happy one. I was pretty sure I wasn’t hiding that the only part of bouncing at the bar I liked was knocking heads together when idiots got out of line and the daily back and forth I had with Dixie.