“What the hell is going on there?” Royce asked.
“Not a damn thing you should be concerned about. Go make love to your wife and leave me the hell alone.”
“No go, brother. I’m halfway home already in an airport. Jesse called me and yes, he told me everything, and yes, he’s packing his things. I didn’t want him to until we could all talk, but he’s insisting.”
“You won’t hear me argue his departure,” Luke said. “And as for what’s happening, since you’re already on our way home, I’ll be damn happy to have you here. Blake and I need backup we trust.”
“Oh hell,” he grumbled. “Just a second.” Luke heard him talking to Lauren before he returned. “Our flight was cancelled. We won’t be there until tomorrow around noon. Don’t go getting killed on me or I’ll dig you up and make your afterlife hell.” He hung up.
“He’s coming home,” Blake said before Luke could say anything.
“He is and as much as I hate interrupting him, we need him.”
The ferry sounded a warning as they approached the dock. “I’ve already told Murphy I’d update him when we get to land. We don’t need anyone from the task force anywhere near our place unless it’s absolutely necessary. We’ll be watched.”
Julie headed their way and Blake pushed off the wall. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds on your own.” He sauntered forward and Julie stepped to Luke’s side and held up his keys. “I stole your truck. It’s in the parking lot.”
He pocketed the keys. “We’ll take a cab. I’d hate to spoil a night of surviving danger to get blown up in my own truck.”
“I don’t really want to get blown up in your truck either. I guess that’s one thing we still agree on.”
“Let’s get off the boat,” he said instead of what he really wanted to say, which was that they agreed on a lot of things, but he just wasn’t sure they agreed on where they were going together. When she’d told him she needed him, he’d thought they did. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
***
Julie slid into the cab and Luke joined her. Any relief she felt over escaping for the night alive was replaced with turmoil over Luke and Jesse.
He slid in beside her. “Jesse called Royce and he and Lauren are already in an airport on the way back.”
“Oh no,” she said, reaching for her purse to pull out her phone. “I have to stop them.”
“Too late,” he said. “They’re stranded at their first stop. Their flight was cancelled. They’ll be in tomorrow.”
Julie felt the crush of reality. She’d dragged Luke into this mess. Destroyed Jesse’s career and now her best friend’s honeymoon. And there was nothing she could do to fix it.
By the time they’d completed the ride in complete silence, Julie wanted to burst through the cab door when they stopped. She needed to think. She needed to do something to make everything right. Escape was impossible. She was at Luke’s apartment, and standing outside his door while he unlocked it, she tried to figure out what to say or do.
He shoved open the door and let her enter before coming in and going straight to the kitchen. She stood there, trying to decide what to do. Never before in her life had a man made her feel the way Luke did.
She followed him, still without a plan. He was leaning against the counter doing absolutely nothing. She leaned on the doorframe. “I don’t know what to say.”
“And therein lies the problem. I know exactly what I want to say, and where I want this to go. You don’t.”
“That’s not true.”
“Then tell me.”
His expression was stony, his words cold. She told herself it was because she’d hurt him. Told herself to get past it, but he didn’t seem receptive. In fact, he seemed like he’d already made up his mind that he was done. “I hate that I pulled you into this.”
“Wrong answer,” he said, and pushed off the counter to open the fridge. He grabbed a beer and twisted the top. “I’ll be downstairs in the offices if you need me.”
“It’s two in the morning,” she said, glancing at the time on the microwave.
“I’m not tired.” He sauntered toward her and stopped in front of her, waiting for her to move. He was so close she could reach out and touch him. She wanted to, oh how she wanted to, but she didn’t. She told herself to do it, to touch him and to hug him and to tell him how much he meant to her. She opened her mouth to say it, but somehow she didn’t. She backed up and let him pass. She let him walk out of the apartment.
Julie stood there, barely able to breathe, thinking of how it had felt when she thought he’d let her walk away that day they’d gone to lunch. She rushed for the door and stopped dead in her tracks when she heard Luke and Blake talking. She let her head drop to the door. Now was not the time for confessions and she knew it. She had to wait until he got back.
But an hour later, she lay in the bed waiting and he didn’t come back. Then another hour later. And yet another.
Chapter Twenty-Four
There was darkness, so much darkness, and she was cold. Her bones were brittle and her body ached. She stretched and tried to move, only she was trapped. She tried to roll over but she hit a wall. Panic rose inside her and she started to kick and punch until her knuckles ached and she could feel the blood oozing from them, and a wave of heat suffocated her. She screamed as flames surrounded her, as the fire burned the ice in her veins...