Diners, Dives & Dead Ends (34 page)

When he released me, I sank
down in the chair.  He, however, didn’t go back behind the desk, but instead
leaned against it, his leg brushing mine.  Boldly, I crossed one leg over the
other, bringing my calf to rest against his and raised an eyebrow.

He left his leg where it was
and crossed his arms over his chest, to show that touching me didn’t bother
him.  I leaned back and smiled, showing him that I wasn’t bothered by his not being
bothered. 

He held out his hand.  “Now.”

I wagged my finger.  “Not so
fast.”

His expression shuttered and
his nostrils flared slightly.  Seeing him lose his shit was a bit satisfying. 
A lot scary, but a little satisfying.

He scooped up my purse and pawed
through it.  I didn’t like it.  I had tampons rolling around in there.  But still
I didn’t protest.  I knew it wouldn’t do any good.

He threw the bag to the
floor.  “I’m tired of playing games.”

“I am, too, actually.  Why
did you let me go last night?”  I had been wondering about it and it still
confused me.  I’d told him I had access to the hard drive, but still, he’d made
no move to detain me. 

“I don’t know,” he ground
out.  He glanced back at me, his jaw clenched.  “And you broke my antique
porcelain bowl.”

“Well you could have broken
Axton.”

“Yes, but the antique bowl
had value.”

I kicked the side of his leg
with my foot.  “That’s not even funny.”

“Do you see me laughing?  I
want what you stole from me.”

“I have the items I
borrowed—”

He scoffed.

“And I’ve made copies. 
Several of them.”

He crossed his arms, his
face grim.  “Of course you have.”

“They’ll stay hidden if you
leave me and mine alone.”   

“Or what?”  He leaned
forward, his hands bracing on the armrests of my chair.  He was all up in my
personal space.  And he smelled so good.   

“Or I will put all your
business on the internet, send it to all the major papers in the state.  It
will be on the city council website and any other place I can think of.”

His breath fanned my face. 
His eyes darkened to a rich amber gold.  “How do I know you won’t do that
anyway?” 

“You don’t.”  Having him
this close made me nervous.  I licked my lips and fought the urge to push him
away.  And draw him closer.  The soft cashmere of his sweater brushed against
my hand.

His gaze lowered to my lips
and stayed there.

“You’ll just have to take my
word for it,” I said.

He pushed off the chair and
straightened.  “How much?”  He walked back behind the desk and sat down.

“How much what?”

“How much is your silence
going to cost me?”  He was all business now.  Gone was the angry sexy
expression.  In its place was a cold professional businessman making a deal.

“I’ve already told you.  You
leave me and my family and my friends and all my acquaintances and anyone I’ve
ever met or talked to alone, and you’ll never hear from me again.”

“One hundred thousand?” he
asked, acting as if I hadn’t spoken.

“I just want to know we’re
safe.”

“One fifty?”

“Do we have a deal or not?”

“What’s your price, Rose?”

I stood up and leaned across
his desk.  Why could this man have me hot and bothered one minute then just
plain hot the next?  “I told you.  I want your assurance that we’ll all be
safe.  No more kidnappings.  No more threats.  Do you understand me?  You will
leave us the hell alone, and never,” I pointed my finger at him, “never mention
the name of my nephew again.”

He looked at me in silence
for several seconds.  “Deal.”  He stood and held out his hand for me to shake. 
I ignored it.

I picked up my bag and walked
out of his office, my head held high. 

I stalked to the front door,
past Henry and Cold Eyes, who shot daggers at me.  Noticing the bruise on his
Adam’s apple, I smiled at him sweetly and gave a finger wave.

Keeping my posture stiff
like only my mother’s daughter can, I walked to my car and opened the passenger
door.  On the seat was the backpack.  I pulled out the textbook that had
sustained the least amount of damage from the break-in. 

“We already checked the bag. 
The files weren’t in there,” Henry said from behind me.

“No offense, Henry, but
you’re not exactly a brain trust.”  I flipped my accounting book open to the
section I had painstakingly hollowed out with a utility knife earlier that
morning.  Inside were the folded pages I had stolen and the USB drives.  I’d
done the same thing to the Tolkien book I’d taken from Ax’s backpack.  I
flipped it open and removed the hard drive.

I handed them all to
Sullivan who looked at me impassively.  His gaze never left my face.  “Henry,
go inside.”

Henry scowled at me before
returning to the house.

“I expect you to keep your
word,” I said.

He smiled.  “I expect you
do.”

“I’m not bullshitting,
Sullivan.”

“It’s been a very
interesting experience meeting you, Rose.”

“One I don’t wish to
repeat.”  I slammed the door and my garbage bag window rippled, then I walked
around to the driver’s side.  My keys were hanging from the ignition.  Without
looking back, I got in the car and drove away.

Once I got on the highway, I
took a deep, deep breath.  My hands trembled so hard, I had to pull over to the
side of the road and count backwards from one hundred to keep from sobbing with
relief. 

It was finally over.  His
last words hadn’t been encouraging, but nothing I could do about it now.  I
just wanted my life back.  I wanted to go back to class and hear Janelle bitch
about her ex, Asshat.  I wanted to see what crazy outfit Roxy would wear next. 
I wanted to hear about Axton’s defeat of alien warriors from his latest video
game.  I wanted Jacks to tell me the funny thing Scotty just said.  I wanted
normalcy.

When I felt steadier, I
drove to the college.  In the IT office, Eric was in his usual spot and Steve
occupied the corner, deeply engrossed in some crazy code bouncing across his
screen.  But Axton’s seat was empty.  My heart sank to my stomach.

“Where is he?”  I heard the
panicked edge to my voice.

“Hey, Rose,” Eric said.  “He’s
in the restroom.”  He stood from his chair and moved toward me.  “Are you
okay?  You look like you’re going to faint.”  He placed a hand on my arm and
gently moved me toward an empty chair.

Steve hovered behind him
with a water bottle in his hand.  “Here, drink this.”

I gave him a grateful smile
and twisted off the lid, taking a long drink. 

“Just breathe.”  Eric patted
my back.

Axton came through the door,
his gaze taking in the scene.  “What’s wrong?  Rose, you okay?”  He bent down
in front of me, placing a hand on my knee.

I burst into tears.  Axton
pulled me into a hug and I clung to him.  I buried my face in his neck and
sobbed.  I couldn’t quit.  The tears kept coming, along with little hiccups.

Axton soothed me.  “It’s
okay, Rose.  It’s okay.”

Finally, the tears tapered
off.  Eric squatted next to me and handed me a tissue.  Steve held the water
bottle I must have dropped at some point and rubbed my back.

I dabbed at my eyes with the
tissue and tried to delicately blow my nose.  Poor Axton’s T-shirt was
drenched.  “Sorry,” I said. 

“No worries.”  He flashed
his goofy grin.  “What’s a little snot between friends?”

I laughed a little.  “I
really missed you.”

“I missed you, too.  You’re
my hero, Rose.”  He kissed my forehead.

“Stop.” 

“No touchy feely stuff. 
We’ll set her off again,” Eric said.

Steve offered me the water
bottle.  I took it and drained it.

“All better?”  Eric smiled.

“Yeah.  Thanks.”  I looked
back at Ax.  “So, you’re not fired?”

“Took my urine test this
morning.”

“Good.  And by the way, I
think it’s all settled.  This Sullivan thing.”

Eric frowned.  “Did he
contact you?”

“I went to see him.  At his
house.”

Gasps all around. 

“Rose, what did you do that
for?”  Axton ran a hand through his swirly, shaggy hair, making it stand on
end.  “And why didn’t you tell us you were going?”

“I didn’t want anyone to
stop me.”

“That was a really dumb
thing to do, Rose,” Steve said. 

“I returned his files and
told him it would all go public if he didn’t leave me and mine alone.”

Eric smiled.  “You and
yours, huh?”

I blushed.  “You know what I
mean.  My friends and family are off limits if he wants all that stuff to stay
buried.”

“Did he believe you?” Eric
asked.

“I hope so.”

Axton looked at me, his eyes
wide.  “You aren’t just a hero, Rosie.  You’re like She-Ra and Wonder Woman all
rolled into one.  I love you.”

I stared into those blue
eyes I’d missed so much.  “I love you, too.”

Steve cleared his throat. 
“I’m glad it’s over.  For your sake, Rose.  You’ll never have to see Sullivan
again.”

I glanced up at him and
shrugged, thinking about Sullivan’s parting shot.  “I guess we’ll see.  I think
I need to go home and get some sleep.”  I stood up and hoisted my purse on my
shoulder.

“Sure you don’t want to go
celebrate, Rose?  Let’s go to The Carp,” Axton said, “and I’ll ply you with
margaritas.”

“How about Friday?”

“You are so on,” he said.

If I could bottle the dull
personality that is Assistant Professor Carter and sell him to insomniacs, I’d
be a millionaire.  And perhaps win some kind of medical award.  Sadly, I
couldn’t do that, so instead I doodled in my notebook during accounting class,
in an effort not to die of boredom.

During the break, Janelle
filled me in on her kids, Asshat, and his skanky new girlfriend, Flat Ass. 
Chicken Licker was history.

Same shit, different day. 
And I loved every normal, routine, ordinary minute of it.

I drove home feeling lighter
than I had in days, maybe even months.  With Axton, Pack, and Sullivan out of
the way, I could concentrate on what I’d been avoiding.  My own future.

The last two weeks proved to
me how much I can accomplish when I’m proactive.  I’d been sleepwalking through
the last few years of my life.  A big part of it was a screw you to my parents,
but it was time to grow up and move on.  Time to pick a major and go for it.  Get
a degree, maybe even a job with a nice perk package, although I didn’t want to
think about leaving Ma and Roxy.  But a bigger apartment with a separate bed
and sofa would be nice.   

I pulled into my parking lot
and automatically scanned for any wayward underlings.  All clear on that
front.  It might be weeks before I dropped that habit.

As I approached the
entrance, a man stepped out of the shadows.  “Hey, Rose.”

I froze for a second, then
breathed a sigh of relief.  “Steve, what are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you.”  He
pushed at his glasses, the parking lot lights reflecting off the lenses.  “I
thought you might like to grab a cup of coffee.”  He walked toward me with a
crooked smile.

“It’s really late.”

Disappointment and anger clouded
his features.  “You’ll never have time for me, will you?  Not like Axton or
that lawyer or Sullivan.  What more do I need to do to get your attention?”

Awareness hit me and in a
flash I knew.  God, had I been stupid.  Steve broke my car window.  Steve
trashed my apartment.  “It was you,” I said.

The look on his face scared
the crap out of me.

I turned to run, but he
jerked me back by my ponytail.  “Why not me?”  He rubbed his cheek against
mine.

I screamed and he slapped a
hand over my mouth.  “Shhh, be still,” he whispered.  He let go of my ponytail
and snaked his arm around my still bruised ribs and squeezed.  He began pulling
me away from the building.    

I kicked at him with my
heels, tried to pry his hand off my mouth, tried to bite his palm.  It didn’t
matter.  He was much stronger than he looked.  He carried me to his car as if I
was no more than a toddler throwing a tantrum.  He’d parked around the back of
the building where the dumpsters were.   

His arm still around my
waist, he released my mouth and I screamed.  When he slapped his hand over my
mouth this time, he wasn’t as gentle.  “Shut up, Rose,” he said, calmly.  “I
don’t want to hurt you, but I will.”

Steve-freaking-Gunderson was
kidnapping me.