Run From Fear (6 page)

The light in the penthouse suite was dim, the heady scent of gardenias filling the air. The silk of her dress rustled against her skin as she gazed out the window at the Seattle skyline. She smiled as the strong hands looped the delicate chain around her neck. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed as she held the diamond-encrusted platinum rose charm between her thumb and forefinger so she could better admire it.

A deep voice rumbled in her ear. “I wanted to give you something to remind you exactly what you mean to me.”

The voice sent a shiver of dread through her as the walls of the suite started to ripple. Suddenly the room changed, morphing from a luxurious hotel suite into a dank, cold dungeon. The scent of the flowers grew stronger, the sickly sweet scent threatening to suffocate her. The necklace tightened around her neck, digging into her throat, cutting through her skin.

She clawed at the chain, its razor sharpness slicing through her fingers as the chain sliced its way through her neck.

“Jack!” She tried to scream but nothing came out except a weak gurgle.

Talia jerked awake, her body bathed in a cold sweat, her breath coming in sharp pants. Her hand went automatically to her throat. Nothing. She let out a sound, half sob, half laugh.

Though her fingers and neck still tingled, there was nothing there. The necklace David had given her was long gone, taken from her body the day Jack had carried her, bleeding, from Nate Brewster’s hideous torture chamber.

She breathed deeply, reassuring herself there was no trace of the cloying gardenia scent in the air.

She swung her feet to the floor, groggily shuffled to the bathroom, and tried to sweep away the lingering images of David Maxwell from her mind. She couldn’t remember the last nightmare she’d had about him, but clearly last night’s scare had called one of her primary demons from the depths of hell to torment her.

You don’t feel safe, do you?

No. She hadn’t from the instant she realized she’d given her love, given herself to a monster. And now, even with him dead, it seemed she would never escape the cloud of fear he’d cast. She resisted the urge to spend the day behind a locked door and forced herself to keep with her regular routine.

She’d come too far, worked too hard to get her life to some semblance of normal. No way was she going to let a stupid raccoon send her back to that place where she could barely go to the grocery store without having a panic attack.

It helped that Rosie didn’t have class until the afternoon and had offered to hang out this morning. The fact
that her sister was unfazed by the nighttime visitor made it easier for Talia to get herself out the door to the boxing gym.

And the fact that Jack Brooks was somewhere in the vicinity, ready to drop everything to come to her rescue at a moment’s notice…

No, no way, you are not going there. Jack has done more than his fair share to save your ass. You haven’t been a pain in his side for nearly two years and you’re not going to start up again now.

Two hours later, Talia was feeling immensely better after an intense training session, energized from both the workout and the bucket-sized lattes she and Rosie had picked up on the way home.

But her postworkout euphoria vanished when she saw an unfamiliar car parked in front of her garage. Unbidden, irrational uneasiness consumed her. There was no reason to freak out, she told herself, just because there was a strange car in her driveway. Maybe the landlord sent someone over to do a repair, though he’d never sent anyone over unannounced before.

If that was the case, Talia would have to have a word. She didn’t care that she was merely renting. She didn’t like strangers, and she didn’t like being caught by surprise.

She parked on the street and walked up to the car and peered into the driver’s side window.

Empty.

“Who—”

She raised a hand and cut Rosario off as she walked up the path to the front door. Her stomach leaped to her throat as the door swung open just as she was reaching for the handle.

The realization that it was Jack, followed closely by a tall, muscular man Talia had met but whose name didn’t immediately come to mind, didn’t do much to quell the impending heart attack. She staggered back, hand up to her chest as Jack looked down at her.

“Shit. I was hoping to have this finished before you got back,” Jack said.

“Have what finished? What are you doing?”

“Jack wanted to make a few modifications to the security system.” His friend offered his hand with a flash of white teeth that might have charmed the pants off a normal woman. “I’m Ben Moreno. I don’t know if you remember me,” he said as his big hand swallowed the one Talia automatically offered. “We met a couple times at Suzette’s, when I came in with Derek and Alyssa.”

Talia nodded. “I remember now.” Every female in the place—besides herself, of course—had been tittering and buzzing around the table. Immune though Talia was, even she had to admit that between him and Alyssa’s husband, Derek, they’d provided quite the display of eye candy. “You work with Gemini, too, right?”

Moreno nodded and released her hand. “Since I just finished upgrading all of the employee residences, I told Jack I’d give him a hand with this.”

Talia gave her head a frustrated shake and hurried up the stairs. Ignoring Ben, she tried to keep her tone civil as she said to Jack, “We talked about this last night.”

Jack’s square chin jutted out another inch. “You talked. I decided to upgrade.”

“What, you thought I wouldn’t notice when the security system I use every day has changed?”

“Actually,” Ben broke in, “it’s designed to work seamlessly
with your existing system, so much so you wouldn’t have noticed if—”

He broke off at Jack’s icy glare. “Wow, I sure could use a cold drink.”

“I’ll get you something.” Rosario rushed past her, her cheeks already flushed as she basked in Ben’s lazy grin. Rosario wasn’t the first woman between the ages of eighteen and eighty to fall under the spell of that sexy grin and dark eyes, and she wouldn’t be the last.

Talia clenched her jaw. “I realize all of this is coming from a good place, so I’m trying really hard to stifle my inner bitch right now. But you had no right to go behind my back and do something like this without telling me.”

Jack folded his arms across his massive chest, about as giving as a block of granite. “It needed to be done. You weren’t going to let me do it. I found another way.”

“You bulldozed right over me is what you did,” Talia said. Her throat tightened at the thought of how he saw her—weak, afraid, easily controlled by someone bigger and stronger. “Did it ever occur to you,” she said, choking past the lump in her throat, “that maybe going behind my back and installing a secret security system isn’t the best way to make me feel safe?”

She held up a silencing hand when he would have responded. “I get it. I was in a bad place for a very long time and not far out of it the last time you saw me. But since David died, I’ve been taking care of myself and taking care of Rosie. I know you see me as someone who makes stupid decisions, but I’m not that girl anymore. You can’t just go behind my back and go against what I want just because you think you know what’s best for me.” She thumped her finger on his chest for emphasis.

Jack flinched, his broad shoulders slumping under his jacket. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think—”

But Talia was on a roll now, David’s control over her fresh in her memory after the nightmare. “Obviously,” Talia said, anger coursing through her. At Jack for going behind her back. At the way his presence brought everything bubbling back up to the surface, reminding her of the kind of person she’d once been. The kind of person he could never, ever see as an equal, worthy of his respect and lo–

She cut the thought off and lashed out. “What’s next? You going to install cameras in my bathroom so you can watch me shower? Trust me, Jack. This”—she made a gesture to her body—“is not even close to what it used to be, all scarred up and—”

“Shut up,” Jack bit out, his voice soft. He pressed his lips together and squeezed his eyes shut. When they opened, their familiar icy blue had given way to a stormy gray, dark and troubled. “I’m sorry. I never thought about it that way—”

“No, of course you didn’t,” she said, the anger draining out of her as she realized her arrow had more than hit its mark.

Jack didn’t deserve this. It wasn’t his fault she was damaged goods still trying to firm up her place in this new life of hers. “I’m sorry—that was a horrible thing to say. I had a really rough night after you left, and I shouldn’t take it out on you. Especially when you’re only trying to help. But you have to understand that all of this, being around you, having you do stuff against my wishes, it brings up stuff—”

“I get it,” Jack said curtly. “I’m hard for you to be around.” His face was carved in granite, and a muscle throbbed in his jaw. “As soon as I’m done, I’ll make myself scarce.”

Every cell in her body protested at the idea of saying good-bye again, but logically she knew it was for the best. She’d reached a good place in her life, a calm place. The emotional turmoil Jack caused just by showing up put all of that at risk.

Still, as she walked into the house, dropping her gym bag on the entryway floor, she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “That’s not what I meant. You just have to understand that I won’t be dictated to, and I won’t be walked over. No matter how much you’ve helped me in the past, you can’t just ignore me when I ask you not to do something.”

“You’re right,” Jack said as he followed behind her. “And I apologize. But—”

“No. You can stop at sorry.” When he opened his mouth to speak, she put her hand up. “And you can remove the new system.”

“Afraid that won’t be possible,” Jack said.

“Why not?” She turned to Ben. “Whatever you’ve done already, just undo.”

“Well, it’s not as simple as that,” Ben said as he rubbed a broad palm across the back of his neck. “It’s too complicated to explain, but if we rip out the new system, your entire system will have to be rewired. You’ll have to buy and reinstall a new security system.”

Talia could feel the muscles in her jaw throb. She was tempted to tell them to rip the entire thing out, but she knew it could take weeks for a new system to be installed. No way was she staying here without a working security system, even if the greatest threat to her security was the local wildlife.

“Fine. How much do I owe you?

“Nothing,” Jack said.

“How. Much.” She pinned Ben with a hard stare. When he didn’t answer for several seconds, she reached for her cell phone. “Fine. I’ll call Danny and ask him.” Somehow she didn’t think this was a sanctioned Gemini work order. “I’m sure he’d be more than happy to collect for the time and the equipment.”

Ben and Jack exchanged a look, confirming her suspicions.

She’d met Danny only a couple of times, but on both occasions it had been clear that while he was more than happy to help Rosario, the innocent victim in the mess Talia had made of their lives, he was helping Talia only as a favor to Jack.
You’d better be damn careful, pulling him into this mess of yours,
Danny had said the first time they’d met. No way would he be okay with Jack throwing her any more freebies.

Ben’s gaze darted between their matching glares. “Well, fully installed, this usually runs a few grand.” A warning grunt from Jack made him sputter, “B-but since I had most of the equipment already—”

“Never mind,” Talia said, and yanked her checkbook out of her purse and quickly scrawled out a check for five hundred dollars. The ripping sound echoed through the kitchen and she thrust it at Jack. “This is all I can afford right now. Have someone at the office get in touch and I’ll set up a payment plan.”

Jack crumpled the check in his hand.

“I swear to God, if that check doesn’t clear by the end of the week, I’ll rip out the system myself.”

“Jesus, Tal, why are you being such a hardass?” Rosario said. “They’re just trying to help us out.”

Talia whirled on her sister. “Because it’s not okay for anyone to come into my home and do things against my will and then tell me I should be grateful.” She winced inwardly at her shrill tone, could only imagine that Ben must think Jack was crazy for wanting to help a bitch like her. But she’d spent too long being pushed around, her entire existence under the control of one man. Now everything inside her rebelled at the idea of being manipulated, having her needs and wants ignored, even if it was motivated by the best of intentions.

“I’ve never demanded your gratitude, Talia,” Jack said quietly, his hand still fisted around the check.

Talia let out huff of laughter and felt her shoulders slump under an unexpected wave of sadness. “No, you don’t seem to want anything.”

For a second something flared in Jack’s eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. “I know you’re not happy with the way I did this,” he said softly. He nodded at Ben, who left with a quick wave for her and Rosario. “But maybe you’ll change your mind when you see the scratch marks on your garage door lock.”

Talia’s brow furrowed, a chill running through her as the impact of his words started to sink in. “It wasn’t a raccoon?”