Page 10 of Taking Root

Chapter Five

Dirt stained Danny’s hands, and sweat coated her in a second skin, yet she couldn’t be happier under the pulse of the late afternoon sun. On a normal day, the intense focus of planting seeds in the ground while tending to those that already sprouted took all her attention, but ever since the run-in with Adrian last weekend, she couldn’t get him off her mind.

The longing in his ocean eyes mirrored her own. His hands around her hips and the heat of his body against hers had felt too perfect. The clean scent of him, like the seaside breeze, reminded her so much of this place. Of home.

She burrowed into the dirt with a spade, transferring the coral bells into their beds. She’d replaced their greenhouse spots with snapdragon seeds for the summer. Those would grow into gorgeous fuchsia and violet blooms to frame the white tea roses nearby. Summer lay a mere three months away, but based on her track record and the fact she dangled as bait for her serial killer father, she wouldn’t linger long enough to see them bloom. She tugged at some of the vines that emerged, as twisted as her mind right now.

Danny wanted her father to show up and get caught so she could finally be free. She wanted it more than these plants needed the sun.

Yet she also dreaded his arrival with every ounce of her being. Time and time again, the Feds closed in on her dad, and he evaded them. She knew firsthand the levels of cunning he could descend to when he put his brilliant mind to action. And worse, if Kyle Peterson did appear, a trail of bodies would follow. Maybe hers.

Danny swallowed hard and finished piling the weeds high in the wheelbarrow before she rolled it over to the compost she’d set up in a gated-off area in the back. Given more time working for Natalie Horntree, she’d learned to tune her nasal voice out, and the shared exasperated glances with Cam gave her a necessary breath of relief. Her stomach rumbled, causing her to check her watch. Oh lordy, quitting time had passed. Time to swing by the grocery store and nab another Stouffer’s dinner for one.

Danny returned the equipment to the shed out back and wiped her sweaty palms on her dirt-stained jeans as she strode up the winding driveway toward Bella. The sun beat down, making her limbs loose and lazy even after a day’s worth of hard work.

A shadow stretched at the end of the driveway, and Danny froze. Her hand leapt for the piece tucked into the waist of her jeans.

Until Adrian Dukas stepped past the fringe of bushes, appearing at the bottom of the drive between her and Bella. A Mustang she assumed was his sat further down the street.

Shit.

Her jaw dropped at the sight of him. His olive skin glowed in the sunlight, and his brown leather jacket slung over his shoulder, revealing a black tee that looked criminal plastered to those gorgeous abs. Danny was licking her lips before she could help herself. He wore a cord necklace with a silver teardrop pendant, one she remembered from all those years ago. One she’d gotten him. The sight of it slammed into her like a one-two punch, knocking any thought of escape from her brain.

“Hey, stalker,” she called out, slipping her hands into her pockets as she approached. “Third time’s too much to be coincidence.”

Adrian shrugged, meeting her halfway up the driveway. He stopped in front of her, sunlit and real in a way that begged her to reach out and touch. The urge to grab his hand and run as far and fast as she could slammed into her like a pick-up truck.

He lifted his hands in defense. “Guilty. Unlike you, Camilla didn’t bolt at the club and happened to mention where the both of you work. Look, can we walk and talk?” Adrian cast a glance to the Horntree manor, which loomed in the distance like a disapproving parent.

Her rules choked even harder right now, and the fears of her father showing up messed with her head to the point she just needed any sort of distraction. And here Adrian Dukas stood in front of her making her body scream with need through mere existence. If she was going to dangle her life on the line as bait, then for once since her time in WitSec began, she’d steal what precious moments she could.

“Let’s go to Waterfront Park,” Danny responded, grabbing her keys from her pocket. “I’ll drive.” His tongue slipped out to wet his lower lip, and she couldn’t help how her thighs clenched at the sight.

“Lead the way,” he responded. She didn’t need to look back to know he followed.

Danny quickened her pace to the car, allowing time for the flush staining her cheeks to fade. Her pale skin betrayed her every time, but truth be told, even if he spoke in the same smooth, serious tone, and even if he stared at her with those adoring eyes, they’d grown into different people.

This was her chance to learn who Adrian Dukas had become, and even though she should’ve brushed him off again, curiosity was the mistress she’d never been able to deny. That and a home-cooked bowl of grits.

“Careful,” Adrian said, tapping his fingers on top of the car. “A walk by the fountains veers awfully close to date territory, and as you stated, that’s no dice.”

Danny cocked an eyebrow at him before she slipped into the driver’s seat of Bella, the blush fading from her cheeks. “Please. Don’t mistake stretching my legs for a walk with romance, Romeo.”

He snorted as he hopped into the passenger seat beside her, and she revved Bella’s engine. As she pumped the gas and sped off down the road, she couldn’t help the prickle across her skin at having him so near. Here in her car, he somehow seemed even closer than when they were grinding against each other in the club. His presence felt like the first plunge of a spade into fresh soil, a soothing she hadn’t realized she was missing.

“If you want me to back off, I will,” Adrian said, his solemn tone delivering a promise. “You pulled a Houdini back in the club, and after losing you in high school, I couldn’t rest easy if I let you vanish out of my life again without at least trying.”

Her grip tightened on the steering wheel as she soared across the highway, hoping the hundred miles an hour found a way to surpass the way her heart raced. Her throat tightened with emotions she thought had gone fallow years ago. “Nah, you read me right,” she said, the words coming out on tiptoes. “You always do.”

She shouldn’t be indulging in any of this.

She should be pushing him away as far and fast as possible. But the threat of her father loomed too near, and the idea of acting as bait had her short-circuiting any attempts at logic. If she were being honest, it had her pissed too. The misery march existence she’d led so far brought her to this, and Adrian was the one gasp of sunlight she grasped onto.

His shoulders relaxed as he sank into the seat. She was a twisted knot of need and regret, one too bungled to ever sort out. Her electronica pulsed in the background between them, the bass beats reverberating through the car.

“You mean people actually listen to this music outside the club?” Adrian asked, a smirk on his lips.

Danny cast him a pointed look and turned up the volume, letting the music blare through the car. He rolled his eyes, and the tension between them dissolved as her smile burst out, mirrored by his own. Gold streaked across the sky as the sun began to near the horizon line, moving closer and closer to the end of the day. Adrian Dukas should’ve been all sorts of off-limits, one hell of a gorgeous man wrapped head to toe in caution tape. However, his closeness scrambled any remaining reason.

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