Page 32 of Hacker Salvation

“No, Nate. I’m not ready. My stuff will be moved out of the house as soon as I find something, and for right now, I’m staying with Daisy.”

He took a step forward, and I held up my hand. “Nate, I’m not ready yet. Give me time. I was excited to see you were okay, but you let me take the fall for murder.” I turned and walked toward the car. I wasn’t in the mood to listen to his sob story. Someone was still out there, waiting for me.

John placed his hand on my back. He didn’t say anything. He was just there for me, and I was about to lose him. He had no reason to stay in California, other than my car issue that Neal said he was looking into.

When we both got into the SUV, it was silent. I could feel the tension. Neither one of us wanted to ask what was next, but one of us needed to. “John, what are we doing?”

He pushed the start button on the SUV and grabbed the steering wheel. “Lunch.”

“Lunch?”

“You never make decisions on an empty stomach, so where do you want to go get lunch?” He backed out of the parking lot and headed toward Rodeo Drive. I told him I wanted to hit one of the new farm-to-table restaurants. Neither of us spoke during the short drive to the restaurant.

When we sat down, John ordered a scotch. I took his lead and ordered a margarita. “Are we going to keep putting off the conversation?”

He leaned back in the chair. His black T-shirt stretched across his chest. He had his dark aviator glasses on, the same ones he’d worn on the day he picked me up from the station. I couldn’t see his eyes. I had no clue what he was thinking.

When he didn’t answer my question, I tapped my finger on the edge of my glass. “When are you leaving?”

John let out a sigh. “Brock needs me to head out of the country on a mission. I don’t know when yet.”

“Oh.”

He reached across the table and grabbed my hand. “Do you want me to come back?” John tugged my lip from my teeth. “I want to come back, but I also need to do my job. I want this to work. Do you?”

I let out the breath I was holding. “Yes. I just don’t know.”

The waitress used that moment to come back to the table. John and I both ended up ordering the daily special. Once we ordered, the waitress left.

“How do you see us making this work?” I asked. “My life is here, and yours is in Ft. Lauderdale.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes.” I didn’t even have to think about my answer.

John took a sip of his scotch. “Then we have nothing to worry about. I plan to stay another week and make sure we figure out who put the bomb in the car. In the beginning of this, we’ll fly back and forth. Maybe in the future, I can work from California.”

“But all of your friends are in Ft. Lauderdale.”

John looked off into the distance then took his sunglasses off. I was lost in his gray eyes. “Yes. My friends are in Ft. Lauderdale, but you’re out here, and I want to be with you. So let’s take this one day at a time and see how things go.”

I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders.

John’s phone vibrated on the table. His sister’s name flashed across the screen. Over the past couple of days, I had talked to her more. John had told me about her looking for their mom.

“I will call her later,” he said. “This is our time.” His phone started to ring again, and he pushed the silence button. Then Addie called a third time.

He reached for it and swiped across the screen. “Hey, pip-squeak. I’m kind of busy.”

His brow furrowed as she spoke.

“Are you sure?” John ran his hand through his hair and let out a deep breath. “I can’t leave here. Annabella needs me. We don’t know who’s after her.” I could only hear one side of the conversation, but it sounded like his sister needed him. I wasn’t about to stand in her way.

“Let me talk to Annabella, and I will call you back.” John hung up the phone. “When do you have to be back on set?”

The movieLast Lovehad already been delayed a week because of me. Each day we weren’t shooting cost the film more money. “I planned to go back tomorrow. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Addie found our mom.” John’s voice cracked.

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