Page 46 of Second Chance for Mr. Alden

“Tell her she’s a little shaken up, but she’s okay. And so am I,” I responded and waited for Gage to relay my message.

I was happy Lexi couldn’t hear our conversation. “Gage, I need your help to keep Lexi safe. If someone’s watching Jess’s house waiting for her to come back, she could get hurt. I should’ve done a better job teaching her to protect herself.” My voice dropped. It was my fault my little sister wasn’t prepared to deal with something like this. I’d been too busy protecting her instead of making sure she could do it herself.

“Hey,” Gage said. “You couldn't have guessed she’d need to know this stuff. I’ll keep her safe.”

“Keep me safe?” Lexi’s voice rose. “From what?”

Gage sighed. “Not now, Lex. We can talk about it later.”

I heard Lexi harrumph through the connection and imagined her tapping her foot, glaring at Gage.

“Any action on finding a place for us to hide out?”

The noises in the bathroom had ceased, and the light flicked off as Jess opened the door and stepped out. My breath caught. She’d shaken out her long ebony hair. The updo her stylist had carefully crafted was gone and now her hair fell in waves around her shoulders and down her back. I swallowed hard as my eyes drifted across the oversized t-shirt that hung loosely around her shoulders and tightened over her chest and hips.

I clenched my fists and turned away to hide my lower half, as my dick jumped to attention.

“Hey, Alden. You still there?” Gage called out in a tone that indicated it wasn’t the first time he’d asked.

Fuck.I needed to focus.

“Yeah, sorry. What were you saying?” I pinched the bridge of my nose and shut my eyes to keep the distraction of Jess at a minimum.

“I found a place you can stay.”

“Excellent. Where?”

My senses were finely tuned to everything Jess. Even with my back turned, I knew the moment she crossed the room and sat down on the worn couch in the corner facing a small wall-mounted television.

Jess cleared her throat to get my attention. She was laying down on the couch glaring at me. When I didn’t say anything, she threw up her hands in a ‘what’s happening’ motion.

I held up a finger and asked for one minute.

Her narrowed gaze and crossed arms told me how much she liked that option. “It’s only my life we’re deciding here,” she grumbled loud enough for me to hear.

“It’s in Rhode Island, a small apartment, in Providence. Mostly families in the area.”

The muscles in my neck tightened. “I don’t know if that’s such a great idea. It’s summer. Jaxon has a place in Providence and I’m from there. Don’t you think that might be the first place they’d look?”

“You don’t think I haven’t thought about that? You won’t be anywhere near his penthouse. Besides, it’s like reverse psychology. They’ll assume you won’t go there because of all the connections.”

“Huh.” He had a point. Going to Rhode Island would be so stupid it was actually brilliant.

“Right, you get it now.” Gage’s cocky voice had me rolling my eyes. “A buddy of mine has an apartment he’s used as a safehouse. It’ll be perfect. The main house up front has two apartments, a first and a second floor. A family rents out the second floor and an elderly couple the first. There’s a garage in the back with an upstairs apartment. That’s where you’ll stay.”

“I’m not crazy about the idea of other people there. If we’re ever discovered, they could get hurt.”

“The family is gone for the summer traveling and the elderly couple knows the deal with the apartment. They won’t bother you and know to be aware. It’s your best option on such short notice.”

He was right. “How soon can we go?”

“Tomorrow afternoon. Sam’s working on a car for you.”

“Okay. We’ll get clothes and anything else we need once we get there.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Thanks, Gage.”

“No problem. I’ll get you the address. In the meantime, I’ll do a sweep through Jess’s house and make sure we haven’t missed anything. I’ll keep an eye on her emails, social media accounts, and all that. I didn’t pull up anything but stolen plates for the car that was following you, but I’ll see if I can find anything else.”

“I appreciate it. We’ll stay out of sight until you’ve got something for us. It feels like the person is getting desperate. It’s only a matter of time before we catch them.”

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