Page 58 of Guarding Bristol

Chapter Twenty

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Reeling mentally andemotionally, she hurriedly packed up the few things she’d taken out of her bag earlier, grabbed her bat, and made her way down the hall.TJ was waiting with the rifle case and several bags at his feet.He must have had them prepacked and stored in a closet somewhere.“Stay here while I check outside.”

He slipped out the back door off the kitchen and returned a few minutes later.“All good.But stay behind me on the way to the garage.”

Despite his assurance, she still felt horribly exposed when she stepped out of the house, staying on him like a shadow as they hurried through the darkness into the detached garage.He threw their stuff into the backseat of her car, hit the remote to open the garage door and pulled out onto the street.He waved at a man standing out front of the house, she guessed a DEA agent on guard duty, but kept the headlights off until they were halfway down the hill toward town.

“Where are we going?”she asked finally, hating that he wasn’t telling her anything.He was constantly checking his mirrors like he expected someone to be following them.

“Dunno yet, but it’s safer to keep moving for now.”

She hated this.The uncertainty.“Does Cassie know we’re moving?”

“CPS will tell her in the morning.”

Technically, it was morning already, but Bristol bit back the other questions crowding her mind and turned her head to look out her window.It was the middle of the night.Crimson Point was quiet and still, the half-moon shining across the ocean, catching on the crests of the endless lines of whitecaps rolling into shore.

Normally the view would soothe her, but between the earlier attack and this constant, electrical awareness of TJ that was getting worse instead of better, she felt more agitated than ever.How was this her life now?

They had just reached the waterfront when TJ’s phone buzzed in his lap.He grabbed it, glanced at the message, and handed it to her.“Search up the address when it comes through.”

Another message appeared moments later.She put the address into her car’s GPS and enlarged the map.“It’s on the southern edge of the town, east of the coastal highway.Looks like a...townhouse complex?”

“Condo.It’ll be more secure.”

“Did the DEA set this up?”

“CPS.But the DEA approved it.Tell them ETA fifteen minutes.”

She sent the message and received an immediate response.“Parking spot two-nineteen under the building.”She gave him the gate code.

They didn’t speak for the rest of the drive, and she was too tired to try to force a conversation anyway.When they arrived at the building, TJ turned into the underground parking.Beckett and another man she didn’t recognize were waiting for them by the elevator.

“Been an eventful night for you, huh,” Beckett said when she got out to grab her stuff from the back.“But I heard you put the bat to good use after all.”

“Laid him out with one swing,” TJ said before she could answer, getting his own gear from the other side.

“I put another dent in it,” she said to be funny, even though nothing about this was remotely funny.

Beckett chuckled and indicated the man beside him.Tall, broad-shouldered, with golden brown hair and amazing aqua eyes.“This is Jase.He’ll take you up and show you the place, but we just took a look and everything’s secure.Nothing in town’s open this time of night, so we just grabbed what we had from our kitchens and brought it over.”

“If you guys need something else, I can get it for you when the stores open later,” Jase said.

“We just finished construction and didn’t have time to finish staging yet, so the furnishings are pretty bare,” Beckett added.

“Is Walter with you?”Bristol asked.

“Yeah,” he said, seeming surprised by the abrupt change in subject.

“Can I see him?”She needed some normalcy right now.Something happy.And animals were always the best medicine.They didn’t judge or ask questions.

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