Page 25 of Anders and the Girl Worth Fighting For
“I won’t lie. It crossed my mind. I also think it’s been a long and difficult day. I think you are in the middle of a divorce. You could have been kidnapped today. That’s a lot for anyone to take and the last thing I want is to add to that by making you think I’m taking advantage of you. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to be a cause of pain,” he said, he voice turning desperate by the end, and he face crumbling into an expression that was vulnerable and pained, like the very idea of hurting me flayed him and left him open and bleeding.
He didn’t move from his kneeling position in front of me. He just sat there, waiting for my response.
“What if I want you to take advantage of me?” I pressed him. I didn’t actually want anything more to happen tonight. All of what he said was true, but I didn’t want to admit that the distance he placed between us helped clear my head so I could decide instead of just act.
He groaned at that. The hand that had so tenderly caressed my cheek rose to tug on his hair as he closed his eyes. I was finally free from that whiskey gaze. I wanted it back.
“Not tonight, sweetheart. I can’t think clearly with you here in bed, kissing me,” he said. His voice had gone deeper and hiseyes returned to me. He moved forward and placed his hands on the bed on either side of me. Caging me in. The tempo of my heart increased at his proximity. I licked my lips, hoping he would go back on that and kiss me. So much for being clear-headed.
“I was working on a plan,” he blurted. He still kneeled in front of me, and after a moment, he pulled back, pushing off the bed, taking his heat with him, leaving me dazed by the sudden lack.
“Oh,” I said. It took me a moment to register what he said. “A plan?”
“Yes. One to draw out the kidnappers, figure out who is behind this, and what they want,” he answered.
“What do you have so far?” I asked. The topic change was jarring, and once I caught up, my body turned cold. I pulled the covers tighter over me to ward off the chill that wasn’t coming from the room.
“They don’t know where you are and someone is clearly pulling their strings. I’m betting that person doesn’t have a lot of resources and hired whatever cheap thugs they could find.”
He walked away from me, leaving me shivering from fear, the lack of him, the cold in the room, all of it all at once, too much. This was too much.
“Someone who needs resources and money, and thinks you are a good target. That means they know about your grandmother’s money and believe you might have gotten a slice of the pie. Who knows her and that she died?” He paced as he spoke, throwing out his ideas rapid fire. I could barely keep up as my eyes tracked his every move.
“Everyone,” I answered as I watched him pace. “Her obituary was in the paper and several societies and clubs she was a member of ran their own announcements.” I toyed with the edge of the blanket while I thought of all the people who would haveknown her and known my relation to her. “I imagine someone as wealthy as her doesn’t just die without it becoming public knowledge very quickly. It’s been months. News would have spread.” The list grew and grew as I considered it. “I imagine anyone that knew of her would now know she had passed. She was social and well-liked by most.”
“Right.” He stopped his pacing and turned towards me. “So that doesn’t narrow it down at all.” He said as he leaned against the wall nearest the bed. He propped one foot up behind him and crossed his arms over his chest.
His bare, sweaty chest.
I didn’t even register that until this moment. I’d had my hands all over him just moments ago and I didn’t even register that he was in only shorts. I just knew it washim.Now I was keenly aware of all his muscles on display. The low light spilling from the living room lit up the sweat on him, throwing the contours of his body into relief.
“Grace…” I heard him say.
“What?” I blinked. The ridiculously smug look on his face told me he knew exactly where my mind wandered to. “I’m listening. Too many people.” I prayed the light wasn’t strong enough for him to see the heat in my cheeks at being caught staring.
“Yes, too many people,” he said. He didn’t elaborate and left it to me to pick the conversation back up through my muddled mind.
“Plenty of those people had reason to expect something from her will.”
“Who?” He asked. “Maybe we can make a list and start running background checks,” he said like it wasn’t the middle of the night and he wasn’t standing there shirtless with me wrapped head to toe in a giant blanket.
“Everyone related to her, myself included, though I don’tactually expect anything from her. I got a package from her just before she passed and I think anything she would give me would be in there.”
“Right. I remember you mentioning that in one of your letters. Do you have the things in the box?” He hadn’t moved an inch since settling against the wall. A contrast to his earlier pacing, and a mockery of the urgency and anxiety running through me now.
“It’s in my apartment. There’s nothing too important, though. At least, not to anyone but me. Just some things from my childhood. Recipe books, pictures, some crafts I made with her. That kind of thing.”
I racked my brain trying to think of everything in the box. I cried quite a bit when I first opened it and could have missed something, but I went through the familiar stuff pretty regularly in the months since. Only two people would see value in the objects in the box, and one of them was dead.
“Did you notice if anything was missing when we were there earlier?” He asked. He fastened his eyes on me, serious instead of tender. A thrill ran through me, anyway. I guess it didn’t matter how he looked at me, just as long as he did. “Or was there anything that wasn’t in the box? Something that you might have expected to get, but didn’t?”
I shook my head.
“No, I didn’t notice anything missing, though I didn’t think to look. As for something that should have been there but wasn’t, I don’t think so. I was just so grateful to get what I did.” My heart ached, just a little, at the memory of getting that box and all it contained. I wondered if I would ever be able to think of her without the pain, regret, and longing of missing her.
“That’s ok. It was a tough day. I can’t expect you to recall everything.” He flinched like he wanted to move off the wall, but didn’t. “We might have to go back and have a look around.Make sure everything is there.” I opened my mouth to make sure we meant him and me, having learned my lesson from this morning.
“Yes, you and I.” He said guessing my question. “I wouldn’t very well know if something was missing. In the meantime, make a list of everyone who might have stood to inherit from your grandmother. Based on what we know so far, the most likely scenario is that someone didn’t get what they expected and they are coming after you for it instead. Focus on people who know you personally if there are a lot of people that could inherit. I doubt you were chosen at random.”
