Page 69 of After All The Wreckage
She shifted so she could look him in the eye. “Yeah?”
“Thanks for believing us. Thanks for helping. Whatever happens…” He shook his head and looked at me. “Whatever happens… I know you must be doing the right thing. I know that because Gage would never allow anyone next to Ivy and me who reeked of bad.”
And with that, he left me to my fate.
But the truth of the words hit home. He believed in me. Even though I’d failed him a hundred times, he still believed in me. And he was right. If I sensed even one iota of ugly around Rory, I wouldn’t have let her into our lives.
What I felt when I was with her was desire and a fierce determination.
But underneath her grit and strength, there was also the soft layer I’d always recognized. An innate goodness. Rory shone with it. Like the fairy godmother in those Disney movies. As if she could wave a wand and fix your life even as her own was shrouded in darkness.
I made my way around the counter and tapped her computer screen and the image of the military giant. “Where was he and how’d you know he was following us?”
“I saw him first in the building where I got the video of the kidnapping. He stood out. It was mostly just instinct until I saw him a couple more times.”
“You usually follow your instincts,” I said quietly. She met my gaze and nodded. “But you don’t consider it a psychic ability.”
She scoffed. “Not hardly. That’s training and experience. And even then, I’ve done a shit job of listening to it lately.”
I gave in to the urge to come clean. “The only abilities I have are just that. Instincts. I have an extra keen sense of people. If they’re bad news, I know it. If they’re good blokes, I know that too.”
“Blokes?”
“Apparently today is National Use Old Words Day.” I was rewarded with a half laugh I longed to make a full one. “I can tell the nature of people. Like how I knew there was something wrong with West and Dunn. And I can tell you when a storm is coming.”
Her eyes grew. “A storm?”
“It’s what made me good at chasing them in college.”
She sat there for a moment, not disclaiming my abilities but really letting them settle over her.
“What did you feel about West and Dunn?”
“Like they were bad news. Like they’d do anything—and I mean anything—to get what they wanted.”
We stared at each other for a moment, and when she changed the subject, relief washed through me. She believed me.
“What do you know about cloud seeding?”
Just as I went to respond, my phone alarm went off.
“Sorry,” I said, rising from the barstool. “I have to head back down. Tango Tuesday is wrapping up, and Audrey’s off in fifteen minutes.”
She nodded, shutting her laptop and gathering her things as if getting ready to leave, and I was reluctant to let her go. I tried to tell myself it was because of what she was working on for us. But I knew it had much more to do with the way I felt when she was in the room. It was how I felt in the storm tank, sitting in the eye of the storm. Both calm and full of anticipation. Knowing that what was coming could destroy me, but still craving the high of being there. Of finding out more.
Which was exactly what I wanted of Rory. More.
Not just the facts or information about the case, but more of the tantalizing feeling that coasted through me when I was with her.
With so many balls we were juggling, it was scary to add another person to the mix, but what would it be like knowing someone was there to pick one up if you accidentally dropped one? Could we do that for each other? Would she even let me? Would she see, like I had started to, that there might be an ease in sharing our burdens even with the added weight?
It was more than I could solve in the two minutes I had left before I headed back to the bar. All I knew was I wanted her to be there when I got back so I could start to figure it out. And if, after we’d explored it, letting her walk out the door with nothing more but this case between us was the right thing, I’d do it.
But maybe I’d have the chance to taste her one more time before she did. Maybe I’d have a good memory to add to what had been a row of shitty days…
So, I reached out and grabbed the handle of her bag, our hands colliding. Her body went still, and when she looked up at me, something uncertain and yet hopeful was in her beautiful eyes.
“Don’t go,” I whispered. My voice was husky and low, and the words were out before I could take them back. But I didn’t want to. A certainty filled my chest. Even beyond this case, our parents, and Dunn, Rory was inexplicably tied to us. To me.
