He couldn’t even touch her without recoiling. That realization raked her insides raw, even as the promise to help her shored her up. All she wanted was to get out of there and get away from this man for good.
She took a deep breath. “A few hundred dollars to get to Phoenix.” Mentally, she was adding up the expenses of the move, horrified by the total that kept growing. “A little to cover clothes and shoes, some things I need for the baby. A hotel until I can get on my feet.”
She’d need first, last and security for a new apartment. Remembering how long it had taken to save those up last time, she wanted to be sick. Warily, she snuck a look at him through shamefully wet lashes. His brow was heavy, the intense look in those piercing green eyes threatening to be the death of her, annoyance and frustration forming a heady mix.
She hated herself in that moment, for every time she’d missed him or wondered what he was doing, what lucky woman he might be with. How had she ever felt that he cared for her? Loved her, even? The man in front of her couldn’t be more cold and angry. Clearly, he was upset that she’d found him—no matter what he said to the contrary—and in that instant she cursed the flat tire that had started this mess.
If she’d never met Gavin, she would have stayed with her boyfriend, Jake. They might even have been married by now. Her parents would still be in her life, her future laid out before her like a predetermined roadmap to socially acceptable happiness.
Is that what you wish had happened?
If you’d asked her before today, she would have said she’d never be sorry for loving this man, that she gladly would have traded Jake and her family and every last plan she’d ever had for her future for what she and Gavin had shared.
What a fool she’d been!
Her arms tightened around the baby. She couldn’t be sorry for her child, no matter what else had transpired. She would gladly take every ounce of humiliation and ask for seconds if it meant she could be Abby’s mother forever.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t want you two at a hotel, not after everything you’ve been through. Besides, there are cameras all over this city. Facial recognition. If the dead police detective was killed by someone in the department, we have no idea how deep this thing goes.”
Eva couldn’t help but notice his use of the word “we,” and she hated how much she liked it. Because for the first time since all of this started, she didn’t feel quite so alone, and she knew she was stupid for feeling that way. Still, when she shrugged, she noticed how much looser the muscles of her shoulder had become. “What’s the alternative?”
A muscle twitched in his jaw as his expression hardened. “My house. You two are coming home with me.”
6
Ihave a kid.
That one little sentence circled through Gavin’s mind as he drove up the thruway from New York City. Eva wanted to fly to Phoenix as soon as possible, but he didn’t want her out of his sight until the detective’s murder was solved and he was sure she and the baby were safe.
He’d told Razorback he had personal business to take care of and needed some time off, not slowing his stride or responding when the other man asked questions.
Gavin didn’t know what to say, and his position with HERO Force paled in comparison to this turn of events. Just Eva showing up alone would have twisted his head around, but she’d also had his child.
How had she found him, and why the fuck did she wait until they were in danger to do so? She’d kept her pregnancy a secret and he could only assume it was because she didn’t want him in her life.
Smart girl.
Not that they’d exchanged numbers or email addresses. He’d left that hotel room like a bat out of hell. But she’dfound him anyway, and her timing spoke volumes about what she wanted him to know and what she didn’t.
He gripped the steering wheel tightly, inches of snow packed beneath the tires of his truck and more falling gently from the sky as they made their way to his cabin in the Catskill Mountains north of New York City.
He’d gone fishing in the area years before with his friend Luke “Wiseman” Arroyo, who’d worked for HERO Force long before Gavin. Luke had built the cabin but was getting married and moving out of state. Gavin had bought the property on a whim, figuring it would be a good investment for a man like him who never planned to settle down. He would fix it up and rent it out when he wasn’t going wheels up on a mission.
That had been the plan, anyway. But after that last tour of duty, he’d moved into the cabin permanently, the endless stream of projects and physical activity giving him something to do and allowing his mind to be still.
It was twelve heavily treed acres surrounded on three sides by forested government land, the occasional hiker on walking trails through the woods his only company.
It was no-man’s-land, and it was exactly what he needed.
“How much farther?” asked Eva.
“Another half hour or so. You two doing okay?” He looked in the rearview mirror where she sat beside the pink car seat he’d bought at a big box store, along with diapers, formula and bottled water. Eva had looked like she’d swallowed a bug.
“She’s sleeping. You drive this far to work every day?”
“For now. Not sure HERO Force is a good fit.” Why had he said that? He didn’t want to discuss that decision with her. Yet she let the comment go.
“It’s pretty here.”
