Corbin laughed and began to pace around the room. It was his classic move for when he was thinking, but I didn’t much care what he was considering. Ridge and his men were on the case, and I trusted them to have everyone thrown behind bars by the end of the month.
Corbin circled. Hazel and Imogen chatted. I watched it all silently.
Having both Corbin and Hazel in the tiny space annoyed me. They delivered the clothes from Pierce’s home, where I’d been staying before I’d been kidnapped, and purchased a bunch of items for Imogen. Now it was time for them to go.
We needed our space.
“Drake is stationed outside today, so we’re quite fine here,” I said, trying to give Corbin reassurance everything would work out. He worried.
We hadn’t talked about it, but me being kidnapped because I resembled him ate at him. It wasn’t his fault, but he’d take the blame.
My words and comments didn’t stop his pacing. “Bennett is stationed in the parking lot. Riley is supposed to be here, but he went radio silent right after Ridge returned last night.”
“I still haven’t met Ridge,” Imogen said as she sorted through the random belongings on the bed, having given up on the phone. There weren’t many contacts in it, but I did take the time to download the security app that I’d have to teach her how to use later. She’d only use it to notify Ridge if anything happened in the future.
The more troubling concern at the moment was why she wanted to meet Ridge? Did beefy testosterone-filled dudes turn her on? Did I need to start spending more time at the gym?
“What’s special about Ridge?” I asked, glancing at her face to see signs. Signs of what I didn’t know, but I want to be the first to see them.
She shrugged. “You guys keep talking about him like he’s special. If this guy is a second Jesus or something, I should meet him.”
A lot of people in Pelican Bay had Ridge to thank for things, but I wasn’t about ready to compare him to a second Jesus. “He’s a big dude, lots of muscle, really enjoys bossing people around, total wife stalker,” Corbin said while looking at me for approval.
I gave a quick nod that no one else in the room noticed. I also appreciated him mentioning the wife thing. Ridge was very much married and yes, he did kind of stalk her, but I got the distinct impression she was okay with it. To each their own.
Imogen’s gaze dropped to the phone again, and she stared at it worriedly. It was time for my woman to call her mother. “Okay, that’s enough of this family reunion, meet and greet. Imogen wants to call her mom, and she doesn’t need an audience,” I said, trying to shoe my brother and his girlfriend to the door.
Neither of them made a move to leave, so I walked over and held it open. Drake stood right outside, and he leaned over to peek at me as I stepped out into the hallway.
“Katy stopped by. I threatened to call Pierce and tell him she was meddling, so she left.” He gave the report in a monotone way, as if he was used to updating people on Katy’s antics.
Corbin nodded. “Watch your windows.”
I glanced back into our hotel room. “She wouldn’t do that,” I said. We were on the second floor and this room didn’t have a balcony, so she couldn’t climb over from another.
Drake lifted an eyebrow precariously high on his forehead. “At this point, I never pretend to know what Katy will or won’t do. It’s kept me alive… So far.”
He was still mad about the bullet wound thing.
“Noted.” There was so much conviction in his voice, I couldn’t ignore it. I didn’t think Katy would take the risk of plunging to her death or at least severe injuries from falling from a second-floor window, but he was right not to put much past her. I’d heard some stories.
Corbin and Hazel finally saw themselves out of the room, and I closed the door behind them before walking right over to the window and pulling the curtains closed. Then I peeked out one side to scan the parking lot and check the ground beneath us.
“Is everything okay?” Imogen asked with her face cast in the shadows from the closed drapes. She leaned over to turn the lamp on.
I tried to smile back encouragingly. “Totally fine.”
Even if Katy did scale to the second floor of our building, Ridge had a team of men monitoring us. No way would she be able to get through the highly trained and decorated SEALs.
“I don’t know what to say to her,” Imogen said as she repositioned one pillow behind her. She sat on the bed with her legs crossed and her back against the headboard. The phone flipped back and forth between her hands.
She’d left enough space on either side of her, so I sat down next to her left and quickly kissed her cheek. She hadn’t been fearful when we were escaping the boat or running on bare feet to find the truck to take us out of town. She didn’t even hesitate when she had to break into a hospital and steal supplies to keep me alive, but having to call her mother and explain what happened caused her to lock up.
I couldn’t wait to meet Mrs. Ruthford.
“What you need to do is just make up a good, unbelievable story. Something simple and not exciting, which doesn’t involve kidnapping and you stitching the knife wound in your new boyfriend’s arm in a Georgia Park.”
I slipped in the boyfriend word to test the waters, and she didn’t balk, so I considered that a good sign.
