“Another property.”
“For the love of all that’s holy, if you don’t give me an actual answer?—”
“A property,” I repeated, stressed to a new height. “I—We have a new property we acquired. It was purchased and no one has used it yet.”
“A residence? A warehouse? Throw me a bone.”
I glanced at her, frowning. “Why?”
“Because!” She smacked her hand on the armrest. Seeing her mad shouldn’t be so sexy. “Because I deserve to know. Unless you want to just cut to the chase and tell me I should view this as another round of your kidnapping me, I should be allowed to know the details of this plan. Or not plan. Whatever the hell we are doing.”
“An apartment complex. It’s been empty and needs renovation.” I gave her the rough area of where it was located. “Happy now?”
“No.” She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t want you to assume I’m letting you decide everything.”
“I’mnotkidnapping you,” I shot back.
“Fine.” She crossed her arms. “Then act like it. Don’t keep everything from me from this moment going forward.”
I sped on, rushing toward the building where I knew she’d be safe and also out of sight from my father. Assuming she was content to have a location in mind, I exhaled a tense breath and resumed this new brand of worrying about the most ludicrous things I never would’ve considered otherwise. Sadie was important to me, but this child she carried was one more degree of precious.
I’m going to be a father.
I still hadn’t given myself time to really let it sink in. Too many other things had to be tended to first. Like her filling me in on what happened since I left her in the Caymans.
She wasn’t done, though, peppering me with more pointed, logistical questions. If the building was secure. If we’d need to stop for food. If anyone in the Dubinin organization would stop in there or look for me. It soon felt like an interrogation, one I bit my cheek and tried to endure. But she wouldn’t stop. Maybe this was her way of worrying. Perhaps she didn’t trust me or have confidence I could hide us well. Then again, abandoning her like I had wasn’t the best route to earn her trust.
Once I parked and led her into the empty building, I headed to crank on the heat for the top floor’s unit. We went there next. But as I shut and locked the door after her, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Are you going to stop snapping at me and arguing with me about every detail about this place?”
She flipped me off as she scoped the apartment, too much like me and without any lowered guard to not to check it for danger.
“Why did you even come to find me if you’re going to complain or fight with me or question every little thing I say or do?”
“Maybe because I’ve never had a partner before.” She gave me a withering stare. “Meet my standards and we’ll be fine.”
“I’ve never had a partner before either,” I growled. “Besides, you’re the one who came to me. Why bother if I’m not going to satisfy whatever the hell you want?” I put my hands on my hipsas she sat on a dull-looking brown couch. “Whatdoyou want? Huh?”
That summed up the cryptic bond between us. Before, I knew what she had in mind. She wanted to tail me, arrest me, and bring me into the agency she worked for. All in the name of seeing justice done.
Now, after I’d left her, it wasn’t so clear. She didn’t strike me as a needy or clingy woman who’d protest raising a child on her own. I didn’t want her to, and I dared her to try to keep this baby from me. But at the same time, I could tell she wouldn’t balk at being a single, independent mother. She had that gumption, that attitude.
She clasped her hands together, somehow looking even smaller, sheltered in that enormous coat I’d grabbed her for cover.
“I… I don’t even know anymore.”
I dragged a chair over and sat on it, facing her. The urge to take and hold her hands taunted me, but I needed more clarity before losing my control to feel her again.
“It’s just been a mess.”
“Start from the beginning,” I prompted, bracing myself for her to bitch that I was ordering her around again. “Please,” I added.
She sighed, then got right to it. With brief yet pertinent details, she explained how she’d flown home from where I’d left her. Her superiors accused her of selling intel to the Cartel, and since she’d used them as her excuse, I guessed that they’d believed her too well.
“You didn’t tell them that I took you?”
She shook her head and went on. I tried not to dwell on what that could mean, that she’d hide me like that. It sounded like she was just so busy trying to clear her name that I wasn’t even on the radar.
