Jesus.
The idea made his anger and frustration fade and left him feeling… what?
Tired. And empty.
As the helo with the medical team finally approached with a wash of noise from the blades, Jim stood and waved to Rio, who waved back and finally vanished, ready to run at his top speed for however many miles, probably without breaking much of a sweat.
The way Jim used to do when he first earned his Budweiser and joined Team Ten over a decade ago.
What was he, if couldn’t be a Navy SEAL?
Lieutenant Jim Slade had absolutely no clue.
***
Ashley DeWitt quickly ducked behind the Dumpster that sat in the corner of her condo association’s parking lot.
Dear,sweetGod! The smell back here was horrific. Tomorrow morning was weekly garbage pickup day and the container was already overflowing. Add the heat of the southern California sun…
And yet here she crouched in full cowardly-hiding mode, despite the eyeball-melting stench.
She peeked around the corner and…
She quickly pulled back, because yes, thatwasBrad—not just some random man who looked vaguely Brad-like. Tall, lean, early thirties, with closely cropped light-brown hair and blue eyes, a lot of men looked like Brad. Particularly when he wore one of his expensive dark suits with a white shirt that showed off his gleamingly handsome, golf-tanned face.
After a year of silence, her crazy ex-boyfriend had begun emailing and calling again.Can we meet? We really need to talk.
She’d blocked and deleted, choosing to use silence as her answer. But now he’d shown up at her condo door—which was a little alarming because it had been years, plus a cross-country move, since she’d seen him last. During their tumultuous breakup, when Brad had gone into the worst of hisI know if I just keep showing up, you’ll take me backphase, she’d lived in Boston, in a student-level apartment in a relatively sketchy neighborhood, with her best friend Colleen.
But shortly after graduation from law school, Colleen had gotten married to the man of her dreams. She’d happily moved to Southern California, passed the bar, and gotten a job practicing family law in the San Diego suburb of San Felipe. It wasn’t too long before she’d talked Ashley into moving out here, too, to work with her at the very same small law firm.
Colleen had wanted Ashley to move into the guest bedroom of the apartment she and her husband shared, mostly because she knew Ashley hated living alone. But they were newlyweds, so Ash had bought this condo with the money she’d inherited from her grandmother—her mother’s mother—and tried her best to feel confident and safe.
Although, the truth was, Ashley couldn’t remember a time since her incredibly protected and, yes, privileged childhood that she’d felt completely safe.
Which was why she spent a great deal of time exactly like this—quivering with fear as she hid from conflict.
Just this morning, over at the courthouse, she’d escaped into the ladies’ room to avoid an altercation with Greg Ramsey, the always-angry husband of one of her clients. Ashley represented his soon-to-be-ex-wife Betsy in a messy divorce. And instead of standing her ground and coolly admonishing Mr. Ramsey over his inappropriateness, and reiterating that all communication between he and his wife needed to come through his lawyer, Ashley had chosen, instead, to hide from the man.
Truth was, she was a little afraid of him.
Real truth was, outside of the structured control of the courtroom, she was a little afraid of everyone and everything.
And okay, she wasn’tthatmuch of a wimp. She wasn’t afraid of her younger brother Clark, and Clark’s college roommate, Kenneth.
Yay?
As Ash peeked out from behind the Dumpster again, she saw Brad getting into a car parked in one of the slots set aside for visitors. Her heart sank as she saw that it was a black Lexus with darkly tinted windows and California plates. No way was that a rental car, which meant he was most likely living here again, in California, where he’d gone to college, and a mix of fear and anger made her throat tighten.
She’d slept better when he’d lived on the other side of the country, in New York. Not because she thought he’d hurt her. He wasn’t violent, he wasn’t even close to a psycho stalker. At least she didn’tthinkhe was.
But she was afraid that he was right. And that if he pressured her hard enough, she’d do something really stupid and weak, like finally give in, forgive his lies, and take him back.
As Ashley watched, Brad started his car’s engine, the red taillights flashing on. But he didn’t pull out, and he didn’t pull out, and as she realized that he wasn’t leaving, her heart dropped ever farther. He was just going to sit in his car with the air conditioner on, waiting for her to come home.
And, God help her, she was too much of a coward to face him.
Her phone rang, and she immediately silenced it, glancing at the screen and… The universe was presenting her with an awesomeExhibit A. Her father was calling again, to give her his daily pitch on why she should move back to New York and join his prestigious law firm. She didn’t need to take the call—she’d heard his words often enough.What are you doing out there, working for lower wages than you’d get even as a public defender? Come home to Scarsdale, where you belong. You’ve proven your point. You win—I’ll fast-track you to partner. You’ll have a corner office, and in just a few years, your name’ll be beneath mine on the door…
