“What’d you think?” George asked on the way to the car. “Of dancing like that?”
“I like it.” On a sharp exhale, Abby added, “Not really what I’d pictured, though.”
“No?”
Abby couldn’t bring herself to extrapolate, but an image arose in her mind, unbidden: a man behind her, messed-up hands on her hips, tightening like that other man’s had, but…but different. Funny how, in that hot, sweaty place, there’d been nothing of Luc, but out here, she could smell him perfectly, on the clean, cold, snow-drenched air. And she missed him so much it hurt.
24
After a long day of hard, hard labor, with his neighbors keeping a constant watch, Luc was twitchy and tired and ready to jump out of his skin. With those assholes following his every move, he hadn’t been able to sleep in days. He missed Abby and couldn’t count the number of times he’d caught himself wondering what she was doing and where she was, or why she hadn’t called him. What if she wasn’t recovering properly? Could that be the problem? He hadn’t considered that possibility before, focusing instead on the worrying possibility that she’d attempt to get Sammy out on her own.
He ran back to the cabin, propelled by fear, and after a frantic search for Sheriff Navarro’s card, realized he had the number on his phone. The man picked up after a couple rings.
“Navarro.”
“It’s Luc Stanek.”
“Luc.”
“I was…” Jesus, he was breathing hard. He swallowed, trying to calm down. “How is she?”
The sheriff didn’t answer immediately. When he did, his voice sounded more hesitant than usual.
“She’s left us.”
Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit, what did that mean?
“Got a place to stay in town. And got herself a job.”
Luc breathed a sigh of relief. Christ, was this what it felt like to have a heart attack? “My God, Clay, you nearly killed me there.”
Clay huffed out a laugh. “Sorry about that. We’ve been… I was planning on calling you today. We’re going to be heading your way.”
“Who’s we?”
“Look. I should warn you that you might be asked to evacuate your place in the next couple of days. We’re putting together a joint—”
“No. I won’t do that. The second I leave, they’ll… Fuck, I don’t know what they’ll do.”
“We can’t just go in there without being fully prepared. Can you hold out a couple more days? I don’t have the manpower yet, but I’ll send a deputy out if I have to.”
Luc glanced at his front window, constantly covered by the curtains now, when before, he’d never closed them. He’d even tacked a piece of fabric onto the kitchen door. “No. No, I’ll be fine for now.”
“You’ll let me know, though, if anything changes?”
“Yes.” He was about to hang up when he remembered why he’d called. “Wait! Where is she? Abby, I mean. Where’s she working?”
“The Nook.”
Surprised, Luc asked, “The bar in town?”
Clay chuckled. “Yeah. She’ll be good at it. Even sick, she was chatty, friendly.” He paused. “She’s a good kid.”
Luc nodded.Kid.What an inadequate way to describe so incredible a woman.
After ending the call, Luc made his way to the front window and pulled back the curtain, with Le Dog’s curious eyes on him. There, at the top of the hill, directly behind the fence, stood his twenty-four-hour-a-day armed guard, keeping watch over the house. Making sure he didn’t cross the fence. But also, he suspected, waiting for him to leave his place. One wrong move, and they’d be on him.
In the past forty-eight hours or so, fear had given way to frustration, which he knew was just a thin veneer over the anger that threatened to swallow him up and push him to do stupid things. Like find a way through that fence in the dead of night, locate Sammy on his own, and bring him to Abby. The thought of presenting her with the boy, like some kind of knight giving her his obeisance, made him feel both pathetic and excited.
