Chapter 4
Richard leaned against the doorframe and checked his watch. Just how long would Maverick and Memphis’s story go on? He wanted to know more about their guest and how she ended up on a trip to Costa Rica with them.
But it seemed everyone else was happy to simply skip over that detail and hear about the escape. As if Richard hadn’t heard enough of it while he was lifting weights that morning at the Homestead’s small gym. Not that the twins had been talking to Richard at the time. Just gushing back and forth about the event and, to Richard’s irritation, not giving any details about Ava.
“I can’t believe you outran the mafia,” Emmitt said, a tone of reverence coating his words.
“I know,” Maverick bragged with a head shake. “We barely pulled out of the Costa Rican airport, and they pounced like a bobcat with four-wheel drive. They’d been waiting in the shadows, knowing exactly when we’d arrive and just what we’d be driving.”
Memphis took over. “We made the thirty-minute drive to the embassy in less than twenty. We lost them in the first mile alone, thanks to my racing experience.”
Richard’s stomach churned. He hated hearing how close those idiots were to getting themselves killed, not to mention the woman they dragged into the mess.
“Wewantedthe SRT Hellcat, but when they said they had the Riptide…” Maverick blew out a whistle. “I knew we were golden. Of course, I was just planning to show off for Ava when we upgraded to the four-seater for her, but it turned out we’d be running from the mafia itself instead.”
“At nearly two hundred miles per hour, baby!” Memphis crowed.
Richard clenched his eyes shut and let his head fall back in exhaustion.Brother.They’d almost given a worthy detail, hadn’t they? Something about upgrading to the four-seater for Ava. Had they originally planned to make the trip without her?
“So they were driving an SUV?” he heard Trenton ask.
“Oh, yeah,” Memphis said. “And it was wicked, I’m not gonna lie. We’re talking tinted windows, fierce grill—it looked like it could eat us alive. Until we went zero to sixty in four point seven seconds.”
“And left them in the dust,” Maverick added.
“Do you know where the bathroom is in here?” came a soft voice.
Richard’s eyes popped open, revealing a sight of the bright white ceiling. He lifted his head back into place and set his eyes on the beauty before him. Ava.
“Hi. Yes. It’s…” He reached to cup her elbow, but she pulled back, an action too obvious to miss.
Richard’s heart gave out a hard knock, like it’d been slapped flat to the ground. He cleared his throat and pointed down the hall. “First door on the right. Left, I mean. It’s on the left.”
Ava pulled her wide brown eyes off him and glanced down the hall. “Okay, thank you.”
She stepped around him, and Richard caught the scent of something sweet and tangy, like cherries.Dang,she was attractive. And not in an in-your-face sort of way either. The set of her eyes, generous on the lids, gave her that dreamy, bedroom sort of look. But there was such an innocence behind them that the term hardly fit.
She was notably timid, which, he reminded himself, was probably due to the fact that everyone here was family except for her. And Trenton, of course, and he wasn’t shy. But the poor girl had just lost her entire family. Was Maverick that blind to the fact that she was hurting? What kind of boyfriend was he?
And was he really her boyfriend after all? Not according to Memphis, which was good, seeing that Richard couldn’t seem to get her off his mind since he’d first laid eyes on her last night. The sound of a twisting knob carried down the hall a moment before the creaking of the door.
Should he get out of the front room’s large walkway? Was that the polite thing to do? Probably. He might naturally do that for anyone else, but the truth was, hewanteda reason to get close to Ava again.
The inward confession sent him scurrying inside the room like the snake that he was. How many times had he lectured Emmitt and Andie aboutnotbringing anyone else into the circus that was their life in hiding? Andie had gone and done it anyway. Granted, Richard liked the guy, and since he was their partner in running the inn, it sure made things less complicated for him to know about their secret past.
But couldn’t they just end it there? No. Because Emmitt was going to find someone, date them, tell them, probably dump them or get dumped, and repeat the pattern again and again until he got it right. Maverick and Memphis would do the same. How many people would know their secret then? And how many people would they blab to about their stupid ex whose family was running from the mafia?
Ava tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as she stepped into the very doorframe he’d been leaning against just seconds ago. Dang, he liked brunettes. Especially ones that were so graceful. Elegant. Lovely.
Stop it, Richard.For crying out loud. If she was a charmer, he really was a snake. He couldn’t take his eyes off her when she was near.
“So, Ava,” Andie blurted. “How did you end up on this trip to Costa Rica?”
Ava slid cautiously past Memphis and Maverick, careful not to scrape their knees as she moved. She spun around once she came to the end and lowered herself into the corner.
“Umm…” she started, pulling her legs onto the seat. She wrapped her arms around her bent legs and sighed. “It’s kind of a crazy story…”
“You don’t have to tell them if you don’t want,” Maverick said.
