Todd frowned. This was the part he hadn’t worked out yet. Outside of his family, the people he cared about most in the world were here in Virginia. But Lindsey had only ever lived in California. Her family and her business were there. He couldn’t ask her to leave all that behind for him. “Why, you trying to get rid of me?”
Jason grinned. “Always.” He chomped on a huge bite of cookie. “But seriously, I’ve been trying to convince Kurt we need a West Coast presence, and that I can make it happen with my contacts out there. Until now, I wasn’t sure you’d be game to do it with me.”
Todd looked around. Clearly he wasn’t the only one who appreciated the sense of community here. Could he and Jason form a new team in LA? “You just want prettier clients.”
His friend snickered. “Plenty of old, white execs in California too. And I’m itching to be in charge of something. I’m going to be tied to a desk for a while, so it’s the perfect time for a change.”
Todd managed to tamp down the guilt about Jason’s injuries. “I guess I could run recruitment from there if Kurt is game. It’s mostly travel anyway. Training would probably have to be limited to West Coast hires though. I wouldn’t want to be gone all the time.”
“I think being able to offer people a chance to live on either coast will help with recruitment, which means we’ll need more trainers anyway.”
“Good point. How about I let you know after I’ve spent some time there?” Todd had moved enough times with the Air Force that he wasn’t intimidated by the idea, but he hadn’t expected to uproot again anytime soon, if ever. Having Jason in LA would make the transition easier, but Todd also wanted to make sure he’d be happy with the decision even if things with Lindsey went south. Plus, while he didn’t relish a long-distance relationship, moving to California too soon might scare her away.
“Sure, no pressure,” Jason said. “I don’t even know if Kurt’s going to agree. He’s reluctant to expand into an unfamiliar market, and wants to keep the small, family feel we have right now.”
That was one of the things Todd liked about Steele most. “If you have the contacts, you could start your own business. Maybe Kurt would be willing to invest. At the very least, you could refer clients and potential recruits to each other.”
“Maybe.” Jason wiped his fingers on a napkin, a faraway look in his eyes. Did his injury have him rethinking his future, or was there more going on?
Todd had been so busy with his own shit lately that he had no idea. He made a mental note to question Jason more next time they were alone.
Across the deck, Dan caught Todd’s eye and gestured him toward the back door.
He glanced around. Lindsey had only been inside for a few minutes, but he was so far gone he missed her already. He’d grown used to having her in his sights twenty-four/seven, and it made him itchy not to know where she was. Not in a controlling, stalker-ish kind of way, just a love-struck kind of way.
She’d been beautiful when he’d first met her, disheveled and covered in dirt, but in that floaty red dress, she lit him on fire. All evening, he’d been envisioning undoing the long line of buttons one by one to reveal her bare skin.
He stood, mentally pushing away the image before the direction of his thoughts became obvious to anyone looking. “Be right back,” he said to Jason, and walked toward Dan.
“I got a call from the perimeter guards,” Dan said, meeting him halfway. “Lindsey just walked out the front door and got into a rideshare.”
Minutes after leaving the house, Lindsey sat in the front seat of a black Honda Accord, gripping her knees and watching the tree-lined road ahead, street lights punctuating the darkness at regular intervals. Surely Todd realized she was gone by now. He had to be going out of his mind.
I’m sorry.
Next to her, Megan drove in silence, a gun in her left hand pointed at Lindsey as she steered with her right. Before exiting the neighborhood onto this four-lane road, Megan had directed Lindsey to dump her purse and phone out the window. Todd couldn’t track her and ride to the rescue, which meant she was on her own.
So, she needed a plan to get away. Crashing the car always worked in the movies, but she’d have to wait until Megan was more distracted. Right now, her old friend’s finger looked poised on the trigger. In fact, Lindsey had no idea why she hadn’t just killed her already.
Taking a deep breath to steel her nerves, Lindsey asked, “I’m here. Tell your goon to leave my parents alone.”
“Don’t worry. Unlike me, Cruz doesn’t have the balls to actually shoot anyone.”
“Cruz?” A combination of betrayal and relief washed through her. The man was an ass, but he was also nothing but swagger.
Megan laughed without humor. “Give the man enough blowjobs and he’ll do anything for you. I swear, I don’t know why he stuck with you for so long.”
Lindsey wished he hadn’t. “Why didn’t you just keep running? You could’ve disappeared, started over.”
“Because I need more money.” Megan raced through a yellow light. “Thanks to you, my accounts have been frozen, my brother is gone, everything I worked for is gone. I’m a fugitive, for God’s sake.” Her voice turned bitter, getting louder by the second. “But you… Your life’s just peachy, like always. You float along in your safe little bubble of loving parents, a good business, and a growing bank account, and no matter what shit gets thrown at you, somehow you come out better than before. Cruz cheated on you—”
“With you,” Lindsey couldn’t help reminding her.
Megan shrugged. “Not just me. He was an asshat of the first order, and you would’ve figured it out soon enough.”
Lindsey’s head spun. Why had she wanted to fix things with that man so badly?
“But you dumped him, and your new boyfriend is even hotter.”
