She groaned. “Oh, Mom, what did you do?”
“Don’t use that exasperated tone with me, missy. If you aren’t going to let me fly out there, I’m going to make sure you are taken care of any way I can. All I did was call the concierge. You have the room paid for as long as you need it, food will be on its way as soon as you are ready, since I know you forget to eat when you are upset, and I’m having moneywired to a local bank. The concierge has already agreed to arrange to have it brought to you. There is a plane ticket waiting for you at the airport to Lewis for this afternoon’s flight. It must be a small plane because there weren’t any first-class or business seats. By the time you show up, Steve should have the passport issue taken care of.”
Annie stopped, feeling the tears welling up again. “You are a force of nature, Alice.”
“Thank you.”
Annie hadn’t necessarily meant it as a compliment. But they both knew that.
“You are my only child,” her mother said softly.
Annie sighed. “I know. But first class? Jeez, I would have looked like a bag lady—literally—showing up with all my things in a plastic hotel dry-cleaning bag.” She paused. “I had to leave the new duffel you got me on the ship. I’m sure the police have it in evidence now.”
The reminder of the pink bag brought back unwelcome memories. Painful reminders of “real men” and “girlie” colors. She’d loved how they could disagree and still find ways to tease each other. She’d never had that before.
She still didn’t have it.
“Annie?”
She could hear the worry in her mother’s voice.
“You still there?”
“I’m here,” she assured her quickly and brightly, not wanting to have to talk her off the private plane again. “Thank you, Mom. I appreciate it. Really I do.”
Her mother harrumphed. “You are welcome. Call me when you are leaving. And if you change your mind, I can be there—”
“I know,” she said, cutting her off. A knock on the door startled her. For one foolish heartbeat she thought... But then she realized whom she was talking to and sighed. “Your room service is here,” she told her mom.
“I didn’t order room service. I said you would call when you wanted it sent up.”
The foolish heartbeat was back. Stronger this time. Oh God, what if it was...
“I’ll call you back,” Annie said, and hung up, not giving her mother time to argue.
She practically ran to the door, heart in her throat, her entire body fluttery and jumpy. Did he reconsider? Had he come back to tell her he’d made a mistake?
She looked through the peephole, and her heart sank. It wasn’t him, although she had no doubt that the man standing there had been sent by him.
Resolved, heart hardened, Annie opened the door.
•••
The LC was going to be pissed. Dean shouldn’t be hanging around, but he couldn’t leave without making sure Annie was taken care of.
He sat on one of the benches along the waterfront, facing toward the harbor while keeping his head turned just enough to watch the entrance to the hotel where the man he’d sent had gone through about thirty minutes ago.
He wasn’t hungry, but every now and then he broke off a piece of a Styrofoam-like bagel to chew on and took a swig of lukewarm coffee to wash it down. He didn’t want anyone to wonder what he was doing. But there were enough people about enjoying the clear morning to not make him too conspicuous.
Still it was a risk. An unnecessary risk, the LC would definitely say, but not to his mind. He needed to do this. He couldn’t just walk away. He had to make sure she was all right. Taken care of. Protected.
Leaving her like that, all naked and trusting and curled in his arms, had been one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do. Especially knowing that she was going to hate him when she woke up. He’d abandoned her just as surely as her father had. He told himself he didn’t have a choice, but that wouldn’t matter to her. He was gone whatever the excuse.
With her too-accurate suspicions of what he did, Dean knew how hard it must have been for her to put her faith in a man like him after what she’d been through. He’d kept his word, but he’d abandoned her all the same.
Because he’d fucked up and not followed orders, because he couldn’t keep his head down and had to get involved, someone else had been hurt. He wouldn’t regret it in Annie’s case—if he hadn’t been there she could have been in real trouble—but he should have had better control. He should have kept their relationship at a distance.
Right. He would have had more luck trying to sell Texans jerseys at a Cowboys game.
