She straightened, pushing away from the counter. “Then we wait until tomorrow and see what happens.” She gave a curt nod as she rubbed at her upper arms. “I think I’m going to wash up.”
Elvis watched her as she left the kitchen and moved to the stairs. He could feel the fear rippling off her, but knew there was no stopping what she had set in motion. They had to follow through with this.
He moved to the front room to stand in front of the bay window, hands in his pockets. Outside, the Spanish moss stirred in the evening wind, moving the way things did in Savannah, with a slow, easy pace, as if time had learned patience from the city’s bones. Somewhere on the next block, a church bell counted out the hour, and for the first time since they had shuffled Delaney out of the casino, Elvis felt the balance shift.
They weren’t running anymore.
They were waiting. And planning.
And the difference between those two things was everything.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
DELANEY STOOD AT THE window, which overlooked the street below, her arms over her chest as she stared out at the dark street. The lamp on the corner barely gave any illumination, casting the street in dark shadows. As always, her mind ran through the loops of her working on something she hadn’t quite figured out yet as sounds of the house settling whispered in the background. Taking herself out of the equation, she looked at the situation just like she would any other case her company was working. She looked for patterns and contingencies where the security team could go off the rails, where the weakest parts were. Not that she didn’t trust the men downstairs; she simply trusted herself and her reactions more. Besides, it was her life she was risking.
She pushed at that thought like she pushed her tongue when it wouldn’t leave a sore tooth alone. She didn’t regret her decision, but now that they were in Savannah, the weight of it had become real in a way that planning never quite allowed for. She knew Leon was out there somewhere, just waiting to make his move and make her give up her family. He was real, and not some grainy image on a casino surveillance feed anymore. And he was coming for her. Matteo had sent him for her.
Her mother’s voice came back to her unbidden.Be careful; whatever you choose, do not lose yourself.She pressed her fingertips against the window frame and took a deep breath as she stared outside. “That’s the plan, Mom.”
Behind her, she heard the bedroom door open, followed by heavy footsteps. She smiled as she stared out at the Spanish moss, seeing Bobby’s reflection in the window, the way he walked toward her, the swagger in his steps like he knew how to move without drawing attention to himself. It never worked, however; people noticed Robert Jenkins wherever he went. She had been studying him since they left the casino, comparing him to the boy she knew in school. It was like getting used to someone all over again after being gone so long, but not much had really changed. Both of them were so different, but the relationship had never changed. She knew there were things about Robert Jenkins she could never forget. Nor did she ever want to.
There was only one light in the room, a small, ornate lamp on the nightstand, but she could see him well enough as he moved to join her. Once there, he slid his arm around her from behind, warm and steady, and he drew her back against his chest, holding her as if time hadn’t passed between them. He rested his chin against her temple, and for a moment, neither of them spoke.
Outside, a car eased through the intersection at the end of the block and continued on, keeping her tense until the taillights disappeared. She blew out a breath as she let her muscles relax.
“Calm down,” Bobby whispered in her ear. “Blaze has the cameras pointed in every direction, and your man Donovan has done a thorough search of the first floor. They’ll run the watch tonight in case we missed anything, but I promise you, we missed nothing.”
“He could find us, you know?” she said. “We were careful, but I’m sure they have people monitoring cameras as well. We’re not the only smart ones out there.”
“True, and if that’s the case, Blaze will know before he gets within three blocks.”
She blew out a breath, but his assurance did nothing to ease her worries. “I keep thinking about my mother. About the night they came to the house to whisk us away. She never raised her voice. Not once through the whole thing: the packing, the agents, the drive. She just kept touching my face every time she walked past me, like she knew what it was doing to me.”
She felt him tighten his grip around her waist. “I’m sure she was just making sure you were doing all right,” he told her.
Delaney closed her eyes, placing her hands on his arms around her waist. “I know that now. I just didn’t understand that until years later.”
He turned her then, his hands tender on her shoulders, and his eyes locked onto hers as soon as she faced him. In the dim light from the lamp, his face was all shadow. He looked at her like he had been looking at her since their first conversation, like she was something he had spent a long time believing lost and was still in the process of accepting back.
“There’s no need for you to stand here watching the street,” he told her.
She gave a sheepish smile as she ducked her gaze. “I know.”
“But you’re going to anyway, aren’t you?”
“Well, I was until you came in,” she admitted.
Something shifted in his expression, and he lifted one hand and pushed a curl back from her face, his thumb tracing the line of her cheekbone. “Well then, how about instead of watching the window, we watch each other?”
She sucked in a breath as she reached up and covered his hand with hers, holding it against her face for a moment.Turning her head, she pressed her mouth to his palm. She felt him go still for just a moment before he leaned down and kissed her, his lips lingering against hers. It was as if they had all the time in the world and nothing else mattered right then but the two of them and he meant to capture every moment that the universe had stolen from them.
He slid his hands through her hair. At his touch, she felt the tension she had been carrying in her shoulders for the past few days ease muscle by muscle. It was as if her body had just realized it was all right to rest once more.
She pulled back just far enough to look at him, staring into his eyes, seeing how serious he was, more serious than she remembered him ever being. Back in school, he had always been the jokester, the King’s devoted fan. He would spout trivia in the most random of moments and sing every Presley song in his off-key way. All of that was still him, she knew that, but this was the part underneath it. The part that had stood outside a girl’s empty house and never entirely recovered from what he found.
She kissed him again and let herself stop thinking, surrendering to his embrace. They didn’t break the kiss as he walked her back toward the bed, his steps still unhurried, his hands holding her, sliding over her body and along her back, learning her the way a careful man studies something he knows has value. He slid her top over her head, tossing it to the side before he reached for the clasp to her bra. Soon, his hands were roaming over her body, his kisses hungrier, more urgent.
She hadn’t been touched like this in longer than she wanted to calculate. Not with this quality of presence. Not since she left Tupelo, left him. Oh, other men had tried to get her attention, wanted to take her out, to kiss her. But there was simply no way she could give her heart to another; she wouldn’t risk that type of hurt again, so she turned them all away.
