Page 39 of Heart of Stone
Gunner searched my face with his gaze, to the point I squirmed in my seat. “Sorry,” I said quickly. “That was probably way too personal.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just … it takes a lot of emotional maturity to admit something like that to yourself, let alone piece it together in the first place. You’ll be just fine.”
I could feel the smile pulling at my cheeks at his praise and took another oversized drink of coffee to disguise it.
“What are your hopes and dreams, though?” He leaned forward, as if really invested in what I have to say.
“Well, right now I enjoy making movies, but I really would like to transition from performer to full time influencer. That’s the dream at least. Don’t laugh.”
“Laugh?” he asked incredulously. “I couldn’t picture anyone better for it.” He paused, as if on the fence about the next comment, but then quickly blurted, “From what I saw when you answered the door this morning, anyway. You could sure influence me.”
Scarlet staining my cheekbones, I yelped and tried to playfully smack his forearm while he laughed, but he caught my hand midair in his own, his thumb tracing a shiver-inducing circle on my palm. Surprised, I looked up to meet his gaze; brown and forest green and dark lashes longer than is fair for a man like him to have, and the look in his eyes was heated.
He dropped my hand and I pulled my arm back, folding my hands in my lap. Gunner snapped out of it and coughed, trying to cover up the energy buzzing across the table.
“Go lie down,” he insisted, voice husky. “I’ll clean up, and then I need to get the report from my head of security and check up on a few other clients since I’m out of the office.”
“Okay,” I nearly squeaked, shooting to my feet, but as I made my way to the bed, he grabbed my wrist with a gentle grip.
“Try to get some rest, Rachel. You’re going to need it.”
The low tone of his voice combined with the unintentional double meaning of his words caused an explosion of butterflies to take flight in my stomach. I nodded silently, and he released me, a knowing smile on his rough, handsome face.
Beneath the heavy comforter, I buried my face in my hands and took a deep breath. I couldn’t hear what Gunner was saying on the phone in the other room, but I could hear the timbre of his rumbling voice, and it had a grip on me like nothing else had in so long.
Chapter Sixteen
Gunner
She tossed and turned for a while, but eventually, I heard Rachel settle, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I don’t think she ever dipped into actual shock, but what happened back at her home was enough to drain the energy of even a seasoned professional. I myself was running on adrenaline and caffeine, but it wasn’t the first time, or even the hundredth, so I was much more suited to it than the model sleeping in bed on the other side of the suite.
If someone had told me last week I’d be sharing a one-bed suite with a world famous porn star, I would have assumed it would be a lot more fun that what I’m doing right now. On the other hand, I’m glad I responded in person this morning to her house and didn’t send a proxy. Things had spun out of control so quickly that I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do the right thing by her.
It was absolutely a mistake, but she was getting under my skin in the most pleasant way. There was something so approachable and confident about her … and I’d be lying to myself if I said I didn’t find myself admiring her in the physical sense. Skin perfectly kissed by the Texas sun, hair that fell around her face in a dark, silky sheet, and eyes the color of expensive whiskey—I would have been attracted to her even if her body didn’t flow into the sort of dips and curves that made me almost ashamed of my thoughts.
Rachel, Rachel, Rachel. She was going to get me into a lot more trouble than just fistfights and shootouts; I was sure of it.
While she rested, the occasional adorable, soft snore coming from the other side of the suite, I got to work on everything that I needed to take care of for today and tomorrow, so I could give this case my full attention. I didn’t have time to be fielding calls from wealthy grandmas about raccoons on the roof or trust fund babies upset that they weren’t getting their own personal bodyguard while living in the safest gated community in the state. That kind of nonsense was fine most of the time, but not when something like Rachel’s case was sitting at the forefront of my mind.
It didn’t help that I had a terrible suspicion about that fucking Anubis statue that was too horrible for me to even voice. A few suspicions, actually, all tangentially related. The statue could have been destroyed in the car accident or lost as it happened, thrown somewhere it could never be retrieved, or picked up and kept by a first responder with a keen eye for the valuable. It wouldn’t be the first time something precious, like a wedding band, disappeared between the crash site and the hospital.
The worst possibility of all, though, was that Trevor had chucked the damned thing into Lace Elm Lake or even took a road trip and tossed the thing into the ocean. Any of those possibilities would make my job a million times harder, or even impossible, but the last one would mean that Trevor would have been directly responsible for the hunting and possible killing of Rachel. It would be a cruel twist of fate, but I knew better than to count anything out.
If the house didn’t turn up anything tomorrow, I’d have to send my team out to check the crash site. I couldn’t subject Rachel to something like that. It was clear to me that her wounds had only just healed, and I wasn’t going to go and pick the scabs off by showing her where her lost love had died.
Fuck. Why couldn’t it be a friend, or a roommate, that had betrayed her? At least then I wouldn’t feel like I was planning a future seduction over the fresh grave of another man. Even if he had been crazy at the end of his life, it still felt dishonorable to me somehow.
Was I planning on trying to take Rachel out after this was all over with? I asked myself the question over and over, and we’d only known each other for a day. Even if it was a day crammed full of all the craziest things that could ever happen to a person, it was still less than twelve hours. But if she continued to check all my boxes, and stayed as irresistible to me as she was right now, then yeah, I’d try to take her out. All that thinking had to be put on the back burner for the moment, but at least answering that question in my own mind would help me focus from here on out.
I needed to refocus on the main reason I was risking my neck: my sister Nellie, and my nieces, Sophia and Amber. Innocents, and my own blood. I had one single trick left up my sleeve if it turned out the Anubis statue was forever lost. It might take my entire soul to do it, but I would if I had to.
If I couldn’t find the damned artifact, I’d offer Geoff up to Shadow and the Dark Hand Syndicate in exchange for Nellie and the kids’ lives. They’d kill him, but as far as my research had shown, they won’t kill indiscriminately, so there was no reason for anyone else to die but Geoff. My girls would be free and I’d—
Well, I’d be a murderer, wouldn’t I? Even if I didn’t pull the trigger.
Hearing Rachel tell me all her deepest hopes and dreams, and describe the future she longed for, made me realize something: I wanted to move on to the next stage of my life, too, even if I didn’t know what that was. My business was flourishing, and this shit with the Dark Hand couldn’t last forever. Did I want to buy a house and raise some kids? Or travel the world? It was a lot to think about, but if I handed Geoff over to be killed like some sacrificial lamb, none of it would matter. I would only be a shell of a man, and phantoms like that don’t get to have dreams for the future.
I was completely off track from what I was supposed to be doing again. With a groan, I rubbed my hands over my face and considered my next move.