A Snow Covered Nightmare: Refuge Series Book Two by Debbie Zello (21)

Chapter Twenty-One

“Why won’t you let me hold your hand?” Stu asked, leaving his hand on the table inviting her to give her hand back to him.

“That’s part of what I want to talk to you about. You’ve been so very tolerant with me. Waiting patiently for me to make up my mind and move on. Keeping me company and entertaining me,” Briah said looking down at her lap.

“I haven’t been keeping you company and entertaining you, Cherie. I’ve been dating and courting you. I’ve been falling in love with you. Biding my time, hoping that you would fall in love with me,” he said staring at her.

Briah looked up and into his eyes. She took a very deep breath and let it out slowly. She had been on the receiving end of what she was about to say. She knew first hand how her words would cut and wound him. “I’ve tried to forget and move on. Tried to let you in. But I find that I can’t right now. I don’t know if I will ever be able too. I do want to remain friendly with you. I don’t want to lose that, but if you can’t, I understand.”

“So that’s it? You’re done trying? There’s no future at all between us?”

“Please don’t be angry with me. I’m trying to explain how I feel to you. You’re a wonderful man and I was a very lucky girl that you’re interested in me.”

“But you don’t share those feelings. So you’re saying, here’s the door and don’t let it hit you in the ass on your way out!” his voice rose as his eyes pierced hers. Briah looked away. The hurt in his voice and eyes were more than she could stand.

“I am so very sorry if you feel that I led you on. I thought I was up front with you right from the beginning. If you feel I wasn’t, I’m sorry for that too.”

“No, I knew you were unsure of your feelings about the other man. I did think I might have a chance at changing your mind. I see now that wasn’t the case.”

“I am sorry,” she said so sadly it nearly broke Stu’s heart.

“Stop saying you’re sorry. I know you are. It’s all right, I’ll live. I’ve gotten use to disappointment,” he said finding his understanding. “I can do the friend thing. It’s probably a good thing we never slept together because I wouldn’t be able to if we had.”

“No, that would have been difficult. I wouldn’t have been able to remain friends with Aiden,” she said forgetting herself.

“His name is Aiden? I don’t think you ever mentioned that before.”

“I didn’t but yes, that’s his name,” she said figuring a first name wouldn’t matter much.

“Well, Aiden is a lucky man if you can still have feelings for him months after breaking up with him,” Stu said smiling. Briah just nodded as she wondered if he was lucky at all.

Pete explained to Clair that he was going back to the restaurant to follow Briah home. “Do you think that is a good idea?” she asked.

“Aiden doesn’t know her name, where she works or lives. If I don’t, he won’t have any starting place,” Pete explained.

“I don’t know if you should get involved in a Federal thing, Pete. What if there is some obscure law about it? Or, what if she sees you and calls the local cops?”

“Thanks, I do stakeouts for a living, you know.”

“I’m not criticizing your skills, baby, I’m just saying it could backfire on you. I don’t want to spend my vacation visiting you in jail,” she said placing her hand on his.

“I’ll be fine, darling. You start a fire and I’ll be back in an hour or two. Then I’ll take care of you,” he said with a wink.

“Mmm-hmm okay, please don’t make me say, I told you so!” she said getting the kids out of the car. Pete watched her get them inside before he backed out of the driveway to drive back to Gracie’s.

When he drove into the parking lot, he backed into the first space he found. He left the car running but turned off the lights. Quickly he got out and walked up to the window to make sure they were still inside. They were, so he walked back to sit and wait hoping he wasn’t parked right next to them. He didn’t know which car they’d arrived in.

Pete’s wait was short, as ten minutes after he parked, Briah walked out of Gracie’s. Pete watched as they walked to a car that was parked a few spots down from where he’d first seen her. As they pulled out, Pete pulled in far enough behind them so as not to raise their suspicion that they were being followed.

They drove out to the main road and turned left. A few streets down, they took a right. A few more turns and they pulled up in front of a house on the right-hand side of the road. Pete drove slowly past them and into a driveway several houses down the street. He backed out and parked on the opposite side of the street facing them. Pete watched as they exited the car and walked up the sidewalk and steps. At the door, the man kissed Briah’s cheek and walked back to his car, as Briah went in the house.

Pete’s phone rang. “Hey, I’m in front of her house. The dude dropped her off. He didn’t go in with her,” Pete said figuring that information would ease Aiden’s mind.

“Thanks. That’s a relief. The thought of another man touching her was eating at me. I’m on my way to the airport. I got a seat on United at five-forty. That puts me into Vermont at ten-sixteen. I’ll rent a car and be at your place by noon, I hope. Do you have a couch I can crash in for the week?” Aiden asked.

“Yeah, sure. But you won’t need it for a whole week. As soon as she gets a look at you, you’ll be in her bed.”

“No, it’s going to take more than a week for me to mend that bridge. You didn’t see her face the way I did. That kind of pain doesn’t go away just like that.”

“She loves you, Aiden. Love doesn’t go away like that,” Pete said, watching the lights go out one-by-one in her house. “She is going to bed. I’m going to go back now. Do you want me to come back over early to watch her?”

“No, but thanks. I’ll do the watching once I get there. You’ve done enough, Pete. Thank you. I’m going to kiss your mother-in-law the next time I see her. If she hadn’t sent you there, I would have never found her.”

“Let me talk to him,” Roland said watching out the windshield of his rented car. A few minutes passed before he continued, “Have you put anyone else on this, boss?”

“No, why?” the voice said.

“I got company tonight. It smells like a cop but why would a cop be tailing her?” he asked thinking aloud.

“No clue. Maybe you’re wrong about that. The Feds usually stay as far away as they can once they have placed someone. They don’t want to draw any unnecessary attention.”

“Right. Then who? He is definitely tailing her. He left the restaurant right behind her and I’m looking at him now a few houses down from her house.”

“Has he made you?”

“Not likely, boss. I don’t think I’m dealing with the brightest bulb in the box. This one looks like he ate a tire. He just started his car. She went to bed. You want me to follow him?”

“Yeah, find out where he lives. Keep me informed, Ghost. We may have to move up the plan. I hate to change things but we may have no choice.”

“Will do,” Roland said, ending the call. He pulled out behind the other car and followed him. He smiled to himself. He always loved to hear his family moniker, Ghost. The family Dom had branded him with it many years ago, after he silently killed a Dom from another family, leaving no trace behind, like a ghost.

Roland followed the car back through the town and up a hilly side street. At the top was a huge complex with a main lodge and condos on the left side of the street. The car he was following turned into the condo’s main road. He watched as it zigzagged through the complex and eventually pulled into the driveway of one of the units. He waited for the guy to exit the car and walk in the front door. Then Roland drove down to the unit to get the number off the front.

Any time that you are waiting for something, it takes forever. Waiting for his flight was no exception for Aiden. He stopped at a sandwich shop in the airport to get a grinder, chips, and some snacks for the flight. Then he sat in the waiting area, eating his sandwich and watching planes land and leave.

Finally, his flight was called and he made his way down the skyway and onto the plane. He found his seat, and stowed his bag in the overhead. He’d brought a book to read, although he doubted he would. He was too on edge to concentrate on reading. The plane loaded and taxied out to the runway with the usual flight safety speech given by the perky attendants.

As the plane left the ground, he thought about Briah, asleep in her bed or reading with a small light on. She was so beautiful propped up against the headboard as she read. He loved taking the book from her hand and pulling her to his chest for some skin-to-skin contact. That always led to hand-or-mouth contact and that led to the best contact of all.

He must have had one hell of a look on his face because the older woman that took the seat next to him said, “I don’t know what you’re thinking about, but I can almost guarantee it isn’t the safety talk.” He chuckled.

“No, it’s not the safety talk. In fact, there isn’t anything safe about my thinking,” he said, smiling at her.

“She is a lucky girl, then. Are you flying to her?” she asked.

“Yes, I am. I’m flying to be with her. Hopefully forever.”

It was about forty-five minutes of snow-covered highway driving to reach Pete’s vacation spot. Pete gave very detailed and accurate directions; he was after all, a detective, and used to details being important. Aiden pulled into the driveway and shut the car off. Getting out and walking to the door, he got a birds-eye view of the beautiful spot the resort was nestled into. He rang the bell and a minute later, the door opened. “You made it!” Pete said smiling at his partner and friend.

“I did. Wow, it sure is swanky here,” Aiden said, whistling as he walked in.

“It is all that. Good thing it’s not my dime. How was the plane?”

“Long. I couldn’t enjoy any part of it because I just wanted to get here. Where is everybody?” Aiden said looking around.

“Out skiing, and Clair is taking pictures, I’m sure.”

“Do you want to show me where she is?” Aiden asked cutting right to the bone of the visit.

“Let’s go,” Pete said, grabbing his coat. The two men walked out and got in Aiden’s rented car. With Pete giving the directions, they soon found themselves driving slowly past Briah’s house. A car that was there last night was still in the driveway. Pete wrote the marker number down, as he could see it in the daylight.

Aiden drove back around the block to enter the street from the same side again, thereby keeping him semi-hidden in case she happened to be looking out the window. “It’s a cute place for her. I can see her decorating the windows for all of the holidays. God, I want to hold her. Just knowing she is behind that door is making me crazy.”

“Then stop the fucking car and go knock on the fucking door!” Pete said plainly.

“And say what? I was in the neighborhood and thought I would stop by. Oh and by the way, I didn’t mean any of the shit I said to you that day, so can we just forget I said it?” Aiden said giving Pete a stupid look.

“I think between the two of us we can come up with something better than that. I can be pretty fly when I want to be, you know!”

“Oh dear God, please don’t talk all street to me like that. It’s just not right!”

“What ‘chu talkin’ ‘bout Willis?” Pete shot at him.

“I can’t take it. I’m starving. If she’s here, that means we can eat and not run into her. Was the food good where you ate last night?”

“It was great. I’ll take you there.”