Chapter Ten
Ailish stared at the door that had just closed behind Henrik. He hadn’t shared the identity of who he would be calling. Or what he would say. Trapped between him and the wall of the shower, she’d never trusted anyone more. Then again, she’d been relying on him for pleasure during those stolen moments—and oh boy, he’d delivered. If she allowed herself, she could get lost in the memory of how his fingers had touched her so intimately, the intensity of his breathing. But she couldn’t go there, couldn’t get lost in that winding path. Because Ailish couldn’t shake the sitting duck feeling that made her skin prickle.
Every time she took a step in the direction of trusting Henrik, he shut her out. It reminded her too much of a childhood being shoved out of rooms while the men talked. Being hushed at the dinner table while her father spoke in a low tone into the receiver of his phone. There was an undeniable urge to put her faith in Henrik. How could anyone be that convincing a liar? When they were touching, she couldn’t tell where Henrik ended and she began. Her troubles slipped down some invisible drain and there were only his capable hands…and that mouth. The one that spoke to her the way no one had ever dared.
Now however, sitting alone in the quiet cabin, she could only see the road map that detailed her situation in black and white, with none of the gray areas created by Henrik. Two squiggly red lines extended from the You Are Here mark. One led back to Chicago, and one led to more breathtaking freedom. She’d actually told Henrik she was the Bookie Cookie, a position that made her valuable to the police in so many ways. She had enough information to shut her father’s outfit down cold, and Henrik would need some serious motivation not to hand her over.
She hadn’t been enough motivation for her father to remove himself from a violent, unstable lifestyle. She hadn’t been enough reason for her mother to stick around. What chance was there that this near stranger who had so much to gain would actually see a reason to choose what was best for her? Not a good one.
Ailish’s gaze strayed to the duffel bag Henrik had brought in from the truck, just before he’d left to make his mysterious phone calls. He’d taken out a fresh T-shirt and she assumed it contained more clothes. She shouldn’t snoop through someone else’s property. No¸ she shouldn’t.
Whistling under her breath, Ailish slid off the bed and into a cross-legged position, eyeballing the bag a second before dragging it over. She unzipped the top and peered inside. Clothes, just as she’d assumed, but it wouldn’t hurt to look a little deeper. She pushed a hand down the side of the folded garments, freezing when she connected with something cold and metal. After a moment of debate, she pulled out the pair of handcuffs and let them dangle in the air, her stomach seizing as reflected light from the window hit the cuffs, creating shadows on the floor.
Slammed by a sense of urgency, a driving desire to get away from the cuffs, away from the man who could use them to restrain not only her wrists, but her livelihood, Ailish jumped up from the floor. She had no idea how long Henrik would be gone, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t be long. A glance out the window told Ailish that he’d left Erin to guard the door, another sign that something was wrong, right? If he didn’t trust her to stay in the cabin, that was proof the distrust went both ways. She wasn’t crazy to be paranoid.
Don’t think about the soft way he speaks to you, asking for your trust. Don’t think about the way he touches you like a man experiencing silk for the first time.
Ailish swiped a hand under her nose and dived for the plastic bags she’d saved as a makeshift suitcase, shoveling handfuls of clothes into them. Her toothbrush, her wallet. She slid the bag handles up her arms to rest in the crook of her elbows while turning in a circle, looking for anything else that might come in handy. The gun. Still beneath the pillow. After grabbing the weapon and making sure the safety was on, she took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
Erin turned with a blank expression, as if she already knew what was coming. “Ahhh. Princess Runaway has emerged from her chambers,” Erin said, without even glancing at the gun in Ailish’s hand. “I’m guessing this isn’t about taking another walk.”
Ailish tossed Erin the handcuffs from Henrik’s bag. “Put one end around your wrist and the other around the porch rail.” Both hands free, she gripped the gun and lifted. “I’m really sorry, but I have to go.”
The blonde twirled the cuffs around her index finger. “These things are child’s play. I’ll be out of them in fourteen seconds.”
Confusion eclipsed her urgency. “But Henrik has the key.”
Erin looked sympathetic. “There’s a lot we don’t know about each other. For instance, I didn’t know you were afraid of heights.”
“What?” Ailish’s brow wrinkled. “I’m not afraid of heights.”
“No.” Erin’s nodded at Ailish’s jean shorts. “Your zipper is, though.” The second Ailish dropped her gaze, Erin pulled her own gun, shrugging at Ailish’s outraged gasp. “Whoops.”
“That was messed up.”
Erin shifted side to side in her boots. “I don’t respond well when someone threatens to handcuff me. Even for fourteen seconds.”
A pain started in Ailish’s stomach. Disappointment in herself, regret for threatening Erin, worry that Henrik would return soon. “Look, just give me a head start. Two minutes, that’s all I’m asking.”
“What am I supposed to say to the Hulk when he returns? Not to mention my boyfriend.” The blonde shook her head. “Neither one of them is going to believe you got the drop on me. I’m too much of a legend.”
Erin was right, but Ailish could see that the other girl wanted to let her go. It was there in her shadowed eyes. “Look, I have nothing to offer, so I’ll have to owe you one. That’s the best I can do. Just…make it look like I slipped out the side window or something.”
She let the gun drop and Erin did the same. “Henrik isn’t someone you need to run from.”
“He hasn’t proved that yet.”
Erin found something about that statement remarkably funny, but in the end she just sighed. “You’ve got two minutes.”
Relief swamped Ailish. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me just yet. Henrik will find you and I wouldn’t want to be you when that happens.” Erin pursed her lips. “You better go—he said he’d be back in twenty minutes.”
Ailish threw another thank-you over her shoulder and stole down the porch. She didn’t slow once she reached the crop of trees surrounding the cabins, but picked up her pace. Her destination was the main road, but when she saw three female campers piling into a Jeep, she drew up short.
“Hey, are you heading into town?”
“Yeah.” They eyed her curiously. “You need a ride?”
An image of Henrik returning to the cabin and finding her gone filled Ailish’s mind. Would he feel betrayed? Resigned? The thing about convictions is they run on faith. Now I need you to have it in me. When he’d said those words to her, she’d come so close to believing them. Even now, there was a voice urging her to go back. But then she thought about being promised college by her father, being promised dance classes as a preteen, promised she could go out and have an honest job outside the confines of her home, the operation. None of those promises had come to fruition. In fact, she couldn’t remember a single time she’d put faith in another human being and had them deliver.
I would never do anything that could result in you being hurt, baby. Can’t you see that?
Ailish ignore the pressure in her chest and jogged toward the Jeep. “I would love a ride.”
...
Henrik’s finger rested on the green call button of his cell phone. As soon as he pulled his thoughts together, he would call the captain—and it wasn’t going to be an easy conversation. Not by any stretch.
The faint, addictive taste of Ailish on his lips made Henrik eager to return to the cabin and replenish his intake of her. More. He wanted more. It was unbelievable how much he craved her with every breath. On his walk to the lake where he’d finally found cell phone reception, he’d wondered if the constant starvation for Ailish would ease a little once he’d been inside her body, but the theory had been laughable. His need would only increase—there was no way around it.
Stop thinking with your dick and focus.
Right. He was about to go all in—again—for Ailish, and he couldn’t give any quarter when the captain balked at his demands. If the conversation with Derek didn’t go the way he needed it to go, Henrik was prepared to take Ailish somewhere safe where she couldn’t be tracked. Just remembering the fear in her voice when she’d talked about going back to Chicago made him anxious, a little crazy even. There was only one way he would consider taking Ailish back to Chicago, and both Derek and Ailish needed to be on board.
Henrik hit call. He didn’t have to wait longer than one single ring before the captain answered, his tone brisk and distracted. “Derek Tyler.”
“Captain, it’s Henrik.”
A slight pause. “I hope you’re calling me from the road, with Ms. O’Kelly in your passenger seat.”
Right to the point, as usual. “Not yet, no.”
Another, longer pause wherein Henrik could hear a leather creak, signaling the captain leaning back in his chair. “All right. Why don’t we start with last night? Did you make contact with Caine O’Kelly?”
“I did.” Henrik willed the knot in his throat to shrink. “He offered me a job with his crew. But I need to prove I’m an asset first by tracking down his daughter and returning her home.”
Derek’s laughter rang hollow. “I’ve never been more sure there’s a leak in my department. O’Kelly wouldn’t assign you that specific task unless he knew you’d thrown yourself on the sword for his daughter. I hope you weren’t followed from Chicago.”
“You know damn well I made sure I wasn’t followed. And yeah, it’s possible someone clued him in. Although I didn’t get the impression he’d made the connection between his daughter being cleared and me losing my badge.” Just saying the words out loud caused an unpleasant tightening at the back of his neck. “He’s not the kind of man who plays games. He would’ve called me on it.”
A rapping noise in the background, like knuckles on wood. “I’m afraid to ask why you’re really calling.”
“You know why,” Henrik said. “I’m not sacrificing her to that son of a bitch.”
“Are you talking about me or O’Kelly?”
Henrik switched the phone to his other ear. “That remains to be seen.” A breeze from the lake blustered a pile of pine needles into a mini cyclone, a few feet from Henrik’s feet. “If you can offer her a deal, I might be able to convince her to provide information about Caine’s operation. But she better walk out of the station afterward. Without a police record.”
Henrik could sense the captain’s dissatisfaction. “What information does she have that I’d be interested in? I’d be a fool to agree to a deal without any knowledge beforehand.”
“You’ll have to take my word for it,” Henrik said. “I’ll go undercover with O’Kelly and do the dirty work. But I need her protected to my satisfaction while I’m inside. Caine has men looking for Ailish as we speak and I’m not convinced he wants her unharmed. But you need to find me something else of value to offer O’Kelly, because it’s sure as shit not going to be his daughter.”
“What if I don’t agree to that? Connor and Erin are a phone call away. They can bring Ailish in just as easy.”
“You’d put two of your squad members in danger like that?”
“In danger from you?” Derek blew a breath down the line. “You haven’t been thinking straight since this girl showed up. You might be doing yourself a favor bringing her back to dear old dad.”
Henrik’s hand tightened on the phone. “You don’t want to suggest that again.” Against his better judgment, Henrik gambled with a rumor he’d heard years ago about the captain, knowing it could be his trump card if true, even if guilt was already weighing down his shoulders. “Your own wife stole fifty grand from another version of O’Kelly once, didn’t she? Would you have returned your wife to that man just to create an opportunity to go undercover?”
“Don’t you ever speak about my wife again.” Derek’s voice vibrated down the line. “But while we’re on the subject, my wife didn’t have the ability to make an entire city safer the way Ailish does. You’re impeding an investigation, Vance, and in case you don’t realize it, you haven’t hit the bottom yet. I can make that happen. Or I can make the reverse happen.”
No way was he backing down now or bowing under scare tactics. “I’ve given you my terms. Ailish comes back to Chicago and cooperates—outside her father’s house—in exchange for a deal, or you lose her as an asset completely. What is it going to be?”
When a full minute passed, Henrik wondered if the captain had disengaged the line, but he finally spoke. “Just answer me one thing. Is she worth losing the chance to be reinstated? Because there’s no guarantee Caine gives you a shot without her in tow, and that would stop this investigation cold.”
The sunshine above glowed too bright. Being reinstated would mean eventual approval once more from his family, a return to normalcy, and the career he’d been groomed for since birth. Exactly what he wanted, and yet he delivered his answer without hesitation. “Yes, she’s worth it and more.”
Derek’s sigh was sharp. “Very well. She’ll get her deal, but I want you both back here by tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I’ll find something to offer O’Kelly that isn’t his flesh and blood.”
Had the captain’s agreement been a little too easy? Derek Tyler had always been a man of his word, though. Hell, he’d given Henrik a second chance, and that alone demanded as much loyalty as he could give without sacrificing Ailish. “We’ll be there.”
As Henrik hung up the phone, he was already walking back up the path, eager to be close to Ailish. Eager to explain the deal he’d worked out with the captain. She would be safe. Always. When he’d left the cabin, her disappointment over being kept in the dark had hung in the air like smoke, but he could clear it away now. It might take some convincing that the squad could keep her safe until O’Kelly was put away, but they would get there. If anyone could keep Ailish hidden and protected, it was a crew of cons with access to police department technology.
When the cabin came into view and Henrik saw the door wide open, no sign of Erin, an uncomfortable sensation whispered down his back, forcing him to pick up the pace. The blonde walked out a second later, lighting a book of matches one by one and dropping them to the ground, where she put them out with the toe of her boot.
“Ailish,” Henrik bellowed, just as Connor stepped out of the cabin behind Erin, narrowed eyes fastened on his girlfriend. Bad sign. That was a bad fucking sign. “Where is she?”
“She sneaked out while I was using the bathroom.” Erin pointed toward the wooden area to the cabin’s left. “But I think she went thataway…” She tapped a finger to her chin, then pointed it the opposite direction. “Or maybe that way.”
“Dammit.” Henrik dug the keys out of his pocket and sprinted for the truck. He’d left his stomach somewhere on the dirt courtyard, the blood rushing through his veins so fast, he felt dizzy. His fury that Erin had let Ailish slip away was eclipsed by frustration at himself. This was on him. When was he going to learn that Ailish wouldn’t blindly trust him without a reason? Now, twenty minutes might have ruined any chance he had to help her, to…keep her.
No. No, he wouldn’t let that be the case.
He stomped down on the gas pedal.