Hendrix moved closer to me and gave me an urgent look. “Little rabbit?”
I nodded and shivered as a chill went through me. “The night I snuck out and came back all beat up. I was set up. I went to meet a girl in a park and Ricky closed me in with him and two of his goons. He was going to kill me, but I escaped. Before I did, though, that guy, the guy in that mask, was there. He was outside of the park and he scared the hell out of me. He was just…breathing on me. Then he called me a little rabbit and told me to run.”
That admission got me a lot of swearing from Hendrix. “Were you trying to get yourself”
I stared at him as he cut himself off.
“Never mind. That isn’t productive right now.”
I shook my head and wrapped my arms around myself. “Those idiot kids at the diner. They called me little rabbit. It felt familiar but I couldn’t remember why. Do you think it was them? Do you think they’re doing this, Hendrix?”
He dragged his phone from his pocket and hit a few buttons before raising it to his ear. “I’ll find out where they are and we’ll go from there.”
I moved back to the couch and pulled a blanket around my shoulders. I was suddenly freezing. The fear that I’d been so close to the masked person who wanted to kill me and I hadn’t even known it freaked me out. I hated that there was a mask involved. At least if Ricky was coming at me, I would know it. If the masked person came at me, I would never know and I wouldn’t be able to protect myself.
Hendrix swore and hung up. “They were released and the information they gave the cops was false. They’re out in the wind.”
The ice maker in the fridge chose that moment to drop more ice into the bin and I jumped at the noise. My heart raced and I pulled my knees to my chest. “Great. Just great.”
“We’ll find them. There’s nothing we can do right now, though. My contacts know what we know and they’re looking into it. As soon as they know something more, we’ll know something more.”
“Shit.” I stood up from the couch but kept the blanket around me. “If this asshole has been following me enough to know about my meetings and all that, heor sheknows pretty much everything I know about Ricky. They know what I’ve been up to. All they had to do was tip Ricky off and I’d be one step behind him at all times. Which I pretty much have been. I’ve fucked up more on this case than any other one I’ve ever worked. Maybe I’ve had help.”
The idea that I’d been sabotaged pissed me off. I grabbed my glass of wine and finished it while I paced around the living room. “I knew someone was working against me, but I assumed it was one of Ricky’s girls, hoping to avoid his wrath. This sonofabitch has been fucking with me. How else would Ricky have known about Tabatha? I didn’t think about it until now, but there’s no way any of the girls would’ve turned on Tab. She acted like a mother to them. She took care of them the best she could. There’s no way they’d tell.”
Hendrix sat back on the couch, content in letting me work it all out in my head.
“I don’t have proof, obviously, but I know I’m right. This asshole got Tabatha killed. I’m going to snap his neck. Or her neck. Whatever. Tabatha didn’t deserve what Ricky did to her. She was good.” I shrugged the blanket off my shoulders and stormed over to my shoes.
“What are you doing?”
“Let’s go find this piece of shit. I know it’s not Aaron. He’s probably still in Kansas, living in a basement with no windows, constantly watching revenge porn.”
“We’re not going anywhere right now. You’re drunk and would probably try to shoot someone. Plus, I’ve got to make a call to my brother. I’m going to call a guy I know in Kansas and have him find out where Aaron is. First things first, let’s mark names off the list. I’ll feel a whole lot more comfortable once we know who this fucker is.”
I put my hands on my hips and frowned. “Hendrix, I want to go out. Now. I’m done with waiting around.”
“Woman, when have you ever waited around for anything?”
My eyes just about crossed from the frustration. Without another outlet, I settled it on him. “First of all, don’t call me ‘woman.’ Second of all, I wait around all the time. I spent the first eighteen years of my life waiting around to do anything, so don’t talk to me like I don’t know about it.”
He held his hands out in front of him and shook them while making a ghost like sound. “Oooohhhh, the dreaded older brother talk. The reason you are the way you are. No one can give you suggestions because blah, blah, blah. Enough, Darby! I get it. I really do, but I’m done with it for tonight. You’re not going anywhere. We need a plan before we go out and get ourselves killed.”
My face burned and I felt fury and indignation rising up in my chest like a horrible case of acid reflux. There was no stopping it. It ate at my throat until I opened my mouth and spewed words at him. “You’re a security guard, Hendrix. I don’t actually need your help with a plan. Also, shouldn’t you just be quiet and drive me around places?”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt like a bitch. In no way did I think of him as a stupid mass of muscle, only capable of guarding me. I knew I needed his help. I opened my mouth to apologize, but Hendrix cut me off.
“Just go to your room, Darby.”
“You’re sending me to my room? Seriously?”
He glared at me with eyes as stormy as the spring back home. “I don’t want to argue with you anymore.”
I glared right back at him and walked into my room. I turned to slam the door but he was already there, yanking it shut. All common sense flew away gain and I felt like a petulant child all over again. I grabbed my phone and a new notebook before sliding open my window and leaning out of it.
I got out to my waist before large hands clamped around the band of my pants and yanked me back inside. He dropped me on my bed, slammed the window shut, and then pinned me down.
“Let go of me, you idiot!” I jerked against his hold, but he caught both of my arms and slammed them down above my head. His large body easily overpowered me as he straddled my hips and successfully trapped me.
“Stop it. Stop everything you’re doing right now. I’m on my last bit of patience with you and I’m about to really hurt your feelings, Darby. Don’t make me get mean. My older brother is back home right now, freaking out because someone is sending him cryptic messages about the daughter he thought he’d lost years ago. I’m taking calls from a man I respect more than anyone in this world and he’s crying because someone is telling him maybe his kid isn’t dead.
“I can’t take your shit if you’re going to keep this up. I’m doing everything I can here, so you need to calm the fuck down and act normal for like thirty fucking minutes while I make some calls and try to figure out what all is going on. Got it?”
It got meaner? I suddenly felt like crying again and slapping myself all at the same time. I pulled at his hand holding my wrists until he let them go and then I pushed him off of me. “Go away.”
He caught my chin in his hand gently and forced me to look at him. There was pain and frustration playing on his face and it was hard to look at. “I’m sorry, Darby. I just need you to work with me.”
I twisted my face away from him and rolled my body away. “Just go. I won’t go anywhere.”
He sighed heavily but the bed shifted and I felt him stand up. “Okay. Thank you.”
He left my door open when he left and it made me feel more exposed than I already did. I had no idea why he set me off the way he did, but I felt like an asshole. I reacted to him in the worst ways. My emotions were already high, but something about the man brought out the ugly in me.
I grabbed my blanket and jerked it over my head so I could suffer in private. I needed time to berate myself for being a jerk to him while he was going through his own shit. Of course, I hadn’t known about anything, but I couldn’t help how guilty I felt for adding to his stress.
I didn’t quite understand what was happening with his brother, but it seemed like he might be needed at home. For some reason, the thought of him being gone didn’t make me happy like it would’ve just days before. Fuck.
My phone rang in the distance and I groaned as I realized I’d dropped it out of the window when Hendrix grabbed me. I swore and jerked open the window before hanging out of it to lean over and grab my phone. The call was still coming in and I could see the screen as it read Harding’s name.
Just as my fingers grasped the cool plastic, a dark swear came from behind me and then I was dragged back inside the window. That time Hendrix pinned me stomach down to the bed and growled into my ear from above me.
“Seriously, Darby?!”
I wiggled and tried to roll out from under him, but he had me, no matter how I moved. “I was just getting my phone! It fell and Harding was calling me so I had to get it! Get off of me, you big oaf!”
He stilled over me and his breath came out rough against my neck. “You weren’t trying to run away again?”
“No!”
“Sorry, Darby. I thought you were making a run for it.”
I grunted into my pillow and then turned my face to the side so I could look at him over my shoulder. “I’m starting to get the idea that you’re into some kinky stuff, Hendrix.”
His grin was wolfish. “I guess I should get off of you, huh?”
I couldn’t stop my mind from going to an overheated place. I could feel him, hard and hot, pressed against the dip between my thighs and I couldn’t help thinking that we were in a good position. I could only imagine how good he would feel like that. I’d want to be able to touch him more the first time, though. His body was a work of art and I couldn’t ignore it.
I knew the moment my face went red because Hendrix’s eyes darkened just slightly as his pupils dilated. His tongue moved over his bottom lip to wet it, drawing my attention and more explicit thoughts.
I bit my own lip, needing some kind of control over myself. Nothing was working, though. I wanted Hendrix. Just as I opened my mouth to tell him, my phone rang again.
He shook his head and slowly moved off of me, leaving me to bury my face in my pillow and groan before sitting up to answer my phone. I didn’t look at him as I did it, too afraid that I’d throw caution to the wind and just go for it.
“Hello?”
Harding grunted. “You rang.”
“Yeah. We’ve had some new developments.” I told him everything while Hendrix went to the living room. I could hear him talking but he kept his voice too low for me to hear anything.
“Mother fucker. No wonder this whole case has been nothing but a damn joke. Ricky has probably known everything all along. You’ve just been so damn lucky that he hasn’t been able to catch you yet. This isn’t going to work out like this, Darby. One slip from you and Ricky’s bragging about offing you at his next pot roast.”
“Thanks for the visual.”
“I’m not kidding. It’s too dangerous if you’re going to be playing into everything this stalker wants. He’ll either walk you right into a trap set up by himself or Ricky. Your bodyguard is good, but he’s still just a man. He could take a bullet just like the rest of us. Then what?” He barely paused. “Then, I’m calling your family back in Kansas and ruining the rest of their lives.”
“I’m not done. I just have to figure out how to outsmart them.”