Slater

I slid another slice of pizza onto Izzy’s plate, and then grabbed myself another slice, happy to see that she was enjoying her meal. “It’s good. Isn’t it?”

“That’s an understatement. This may have just become my favorite pizza place. The beer in the pizza dough gives it such a great flavor and chew.” She took another bite, looking like she was truly enjoying herself—which was a hell of a lot better than the hurt and disappointment that I’d seen haunting her eyes when I’d finally come clean about my past.

I knew that I may still lose her over it, and she may not be able to deal with the things I’d done, but at least the truth was out there, and that was a huge relief, especially since she hadn’t simply recoiled in disgust and shown me the door. The fact that we were sitting here having dinner was promising, even if she might be keeping me around just to help her find her brother. I just needed to continue proving to her that I was still the same man she’d fallen in love with.

We finished our meal, but before we’d even gotten to her home, Izzy’s phone buzzed, and after excusing herself, she answered it. “Emerson… Is something wrong? Just give me a second… I’m here with Slater, so I’m going to put you on speaker.”

“I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news—and I’m sure you’ll hear from the cops soon, but the courts just released Ray Billings on bail. He managed to hire a new lawyer, who convinced the courts that his client wasn’t a flight risk, due to his ailing health. Turns out the guy has cancer, and when he lost his job, he lost his health insurance, and couldn’t afford the insurance premiums with his pre-existing condition, which was why he was so upset. And he may very well be too weak to be a threat, but…I think you may still be in danger. Because that man? He’s got nothing to lose.”

Fuck. I needed to find a way to keep her safe. If anything happened to her… The mere thought of it was enough to make me crazy. “I’ll take her someplace safe, Emerson. Once we get there, I’ll let you know where we are. In the meantime, keep us updated. Do we know if he’s already been processed?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. And chances are good that the courts will have him monitored. But…I still don’t like it, though I may be overreacting.” No doubt because Emerson still felt responsible for Izzy’s mother’s death.

“Keep us updated. I want to know what this fucker is up to.” It’d be easy enough to understand the man’s desperation, but he’d already killed Elena Rutherford, and there was no way I was going to let him continue exacting his revenge by going after Izzy.

Izzy hung up, and though I was driving and had to keep an eye on the road, it was clear she was upset and frightened. “What am I supposed to do?”

“I’m going to take care of you, love—and you have my word, I won’t let anything happen to you.” I pulled into the driveway of Izzy’s home, knowing we’d need to grab the animals, and she’d probably need to pack a bag. “We’ll take the animals to my mother’s. It’ll make it easier for us to move around if need be. Pack light. We can pick stuff up along the way if we’re missing anything.”

Izzy turned in her seat to face me, eyes dark with worry. “Do you really think I’m in danger? Won’t he be under house arrest or something?”

“I don’t know, love. But we’re not going to take any chances. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. We’re in this together, okay?” I cupped the back of her neck and bent my head to hers, catching her mouth in a whisper of a kiss, half surprised when she didn’t pull away. Yet I forced myself to let her go, not wanting to push her when things were still a bit of a mess between us. Because I had no doubt that if it hadn’t been for this current scare, she’d still be holding me at arm’s length.

I went in first to sweep her house and make sure it was okay, before letting her in. She packed her bag in record time while I grabbed Lola and Winston, and we were out of there in no time at all. We got to my mother’s without incident, and luckily, she knew better than to ask too many questions. She just reassured Izzy that her animals would be fine, and then told us to be careful, hugging us both before seeing us to the door.

Things were moving fast, and though I’d already hit the road, I wasn’t quite sure where I should take Izzy. My family had several houses under different business names, making them more difficult to trace back to us, but I wasn’t sure which house would be best. In the end, I opted to stay relatively close by so that we could easily make it back to Seattle if need be, and we wouldn’t have a long drive ahead of us tonight. “My family owns a small seaside cottage up along the coast. We should be safe there.”

Her shoulders slumped, worry and disappointment lining her face. “What about the autodialer? I know we need to go, but I still need to find Andrew. What if this person knows about him? My brother could be in danger and not even know it.”

“Izzy…” I wanted to tell her there was no chance in hell that the guy threatening her life would know about Andrew, when she had only just found out about him, and we had so little information to go on. Yet I knew that this would set her mind at ease, and if nothing else, looking for her brother would give her something to do while we waited for this to blow over. “We’ll run in and see if the autodialer figured out the combination. But then we’re leaving straightaway. Am I making myself clear? I refuse to take any chances when it comes to your safety.”

“Slater…I really appreciate all of this. You don’t have to do any of it, and yet here you are, dropping everything to take care of me. It means a lot to know that you really care. I’m just sorry that it’s been hard for me to wrap my head around your family’s past. I feel like such a bitch.”

“Hey, I’ll be having none of that. I know the difficult situation I put you in, and the last thing I’d expected was for you to shrug off everything I told you. Because if you didn’t have an issue with my past, given the things we’ve done, then you wouldn’t be the person I thought you were.” How would any decent person be able to simply overlook something like that, without batting an eye? The answer was they couldn’t. Which simply meant this might take a little time, and I’d have to work extra hard to prove to her that I was no longer the kind of man who would have her questioning her relationship with me. “I just hope you’ll find a way to see past it all, and realize that I’m no longer that man.”

Izzy leaned over and kissed my cheek, her lips lingering on my skin before she settled back in her seat. “Thank you for being so understanding, Slater—and for all your help.”

“Whatever you need, love.”