He was sure it was crawling with cops by now too. Probably including Agent Triplett and Detective Kimble, since they were leads on the case.
Fucking Kimble. Their paths had crossed in the past and he’d always managed to slip around the guy, but a few times it had been damn close. I really need to get rid of him.
But that would have to wait.
Where r u? he typed to Butch and hit SEND.
Stopped for gas in Indy. Snowing here. Flights grounded. Have to drive home. Slow driving.
Make/model of car? I’ll wait near Gold’s house. Luckily, there was only one entrance into Gold’s neighborhood. He could park there and keep watch for the borrowed car without being noticed.
White Toyota Prius. 2dr htchbk. 2014. IL plates. The plate number came through. Gotta hit the road. Call if u need me, can’t text w/snow.
No, they couldn’t risk an accident. Accidents meant cops and Butch had successfully flown under the radar for a decade. He wouldn’t surface now if it wasn’t life or death.
B safe, he replied. Because good right-hands were hard to come by. Especially ones he could trust implicitly. In his life there had been only two – Butch and his uncle Mike.
Otherwise, he was on his own and always had been. He liked it that way too.
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Sunday 20 December, 3.55 A.M.
Adam switched off the shower in Meredith’s basement, feeling human once more. It was a very nice shower nestled in the corner of a very nice bathroom. Meredith certainly didn’t do things halfway. The tile was done in a pattern of frothing waves that . . . soothed.
Everything about her soothed. Even the shampoos and soaps in neatly labeled dispensers on the shower wall. Sandalwood, lavender, forest, mountain spring. There was an earthiness, a groundedness in every scent, every color.
It was very zen. Very Meredith.
He wondered why she was so careful to surround herself with such soothing images and scents. He’d known from the beginning that she surrounded herself with a group of friends that were closer knit than most families.
Certainly more than his own family – his parents anyway. He, Deacon, and Dani had made a life for themselves and for Greg, the youngest Novak.
Meredith had drawn them in too. She was like a sun, acquiring planets that revolved around her, coming closer and orbiting away as they went about their own lives. All while Meredith remained in the center. Alone.
Adam thought she might be the most alone person he’d ever met, despite the friendships she’d so carefully and consistently nurtured. And I didn’t help her not be alone anymore. He’d left her, expecting she’d carry on while he dealt with his mountain of shit.
But she had her own shit too. She had to. Why else would she have ever felt the need to develop that zen mask that seemed to fool everyone into thinking she was just fine? He’d seen past that mask and he knew she was unhappy.
And he now knew he could fix it. Buoyed by a confidence he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt before, he stepped out of the shower and dried himself with a fluffy towel that . . . He buried his face in the towel and inhaled. That smelled like her.
Instantly he was harder than any rock. He’d have to be careful when he zipped his trousers. The trousers of the suit she’d hung in the closet. His own suit, cleaned and left hanging. Waiting for him to return and reclaim it.
Just as she’d waited for him to return and reclaim her. Which he wanted to do right now, but knew he needed to wait until she was in a safe place.
A soft knock on the door had his pulse scrambling. Diesel wouldn’t have knocked so lightly. Had to be her. He wrapped the towel around his waist and knotted it, conscious this would be the first time she’d seen this much of his skin since that night a year ago. And for the first time, he was grateful that all the work he’d done hauling and fixing things over the past year had given him muscle definition he hadn’t seen since playing ball in college.
‘Adam?’ she called through the door. ‘Your phone played Darth Vader, twice. I didn’t answer, but someone wants to talk to you. I’m leaving now, putting your phone on the nightstand. I just wanted you to—’
He opened the door to find Meredith standing there uncertainly, his phone in her hand. A second later though, her uncertainty was gone, replaced by momentary shock which quickly became an expression of open lust. She looked him up, then down, her nostrils flaring slightly at the deep breath she drew.
He shuddered. Hard. Best ego boost ever. He wanted to reach for her, but he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop and he still had to tell her the truth. Dammit. So he reached above him with both hands, gripping the doorframe, his knuckles bone-white.
‘Oh,’ she said on a sigh, her hand slowly lifting to his chest like it was being pulled by a magnet. She trailed her fingertips through the droplets clinging to the hair there, her touch a bare whisper against his skin. Her gaze dropped to the towel and she worried her lower lip with her teeth, making him want to take a bite.
He heard a low growl, realized it had come from his own throat.
Her gaze jerked up, colliding with his, and she started to pull her hand away, but he caught her wrist, flattening her fingers against him. She shifted her palm to cover his heart and she had to be able to feel it because it was slamming against his ribcage like a hammer.
Then she pressed her lips to his chest and undid him. His fingers released the doorframe and drove into her hair, lifting her face, her mouth.
And he was kissing her again. Finally. Finally. It was . . . everything. She was everything. He nipped at the lip she’d bitten and she moaned, opening for him. He licked into her mouth, forcing himself to slow down. To explore.
To treasure. Because this . . . this was more than he’d ever hoped for.
She hummed her pleasure, the hand over his heart sliding up his chest and around his neck and the kiss became a sweet hello. She tasted like gingerbread. And home.
Keeping one hand in her hair, he let the other drop to her shoulder, then hesitantly brushed the back of his fingers over the swell of her breast.
She hummed again, this time in anticipation. He dragged his mouth away, resting his forehead on hers as he cupped her breast with a hand that trembled. She closed her eyes on an almost silent whimper, her body melting into his.
‘God, I missed you,’ he whispered.
‘I was right here,’ she whispered back. ‘Waiting for you.’
He opened his mouth to tell her then, he really did. But Darth Vader’s theme belted out of his phone, startling them apart. Meredith stared down at the phone in her hand as if it was something she’d never seen before.
‘It’s Isenberg,’ he said quietly. ‘I have to take it.’
She handed him the phone and took a step back, but he grabbed her hand and pressed it back to his heart. ‘Sorry,’ he said to his boss after accepting the call. ‘Had to shower off the fire stink. Did we get Zimmerman to kick in a few guards for Meredith and her grandfather?’
Meredith’s eyes held his. Her lips mouthed thank you.
Isenberg’s voice was a buzzing in his ear. An annoyance. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to pay attention to what she was saying. ‘Yes, but that’s not why I was calling,’ she snapped. ‘You need to get down to the station. We have a visitor. He says his name is Shane Baird. And he says he was Andy Gold’s best friend.’
Adam sucked in a surprised breath. ‘Shane. Just like Andy told Johnny at Pies & Fries. Andy told him that Shane was going to college somewhere up north.’
‘Kiesler University. He and his friend drove down as soon as Shane saw the news.’
‘I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.’ Adam hesitated, then figured fuck it. ‘I will have Meredith with me. I’m here now. I’d come to take her to the safe house.’