Cyrus
“Are you serious?” Sadie exclaimed, her voice a mixture of fear and fury. “You think that animal wants to kidnap his own daughter and go on the run with her?”
I nodded. I knew the theory sounded a little wild, but after everything that had happened, I was growing more and more convinced of it. He wasn’t acting rational. Ralph might be crazy, but he wasn’t an idiot. He had to know what he was doing and the consequences if he was caught. All I knew was that Ralph was dangerous and posed an immediate threat to my family.
I thought Sadie might break down into tears and express her obvious fear of the situation. However, Sadie leapt to her feet and began to angrily pace, just as I had done a few moments before.
“We’ve got to do something,” she snarled. “We’ve got to keep him away from Megan! And make him pay for what he’s done!”
I raised my brows in surprise. I hadn’t expected such a bloodthirsty reaction from her. Her anger was overtaking her fear, sharpening her focus and turning her into a fierce, little spitfire.
I liked it.
“I’ve got men out searching for Ralph as we speak,” I told her, keeping the admiration from my tone.
She scoffed. “Clearly, they’re not doing a great job if he was able to get this close to her without being caught.”
That was a good point. I’d have to talk to Caleb about doubling the security around the house and threaten him with more dire consequences if Ralph kept slipping past his men. Caleb might be my best friend, and I’d do anything for him, but if his men couldn’t get their shit together, I was going to clean house and force him to rebuild his team from the ground up.
It was just so frustrating, though. Trying to find one person in a city like New York was like trying to find a needle in a hundred haystacks. And Ralph knew how to hide himself and move among the underbelly of the city. His years as a dealer and addict had given him that skill, at least.
As I watched Sadie trek back and forth across my office floor, an idea suddenly struck me.
What if we weren’t in the city?
What if we went so far away that we got out of Ralph’s reach completely?
“I know what we’re going to do,” I announced.
Sadie came to a stop and turned to me with a small frown.
“What?” she demanded to know.
I couldn’t help my slight grin at her sharp tone. She was so protective of Megan…it was an incredibly attractive quality, for some reason. There was something about her loyalty and fierceness that stirred something feral within me. I wanted to take her into my arms and kiss her pursed lips…then I wanted to bend her over my desk and pound out our frustrations together.
“I have an estate upstate,” I told her, forcing my heated thoughts of her to the side. “It’s far enough away that it wouldn’t be easy for Ralph to get to, and it’s well secured. We’ll go stay there while Caleb and his men continue to search for Ralph. We should be safe there.”
Chapter 39
Sadie’s brows rose, and she looked surprised.
“You…you want us all to go to the country?”
She seemed hesitant, which made me frown. “You don’t like that idea?”
She quickly shook her head. “Oh, no! That’s not it. I think it’s a great idea, I just…”
Trailing off, she glanced away, but not before I caught sight of the blush spreading across her cheeks. What was she thinking? I’d give just about anything to know what was on her mind at that moment. Was she nervous to be secluded in the country with me?
When I thought about being out on the estate with her, away from everything, all but alone, I felt a jolt of heat course through me.
Damn it, I needed to get a grip. Now was not the time to be thinking about her and what could happen between us, isolated away from the city.
“Then why do you seem nervous?” I asked, unable to help myself.
Her lips parted, and a breath slipped past them. The flush in her cheeks deepened, and her hands opened and shut at her sides, a nervous gesture that I recognized because I did the same thing when my anxiety started working up. Not knowing what was going on in her head was so frustrating. I wanted to grab her shoulders and demand to know what she was thinking. What ideas were going through her mind, causing her to react in such a manner?
Would she tell me? I doubted it. I knew I wouldn’t tell her if the roles were reversed. Still, I wished we could just be open and honest with each other. I wish there was enough trust between us for that to happen.
I actually found myself wishing she would turn to me with all her thoughts and troubles. That I was someone she went to when she needed comfort or satisfaction. Those thoughts caught me off guard. It was one thing to be attracted to her and to want her to be attracted to me as well.
But a genuine connection? Trust? Emotional intimacy?
I wasn’t certain I was ready for those deeper desires and emotions to come between us.
At length, I watched her swallow and shrug. “No reason. Sorry, just overwhelmed, I guess. I think it’s a good idea, really. When do you want to leave?”
I was tempted to push her a bit to find out what was really on her mind, but then, I thought better of it. It wasn’t the time. We needed to focus on the priority at hand, which was getting the hell out of the city.
Then, once we were away and safe, I’d work on figuring what the hell was going on between us and what exactly it was I wanted from her.
“In the morning,” I told her. “Get everything ready for you and Megan. I want us gone as soon as possible.”