Highways & Hostages (36 page)

Stella blinked, her mouth opening and closing without a sound. “I think I would be horrified right now if I weren’t so tired,” she said finally. “Have you seen Finn?”

Phoebe narrowed her eyes in thought. “I don’t think so. It’s so crazy—this whole mess started because of the guy, and I’ve only seen him from a distance.”

“Yeah. I’m glad you’re okay.” Stella eyed the police officer. “Is everything good here?”

“Yep, got what I came for. Where’s Valerie? I’m almost done.”

Stella grimaced. “Upstairs with some EMTs…she doused herself with pepper spray. I’m going to look for Finn, okay? When you finish here, can you go check on Val?”

“Sure,” Phoebe said, pocketing the tooth.

Stella leaned in and hugged her fiercely. “Thanks,” she whispered into Phoebe’s ear before pulling away. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too,” Phoebe said. “Now go find Finn.”

Stella walked back through the house, swiveling her head left and right.

Maybe he’s gone,
she thought.
But would he really leave without saying anything?
Okay, I’m just going to check the rooms at the back of the house, and if he’s not there, I’ll leave.

Stella stepped into a large living room filled with furniture better suited to a museum. The French doors at the far end opened onto a grand stone patio.

And there he was.

Her heart ready to burst, she was running, exploding through the doors.

Finn stood to the side of the patio, facing the yard. He looked up as Stella approached, his brow losing its furrow, and one corner of his mouth quirking up. The mischief didn’t reach his eyes.

She threw her arms around him and the two of them stood on the patio, holding each other, as rain started to fall. Stella’s arms around Finn’s waist. Finn’s head on her shoulder. Stella didn’t know how long they stood like that, and she would have been happy to spend the rest of the day in his arms, but she needed to talk to him. As if reading her mind, Finn pulled away and stared at her without saying anything.

“I lied,” Stella blurted out.

Finn raised one perfect, golden eyebrow, but remained silent.

“In the parking lot of the Leaky Stein. I said I kissed you in the heat of the moment. I lied.”

“So…” His expression was guarded.

“So I kissed you because I wanted to. I wanted you—I
want
you. But I didn’t know it then. Or maybe I did and I was just scared.” Stella shook her head to slow the flow of words tumbling from her mouth. She took a deep breath. “I want you. All of it: the grouchiness, the art smuggling, the snoring—”

“I don’t snore.”

“Well, then there must have been a chainsaw in bed with you. My point is: I care about you. I want you to know.”

Finn stayed quiet. He took Stella’s left hand and held it in his own, studying it, before he let go. When he met her eyes, his expression was pained.

The smile dropped from Stella’s face. “I thought you’d be happy.”

Finn swallowed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sure I would be if I didn’t feel like everyone close to me was lying about something.”

A cold knot formed in Stella’s stomach. “I’m not—I just told you the truth. I basically took my heart out of my chest and offered it to you on a silver platter. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

Finn let out a chuckle devoid of humor. “I don’t know what the hell I want at this point. What I
do
know is that I need to be able to think things through, and I can’t do that here.”

Stella took a step forward. “What does that—”

Finn moved back out of her reach. “I can’t do this with you. Not right now. I’m sorry.”

Exposed and hurt, Stella wrapped her arms around herself. When she’d broken in to the house earlier, this wasn’t the outcome she expected. She felt as if all the fight had left her body. She nodded more to herself than him. “Okay,” she said, her voice small and her eyes on the ground.

“I’m really sorry.” Finn slid his hands into his pockets and ducked his head. “I just need some time.”

Stella worked hard at swallowing the lump in her throat. “Funny, I remember saying that yesterday. Guess the tables have turned.”

“Don’t they always with us?” Finn asked. A small smile played on his lips. “One day I’m chasing you, the next you’re chasing me… Maybe one day in the future when we’re both in the right place at the right time, things will be even.”

“God, you’re exhausting.”

“Have you two declared your undying love for one another yet?” Valerie asked from the doorway of the patio, one arm threaded through Phoebe’s. “I want to go home and hibernate until my face deflates to its normal size.”

“Almost.” Stella turned to Finn. “So, I guess this is goodbye.”

“More like, ‘See ya later.’”

“I’m not going to wait around forever,” Stella said, her voice firm.

“You go, girl!” Valerie crowed.

The smile finally reached Finn’s eyes. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

Stella shook her head. “You can’t let anyone else have the last word, can you?”

“Nope.”

Stella sized Finn up one last time. “Hope that keeps you warm at night.”

“Ooh, burn!” Phoebe said. “Now, seriously, can we go?”

“I’ll let you have that one,” Finn said. He nodded at Phoebe and Valerie. “You should get out of here.”

“You’re right.” Stella forced herself to turn away from Finn, her feet heavy and her heart begging her to stay and fight. She slid her arm through Phoebe’s free one. “Goodbye, Finn.”

“See ya later, Stella.”

As the three women walked through the house, Stella felt Finn’s eyes on her. She couldn’t help it; she
needed
to have the last word. She glanced over her shoulder and locked her eyes with his before she turned back around.

“If you’re lucky.”

Finn hoisted his backpack higher on his shoulder as he pushed through the doors of Ford Hall on the campus of Whittendale University. After a three-hour lecture for his “Art, Conquest, and Colonization” seminar, Finn was ready to soak up some sun on the quad.

Around him, students flung Frisbees, while others napped on blankets spread over the lawn. On the steps of a building on one side of the quadrangle, a band was setting up speakers and amps, and tuning their guitars. Finn dropped to the ground, lay on his back, and stared up at the bright blue sky.

Six months ago, he never would have imagined himself on a college campus. Though he wouldn’t be able to officially enroll in the art history program until next spring, he was getting the hang of college life by auditing a couple of classes. Classwork and exams were a lot less profitable than working with Julian, but Finn was finally excited about his future.

His phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the screen: Alex. Finn had seen him once since that night at von Rothschild’s mansion, right before Alex moved to Italy to spend some time with his mother’s family.

“Hey, dude,” Alex’s voice floated over the phone. “How’s it going?”

“About the same.” Finn lay back on the grass and settled his head on his pack. “What about you?”

“
La vita e bella.
I seriously wonder why I didn’t move to Italy years ago; these women are going to be the death of me.”

Finn shook his head. Alex was halfway around the world in a beautiful country filled to the brim with art and culture, and all he was concerned with was women.

“So, what’s up?” Finn asked, suspicious. Alex wasn’t just calling to shoot the shit.

“Nothing. Just calling to see how my best bud is doing.” He paused. “And wondering if you’ve talked to my dad.”

There it was: the real reason Alex was calling. Finn bet Julian had put him up to it. Julian had tried calling Finn several times since the revelation at the mansion, but Finn hadn’t bothered to answer.

“How’d I know you were going to ask me that?” Finn asked.

“I agree that what he did was wrong, but it’s been six months and he’s really sorry about it. He knows he should’ve told you everything a long time ago.”

“So why’d he tell
you
all this and not me?”

“Because apparently you won’t answer any of his calls,” Alex said.

Finn paused. “It’s going to take more than a few months to get over ten years of lying by omission.”

Alex sighed on the other end of the phone. “He won’t be around forever, Finn.”

“And I won’t be mad forever, Alex, but I need more time,” Finn answered firmly.

“Well, when you’re ready, you should go visit him up north. Wine country is really beautiful in the spring.”

According to Alex, about a week after everything went down, Julian put his Las Vegas estate on the market. Shortly after that, he sold all his remaining art pieces to an antiquities gallery and bought a vineyard in northern California wine country, declaring himself retired from the art trafficking biz.

“I’m sure it is,” Finn said evenly.

“Have you talked to Billy?” Alex asked. “Last time I spoke with him, he was having a hard time adjusting.”

“Being locked up isn’t exactly a walk in the park,” Finn said. “Two years in prison will do him some good. He wanted to be a tough guy, and now he’s got his chance.”

“Man, you are stone cold. Oh, did you hear they finally caught von Rothschild?”

“Really?” Finn asked, sitting up.

After von Rothschild had successfully managed to sneak out of the library during Valerie’s pepper spray attack, the authorities had scoured the estate, but there was no sign of the man. Finn had constantly been looking over his shoulder for the last few months, worried that von Rothschild would spring out of the bushes and finish what he’d intended to do, especially since it was partially Finn’s fault that Claudia was in prison as well. Now he could breathe a sigh of relief.

“Yeah. I guess he’d been hiding out in some bunker he’d built under the house he owned in Oregon. Isn’t that some crazy shit? They caught him a couple of weeks ago when he showed up at a private airstrip. They knew he’d probably be making a run for Dubai.”

“So he’s gone?” Finn asked, seeking reassurance.

“Oh yeah, man. They’re putting him away for a
long
time.”

A hazy image of Stella’s profile as she sat in the passenger seat of the Beetle popped into Finn’s head as Alex droned on in his ear. “So you in, bro?” Alex asked, his tone slightly annoyed.

“What?”

“I just invited you to come party with me in Italy and meet some ladies. I’m sure we can even find someone for you, Mr. Picky.”

“I told you—I’m celibate.”

Alex’s hearty guffaw grated on Finn’s nerves. “Drop the act. Call her up.”

“Call who?” Finn asked, feigning innocence.

“Dude.” Alex’s tone was no-nonsense.

A petite redhead walked past Finn with a large mastiff on leash. His eyes followed her and he swallowed. “I’m waiting for the right time, okay?”

“When’s going to be the right time, Finn? She’s not going to wait around forever.”

Finn frowned. “For all I know, she’s seeing that FBI asshole again.”

“But you
don’t
know. And you won’t ever know unless you talk to her.”

The band Finn had seen setting up began to strum a few chords. He stuck a finger in his free ear to block the noise.

“I screwed up, Alex. I left things in a shitty place, and we emailed a couple of times, but then I started school and never replied to her last letter—”

“Cry me a fucking river, Finn. If you want her, fight for her.”

“Look, Alex, it’s getting noisy here. I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you soon.”

Finn clicked off the call just as the band started playing their instruments with gusto. Finn squinted as he tried to place the familiar melody.

“No way. No fucking way,” he said as strains of The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” floated through the quad.

“I need one order of
arepas
and one order of the Jamaican beef patties,
now
,” Stella shouted over the din of the kitchen. She swiped a sleeve across her sweaty forehead and tucked a few flyaway strands behind her ear. Lunchtime was always busy for Spice, a cafe right off the Strip specializing in global cuisine.

The cafe had only been open for three months. It was part of the reason Stella had been able to snag her position without years of culinary school on her resume—that and the fact that Derek’s mother went to college with the owner. Still, the cafe was doing extremely well. As kitchen manager and sous chef, Stella had to be on her A-game. She loved working with the front-of-house staff and managing kitchen employees, but her favorite part of the job was coming up with menus and jumping on the line when she was needed.

She loved her new job, but she had to admit she missed Bert and the crew at The Leaky Stein.

Bert understood when Stella told him she was leaving. Valerie, on the other hand, was upset her best bud was moving on without her, but she got over it when she realized she’d be able to get free food at the new cafe. For Stella, the new job wasn’t exactly what she wanted, but it was a happy medium between waitressing and her new dream: owning her own food truck.

“Earth to Stella,” said Leanne, one of the Spice hostesses. She waved a hand in front of Stella’s face. “Didn’t you hear me? There’s someone out front asking for you.”

Stella furrowed her brow. “Can’t Corrie handle it? Since Aaron called out, I’m on the line today.”

Leanne shook her head emphatically. “This guy’s specifically asking for you…and he’s pretty cute.”

Stella’s brow wrinkled even more as she wiped her hands on her apron. She had no idea who would visit her at work. She followed Leanne through the kitchen doors to the front of the house and stopped short.

Even with his back to her as he looked out into the cafe, one hand perched lazily on the small bar in the center of the room, she knew it was him. Her body hummed as if the area immediately surrounding him was a force field. At that moment he turned and made eye contact with her as if he’d felt it too.

Finn was even more handsome than the last time she’d seen him. His blond hair was a little longer, starting to curl at the ends, and his skin was more tanned. Stella sucked in a breath. She’d gotten two emails from him filled with small talk since the whole fiasco with von Rothschild, but her last email to him went unanswered. She figured he’d moved on…but she’d still held out hope.