Layers Peeled (19 page)

But my body
couldn’t respond. I wanted it to, but every single one of my limbs
stiffened as if solidified in concrete.

“Allie,
please, baby. Look at me.” But nothing he said resonated; it was
all just a long piercing buzz of blending sounds pitched an octave
too high for my liking. He brought my face higher to look at his
eyes. And at that moment it was just me and Tristan. The crowd of
people in the tunnel ceased to exist. I concentrated on his eyes
and his lips as he was saying something. Feeling the gentle urge in
the pressure of his hand, I blinked twice and found my ears were
working again.

“We need to
leave. I’m sorry you saw him. My men reported to me that he’d left
his residence on the west coast two days ago, but I didn’t think
he’d show up here.”

“You knew
where he lived?”

“Of course I
did. I know what he eats, drinks, and shits. This man is not
supposed to be on this side of the country. We’ve planted a bug on
him to alert us if he crossed this state’s border, but it never
went off. Allie, I promise you he’ll be out of here within hours.
But for now, you need to come with me. Please?”

Tristan
crouched in front of me, rubbing my hands with persistence as if
trying to bring that small part of me back to life. I wanted to ask
Tristan to kill Wright. I wanted it done now; but instead I
whispered, “Okay.”

Tristan took
me under his arm, covered me with his coat, and we left. Upstairs,
he removed his shoes and suit jacket. I sat on the couch in his
office as he made one phone call after another, including one to my
mother saying that Julian would pick her up and drive her to his
parents’ place. She was to pack for a trip. Where was she going?
Tristan’s mouth formed a straight line most of the time. His sharp
moves around the office with his phone glued to his ear had me
worried. The usually perched lips I loved to kiss resembled a twig.
I’d never seen Tristan so demanding and short with others. But I
guessed somebody had dropped the ball. It didn’t sound like he
wanted to know who, either, only for the work he’d asked for to be
done flawlessly. Tristan unfastened his tie and opened a closet at
one end of his office.

“We’re taking
Peg with us to Austria.” He’d finally lowered his phone. “So long
as I don’t know his whereabouts or figure out why he came back,
you’re both under my constant watch.”

Except I
already knew exactly why he was back—for me and my mother.

“Okay.” I
couldn’t think of anything else to say. I wondered why Austria of
all places. We were supposed to leave in a week for the wedding, of
course, which I wasn’t really in the mood for, but shouldn’t we be
hiding in an underground bunker instead? And why was everything so
blurry and confusing? My hands began trembling on their own, and I
slid them under my thighs. Tristan changed his pants into jeans and
pulled a sweater over a white undershirt. Oddly I was still wearing
my coat.

“The house
near Vienna, Gabe’s house, is off the grid. It’s the one of the
properties not connected to Cross Enterprises or the family. And
since we need to be there soon anyway, it just makes sense.” He
came to crouch in front of me again. “I’m going to use the
bathroom. Will you be all right for a moment?”

I felt my head
move up and down on its own.

When he
stepped into the bathroom, someone knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

At least the
automated part of my brain was working. As soon as Laura peeked in
and saw me, she ran to my side.

“Are you all
right?” She knelt down in front of me. Gosh, I must have really
been a mess.

“No.” I shook
my head. And I wasn’t sure how I found my voice around my friend,
but I was glad it returned. “You know those past ghosts you
mentioned once? They’re back.”

“Is there
anything I can do?”

“I don’t think
so. Tristan’s working on it. We’re leaving for Vienna earlier than
anticipated.”

“Take as much
time as you need. I’ll handle the files. James has some time as
well. You just keep well and keep safe.”

“Laura?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you for
helping Mercedes.”

“It’s my job.
Besides, I can’t let you reap in all the rewards,” she teased. I
couldn’t have asked for a better partner in crime.

“That case,” I
said, leaning toward her. My instinct returned. “Marissa’s closed
file. Can you have another look through it? See if I missed
something? Try to investigate the man who bought her and let me
know what you find.”

“I will. Hey,
everything will be okay.” She passed me a fresh mug with coffee,
one she’d apparently made in the lunch room and I hadn’t noticed
until now.

“Thank you.”
But my heart was pounding an SOS, urging me to get my mother and
run straight to the airport. Get as far away as possible from the
bastard, and quickly.

Perhaps
leaving for Vienna now was a good idea. I needed time to get the
strong Allie back.

The sound of
the plane’s engine hummed in my ears. I closed my eyes and
concentrated on the consistent spin of the wheezing air in the
turbines. Then I imagined myself out there, on the wing, wind
pressing my cheeks flat and flapping my hair. Its coolness would
slowly freeze my skin so I wouldn’t have to feel anything. I hoped
filling my mind with useless thoughts would keep away the one
person I didn’t want to think about. It had been twelve hours since
Wright had seen me, and the tension in my muscles hadn’t eased. At
this rate I’d be sore the moment I let go of the stress.

During our
flight Tristan stayed by my side. Julian and Kendra would keep
their original plans and join us in a few days. If Kendra wanted to
make it to the wedding, leaving her program a week early wasn’t an
option. We didn’t tell my mother about Wright and explained the
early departure as an opportunity for a vacation. But my mother
knew me better than anyone, and it wouldn’t take long before she
suspected an ulterior motive.

Tristan’s
squeeze on my hand brought me back to the cabin, and I opened my
eyes, turning my face to him.

“You need to
relax, Allie. You’re safe now. And I’ve just been told he’s out of
the state.”

“How?”

“His tracking
device is back on. It was a system glitch.”

“It broke
coincidently when he was in New York?”

“Yeah, I
thought about that as well. He’s not going to hurt you, baby.” He
kissed my hand.

“How did you
keep him on the other side of the country?” I asked.

“He was
reassigned to overlook a precinct in California. They gave him a
well paid desk-job any veteran would kill to get. No questions
asked. We thought that’d be enough to keep him there, but the
bastard showed up in New York instead.”

“He has
connections.”

“I know.”
Tristan’s fists tightened, and this time I unwound his twisting
fingers.

“You’ve done
everything you could,” I said.

“Allie, I’m
sorry. You just mean everything to me. I can’t let him near you
ever again.” He shook his head.

Wright’s
sudden appearance had frustrated and perhaps scared Tristan as much
as it had me. I could only imagine the guilt he felt after failing
to keep his promise of making Wright disappear.

“I know you
won’t. I trust you.”

And that was
true. If there was anyone in the world who could keep David Wright
away from us, it was Tristan Cross. I leaned my head back.

“I should have
shot him that day in the mountains.” My muscles tensed further.

“No, you
shouldn’t have. Allie, don’t worry. He won’t come near you again.
I’m pretty sure it was a coincidence he found you.”

But Wright
could find a needle in a haystack if he wanted to. And Tristan was
just saying all that to make me feel better. Being in this
business, we knew that coincidences like these only meant trouble;
in truth, they were never coincidences at all.

Tristan shook
his head sideways as if he were disappointed in himself. “Wright
was supposed to stay on the West coast and to never set his foot in
New York State.”

“Oh, my God,
he knows I live in New York.” My heart pounded and everything
inside me began to shut down again.

“I don’t know
how he found out. His reassignment had nothing to do with you or me
or Cross Enterprises. There was no tie that could lead him here.”
Tristan untied my clenched fingers and slowly began massaging my
palm. It felt good. Like that night he had blessed me with a full
body massage.

That’s
right, Allie. Think about that night, not Wright.
My own
thought only brought the bastard back to the fore.

“He came here
for me.” I said, acutely aware at how tense Tristan became at my
convincing statement.

“Perhaps he
was trying to find where the order came from and why, then bumped
into you.” Tristan’s hand moved higher up my arm, as he began to
unwind my muscles there. His fingers kneaded like a
professional’s.

“With over one
and a half million people in Manhattan, he bumped into me?” I said
with sarcasm. I knew Tristan was just trying to make me feel more
comfortable, but I had a feeling nothing would make me more
comfortable than seeing Wright’s dead body myself. “Wright is
calculating. He must have known the this had something to do with
me or my mother.”

“Maybe we’ll
get more information when we’re in Vienna. I’ll get in touch with a
friend in California. He can dig deeper into this.”

“I hope you’re
right.”

He brought
myself against him, holding tight. Kissing the top of my head, he
said, “I will die before I let him ever hurt my family.”

I snuggled
into Tristan. I couldn’t think about Wright anymore. If Tristan
said we were safe, then I believed him. The bastard would
eventually slip and get what was coming to him, Tristan would make
sure of that. I tightened my hand around Tristan’s. The rhythm of
his heart and steadiness of his rising and falling chest became my
new focal point. I let the sounds carry me away, focusing only his
pulse and the air that fed his lungs.

* * *

Gabe and Sam’s
house was like the castle of all chalets and cabins. If I’d thought
our home in New Jersey was big, well, then this was suitable for a
wedding where all the guests could stay instead of in a hotel and
enjoy amenities some inns didn’t even have. Little did I know, the
plan was to have the entire family stay here.

We arrived
late at night, after ten their time, but to us it was only
afternoon. After a quick tour of the house, we settled in our
bedrooms. By midnight our hosts had gone to bed, and I was still
wide awake.

“I don’t think
I can go to sleep.” I looked out the window, admiring the
picturesque view of the mountains. Winter must had started some
time ago because I’d never seen this much of snow in one place. Its
whiteness reflected upward, lighting everything from below. And
even though it was night time, seeing the brightness made my
internal clocks disagree that much more.

Tristan
pointed down to the steaming pool. “Want to go for a dip?”

“Yes!” I
whipped around and then ran to the suitcase to grab my bathing
suit.

“Ahh, you
don’t need that.” Tristan took it out of my hand.

I yanked it
back. “Yes, I do. I’m not skinny dipping when my mother is in the
house. Not to mention, we’re the guests here.” Even if I knew my
mother was already settled in her room, engrossed in another
romance novel, it didn’t make me feel any more comfortable. She’d
packed a bag full of books, and I made a mental note to perhaps try
to get her to switch to an ebook reader.

“Gabe and Sam
are like family,” Tristan growled in desperation.

“All the more
reason to keep our clothes on while outside of this bedroom.” I
started changing. From the way Tristan kept looking at me, I wished
I’d packed a one-piece instead of the tiny bikini. Could you swim
in a snow suit? It would take all my strength to resist him in that
pool and he knew it. Had I already lost this battle? That enticing
scar of his lifted, and the surge in my veins pushed toward my
heart, which also began pounding. What was I thinking when I
complied with Tristan’s request to bring beach-wear? Especially
since my belly started popping out further every day.

“You better
keep those hands to yourself when we’re in the pool, mister,” I
warned, but my tone had already changed to
and make sure you’re
discreet.

Seeing Tristan
strip naked right in front of me and then watching him slide on his
swim shorts tantalizingly slowly was excruciating. I just stared at
him, my gaze concentrating below his belt at that beautiful
manhood. I licked my lips just as he fastened the strings.

“I will try,”
he grinned.

He was so good
at flipping the tables on me!

Wrapped in
fluffy robes, we stepped into the freezing temperature.

“Fast, do it
fast,” Tristan said.

My nipples had
already peaked just thinking about the cold, but I tiptoed toward
the pool, set the robe aside on the lounge chair, and dove in. The
warm water enveloped me, heating my body to the core. While still
underwater, I heard Tristan dive in behind me. When I surfaced,
though, the steam hovered just above the water’s plain and my
visibility was only good for a few feet. Beyond the fog, the lights
from the house illuminated the puffy clouds of steam, but I could
barely make out the building.

“Tristan?”

“I’m right
behind you.” That sexual whisper of his was enough to stir my mojo.
He warmed my shoulders with hot kisses, rushing a pleasurable wave
of tingles through my body.

“Are you
planning to seduce me, or are we going to swim?” I asked.

“How’s your
leg? Has the cut healed?”