A Perfect Fit (29 page)

“Well, I had other expectations for Friday night, but then
we had a little too much of the wrong kind of excitement. And
today—again—things didn’t exactly go as I’d hoped.” He’d barely let her out of
his sight since bursting into her place—he even waited in her room while she
showered. “I nearly had a heart attack when Joel snagged me on his way to the
car saying Trent was holding Jonquil hostage at gunpoint.” He used his knuckle
to lift Cami’s chin so he could kiss her, then used a napkin to wipe away the
chicken grease he’d just smeared on her lips.

Cami had never been so shaken over anything. When she
thought of him bursting into the house, his gun raised and ready to protect
her, of how easy it would have been for Trent to turn and shoot Vince, it made
her chest ache. “No reason tonight can’t still be romantic. The dogs are
outside; we’re in here, eating by candlelight.” In his house—which felt more
like home with every visit.

“That’s true.” He changed the subject to something neutral,
and the topics wandered while they finished their meal, then topped it off with
the Twinkies Cami had grabbed for dessert.

“Don’t tell Rosemary I picked out Twinkies. She’d have a fit
if she knew I defiled myself with substandard pastries.” Cami took a big bite
and reveled in the over-processed goodness.

Vince chuckled and dabbed her nose with some of the cream
filling from his snack cake. “You got it.” He leaned in and kissed the cream away,
then moved to her mouth. “You know I’d do anything for you,” he whispered
against her lips.

“Even come in guns a blazing to save me.” She was trying to
put it all in perspective.

“Even move to Chicago next year if that’s what you want.”

Cami froze, then shifted back to look in his eyes. “Why
would I want to move back to Chicago?”

Vince paused and blinked as his brows lowered over his eyes.
“Don’t you? I mean, you know so many people there—and all of the social
opportunities you’re used to. We don’t have that here.”

She let out a full belly laugh, tipping her head back so she
could let it out. “Are you crazy? I hate parties! I hate playing the social
game and having to remember all of the connections between people so I can work
the room and give the right image. Haven’t you noticed how little I eat when
we’ve been in things like that? They make my stomach turn. Sometimes I’ve
actually ended up puking in the bathroom when the pressure is high. If I had my
way, I’d never go back.”

He leaned against the chair behind him, his eyes still
narrowed in disbelief. “But you’re the one they always send to work the
crowd—you’re really fantastic at it.”

His expression was so comical, filled with total confusion.
She could hardly hold back the laughter that bubbled inside her. “So it follows
that it has to be the most important thing in my life?”

“But you hate it here.” His brow furrowed. “Or rather, you
seemed to when you first arrived. You talked like you were mad at your dad for
making you come here and leave everything behind. You
were
mad about it,
right?”

“Yeah, I was. I didn’t like being manipulated. He’d been
pushing me for months to take this job, and I hadn’t wanted to be the boss, to
start over in a new place. I liked the status quo despite the social obligations.
But being here, meeting you—it’s been the best thing that happened to me in
years—maybe ever.”

Vince cocked his head. “I’m the best thing that’s ever happened
to you?”

“Yes, you idiot. Can’t you tell how much I love you?”

He grinned and pulled her close for a kiss, muttering
against her mouth. “Tell me. How much, exactly?”

She slid her arms around his neck. “More than anything. More
than anyone. Damn I hate it when my father’s right.”

He laughed. “I love you, too. I thought for sure you wouldn’t
accept me, that you didn’t want to stay here. If I’d known, I would have done
something sooner.” His lips covered hers.

Cami kissed him back, her heart threatening to explode with
happiness. “It’s not like you didn’t make yourself clear about your feelings
already,” she said when his kisses trailed down her neck to her collarbone. She
shivered as his lips teased her skin.

One of his arms fished in his jacket behind them while he
made his way back up her neck to her ear. “So this shouldn’t come as a
surprise, I’ve waited because I had to know you loved me. I’d hoped tonight…”

Then a blue ring box appeared in his hand between them and
he opened it to show off the sparkle of diamonds. “I picked this up when we
were in Chicago. I knew this was the one the moment I laid eyes on it.”

Cami’s breath caught in her throat and she had to swallow to
clear her airway. “Oh my.” It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. The
square-cut diamond was over two carats with side stones in an antique white
gold setting. If she hadn’t already been ready to say yes, this would have done
it.

 “Marry me, Camellia DiCarlo? Stay here with me in our
little Colorado town? Or let me come with you if you decide you need the city
after all. I can’t stand the thought of being without you. I love you so much.”

The dogs whined from the back porch where he’d banished them
before they’d gotten out the food. “See,” he said with a chuckle, “even my dogs
love you.”

Tears streaked down her cheeks for the second time that day
and she slid a hand behind his neck, pulling him close for a kiss. “Yes. Yes, I’ll
marry you, and your little town—and the two monsters you call dogs.”

As they kissed, she felt him slide the ring onto her ring
finger—it was a perfect fit, just like him.

Sage threaded through the streaming LA crowd and wished she’d
didn’t have to leave for work at peak commute time. She liked people, but
fighting through them wasn’t exactly her idea of a party. And it was all too
easy to hide in a crowd—which would be more of an advantage if she knew who she
should be hiding from.
He
didn’t have that problem.

She scanned the mass of people, looking for a familiar face,
anyone she might have seen before, then checked her watch again. If she missed
this train, she would be late. Reading her father’s email had distracted her.
It had been chatty and full of news about the resort he was preparing to open
that fall. He put on a good front of all-is-well, but over the past few months
she had been able to tell—even from their phone calls—that something was wrong.
The fact that he hadn’t come for his regular visit reiterated that. She’d have
to check his star charts and see if she could figure it out, since he wasn’t
giving anything away and her unpredictable precognition hadn’t been giving her
any details.

A small boy weaved through the jungle of legs; a man chased
him, calling out to stop. Sage shifted to the side so the boy ran into her,
then she reached out and stopped him from falling backward as he bounced off of
her. She glanced up into the face of a frazzled man. “I believe this one
belongs to you.”

 He hefted the tow-headed toddler into his arms. “Yes, sorry
about that. He’s as slippery as an eel sometimes.”

Sage smiled in relief when she saw the child giggle as if it
had been a good game. The boy was comfortable with the man. “No problem.”

The man turned to the right, heading toward a store.

Feeling someone watching her, Sage adjusted her hemp macramé
bag over one shoulder and glanced around again. Her eyes stopped on a tall man
with a shaved head, mirrored sunglasses, and a light brown goatee. He oozed
dark alertness, an aura of control and he was looking her direction. Her heart
sped up, her breath caught, and she turned back toward the subway.

It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him, or even the third
or fourth. He seemed to pop up behind her all over town. There was no
explanation for his repeated presence except that he was following her. Sage’s
hands grew sweaty as she darted farther into the crowd.  If he was the one who
had been stalking her, she had to get away. There was a tough wariness about
him, a hardened edge that said he went after whatever he wanted, and he never
gave up. 

If he was the one, there may be no safe place to hide in LA
safe.

She managed to slide through the train doors just before it
pulled out and find a corner to stand in before her panic attack completely
took over. Standing on the far end of the car, she grasped a handle until her
knuckles turned white. She put her back to the wall so she could see everyone
and checked for the man several times, making sure no one else was paying
attention to her while she dealt with the light-headedness and nausea that often
accompanied her racing heart and difficulty breathing during these attacks.

Maybe she should take up her father on the offer of a job in
the Colorado resort. She couldn’t keep living like this.

~*~

While she provided reflexology treatments to the day spa’s
elite clientele, Sage fought the implacable image of the man in her mind. She
had been at work for nearly two hours and was finally starting to feel the
inner peace her job usually provided when she opened the door to leave her
treatment room. Standing on the other side of the door, his fist raised to
knock, was the Goliath of a man she’d seen in the street.

Her breathing stopped as terror filled her all over again.
She tried to shut the door, but his hand shot out, blocking it open. “Go away.”
She’d meant the words to be calm and forceful, but they’d come out tight and
whispery as her panic grew. What would she do? What could she do against
someone his size?

“Hey, I’m sorry I scared you.” His voice was a low rumble.
He pulled off his mirrored sunglasses and hung them by one stem in the neck of
his tight white T-shirt revealing his brown eyes. He lifted his free hand as if
to reassure her that he didn’t have a gun or a knife, but she seriously doubted
someone that buff needed a weapon to maim or kill. “My name is Joel Watts,” he
said, “and your dad sent me.” He handed her a business card with a private
security firm’s name on it.

Though she wouldn’t take the card at face value, her throat
unclogged a little so she could suck in some air. “My dad?” No one knew who her
dad was—or almost no one. Her father had been surprisingly adept at keeping
their relationship a secret despite his high profile and his hundreds of phone
calls and visits through the years.

“George DiCarlo,” he confirmed. “He’s concerned about a
little trouble you’ve been having. Look, I’m sorry I scared you earlier today.
I didn’t mean to. Call him if you need to verify my story.”

“Why have you been following me?” Her voice was returning to
normal, though her senses were still on alert. This man was a killer; she knew
it down to her core. Why would her dad send him to follow her without warning
her first?

“For your protection. He’s worried about your stalker.”
Despite the otherwise intimidating exterior, when Joel said this, his jaw
softened slightly, making him seem not quite as scary.

How did her father always know what was going on in her
life, even when she didn’t tell him? She decided to take this hulk of a man up
on his offer to check his identity. “Give me a minute, then.” When he removed
his hand from the door, she shut and locked it, then fished her cell phone from
her capacious shoulder bag.

On the first try, the call rang several times, then went to
voice mail. She hung up and called again—their agreed-upon signal that the
conversation was urgent. If there was any possible way he could answer the
second call, he would. 

After three rings he picked up the phone.  “Hey, honey, is
everything all right?”

“There’s a man standing outside my door. Joel Watts.”
Enormous,
imposing, dark
. “He said you paid him to follow me.”

There was the sound of movement in the background, like her
father was standing and moving away from a desk or table. “I’m sorry, sweetie.
He was supposed to stay in the background for now. I didn’t want him to
interfere or worry you.”

Sage felt her pulse begin to slow more and the terror
gripping her softened, though she knew from experience that it would take
several more minutes to entirely dissipate. “Dad, you didn’t have to hire
someone.”

“Yes, I did. I was worried about you when I got a report
about what was going on, and you never told me about it. You can trust Joel
with anything, I promise. Look, I’m sorry, I’m in a meeting right now, but I
don’t want to brush you off.”

She smiled, knowing he’d make everyone wait for her if she
needed it. “No, that was the only urgent issue. I get off at five; call me this
evening when you get a chance.”

“I will, and you’re in good hands. I promise.”

“I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, sweetheart.”

Sage closed her flip phone and held it in her hand. So Joel
really was working for her father. She turned to the door, unlocked and opened
it. “Come in.” She gestured for him to take a seat and stepped out to verify the
time of her next appointment before shutting herself in the room with him.