Forgiveness Creek: The Creek Series (18 page)

He knew all of my weaknesses and flaws, and yet, he still loved me. His words touched me, and the tears streaked my cheeks. His body rocked in delicious rhythm, bringing mine to completion. There were no longer any crumbs of doubt lying around.

But I wondered how he felt about a long-distance relationship.

A strange sound woke me from a deep dream. Startled, I sat up in bed unsure of my surroundings. The room was dark, the bed empty beside me. I heard a voice in the distance. Slipping from the bed, I bent down to the floor, trying to find my shorts and T-shirt. I ended up crawling around until I found Dane’s shirt and slipped it over my head then felt around until I came upon my underwear.

Slowly crossing the smooth, stained concrete floor, I felt my way around in the darkness. I could hear Dane’s voice as I got closer.

He was down the hall, arguing with someone on the phone. “Stella, I repeat, I’m not coming right now. It can wait.”

There was pause.

“There’s no need to speak with my grandfather. He’s not in the power seat. I am.”

Another pause.

“Fuck you too.”

I heard a loud noise, which sounded like he’d slammed his phone on the counter. “Dane?” I asked softly from the hallway.

“In the kitchen.”

A light came on, which helped direct my way. I turned the corner to find him standing naked by the long granite bar with his elbows locked and both hands on the counter. One covered his phone.

My gaze trailed up his body to find his jaw clenched tight. He didn’t bother to look at me, his eyes focused on a bowl of fruit between us.

“What on earth is wrong?”

“The factory in China is having serious issues with supply shortages, stemming from customs, and it’s like they’re being paid off by someone in our internal management. I have to go back there, and I don’t know if I can hold off selling.” He finally lifted his eyes to mine. His voice was harsh. “Grandfather has to understand you and the baby come first.”

I wanted to touch him—soothe him in whatever way I could. I approached him slowly, keeping the counter between us. To see him so angry was unnerving—chilling—and made me shiver in my exposed skin. I covered his hand with mine and waited for him to speak.

He trembled; something like terror had him gripped.

“What are you not telling me?”

“It’s business, and there are always going to be problems.”

“Business doesn’t make you this upset. You didn’t answer my question.”

He looked at me finally. “The Chinese government doesn’t want to deal with our middle management. They only want to deal with our legal team and Grandfather or me. There have been some threats, but they think it’s coming from our inside.”

“Take me with you then.” I closed the distance between us and laid my head on his back, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“I can’t. It’s not safe.” He pulled away from me abruptly and threw his phone against the wall. “Fuck.”

Emotional outrage was an understatement. I’d seen that look in another man’s eyes years ago, and the next thing I knew, I’d been thrown over a chair with a broken arm. A man on overload scared the piss out of me.

Unsure of what to do, I slowly retreated to his room, found all of my clothes, and snuck in the bathroom to get dressed. My only plan was to get the hell out of there, but while I fumbled with my clothes, my mind was focused on one thing he’d said, one name—Stella.

Within a few minutes, he’d joined me. “I need you to listen to me very carefully and do exactly as I say.”

“I don’t know who you are right now or what’s going on, but I want to go home. I’m calling a cab.”

With both of his hands, he took me by the shoulders and leaned in to my ear. “Threats have been made against both of our lives, and I take these things seriously. I would prefer for you to stay here.”

I pulled back and shook my head. Keeping my voice to a whisper, I said, “No, I want to go home.”

“Fine, so fucking stubborn.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Well then, when you go home, you have to stay there. You’ll have protection with you at all times. I have to act as if these threats real until I know otherwise. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I searched his eyes for answers and shook my head. I didn’t have a clue what was going on because he never told me anything.

He walked over to the closet, opened a large black box—something resembling a tackle box—took out a few things, and came back to me, whispering again. “This is a drop phone. You can use it to call me. I’ll have one too, and I’ll call you on this phone only. Don’t answer any calls on any other phone and leave your cell phone here.”

“If it’s life or death, then I guess nothing else matters, but I don’t like not knowing what’s going on, Dane.”

“Right now, it’s life or death. You’ll leave tonight when it gets dark.”

At first I thought he might be over-reacting to the call. When he described using drop phones, I realized this wasn’t his first experience in this situation, and this was no joke. That was when it became real for me. My body vibrated from fear. The thoughts running through my head were like a Nascar race on steroids.

Corporate espionage? What had I gotten myself into?

Dane tried to take me in his arms for comfort, but I pushed back from him and lunged for the toilet in time for the morning sickness to torment me.

He knelt beside me and rubbed my back with his hand. “This is killing me. What can I do?”

“You can just let me go.” With my head hung in the toilet, my voice had a slight echo and sounded more like a growl.

“You’re the life in my bloodstream. I could never let you go.”

Unable to shake the sickness, I laid in bed while Dane dressed for his grandfather’s arrival. When he couldn’t get Dane on his cell, Grandfather had called the house phone to say he was on his way over for the fishing trip he’d won in their bet, but Dane chose not to say anything over the phone and would wait until Grandfather arrived to bring him up to speed on everything.

He checked and rechecked his watch and paced nervously in the bedroom.

“Can you please sit down? I’m scared to death. Your pacing makes life feel like it’s spinning out of control.”

He sat beside my curled up body and rubbed his hand up and down my side. “I’m scared too. Grandfather will know what to do.”

“This isn’t the first time there have been threats on your life, is it?”

“No.”

“I’m still waiting for you to explain Stella to me.”

Just then, three beeps sounded through a speaker from somewhere in the house.

“That’s the gate. Grandfather’s here.”

Peggy and the driver left as quickly as they came. Dane pushed his grandfather’s wheelchair into the private office that was a separate structure off the main entrance of the home.

While they huddled in their private meeting, I decided to grab a quick shower, but once in the bathroom, the large tub was difficult to ignore, and I thought it might be relaxing. While the water filled, I went in search of some conditioner and a hair dryer. It was my first time in Dane’s home, and as I roamed from room to room, I had a sense of what a stalker might encounter the first time in his prey’s environment. I had a great excuse, but I was snooping. There was no doubt about it.

Two of the bedrooms shared a bathroom. It was there I found a hair dryer, toiletries fit for a woman, hair brushes, and lots of various cosmetics. I was curious what female guest would’ve left so many things behind, especially with such expensive cosmetics such as MAC.

The water!

I ran down the hall and into the master suite in time to find water spilling over the edge of the tub. It wasn’t a lot, thank goodness, and I was able to shut it off and throw towels on the floor to soak up the water.

“What happened?”

I turned to see the owner of the familiar voice, standing in the doorway of the bathroom with both hands on his hips.

“I went looking for a hair dryer and conditioner and forgot about the water.”

His eyes glanced to the counter and back to me. “Obviously. Looks like you’ve got this under control. When you get dressed, you can join Grandfather and me out at the gazebo?” There was no warmth in his eyes, and his mannerism was strictly professional, and the question appeared more like a summons to the boss’s office.

“Sure.”

He left abruptly. The spirit of the man I knew from twenty-four hours earlier was gone, and in his place was someone all business and emotionless. Suddenly, I was stripped of feelings as well. I sat down on the bench in the bathroom and covered my face with my hands.

Rollercoaster…

Dressed in my denim cut-off shorts with my baby bump peering over the top and one of Dane’s T-shirts covering everything up, I walked out to the gazebo as he’d requested. They were waiting on me to have lunch that someone had prepared.

Dane quickly approached me and slid his arm around my waist, leaving a sweet kiss on my cheek. Grandfather sat in his wheelchair at the round table. He patted the seat next to him. “Come sit by me, my dear. I want to know how you’re handling all of this, and I’m a bit worried about you.”

Dane pulled the chair out for me, and as I sat down, I looked over my left shoulder at him. His eyes were red and glassy.

He quickly looked away from me then wandered away to the bin that contained the fish food.

“I’m not going to lie and say I’m fine, Mr. Lawrence.”