SASSY IN STILETTOS ARe version (28 page)

Jaya laughed. “You going to tell me how it was
with Caleb? I heard you tried to get Adele to take him off the case.”

Micha winced. “Yeah, I tried, but lucky for me,
the old lady is a stubborn broad. Apparently she thinks she’s my mother or
something. She’s kind of a meddling know it all.”

“Welcome to my life. But she means well, and she’s
usually right. I heard you’d gone to see her. Alec was in a fantastic mood
because she was in such a sour one. He said someone had finally stood up to her
properly. I could only assume that was you.”

Micha pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yeah, that
might have been me. I might have been less than gracious about her brand of
hospitality. I’ll apologize tomorrow.”

“Are you kidding? She’ll never let you live it
down.”

“No, not for giving her a piece of my mind,
because she deserved that. She is a meddling old woman. But I didn’t need to be
rude or ungrateful. So she’ll get her
mea culpa
. And
so will you and Ricca. Hell, and Alec and Beckett too. I know I’ve been a bit
of a handful to deal with lately.”

“Honey. You’ve had a lot on your plate. We know
who you are, and we love you.”

“Yes, well. You guys are family and don’t deserve
hurricane Micha, so big dinner at mine when you get back. From honeymoon.”

Jaya cleared her throat. “And how are things with
Caleb? Or should I not ask? Security let us know that they’d come to clean your
stuff out of the hotel room. What’s happening there?”

“Uh, that’s kind of a long story.”

“I have time.”

Micha chuckled. “Yes, well, this is supposed to be
a quick call to let you know that I’m back. I don’t really have time to get
into it now.”

“Oh, he’s there. Fine, give me a yes or no for
now. Is he forgiven?”

“Yes. I may have over reacted.”

“I guess I’ll find out how this came about later. Are
the two of you a thing now? Like properly?”

“Yes.”

Jaya’s squeal was so piercing Micha had to hold
her phone away from her ear. “At last. Yay! So you professed your love and now
will live happily ever after?”

“Well, not exactly. Like I said, long story.”

Jaya sighed. “Micha, don’t screw up your chance
for happiness. It might be a while before it comes around again, sweetie.”

“I’m not. I promise.”

“So annoying. Fine. I guess I’ll get my deets
tomorrow. Can you at least tell me how the sex is? I mean with that body. I can
only imagi—”

Micha howled out a laugh. “Jaya!”

“What can I say? Enquiring minds.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.  Get some rest. Big day’s
coming up.”

“I know. G’night.” Before hanging up, Jaya said, “Hey,
My?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m happy for you.”

Micha smiled. “Right back at you, babe.”

After she hung up, Caleb asked, “Jaya give you the
third degree?”

“Not too bad. Though I truly think she has
potential as an interrogator.”

He strode over and pulled her into his arms. “Soon
this whole mess will be over, and we can go back to our normal lives and maybe
see where we end up.”

She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him
briefly. It was easy being with him. She liked it. It scared the shit out of
her, but she liked it a lot. Liked
him
a lot. He
made her feel alive and weirdly safe. Like she could take on anything.

“Sounds like a good idea. But first, you know we
have to tackle that dance tomorrow night. I haven’t exactly been around to
practice much.”

He melded their bodies together and effortlessly
spun them around her living room. “Something tells me we’ll be fine.”

She blinked at him rapidly, a little startled. “I
guess that’s what happens when I stop fighting you?”

He shrugged. “I think so.” When she opened her
mouth to protest, he kissed her nose. “Listen. I need to take care of something.”

She frowned. “That case you were working on before
we left for L.A.?”

“Yeah. Things became a little unsafe for the girl,
so I had one of my men pick her up and take her to a safe house. I need to go
talk to her. You can stay here, but honestly I feel more comfortable when I’m
the one watching you. Do you mind coming with me?”

“Seriously? You’d be cool with that?”

“Yeah. I would. I mean a few rules apply. If I
tell you to do anything, anything at all, I need you to obey it immediately and
without hesitation or question. I don’t know the situation with this girl. But
I don’t want to leave you here. Someone’s already been in here once, even with
my guys outside it still makes me uneasy leaving you. I’ve been going out of my
head the last two nights while you’ve been in the hotel. I knew you were safe,
but it made me a little edgy.  I couldn’t sleep.”

“And I’m the one with control issues?” She arched
an eyebrow.

“When it comes to something that matters to me, I’d
rather be the one seeing to it personally.”

Micha flushed. If he said he loved her again, she
might dissolve into a pile of goo. She’d had plenty of men profess love. But in
ninety-nine percent of those cases, they’d really been professing lust with
some like peppered in. She knew the difference. She could feel the difference
when Caleb said it. Could feel that he meant it. Could feel that he wanted more
than her body. Her heart squeezed.

“Yeah, I’ll come with you.”

***

When Caleb arrived at the safe house, the lights
were on inside. His men were at their designated posts. One at the door, two on
perimeter, sniper on the roof. Shift change was in three hours, but he wanted
to give at least one of them a break for an hour while he talked to the girl. Micha
came in with him. Her usual confident air was back, but there was also
something less guarded about her. Less bristly.

When Carlotta saw him, she immediately retreated
to a corner and slid into it. He rooted his feet to the floor. “Hey. Easy now. I’m
not here to hurt you. I’m only trying to keep you safe.”

“Then why did you kidnap me? I want to go. Please
let me go.”

He squatted down to get more on her level, but he
didn’t approach. “I wish I could. But someone was going to hurt you if you
stayed out there on your own, and I wanted to keep that from happening.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s the truth. You
seem like a smart girl. Has anyone hurt you since you’ve been brought here? Before
you ran from the other place, did anyone hurt you?”

“Sabine said if I didn’t do what she wanted she’d
kill me. But I don’t want to go back. She’ll send me back, and I don’t belong
there. They hurt me. She wants to use me to get something.”

Caleb cleared his throat. “That’s why I want to
talk to you. When Sabine brought you to my house, she said she needed me to
keep you safe for a while. You don’t think that’s what she wanted?”

The girl shook her head. Her hair hung in matted
hanks around her shoulders. Maybe he’d have someone brought in to help clean
her up a little. Beyond a basic shower. What young girl didn’t like to be
pampered a little?

“Then why did she bring you to me?”

The girl shrugged her thin shoulders. Behind him
Micha put a hand on his shoulder and he glanced back at her. She indicated the
girl with an incline of her head, and he nodded. Carlotta didn’t trust him, but
maybe Micha could encourage her in the right direction. Not that Micha was big on
trust herself.

“Hi, Carlotta. I’m Micha. I’m a friend of Caleb’s.”

The girl eyed Micha up and down.

Micha stepped a little closer and kneeled like he
had done. “I know it’s hard being on your own and trusting no one. I’ve been on
my own a long time too. But you have someone you can trust. Caleb won’t let
anything bad happen to you. I know you don’t want to trust him, because of that
evil bitch Sabine.”

Carlotta smiled a little at that.

“But you already know Sabine lied to him. So you
can imagine Caleb’s not a fan of hers. He’s not working with her. You can trust
him.”

Carlotta nodded her acquiescence, and Caleb could
only blink at Micha. Contrary to what she said, she was excellent with people. She
made it easy to trust her. Like she was your best friend. He wasn’t sure why he’d
never noticed that before.

“Carlotta, where did Sabine find you?”

“At Carlos Cabrillo’s compound. I work as a cook
and maid.”

Caleb frowned. That didn’t jive with Sabine’s
story. “Do you go to school at all?”

 She shook her head. “No. It’s not allowed. I stay
on the compound.”

“So how did Sabine get you out?”

“She comes to the compound many times. She see me
more than once. After her first few visits, she asked me how old I am. How I
came to be there. After her third visit, she says she can take me home to my
family, but I have to leave with her right then. Carlos’s son was rushed to the
hospital that day. It was very crazy at the compound. Nobody missed me when I slipped
out with the ambulance. Sabine picked me up.”

Caleb kept his voice even and not too interested,
even though his heartbeat was erratic and his breathing was speeding up. He had
an awful suspicion about how she’d come to Carlos’s compound. “How did you get
into the country?”

Carlotta shrugged. “Coyotes. Then Sabine brought
me to you. I’ve been trying to get back to my family ever since I ran.”

He cleared his throat, almost afraid to ask his
next question. “Where is your family, Annie?”

Her dull brown eyes snapped to his. The contacts
masked the brilliant blue he remembered. “My name is Carlotta.” She said
stubbornly, but her nose flared, and her eyes were wide with fright.

“Annie, I’m not going to hurt you, and I’m not
going to let Sabine take you back to Carlos. I don’t know what deal she struck
with him, but I do need to know why he kept you alive so long. It’s the only
way I can help you.”

The girl sighed, and her shoulders slumped as if
she’d taken the weight of the world from Atlas himself. “Carlos said I have a
trust fund that won’t come until I’m eighteen. My grandfather left it to me. I
think Carlos planned for me to claim it once I was of age and give it to him.”

Caleb whistled. Carlos Cabrillo was an evil son of
a bitch. He probably would have sold her into slavery once he had his hands on
her money. “Did he tell you how much was in there?”

She nodded slowly. “Fifty million.”

Micha’s eyes went wide.

Caleb rubbed his jaw. “So, Sabine saw you and
recognized you?”

She nodded. “I think so. She said that she was
working with Carlos on a deal, and she needed him being cooperative. She needed
him to believe she would give me back. But I saw how she acted every day. I
knew I wasn’t going to be safe. I knew she was going to send me back. I thought,
if I could run, I could find my family, but I—” She looked down at her dirty
hands. “I can’t remember anything. And I don’t think they would want to see me
anyway.”

Caleb’s voice was firm. “Annie, I looked for you
for six months after they told me you were dead. And I was just the guy they
had protecting you. Imagine how your family who loves you will feel?” He shook
his head. “I still don’t understand how you escaped that explosion. You were
very lucky.”

“Annie, why did you run before?” Micha asked. “Caleb
said you were safe.”

She shrugged. “I thought you were working together.
So I thought it best to go. I wanted to try to find my grandmother, but I didn’t
know how. I ended up in the shelter. Then it wasn’t so nice. I thought I could
find a quick job, but none of the places I tried would hire me.”

Caleb eyed her. “There’s no need for all that. I
don’t know if you remember, but I swore to protect you once. I didn’t do a good
job of it then, but I’m going to do it now if you’ll let me.”

Annie frowned. “I remember you.”

Pain sliced through him. He’d figured she’d
forgotten him long ago. “I wasn’t sure how much you remembered. You were still
so young.”

“I remember you teasing me to get into the car. I
wanted to go with you, but you rode with my father in the lead car. I remember
the gunshots and the cars stopping. I ducked down and Sabine covered me. Then
she said she was going to get more help. I don’t remember how long she was
gone, but then someone came to drag me out of the car. I thought it was one of
your men. There was a blast, an explosion I think. It plays like a movie in my
head. A very bad movie. When I woke up, my parents were gone.”

Caleb didn’t know what to say.
I’m sorry I failed you
didn’t seem like enough right now. But
he had to say something. “Annie, I—”

“I was treated well. They knew who I was, so they
didn’t hurt me. But when Carlos found out they killed my parents, he was very
angry with his men. They were supposed to leave them alive for a ransom. But
the explosion that was supposed to disable the lead car was too strong, and
they died instead. I’m not sure why he didn’t kill me at first. Eventually, he
learned about the trust fund, so it was in his best interest that I be alive to
claim it.”

“In all this time, you’ve never told anyone who
you are?”

“I’m not allowed to leave the compound, so I don’t
have any friends except for the maids. I haven’t been to real school, but he
makes sure I get a tutor. I have books, and I dream about home a lot. The
things my mother used to make me, my grandmother.”

“Shit, Annie. I’m so sorry. I know it’s not
enough, but it’s all I have right now.”

“It’s not your fault. You tried to help me. But now
I want to go home.”

“And I want you to get home. But it’s not safe
right now.”

Micha stood. “If I may?”

He nodded.

She continued thoughtfully. “Look, Sabine knows
your moves. Annie is right to get a little antsy about staying in a safe house.
And you said it yourself—when it’s important to you, you like to keep an eye on
it yourself. I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to stay here. If Sabine
knows you as well as you say she does, she’ll find this place eventually. You
need to move her somewhere Sabine wouldn’t think to look. Somewhere you can
also look after her yourself.”