Straight Flushed (Hot Pursuit #1)(42)

I squinted, listening to his explanation, but wasn’t ready to forgive him yet.

He continued, “I debated with myself before I came to find you and invite you to dinner. I should have just left—and I even loaded my car with all my stuff—it made the most sense, but I couldn’t get you out of my head. I had to see you again.” He shook his head and frowned. “I’ve regretted leaving you the way I did every single day since.”

I grunted the remnants of my doubt, and my contempt dissipated slightly. It was a relief to know I hadn’t been a conquest. “Okay, go on. I feel like you’re probably building up to the good part.”

He curled his lips over his teeth then exhaled through his nose. “A few days before I met you someone tried to kill me.”

My eyes flew open. “What?”

“You mentioned you were in a car accident with the VP from NBC. It was Avery Quinn, wasn’t it?”

Hesitantly, I answered, “Yeah…it was.”

“And I’m guessing it wasn’t just a fender bender.”

“No, it wasn’t.” My heartrate picked up a few extra beats, and I glanced over at my purse on the kitchen table. It was stupid that I’d left my gun so far out of reach.

“Someone ran your car off the road, or something like that.” It was a statement, not a question.

I considered lunging for my purse, but waited. I scanned his body language for cues. Nothing about his demeanor set off any alarms. “Yes, they did. How’d you know that?”

“Because the same thing happened to me in New York. Someone tried to kill me.”

“What? That’s crazy.”

“I know it sounds that way. Believe me. But a few weeks ago Avery contacted me. He was nervous and said he had something he wanted to discuss, but he didn’t want to do it over the phone.” He rubbed his lips with two of his fingers and more memories flooded my brain. “We go way back, so I cleared time from my schedule and flew into to the city to meet with him.” He laughed. “You know what’s funny?”

“What?” I asked, squinting.

“When I met with Avery, he talked about these fishing trips he used to take. That’s how I ended up there. After my accident, I thought it was a random enough spot and no one would find me. Imagine how I felt when I’d settled into this completely obscure spot and realized you were from Cincinnati and had recently worked with Avery. It freaked me out a little.”

“And that’s why you left me in the middle of the night?”

“No,” he said. “After we had…um…after we got back in bed that night and you fell asleep, I watched you for a little bit. You were radiating this delicious coconut smell and your hair was all over the place.” He chuckled. “You were so beautiful. When I left, it had nothing to do with you.”

“Okay.” I uncrossed my legs and tucked them up next to me. “Go on.”

Before he spoke again, his eyes clouded with regret. “As I was drifting off, I thought I heard a noise. I got up and walked around the place and checked all the doors and windows. Then I checked them again and again. I didn’t find anything, but the longer I looked the more paranoid I got. I’d potentially put you in danger.”

“How?”

“I wasn’t sure if I’d been followed or not.”

“I’m sorry. This is all just sounds so crazy.” I smirked.

“Hear me out and let me explain.”

I exhaled. “Okay.”

“I mentioned Avery asked me to look into something.”

“Right.”

“He suspected there was some odd trading activity going on at the bank. He wanted me to check it out.” I recalled the conversation Avery and I had had in his kitchen. What he’d said made sense. “After I flew in, I met him at the park. That was when I think I saw you.” He scanned my face like he was recalling the scene. “Someone else drove the car, but you opened the door for Avery. You walked around the back of the car with him—I only saw you for a second—you were going to come with him, but he wouldn’t let you.”

“Yes, that’s right,” I said. “I shouldn’t have done that either.”

“I think Avery was trying to protect you. He made the right choice.” He assured me. “So, he and I talked a little about what he suspected was going on and he gave me some security codes to access the bank’s internal network. I thought he was probably overreacting, but I took the information and went back to New York later that night.”

“Then someone tried to kill you both because of that?”

“No, not that. Later the next day, after I finished my regular work day, I started looking into the stuff Avery and I had talked about. I entered in the security information and accessed the bank’s system. I started reviewing some trades and everything looked normal then something odd happened.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. The system kicked me out and my screen went black.”

“What’s that mean?”

He shrugged. “I’d never had it happen before. I thought it was an additional security protocol or something he’d forgotten to mention. The following day, I contacted Avery and told him what had happened. He didn’t want to talk about it on the phone and told me he’d be in touch, but later that night someone forced my car off a bridge. I was half-conscious, floating down the river, my overturned car, and filling with water. Then they shot at me. I’ll never forget the sound of the bullets hitting my car. I was lucky to have come out alive. I tried to contact Avery the next day and that was when I found out he had been in an accident too. No one could tell me where he was. I freaked out and packed everything I could and ran.”