Kissed Blind (Hot Pursuit #2)(60)

“I am. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Your sorry means nothing.” He looked over my shoulder to Oliver who stood in the open doorway. “She’s all yours. I’m through with her. Just be careful, you can’t trust her. You’re last movie sucked by the way.” He slid into his seat and slammed the door.

“Gabe!” I called after him, but he sped away, never looking back.

I was deaf to the world around me and only heard the blood coursing through my veins. An arm was over my shoulder, pulling me back into the house. I stumbled and turned, barely able to peel my eyes off the road. Oliver led me into the house and sat me on the couch.

“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say.” He placed a hand on my knee and squeezed.

I forced a smile and pulled my leg away. “It’s fine. Gabe flies off the handle all the time. Once he cools down, I can explain.”

“Maybe I could talk to him for you? I feel terrible. I should have never pushed.”

“No.” I laughed and pretended for both our sakes. “It’ll be fine.” I tucked my loose hair behind my ears. “Anyway, I should work on getting you back home.”

He nodded. “Sure.”



. . .



The next hour flew by in a blur. I ironed out the details of getting Oliver home, called Greyson and updated him, and kept my mind occupied. A shit storm was coming my way from what Vance and I had done. We were expected in Cavanaugh’s office as soon as I got Oliver back to his apartment and once Vance was cleared by the police.

By late morning, I was dropping Oliver off at his door. We stood out in the hallway, and I stared at the bright red door that would take him home.

He placed a hand on the doorknob but stopped and faced me. “I’m truly sorry,” he said, keeping his voice soft and low.

“It’s fine.”

“No, it isn’t. I can see by the way you’re acting. You know I study people for a living, their mannerisms, their speech patterns, body language. Everything about you right now tells me something other than fine.”

I laughed. “Well, there are a lot of things I have left to take care of and most of them are going to be unpleasant.”

He gave me a consolatory smile and nodded. “Right, well, I’m going to go in and face my firing squad.”

I squinted. “Firing squad? What’s that mean?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. Go on. I know you have a lot to take care of.”

“I’ll see you Monday morning, hopefully.”

“You will. See you then.”

I called Vance when I got in the car and waited until I saw him pull into B&B’s parking lot. He met me halfway between his car and mine.

“How bad is this going to be?” I asked.

“It’s going to be fine. Cavanaugh is definitely pissed, but our client is alive because of us. He can’t argue with that.” We started our walk to the doors, and he draped an arm over my shoulder. “You did good. A total badass in there and you had my back. No matter what situation we’re put in, we’re unstoppable.”

“Yeah.” I snorted.

He stopped me right outside the doors. “Something up you need to talk about?”

I looked into the depths of his eyes and couldn’t bring myself to tell him what I’d let happen with Oliver given all the grief I’d given him over Cici. “No. I’m fine. It’s just been a crazy few hours, you know? My head is swimming with this, that, and the other.”

“I got you. Come on, let’s get this over with.”

We walked through the doors into B&B headquarters. Just inside the lobby Miss Red came out of one of the locker rooms. She carried her bucket of cleaning supplies and wore a big walking cast on one of her legs.

“Hey, Miss Red,” I said. “I thought I told you to stop cleaning in here on the weekends by yourself after what happened last time.”

“Hey, baby.” She smiled and waved off what I’d said. “You think something like that’s gonna happen to an old lady like me twice? Nah, baby, not a chance. I think Jesus is keepin’ a closer eye on me these days.” She glanced upward, and her cherry red curls bobbed.

“Yeah? What’s up with the new accessory?” Vance asked, looking down at her boot.

“One of my grandbabies left a toy truck out in my living room, and I tripped over the thing. Just twisted my ankle is all. Barely hurts, but you know them doctors—they always gotta put their two cents in.” She winked. “I gotta wear this for a few weeks then I’ll be good as new. Whatch y’all doin’ here today? You ain’t dressed for workin’ out.”

“We have a quick meeting upstairs then we’ll be outta here,” I answered.

“Well you best be getting’ on then. I know they don’t like to be kept waitin’ upstairs. I’m just about finished here myself.”

“Take care, Miss Red.” Vance smiled. “Be sure to put your feet up when you get home.”

“That’ll only slow me down, baby.” She put in some ear buds and hummed as she walked into the gym.

Upstairs, Vance knocked on Cavanaugh’s door, and we walked in. Cavanaugh sat with his head in his hand filling out an incident report. When he saw us, he smacked his pen down on his desk.