Hearts Divided (Cedar Cove #5.5)(52)
Chloe was silent for a moment, considering. “I have to admit I’m more than a little leery about Mr. Dodd myself. So I’ll accept your offer to be my bodyguard until we find him.” His mouth curved in a swift smile, filled with more than a little satisfaction. “But if you’re offering to guard me just to get me up to your apartment alone…” She paused.
Jake sent her a questioning glance.
“You didn’t need to go to these lengths,” she said softly. “All you had to do was ask me up to see your etchings. I would’ve said yes.”
His eyes heated. “I’ll remember that.”
“Please do.”
“I love a woman who knows her own mind.” He reached across the console and took her hand from her lap, raised it to his mouth and pressed a hot, openmouthed kiss into her palm. Then he laid her hand, palm down, on his thigh.
Chloe shivered, fully aware that she’d taken an irrevocable step. Anticipation pulsed through her veins, heated by the flex of powerful muscles beneath her hand as he shifted gears. She settled back and watched the scenery flash by.
It was after 9:00 p.m. when they arrived in Seattle and turned into the alleyway behind Jake’s building. He triggered a remote control. Ahead of them, a garage door set into the brick wall of the warehouse began to rise. Once they’d driven inside, the headlights swept over the cavernous interior. The door rumbled smoothly down behind them, shutting out the night.
Chloe had a quick impression of space and high ceilings before Jake switched off the engine and headlights, throwing the area into blackness. The Porsche’s dome light came on when Jake pushed open the door; Chloe got out, too, quickly surveying the surrounding space. Then the big room went dark again. The only illumination came from a glowing yellow bulb mounted over a door at their far right.
“Hey, Jake.”
“Max.” Jake caught Chloe’s hand and drew her with him toward the doorway. “Any problems?”
“None. If anything, it’s too quiet.” A man stepped out of the shadows, an assault weapon cradled in his arms.
“Let’s hope it stays like that.”
Max nodded and turned away. Chloe noticed light eyes in a handsome face and dark hair tied back at his nape before he disappeared into the shadows.
“Who was that?” she whispered to Jake as they went through the doorway and climbed a set of stairs.
“Max Luken. He works for me.” He unlocked a door at the top of the stairway, pushed it inward and waited for Chloe to enter.
Moonlight poured through skylights, throwing cool light and dark shadows over the apartment.
Jake’s hands closed over her shoulders and he brushed his mouth against the side of her throat. Chloe turned in his embrace, sliding her arms around his neck.
He pinned her against the wall with his body and covered her mouth with his.
“Next time, we’ll make it to the bedroom,” he muttered. “I promise.”
Jake drove Chloe to UW the next morning, in time for her ten o’clock class, leaving her at the open lecture-hall door. She walked inside and dropped her books on the table, reassured by his solid presence in the shade of the big old walnut tree.
An hour later, Chloe left the lecture hall by the side door. Despite the unresolved threat posed by George Dodd, anticipation at the prospect of spending the next few hours with Jake made her lighthearted. Her smile faded when she discovered that he wasn’t waiting for her. She reached the tree and stopped beneath its leafy shade, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
“Where is he?” she wondered out loud.
After a few minutes, she gave up and set off alone down the walkway toward Liberty Hall.
Keys in one hand and cell phone in the other, she punched in Jake’s number as she slipped the office key into the lock. The pile of books in her arms began to slide and she grabbed for the top two but there were too many to catch. Gravity took control and she let the phone slide into her skirt pocket while she struggled to keep from dropping the entire stack.
“Darn it.” Annoyed, she pushed open the door, concentrating on juggling the armload of books and still hold on to her purse and briefcase while she hurried into her office. She tumbled the pile onto her desk; two of the books kept sliding and hit the floor behind the desk.
She heard the door click shut.
“Miss Abbott. How nice of you to join us.”
Chloe spun to face the closed door. A man stood with his back against it. He wore a gray suit and a cap with Executive Limos embroidered in black above the shiny bill. The small, lethal-looking black gun, pointed directly at her, was rock steady in his hand.
In the corner to his right was Winifred, her hands secured with plastic handcuffs in front of her, silver duct tape over her mouth.
“Gran!” Chloe jerked, taking a quick instinctive step toward her grandmother. The man’s voice stopped her.
“No, no. Stay where you are.” He smiled gently. “Unless, of course, you want to see your grandmother hurt.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is George Dodd. But I’m sure you’ve guessed that by now.”
Jake leaned against the walnut tree’s trunk and watched through the open door as Chloe began her class. Ten minutes into her scheduled hour, his phone rang. Gray had the address of George Dodd’s Seattle residence. Jake immediately paged Max, stationed in the parking lot to watch the Porsche in case Dodd decided to target it. Max took over guard duty for Chloe, and Jake broke speed limits on his way to Capitol Hill.