It scared the hell out of me.
“Come here,” he said.
“What?” I stared at him, pulled back into the moment.
“Come here,” he said, leaning toward me.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re bored,” he said. “I think I can make you less bored.”
“Tanner,” I said, pushing him away.
He grinned and kissed my neck. “Just relax,” he said. “We can ignore the house for a little while. Not like anything will happen.”
I stared over his shoulder at the empty house and its quiet stoop. And watched as a figure came down the block.
A very familiar figure.
“Tanner,” I said, pushing at him.
He laughed, kissed my cheek. “I like it when you fight back,” he said. “It’s more fun that way.” His hands strayed between my legs.
I let out a little half laugh, half gasp, and shoved his hand away. “Tanner!”
“Sensitive now?” He brushed my hair back and kissed my lips. “Just relax and—”
“Bennigan!”
He stopped and pulled back. My heart raced and my ears rang. Tanner leaned toward the steering wheel and stared out the windshield.
The familiar figure moved toward the stoop we’d been watching for the last week. He walked up the steps, paused outside the door, looked around, then unlocked it and went inside.
Tanner leaned back. “Holy shit,” he said.
“Was that him?”
“Definitely. That was definitely him.”
“Why haven’t we seen him until now?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe he’s staying somewhere else for a week. Sometimes guys rotate locations, helps to stay hidden. Not a lot of people have the patience to stake out a house for an entire week.”
“No kidding,” I said. “I can tell.”
“But if he’s here—”
“What are you going to do?”
I could see Tanner making the mental calculations. Fear spiked through me. I suddenly didn’t want him to do anything stupid. I didn’t want him to do anything that might put him in danger.
That scared me more than anything else.
“Stay here,” he said, and grabbed for the door.
“No,” I said, reaching out. I yanked at his shirt. “No, don’t.”
He looked back at me, head tilted. “What?”
“Don’t go,” I said.
“Why not?”
“I don’t want you to.” I felt stupid and knew I didn’t have a good reason. “I just… want you to stay here.”
“Why?” he asked.
“I don’t want you to get hurt.”
He gave me a small, sad smile. “I’m not sure that’s an option, sweet girl.”
“It is right now. We can sit on this, talk it out back at the hotel. There have to be other options, right?”
“I have the drop on him,” Tanner said. “He’s right there, right in that house. I can follow him in and—”
“Please,” I said and felt an insane hopelessness come over me. “Just let it go, okay?”
The thought of my unborn child’s father getting himself killed in that house made me want to throw up.
The thought of my unborn child made me almost as sick.
I felt dizzy. I let go of his shirt and leaned back in my seat.
“Are you okay?” he asked, letting go of the door.
“I’m fine,” I said, closing my eyes. I took deep breaths to try and calm myself.
“You look pale again. What the fuck’s going on, Elise?”
“Nothing.” I opened my eyes and put all my remaining energy into an epic glare. “I’m fine.”
He let out a breath then stared at the house again. I knew he was thinking about it, but I’d gotten him to stay. That was a pretty big victory, as far as I was concerned.
“Fine,” he said. “I won’t go, for now at least. There are other options.”
“We’ll figure it out together.”
He looked at me then started the car. “Yeah, together.”
He put it in drive and pulled out of the parking spot. I didn’t look at the house as we drove past it, and Tanner kept his eyes locked on the road ahead of us.
My hand drifted to my stomach as Tanner drove us back to the hotel.16TannerElise practically sprinted into the bedroom and slammed the door shut. I lingered outside of the door and listened, trying to see if I could hear her crying or anything to give me some idea of what was going on, but I heard nothing but silence.
I sat on the couch, feet up on the coffee table, and stared at the TV.
My mind raced through the possibilities. I had no clue what happened, but maybe she had a change of heart. Maybe she doesn’t want me to go after Bennigan for some insane reason. I knew she didn’t like the violence, and the whole reason she ran away from her father was to avoid getting involved in anything like this.
But she had to be realistic. Bennigan was going to come and kill her if I didn’t step up to stop it. There was no other solution to our little problem, and yet maybe she was starting to realize just how dangerous this situation had become.
She stayed in the room for a few hours and I left her alone. It was boring, but at least I could plan. I watched the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies on TV and wondered how the hell Pierce Brosnan ever got the job. After the latest Bond movies, all the other James Bonds looked like pathetic little weaklings.