I snorted. “It’s nice that you think so but…I don’t agree. One day, something will happen to you, and they’ll remember what you did. And don’t think that I don’t know that you’re the one to inform their wives after enough time has passed. I know. But one day, something’s going to happen, you’ll need them, and they’ll hesitate.”
She shrugged. “Then whatever happens, happens. I’m not going to stop living my life because of fear.”
That sounded like something that Cannel told me yesterday when I’d asked her if she was okay with hearing that and how she was coping.
Speaking of Cannel…
I pulled the car over at the local coffee shop when I saw the familiar man in the wheelchair roll through the automatic doors.
“I’ll be back,” I told Brianna, not offering to get her anything.
Not because I didn’t know that she would want something, but because I wasn’t going to get her anything.
I didn’t like her attitude, and honestly, I didn’t really like her.
The more I learned about her, the harder it was to find something to like.
Getting out of the car, I pocketed the keys so she wouldn’t do something ‘funny’ and drive away without me—something in which she’d done before—and headed inside.
When I got inside, I ordered my drink from the first open barista, and headed straight for the table that Beau was sitting at.
The moment I sat down at the table, I wasn’t surprised to see anger on Beau’s face.
“What are you doing here?” he snarled.
I sat back and waited for my coffee.
“I could ask you the same question,” I pointed out.
He narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms defensively over his chest. “I want to make sure that you are going to treat her right. I’ll stay until I’m satisfied.”
I didn’t know that I could argue with that.
I didn’t like how he handled things with Cannel.
I was sure that I didn’t know the full story, even still.
But, to get Cannel out of the clutches of mad men, what would I have done?
I didn’t actually know.
I mean, on one hand, I would’ve done just about anything to get her back. I would’ve given my own life to get her back. But would I have offered up another woman?
No.
And not because I couldn’t do it as much as I knew she wouldn’t like it.
Even knowing her for such a short time, it wasn’t hard to see that she cared, almost too much.
On the way inside the hospital yesterday, the paramedic that’d worked on her all throughout her ambulance ride had almost tripped walking into the ER bay. She’d all but turned on the gurney to check on him.
Or, when we’d been coming into a gym, a bee had flown at a young girl who’d started to freak out. With no care to what she was doing, Cannel had run toward the little girl and helped get the bee away from her.
I had hundreds of little instances like that, little things here and there, that showed what kind of character that she had.
So no, I would never trade anyone for her.
I just wouldn’t be able to live with her hating me.
Something that Beau was now having to do.
Though, from what I understand from her, she’d already been having trouble with him beforehand.
I hated that she had to be put through a trial of fire to get to where she was at now, to get to me, but I was glad that I had her now.
What did that make me?
“Don’t do stupid stuff because you win stupid prizes,” he murmured, looking at the table. “I wish every day that I hadn’t tried to make that trade.”
I wasn’t sure when I’d meet Trouper and Beckham, but I knew for a fact that I owed them everything.
“I don’t plan on doing anything stupid,” I said as I took a rather large gulp of coffee after picking it up from the counter. “I do hope that when you make sure she’s okay, that you’ll stay out of sight? There’s something about seeing you that makes her extremely uncomfortable. And though she’s made leaps and bounds in improving, she’s still working on being one hundred percent.”
Beau jerked his head up in the affirmative, and a thought occurred to me.
“As of today,” I said, “they’re officially taking the man that held her captive for a year into protective custody. He will be given a new identity after he testifies and allowed to live his new life as a free, different man.”
Beau looked stunned at the news.
“That’s…” he paused. “That’s ludicrous!”
I agreed.
Which I told him a moment later.
“I’m having a friend look into the investigation,” I hesitated. “But from what he told me…things aren’t playing out in Cannel’s favor. The man that kept her has way more information. His keeping Cannel prisoner for a year doesn’t seem to rate on their scale of the information they can get out of him instead.”