Chapter Fifteen
More anxious as the time crawled, Sam drank his first cup of coffee and then helped himself to a second. After serious debate, he’d decided not to react badly to Sophia’s disappearing like she did. Hell, he understood her need for the time alone.
Using his phone, he’d read all the notes John-john had forwarded him about the agent and knew she’d biked a lot with her grandmother while living here during many summers. Her own mother had never enjoyed this mode of travel after an accident had hospitalized her as a teenager, so it had been her grandmother, Tanya, who’d taught Sophia how to ride a motorbike.
He knew this because she’d won a lot of contests in her teens, and when she’d received a prize ribbon for the first win, she’d attributed her ability to her grandmother, bragging about how her Yaya had won the same contest years earlier, and that she’d taught her everything she knew.
Rereading the ream of notes while waiting, he also learned about her shooting skills. Again, another of her many pastimes spent with Tanya Adamos while in Rhodes for summers.
He wished the older woman still lived because she must have been something in her youth. As a champion herself, she’d brought her granddaughter up to follow in her footsteps. No wonder the Bureau thought so highly of their agent that they’d trust her with this case.
Finally, he heard the sound he’d been waiting for over an hour to hear. She was pulling into the driveway. He stood to refill the coffee pot with water and brooded when his heartbeat sped up, and his mouth suddenly turned dry.
Play it cool, dude. Just let her do the talking.
***
Looking disheveled and much less spotless than when he’d seen her last, Sophia stepped into the kitchen first, followed by a very young, damp looking… huh?
A hooker!
She spoke first, saying the obvious. “You’re still here.”
“Ahhh… yes. You stole my transportation, remember? Who’s your friend?”
Sophia quickly put her arm around the kid who’d backstepped as soon as she’d caught sight of Sam. Distancing herself from the stranger, the scared girl had to be coaxed to relax.
Sophia’s manner turned convincing and gentle. “Don’t worry, Stasia. He’s a friend of mine. His name is Sam. He’s cool.”
“He’s a cop.” The girl didn’t mince her words, her fear palpable.
Sophia looked stunned at the words, and she swung toward Sam who grinned and gave a negative shake of his head. “No, I’m not. Not now. But I used to be. I guess the label still shows.” She watched as he purposely invaded the kid’s space, held out his hand and waited until Stasia finally set hers there, gently sucking her into his web.
Handsome, sophisticated, and knowing his own power, he leaned down slightly so Stasia could see him clearly. Then he spoke, his voice mesmerizingly clear. “You’re in trouble, honey. Look, I’ll help any way I can. Don’t worry now.”
Sophia waited, her breath held, her pulse throbbing, all her feminine endings tingling, willing the kid to believe. When Stasia tiredly dropped her face onto their locked hands as if giving him power over her, the stress from the last rush of adrenaline oozed away, and Sophia felt a huge sense of relief.
They had a friend to help them. Thank God, because she needed to maintain a low profile while here in Rhodes working on her latest assignment. And absconding a trafficked teen hooker wasn’t exactly what Sunny, her boss, would appreciate as her way of keeping things low-key.
Sam patted the girl’s cheek and then stepped away. “I’m making coffee, and I found fresh bread and meat for sandwiches, so if you ladies would like to clean up, I’ll get things ready. Then while you eat, you can tell me the trouble you’re in, and I’ll help in any way I can.”
Pleased at his way of breaking up the awkward moment, Sophia urged Stasia to her grandmother’s suite. The one empty room where she knew there would be clothes still hanging in the closet, clothes that her shrinking darling had worn during the last years of her life as she shriveled in size from the horrors of cancer.
Even then, her grandmother had refused to dress like a dowdy old woman, and so she’d bought stuff that even Sophia might find too youthful to choose. And, no doubt, would fit Stasia better than anything she herself could offer.
In moments, they entered the lovely pale green space. While Sophia scrounged in the drawers finding pajamas for Stasia, the dazed kid stood looking around as if she were in a palace.
Sophia left her to familiarize herself and used the combination to open the closet, coming back with a housecoat that would be perfect. “Here’s some clothes you can change into, Stasia. The bathroom’s through here. There’s everything you need to wash and shampoo the sand from your hair. Come back into the kitchen when you’re ready, okay?”
“Yes. I can do so. You’re very kind, Sophia. I’m… I’m…”
“You’re going to cry if you keep talking. Just relax, kiddo. You’re safe here. We’ll be waiting.”
Once Stasia disappeared, Sophia stood in the room she hadn’t been able to enter earlier and felt the presence of the woman who she’d loved so dearly. The warmth she sensed let her know her Yaya appreciated how Sophia had acted, and if alive, would have done exactly the same thing.
She’d always worked with the underprivileged. Spent hours at the church to help as many people as possible. It would have tickled her to know Sophia had rescued a helpless kitten from the clutches of three cruel bulldogs. Smiling, Sophia quickly went to her own room, took a cop’s shower every officer with a badge could do in under five minutes, and was back in the kitchen dressed in her jeans and T-shirt before Sam’s sandwiches were finished.
She stood in the doorway, watching the powerful man move around with little hesitation. Barney had promised to provide her with fresh food to tide her over until she shopped, and the smell of fresh-baked bread tantalized her taste buds, causing her to realize she was hungry again.