“Okay. Let’s meet at the stables.” I knew then I couldn’t drop this bomb information on her and expect her to walk through the smoke unscathed. She needed to see me.
“I’ll leave now.”
Kennedy turned off the water in the shower. I saw her graceful arm gather a towel from the rack. “I have a few things to take care of on the way over, but I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
“Hurry, please. I just don’t know what I’m going to do if—”
I cut her off before she could start the spiral of what ifs. There were too many possibilities. Too many outcomes. The only one I could let her focus on was that I was going to take care of her.
“Take your time. Drive slowly,” I reinforced. “If anything changes, I’ll call you as soon as I know something. Okay?”
“Yes. Okay. I’m on my way.”
I hung up and waited for Kennedy. She ran a towel over her wet hair. “Was that Seraphina?” she asked.
“Yes.” I closed my eyes, wondering if I had done the right thing. I could have waited until we at least had some information to give her. I had nothing. Not a fucking thing I could tell her.
“Is she okay? How did she take it?” Kennedy walked past me into the bedroom. “Did she know anything? Had she heard anything?”
“I’m going to meet her at the stables. I think she’s pretty shaken. No, she didn’t know anything about it. It was a complete surprise. A nightmare, actually.”
“All right. Then I’m going with you. Maybe I can help reassure her that Crew is going to come back. As soon as Kimble is here, I know we’ll be able to find him.”
I winced at the mention of the bodyguard. “About him…”
“Yes?” She spun around, dropping the towel on the floor. My entire body reacted. My fingertips fired with the urge to pull her against me and absorb every drop of water on her body.
She lifted a lingerie set from the bed she had laid out before the shower. It was almost painful to watch her cover her body. I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to say about Kimble. I thought about taking her to bed. Pulling her under me. Kissing her until she fell asleep in my arms.
“What about him?” she prodded.
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “I called him.”
“You did?” She stopped dressing with one arm in a sleeve.
“I didn’t know where you were. I’d run around the block ten times. I called him.” I didn’t know if I was admitting my weakness or showing I’d put her ahead of anything, even my pride.
“Is he coming back?” she asked. “What did he say?”
“Nothing. I hung up when you walked off the elevator. He knows you’re back, so he probably thinks it was a false alarm.”
She shook her head. “I need him here. He has to run point on this.”
I groaned. “Where is he?”
Her eyes flashed. “Working on something.”
“But he’s not in the city?”
She tugged on the shirt, covering her navel. “No. What are you implying? Or suggesting? It’s not the first time you’ve hinted at it today.”
“Nothing at all. But he’s not here right now and we have to do this on our own.” I pushed down the arguments against Kimble. Two kidnappings in the past four years and he was out of town when both happened. Did Kennedy think it was coincidence? Shit. Did I sound like a conspiracy theorist? Regardless, I wasn’t going to start a fight with her.
“I’m calling him. He should be here. There’s no one I trust more to handle it.” She pulled out her phone. There was nothing I could do to stop her.
Chapter5
Kennedy