Duke, page 3
“I’ll see you tonight.”
Outside the one-story house sat one of Bowie’s flashy sports cars. It had been his ride for the last week. Duke climbed behind the wheel, reversed out of the gravel driveway, and headed toward Willow Valley. He needed to swap this sweet ride for an everyday vehicle to escort Celeste and Sage.
He parked in front of Dax’s restoration shop.
Inside the front area, the colorful-haired receptionist smiled at him. “Duke, right?” She pointed the end of a pen at him before sliding it under the paisley bandana wrapped around her hair.
“Yes.”
“Marnie.” She held her hand over the desk and Duke shook her firm handshake.
“Stone’s expecting me.”
She nodded to the door at the side. “He’s in bay two.”
“Thanks.”
Duke found Stone working on a blood red Dodge Viper. “I said not flashy.”
Stone rolled out from under the car. “This isn’t for you.” He set his tool on the floor before climbing to his feet and smacking his hands together. “You’re early.”
“I want to get a head start.”
“This way.” Stone started walking. “I have to do a quick oil change before you head out.”
Shit. He’d wanted to arrive at the meeting spot before Celeste and Sage to do a quick perimeter check and set up a location that gave him a view of the possibility of anyone following them as they drove up.
“It’ll take me ten minutes.” Stone walked up to a black pickup truck. This was more Duke’s style. Big, rugged, and with a lot of horsepower.
His cell phone vibrated and he slipped it from the back pocket of his black pants seeing “Private” flashing on the screen.
“Duke Falkner,” he said into the phone.
“There was a complication at the pickup spot.”
Duke’s blood ran cold through his veins. He clutched the phone so tightly he thought he might break it in half. “Who is this?”
“Special agent, George Hughes. My partner and I were to be escorting Celeste and Sage Ellis to the drop off spot.”
“What kind of complication?” He gritted the words out, leaving the bay where Stone was under the hood changing the oil. He closed the door of the next bay and did a quick visual to ensure it was empty.
“There was a shot at the client’s condo, wounding one of the women. She was taken to a high security hospital.”
“Enough with protocol and client bullshit. Was Sage Ellis shot?” After all these years he hadn’t imagined the intensity of pain at the idea of her being hurt, but he’d also buried her so deep inside him he didn’t let her out even on the darkest, loneliness nights. Until a day ago, Sage Ellis had been dead to him. Now it seemed ironic that he could barely breathe at the thought she could actually be dead.
There was a long silence on the other end. Damn it, if he could reach his hand through the phone he’d strangle the man on the other end.
“No. Celeste Ellis has been shot. Sage is on route with my partner and will meet you at the designated spot on time.”
He breathed. “And Celeste?”
“I don’t have any details. Are you on route?”
“Just finishing up the details of our location and then I’m leaving.”
“Report in once you have the client and when you are at the safe point. I assume the police on the case are going to want a witness statement from her and will have questions about both shootings. I’ll get those numbers for you to contact.”
Like hell he’d be reporting to anyone. “You get me the goddam information on her mother the next time I phone.” Duke hung up the phone and slipped it in his back pocket to prevent throwing it across the room.
Shit.
He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his fingertips against his closed eyelids. Celeste had been shot and “no details” didn’t sound promising. Sage had just lost her father and now possibly her mother.
Shit!
He kicked a nearby garbage can and sent it rattling across the cement garage bay floor. Garbage spewed a trail Duke walked through and back into the bay where Stone was giving his truck a once over.
“Are you done?” he barked.
“Just.” Stone pulled the hood down and sent Duke a questioning glance. “Is there a problem?”
“The less you know the better.”
“You know Bowie is going to skin you alive for moving into Susan’s house.”
Hopefully they wouldn’t be staying long enough for Bowie to find out until this was over. “I’ll take care of Susan. No one is to know anything.”
Stone wiped his hands with a rag. “If Bowie finds out, I won’t be alive to tell anyone.”
Duke climbed into the truck and reversed his way out of the bay, waving out the window at Stone as the shop disappeared in the distance.
He climbed over the speed limit needing to arrive before Sage, needing to make sure she was okay.
Chapter Four
TREES, HOUSES, AND fields passed in a blur of nothing Sage could identify. The only images her mind could register were those of her mom’s knees slamming onto the floor, her lifeless eyes rolling behind her head, the blood staining her clothes ... her mom’s blood.
Sage’s stomach lurched.
“Not again.” Her body hurled forward as the undercover cop pressed on the brakes, and she slammed back against the seat as the car rumbled to a stop on the gravel.
Sage unbuckled and pushed the door open. Her legs buckled beneath her and she landed on her knees. She saw her mother again, swore she felt her pain, until her body dragged her back to the present with her gags, bringing up the little food she’d eaten for breakfast.
Her mother had been shot and Sage had left her lying on her living room floor bleeding to death. She couldn’t rid the thoughts and visions, which triggered her body into craving a way to forget, craving the substance she’d given up.
“Here.” She took the water bottle the cop offered and the warm liquid washed the sour taste of the watery vomit away. Nothing washed away the numbness.
“We have to keep going.” His rough tone lacked sympathy, but she was used to men not caring about her. It had been a long time since she’d given a shit about men. Her mom was her life now. If she’d only listened to her and packed a bag like she’d requested in her condo, her mom would be in the car beside her.
Tears burned her eyes as she climbed back into the passenger’s seat and strapped the buckle across herself. She wiped the tears away, staring straight ahead as the officer climbed back in the driver’s side.
The car hummed to life and they were driving again, into nowhere land. A few times Sage had wondered if the man beside her was who he said he was, but she trusted her mother not to put their lives in danger. If only she’d believed her too.
She pulled her phone out from her pocket but found no signal.
Where were they?
She hadn’t phoned the emergency room when they’d driven away from her condo knowing her mother hadn’t been admitted at the time. Now, with no signal, she couldn’t phone emergency room, check the news, or social media for any type of update. She was cut off from all communication from the outside world. She’d never felt more alone, not even in her darkest times. Somehow, even back then, she’d known her mother would be there for her. Right now, she wasn’t positive that was true.
Driving in the country, her mind made no sense of time, and the never-ending feeling of abandoning her mother piled on with each kilometer they drove away to meet Duke. The man who was no better than her father. He’d used her, an easy, quick screw between his job duties, only to ditch her when he’d tired of her. Neither man deserved her time, her heart ... her. But Duke had been a good bodyguard and if her mother hired him, she didn’t doubt he still was, or better. His job had always come first, and he’d be able to access her mother’s condition, unlike the poor excuse for a cop sitting beside her.
Weakness crept through her body, taunting and teasing her for relying on Duke. She’d worked damn hard not to rely on anyone but herself—especially never a man—but right now, the only thing on her agenda was getting details from Duke about her mother.
When she felt the vehicle slow, she focused her eyes and saw a big, black pickup truck with the man invading her thoughts leaning against the passenger’s side door. He was tall, wide, and big—he’d always been big—but now he towered above the average man. The sun caught his reflective sunglasses and glistened through the windshield as they pulled up. In certain ways, he didn’t even look like the man she remembered. His hair was shorter. A ping of disappointment stung at the sight of his lack of facial hair. She’d always loved his five-o’clock shadow. But the thought was so small and so unimportant it vanished from her mind quicker than it had shaped.
Sage opened the door before the car came to a complete stop and ran straight to the man she’d spent what felt like a lifetime trying to forget.
Her fingers clutched the material of his black shirt. She’d never seen him out of a suit and the black pants and black shirt were the most casual thing he’d ever worn, expect when he’d been naked. Feeling his muscles beneath her fingers, she knew his body was bulkier and thicker than she remembered.
“My mom was shot right before I left.” Her voice crackled and broke as unwanted tears slipped down her cheeks. “That was hours ago. I need to know if she’s alive. He won’t tell me anything. I have no signal on my phone. I can’t leave until I know she’s okay...”
Then she did the one thing in the world she’d only do for her mom. She pleaded. “Please, Duke. She’s my life.” She didn’t mention that after he’d taken off, Sage had spiraled down a path from which her mom had had to drag her. Lying, stealing, and much more. Most of it she couldn’t recall doped up on drugs. What she could remember had been horrific and mean. She owed her mother her life. It should’ve been her shot, her possibly dying, her, not the woman who’d do anything for the people she loved.
Duke’s hands smoothed down the sides of her arms sending reassurance coursing through her. “The gunshot damaged her lung. They rushed her to the emergency and she’s still in surgery.”
“Is she okay?”
“I don’t have the answer to that yet.”
A breath blew past her lips. “She was shot.”
His quiet, “I know.” Made it all more real.
“She told me we were targeted, but I didn’t believe her. I was making her coffee, shrugging her off, and trying to get to some stupid meeting instead of listening to her.” She couldn’t catch her breath.
“Breathe, Sage.”
“I-I—”
“Breathe deep.”
Somewhere inside her she hated him for saying it, but worse, hated that she needed to hear it. “This is my fault.”
“It’s not your fault.”
Her eyes looked back up at him and found sympathy she didn’t deserve. “You weren’t there. She told me to pack. If I’d listened, she wouldn’t have been standing in the living room. They wouldn’t have shot her.”
“Or maybe she would have and maybe they would’ve shot her.”
Sage stepped away from him, breaking their contact, contact that felt too good, like a drug. “I want someone else.”
“Excuse me?”
“I didn’t hire you. I would never ever hire you. I want someone else.”
The caring in his eyes washed away and for that she was grateful. She didn’t want a damn thing from this man.
“You can discuss that with your mother when she wakes up.” His no-nonsense, cold, robot tone had returned.
Her mouth fell open and she sent him a nasty glare. “That’s a low blow even for you.”
“Until then, I’m who she hired.”
“And I’m firing you.” She folded her arms across her front and arched an eyebrow.
“Where are you going to go?” He raised his arms in the air. “You’re out in the middle of nowhere. Do you even know where you are? Did you pay attention during the drive? Are you planning on pulling up a map on your dead phone?”
“My phone’s not dead! There’s no signal because you chose some reclusive hiding place where murderers live.”
She shot the undercover cop behind her a look when he chuckled and then she looked back at Duke. “I was preoccupied with the fact my mother could’ve been dead because dimwit over here”—she shot another glare at the cop who was no longer smiling—“dragged me away from my bleeding mother.”
“Let’s go.” Duke reached for her as if he hadn’t heard a word she’d said.
She moved out of his grasp. “I don’t need your help.”
“And there’s the Sage I remember, never needing anyone.” Firm but painless, he gripped her upper arm with one hand and opened the passenger door with the other. “I don’t see a lot of other options for you.”
She objected, wiggling her body as he hoisted her into the truck, but his strength bypassed her own. “And there’s the old Duke.”
“Sweet Sage, I haven’t changed a bit.”
“Don’t call me that.” The nickname may have been cute when they were sort of dating, or sleeping together, or whatever it had been, but now it sounded ridiculous.
She dug her phone from her purse. “I’ll get another bodyguard.”
Duke snatched her phone away. “No phones.”
“Duke.” Her warning went unnoticed as he slammed the door shut in her face. Her eyes scrutinized the chosen meeting spot. Flat land lay all around them with more land stretching in all directions. If she ran, he’d catch her. How long before there were signs of life? She was stuck—with him—and his familiar warm smell of woodsy soap and aftershave.
Through the windshield she watched him exchange short words with the man who had driven her here before climbing back into the truck. “Buckle up.”
She snarled at his snarky demands, yanking the seatbelt around her body, and clicking it securely. “Make a call, Duke. Find me someone else.”
“Your mom made a lot of calls and spent a lot of money to find and hire me.”
“And I’ll double your salary if you find me someone else.”
“I will complete my job and deliver you to your mother safely when I’m directed.”
“In other words, you’re holding me hostage.”
The engine roared to life, loud and big just like the man who turned the key. “Call it what you want, but you aren’t dying on my watch.”
“Where were you this morning?” Sage turned and looked out the window as guilt trickled through her.
Chapter Five
DUKE CONCENTRATED ON the road ahead, the road behind, and each road that passed by to confirm they weren’t being trailed. It hadn’t been necessary to make the destination drop four hours away from Willow Valley when the city was only about a two-hour drive, but he’d needed to be certain no one had followed her. The further they drove, the more confident he felt. Now, if only he felt as confident in Celeste’s recovery.
He stole a sideways glance at Sage, one she didn’t noticed with her face turned away from him, fixated out the side window. She looked so different he might not have recognized her if he’d passed her on the street. Although, he knew that wasn’t true, his keen sense of detail would never miss her bluest of blue eyes or her cupid bow lips. However, she’d toned her bleach blonde hair back to its natural ash blonde, replaced her ripped jeans with a blazer, which looked damn fine on her. He’d guess she’d shed the layers of makeup for a more natural look, but her puffy eyes, and tear-stained cheeks made it difficult to tell.
Damn it, Celeste needed to survive for her.
Undoubtedly, mother and daughter were close. He’d never witnessed Sage as emotionally out of sorts as she was today.
He’d seen many of sides of Sage, some good, but most rebellious with a side of anger. He’d seen her binge-drinking days, her drug-filled nights, her hangover mornings, her sexy as hell evenings, but he’d also seen her genuine side. The one part of her she’d refused to offer even a glimpse of to most people. He’d been one of the lucky people she’d let in beyond her rebellion. But her trust in him had been the exact reason he’d ended whatever had started between them. Unless he was paid to protect a person, he couldn’t have them rely on him.
He focused his eyes back on the road ahead and inwardly shook his head for allowing his own emotions to surface.
Why was it always so difficult to keep it professional with her? Even when they’d first hooked up, he hadn’t gone looking for anything more than an exciting lay—which he’d gotten three times that night. She’d been one of Bowie’s friends, and she’d totally been into him. Stealing time when Bowie was having a shower or getting changed to sneak away with Sage had been easy. Then a deeper connection had ascended between them, one he’d tried to ignore. He’d bet money she’d had the same reaction. But it’s quick, fierce, and intense eminence had been nothing like he’d ever experienced, then or now. To this day, he protected his personal side as much as she did. He couldn’t do both his job and protect people he cared about, and damned if he’d ever lose someone close to him again. Damned if he’d ever let someone that close to him again.
“I’ll give you ten thousand dollars to take me to another bodyguard.”
He said nothing. His decision had been made.
“Now that Dean is dead, I can offer you the Beast.”
Now she was simply playing with fire, taunting him, using the small pleasures he’d told her about including his love for her father’s first guitar.
“I can even throw in the first numbered copy of their album, One Blank Step.”
This was pure torture that Duke wouldn’t succumb to.
“I’m sorry to hear about your dad.”
He heard her fall back against her seat in a huff. “Don’t be. I haven’t seen him in a long time. Almost as long as you.” Duke had been there during some of her battle for attention from her dad. The man had been a straight-up asshole the way he’d treated his daughter.
“Up until this point, you were dead to me too.”
