Love & Redemption (5 page)

Shelley snuggled deeper into the bed and tucked her hand beneath her cheek. “Even if you don’t get money for your diamonds?”

“Nick’s right,” he replied. “If Paul’s that powerful, I’m in trouble without help. The people I deal with are in business for money. You’re my best shot at getting out of this situation alive. I’ll figure out some other way to make money.”

Though Shelley wanted to ask if that included robbery again, she knew that wasn’t fair. He had said something to Nick about running an expensive spa and hotel before, so obviously things had recently fallen apart in Gavin’s life. He didn’t need her snarky comments. She did owe him something, though.

“I want to thank you too, Gavin.”

He made a choking sound and then coughed. “Really? What for?”

“For showing me there are still good men.” She turned her back on him, a little embarrassed, but also feeling hope for the first time in a very long time. “You might be a thief, but you
are
a true gentleman. I didn’t think those still existed.”

At least, not for girls like me.

Chapter Five

The following morning, Gavin held Shelley’s suitcase while they waited for the elevator in the parking garage. She had dressed in a gray business suit and the slacks fit her backend in a way that made walking behind her a pleasure. It had to be her attitude problem that left her dateless at the opera. There was nothing wrong with the way Shelley looked.

“Is your head okay?” he asked, attempting to create conversation.

She nodded. “Just a small bruise, but I covered it without a problem. I thought I’d have a pounding headache, but I’m okay.” Shrugging, she adjusted the garment bag full of dresses over her right arm and then secured the strap of her purse across her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. You didn’t mean to trip me.”

Gavin felt too tongue-tied to reply, and she didn’t say anything further. It was one thing to deal with customers all day long at the spa, but Shelley wasn’t a customer and she wasn’t easy to read. He stared at the elevator doors, uncertain what other conversation starter he could try. She’d been fairly quiet all morning. He couldn’t tell if she just wasn’t a morning person or if she was angry because he ruined her vacation.

Thankfully, the elevator pinged and the doors slid open. “After you,” he said.

Shelley flashed a smile and walked inside. “Still a gentleman this morning, I see.” After Gavin entered the elevator, she pushed the button for the fifth floor.

He chuckled, relaxing at her show of good humor. “Yeah, still a gentleman, but I’ll do my best not to hurt you today.”

“That’d be much appreciated.”

The doors closed and Shelley backed against the wall, gripping the railing with her left hand. Her fingers turned white from clenching so tightly.

“Are you afraid of elevators?” Gavin asked, noting the grimace on her face when the creaky elevator started its ascent.

She let out a long breath and nodded. “An enclosed space that could plummet randomly to the ground is doubly scary.”

“Enclosed spaces?” Gavin raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear Shelley had a phobia. She seemed so poised and fearless, packing a gun and facing down killers. “You’re claustrophobic?”

“It’s stupid, right?”

He shifted over to cover her hand with his free one, patting it comfortingly. “I’m terrified of snakes.” He looked at the indicator above the elevator door. “Already on the fourth floor. We’re almost out of here, Shell. You’re going to be fine.”

The car made it to the final floor. When the doors opened, Shelley shot into the garage. Her high heels clicked against the cement floor before she stopped a short distance away.

Gavin gripped her suitcase tighter and walked out beside her. “Okay?”

Slipping her arm through his free one, she nodded. “I’m okay.”

They walked in the direction of the rental car. “We should have taken the stairs. You never said anything about being afraid, and I was too self-absorbed last night and didn’t notice they scared you.”

Shelley shrugged. “I can handle elevators, I just don’t like them. After walking so far just to get to the garage, I wasn’t about to make you take the stairs hauling my suitcase.”

“You don’t see many above-ground parking lots here anymore,” he said. “Why didn’t you park in an underground lot closer to your hotel?”

“If I have to self-park, I’m not doing it underground where the roof could collapse and trap me. I don’t mind the walk.” She stuck her hand out. “Here, I’ll take the bag if it’s too heavy for you.”

He hefted it out of her reach. “It’s not too heavy, I was just asking. That makes sense, though. I wouldn’t park somewhere that had snakes, if I could help it.”

Luckily, she laughed and continued walking, as he’d hoped she would.

Glancing sidelong at her, Gavin compared her makeup-covered face and perfectly-coifed hair of this morning with the bare-faced, frizzy-haired, utterly beautiful creature who’d stepped on him last night. He wondered how much of the stuff inside her suitcase was beauty supplies, and if she had any idea how little she needed it. Probably not something he should say. He still couldn’t figure her out as far as what kinds of things would anger her.

It didn’t matter anyway. Soon Shelley would drop him off with her friend at FBI headquarters. He’d probably never see her again.

Then again, maybe that was the perfect reason to tell her. Shelley didn’t seem to receive a lot of kindness or respect in her life. At least, not judging by what she’d said about men last night or her genuine surprise at him sleeping on the floor instead of demanding a place in her bed.

Gavin led the way across the parking garage, heading to the far side where they’d left her Mustang the night before on the outside row. Even though he knew it might be a bad idea, he had to say something to her.

“Look, I don’t mean to butt in where I don’t belong,” he started as they crossed the chilly lot, “but something you said last night is bothering me, about gentlemen and how they don’t exist for you. Anyone would—”

“Do we need to stop at your house to get any stuff?” Shelley interrupted, jerking on his arm as she spoke and forcing him slightly off balance. “I should have offered last night. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“I was thinking those men wanted us dead.” He struggled to keep his hold on her suitcase and stay upright, leaning into her as she continued marching forward. “But to answer your question, no. I don’t have a home anymore. What you see is what I have, that’s why this job was so important to me.”

“What?” She stopped walking, forcing Gavin to stop as well, clearly stunned. “You told Nick you ran a spa. How’d you end up with nothing at all?”

He glanced around the deserted garage, glad no one was there to overhear Shelley’s echoing voice. “All for the love of a woman,” he said softly. “Or, more accurately, all because of the stupidity of this trusting man who thought he could find redemption.” He sighed. “Turns out, he’ll always be a thief, no matter what he does to turn his life around.”

Shelley tilted her head slightly and gazed up at him. Her eyes shone an intense blue in the sunlight streaming through the openings in the cement wall. “You don’t think redemption is possible?”

“I don’t know. Apparently not for me.” Gavin shrugged. “But that’s not what I wanted to say. I wanted to say that any gentleman should be pleased to have you—”

Her fingers pressed into his lips and she pushed him slightly back between two cars, effectively stopping his speech.

“Please, Gavin, you have to stop being nice to me. Don’t say things that aren’t true.”

“You keep interrupting,” he protested. “How do you know they aren’t true when you don’t even let me finish?”

She backed away and dug into her purse while answering, “Because you’re the first man I’ve met who even tried to be a gentleman. In four hours, I have to drop you off. I’m not likely to ever meet another gentleman if redemption isn’t possible, so don’t get my hopes up.” Pulling the key fob for the Mustang from her purse, she grinned at him. “I’m just happy to learn your breed isn’t entirely extinct.” She winked and pointed the keys down the row of vehicles at the rental car, hitting the remote start button.

A sudden explosion shook the ground, throwing Gavin into the vehicle he stood by and then onto the cement. Heat from the direction of the Mustang flared and flames leapt to the ceiling. Car alarms began shrieking all around the parking lot.

Damn it! They found us!

Gavin wondered if the rogue agents waited in the garage to finish them off if the bomb didn’t do the trick. The alarms made it impossible to hear if anyone moved around the space, but cars didn’t blow up on their own. He turned his head carefully toward the side, almost afraid to check on Shelley. He’d already seen one dead woman less than twenty-four hours ago, and Shelley had been more exposed to the blast.

She had collapsed near the car he fell against and wasn’t moving. Shattered glass littered the ground and covered her clothes and hair. Staring at her from a distance didn’t tell him anything. He’d have to man up and find out if she was okay.

Getting into a crouched position and avoiding the broken glass as best he could, Gavin crept to the end of the cars and peered around them, searching for any evidence of Stephen or Terrence. Though he didn’t see them, he knew he had to move fast. If the criminals worked that quickly to find them, they must already know the diamonds they had were fakes. They wouldn’t just blow up a car and be done with it. They would come to collect the jewels.

Jumping up, Gavin rushed toward Shelley, sweeping back her hair. It relieved him to note she had no visible injuries to her head or face.

“Shelley? Can you hear me?”

She didn’t stir.

When he checked for a pulse in her neck, her heart beat strong and steady beneath his fingers.
Just knocked out from the blast.
Sighing with relief, he lifted her up, struggling against her dead weight. He carried her between the cars and laid her on the ground in a spot without much glass.

She still didn’t move.

Gavin tapped her cheeks lightly, unsure how to rouse someone who’d been knocked out. “Shelley,” he whispered urgently into her ear. “You have to wake up. Terrance and Stephen are coming for us, and I don’t know what to do.”

He had watched Shelley take the diamonds from the safe in the closet that morning and put them in her suitcase, though he didn’t make an issue of her taking charge of his fortune. There was little hope of him getting out of here with her and the suitcase, and they needed the diamonds. Time to steal them back.

He unzipped the fake Gucci bag and dug through Shelley’s belongings, searching for the black jewelry sack.

“Ugh...” Shelley let out a soft moan. “What happened? What’s with the car alarms? It’s so loud.”

Relief fluttered through his stomach. “Shh... Don’t talk too loud, Shell.” Although it probably wouldn’t matter. No one could hear much in the cacophony of alarms going off.

He searched further in the suitcase, knocking shirts out of his way.
Success!
She’d tucked the diamonds inside her underclothes. Gavin tried not to think too hard about her sexy panties as he slipped the black sack into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

He crawled back to her. “Are you okay?”

She blinked owlishly a few times and shook her head slightly. “I’m not sure. What did you do this time, punch me?”

“This is no time for jokes. The car blew up when you hit the remote start.”

“Oh, shit!”

“Oh shit is right.” He stood up cautiously and looked around, just in time to see a white van with dark-tinted windows turn into the parking garage from the lower level. Ducking quickly next to Shelley, he shoved her suitcase and garment bag beneath the car to his left so they wouldn’t be noticed as easily. “We need to move. A van just pulled in. Might not be them, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

Shelley struggled to sit up, placing a hand against her head and slumping to one side after trying to balance on her knees. “I’m really dizzy.”

Threading his arm beneath her armpits, Gavin used the Ford Focus next to them as cover while he half-dragged Shelley to the wall. After leaning her into the relative safety of the space between the cement wall and the front of the Ford, Gavin chanced another look into the main part of the garage.

The white van parked a short distance away, but so far no one had exited the vehicle. There was no way they could make a run for the elevators. Not now. If the killers were in that van, as soon as he stepped into the center aisle with Shelley, they were sure to shoot them down.

Gavin struggled to remember what the outside of the garage looked like. If Stephen and Terrance stepped out of that vehicle and they had no other choice of escape, Gavin had a plan. Shelley might not like it.

Leaning far over the outer edge of the cement wall, he tried not to look down the five-story face of it. Then he spotted it, what they needed to survive—a thin ledge. The sounds of slamming doors put an end to his inspection. It was time to find out who was in the garage with them.

“Won’t be long before every cop in town is here, Terrance. I told you we should have connected it to the ignition, not just the remote start.”

Gavin swallowed hard. Looked like he’d have to put his plan into action. That voice sounded a lot like the man from the opera house that Shelley had identified as Stephen.

He crouched on the ground next to Shelley. She slipped her hand into his, fear clear on her face.

“They can’t have gone far,” Terrance’s voice boomed over the irritating alarms. “We’ll get the diamonds and be out of here before the police arrive. You’re turning into such a whiner.”

“Maybe because I had plans for Shelley,” Stephen yelled back, “and they didn’t include killing her easily or blowing her to bits.”

“This is about Carlie, isn’t it?” Terrance asked.

Shelley lurched to an upright position, fumbling her hand against the ground by her side.

“What do you need?” Gavin whispered.

“My purse.” Her eyes met his and her mouth formed a grim line. “We might die here today, but whatever Stephen has planned for my best friend, he’s never getting a chance to do. I’m killing him, like I should have three months ago.”