Red Zone (23 page)

Megan squarely met his gaze. 

He reached out, offering his hand. She glanced down. 

“Okay,” Paul said.

Megan smiled. 

“Okay,” she said, taking his hand. 

Chapter 20

“Have you lost your mind?” Rebecca asked her sister the minute she managed to get her alone. 

“No.”

“Are you sure? Because from where I’m standing, it sure looks like you have.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Megan said, removing her arm from her sister’s grasp.

Rebecca threw up her hands, frustrated. “You just agreed to move in with a man you’ve known for all of three days.”

“Three and a half.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. 

“Look,” Megan said. “I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s not like I’m moving in with
him
exactly. I mean, I am, but I’m going to be taking take of his daughter. It’s not the same.”

“You don’t know him.”

“And neither do you.” Megan stood defiant, hands on her hips. 

Before either sister could say anything more, Chloe ran into the room looking for Megan, effectively putting an end to their conversation. 

To Rebecca’s dismay, Megan jumped into her new arrangement with both feet as she always did everything. She and Paul sat down at the kitchen table, Paul no longer looking miserable but optimistic, and discussed the details of Megan being Chloe’s nanny. It sounded straightforward, but Rebecca still didn’t like it. Her sister was vulnerable at the moment, and Rebecca didn’t know enough about Paul to feel comfortable leaving Megan in his care.

Rebecca knew she was hovering, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave the room. Eventually, Gage ushered her out of the kitchen with an expression on his face that told her not to argue with him. She could have dug in her heels, but how would that have looked? 

Probably no worse than me standing guard over my sister
.

Suddenly, Rebecca felt the need to get away. She needed space. Without meeting his gaze, she mumbled something about needing some air then walked out the front door as fast as her legs would carry her. 

Once outside, the unpleasant pressure in her chest eased a little, and she took a deep breath, trying to center herself. It was already midmorning, so the temperature wasn’t bad. She probably should have grabbed a jacket, but it was tolerable. Without caring what kind of clothes she was wearing, Rebecca picked up her pace until she was in a full-out run. It had been days since she’d felt the burn in her legs. With every step, she felt a little better, more in control. She knew she couldn’t tell her sister what to do, how to live her life, but she hated seeing Megan hurt.

Eventually, Rebecca turned back toward the house. Her clothes were soaked with sweat, and she needed a shower, but she felt ten times better. She still wasn’t happy with her sister’s decision, but she was resigned to it. One way or another, Megan would do what she wanted to do. That was always the way it was, and Rebecca doubted that would ever change. 

When she walked through the front door, she found Gage, Elizabeth, and Chloe sitting on the floor playing Candy Land. Gage looked up at her, concern in his eyes. He pushed himself up off the floor and came to stand in front of her, rubbing his hands up and down her arms. 

“Everything all right?” he asked.

She nodded. 

“Are they still in there?” she asked, motioning toward the kitchen.

“Yeah. They’re still talking. Are you going to be okay with this? Paul wouldn’t hurt Megan, if that’s what has you concerned.”

“She’s my little sister. I worry.”

“She’s your twenty-three–year-old, fully grown, adult sister, who can make her own decisions about her life.”

“I know that—”

“But you still worry,” he said, pulling her in for a hug.

“Yeah. I do.” She hugged him back, accepting his comfort and not caring how disgusting she felt at the moment.

“Hey,” Megan said as she walked into the living room. 

Gage released her and stood to the side as she went to embrace Megan. “You’re positive you want to do this?”

“It’ll be fine, Becca. I promise. Maybe this is what I need to break my cycle of always picking the wrong men. I’ll be too busy taking care of Chloe to date much for a while.”

Rebecca laughed. “True.” 

“You’ll be taking care of me?” Chloe asked, confused.

Megan knelt down to her level. “Yeah. I’m going to be going home with you and your daddy, so I can be there with you when he has to go to work. Is that okay?”

“You’re coming home with us?” 

Rebecca could see the excitement growing in her little face. 

“Yep.” Megan smiled.

Chloe launched herself at Megan, nearly choking her as she jumped up and down with joy. “Daddy, Daddy! Megin is coming home with us!”

Paul leaned against the wall, chuckling. “Yes, I know. I guess I don’t need to ask how you feel about that.”

“Megin will be my bestest friend in the whole world.”

They all laughed.

Mike, Chris, and Trent strolled in from the backyard just in time to hear Chloe. They all looked at each other, confused. “What did we miss?”

They didn’t end up leaving his parents’ house until around noon. His mother had insisted on feeding them all lunch before they got on the road, and Rebecca hadn’t wanted to leave until she saw Megan off. Gage could still see the concern written all over her face, but she was trying to be strong. 

Once they were finally on the road back to Nashville, Rebecca grew quiet again. He let her be for the first hour of their journey, allowing Rebecca her thoughts. Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore. “What is it exactly that has you so worried about Megan moving in with Paul and taking care of Chloe?”

Rebecca turned in her seat to face him. She’d been looking out the window the entire trip, and he’d been concentrating on the road. Instead of the pensive look he expected to see, however, she was alert. He knew instantly Megan wasn’t at the forefront of her mind at the moment.

“I think we’re being followed.”

“What?” he asked in disbelief. He checked both mirrors. They were on the freeway moving with traffic. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but everyone was traveling home from the holiday. There were too many cars.

She shook her head and turned her attention back to the side mirror. He’d been thinking all this time she’d been wallowing in her emotions and looking out the window at the passing scenery. 

“Just keep driving. I’m not sure. It’s just there’s a car that’s been behind us for a while. I didn’t notice it until we reached the highway, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

“What should we do?”

“Nothing at the moment. Like I said, keep driving. If they stay with us, I might try something a little closer to home.”

He followed her instructions, trying not to let his anxiety take over. Yes, he knew someone had been following him for a while—the pictures he kept receiving were proof of that—but this was the first time he’d been aware of it while it was happening. The muscles in his arms and shoulders tightened in preparation for a fight, even though he knew the chances of that happening were slim to none.

The tension continued to build as they crossed the border into Tennessee. He was trying to be patient, to wait for her to tell him what needed to be done, but the waiting was getting to him. They’d been traveling for almost three hours already, and all she’d done was stare at the side mirror. 

“There’s a rest stop a mile ahead. We’re going to stop and get some snacks.”

She’d been so quiet that her sudden speech made him jerk in his seat. 

“You’re hungry?” he asked, unable to fathom how she could even be thinking about food. They’d eaten a decent-sized meal before leaving his parents’ house. Not to mention someone was following them. How could she be thinking about food at a time like this? 

Rebecca met his gaze before going back to the mirror. “No. I do, however, want to get confirmation on our tail.”

Oh. 

Without questioning her further, he followed her instructions and took the off-ramp. 

“Just act normal,” she said.

“Normal. Right.” 

She directed him to an empty parking space close to a small building that housed the vending machines. Putting the car in gear, he turned off the vehicle and reached for the door. She stopped him. “You wait here. If this is your stalker, we don’t need a replay of what happened in the club parking lot.” 

Before he could respond, Rebecca reached down to lift her pant leg. She released the snap on her holster and removed her gun. He hadn’t even known she was armed. 

After checking to make sure the safety was on, she leaned forward, placed the weapon behind her, and tucked it into the waist of her jeans. She reached for the door. “Stay in the car. I’ll only be gone a minute. What do you want to snack on?” She spoke the words casually, as if neither of them had a care in the world.

He looked at her dumbfounded.

She gave him a rueful smile. “I’ll just guess, then.”

He watched as she stepped out of the SUV and walked to the front. She stopped, turned, and waved back at him, before adjusting her direction and walking swiftly to the building. He was nervous. It was hard to act normal when you knew someone was watching your every move. Rebecca, however, appeared to be calm and collected. 

Rebecca wasted no time at the vending machines. She inserted the money, made her selections, and gathered her purchases, all in less than three minutes. That had to be a record. With their snacks balanced in one hand, she walked back to where he waited in the parking lot. 

When she was back inside the SUV, Gage started the car and headed toward the exit. She hadn’t said anything yet, and her only movement was to place the snacks between them and to reattach her gun to her ankle. Her silence was grating on him. “Well?” 

Instead of answering him, she removed her cell phone from her jeans pocket. 

Her conversation with Hansen was short, but it gave him his answer. Yes, they were being followed and they were going to try to catch the person in the act. He wasn’t used to this cloak and dagger stuff, but he was more than ready to do something, anything at this point. His stalker was messing with his life. He wanted this over. He wanted his life back.

As they drew closer to home, Rebecca redialed Hansen’s number and put him on speaker. She gave Gage step-by-step directions, leading him through what felt like a maze to where Hansen would be lying in wait. “Just another two blocks,” she said for both men’s benefit.

No sooner did the words leave her mouth than the car that had been following them, a dark red sedan, veered sharply to the left and turned out of sight. Rebecca cursed. It was the first expletive Gage had ever heard her utter. 

After that, things got a little confusing. Rebecca and Hansen were talking back and forth quickly. Hansen was apparently trying to locate the car that had suddenly decided to end its pursuit. 

“Where to?” he asked as soon as there was a break in the conversation. 

Rebecca sighed and slouched back in her seat. “Home.”

“Home? We’re not going to try and look for this guy?”

She turned her head to look at him. “No. Hansen will try to find the car. If he doesn’t have any luck, we’ll see if we can find any surveillance videos. There’s a reason I had you take the route you did. And unless you saw something I didn’t, we don’t know if the person in that car was male or female.”

Gage’s fingers clenched and released on the steering wheel. He desperately wanted to punch something. 

“I lost ’em.” Hansen’s voice came through Rebecca’s phone.

When she answered him, she didn’t sound surprised. She rattled off their route to Hansen, and they made plans for him to come by the house the next day with the recordings. The conversation didn’t help Gage’s mood. As he pulled up to the gate in front of his house, he knew he had to do something with all this pent-up energy coursing through him, or he was going to explode. 

His driveway seemed longer than normal as he drove up the winding path that led to his garage. The doors opened on cue, and he parked his SUV right beside his Mustang. Turning the vehicle off, he let the keys fall to his lap as he closed his eyes and took a much-needed breath. 

Rebecca was motionless beside him, waiting. When he opened his eyes and met her gaze, the questions there quickly turned to something else as she read the look on his face. She opened her mouth to say something, but he didn’t give her a chance. 

Releasing his seatbelt, he rose from his seat, took her face in his hands, and kissed her. It wasn’t gentle. It was anything but. Every emotion he’d felt for the last four hours, combined with his need to have her, collided in that moment. 

“I want you.” His lips barely left hers before going back to the brutal kiss. 

Her hands fisted in his hair as she met his tongue stroke for stroke. At that moment, the house could have burnt down around them. They were completely oblivious to the outside world.

“Come to bed with me,” he said, finally breaking the kiss but not his hold on her.