Slow Burn - a Novel: The Elite (18 page)

“Sounds good to me. I’ll head out and get cleaned up. Ya know, unless you’d prefer me nice and
dirty
.”

A shiver snaked through me at the deep tone in his voice.

God, the man
did things
to me.

I hadn’t been able to stop pining for him since our late night make out in the cab of his truck. Any spare moment my mind got, it wandered back to that moment and played out any one of a dozen scenarios of what would have happened if the sheriff hadn’t stopped us before things got too carried away. But that didn’t stop me from indulging myself with the nasty thoughts of what could have happened if we’d gone a few steps further.

“Dirty works for me,” I replied, my own tone husky and urgent.

Nick groaned and I smiled to myself. It was fun knowing he wanted me just as much as I wanted him. In the past, when I’d been out and wanted to have a casual one night, or one weekend kind of fling, it was a lot of flirting that led to a hot night between the sheets. There hadn’t been a need—or desire—for long, drawn out games and in most cases very little foreplay. With Nick, everything was foreplay. Every smile, laugh, secret glance, and casual touch was all one long game leading up to what was bound to be an explosive night when we finally found the time.

As we made our plans to meet, my mind kicked into overdrive, wondering if it might be the night all the talk turned into action.

I grinned to myself as I hung up the phone and walked back into the kitchen to grab my purse. On the way to the door, I decided that I’d shave past the knee just in case.

* * * *

“Leash? You home?” I stepped into the house and shrugged my purse off my shoulder and dropped it onto the table by the front door. “Alesha?”

I scoffed at the resounding silence. “Son of a bitch, Alesha. This is getting so fuckin’ old.”

I stomped into the kitchen, swept the counter for the sign of a note, and cursed again when I went upstairs and found her room not only empty, but ransacked as though she’d packed up her shit in a hurry. Empty drawers from the plain dresser were laying scattered on the floor, a mess of hangers were thrown across the top of the bed, and the suitcases that she’d stashed under the bed were gone.

“Great. Just great,” I muttered, raking my fingers through my hair as I pulled it into a ponytail. After securing it with an elastic band, I turned and jogged back downstairs. I retrieved my phone from my purse and dialed Alesha. The call rang and rang until the voicemail clicked on and said it was too full to take any new messages.

She blocked me?

“Ugh!”

My next call was to Nick to let him know there’d been a change in plans.

“What do you mean she’s gone?”

“Just that. She’s gone. She fucking packed up all of her shit. In a hurry, from the looks of it. And she’s gone.”

“Shit, that’s crazy.”

“Tell me about it,” I seethed. “I mean where does she think she’s gonna go, with what, maybe a couple hundred—oh my God.”

“What?” Nick asked, his voice heightened with concern.

“Hang on,” I said, rushing back to my purse. I popped open my wallet. “Fuck! She took it!”

“Took what? Carly, what are you talking about? What’s going on?”

I slammed the wallet back down into my purse. “My dad transferred like five grand into my account once I agreed to babysit Alesha this summer. It was to cover her expenses and all. I transferred it all to one of those prepaid cards so it was separate from my personal account. Anyway, when we were at the pet store the other night, I made a joke about using it instead of my own debit card. She asked what it was, and I told her it was some money from Dad. Now it’s gone!”

“Holy shit. Five grand?”

“Yeah. She could literally go anywhere…” A sick pit filled my stomach and the room spun. Where would she try to go? To Greece? Back home to Phoenix? To her boyfriend—or, ex-boyfriend’s college? Had she told me where it was he was attending?

“Shit, shit, shit!”

“Okay, hey, calm down. Take a deep breath. We’ll find her, baby.”

“I already tried calling her and it went to voicemail but told me it was full. I think she must have blocked my number.” I ripped the ponytail out and tossed my hair with frustration. “I have to call my dad.”

The thought froze my veins. I didn’t want to call him, hours after I’d assured him I could handle her, and tell him she was missing and that she’d stolen all the money he’d sent. He wasn’t likely to care about the money, it was a drop in a very large bucket to him, but knowing that I
lost
Alesha…

“I should have sent her to Grandma’s,” I muttered to myself, momentarily forgetting that Nick was on the other line.

“I’ll head over and we can go look for her. Together.”

I shook my head. “There’s nothing you can do to help.”

The words echoed back and felt like a slap on the face. “Sorry, Nick, I just mean there’s nothing to really do. Can you just watch Lady for me? I’ll keep you posted. Okay?”

“All right, Carly. If that’s what you want.”

My heart squeezed at the hollow sound of Nick’s voice, but the urge to slow down and fix things with him was swallowed up by another wave of panic. “Thanks. Bye.”

I clicked off the call and quickly launched into the next.

Someone had to have seen her. That was a perk of living in a small town.

Nick

“Hey Adams, whatcha still doing here?”

I turned at the sound of Aaron’s voice. He was striding through the door into the hangar, dressed in a fresh set of coveralls. “What are
you
doing here?” He’d left an hour or so beforehand to go out to dinner with Gemma.

“Gemma got called into work for an emergency surgery. Figured I’d come here and see what I could get done before she gets home.” He crossed over to the desk where we’d been collecting notes as we worked through the repairs of the F-4. “I figured you’d be out with Carly.”

I shrugged. “Me too. She just called to cancel. Alesha’s gone missing.”

“Missing?” Aaron’s eyebrows shot up as he looked over at me.

“Well run off is probably more the term. Carly called when she got home, said Alesha packed up her shit and left. Stole a check card in the process.”

“Shit…” Aaron groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s like last summer all over again. Damn that girl.”

“What happened last summer?” I vaguely remembered Carly mentioning Alesha had gotten into trouble in the past, but couldn’t recall the specifics.

“Alesha came up here to the museum, sweet as pie, with a trunk load of desserts from Carly’s shop. I wasn’t here, I was out at an auction, and my assistant at the time, signed off on the delivery, paid the invoice, which was over five hundred bucks from company funds. Alesha pocketed the cash, took off with some scuzzball, up to Santa Monica. Scared Carly half to death and when they found her, she was drunk off her ass and high as a kite.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. It wasn’t pretty. That’s why I was surprised to see Alesha back in town a few weeks ago. I figured Carly would have nothing to do with her after that ordeal.” He shook his head slowly before dropping his gaze back to the scribbles and notes on the paper before him. “Poor Carly. She shouldn’t have to put up with that shit.”

I nodded. “Agreed.”

“What’s she gonna do?”

I shrugged again and went to sit in the metal folding chair opposite Aaron. “I have no idea. I offered to help but she blew me off. She said she wanted to handle it herself.”

Aaron’s lips formed a small smile. “That’s Carly for ya.”

I clenched my jaw.

Aaron noticed my tense expression and chuckled. “Don’t take it personally, Adams. She’s not doing it to piss you off. But last summer, she had half the town looking for Alesha and when it turned out that she’d conned my company out of money, ran off, and got drunk…well…she was embarrassed. I know you’re new here, but you’ve probably picked up on the fact that gossip spreads fast around here. Even after Alesha left to go back to Phoenix, it was all everyone wanted to talk about for a good few months. Carly was humiliated.”

My hands relaxed open on my thighs and I nodded over at Aaron. “It makes sense, but I’m not just
some
guy. You know? Or, at least, I didn’t think I was.” I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck. I wanted to know where Alesha was, and to make sure she was safe, but even more pressing, I wanted to know what Carly was thinking about our relationship.

If there even was one.

“I get it, man. But remember, Carly’s used to being on her own. She’s used to handling her own shit and not asking for help. She’s not pushing you away on purpose. It’s just how she is.”

Which meant that the question wasn’t why she was acting suspicious. It was whether or not she could ever learn to let me in. To let me help her.

“Thanks man. I think I’m gonna call it a night. My eyes are bugging out from that thing,” I said, jerking my chin over at the heap of metal as I pushed out of the stiff chair.

Aaron laughed. “Take it easy man. Keep me posted on Alesha, will ya?”

“Sure thing.” I gave him a slight wave and took off out the side door to the parking lot.

I drove home, stewing over what Aaron had told me about Carly. It all fit together as more pieces to the puzzle that made up the incredible woman I’d fallen for. It wasn’t that I had some knight-in-shining-armor complex where I needed to be needed. I wasn’t looking for a damsel in distress to rescue. Far from it. Carly’s independence and fire were two insanely hot traits. She floored me with her take charge attitude and work ethic. However, if we were going to stand a chance at building something together, we had to merge paths, at least slightly. Otherwise we were just a ticking time bomb. Eventually we’d reach a rough patch and if nothing was mingled together, it would be too easy to go our separate ways instead of fighting for each other.

In the past, that had always been the death knell for any of my relationships—if you could call them that. I was consumed with my life as a Marine, and never allowed myself to root too deeply into another person’s life. So, when friction crept in, it was easy enough to pull the rip cord and bail. Rebounding from a breakup was a lot faster when you didn’t have much invested.

But that wasn’t good enough. Not this time. And not with Carly.

I wanted more.

* * * *

A doggy whimper welcomed me home as I stepped inside my rental house. I smiled, having nearly forgotten about the small pup. “Hey there, Lady girl,” I said, stooping down to waggle my fingers at the side of the puppy playpen in the living room. The short fence provided Lady with enough room to play with her myriad of chew toys without tearing apart any of the furnishings. I’d set her up there after taking a late lunch when Gemma had come over to the museum with the pup and informed me that she was mine now.

“You ready to go outside?” I leaned over the side and scooped the puppy into one hand. The puppy pads underneath her appeared to have been used, but I’d house trained a few dogs in my life, and knew that consistent trips outside were the key. I hooked a lightweight leash to her purple sparkly collar and we went out the back door onto the deck.

A few steps down and I set her in the small, postage stamp patch of grass. The moon was bright over the ocean and I drew in a long, cleansing breath of the salty sea air. Lady was content chewing on a handful of grass so I sank into one of the deck chairs and watched her play, content to set aside the heavy thoughts I’d been wrestling with on the car ride home.

After a shower, change of clothes, and dinner for both myself and my new four legged companion, I settled onto the couch. I positioned Lady—who was fast asleep—on one leg, and balanced my cell phone, face up, on the other. I tried to lose myself in a police show on TV but couldn’t stay focused long enough to follow the storyline as I obsessively checked my phone every few minutes.

Where was Alesha? And, even more importantly, where was Carly?

Carly

“Alesha, this is the last time I’m calling. I don’t even know if you’re listening to these or not,” I paused to sigh and recollect my wandering thoughts before the voicemail system cut me off again. Like it had the last three messages I’d rambled through. As I’d hunted down clues, I’d continually called Alesha, and when the phone finally kicked on and let me record a message, I’d shot off three in rapid fire. An hour had passed since the last one, and still, nothing.

“If I don’t hear from you in the next hour, I’m calling Dad and I’ll tell him that you stole the money. I don’t
want
to do that, Leash, so please don’t force my hand. Wherever you are, just come back—”

Beep
.

“Shit!” I slammed the phone down on the counter. “Why the hell can’t I have more than thirty seconds! Bastards.”

I dialed again, but hung up when the voicemail kicked on again. There was nothing left to say.

I set the phone down—this time gently—and braced myself against my elbows. I muttered to myself as I rubbed my fingertips into my temples.

After discovering that Alesha was gone, I’d circled back through town, casually asking if anyone had seen her. I made up a story that she’d left her phone at
The Siren
and that was why I was looking for her instead of calling her. After the fiasco last summer, I didn’t want everyone thinking she’d gone off on another bender. That had been embarrassing enough to last a lifetime. I knew I shouldn’t care what other people thought—but it was impossible not to. Especially in a small town like Holiday Cove where everyone was in everyone’s business. After that whole thing had gone down, I’d received nothing but feedback. Some people gave me long lectures on proper parenting—hello! She’s not my kid!—and I got pitying looks from everyone else.

No, I didn’t want to go through that again. Until I knew—beyond a shadow of a doubt—that she was actually in trouble, I wasn’t going to alarm everyone to organize a search. Clearly she’d left of her own volition. Last time I checked, kidnappers didn’t let you take the time to pack all your belongings into suitcases prior to the abduction.