Stolen Vengeance: Slye Temp book 6 (25 page)

Chapter 30

Her ex, as in ex-husband.

Dingo could feel Valene’s eyes on him from the passenger seat.

She didn’t do quiet, except when she was asleep. He’d liked that about her, the boundless energy that drove her as hard as the Energizer Bunny.

She’d give the rabbit a run for its money.

But she was quiet now. Bad sign that.

He’d been deliberating all morning on what he was going to do with Valene. Locking her up somewhere safe would have made
him
happy, but with Rikker in play she had to be available or Rikker would get suspicious and hightail it.

Hard to imagine, but Dingo didn’t give a rat’s ass if that meant losing Rikker. Valene was not anyone’s bait.

But he did care about Rikker coming back for Valene later. Dingo couldn’t keep her locked up indefinitely, not with her father seriously ill, and having no idea when Rikker would return was far riskier than keeping her with Dingo until this ended one way or another.

She made a sound like clearing her throat then asked, “It’s dawned on me that you said I was married as soon as you left. How would you know when I got married?”

Her favorite word was anything she could stick a question mark after. “Lucky guess.”

“That won’t fly.”

When he said nothing more, she asked, “How about talking to me with straight answers for once? You want me to trust you, to answer any questions, because in your world any question you ask is vital to national defense.”

Most of the time, it was.

She kept going. “You started this by asking about my past and you know way more about me than you’ve ever shared. Would it be so hard to talk about us?”

She had no idea.

He functioned best in a world when he could keep everything that had the potential of distracting him at a distance.

Valene had the ability to distract him just by sitting here smelling freshly showered. The idea of her being with another man distracted him. The fact that Dingo was on his way to meet the bastard she’d married might cause his head to implode from trying to maintain a calm appearance.

But she had a valid point. He had started this by asking about her ex-fucking-husband. Not that he cared who she’d married or that she had married or ... shit it pissed him off.

“Dingo?”

“Right. Sure. I’ll talk. We got another ten minutes to kill. Why not?”  Might as well spend it doing the equivalent of shoving a sharp stick in his eye.

At least he was driving, which saved him from having to face her while they talked. He hated talking.

Crap came out that was better left shoved out of view.

But for Valene, he found himself saying, “What do you want to know?”

“How did you find out I was married? The truth, please.”

Here we go.
“I saw you two and the ring you had on... at the time. I’d never dug around in your life. I don’t do that with friends. But I figured if you were married, it was public knowledge. Looked it up on the Internet and realized you’d been married a week.”

The barrage of questions he had expected didn’t come.

Should he look at her or not? Not would be safer.

But she wasn’t making any sounds.

He had to look just to reassure himself that she was still breathing so he cut his eyes over, intending to be quick about it.

The devastation rocking her face held him prisoner for long seconds until he had to pay attention to the crazy LA traffic. Quiet had never made him uncomfortable. He’d spent days sometimes without any interaction because the less he engaged the easier it was to get through life.

Look at how well talking had gone during his last conversation with Sabrina.

But this silence started eating at him, biting him with worry that he’d somehow managed to hurt Valene yet again.

When he risked another glance, she was staring out the windshield and her profile carried sadness in each slow breath she took.

He couldn’t stand it any longer. “What’s wrong, Val?”

“Nothing.”

That was the single most dangerous word for every man living, equal in significance only to the word “fine.” “You’re the one who wanted to talk. Why aren’t you talking?”

She turned her head, catching his eye as he stole another look. For a moment, he thought she was going to cry. If she did, he’d find a tree to beat his head against. He hated making her unhappy and damn if he didn’t seem to be a professional at it.

After another drawn out moment, she said, “I spent that first year sure that you were dead. I couldn’t imagine how you could be alive and leave me that way, with no word of what had happened to you. I was so alone. My dad had been diagnosed with cancer the first time and you had vanished. If not for Henri, I’m not sure I’d have made it through.”

If not for Henri...

Dingo had no reason to feel torn up over that even though he couldn’t have been there for her, but it felt like a spinning blade had been turned loose inside him and a dagger kept stabbing his heart over and over.

Valene had been alone and needing a shoulder to lean on.

His shoulder had been healing from a bullet wound.

She’d turned to some guy who had been able to give her all the things Dingo never could and that punched him dead center.

She wasn’t through with him. Her voice was raw and thin. “You came back a year later and didn’t even call? Couldn’t have just picked up the phone to say hi, I’m not coming back but I’m still alive?”

“Val, I...”  Jesus, what could he say?
I saw you with that guy, Henri, and went back to Atlanta where I holed up alone for months until Sabrina and Josh dragged my ass back to the real world?

How could he tell her that, then leave again when the time came?

She’d never understand and she’d just keep on hurting.

Wouldn’t it be better to deal with this now so that once he’d dealt with Navarro and company, Dingo could take off with a clear conscience?

His conscience might be at peace once that happened, but his heart wouldn’t. Not after having her in his arms again.

Don’t get close to anyone.

He’d lived with that golden rule and it had served him well. Sure, he got close to Sabrina and Josh, but that had been back when they were all young and they’d needed his protection. Over the years, he just got used to being with them and they lived in the same world he did. He hadn’t brought them into it.

He would stay this time to make absolutely sure everything was fine before he left, but he could never be with Valene.

Not like two people in a normal relationship.

Just
knowing
Dingo had her in danger right now, and he was willing to bet that Rikker had found her because of what she’d done to help Dingo a month ago.

He saw the sign for the street where Henri-the-ex had a business and made the turn.

“You’ve got nothing to say?” Valene said. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? You tell me you joined Garcia to take him down to protect me, but you don’t trust me enough to tell me the truth. I’ll tell you what I think the truth is. You can’t face what you feel about me so you give me this whole song and dance about how you’re keeping secrets to protect me. You left to protect me. Now you’re not telling me what happened to protect me. Bullshit. All of it. So don’t go acting put out that I married Henri quick or something. There was nothing quick about it.”

Dingo pulled into the parking lot of a crummy location for high-end antiques and picked a spot close to the street where he had two easily accessible exits. Not a problem since there were only two other cars and both were parked near the building. Were Friday mornings slow for the antiques business or just at this place? He turned the engine off and sat there.

Valene was angry.

That was better than hurt. Better for her in the long run, because she’d turn her back on Dingo the first chance she got instead of waiting for him like she had last time.

You still owe her something, asshole.

He didn’t look at her when he said, “You’re right. I should have called you at some point, but you looked happy and I wasn’t going to interfere. And you’re also right that I have no place asking anything about your ... marriage. Every time I show up, I cause you problems. Just being near me puts you in danger. Let’s get through this and I swear to you I’ll never contact you again.” 

Pushing the door open, he climbed out before he screwed up that fine little speech by reaching for her and wrapping her up in his arms so he could hold onto the one woman who had given him a moment of happiness in his life.

She was out of the car just as fast and walking slowly ahead of him. Toward her ex. Henri. Sounded French when she said it like, “Ahn-ray.”

The man who’d taken Dingo’s place the minute he was gone.

Dingo had wanted to stay with Valene back when they were first together and that longing had terrified him.

So he’d been twice as angry when she put herself at risk to find information for him. He’d decided the best way to protect her was by removing the threat, which hadn’t been a bad plan. Sabrina had railed at him to never do that again.

Surviving Garcia had been one step from insanity, but he’d healed. Seeing Valene married and happy had shriveled his heart. It wasn’t her fault, but losing her had broken something inside of him that he’d never gotten back. He’d gone through life perfectly content with no ties beyond his commitment to Sabrina and Josh. No place he really called home.

Nothing to lose.

No one to ever toss him aside like yesterday’s trash.

Never again.

Then he’d met a funny, sweet, hot-tempered, intelligent, beautiful woman and he’d fooled himself into believing he could dabble at life. Have a day here and there.

But one day turned into two that turned into a month ... then a year had passed and he woke up one day to find he wasn’t happy when he had down time anywhere else in the world but Los Angeles.

He’d been battling himself for weeks back then, trying to figure out what to do. The simple answer had been to just tell Valene it was over and he was leaving, but he’d gotten caught in the magic of Valene and had kept making excuses for staying.

Then she’d drawn Garcia’s attention.

Dingo would do it all again, but in hindsight he had to admit that he could have gotten word to her at some point. He just couldn’t bring himself to say he was never coming back, so he’d held on to the fantasy of returning to her arms and picking up right where they left off.

But someone else had picked up where Dingo left off.

Reaching the sidewalk in front of the stores, Dingo moved ahead of Valene and opened the door for her, preparing himself to meet her ex.

They must still be on good terms. Just how good?

If her ex kissed her, maintaining professionalism might be tough to do while Dingo shoved Henri’s face down his neck.

“Henri?” Valene called out as soon as they were inside.

A door to what was probably the back room opened and a man appeared. Not overly tall, but Dingo recognized the man he’d seen walking with Valene six years ago.

The model-worthy guy.

“Valene. Have you heard about Aram?”

She strode quickly to the back, saying, “Yes. What did you hear, Henri?”

Yup, that’s what Valene had picked as marriage material, which meant Dingo never had a chance. But he never planned to get married anyhow. Women wanted a man who was home cutting the grass and cooking steaks on the barbie.

Not someone like Dingo.

Nobody had wanted him as a kid, and kids were like puppies. If you weren’t adorable enough to keep when you were a kid you sure as hell wouldn’t be as an adult.

“What? When?” Valene’s shout brought Dingo out of his thoughts.

“What’s going on, Val?”

She turned around, looking embarrassed. “I’m sorry. Dingo this is Henri.” She addressed her ex. “Henri this is Dingo, a... an associate of mine.”

Associate? Did all of her
associates
break into the headquarters of known killers to save her cute ass?

Henri stepped around her and gave Dingo a full assessment, and if Dingo had to guess at his rating he’d put it between slug and mutt.

Not much better than being called an associate.

Henri’s eyes were loaded with suspicion. “What is
he
doing here, Valene?”

“What’s your problem, Frenchie?”

“This is my place of business. You will show me respect or I will have you removed.”

Valene muttered, “For crying out loud, Henri.”

Dingo crossed his arms. Yes, that was showing off his guns, but those hard-earned muscles had convinced more than a few men to think twice about laying a hand on him.

He’d suffered at the hands of strangers as a kid and had never allowed anyone to touch him uninvited again.

A sound slipped out of Valene that sounded like a pissed off teakettle. “Enough! Stop it, you two.”