“Baby, I’m not going to be distracted.”
She looked up at the glass ceiling. Night still reigned. She figured it was somewhere between two and three a.m. The glass was specially designed. When the sun did rise, light wouldn’t flood the room. She’d still be able to sleep easily.
“Whoever put me in that vault did so because he wanted me to understand that he knew what I feared. He put me in there and sealed me up so that I had to face the fear—face my own past.”
“They put you in there, Chloe,” he corrected. “It took me and Cedric both to get that slab off you. No way one person did the job alone.”
She’d figured that out, too. The adrenaline that had filled her body was gone. Chloe knew she was about to crash, and crash hard. And when she slept that deeply… “I could have nightmares.”
“I’ll be here.”
“I might hit out at you. You haven’t seen me when the nightmares take control. I can be dangerous.”
He brushed a kiss against her cheek. “Sweetheart, you’re dangerous even when the nightmares don’t take control.” He gazed tenderly down at her. “But I can handle it.”
“I was so glad to see you,” she confessed. “When the slab slid over a few inches, I could hear your voice, and I knew everything was going to be okay.” Because Joel had been there. She’d known he would get her out.
Trust.
“I just had to hang on until you got there. I understood that.”
“Chloe, I will always come for you. Always. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
She believed that. It was both humbling, and a little scary. She didn’t want him to lose his soul, not for her. “You’ll be here when I wake up?”
“Where else would I be?” Another tender kiss.
Sleep pulled at her, but his answer had been wrong. So carefully worded. Almost…
The way she spoke sometimes.
And even as her lashes closed, Chloe knew that Joel planned to sneak away. When she woke, he would not be there.
***
Paul Richardson still had his phone, but the guest house had a landline, and when he heard a ringing three hours later, Joel wasn’t particularly surprised.
After all, he’d been waiting for the call.
He eased away from Chloe. Crept across the room. He answered the phone before it could ring again. “Hello?”
“I was protecting her.”
Joel didn’t need the caller to identify himself. “Morgan.”
“I saw him drug Chloe. Take her from the bomb scene. You were hardly helpful, considering that you were sprawled on the ground. How is that being a good partner?”
Joel’s hold tightened on the phone. “I thought you were supposed to be in Boston.”
“I was. But I got word about the things going on down here. Realized Chloe needed me.”
“She needed you to seal her in a Goddamn vault and let her fight for air?”
“Oh, please. Chloe had plenty of air. I don’t make mistakes like that. And I sent you a video that would help you figure out her location. Is it my fault you’re slow?”
The sonofabitch. “I’m going to kill you.”
A laugh. “Why? I’m not your enemy. That was Stephen Wakefield. He abducted that poor office manager. He even set those bombs for you in the van. I am certain he had some very unfortunate plans in place for my Chloe, so I had to take his knife from him and stab the fellow in the heart.”
Morgan had confessed to murder in the same easy tone that he’d probably use to talk about the weather. And as for the “my Chloe” bullshit… “She’s not yours,” Joel gritted out.
“I think she is. I think a part of Chloe—the very darkest part—will always be mine. I understand that part of her. Just as she understands that part of me.”
And I understand that you are a freaking madman. “You know how she feels about blood. You have to know. That’s why you left her in there with him—”
“Consider it immersion therapy. I’ve heard it can be quite beneficial. Want to know who told me that?”
How long had they been talking? How had—
“Your shrink told me. Gordon Jennings. Though I believe you call him Gordo? He told me lots of things. Like the fact that Lucia Rossi and Kelly Addams were his patients. Like the fact that he manipulated them. He used them. And he manipulated you.”
Joel was rooted to the spot.
“You know what he did, Joel. You know exactly what he did to you. Even Chloe knows. I’m not sure why she hasn’t told you. Maybe she’s afraid that will be the final nail in the coffin of your broken psyche.”
Joel glanced back toward the bed. He’d kept his voice low, and Chloe did not appear to have stirred.
“I thought about killing him myself, then realized…why not let you get that pleasure? Closure, I believe it’s called.”
Voice low, Joel demanded, “What the fuck have you done?”
More soft laughter. “I’ve taken your shrink. I’ve got him strapped down to a table in front of me.” A pause. “Sound familiar?”
The bastard knew it was familiar. “You’re not serious. You—”
A scream filled the line. Long. Desperate. Pain-filled. And the scream…was of Joel’s name.
Shit. He’s got Gordo.
“I have him waiting for you. But if you don’t want to come and kill him, I can always do it myself.”
“Morgan, don’t!”
“Then get your ass over here.”
“I don’t even know where you are!”
“Sure, you do. I’m doing to your shrink exactly what he did to you.” Then, rougher, angrier, “Figure it the fuck out.” He hung up.
Joel’s gaze was still on Chloe. They’d analyzed her blood at the hospital. Found trace elements of the drug that had knocked her out. Nothing that would cause any permanent damage, but she would be sleeping deeply as she worked through the last of the drug’s effects.
It was likely that Chloe wouldn’t stir for hours.
He lowered the phone back into the cradle. Only moments passed before it rang again. Joel picked it up mid-way through that first ring.
“How the hell did you know?” Cedric demanded.
While Chloe had been changing and showering earlier, Joel had taken the liberty of calling Cedric. Of asking his friend to set up a monitor on the phone at Joel’s home. “He went to far too much trouble to just disappear.”
“I don’t have an exact address. He didn’t stay on the line long enough for that, but I can narrow it down to a five-block radius—”
Not necessary. “I know where he is.”
“Then share with the freaking group, would you?”
Joel exhaled as he watched Chloe sleep. “I’ll do one better. We’ll go after the bastard.”
***
“She will hate this,” Marie warned Joel as he straddled the motorcycle. “There is no way Chloe will want you going after Morgan on your own.”
“I won’t be on my own. I’ll have Cedric and the resources of the NOPD at my back.” He leveled his stare at her. “In case this is just a trick to pull me away, Cedric is also putting undercover cops around the perimeter of this place. And I need you to make sure Chloe stays secure.”