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Me: Maybe I'll tell you when I get there. Are we still on for this morning?
Dimples: I guess so.
Me: Wow. Even through text, I hear the reluctance.
Dimples: I guess so! Is that better?
Me: See you soon, baby.
I'm grinning from ear to ear as I slip my phone into my pocket and sit on the edge of the bed to pull on a pair of shoes. I've never been this fucking thrilled to be up at three in the morning in my life.
By three-thirty, I'm in the truck, headed toward downtown. I'm the only car on the road. Despite the late hour, it's still humid out. October in Texas is not like October in the Pacific Northwest. The heat just pools in the atmosphere here. Last month, it felt as if we were drinking it. It's cooling off now that fall is beginning to take hold, but it's still hot.
My phone rings halfway to the coffee shop. My smile grows when I see Aspen's number light up on my navigation screen.
"You miss talking to me already, Dimples?"
Her panicked breathing is the only response.
A jolt goes through me. The smile slides from my face. "Aspen? What's wrong?"
"There's someone in the coffee shop," she whimpers. "They broke in through the back."
My heart fucking stops. For a protracted moment, it simply ceases to beat. I stop breathing. Everything inside of me shrivels as pure terror for her takes over. Someone is in the shop, and she's there alone.
Fuck.
I hit the gas. The engine revs, the tachometer and the speedometer shooting upward.
"I'm on my way," I promise. "I'll be there in three minutes, tops. Can you stay hidden and hang on until then?"
"I don't know," she whispers, her voice barely audible. "S-should I try to scare them off?"
"No. Fuck no," I growl. "Don't let them know you're there if you can help it." I may not know much about crime and criminals, but I know enough to know revealing that she's in the shop right now is the absolute wrong thing to do. Maybe it'll scare them off. Or maybe they'll decide to hurt her. That's not a gamble I'm willing to take.
Fuck my life. Not even an hour ago, I was convincing myself that she's safer here than in Seattle. If this is the universe's way of telling me to get with the program and do what Nash wants…it's a mighty powerful goddamn lesson.
"But…"
"I will spank your gorgeous ass if you put yourself in harm's way, Aspen." My hands tighten around the steering wheel. I push the truck harder, flying through a red light at ninety miles an hour. If anyone from the Sheriff's Office is out running radar, they're just going to have to chase me to the coffee shop to write me a ticket because I hear the fear bleeding out of her tone as indignation and anger move in.
Her first instinct was to flee. Her second is to fight. She's offended that they're stealing what doesn't belong to them. And she's pissed that she feels helpless. I haven't known her long, but I know her well enough to know one thing she doesn't do is helpless. Aspen is a fighter, the kind of woman who takes charge of her own destiny, and gets shit done.
She's going to grow more and more indignant the longer she thinks about the fact that she's hiding while someone ransacks the shop she loves. I need to get there before she has time to dwell on it for too much longer. Otherwise, God only knows what she's going to do.
"I didn't say I was going to do that," she huffs at me. "But should I try to get a look at…?" A loud clatter sounds down the line, far too fucking close for comfort. She knocked something over. There's no way whoever is in there didn't hear it. I still hear whatever it is rattling across the goddamn floor.
A male's voice sounds in the background, faint and far away, as if he's in another part of the shop, but still loud enough to set my teeth on edge. He definitely heard whatever she knocked over.
"Run," I growl at Aspen. "Now. Get outside as fast as you can."
Her acknowledgment is a soft sob.
I fly around the corner onto Broadway, my tires screeching. The shop is six blocks away. Six blocks. It feels like ten miles.
"Hey!"
My blood runs cold as the same voice from earlier shouts. Aspen sobs, a devastatingly frightened sound that'll haunt my nightmares. So will the sound that follows. A loud explosion blasts down the line.
