The food smelled heavenly and while Victoria wasn’t normally a fan of processed take-out food, her mouth had already begun to water at the aroma of hot French fries and a juicy burger.
“Ace is going to stay at the door. I’ll guard the front desk,” Rio told Devlin and waited for his approval.
Devlin nodded. “I’ll watch the back. Call me when you two are up and ready in the morning,” he told Ben.
“We’ll be up early. We need some things from our houses if we’re going to be gone a few days,” Ben added.
Victoria nodded. “I need my laptop and some clothes and I need to call my friend. She’s expecting her first baby and if I don’t show up for work she’ll worry. I don’t want her worrying about me.”
“Who is she?” Trent asked with concern. “They might already know about her.”
Victoria’s heart plummeted. “No,” she whispered.
Ben was across the room in no time, sitting on the bed beside her and taking her hand. “She’s Grace Ramsey, assistant D.A. and wife of Judge Clifton Ramsey.”
“Dammit!” Trent roared. “If Vega figures that out they’re definitely in danger.”
“Or the judge is already on his payroll,” Devlin commented blithely.
“No!” Victoria protested. “Clifton’s not like that.”
“Okay, I think that’s enough for tonight,” Ben spoke up. “In the morning we’ll figure out how she can contact Grace without causing too much of an issue. I’ve known Grace Ramsey for years, she’s not involved in this.”
Devlin obviously wanted to press forward but a nod from Trent kept him silent.
“If anything changes you call me right away,” Trent told Ben clapping a hand on his shoulder.
The two men stared at each other a moment and to Victoria it seemed like one hell of an emotional bond. They were family so that should be expected, but this seemed a little more intense, like they both recognized the danger and hated it equally.
“I will,” Ben said.
Devlin walked up to Ben and gave him a very curt nod. “I’ll be right out back.”
Ben mimicked Devlin’s nod and their gazes locked. There was no physical contact but the bond here was strong too. Devlin would die for Ben and for anyone he cared an ounce about. She could see that in the big man’s dark eyes, could read it in the ready-for-war stance he kept at all times. And she couldn’t help it, she admired him for that type of loyalty and devotion.
She admired and thanked God for each of the men who would circle around to protect her from a cold-hearted killer.
Chapter 16
Ben
By two-thirty in the morning, they’d eaten and with more than a little trepidation climbed into the king-size hotel bed. During the meal neither of them had spoken of the current events, they hadn’t spoken much at all. Ben wasn’t sure what was going through Victoria’s mind and he wanted to quickly get away from what was going through his.
He had no idea how things had become so screwed up. In all the years he’d thought of being with Victoria he’d never thought they would end up like this. In some hotel laying in a strange bed unable to think of anything else but their safety. For that alone he wanted to strangle Ramone Vega.
“I’m not afraid to die,” she said snapping Ben completely out of his own self-pitying thoughts.
“What?”
She pulled the sheets up and flattened her hands over her chest. He assumed she wasn’t done by the huffing that followed. The room was dark as they’d already settled in for the night.
“I’ve never been afraid to die. When I saw my father lying on the sidewalk, blood seeping from his chest the one thing I remember clearly is the most peaceful look had come over hisface. He’d never looked like that in life. So I took comfort in the fact that he was in a better place. Then my mother told me that death is as natural as life and that no matter what we did during the in-between time, it wouldn’t change the final outcome. My mother’s very candid about things like that.”
Ben couldn’t help it, despite the subject of this discussion, he chuckled. “I like your mother.”
“Most people do,” she said and it sounded as if she’d smiled herself.
“I won’t let you die,” he said seriously. “That’s not an option.”
