Page 77 of Keeping Zita

“As serious as it gets.”

“Then go. In fact, I’ll go with you.”

Something within Obi-Wan relaxed a fraction. Not that he thought he’d be walking into any kind of dangerous situation, but his Spidey senses were screaming, and it would be a relief to have his friend at his six.

“I’ll go tell Casper that we need an hour. We’ll head to the motel, you’ll talk to Zita, find out what’s up…maybe her phone is dead, or she forgot it in her room before she went to her meeting. Then we’ll come back and finish up the day. All right?”

Obi-Wan nodded. “Yes. Great. Thank you.”

“You never have to thank me for being there for you. I’ll never forget how you and the rest of the guys were my rocks when Mandy was in the hospital after she was attacked. I’ll meet you at your Jeep.”

It was a little cowardly to let Buck talk to Casper and inform him that they were leaving, but Obi-Wan’s mind was in overdrive. He couldn’t stop wondering why Zita wasn’t answering her phone. He hoped he was simply overreacting. That she’d actually read him the riot act when he showed up to find out why she wasn’t texting back.

Putting it like that, what he was about to do seemed like an extremely stupid idea. Zita wouldn’t appreciate having to check in with him every few hours in order to keep him from flipping out. She might even decide he was acting controlling or jealous.

But this wasn’t about that. Yes, he was concerned about her and why she wasn’t communicating, but not because he worried about who she was with or what she was doing. It just seemed out of character for her.

And things between them were good. Really damn good. He felt a rush of adrenaline when he spoke to her—hell, when he thought about her. He was ninety percent sure she felt the same way. She could be pulling the wool over his eyes, totally scamming him in some way, but he didn’t think so. Her reactions to him couldn’t be faked. Her orgasms were real, the way her heart sped up when she was with him, her shy smiles, and even the love he saw in her eyes…they were all real.

And he did see the affection in her gaze. For some reason, she wasn’t ready to say the words, and that was all right. Things had moved fast between them, but Obi-Wan was patient. He could wait to hear her express her feelings. It was enough that she was just as eager to be together as he was.

Which was a large reason why he was so worried right now. He hoped he’d feel stupid as hell when he got to her motel and found her engrossed in the meeting with the producer and assistants. He’d apologize and make his paranoid behavior up to her later…after asking her to please never ignore a text from him for hours again if she could avoid it, so he wouldn’t have to worry about her.

Buck jogged across the parking lot toward him, and Obi-Wan took a deep breath. “Everything okay?” he asked, as his friend got close.

“Yup. Casper said he’d work things out with the colonel. And told us to call if we needed him and the others.”

Grateful his team would have his back if he needed them, and praying that he wouldn’t, Obi-Wan got into his Jeep and took off out of the lot as soon as Buck was belted into the seat next to him. The trip to the motel seemed to take twice as long as it should.

Obi-Wan parked in front of Zita’s room and leaped out. He wasn’t sure if she’d be in her room or in the meeting space at the motel, but figured he’d start here. Maybe she’d gotten sick or something after he’d left and was sleeping. He hated to think of her being alone and feeling miserable, but given other options, he hoped that was all this was.

No one answered his knock on the door.

After knocking loudly several more times, and still getting no response, Obi-Wan turned to head to the lobby. He had no idea if it was common for the AAR—he didn’t know what these kinds of meetings were called in the film industry, but to him, it seemed like the after-action reviews he and his team had after a mission—to take place at a low-budget motel, but at the moment, it didn’t matter if the group was meeting here, in a back alley, or in the most expensive hotel in the city. All that mattered was putting eyes on Zita and making sure she was all right.

The hair on the back of his neck was standing straight up, and he had a gut feeling something was very wrong. He’d only had this feeling a few times in his life, and every other time it had been while on a mission. Ops that had gone as wrong as they could go.

And this wasn’t a mission. This was Zita. The woman he loved.

He went straight to the front desk and impatiently waited for the young woman working to get done with her phone call.

“How can I help you?”

“Where’s the meeting with the film people?” he asked, not even trying to be polite.

“Um, are you with the group?”

“Yes, I’m the military advisor, and I’m late,” he said. It was a half-truth, but he didn’t care.

Since he was wearing his coveralls with the patch that indicated his unit, the employee had no problem believing him. “It’s through there, to the right, at the end of the hall. Past the swimming pool and the workout room.”

She’d only gotten half the sentence out before Obi-Wan was on the move. He stalked down the hall, Buck at his heels, and didn’t hesitate to open the door to the meeting room without knocking.

There were about ten people inside, and quickly glancing around, Obi-Wan felt his stomach knot when he realized Zita wasn’t one of them.

“Engle! Good to see you. We were just talking about you and what a great job you did. We think this film’s probably the most authentic one we’ve ever done, thanks to you. We’d love to get your perspective on a few things.”

Obi-Wan didn’t stop to wonder why the producer didn’t even seem surprised to see him. Or irritated that he’d barged into a meeting he wasn’t invited to. “Have you seen Zita today?” he asked impatiently.