AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Never doubt that.”
As Granger turned toward the front door, held open by the doorman, she allowed her gaze to linger on him, savoring his strong features and the long lines of his body. She wanted him with a lust that just wouldn’t go away. For the past ten weeks, every day that passed, he dug his way a little deeper into her heart. Every time he rubbed her feet, or held her hand during a telemedicine appointment, or answered the phone when she just wasn’t up for it; every time he let her sob when the hormones got the best of her, every time he made her laugh to take her mind off the nausea, her feelings for him deepened.
What should she do about it? She couldn’t be her old impulsive self anymore. She had to be careful for the sake of her baby. She might have left a trail of messes in her wake, but she wasnotgoing to let her child be one of them.
Above all else, she had to maintain a good relationship with Granger. Anything else could be a disaster. Falling in love with him would make everything more complicated, because she had no idea howhefelt. Maybe he was just being a dutiful father-to-be, taking impeccable care of the mother of his child.
She sighed as another wave of queasiness passed through her, and smiled at the doorman. With all these crazy hormones, she shouldn’t make any big moves about anything. They were fine for now, her and Granger. It was better not to rock the boat with fantasies about love and romance.
Twenty
Granger felt a massive sense of relief now that Bliss’ deposition was finished. He hadn’t told Bliss, but he’d intercepted a couple of threatening messages aimed at stopping her from testifying.
The first one had come about a month ago. A note had been slipped under the door that read, “Think carefully. Don’t do anything stupid.”
He’d taken it to the New York FBI office for analysis. They hadn’t come up with anything solid, but advised him to keep his guard up and contact them if anything else happened.
He’d added a deadbolt to the front door, and installed a very obvious security camera just above it. When Bliss had questioned it, he told her that all FBI agents were paranoid, and this was standard procedure wherever he lived.
She’d looked like she wanted to argue, but a wave of nausea had preempted her and she’d run to the bathroom instead.
The next threat had come by telephone. She’d answered the phone, but then thrust it at Granger as another vomiting fit struck. Just as well. When Granger took the phone, the voice on the other end—a man—said, “I know who you are. You aren’t going to stop me. Don’t get in my way and we’ll be cool.”
“Who is this?” he’d demanded, but the caller had already hung up.
He hadn’t wanted to alarm Bliss when she was dealing with so much already, so he’d gotten in the habit of accompanying her every time she went anywhere. Luckily—though also unfortunately—her pregnancy was so difficult that she stayed home quite a bit. When she needed to go somewhere alone, he sometimes followed without her knowing.
He didn’t like it, but it seemed like the best course of action under the circumstances. After all, if she knew about the threats, she’d be happy to have her own personal bodyguard. But he didn’t want to tell her, at least not until it became absolutely necessary. She had enough on her mind.
As a law enforcement officer, he believed that the only way the threats would stop was if she completed the deposition. Her only other option would be to run and hide, in which case she’d piss off the Department of Justice. Even if she did that, it wouldn’t guarantee that the bad guys would forget about her. They’d probably always keep tabs on her.
No, her best course of action was to tape the deposition. He’d dedicated himself to making sure she was safe until that happened.
Now that it had, he felt as if a boulder had lifted from his shoulders. He could finally relax—although not fully until the various trials were over and the corrupt assholes were in their country club jails, or paying their slap-on-the-wrist fines, or whatever their sentences were going to be.
If their punishments didn’t seem like enough, Granger had a plan B. He was keeping careful track of every threatening incident. There was more than one way to make someone pay. Charges of witness tampering and obstructing an investigation were sometimes the only way to get these types of guys, with all their lawyers and connections.
Inside the tiled foyer of Bliss’s co-op, with its gigantic bouquet of bird of paradise in front of a mirrored cabinet, he checked the mail while Bliss waited for the elevator. She looked beautiful in a sleeveless gossamer sky-blue dress that seemed to settle on her tall frame like a wedding veil. She also sported bare legs, open-toed sandals with foam soles, aviator sunglasses, a Yankees baseball cap, no lipstick—there was no point, when she threw up several times a day—and a large tote bag that held her knitting and all the Pedialyte a single human could drink in an afternoon.
He’d offered to carry the bag for her, but she’d insisted that she had to get used to holding heavy things like babies and baby bags.
“Didn’t we already have this conversation? I’m used to taking care of myself. Not particularly well,” she’d admitted. “You’ve definitely leveled-up my nutrition game. But I’m not helpless. I can’t be helpless. None of this is going to work if I am.”
He got her point, and he respected it. But still, the sight of her with her expanding belly, lugging that heavy tote bag around set his teeth on edge.
His job was to make her life easier. If that meant fending off threats, he was all over it. Playing chauffeur? No problem. Giving her sexual release, amen to that. He would do anything for her. He’d marry her, if she agreed.
But she’d turned him down. Nicely. Sweetly. But firmly. She didn’t see him that way, didn’t feel that way about him. He’d accepted it and shoved all thoughts of a deeper relationship to the back of his mind. It wasn’t what she wanted, so that was the end of that. If certain feelings—new, confusing, dizzying feelings—snuck through from time to time, he told them to get lost.
He grabbed the mail from the box in the little nook to the east of the lobby. Rifling through it quickly, he saw some mail that had been forwarded to him from Boston, as well as utility bills and, luckily, no sketchy threatening notes.
They really had gotten through this testimony ordeal in one piece. Thank God.
With that new feeling of lightness, he strode back to the foyer, where Bliss was chatting with a tiny older woman pushing a wheeled cart loaded with groceries. Mrs. DeLuca. He’d scoped out all the neighbors, and knew their names whether he’d met them or not.
Mrs. DeLuca might be small, but she spoke at the pace of a hummingbird’s wings. “And then I said, I never reveal any information about my neighbors, because this is a high-end building with many celebrity residents. But he wouldn’t take no for answer, so I had to tell him I’d report him to Morales if he kept after me. Do you know he had the nerve to tell me I shouldn’t be so aggressive? Me? Aggressive is my middle name and I’m proud of it. I don’t let anyone push me around, especially someone who’s been lurking in the laundry room more times than I can count. Oh, I nearly forgot, you have to try the new fabric softener I found. It’s perfect for a baby’s skin. Come by my apartment and I’ll give you a cup of it.”
Bliss sent Granger a pleading glance, her hand resting on her belly, showing three fingers. He knew that signal; it meant she desperately had to pee.
