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“No to both,” he answered, knowing full well it wouldn’t discourage her. The intrepid woman would assuredly bunk out on his floor if she had to.
Of course, there was always his king-sized bed…
Nope.Shut that right down. As Fleet understood it, his most important task right now would be getting Talia out of his life, so she wasn’t in danger of becoming some deranged asshole’s target. For himself? He’d be on the lookout for threats. He’d done it before, and he could do it again. He was no slouch in the physical arena, and as soon as the doc cleared him for strenuous exercise…
Oh. Shit. That would be three months from now. How could he have forgotten that? And how was he going to keep himself safe until then? Maybe hire a bodyguard?
He’d almost forgotten that Talia was still chewing over the fact he didn’t have room for a guest.
“We’ll have to land at my place,” she told him definitively. “I have a spare bedroom. And on the bright side, then I won’t have to relocate May, which with her being so high-strung, could send her on a serious rant.”
Fleet remembered her saying that May was her cat, and wondered if the feline’s harangue would be worse than his because seriously? He couldn’t let Talia endanger herself by inviting him into her home. How could their association be mistaken if he bunked out in her house and she had to ferry him to work every day until he was cleared to drive?
“I can see that brain cooking, Fleet,” Talia upbraided. “And just so we’re clear, you’re not getting rid of me. During my shifts at the PD, or if I need a break from what I assume will be your pissy attitude, Everlee has already said she’d be on duty, so you can shut down any thoughts of being left to your own devices. For whatever prideful or fucked up reasons might be in your head,” she added with attitude.
“Stubborn,” Fleet grumbled, and all he got in return for his comment was a huge, shit-eating grin.
“Thank you.” Talia stopped fussing with his pillow and pulled up a chair to sit right next to his bed, grabbing onto and holding his hand. “Now. I know you couldn’t move very much when we hauled you out of the woods last night, but something tells me your mind was churning. Am I correct?”
He nodded, wondering where this was going.
“So, tell me if you came up with anyone in your life, past or present, who might have been responsible for your abduction.”
Fleet huffed. He understood that Talia was doing her best, assuming the perpetrator was someone he knew, but being a young white woman, she might not understand that simply by virtue of the color of his skin, someone had probably taken exception to any one of a million things he did. With the foremost one being seen with her. Because as far as local, overt enemies went? He couldn’t think of a single one.
“Talia, I’m going to be very honest with you,” Fleet began.
“Please do.” She sat forward.
“There’s not a soul amongst my present-day acquaintances, my clients, or my business associates who would have a problem with me. I left the people who didn’t, uh, like me, behind in Alabama a long time ago.”
“I figured that, Fleet,” she said, threading and unthreading her fingers through his. “You hinted at having something fucked up in your past. Now tell me seriously, could that trouble have followed you here?”
“After sixteen years?” he scoffed. “I sincerely doubt it.” Although the persons responsible for that long ago, nearly life-changing incident, had never faced charges. He, on the other hand, had made haste to get away from the area as fast as he could once his name had been cleared. Those people responsible for derailing his final year in town, however, wouldn’t have bothered to travel north at this late date just to ruin his life. They knew they’d done that by chasing him off.
It did kind of suck, being figuratively banned from the place he grew up, but he’d never felt comfortable going back. If Fleet wanted to see his parents, they either traveled to him, or they met in some neutral spot that wasn’t Huntsville. He’d pretty much written off ever visiting his birth city again, if just for his own peace of mind.
“Then…what? Any ideas?” Talia was clearly fishing, and Fleet finally figured out why. She knew something. Mason had probably sicced all his super-spies on digging deep into his past, and had found Fleet’s sealed juvenile record.
Hmph.So much for his clean slate. For some odd reason, Talia didn’t look spooked, but would Mase look at him differently now? Would Everlee?
Wait.Talia had said Ever was going to be his second baby-sitter, so the Sothard couple hadn’t shunned him. Maybe Mason hadn’t gotten a look at what was in Fleet’s closed files, or…perhaps the smart man had read between the lines.
There was only one way to find out.
“Did Mason pull my juvenile record from Huntsville?” he asked Talia pointedly.
She didn’t prevaricate. “Yup. He found them, but without a court order, he couldn’t get in to see what they contain.” Talia met his eyes, and he saw no judgement there.
“I, on the other hand,” she continued smugly, “called your parents after we got you back here to the hospital last night.”
“You did?” Was that his voice that squeaked?
“Yeah. I like them a lot. They’re super chill.” Talia’s smile was brilliant again.
“Uh, I guess so,” Fleet managed. “How did they take everything?”
“Well, first of all they’re really ticked off that you didn’t call and tell them you’d been operated on. You’re going to have to do some serious damage control there.”
