AllFreeNovel
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“I wore sexy stuff the night we actually got married, but you’re right. I almost need to one-up that.”
“There’s a French boutique lingerie store around the corner from here,” Aurelia notes. “I bet they’d have the perfect thing.”
“Oh! Let’s go look. I need to get some sexy things too,” Wynter squeaks, only to sigh. “This is why I don’t drink.” She stands on shaky legs. “Come on. Let’s go do this, and then I’m going to Uber home to Asher, who will feed me and put me to bed.”
An hour later, I have a bag filled with naughty delights—including a few toys they had for purchase in the store—when my phone rings. I slip one AirPod into my ear and answer. “Hey. I’m heading home now.”
“Why are you still downtown?” Lenox’s voice comes through my ear.
“I’m walking to the car now. We just finished shopping. Why? What’s up?” His voice sounds funny.
“The LAPD and the FBI haven’t found Ezra. He wasn’t in his house or anywhere in LA. I’ve been searching for him for the last two hours, and I’ve tracked him to LAX yesterday, where he used a fake passport to get on a plane to Boston.”
Ice runs through my veins, and I quickly search the street around me. It’s dark, though it’s only a little after five, but I don’t see anyone beyond the usual rush hour crew of people trying to get out of work before the holiday tomorrow.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know,” he barks into my ear, agitated in a way Lenox rarely, if ever is. It makes my heart rate and blood pressure spike. “Every device I have on him shows him at his LA home. He’s dumped everything. He got on a hotel shuttle at Logan Airport when he arrived but never registered at the hotel or any as far as I can tell using his real name or the alias he flew under. But he’s here, Georgia, and why would he be here if not for you?”
“I don’t know.”
I shake my head as I open the driver-side door of Lenox’s black BMW XM. He keeps this car in his garage in Cambridge, which feels like a waste, but right now, I’m grateful for it instead of having to order an Uber and wait for it. Only the moment I slip inside and buckle up, I freeze.
“Ezra,” I say in a low voice.
“What?” Lenox growls in my ear. “Why are you saying his name like that?”
“How did you know I was here?” Ezra asks, sitting up in the back seat from where he was hiding. He can’t hear Lenox since Lenox is speaking directly into my ear, but Lenox can sure as hell hear him since the microphone on my AirPod is picking up his voice.
“Fuck! Fuck! He’s there? He’s in the car with you? Fuck. Get out of there.”
“I smelled your cologne,” I respond, speaking only to Ezra. My hands tremble as I slowly move one to the handle on the door and the other to the seat belt latch.
“I wouldn’t try that, honey.” Then I hear a strange click and spin to see Ezra is pointing a gun at me. I flip back around, breathing heavily.
Fuck is right. “A gun, Ezra? You have a gun? Why are you doing this?”
“Can he hear me, Georgia?” Lenox asks.
“No,” I respond to Lenox and quickly continue. “No, this isn’t you, Ezra. What are you doing?”
“The only thing I can do,” Ezra claims. “Now start driving and take me to your asshole husband’s house.”
“No,” I say sharply. “You’ll kill him.”
“Do it, Georgia,” Lenox snaps. “Do everything he says and bring him here. I’m recording him, and I’ll be ready for him.”
I shake my head. Ezra has a gun, and I know he’ll hurt Lenox.
He presses the barrel of the gun painfully into the side of my head, and tears spill from my eyes. “Now!” Ezra yells, and a sob slips out.
I slam my fist into the steering wheel, furious that I just showed him how scared I am. Enraged that he’s doing this. And terrified beyond my wits that he’ll kill Lenox and me.
I press the ignition button and put the car in drive, forcing myself to take calming breaths. To remember my years of martial arts training that taught us that the worst thing we can do in a crisis is panic.
“Talk to him, Georgia. Get him to talk to you. Get all the information you can. It’s okay, baby. I’m here with you, I’m tracking you now, and he doesn’t know that. We have the upper hand with this, and I won’t let him hurt you.”
But can you make that same promise for yourself?
