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Pulling a face, Lisa shrugged. She let out a sigh. “Just not meant to be, I guess. I mean, I knew when I took a job working in a pub, I was going to get hit on. It doesn’t bother me, and I know not to take it seriously. My rule is that I enjoy the flirting but don’t let it go any farther. And the one time I break that rule—well, I should have known he’d disappear the next morning. He was military, too.” She let out another long breath.
Anna twisted the strap on her bag. Would Gage be like that? He’d stayed after waking up, had made her coffee and had shown definite enthusiasm for making more plans with her—but would he lose interest in another day or two? There was nothing she could do but wait and see what happened…and hope for the best, even if her track record should have had her expecting the worst.
She glanced at Lisa, who shrugged. “I didn’t even get his phone number. And here we are. You have time for lunch this week? You should come by the store—we got in the cutest bunch of sweaters, all in your colors. But enough about clothes. What about your guy? Where did you meet? At the rescue? Oh, that’d be too romantic.”
Anna shook her head. “Gage signed on to do some cover modeling for us.”
“Get out. Now you’re getting hunky SEALs? I always figured you’d end up with nothing but shallow, insecure pretty boys as models. How was the sex?”
Anna frowned at her. “Why don’t you focus on the road and leave my love life out of it.”
“Love, is it? And I can do both. Did Romeo like the guy?”
“You know how Romeo is. Gage still has all his fingers attached, so I guess they’re getting along well enough.” Anna turned to look at her friend. “What if this does turn out to be like you and…and the guy you met?”
Lisa shrugged. “So what? Are you looking for a ring on your finger and a forever after?”
“I don’t know. Maybe…I was once. But I just don’t know anymore.”
“Well, don’t sit on your hands while you wait.” Lisa found a parking spot down the block from Anna’s office building. She turned in her seat and fixed Anna with a stern look. “You want to know why I broke my own rule and went out with a guy I met in a bar, even though I knew it was a bad idea?”
Anna raised an eyebrow, and Lisa went on, her voice intense. “He’d been at the pub, drinking to the loss of a friend, a guy who’d been killed in action. This friend of his left a wife behind. He talked about life being too short to leave things undone—and you know what? He was right.”
Anna nodded. “Gage said something like that.”
Grabbing Anna’s hand, Lisa squeezed it tight. “Good. Means he’s not completely stupid. Life happens. I read someplace that you have to break your heart in before you can really use it to its full potential. So go out and break a few things—just not our lunch date, okay?”
They made a date to meet up at a local coffee shop, but by noon Anna had to call and cancel. Work was more than swamped. Everyone was still shaken up, and the cramped quarters weren’t helping things. Tempers flared. No one could find the right art for the latest covers. Two editors still preferred to work in hard copy—and the printed galleys had gone missing. Entire boxes of files seemed to be gone, and everyone’s nerves were frayed.
Anna went through the studio to see what she could rescue of their props and set pieces. While most of the backgrounds were filled in after the fact with green screen tech, they had a few pieces of furniture for the models to interact with—chairs to sit on, a table to lean on. Not to mention costumes, wigs, weaponry, and dozens of other items. She’d already learned the previous day that their go-to couch and chair were ruined, but it was disheartening to see how many other pieces had taken severe damage. What smoke hadn’t damaged had been ruined by overhead sprinklers. She was glad she’d taken her Hasselblad with her when she’d gone, or it would have been soaked, too.
She called the hospital for news and learned that Linda had been released to go home. She called her cell phone and left a message, wishing her a speedy recovery. Marcella had been released, too, but had checked herself into nursing care—Anna read between the lines on that and figured Marcella would be at the best spa in town for at least a week.
Trying to escape the chaos in her workspace, Anna volunteered to help sort out Coran’s office. At least that would be chaos she wasn’t personally invested in. Coran’s assistant, Janet, would normally have handled that task, but she was one of the unfortunate people still in the hospital. Anna and Janet had always been close—they joked that Janet was her office mom—so she was happy to put in a little extra work to ensure that things would be in place when Janet got back.
Coran’s office was a total wreck. Scattered papers, furniture still overturned. Anna shook her head and started to sort out the worst of it. By midafternoon, she felt like things were starting to look halfway decent—and she was exhausted. Then she remembered she was supposed to go out for dinner with Gage. She wondered whether she could call him and put it off—but then she thought about Lisa and the guy she’d met. Maybe Gage would think she was cooling things between them…and if he did, he might withdraw. She also thought about the other thing Lisa had said: it was past time that life stopped happening around her and only to other people.
Dammit, she wasn’t just going to have dinner with Gage, she was going to go all out.
Grabbing her purse, Anna headed outside and hailed a taxi. It was only four. She’d go home, take a bath, change into something sexy, and meet up with Gage back at the office building. Smiling and thinking about the evening ahead—maybe she could talk him into taking her dancing—she paid the driver and headed into her apartment building.
She rode the elevator up, humming a song. The song stopped as soon as she saw her front door. She had locked it when she’d left to go to work—but now it hung open. Stepping inside, she felt her stomach sink. Someone had been in her place. Someone hadtrashedher place. It looked worse than Coran’s office. Her face numb and hands shaking, she took a step back, and then she thought about Romeo.
Pulling out her phone, she started to dial 9-1-1, but she stopped. What if the person who did this was still here? And where was Romeo?
Before she could decide what to do, a hand closed over hers.
11
Gage put a finger to his lips so Anna would stay quiet. He took her phone from her hand. She stared at him, her face pale and her hands shaking.
He’d been following her all day to make sure she was safe, but now he wished he’d left Spencer or Scotty watching her place. He still didn’t know why she was being targeted, but there was no doubt any more that that was what was happening.
He’d bet this was about to escalate.
He’d be right.
Two burly men stepped out of Anna’s bedroom. They hadn’t bothered with ski masks, meaning they didn’t figure on meeting up with anyone—or on leaving anyone alive to identify them. One pulled a gun, and Gage moved forward. They wouldn’t expect that.
