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“Gareth can vouch for him. He’s been working with him a long time and I would feel so much better knowing that Brownie AND you were somewhere safe.”
“Fine.” Brook finally gives in when Birdie pulls out the safety card.
“I’ll guard her body all night…uh, be her bodyguard all night.”
“I thought you said you had to work.”
“Just during the day.” He gives her a half-cocked smile. “Unless someone’s murdered. Then I might have to leave.”
The two of them walk off and I take Birdie by the arm and lead her out the door to my car.
It takes her a little while to ask me any questions, letting me know she is still not alright. “Where are we going?”
“Safehouse.”
“The house…I’m so sorry. If I hadn’t been here none of this would have happened to you.”
“Bullshit. There’s not a damned thing for you to feel sorry about. Everything there can be fixed and redone. Don’t even worry about the house and as for your fault…none of this shit is your fault. You didn’t shoot the fucking gun that took out the windows. That was the assholes who are behind all of this. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.”
I drive us into a parking garage. “Where are we?”
“Condo. This is where I used to live before I moved into the Queen Ann. I stayed here while I was fixing up the bottom to have somewhere to live in it.”
“Your bachelor pad?”
“Hardly. More like the place I used to lay my head. I keep it around for when my mom comes back through. She hates staying at a hotel and tells me I wake her up too early when she stays with me at the house.”
“Where is she now?”
I hesitate but if this is going to work like I want it to, she has to know everything. Even the relatives we would rather keep in the closet, locked away like hidden skeletons just waiting to jump out at someone.
“She’s…in a nudist community in Florida.”
Birdie’s eyes go wide for a split second before she schools her features and gives me a soft, “Oh.”
Then she’s giggling. The look on my face just makes her laugh even harder. I might play up the fact I’m so put out by it to make her laugh harder and longer. She needs to laugh, especially after a day like today.
Once inside I waste no time walking her all the way back to the shower.
“Come on, baby. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
It takes her a minute to realize what I’m doing. I pull the shirt up and over my head as I reach in and start the water.
“What…what are you doing, Gareth?” she finally asks as I take her shirt off her next.
“Making you feel good.” I reach for the shorts she was in when she went to the hospital and unfasten them so they can drop to the floor at her feet. Then I do the same for my jeans. When both of us are standing in nothing but underwear I take her by the hand and pull her under the spray before I undo her bra and toss it out the side so that it lays on top of the other clothes, a soppy mess. Just like I plan to leave Birdie by the end of the night.
Chapter Fifteen
____________
Birdie
Gareth bows down in front of me and takes the sides of my panties in his hands. The lace makes them look even bigger just because of the contrast between how delicate and rough each is. He follows that contrast up when he pulls them until he rips them off me.
Then he comes back up after placing a quick kiss on my mound. He puts his arms around me, and I nuzzle in more. “The house…”
It comes out as a sob.
