Allan, however, would be easier to find. She’d already looked up his office information. Remembering his admonishments to never call him at work from a traceable phone unless it was an absolute emergency, she hadn’t bothered phoning him.
But maybe he’ll be there. Or have an office assistant who can find him for me.
With a deep sigh, she shut the water off and climbed out, slowly toweling herself dry with muscles that refused to loosen up.
When she went to get dressed, she realized not only was her regular cell phone dead, so was the disposable one.
“Crap.” She dug the chargers out of her overnight bag and finally settled on the outlet in the bathroom, since it was the easiest for her to get to.
With purse in hand, she headed downstairs for coffee and breakfast. The restaurant was moderately busy, being on the tail end of the morning rush. She patiently waited for her server to bring her coffee and take her order, then sat back to read a Miami Herald that had been left on a room divider next to her booth.
She kicked herself in the ass that she’d missed their calls the night 222 Tymber Dalton
before. Maybe this was a mistake. Except that Mandaline had been spot-on about a bunch of things.
Then again, she knew she shouldn’t be trying to shoulder blame for her decision onto her friend. Libbie had wanted to come find her men, wanted any excuse to do it. Mandaline just happened to provide exactly the justification she’d been looking for.
She took her time eating and perusing the paper. After her third cup of coffee and nearly finishing her mushroom and swiss omelet, she was ready to go hunt down one or both of her men. Not to mention her stomach had settled again.
Except that when she tried to stand after signing the credit card receipt the waitress brought her, she realized how sore and tired she still was.
“Crap.”
She quickly consulted the maps tucked in her purse. One of them a highway map she’d bought at her first gas stop east of the Alley, the others printouts from Google Maps after she looked up Allan’s office address.
I’m not that far away. She could call a cab to take her to his office. It meant she wouldn’t have to tax her already struggling brain, which didn’t seem to want to take the upper hand against her fibro fog that morning, or her achingly sore body with any more activities than she had to.
“That’s settled, then,” she mumbled to herself.
Her second attempt to stand proved successful. She made it to the front desk. The clerk called her a cab, which arrived in a few minutes.
It wasn’t until she was almost to Allan’s office building that she remembered both cell phones lying on the bathroom counter in her room, still plugged into the wall.
She laid her head back against her seat. Frak.
It’s a Sweet Life
223
Chapter Twenty-One
Ben left Allan waiting for him in the stairwell of the parking garage while he retrieved the rental car. When he pulled up to the stairwell door, Allan dove into the backseat and kept his head down.
“We’ll go get your car,” Ben said. “Hopefully, no one’s found it yet. You stay down when we get there, and I’ll get into your car. Give me ten minutes before you get out of the backseat, and then you drive straight to the office.”
“Bullshit. I’m going to the house with you.”
Ben fought the urge to pound on the steering wheel. He’d quickly grown used to taking evasive maneuvers in busy Miami traffic and spent fifteen minutes weaving his way north before jumping on the Florida Turnpike to head south again toward the parking garage where he’d left Allan’s car the night before. They’d been using the garage for nearly two weeks, with no sign yet of any of Bianco’s men finding or following them there, but he’d felt the need to start using yet another one.
Paranoid, yes. But they were both still alive.
“Why the hell would she do this?” Allan asked from the backseat.
“We told her it wasn’t safe.”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to spank her ass for it when we find her.”
“If we find her.”
Ben’s fingers clamped tightly around the steering wheel. “When,”
he insisted.
Allan went silent for a few minutes. “It’s got to be rough on her. I don’t see why we can’t call her more often.”
224 Tymber
Dalton
“Look, this isn’t a perfect solution, I know, but it’s what’s safest for her.”
More accusatory silence from the backseat. Then, “I miss her.”
Ben tried to rein in his anger. “I miss her, too. Believe me.”
“I’m turning in my resignation this week.”
The announcement startled Ben so much he nearly missed his exit.
“What?”
“Yeah.” Allan’s voice sounded quiet.
“But what about the trial?”
“I’m done. I’m sick of Miami. I used to think it’s what I wanted. I know we haven’t talked about this a lot, and I don’t know for sure what your plans are, but I’ve been thinking a family law practice in Brooksville sounds like a good idea. Now, I’m sure it is.”
An additional weight Ben hadn’t realized he’d been carrying suddenly rolled from his shoulders. No, they hadn’t talked much about it. He’d been too busy caught up with Libbie and then trying to get them back to Miami and keep them safe. “I think every law practice needs an in-house security specialist.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” He rolled to a stop at a red light and forced himself not to look over the seat at his brother in case anyone had followed them. “I looked into what it’d take for me to get a PI license. I could also check into doing work for insurance companies. You know, claims work.”
“I know a certain sweet little baker who would enjoy your help in her shop.”
Ben felt a smile crease his lips. It felt like weeks since he’d smiled. “Yeah, I’d also thought about that.”
“Look at that, we both have baking to fall back on if our careers don’t pan out,” Allan joked, getting a laugh from his brother. “I never thought you’d ever give up being a cop.”
Ben urged the car forward when the light turned green. “Neither did I. But I never thought we’d ever meet a woman like Libbie, either.
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225
And I’ve given up enough of my personal life. I’ve lived, eaten, and breathed the Bianco crime family for the past three years. I’m ready to start living again. I’m too young for this shit. I want a family. And I also don’t want Libbie to get a call in the middle of the night like Mom did.”
“You mean it? You want a family?”
Ben felt his face heat. “Yeah,” he quietly said. “If Libbie does.”
It seemed like forever when Allan finally said, “Me, too.”
They reached the parking garage and Ben looked around. After parking on the second floor and waiting several minutes, no other cars came up. He moved to the fifth floor and shut the car off, leaving the keys in the ignition. Without turning around, he said, “Looks clear.
Give me ten, then please, go to your office. Okay? I’ll call you if I find her.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to your house. I want to cruise by first, see if there’s anyone watching it. See if she’s there, waiting. We lied and told her we were staying there, remember?”