Page 5 of Shadow
“Or your sad puppy dog face is just that easy to read. Ask me.”
“How is she?”
Carrie shook her head. “Not great. After the last time you left, she couldn’t take it anymore and tried dating. Got married for a few months to some asshole who tried to take everything she had when they got divorced. Peter and some others might have… given him a little encouragement to move on without more of a fight than he’d already put her through by the time we found out. Now she’s working herself to death, running two bars and not letting anyone help her. And it’s all your fault.”
He might have been annoyed with Carrie for blaming it all on him, but he was too fixated on the fact that Olivia Harrigan had married someone else.
“What’s his name?” he asked slowly, trying to stop the rage from bubbling out.
“Nope. Not telling you that right now. She can tell you herself if she wants to.”
He clenched his fists. “She’s not taking my calls, and she wasn’t at the bar.”
“Well, my car is out front, and her second bar is the third address in the trip history. It’s just called Olivia’s. I try to see her once a week when I’m in town. Just so she knows we care. But I’m not in town that often right now, so it’s been a few weeks.”
Carrie pulled out a set of keys, and he stared at them for a minute before she jingled them in front of his face like a cat toy. “You know you don’t want to be here without her, Ripley. I’m not promising that you can fix things. She was pretty hurt after your last conversation. But you’ll never know if you don’t fucking try.”
He snatched the keys, kissed her on the cheek, and jogged out of the building, where he pressed the unlock button on the fob and watched for headlights to flash. When he pulled open the door of the small Prius, he laughed out loud at how close the seat was to the steering wheel. He easily had a foot and a half on the spunky reporter who’d helped him bring down a trafficking ring a few years ago. He folded himself into the seat and adjusted everything so he could drive the car, then he found the address in the GPS history and pulled away from Club Exposure.
As he drove, he did his best to tamp down the jealousy and hurt feelings over the fact that Olivia had married another man. At least she was divorced. Then again, that didn’t mean she hadn’t started dating someone else. His stomach twisted at the very thought. Olivia had always been his peace of mind, and the thing he had to look forward to when he finally retired. Now he feared he’d made her wait too long, with no serious commitment.
He turned onto the street the bar was on and his heart leapt into his throat. Smoke billowed from a building suspiciously close to where the bar was supposed to be. Slamming on the gas, he got there as fast as he could. Sure enough, the bar was up in flames.
Fuck.
Was she inside? His heart raced as he fumbled with his phone to dial nine-one-one. He stopped mid-dial when he saw a familiar figure running from the middle of the parking lot back toward the flames.
Ripley jumped out of the car and sprinted to stop her. “No, you don’t, Olivia Harrigan. I’ll blister your ass if you try to go back in there.”
Chapter 2
OLIVIA’Sthroatclosedasarms gripped her waist. Her bar was on fire, and now someone was attacking her. Could this night get any worse?
“No, you don’t, Olivia Harrigan. I’ll blister your ass if you try to go back in there.”
Her shoulders sagged as the familiar voice registered in her brain. The relief was short-lived, and she flailed, trying to get away as rage coursed through her veins, mixing with the adrenaline she was already feeling. How dare he show up now! “Let me go. I have to get what I can out. My life is in that building.” Her throat was raw from the smoke and screaming, and her leg muscles ached from running back into the building multiple times. But that didn’t stop her from kicking and fighting to get away.
“Your life is right fucking here.” Ripley’s grip tightened, and she kicked him in the shins, but he didn’t let up. “Stop fucking moving, or I’ll tie you up and put you in my trunk.”
She cursed her body’s reaction to his threat. Cannon Ripley abandoned her. He didn’t deserve the right to turn her on anymore. Not to mention her bar was currently burning to the ground.
“Let me go.” She screamed it at the top of her lungs, twisting as much as his hold would allow.
“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered. With zero effort, he scooped her up into his arms and moved her away from the building. You would think she weighed ninety pounds instead of pushing two hundred.
“Put me down! Please. I have to go back. My laptop is still in there.”
She’d grabbed the bar tablets and the portable payment processors first and was on her way back in for her personal laptop when Ripley stopped her. What the hell was he doing here, anyway?
“Have you called the fire department?” He stalked toward a car she recognized as Carrie Mercer’s, and it was all she could focus on.
“Why are you driving Carrie’s car?”
He set her down on top of the trunk. “Not important right now. Fire Department, Liv. Are they on their way or not?”
She sucked in a breath and winced at the burning sensation. “Yes. They’re on their way. I need to get my laptop. It’s got everything on it, Ripley. Please?”
He growled and shook his head. “You’re not going back in there. It’s out of the question. Where is it?”
