Protect & Serve (Love at First Sight Book 3) Page 6

  “Arthur, listen. I—”

  “Don’t call me that as if we’re friends,” Dad hissed, pointing a finger at me when I started to interrupt. “Have you two been… God, I can’t even say it. How long has this been going on? Tell me the truth!”

  “A couple weeks,” I whispered.

  “You son of a bitch,” he growled as he turned back to Trent. “Tell me it didn’t go further than this.”

  He gestured back to the pictures of the kiss, but it was obvious from the way we held each other in them that we were already intimately acquainted. Trent let his eyes wander to the photos and plucked one from the desk, staring down at it for a moment before he let out a long sigh.

  The picture fell back on top of the others and Trent faced my dad head-on—his silence more than enough of an answer.

  “I fought my wife to hire you. I let you into my home and this is how you repay me? You said you’d take a bullet for her! You didn’t say you’d-you’d violate her as well!”

  “He didn’t violate me!” I shouted, stepping between them as I watched their anger grow. “I love him!”

  Dad looked even more horrified when the words left my mouth than he had before. He slowly shook his head, the disbelief on his face turning into seething hatred as he looked back at Trent.

  “What did you do to her? What lies did you tell her to make her believe that you’re anything more than a predator?”

  “I’ve never lied to Ava. I’m sorry that you found out this way, but—”

  “Stop. Just… stop. Get the hell out of my house. You’re fired and I’ve already spoken to the police about filing a restraining order. I better not catch you within fifty feet of my daughter ever again.”

  Tears rolled down my cheeks as I shook my head rapidly. “Don’t do this. Please. What-What about Callahan? Who will—”

  “I’ve promoted Aaron. He’ll be your new bodyguard until the threat has passed. And I’ve already arranged to take next week off work so don’t even think about trying to arrange some kind of secret meeting under my nose. I want you out of this house and out of our lives—now.”

  Trent didn’t say another word in argument, he merely turned around and strolled out of the room. I tried to argue on his behalf but I was swiftly dismissed—Aaron coming in to escort me out of the room. The last I saw of my father was his shoulders slumping as he reached for a bottle of scotch.

  Realizing that there was nothing I could do on that end, I broke free of Aaron’s grasp on my arm and ran for the stairs. I met Trent just as he was coming down with his hastily thrown together bag of clothes and he gave me a sad smile as he got closer.

  “That’s enough,” Aaron said. “Time to go.”

  “Fuck you,” I hissed at him as Trent grabbed my hand and began to lead me toward the door. “Do not follow me.”

  “I’m not just going to let you walk out of here.”

  “She’s coming back,” Trent chimed in, ignoring my attempt to protest. “Just give me a minute to say goodbye.”

  He hesitated for a moment before eventually nodding, but I knew he’d be watching from the window as we parted. I followed Trent outside and latched my arms around his shoulders the moment the door closed behind me, grateful when I felt his arms wrap around me in return.

  “You—We can’t let him do this,” I whispered. “I don’t want to lose you.”

  Trent pulled away and cupped my face in his hands, his thumbs wiping away my tears as he softly said, “Don’t cry, baby. It’ll all work out.”

  “How can you say that? Didn’t you hear what he said?”

  “Just be patient. Can you do that for me?” he asked, waiting until he saw my small nod before he added, “I don’t want to lose you either—and I don’t intend to. But your pops was right to fire me. Regardless of how we feel about each other, I never should have let it go that far while I was still his employee.”

  “But Trent—”

  “No, sweetness. It’s not time for us yet, but believe me—I’m not letting you go. Do you understand?”

  I inhaled a shaky breath and nodded, feeling a small bit of hope beginning to form amidst all the fear and dread. I clung to it as tightly as I could, but felt the dam beginning to break when he bent down to give me a short kiss that felt an awful lot like goodbye.

  “I have to go, baby.”

  I couldn’t get my mouth to move as I watched him walk away. Fresh tears formed in my eyes and quickly rolled down my cheeks. When his motorcycle pulled down the driveway, I watched until the taillight completely disappeared from my view.

  Then I fell to my knees and covered my eyes, sobbing hysterically at the thought of never seeing him again.

  11

  It was funny how a week could pass by in the blink of an eye when I was with Trent, but three days apart felt like a lifetime.

  It was hell being away from him, but I was thankful that Dad had sent my mom off to a spa for the week to avoid her hysterics. It could have been much worse.

  I barely spoke to Dad the day following Trent’s exile and he made good on his threat to take a week off. He briefly went into the city to grab some work he could do from home—something to distract him since he obviously wanted nothing to do with me.

  I waited in his study with the intention of badgering him to speak with me when he got home, but the look on his face when he arrived back from the office was even more disturbed than when he had left. His harsh dismissal when he found me waiting stung, though I couldn’t find the will to put up a fight. Not when I saw his miserable expression.

  It didn’t make any sense until a few days later. I slid my phone into my pocket and raised my hand to knock on the door, knowing he would only yell at me to go away if I went through with it. So I twisted the knob and charged in, shocked to find him with his face buried in his hands and an empty liquor bottle beside him.

  “I thought day drinking was mom’s thing.”

  “It’s not a good time, sweet pea,” he mumbled, not even bothering to pull his face from his hands and look up at me.

  The door clicked shut and I saw him glance up, groaning when he realized I hadn’t left. I strolled into the room and took a seat in the vacant chair by his desk, waiting patiently for him to say something—anything.

  “I just got off the phone with Finley,” I finally said after a few minutes of silence had passed. “She wanted to know if you said anything about Uncle Chuck.”

  “Don’t… call him that,” Dad whispered, looking up at me with a pained expression.

  I could tell it was hurting him to talk about his closest friend, but I damn well knew his reaction had more to do with what was going on between me and Trent than what my father had walked in on.

  “Don’t call him what? Uncle? Dad, I’ve known Charles for as long as you have. I know him. He’s not a predator or whatever else you might be thinking of him right now.”

  “You didn’t see them,” he said miserably. “In the office, Ava. He’s her boss. God, that poor girl. Charles is no better than…” He trailed off, his expression saddening as he looked at me.

  I felt my jaw clench with anger. “Trent didn’t take advantage of me. He didn’t even instigate it. I did.”

  “I don’t want to hear this,” he choked out, shaking his head as he covered his face once again. “I can’t hear this.”

  “You have to. From what Finley told me, Uncle Chuck isn’t the one to blame either. She started it and she loves him, Dad. Like I love Trent.”

  “Stop it!” he yelled, bolting up from his chair and pointing a warning finger at me. “Stop throwing that word around like either of you girls are old enough to know what it means!”

  “And you’re the expert?” I fired back, feeling a strange sense of pride when he looked at me in shock. “Tell me you know what it means. Tell me you love mom like I love Trent! Tell me it feels like your heart is ripping out of your chest right now because she isn’t here!”

  “It’s just a crush! An infatuation that wil
l pass with time! You—”

  “Tell me you love mom,” I whispered, interrupting his futile rebuttal.

  He hesitated and I knew I had him. It didn’t mean anything was magically fixed—but we both knew this wasn’t an argument that he could win.

  “Our marriage is irrelevant, Ava,” Dad said with a sigh. “Growing up when we did, in the families we were born into… things were a lot different.”

  “So you married her because you had to. You passed on love for an obligation,” I accused, cursing the way my voice shook as I felt tears building.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’d do it again for you, sweet pea. You were worth it.”

  His composure was slipping and so was mine. I watched with wide eyes as he turned away and reached a shaking hand for an unopened bottle. The sound of his sniffle was what finally did me in and my tears fell freely.

  But no matter how emotional his confession had made me… it changed nothing in regards to Trent.

  “I won’t give him up,” I said, wiping away my tears as his hand froze in mid-air. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I won’t do what you did. That isn’t the life I want.”

  “And I won’t support you screwing around with a man who’s almost my age,” he said with a humorless, pained laugh. “He could be me, you know. He could be your father. He could have children older than you.”

  “I know… and I don’t care.”

  Dad made a sound like I’d broken his heart, but I couldn’t dwell on it. At least not yet. I had to get out while I still could. I needed time and space to think.

  He didn’t chase me when I ran from the room. I dashed up the stairs and crept down the hall, rolling my eyes when I spotted Aaron in the chair Trent used to sit in—only Aaron was dead asleep. Just like Trent predicted, he didn’t care at all about protecting me. All he cared about was his paycheck.

  And all I cared about at the moment was getting away from all of it.

  I grabbed my jacket and purse and tip-toed down the hall the opposite direction. I went down the stairs and snuck out the back of the house, running through the yard until the driveway came into view. It took a few minutes before the man lingering near the doorway stepped off for a moment and I used the opportunity to dash toward my car.

  Later on, I’d take the time to think about the stupidity of my actions. Until I got the chance, I swallowed around the lump in my throat and hammered the gas as I started the drive to the only place I could think of that would make me feel whole again.

  12

  The sensation of freedom slammed into me as soon as my tires touched the concrete of the highway. After months of having Trent at my side, it was truly exhilarating to be on my own again.

  Not that I wouldn’t have preferred having him with me. All I could think about was Trent and the words he’d said to me during our first real conversation.

  He told me to find a way out. He said I’d never know the pain of making mistakes, only hadn’t I already done that? Didn’t staying with my parents and accepting that life as my fate count? And as for the joy of finally getting something right…

  I rolled my window down and sucked in giant breaths of the fresh air, wishing that I wasn’t driving so that I could have stuck my head out the window like a dog and let it ruin my hair. It was time to let loose—to let go of the metaphorical chains that bound me to my parents and a life I didn’t want.

  Had I known Trent’s address, I would have gone there. The only other place that I could think of that made me feel close to him was the spot he frequented overlooking the town, and I smiled when the turn-off to the road appeared through my windshield.

  It was only a few miles later before I pulled off at the familiar spot. I turned off the engine and stepped out, almost overwhelmed by sorrow when I recalled the last time I got out of the car in the very same spot only a few days prior. Back when everything was still fine.

  I took a few long, sobering breaths to ward off the negative feelings, thankful when I felt myself begin to relax. I leaned against the side of my car, looking up at the stars with a sad smile.

  I wasn’t sure how long I stood there contemplating my next move—but I was torn out of my thoughts by a cold sense of dread as I heard the loud roar of an engine coming up the road. I’d been to this spot plenty of times at night with Trent and had never once seen another vehicle. The traffic seemed to loop around the other side of the hill—even Trent had said the same thing.

  My flight instinct kicked in when I saw a headlight and I stumbled a little as I started running for the woods—my panic doubling when I got to the path and realized how dark it was.

  I hated the dark, but I was more afraid of what Callahan’s thugs would do if they caught up with me.

  I was a few yards down the path when the sound of the engine died and I heard my name being called. I froze to the spot, cocking my head to the side and listening hard.

  “Ava!”

  “Trent,” I whispered, smiling as I spun around and ran back to the lot where Trent was frantically searching my abandoned car. “Trent!”

  He spun around to face me, the relief clear in his eyes and his shoulders slouching with it. I ran to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, unable to stop myself from smiling even though he chided me while he hugged me back.

  “You foolish girl. Where the hell is Aaron?”

  “Probably still sleeping in the hallway chair where I left him.”

  “Guess shopping for suits tuckered the boy out,” Trent joked, laughing when I smiled and nodded. He rested his cheek on the top of my head as he whispered, “But you’re not out of the woods yet, baby. You can’t pull shit like this just because you don’t like Aaron.”

  “That’s not why I did it. Dad and I got into a huge argument. I just needed to get away,” I explained, pulling back so I could look into his eyes as I narrowed mine suspiciously. “Wait. How did you even find me? Did he call you?”

  “I’m pretty sure he’d call the cops and everyone else on this planet before he’d call me. I’ve just been keeping an eye out.”

  “Is that code for watching me? But how? The house is swarming with security.”

  “I haven’t been watching you,” he said, smirking at my look of utter confusion as he toyed with the collar of my jacket. “Been watching the monitors. When I saw you head up this way—I knew you wouldn’t be bringing dipshit with you.”

  I still didn’t understand until he plucked something off my jacket and held it up to the moonlight. I had no idea what the little thing was until his comment about watching the monitors replayed in my memory.

  “Is that—You put a tracker on my jacket?”

  “Yeah. Your dad has one on your car and your phone, but those are the most obvious places. They’d be the first things a kidnapper would dispose of. But you seem to favor this jacket more than any others, so I tagged this and a few other things.”

  “Why would you—”

  “It’s my job to keep you safe, Ava.”

  “But you were fired.”

  “No, sweetness,” he whispered, staring down at me seriously as he said, “It’s my job to keep you safe. You’re still mine, aren’t you?”

  A slow smile spread across my lips as I realized that he had meant what he said when we parted. He had no intention of giving me up altogether—he really was just waiting for the right time.

  “Always.”

  The world seemed to shift into place the moment he grinned and bent down to capture my lips in a kiss filled with longing. I knew he could feel just how much I missed him by the way I clung to him like a life raft and I was ecstatic to feel the same emotions in return as he clutched at me.

  I was dizzy when he finally pulled away and swept the hair off my face. The move was surprisingly tender and I parted my lips to tell him how much I missed him, but he beat me to the punch.

  “I love you,” he said softly, smiling when I leaned my cheek into his palm. “I’m not going to let you get hurt and I’m not letting you go.”
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  “I love you, too,” I replied, smiling from ear-to-ear when he abruptly pulled me to him.

  We stood there holding each other for a long while, but the spell had to be broken eventually. I felt Trent tense just as I heard the sound of another engine and I pulled back just in time to see him frown in the direction of the road.

  “Get down,” he ordered as he ducked beside the car.

  I dropped to my knees beside him and waited while he peeked over the hood. The approaching vehicle got closer and closer, but I was too frozen to feel anything until I heard Trent curse under his breath and saw his hand slowly reaching for his gun.

  Then the panic set in and I clutched his arm, giving him a terrified look as the tires crunched over the gravel of the pull off.

  “Stay down,” he whispered quietly, waiting for my nod before he detangled my hand from his arm.

  He started creeping toward the back of the car as doors opened and slammed shut. I curled into a ball, holding my knees to my chest and wishing that I could bring myself to close my eyes. But I was too worried about Trent to tear them away from his form.

  “That it?”

  “Yeah. It’s the girl’s car.”

  The voices and footsteps started getting closer and I bit down on my lip to keep from screaming. Why in the hell had I left the house? I’d never forgive myself if Trent got hurt because of my stupidity.

  “Hold up! Who’s bike is that?”

  “It’s mine.”

  There was a chorus of surprised sounds—enough for me to guess that there were at least four men—and Trent stood up and fired his weapon without a second thought. I heard the pop of the gun muffled by a silencer followed by a masculine shout and a heavy thud.

  The others scrambled around and I slammed my eyes shut—listening to the shots being fired and praying that none of them hit Trent. Or me, for that matter.

  There was a sliding sound in the gravel dangerously close to my ear right before a hand clamped down tightly on my arm.

  “TRENT!”