“Yeah, some of us have to work in the morning.” He stood up and stretched, his shirt riding up to show off his abs. He was in good shape, but nothing like Alec. I sighed, wondering if there would ever be a time that I wouldn’t be thinking of Alec. “Are you staying tomorrow or heading home?”
I shrugged. “Do you want me to leave?”
He sat down, one of his fingers brushing across my cheek. His eyes burned as he looked into mine intently. “I already told you, I would take you in a heartbeat. I wasn’t joking about that, Florrie. If this is where you want to be, then you’re always welcome here.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay here permanently, but for now, I would take the room he was offering. It was peaceful being here with him. There was no pressure to be tough around anyone, because Jamie already knew that I was tougher than he was. With him, I wasn’t the woman that had gone crazy and tried to kidnap her kid. I was just Florrie and he didn’t expect anything from me. If I was sad and thinking about what I had lost, he just sat with me. He didn’t bug me to talk, and he didn’t try to cheer me up with stupid crap. And when I was in the mood to talk about anything, he joined in like he was genuinely interested. Nothing was forced, and it was such a relief to have all that pressure off. And even though I knew that he was interested in me, this was the first time that he actually made any mention of it.
“I don’t know exactly what I want, but I want to stay.”
He grinned and kissed me on the cheek. “See you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINEAlec
I paced around the IT room, waiting for any information Rob could give me. She’d been gone a week. Every day, I waited for any sign of where she was, but we couldn’t find anything. She didn’t want me to know where she was. I was going out of my mind. What if she never came back? What if I had pushed her away for good with my stupid decisions? Sure, I had walked away because I was tired of chasing her. I was tired of being blamed for everything. But I thought we would take some space and eventually talk shit out. I didn’t think she would run.
“You know, the more pacing you do, the more you’re distracting me. Can’t you go shoot someone?”
“I don’t know anyone that needs to be shot,” I said irritatedly. “Why? Do you have someone in mind?”
“I wouldn’t mind shooting you right now,” he grumbled. “Look, she’s staying off the radar. Wherever she’s hiding, she doesn’t want to be found.”
“That’s bullshit. She didn’t just drop off the face of the earth. I know she’s trained and all, but there has to be some way that we can find out where she went.”
“She might have pulled a Cazzo, just took off and now she’s living under the stars.”
I snorted. “Florrie knows how to rough it, but I can guarantee that she’s not doing that for fun. She still likes her creature comforts.”
“Well, she’s not registered at any hotels, she’s not at any of our safe houses, and she hasn’t contacted her parents. She’s not using her phone and I can’t find her truck on any cameras. She’s in the wind, man.”
I couldn’t accept that. I knew I had fucked up majorly with Florrie, but I couldn’t let her go. I would beg on my fucking knees to get her back. I had been pissed that night and my pride had been hurt, but if I hadn’t just walked away, maybe things would have turned out differently. I should have tried harder. I should have fought to stay together instead of taking everything we had and destroying it.
“You know,” Rob drawled. “You’re overlooking one person in the place that is very good at locating people.”
“Who?”
“Who do you think, asshole? Who’s the one person around here that makes it his mission in life to stalk his-”
I was out the door before he could finish his thought. Of course, I should have thought of Knight sooner. He’s like the stalker whisperer or something, and even though I wasn’t too happy with him killing the senator, he had taken my side in the battle over Reid. He had some common sense and he was awfully good with his particular skill sets. Hell, I would crawl on my knees begging him if only he could help me find Florrie.
I raced down to the training center and burst through the doors, searching frantically for him. I glanced at my watch. It was eight o’clock in the morning. He should be here by now. I ran to his office and flipped on the light, thinking maybe he was hiding out or something, but he wasn’t there. I ran everywhere, asking anyone if they had seen him, but no one had.
“Pappy!” I shouted down the hall when I saw Hunter coming out of one of the locker rooms. “Have you seen Knight?”
“He’s not coming in today.”
“Why the fuck now?”
“Well, he said something about going to get his hair done and then he was going for a mani/pedi,” Hunter said sarcastically. “I don’t know. Knight doesn’t actually tell anyone anything.”
I growled in frustration and headed for the door.
“Where are you going? We’re supposed to train in fifteen!”
“I’m going to find Florrie!”
“It’s about time, asshole.”
I ran out of the building and jumped in my truck. If Knight wasn’t here, there was only one other place he could be. I drove like a maniac to his house, arriving just a few minutes later on the very edge of the property. His motorcycle was still outside, so he hadn’t gone anywhere. I ran to his door and banged as loud as I could.
He answered the door with his typical scowl, standing in front of
