He was there.
Sean Price.
He had on a black light jacket, far too light for the weather, a red shirt, tattered jeans, and a smirk that expressed way too much confidence. Emily had her back to him, and I didn’t dare tell her that he was standing there.
And that smirk grew as he made eye contact with me.
It was so fucking creepy. The dial tone started on the phone, but it was like background noise to me as I just found myself looking at Sean. He was really there. There was guessing, no wild coincidences, no person he’d sent on his behalf.
That was the man that had stalked and almost ruined Emily, probably no more than thirty feet away.
“Kelly?”
Liam’s voice got me back to the present.
“Liam, we left the hospital.”
“Are you—”
“No, listen, it’s not safe there. We’re safest with you.”
“I’m not going to dive into this right—”
“Then tell us where to go, if not the hospital,” I said, “and somewhere not as private as the house. Since, obviously, Sean knew where I lived and almost burned it down.”
Liam groaned on the other end of the line. I looked back.
Sean had vanished.
“Get the top floor of a hotel or a motel. Not the one Emily and I stayed at before. If Sean knows where you lived, he’s probably figured out where she’s stayed too. And have one person on standby. You tell me as soon as you get there where you are so I can make regular check-ins.”
“Got it.”
“You should have stayed—”
“I’m a mother, Liam. I know what’s best for Charlotte.”
Not even DOM agent Liam could argue with that.
“Just be fucking careful,” he said before he hung up.
“Where to?” Emily asked.
I nodded toward a motel—the one where Liam and I had first hooked up, the one we’d had our big argument in, and now the one that would hopefully keep the three of us safe as we rode this out.
“Let’s hope this works,” I said.
Though only two stories, the motel did have a spare room in the far back corner on the second floor, as good a spot as we could have asked for. We weren’t a hundred percent safe here, but we were probably as safe as we were going to be right now. Emily and I both sat on the bed, Charlotte in my arms. Somehow, my arms never got tired carrying her.
“I’m exhausted,” she said.
“You at least slept.”
We laughed. It wasn’t much of a laugh, but it was a laugh nevertheless.
“Fair point,” she said. “We can take turns watching. I’ll go first since you didn’t sleep last night.”
I wasn’t about to disagree with that. But more than a nap, more than anything in the world, I just wanted a shower. I still smelled like smoke, and while it was probably too layered in me to get rid of it with a shower, at least I could do something to make myself feel clean.
I stood up, gave Charlotte to Emily, headed for the shower, turned on the hot water, took off my clothes, and stepped inside and just wanted to collapse in the tub.
Oh, heavens. What a fucking time. What a fucking time.
I was too tired to even be aroused by the thought of Liam, as handsome as he was. I had too much to worry about for sex to be on the mind, even when I was naked. But more than arousal, masturbation, or anything like that, I was just relieved to have hot water running over me and not having to do anything else.
I thought about Liam being out there, on the hunt for Sean. What was he doing? Talking to townsfolk? Intercepting texts somehow? Tracking Sean through good old-fashioned spying? It felt like the less I knew, the better it would be; if I tried to learn more, I might get myself involved in ways that would only be damaging in the long run.
For now, I just remained in that shower so long that the hot water started to fade. I figured Emily would get mad at me, but she’d understand. She’d just have to wait a little longer for the hot water to return. Besides, was she not standing guard for longer than ten, fifteen minutes?
In any case, I tried not to overthink it. I turned off the shower, almost feeling like removing the sound of gushing water was somehow an abrupt return to reality. It was silent in the room; neither of us were big TV watchers, and even if we were, I think we would have preferred silence so we could hear if someone were coming.
I grabbed a towel, wrapped it around my body, and realized the only clothes I had were the ones I’d worn. I was woefully unprepared for…whatever you would call this. Certainly not a staycation.
But at least I felt cleaner.
I put my clothes on, dried my hair as best as I could, and stepped outside to see—
Fuck. No.
“That was quite the shower you took.”
Sean.
“I suggest you throw on a jacket if you have one. We’re going someplace a bit colder than this.”
Chapter 22: Liam
Trying to find Sean Price might as well have been like trying to find the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot. It didn’t much matter how many people swore he existed; he either wasn’t here or he was much, much smarter than we were thinking.
Burke and I had split our duties, him moving on foot, me moving through my vehicle. Burke had studied the photo of Sean well enough to pick him out of a police lineup, so it wasn’t like he could have missed him. I guess when you went for someone that had experience like he did,
