The Enforcer - Kelli Callahan Page 0,26
guy chuckles “Sounds good. We’ll have it at the hotel in about twenty minutes,” he says
“Twenty minutes?” I confirm. “Alright, sounds good. You have a nice day.”
The man says, “You too.”
I hang up the phone, walk over to the adjoining door, and I try the handle. True to my request. It is not locked. I knock once and carefully open the door and peek in.
“Diana?” I call and there’s silence except for the sound of a shower running.
Maybe I should just back out, I try to tell myself. Instead I move further into the room, walking toward the bathroom door. I freeze as I see her reflection in the mirror beside me. She’s completely naked. Ever-classy Diana is equally stunning dripping wet without her usual styled bob and makeup.
My brain tells me to move. I need to duck out before she knows that I’m here and becomes self-conscious in this whole thing. Before it gets all the more awkward for everyone involved. But I can’t move away. I’m frozen, unable to tear my eyes from her. She’s breathtaking.
“Jake!” she yelps, jumping behind the door.
“Sorry Diana,” I say feeling like a peeping Tom crossed with a teenage boy. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to, I…”
I stumble walk into my bedroom, closing the adjoining door behind me. Jesus fucking Christ. How could that have happened? I groan, pressing my face into my hands. I rub my eyes trying to remove the image of her from them. The last thing I need to do is get involved with her at this level. I don’t even know if she’s interested. I hear the lock on the adjoining door click behind me, and I groan again
“Sorry!” I call again feeling all kinds of stupid. Fuck! If she were anyone else or this had been any other kind of situation, I would have had some smooth line like “Hey how about?” wink wink and that moment would have ended very differently but she’s not someone else.
Instead, I ran off like a fucking schoolboy. Christ. I haven’t been embarrassed like this since I was fifteen years old and I saw Michaela Watson skinny dipping in the river. She saw me, and of course I ran. Cringing at the memory I lay back on the bed. Try to see something else. To do anything else.
Noah. I’m gonna think about Noah. Thankfully, he got my message, and he will be driving to the border in a few hours. I’ll meet him there, and then we can get a handle on this. I have no idea how we’re going to possibly do that, of course. What do you do when you’re being chased by a man or woman, and you have no idea who they are, what they want, or just how long of a reach they have? How do you fight something that you can’t see?
Hearing the lock click on the adjoining room door, I don’t know whether I should be relieved or panicked that she’s coming to see me. Preparing for the worst. I sit up straight to face her.
“Diana,” I greet her.
“Hello Jake,” she says, stepping into the room in yoga pants and a Wyoming state t-shirt. “I assume you wanted to talk to me?” she asks.
“Yeah, I did. I just wanted to let you know that I ordered dinner, and it’ll be here soon.”
“Okay.” She nods, not meeting my eye.
I wonder if either of us are ready for this conversation. Maybe I will get lucky and she won’t want to discuss it at all.
“I ordered Supreme,” I supply, feeling lame. “But I also ordered a cheese pizza.” All I can do is look down at the ground then, feeling stupid.
“Look,” I say, rising from the bed and towering over her. “I’m sorry about just walking in earlier, and not running for the hills when you came out of the bathroom,” I say gesturing.
“That’s okay,” she says, with a nod. “I once walked in on you too.” She’s first to look away from me now.
“Did you?” I ask
“Last night I didn’t realize that the bedroom connected to the bathroom.”
“Oh,” I say, a little amused. “Did you run for the hill?” I ask.
“In a manner of speaking,” she says, colors flushing her cheeks as she turns away from me.
“That’s okay,” I say with a nod, then turn away from her too.
I can’t get sucked into her, sucked into this. I need to keep an emotional distance between the two of us. At least until she’s safe and I have