Expired Getaway (Last Chance County #7) - Lisa Phillips Page 0,47

and the fact their daughter was happy and healthy and needed her mother in her life. Aiden was the best dad he could be, but Syd was six. Later, as she grew up, she would need certain guidance he couldn’t give her.

And she would always need her mother’s love.

She did that palm-to-the-forehead thing, so Aiden took a step closer to her. He’d like to offer a hug. But she had to make the first move if that was something she wanted. “We’ll find him. If he’s after you, then maybe you should stick around? Draw him out somehow, like with a cop who can be a decoy.”

“You think I’ll let someone else take the risk for me?”

Aiden shrugged even though he knew the answer. “We can minimize the danger here. If you leave, you’ll be alone with no backup. Can you guarantee you won’t end up with the same outcome as in the bathroom?” Not to mention that Clarke could have something much more major than a stun gun next time and kill her before he split.

She might be this great, trained operative. But right now, she was injured. And this whole thing hit her emotions deep. When he told her the truth about Sydney, it would all be a million times worse.

She stared at him.

Aiden couldn’t resist. He reached out and touched her cheek, then slid his fingers past her ear into her hair so that his palm rested on her cheekbone. “I want to help. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“And if something happens to you?” She grasped his forearm as though she didn’t want to push him away, but she tugged and he dropped his hand in response. “I’ll still walk away, only with the knowledge you’re lost to the people who care about you. The ones who—” She choked up a little. “—love you.”

“Like the way I was lost after you left?” Truth was, he’d been destroyed there for a while.

Pain lanced through her features, but she said nothing.

“If you tell me why you went, maybe I can understand why it was necessary for you to leave. Without even coming to tell me.” He knew he was pushing her. She could shut down instead of telling him what she’d started to tell him earlier, about the previous fire chief. But he had to know, or they would never be able to move on the way he wanted to.

Together.

Her phone rang. She looked at the screen and sagged against the wall in relief. “Sasha.” She put the phone to her ear. “Are you okay?”

He waited.

As soon as she looked at him and said, “Good. That’s good,” to her friend, he headed into the office with Ted.

Two steps in he wondered if she would stay. Or if he would go back to the hall to check on her, only to find her gone.

A shiver ran through him, and he glanced back. She was in hushed conversation with her friend. He had to trust her. They would get there. He believed in that, despite the niggle of doubt. But it would take time. Right now things between them were like a fragile bird.

He decided to trust her.

Ted hung up the phone. “My search was flagged by feds with their eyes on everything that has to do with the Capeiras. I refused to tell them who asked me to search, and it will stay that way without a court order. Or until your friend out there tells me otherwise.”

Aiden didn’t turn. Trust her.

“But they’re going to coordinate with Eric since he’s the boots on the ground in Last Chance right now.”

“As if his vacation wasn’t already ruined by getting shot. He’s probably raring to get to work on this, if only as payback for Clarke trying to kill him.” More than that, Aiden figured Eric wanted to put things right for his wife. Any man would if it was in his power—even if his wife might already be able to take care of herself.

Maybe that was why it hurt so much that Bridget had left him all those years ago. Sure, they’d been young. Barely more than children at the time, but old enough to change the course of their whole lives. Things hadn’t been long-term serious between them, just close. Building to…more. And yet, she hadn’t sought him out.

When push came to shove, she hadn’t trusted him.

She’d simply left.

Ted flipped hair back off his forehead. “This is a case now. They’ve been watching him for a while,