Page 22 of Love Me Gently

Back down the hall in my four-bedroom split-level home, I headed straight to the kitchen and began cleaning up. There were three bedrooms upstairs, one larger one downstairs that held a guest bed and dresser for the occasional visitors and my workout equipment. The rest of the downstairs had a full bath and a large playroom-slash-theater room. The girls shared one of the larger bedrooms upstairs for now, but eventually I knew they’d want their own, so it was set up as my office.

As soon as I stepped foot in this house when Marie and I split I knew it was perfect for me and the girls. We could do all our daily living on one floor, which meant the girls were kept close to me at night, but they had their privacy to run and play downstairs. And when I didn’t have them and wanted guys over to watch a game, the ninety-six-inch projector screen I had downstairs was perfect. Also, the girls were small enough that after I had it installed, they lost theirmindswhen we started watching their favorite movies on it.

I was loading the dishwasher and wiping down the counters when my work cell phone rang with an unknown call. My brows pinched, considering I rarely had calls it from someone I didn’t know, but I couldn’t ignore it, either.

“Detective Cole Paxton,” I said as I answered the phone.

“Wow, you are even more handsome on the phone,” a woman replied.

My spine jolted straight, and my hand clenched the phone tighter. “Excuse me?”

“Valerie Sutton,” she said. “We met last month when you were in Georgia. Briefly.”

Like I could forget. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Trina since that day. I’d tried to push her out of my mind and get back to real life as soon as I returned, but whenever I had a slow moment, I was researching Jonathan, trying to findanythingI could on him. Every time I blinked, I saw the bruise on Trina’s face.

The fact that he was as rich as he was, and I couldn’t findanythingwas suspect in itself. Call me paranoid, but I’d seen a lot in my day, and the fact there wasn’tanything, not even a hint of a scandal as he gathered his millions, made me question who he had in his pocket to scrub his history so pristine it shined like crystal.

“I remember. How can I help you?”

“It’s not me who needs help, Mr. Paxton.”

Blood rushed to my ears as her tone changed. “Cole. What’s going on?”

“I heard you tell Katrina you’d be there to help if she needs it.”

“I did.”

“Did you mean it?”

“Absolutely. What happened?” My tone was getting sharper, but it had nothing on the anger starting to boil my veins.

“I can’t say much, and I’ll need to hang up soon, but she’s at Atlanta Community Hospital. She needs to get free, and right now the only way we can think of is if you’re the man she told me you were.”

The man she told me you were.It confirmed Trina had talked about me.IknewValerie recognized me last month.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Come get her before Jonathan has her sent out of state to another hospital. Or out of the country. But Cole?”

“What?” I was already mentally packing and planning calls.

Shit. The girls were here.

My mom would come. Marie would come back.

I’d figure it all out, but nothing was stopping me from doing this.

“Get here quick.”

“As fast as I can, I’ll be there.”

“You better…considering it was your business card that landed her here.”

The call ended and I didn’t hesitate. Didn’t even question it. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she meant.

Jonathan found the card and lost hismindon his wife.

I’d shoot him myself if I could. Happily. And without remorse.

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