Page 199 of Forever Never
“You make it damn hard to say no to,” he said, rising to his full height before dropping a kiss on the top of her head.
“I like that about me,” she whispered.
“So do I, baby. But the answer’s still no. When this is over. When you and Camille are safe.”
She looked up at him. Into those fierce blue eyes. The set of his jaw.
“Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“For keeping not just me but also my friend safe. For opening your home to my sister and her kids. For not biting your dad’s head off when he delivered my friend to me. For being happy for your brother and your ex-wife. Brick Callan, you sure know how to make a girl feel safe and special.”
He was a protector by nature. A big, burly, broody man whose only goal was to keep his loved ones safe and happy. And Remi was going to spend the rest of her life loving the ever-loving hell out of him.
“This is Chief Ford,” Darlene said, her cop voice carrying through the open office door. She waved at both of them, summoning them. Brick dragged Remi along behind him, positioning himself in the door with her at his back.
Remi peeked around the massive man mountain, wondering what threat lay within that had his hackles raised.
“I see,” Darlene said, her voice clipped. Remi recognized that tone. It was theI’m very disappointed and very, very angry voice. Someone somewhere was ass-deep in trouble.
“And how in the hell did that happen?” her mother asked, tapping out a staccato beat with a pen against her desk.
Brick swore under his breath.
She slammed the receiver back into its cradle and, in a moment of uncharacteristic rage, hurled her stapler at the wall of filing cabinets in front of her. “Son of a bitch!”
“What happened?” Remi demanded to Brick’s back.
“How did it go down?” he asked.
“The PD had intel that he was in his office this morning. The uniforms showed up and found his office cleared out. His computer gone. Half his files shredded. He was nowhere to be found.”
“Someone tipped him off.” Brick’s tone was colder than the sleet coating the station windows.
“Looks that way. I warned them. I told them to keep it under their fucking vests. But he still made them look like kids playing Nancy Drew,” Darlene said, standing up to pace.
“What happens next?” Remi asked, pressing her face between Brick’s hulking bicep and the door frame.
“Next, those bozos try to save face and search the greater Chicago area for him. They’re checking on his plane right now. Knocking on the doors of some of his associates.”
“They’re not going to find him,” Remi said, feeling an icy dread settle in her chest.
Her mother’s desk phone rang again. “What?” she snapped as a greeting. “Mexico? Can’t you turn it around?”
Remi slunk away from her mother’s office and wandered back to Brick’s desk.
She felt his calming presence behind her a moment later. “This isn’t something for you to be concerned about, Remi.”
“I know,” she said.
“I’ll protect you. I won’t let that son of a bitch anywhere near you or Camille. Or anyone else on this island.”
“I know,” she said again.
He was silent for a long beat, and she felt the weight of his gaze on her. “However,” he began.
She closed her eyes.
