Chapter 7 - The First Real Kiss
“I am going to kill my grandmother.”
Nora had repeated the sentence six times.
Evan believed she meant it on at least four.
They were driving toward Magnolia Point in two vehicles, Caleb's security team following behind.
Nora sat beside Evan.
Rain hammered the roof.
“She let us believe she was kidnapped.”
“She was initially taken,” Evan reminded her.
“Then apparently escaped and decided the reasonable thing to do was team up with Miles.”
“Your grandmother's definition of reasonable appears flexible.”
“She learned that from being seventy-five.”
Evan almost smiled.
Nora looked toward him.
“You knew she was like this.”
“I've known her six hours.”
“She threatened to kill you.”
“That was early evidence.”
Despite everything, Nora laughed.
Then the laughter faded.
“What if she gets hurt?”
Evan tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“She won't.”
“You promised before.”
“I remember.”
She studied his profile.
“Do you make promises often?”
“No.”
“Why did you make one to me?”
He said nothing.
Nora waited.
“You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Become silent when the answer matters.”
“It's effective.”
“It's irritating.”
“That too.”
The road narrowed.
Industrial buildings appeared ahead.
Magnolia Point had been abandoned for nearly twenty years.
Warehouse Three stood closest to the water.
“Evan.”
“Yes?”
“Did you mean what you said?”
“Probably depends which thing.”
“At lunch.”
He knew immediately.
It started that way.
The fake relationship.
Nora's heartbeat increased.
“Did you mean it?”
Evan stared through the windshield.
“This is bad timing.”
“That means yes.”
“No, that means we're driving toward a potentially armed criminal organization.”
“So answer before we arrive.”
He exhaled.
“You're difficult.”
“So I've been told.”
His own words.
He looked at her.
She smiled faintly.
Evan lost.
“Yes.”
Nora swallowed.
“Yes what?”
“You know what.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
“You're enjoying this.”
“A little.”
Evan pulled the car beneath an overpass.
He stopped.
Security vehicles halted behind them.
Nora frowned.
“What are you doing?”
He turned toward her.
“When you walked into that café, I thought you were either insane or running some elaborate scam.”
“Romantic.”
“You asked for honesty.”
“Continue.”
“Then you laughed.”
“What about it?”
“It wasn't practiced.”
Nora became still.
“People practice around me.”
“Because they're afraid of you.”
“Sometimes.”
“And I wasn't?”
“You should've been.”
“I am now.”
Something tightened in his face.
“That's why this can't become anything.”
Nora's chest hurt.
“Because I'm afraid?”
“Because you should be.”
“You're deciding for me again.”
“Yes.”
“At least you're admitting it.”
“Nora.”
“You told me your past. You didn't lie.”
“I've told you about three percent of my past.”
“Then someday tell me four.”
His expression shifted.
That was the problem.
She said someday like she expected him to exist in her future.
Evan couldn't afford that.
“I don't do relationships.”
“I'm not proposing.”
“I don't do normal.”
“I hired a stranger for a thousand dollars this morning. My standards for normal are currently flexible.”
He laughed despite himself.
Nora smiled.
Then she became serious.
“Do you want to kiss me?”
Evan stared at her.
“This morning you asked if the fake girlfriend allowed it.”
“You remember.”
“I remember everything.”
“So?”
Rain surrounded them.
For once, Evan Cole had no useful answer.
Nora leaned slightly closer.
“I'm saying yes.”
That destroyed the last of his restraint.
Evan touched her face.
Slowly.
Giving her time to move.
She didn't.
Their first kiss was nothing like the teasing question in the café.
It wasn't dramatic.
It wasn't desperate.
It was careful.
Almost painfully careful.
Nora's fingers curled around the front of his jacket.
Evan pulled away first.
Their foreheads remained inches apart.
“That was a mistake.”
Nora opened her eyes.
“Terrible.”
“We shouldn't do it again.”
“Definitely not.”
Neither moved.
Nora whispered, “So why are you still holding my face?”
Evan immediately lowered his hand.
She laughed softly.
Caleb knocked on the window.
They jumped apart.
Evan lowered the glass.
Caleb stared forward with heroic determination not to smile.
“Sorry to interrupt the strategic planning.”
“Say another word and you're fired.”
“Been fired six times this year.”
“Seven.”
Nora covered her mouth.
Caleb finally smiled.
“We've got movement at the warehouse.”
The mood changed instantly.
Evan got out.
Nora followed.
“No.”
“You aren't leaving me in the car.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Grandma is inside.”
“And men with guns may also be inside.”
“My grandmother is seventy-five.”
“Exactly.”
“You clearly haven't met her.”
“Nora.”
She crossed her arms.
Evan closed his eyes.
Caleb whispered, “You won't win.”
“I know.”
They compromised.
Nora would remain in the second security vehicle while Evan entered.
She hated it.
But she agreed.
Warehouse Three was dark.
Evan and Caleb moved through a side entrance with four security men.
Inside, voices echoed.
Miles.
Eleanor.
And another man.
Adrian.
Evan approached silently.
Through an office window he saw them.
Eleanor sat in a chair.
Unbound.
Miles stood near the door.
Adrian Hale leaned against a metal desk.
He looked surprisingly ordinary.
Forty.
Gray coat.
Clean-shaven.
A face that could disappear inside any crowd.
Those were often the most dangerous men.
“You're making this unnecessarily complicated,” Adrian told Eleanor.
“At my age, complicated is entertainment.”
Adrian smiled.
“You remind me of Samuel.”
“That isn't a compliment coming from you.”
“You hated my father.”
“I feared him.”
“Same thing.”
“No. Fear means you still believe someone has power. Hatred means you've decided they don't deserve it.”
Adrian's smile faded.
Evan almost admired her.
Miles paced.
“We have the key. Let's find the vault.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“You're impatient.”
“My life is falling apart.”
“Perhaps because you've spent years arranging other people's.”
Miles flinched.
Adrian turned.
“Enough.”
He placed a gun on the desk.
Eleanor looked at it.
“Young man, if you intended to frighten me, you should know childbirth was worse.”
Adrian laughed.
Then lights flooded the warehouse.
Evan stepped forward.
“Move away from her.”
Miles turned.
Adrian didn't.
“I wondered how long.”
Evan approached.
His security team spread behind him.
“Let Eleanor leave.”
“I don't think so.”
“You're surrounded.”
Adrian smiled.
“Am I?”
A red laser appeared on Caleb's chest.
Then another.
Snipers.
Evan stopped.
Adrian gestured toward the ceiling.
“You should never enter a building without checking the roof.”
Caleb muttered, “Noted.”
Evan's eyes moved to Eleanor.
“You all right?”
“I'm annoyed.”
“Good.”
“I expected you ten minutes ago.”
Evan almost laughed.
Adrian touched the old map.
“Samuel's vault is beneath us.”
“Then dig.”
“I need the second key.”
Evan frowned.
“You have one.”
“There are two.”
Everyone looked at Eleanor.
She smiled.
“Samuel wasn't stupid.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere you'll never find.”
Miles suddenly looked toward the doors.
“What about Nora?”
Evan's face became cold.
Adrian noticed.
“There it is again.”
“What?”
“Concern.”
“You don't say her name.”
“Why?”
Adrian smiled.
“Because she's yours?”
Evan moved before anyone could stop him.
He crossed the distance and slammed Adrian against the desk.
Guns rose.
Caleb shouted.
“Evan!”
Adrian laughed despite the hand around his throat.
“Exactly like my father described.”
Evan's voice was barely audible.
“My mistake was letting your father live long enough to describe anything.”
A crash sounded outside.
Then gunfire.
Evan released Adrian and turned.
“Nora.”
He ran.
Caleb followed.
Outside, the second security SUV's door stood open.
One guard lay injured.
Another shouted into his radio.
Evan's world narrowed.
“Where is she?”
“They took her.”
“No.”
“Two men came from the south gate.”
Evan grabbed him.
“WHERE?”
“A black truck. Heading toward the river.”
Evan released him.
Caleb ran for the vehicle.
Behind them Adrian appeared in the doorway.
Smiling.
“Now we negotiate.”
Evan turned.
The expression on his face erased Adrian's smile.
“You just made the same mistake your father did.”
“What mistake?”
“You touched someone I consider mine.”
Miles closed his eyes.
Because he knew what came next.
Charleston had spent years whispering stories about Evan Cole.
Most were exaggerated.
Some were completely invented.
But the one thing every story agreed on was this:
Evan could forgive attacks on his money.
He could forgive attacks on his reputation.
Sometimes even attacks on himself.
But nobody touched someone under his protection.
And lived comfortably afterward.
Evan turned toward Caleb.
“Find Nora.”
Caleb nodded.
“What about Hale?”
Evan looked back at Adrian.
“Keep him breathing.”
Adrian laughed.
“You think this scares me?”
Evan stepped closer.
“No.”
His voice was calm again.
“That comes later.”
Miles watched him leave.
Then his phone vibrated.
A message from the men holding Nora.
One photograph.
Nora sitting inside a truck.
Alive.
Below it:
BRING EVAN'S LEDGER TO PIER NINE. ALONE.
Miles stared.
Pier Nine.
The place where everything had started six years ago.
May you like
Now it was where somebody intended to end it.
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