Colton's Deadly Trap, page 23
Orlie frowned at him. “Well, I don’t know who’d have told you all that bunk, but I’m telling you, we haven’t had any break-ins since I’ve worked here. Someone’s got their wires crossed. Anythin’ else?”
Max’s heart was pounding. Thoughts were screaming across his mind. “No, nothing else. Thank you.”
He pushed his way out of the management office and got Laura on the phone.
“Hi, how is she?”
Max’s voice was grim. “She’s missing.”
“What?”
“The condo manager said she never called Alexis. There haven’t been any break-ins at the condos.”
Laura gasped. “Do you think the stalker has her?”
Max thought of the broken bracelet in his shorts pocket. “I know she does. I need to find her.”
“Wait.” Laura’s voice was breathless. “We gave each other permission to use the locator app to find our phones.”
“Thank goodness.” Max climbed back into the jeep.
“Come on. Come on.” Laura spoke under her breath. “Got it! I’ll text her coordinates to you and Noah. Max, please find her.”
“I will.” His words were an oath and a prayer.
Chapter 18
“Sarah! What are you doing?” Max raced through the trees into the clearing.
The scene unfolding in front of his eyes had been pulled from his worst nightmare. Alexis knelt at the end of a cliff. Max knew a rock-filled river lay at its base. She’d been gagged. Duct tape bound her arms behind her back. Sarah stood over her. She held a gun against the back of Alexis’s head.
Max had never known he could be terrified and enraged at the same time. He drew a deep breath to settle his nerves. The solid scents of desert foliage and red dirt steadied him. What was he supposed to do? Culinary school didn’t offer classes on de-escalating hostage situations. Frantic, he searched his mind for a plan. Two things were helping him keep it together. The first was his love for Alexis. He needed this woman in his life. The second was the knowledge that Noah was on his way. If he could keep Sarah talking until the cavalry arrived, Alexis would get out of this alive
“Sarah!” He called to her again as he ran toward her and Alexis. “What are you doing?”
“Max?” Sarah jerked Alexis to her feet. “Why are you here, Max?”
Alexis struggled to get her feet under her. Max gritted his teeth at Sara’s continued mistreatment of her. Her gold pantsuit was torn and covered in dust as though she’d fallen several times during the hike to this area. Her arms and cheeks were scratched. One of her shoes was missing.
“You know why I’m here.” Max walked closer. Only thirty yards separated them now. But it was still too far. He had to get a better look at Alexis. Was that a bruise on her jaw?
Sarah’s smile was bitter. “Oh, I get it. You’re here for me. Right? Because you care so much about me. Because I’m the one you really love. And I was wrong to think you were in love with Alexis.” Her words taunted him. “Were you going to use that script, Max?”
“No, Sarah.” Max clenched his fists at his sides. “I’m here for Alexis. Let her go!”
“No!” Sarah growled the word in a voice Max didn’t recognize. “Why should I let her go? Why do you care about her and not me?”
“For one thing, she wouldn’t try to kill the woman I love.” Max paced forward. In his peripheral vision, he saw Alexis look at him as though surprised, but he couldn’t think about that now.
Sarah held the gun in the air and pulled the trigger. “Don’t come any closer or the next one won’t be a warning shot.”
Max’s temper spiked in equal measure to his fear. “What do you want, Sarah? Why are you doing this?”
I can’t keep her talking for much longer. Where is Noah?
“Why am I doing this?” Sarah screeched. “This isn’t my fault. This is your fault. I did everything for you! Everything! I kept your schedule. I brought your supplies. I made your appointments. You said I was indispensable.”
Max frowned. “That was your job, Sarah. You got paid to do those things.”
She ignored him. “I even ended my marriage for you. And for what? So you could spend time with some cheap woman you got from that resort?” Sarah waved the gun toward Alexis.
Max’s heart nearly stopped. His eyes flew to Alexis. She was glaring at Sarah. She must have realized as Max had that Sarah was indeed the person behind the defamatory video.
They could deal with that later. For now, Max needed to know that she was all right. “Put the gun down, Sarah. Now. And let Alexis go.” He was so angry. And so afraid. He wasn’t doing this right.
Dear God, please don’t let me get Alexis killed.
“I will not.” Her voice was thick with hatred. “You betrayed me.”
“If you think I betrayed you, then deal with me and let Alexis go. Take me!” Max saw Alexis’s eyes widen. He heard her voice in his head, Are you crazy?
“Maybe I should kill both of you.” Sarah’s smile was mean.
Max was winging this. “That would be in keeping with your deceit.”
“What?” Sarah lowered the gun. “How have I deceived you?”
Max walked forward. “You claim to love me, but you don’t. You love The Celebrity Chef. You love the fame and fortune. The perks that come with the persona. But you don’t know anything about Max.”
“That’s not true.” She waved the gun at him. “I’ve read every interview about you. I know everything there is to know about you.” Sarah pointed the gun at the sky and fired another bullet. “Stop! Moving!”
Max stopped. “You know everything about me? Then tell me, why did I become a chef?”
Sarah frowned. “You already know why you became a chef.”
Max spread his arms. “I want to hear it from you.” Please, God, let this work.
Sarah looked at Alexis, then back to Max. “You became a chef because you wanted to open a restaurant.”
“That’s not true.” Max shook his head. “So you see? You don’t love me. You only think you do. Let Alexis go.”
“I do love you!” Sarah screamed. “Why won’t you believe me?”
“Police! Freeze!” Noah’s voice carried from the tree line behind Max. It was loud and firm.
Max heard the detective’s footsteps as he ran forward to join him. Relief lifted the weight from Max’s back. He started to turn toward Noah, but Sarah’s scream distracted him.
“Why won’t you believe me?” She pointed her gun at him.
Before Max or Noah could react, Alexis launched herself at Sarah, knocking her to the ground as the gun went off.
The sound of that discharge would feature in Max’s night terrors for years.
“Alexis!” Max charged toward her. Her body was so still as she lay on top of Sarah.
Max dropped to his knees beside her as Noah reached Sarah. The detective pulled Sarah out from under Alexis and took her into custody.
“Alexis. Sweetheart, are you all right?” Max searched her for injuries. He found scratches and bruises, but no bullet wounds. Thank God.
Alexis was trying to talk through the duct tape Sarah had used to gag her.
“Sweetheart, this is going to hurt.” Max took a corner of the tape with his still-shaking fingers and pulled as fast as he could.
“Ow.” Alexis gasped. Her hands flew to her face to rub her cheeks. She scowled at Max. “I said, please take me home.”
Noah returned, hunkering down beside them. He held up a retracting knife. “What say we cut you loose first.”
Max turned to him. “Thank you, Noah. For everything.”
Noah smiled at him as he cut Alexis free. “I think Alexis is the one you should thank. She saved your life.” He straightened and disappeared.
Max helped Alexis to stand. “Alexis.” He had no other words.
She cupped the side of his face. “You came for me. Thank you.”
Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her to his lips and kissed her until their fears drained away.
Chapter 19
“When I heard your voice shouting at Sarah, I wanted to cry with relief.” Alexis shivered at the memory. Max tightened his arms around her. “But at the same time, I wanted to scream at you to run away. I didn’t want you putting yourself in danger. Again.”
“There was no way I was leaving without you.” Max could no longer even imagine a life without her. They sat wrapped in each other’s arms on Alexis’s love seat Monday evening.
He gently took Alexis’s small, pointed chin, turning her face into the light so he could better see the bruise on her jawline.
“Sarah was freakishly strong.” Alexis sounded tired. “And she’d become unhinged. I wonder what led to that.”
“I don’t know if we’ll ever learn the answer.” Max felt a wave of sadness. Had she always been troubled? If so, why hadn’t he noticed it during the two years they’d worked together.
Alexis’s condo was eerily quiet in the aftermath of the parade of family and friends who’d come to check on her once they’d heard about her kidnapping. The well-wishers included her mother and her aunt Suz, Jake, Laura, Adam, Joshua, Roland, Clarissa and a number of other Mariposa colleagues. Some had brought flowers, cards or candies. A couple of people had shown up with burgers and fries.
Max put his arms around Alexis again, careful not to hurt her. Her body was soft and warm against his, reassuring him she was real, and she was here. “I’ve never been so afraid in my life as I was when I saw Sarah holding that gun on you and realized she planned to throw you over the cliff.”
Alexis shivered again in his embrace. “And I’ve never been so afraid as I was when I heard you offer to take my place.” She tilted her head up to hold his eyes. “Please don’t ever do that again.”
“Hopefully, I’ll never have another opportunity.” Max kissed the top of her head. He kept touching and kissing her. Was he comforting her or himself?
“I’d hoped once the case was solved, everything would return to normal.” Alexis drew a shaky breath. “But I have a feeling I won’t feel normal for a while.”
“Neither will I. But we’ll get through this together.” Max caught his breath at the hope in Alexis’s eyes.
She raised her arm and stroked a finger down the right side of his mouth. “I hope it won’t be too long before I see that dimple again.” Her words made him smile. “Ah. There it is.”
He kissed her forehead. “Your wish is my command.”
Silence lingered over them for moments. It felt comfortable to lean on each other as they sank into their own thoughts.
Alexis sighed. “Max?”
“Hmm?”
“When Sarah asked why you loved me and not her, you said because I wouldn’t try to kill the woman you love.”
Max’s muscles tensed in preparation for her obvious question. He prompted her when she remained silent. “That’s right.”
Alexis cleared her throat. “Did you say that because you were trying to save my life, or did you say that because you’re in love with me?”
Max shifted to face her. His arms were cold without her in them, so he took her hands. “Alexis Reed, I fell in love with you the first moment I met you. Like a fool, I didn’t want it to be true. I should have been smart enough to realize it without your being in a life-or-death situation.” He paused to help Alexis wipe the tears from her cheeks. Were those tears of joy or regret? He grasped his courage in both hands and continued. “You once said the two of us want different things. I don’t think that’s true. I think we want the same thing—to be together. And we’re the kind of people when we want something, we make it happen. Alexis, I’ve never wanted anything more than to have you in my life.”
Alexis gave a watery laugh. “I confess, I don’t think I fell in love with you in the first moment we met, but I fell pretty quickly.”
Max kissed the back of her right hand. “I know how much you love Sedona.”
“And I know your family, home and work are all in New York.” She sounded disappointed.
Max smiled. “My family could come to visit. In fact, my mother’s excited to spend time at Mariposa. And although my work is primarily in New York, that doesn’t mean it can’t be moved, at least temporarily.”
Alexis gave him a curious smile. “What are you saying?”
“The producers have agreed to film the second season of Cooking for Friends here in Sedona.”
Alexis’s eyes widened. “They did?”
Max nodded. “I floated the idea to them a couple of days after the shooting, when I realized I’d fallen in love with you.”
Alexis gasped with pleasure. She launched herself into his arms and covered his face with kisses in between exclamations of joy. “This is so wonderful. My mother will be thrilled. I can’t believe you’d do something like this. Did you do this just for me?”
Max smiled into her eyes. “I did this for us.” He grew serious. “You’re my heart. You’re my world. You’re the one I want standing beside me in good times and in bad. I would change my life to be with you, Alexis.”
Alexis wiped the tears from her eyes. “Maxwell Powell III.” She paused when he chuckled. “You’re everything to me. And I would willingly change my life to be with you, including eating itty-bitty food on great big plates.”
“Now, that’s love.” Max pressed his lips to hers and tasted their forever.
* * * * *
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Chapter 1
Five years behind bars for something he hadn’t done could have made Josh Stafford incredibly bitter. But he was the one who’d turned the proverbial key in his own cell door and thrown it away, along with everything else from his old life. Everything that had mattered to him.
But he was out now, for the past few months, with a second chance and a new career in security with the Payne Protection Agency. The picture on his security badge, which was clipped to his pocket, didn’t look that different than his prison ID. Same dark hair worn a little too long, same scruff on his face, same dark eyes that had seen too much over the past five years but hadn’t seen enough before that. While the Kozminski brothers, who ran the branch of the agency Josh worked for, had given him a second chance to prove that he was trustworthy and honorable, he didn’t expect anyone else to give him one.
And so he’d opted to keep his distance from the new client the agency had just taken on.
The work he did to protect Croft Custom Jewelry, he did at night when nobody would see him guarding the perimeter, but he would see if anyone tried to break into the building to steal anything. While at first he’d been apprehensive to be anywhere around her again, he was glad he’d been assigned to her family business because all he’d ever wanted to do was keep her safe.
All he’d ever wanted to do was keep everyone he cared about safe. That was why he’d taken the blame all those years ago even though he hadn’t committed the crime.
But that was all in the past, and there was no sense looking back. He could only look forward. At the moment, though, he was looking down as he climbed the stairs to his apartment on the fourth floor. The building, which had once been a school in downtown River City, Michigan, had no elevator. Ordinarily Josh didn’t mind having to walk up all those flights. The stairwell was wide with terrazzo flooring and steps and concrete block walls. Because he was so damned tired, he had to watch where he was going to make sure he didn’t trip and fall.
But as tired as he was, he wasn’t eager to go to sleep because he always saw her then…in his dreams. That was the only way he’d seen her for the past five years. And it was the only way he intended to see her now because he couldn’t meet up with her in person, not after how badly he’d hurt her. The nicest thing he could probably do for her was to never see her again.
Which was not going to be a problem since she had tried only once over the past five years to visit him. And that had been at the very beginning of his sentence.
He released a ragged sigh that echoed off the concrete walls of the empty stairwell. Since it was daytime, most of the other tenants were probably at work or school. Finally, he reached his floor and opened the steel door to the hall, and that silence stretched like a cocoon around him. Until he stepped into the hall, and the door slammed shut behind him, the sound jarring and unexpected, like a gunshot.
Nobody had been in the stairwell besides him, so there must have been some kind of air flow issue that made it slam, like a door opening on another floor or maybe one on this floor.
Definitely this floor.
As he approached his door, he noticed that it was open and swinging slightly in the splintered frame, the dead bolt banging against the damaged wood trim. Someone had broken into his place.
A laugh bubbled up the back of his throat. Why the hell would someone break into his apartment? He had nothing to steal. The only piece of furniture he owned so far was a bed. Actually, it was just the king-size mattress and box springs sitting on the floor of the one bedroom. And if the thieves had managed to carry that thing down four flights of stairs, they’d just about earned it.
But what if they weren’t after something to steal?
What if they were after him?
He reached for his weapon. It wasn’t a gun. Not yet. But a lawyer, actually the River City district attorney, was working on getting his gun rights restored. In the meantime, he carried a can of pepper spray, which had also required special approval for an exemption.
Maybe if he’d considered some of the consequences of taking the blame…but there would have been more consequences if he hadn’t. So he wouldn’t have done anything differently.
But he might not be able to say the same this time as he edged closer to his damaged door. Because his can of mace wouldn’t be much protection against a gun.
