Jennifer Estep - By a Thread

Restless, I picked up my cell phone and hit one of the numbers in the speed dial. He picked up on the third ring.

“Hello?” Owen Grayson’s deep voice rumbled through the receiver.

“Hi, it’s Gin,” I said, even though he knew my voice as well as I did his.

“Hey.” Warmth immediately filled his tone. “How are you? I just got done talking to Finn. He told me that you and Bria had a run-in with some local muscle earlier.”

“You might say that.”

I told Owen what had taken place tonight, starting with Pete and Trent showing up at Callie’s restaurant and threatening her and ending with Bria and me dumping the four men’s bodies into the palm-tree-shaped pool at the Blue Sands hotel.

Owen chuckled at that. “You know, you’re going to give the pool boy a heart attack in the morning when he goes out to clean the filters.”

I joined in his laughter. “I know.”

We fell silent, but it wasn’t an awkward, uncomfortable pause. It was one of the many things I loved about Owen. He didn’t rush to fill in the empty spaces but was content to just let them—and me—be when I needed him to.

“So why did you really call?” Owen finally asked in a soft voice. “I can tell that there’s something else going on besides Bria’s friend being threatened. I can hear it in your voice. Something’s bothering you.”

Owen and I had only been together for a few months, but he could read me better than almost anyone else could, even Finn sometimes. I’d told Owen everything—except for the fact that I’d also run into Donovan tonight.

I was still trying to figure out how I felt about seeing the detective again. Oh, I didn’t love him, not like I did Owen, but Donovan and I had shared something once upon a time, even if it had been only for a little while. It was hard to ignore the echoes of the old feelings and memories in my heart, even though I knew that what I felt for Owen was much, much deeper and that he was far more important to me than Donovan had ever been.

“I called because I wanted to hear your voice,” I murmured. “I needed to hear it. Being on vacation is . . . harder than I thought it would be.”

“How so?”

I rubbed the spider rune scar on first one palm, then the other, struggling to put my feelings into words. “Because I don’t seem to be very good at it. We haven’t even been gone a day, and it feels like I’m right back where I started. Like I never even left Ashland and the bad guys behind. I was looking forward to relaxing. And I tried today—I really did. I let Bria drag me around all afternoon, and I even oohed and aahed over tacky T-shirts and cheap seashell necklaces just like you’re supposed to when you’re on vacation. Can you believe that? I don’t think I’ve ever oohed and aahed in my entire life.”

Owen laughed again.

“What? It’s not funny,” I grumbled. “It’s downright embarrassing.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” I could hear the smile in his voice through the phone. “This too shall pass.”

“I know, I know. It’s just a long weekend, and I’ll make the best of it. But then there’s Bria,” I said, finally focusing on what was really bothering me.

“What about Bria?”

I sighed. “She loves it down here, Owen. She absolutely loves it. You should have seen her face today. Other than the visit to the cemetery, she was so happy, especially when we first walked into the Sea Breeze and she saw Callie again. I keep forgetting that this was her home for so many years, that she had friends and a job and a life down here. Part of me wonders if she regrets leaving all of that behind to move to Ashland. To find me. Because, let’s face it, things haven’t exactly been easy for either one of us these last few months.”

“Just give it some time,” Owen said. “Bria’s only been back in your life for a few months. The two of you are still getting to know each other. There’s bound to be an adjustment period as you both figure out what kind of relationship you can and want to have, especially now that Mab isn’t around to constantly be a threat to both of you.”

“Yeah, but so far, I don’t think that Bria likes what she sees very much. I wanted this vacation to be stress- and bad-guy-free so we could finally have a chance to connect with each other, but it looks like it’s going to be anything but that.”

We fell silent again. Outside, the waves continued to crash into the shore, while the moon slowly sank toward the ocean, making the frothing water glimmer with a pale, ghostly light.

“You know, if I left now, I could be down there just after sunrise,” Owen murmured in a low, sexy tone. “You, me, a deserted beach. The possibilities are endless.”

Liquid heat flooded my veins as I pictured the two of us rolling around in the sand together, the sea spraying over us as we made love, Owen’s hands moving up and down my body, even as mine did the same to his. “Mmm. Tempting. Very tempting.”

“But?”

“But you’d have a hell of a time dragging Finn out of bed tonight. He tends to whine whenever his precious sleep is interrupted. I already woke him up once. I wouldn’t want you to have to listen to him bitch for the next several hours.”

Owen laughed again. “It would be worth it for you, Gin. Besides, I’m sure I could find some duct tape somewhere here in the house. A couple of pieces of that would take care of even Finn’s whining.”

I smiled. Whether we were having a simple conversation about nothing important or discussing something as deep and convoluted as my feelings toward my sister, Owen always knew exactly what to say to make me feel better.

“I don’t know,” I drawled. “Finn’s got an awfully big mouth. I don’t think that just one roll of duct tape would do it.”

Owen laughed again.

We flirted with and teased each other for a few more minutes before the conversation wound down. We paused again, and I thought once more about telling Owen about Donovan and how the detective had suddenly reappeared in my life. But that would lead to another conversation about my gnarled, knotted feelings, and I felt like I’d already exposed enough of my doubts, insecurities, and vulnerabilities to Owen. I’d never considered myself a coward, but I just didn’t have the balls to get into my history with Donovan. Not tonight.

“I love you,” Owen finally said.

“I love you too,” I whispered back, and hung up.

I put the phone down on one of the coffee tables, but instead of going to bed like I should have, I sat there in the dark and stared out at the ocean, wondering what new troubles the sunrise would bring with it.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully, and Friday morning dawned clear, bright, and hot. By the time Bria and I left the rented beach house to drive over to the Sea Breeze, the temperature had already climbed into the lower eighties, and the stifling humidity made it seem ten degrees warmer than that. I spotted a few people moving in and around the other houses farther down the street as folks gathered up their chairs, blankets, umbrellas, coolers, and sunscreen for a day at the beach, but nobody showed any interest in us that they shouldn’t have.

As powerful and connected as Dekes was, he and his men hadn’t tracked us from the hotel last night. I hadn’t expected them to, given my alias, but it was nice to know that we were in the clear—at least for now. I had no doubt that the bodies in the hotel pool had been found by this point. I didn’t know exactly how Dekes would react to the death of his men, whether he would rage and scream or quietly, coldly plot out his payback, but I’d have my guard up, just like I always did.

Bria and I got into Finn’s busted-up convertible and headed for the Sea Breeze. I thought that the car might get a few strange looks with its cracked windshield, ripped seats, and dented hood, but Bria parked it in a far corner of the lot next to a few junked pickup trucks, and it blended right in.