Tearing Down Walls (Love Under Construction Series Book 2) (30 page)

“They’re moving us all back, sweetie. Stay on the phone with me.” Vic’s heart was slamming inside his ribcage. Anything they said to each other in that moment might be the last time they heard the other’s voice, and Vic couldn’t stand it. “Laura, I . . .”

A radio crackled. “All personnel maintain your positions. The device is exiting the building in three, two, one . . .” Vic and Bryson looked up to see the robot roll out of the building toward the bomb disposal vehicle. As it rolled up the ramp and deposited its deadly cargo into the containment device, Vic took a deep breath and let out a huge sigh.

“Honey, it’s in the containment device.” He looked to Bryson, who nodded. “You guys can come out. It’s okay.”

“They’ve got it. We can go,” Laura told Steve, who looked like he was about to pop an artery.

He slumped in the desk chair, then turned to her and said, “I need a good stiff drink. Let’s go find one, shall we?”

“Yeah, let’s,” she agreed. “Louisville’s finest is all over this block. If the bar next door is open, that’s the best place in the world.” Before they could make it to the elevator, they heard a muffled “bang.” “You realize they just detonated it, right?” she asked in a whisper as Steve hit the “down” button on the elevator.

“Better there than here,” Steve mumbled as they rode down.

They think they’re so smart,
Wagner thought as he watched the goings-on through binoculars from an empty apartment down the block where he’d picked the lock and let himself in.
I hope she’s getting the message. I’ll eventually get her, and probably sooner than later. Wonder what lame idea they’ll come up with next?
He looked down at the device in the bag beside him.
You’ll lead me right to you, Billings, and you’ll be too stupid to even know it.

His phone rang and he looked at it, then answered, “What the hell do you want?”

“Does he have something going on with her? Because I see him down there with the cops.”

“Hell, I don’t know and I don’t care. I’m not interested in what he’s doing. I’m just interested in taking her out.”

“Good. Then I don’t need to worry about it, do I?” He could all but see the smirk on her face.

He voice was the hiss of a viper. “No. You don’t. And unless you have something to share with me, don’t call me again.”

“What now?” Vic asked Steve. They sat across the table in a big booth, and Laura sat beside Vic. He fought the urge to take her hand or put his arm around her. If the radio hadn’t interrupted him, he would’ve told her how he felt about her, but he hadn’t gotten the chance.
For the best,
he told himself.

José and Peyton had joined them, and both shook their heads. “I don’t know what to do at this point,” Steve told Vic. “There doesn’t seem to be anywhere she can go that he can’t find her. I don’t understand how he’s doing it, but he is.”

Peyton pointed at Vic. “What about Molly’s? Get an answer from her?”

“Yes. Molly said bring her on.” Vic was more than exasperated.

Steve stopped, then looked at Laura, who’d been silent and staring at her hands in her lap the entire time they’d been talking. “Butler, what do you think?”

It seemed like forever before she lifted her head and. “I think we’re just wasting our time. Just take me home and leave me there.”

“That will not happen.” Vic’s voice was more than firm; it was downright scary. “Molly’s may only be a temporary answer. But we will not, I repeat,
we will not
let you go. So you can just forget that idea.”

“Whatever,” Laura said and went back to staring at her hands.
This is so stupid. He’s going to kill me and they can’t stop him.

“Well, I for one am beat, but I’ve got to go and see if I can find out how he got into the building and all the way up to my apartment with
no one
stopping him. I feel a firing coming on. If she can go to Molly’s, see if Tony can help us with some mix-it-up transportation. We’ll go from there.” Steve looked at Laura again. “Laura,” Steve said, then waited. “Laura, you in?”

“Sure. Whatever,” she said just like before, her voice hopeless and tired. Vic could feel her giving up. He’d never tell her, but he was afraid she’d been right all along. It was just a matter of time before Wagner got her.

Vic headed back to Lexington; they’d already decided having him in the mix would’ve been too obvious, since he lived farthest away. When he’d told Laura simply, “We’ll talk soon,” she’d just nodded without looking up.

They all met at two o’clock in the parking garage of Steve’s building, and Laura got into a car with one of Tony’s employees, someone Wagner wouldn’t know. Tony had sent five employees in five different kinds of vehicles so that Wagner wouldn’t be able to tell who they were or what they were doing. Laura wound up on the floorboard of a pickup truck with a guy named Floyd driving, and they headed for Molly’s in Lexington with orders for her to stay down for the entire ride.

“W
hat’s the point?” Laura mumbled to herself as she tried to put the few things she’d brought into the dresser drawer that Molly had pointed out to her. Floyd had driven her straight to Molly’s and, to his knowledge, they hadn’t been followed.

Molly must’ve heard her grumbling because she came to the door and said, “Hey, need anything? Getting settled?”

“I’m sorry,” Laura said, giving Molly a weak smile. “I do appreciate you taking me in. I’m just tired of running. I just want to go out into the middle of the street and yell, ‘Hey, asswipe, here I am! Come and kill me!’ But nobody will let me do that.”

“They all love you. They want to keep you safe.” Molly reached into Laura’s suitcase and took some things out, stacking them on the bed for her. “If anything happens to you, well . . .”

“Well what? Why would they even care? I’ve been terrible to them all for years now. Well, everybody except Peyton, and I haven’t always been nice to him. He’s just so, I don’t know, cute and cuddly, that it’s hard to be mean to him.” Laura smiled just thinking about her friend. Peyton knew more about her than anybody and yet, until she lay there in the street, there was a lot even he didn’t know.

“Those people all love you. Steve and his people. Tony and Nikki. And then there’s Vic. He’s in a class all by himself. He looks so big and tough and scary, and he’s got the biggest, warmest, softest heart of anybody I’ve ever met. He’s more loving and considerate to total strangers than most people are to their friends and family. He’s one of a kind,” Molly said, staring off into space and thinking about the time they’d spent together. “I don’t know how Freddie turned out to be so different from Tony and Vic and their other brothers.”

“Vic’s not their brother, is he?” Laura was confused.

“Marco and Raffaella, Freddie’s parents, took Vic and his mother in when they ran from Italy to the states. He was about fourteen, and they finished raising him. He and Tony have always had a special relationship, more like brothers than the other brothers are to Tony.”

“Why did they run to the states?”

“I’ve heard that Vic’s father was very abusive. Really messed with Vic’s head. But Freddie said the military got him sorted out and he came back different somehow. I love working for him. He makes it a joy, and he’s always so kind and loving toward me. Believe me, I need that right now.” Molly doodled with the zipper on Laura’s suitcase, lost in thought.

“I’m so sorry to hear about . . . well, you know,” Laura said, putting her hand on Molly’s shoulder.
I never do that,
she thought,
reach out and touch anyone
.
What’s up with that?
She pulled her hand back, but not before Molly turned and smiled at her.

“Let me know if you need anything. We have to figure out how to get you around to the places you need to go. In the meantime, just let me know if I need to pick anything up for you.”

“Thanks.” Laura had emptied the suitcase, and she zipped it shut and stuck it under the bed. She sat on the side of the bed and wondered what to do next. She’d never been one to sit down and watch TV, and she didn’t know any other way to occupy herself. Maybe she should get some books – yeah, she used to read a lot. That might be a good way to pass time. “Hey, Molly, do you have any books I could borrow?”

Molly stuck her head back into the bedroom. “Sure! The last room on the right is the office, and there are shelves and shelves of books in there. Help yourself!”

Laura sighed and sat for a few more minutes. It seemed like she hadn’t gotten a minute’s rest since she’d left the hospital. She dragged down the hallway to the room where Molly said the books were.

Opening the door, she was surprised at how well-organized the room was. The books were neat and well-organized, and then she groaned: Romance novels. Hundreds and hundreds of them. She pulled one off the shelf – yep, shirtless long-haired guy and busty girl in a bustier. Her eye was drawn to the man; he was gorgeous, but he was nowhere near as beautiful as Vic.
Oh, my god! Where did that come from?,
she gasped and put the book back. Every one of them had a picture like that on the front, and she felt like they were mocking her. Then she spied a stack of science magazines and nicked them, carrying them back to the bedroom.

It didn’t take her long to get tired of the magazines, and she wandered back down the hallway. Thank god Molly had gone back to work and didn’t have to see her stupid, conflicted self swallowing hard and staring at the covers of the books. In defeat, she pulled one down, took it back to her borrowed bedroom, and started reading.

The reading level was low, and it wasn’t hard to plow through it. It was pretty benign, but some of the supposedly-steamier scenes were unintentionally kind of funny. She kept reading and laughing, but one of the better-written sex scenes caught her off guard, and she felt a weird, clutching sensation in her belly. It had been a long time, and it wasn’t totally unwelcome. About eighty pages in, Laura’s eyelids started to droop; the day had been too stressful and, regardless how she thought she felt, she was still a little weak. Within a few minutes, she was in a deep sleep.

She could see herself like she was watching from a short distance. There was a barn; it looked like Tony and Nikki’s barn. She walked inside and started rubbing the nose of a beautiful horse that was inside a stall, his head out over the low door, looking for a treat or maybe dinner. As Laura stroked his nose, she felt a hand on her arm and turned to find Vic standing there, staring down at her with those big dark eyes, his lips lush and full.

“I kept hoping I’d catch you alone out here,” he said in a whisper, and then he leaned down and kissed her. It was a kiss that took her breath away, left her floating and helpless, and he scooped her up, carried her down the center of the barn into an empty stall, and dropped her onto a bale of hay covered with a blanket. He pulled his shirt over his head, and his muscled chest had a sheen that made her weak with desire. She watched the ripples under his skin, her palms burning to touch them, feel their power. He unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, and in a matter of seconds he was gloriously naked, his olive skin perfect, like it had been airbrushed.

Then she realized that she was naked too, and he was on her in a second, devouring her mouth, his fingers exploring her, touching her, caressing her. She could feel his erection against her hard, straining thigh, and his hands wandered to the apex of her long legs, his fingers stroking down her slit, her hips rising to meet his hand, and she felt herself growing hot and wet under his . . .

“Laura! Honey, are you okay?” Laura’s eyes flew open and she looked around. She was on the bed and Molly was standing in the doorway, flushed. “Honey, you were making some kind of noise and you scared me! Are you okay?”

Laura rubbed her eyes. It had been a dream. But his hands had felt so real . . . “Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m fine. I was dreaming.”

“Oh, those damn nightmares! I hope you don’t have too much trouble with them, hon. Want some dinner? I brought Chinese.”

“Sure! I’ll be there in just a minute.” Laura went to the bathroom. Her bladder was so full that it hurt; she’d been asleep a long time. But when she wiped the bath tissue across herself, she got a shock.