Chapter Twelve
“This is a gym?” Alex’s voice was incredulous. “As in a place to lift weights and get sweaty and build muscle?” He eyed the building with distaste.
“Of course it is.” Olivia walked through the door he held open for her.
“You’re telling me men work out here?”
“I wouldn’t have brought you here if they didn’t,” she assured him. “Why do you ask?”
“Because no guy I know with any self-respect works out in a place with curtains.” He fingered a panel of white lace in horror. “Curtains…with sequins.”
Olivia stifled a giggle. Men did belong to the gym, but they tended toward the toned, tanned metrosexuals who spent more on grooming products than she did, not tall, dark, ruggedly handsome Alpha males like Alex.
He stopped, his eyes sweeping the room. “There is not one other man in here,” he whispered out of the side of his mouth.
“Sure there is. Right over there.”
“Tights. Olivia, he’s wearing tights. With leg warmers. And they’re purple.” She couldn’t contain the burst of laughter at his outrage. “I don’t suppose there’s another gym around, maybe one with an obstacle course? And men?” He sounded hopeful.
She patted his arm and had to jerk her hand away at the sparks. Would it be like this every single time? “There might be, but I belong to this one and we’re already here.”
He grumbled all the way to the locker room. When he came out in a sleeveless t-shirt and shorts, Olivia sighed. He did look out of place in the boutique gym. Not in the sense that he didn’t belong, but because he was by far the fittest man there. All of the women stopped what they were doing to watch him.
Mine. She wanted to drag him to a tattoo artist and have that inked in big block letters on his forehead for the world to see. Maybe he didn’t know it yet, but he was hers. She started a treadmill and walked to warm up. She had a perfect view of him as he lifted free weights, his biceps bulging with the movement. He’d been muscular and fit when she was with him in Chicago, but after training for the ninja warrior competition, his body was now completely ripped. She wanted to run her hands over every bump and ridge.
“Who is that?”
Faye’s question jerked her from her daydreams. “He’s an old friend.”
“Only a friend?” Faye’s question was suggestive as she openly ogled him as he lifted the dumbbells into curls.
“Yes.”
“Pity,” Faye murmured. “That is one fine specimen of man.”
As they watched, a buxom brunette in tight spandex approached him. She said something that caused him to smile and laugh. Olivia fought the red haze of jealously that crawled up her spine. It was quickly washed away by a wave of melancholy. As much as she wanted him to be, Alex wasn’t hers. She had no claim on him. No doubt this happened to him all the time…beautiful women hitting on him. Thanks to Kendall and his sister Allie, she knew he didn’t currently have a girlfriend, but that didn’t mean he was a monk. Just because she hadn’t been with anyone else since they met didn’t mean he could say the same.
“Just a friend. Right.” Faye was studying her knowingly.
“He is,” she insisted, not making eye contact so Faye couldn’t catch her in the lie. “He lives hundreds of miles away.” She fiddled with the settings on the treadmill. She kicked it up to a light jog. Her hope that Faye would leave her alone to exercise in peace was dashed when Faye fired up the machine next to her.
“So, the Vigilante struck again. I seriously love him,” Faye professed. “Have you seen the fan sites?”
She had, and more kept popping up hourly. She truly didn’t get it…they were idolizing a serial killer.
“I saw where someone is organizing a rally at the arch in Washington Square Park. I’m thinking of attending.”
“Seriously?”
Faye shrugged. “Maybe it’s not morally correct, but as a victim who was denied justice, it feels good knowing there’s someone out there sticking up for us, defending us. I’m not saying it’s right or anything. It’s just how I feel.”
Olivia didn’t condone violence with violence, but then, she’d never walked in Faye’s shoes. Faye chatted some more until Chrissy called her away to take care of an issue with the air conditioning in the yoga studio. Olivia’s gaze drifted back to Alex. He was now doing squats holding a weight bar across his shoulders. His thighs bulged with the movements. She wasn’t the only one who noticed. Every female eye in the gym was on him. And several male ones. He had to know. He racked the bar and wiped his face with a towel. When he lowered it, he was looking directly at her, causing her to miss a step and almost tumble right off the treadmill.
Alex grabbed his bottle of water and drank deeply. She was mesmerized by the way his Adam’s apple bobbed. Then he recapped it and headed her way. Her heart rate, already in the target fat-burning range, kicked up a notch into the danger zone. He stepped up onto the treadmill Faye abandoned and started walking. Olivia tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other.
“I try to run every day,” he told her as he punched buttons and the machine picked up pace until he was jogging. “I got addicted rebuilding my cardio after the bullet hit my lung.”
She felt a flash of fear when she remembered that urgent call from Kendall. He’d been shot point-blank range and they didn’t know if he’d make it. She couldn’t get on the plane fast enough. “Do you have any lingering effects?”
“Not really.” He nudged the machine faster. “There was a fire a few months ago—”
“The studio for Killer Cuisine. I remember.”
“Yeah. Some people were still inside so a few of us went to find them. Ended up with minor smoke inhalation.”
She knew about the fire, but Kendall hadn’t told her about him running into a burning building. She had to decrease her speed. The thought of the danger he willingly put himself in humbled her. “You’re okay now?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t able to run for weeks after the glass pierced my thigh, but I’ve been pushing it—what?”
Olivia had stepped off the conveyer belt but didn’t turn off the machine. She was staring at him in horror. “You could’ve been killed. Any one of those times could’ve taken your life.”
Alex shut off his machine and then reached over and did the same to hers. “Hey, what’s this?” He wiped a tear from her cheek. She didn’t even realize she was crying.
“You’ve come close to dying three times, Alex.”
He huffed out a laugh. “Actually, there’ve been a few more times than that. I’m pretty sure I’ve used up eight of my nine lives.”
She gaped at him. “How can you make a joke of this?” Her voice was shrill and she could feel herself shaking but she couldn’t help it.
“Olivia, babe.” He tugged her into his arms. “I’m fine. My jobs have been dangerous sometimes but I don’t take unnecessary risks. I’m well trained.” He rubbed his hand down her back.
She nodded against his chest and reigned in her emotions. What was wrong with her? She wasn’t a crier, yet she’d done so twice in the last twelve hours…all in front of Alex. Embarrassed by her show of tears, she grabbed her towel and water bottle. “I’m going to shower and then we can head to the station.” Thankfully, he didn’t say anything else about her tears as they made their way to meet Jonah. She didn’t know if she could explain them. She just felt an overwhelming sense of loss, of despair, of longing. She wanted Alex in her life and she didn’t know how to make that happen.
#
Alex stood back with his arms crossed while Olivia played the video for her producer. He’d liked Jonah Wyles instantly. The man was no-nonsense and he obviously cared about Olivia’s security. He’d thanked Alex for taking the job. Alex didn’t think Luke and Logan would appreciate it if he told Jonah he’d have done it for free. A woman knocked on Olivia’s office door and opened it, a man trailing in her wake.
“Derek Benson?”
The man glanced over and did a double-take. A huge smile broke over his face and he crossed the room. “Alex Mylonas. What the hell?” They shook hands and did a one-armed bro-hug. “How long has it been?”
“What, three years? Hey, thanks for the note after the shooting.”
“When I heard you took a bullet, man, my heart stopped. Everything okay now?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“You here about the Vigilante case? Do you have something similar going on in Chicago?”
Alex shook his head. “I resigned with the CPD. I work for a private company now.”
“Oh yeah? I didn’t know that. Which one?”
“COBRA Securities.”
Derek’s eyes widened. “No shit? Man, I’m impressed. They’re the best. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
“So what are you doing here?”
“I’m keeping an eye on Olivia…Ms. Larrson. The Vigilante is too close to her.”
“Good,” Benson said. “I didn’t like that this person could get to her so easily. I asked her to make a list of her friends and acquaintances in the city and my God, it was a long one. We’ve been vetting them. So far, no red flags.”
“Uh-hum.” They both turned to the woman clearing her throat and staring at them expectantly. “Detective Susannah Kramer,” the brunette said, holding out her hand. Alex shook it. “How do you know this big lug?” She smacked Benson against the chest. He winced and rubbed the spot.
“We attended a cop conference together a couple of years ago. Roomed together.”
“I overheard a bit…you were a detective in Chicago?” He nodded. “And now you work for COBRA Securities. Are they hiring?”
“Trying to get away from me, Kramer?” Benson joked.
“Always,” she retorted. “Besides, you said you’d love to work for them after that report on the Patrick Sweeney case.”
“I would,” Derek agreed. “It must be nice getting away from all of the politics and paperwork of the department.”
“True, that,” Alex agreed. He pulled out his wallet and extracted business cards, handing one to each of the detectives. “If you are interested, get in touch with me after this case. I can’t promise anything because it’s pretty competitive, but I’ll pass along your information.”
They tucked his card away and thanked him.
“Detectives?” At Olivia’s summons, they made their way behind her desk to watch as she played the video.
“Oscar Tanner…that was a bad case,” Kramer murmured. “Everyone knew he was guilty but his lawyers got him off on some technicality.”
After the video tape operator copied the file to prepare it for broadcast, the detectives bagged and tagged it as evidence. Alex exchanged contact information with Benson and then he and Olivia headed off to shop.