Lana wiped her sweaty right palm on her jean-clad thigh as she crept along on I-25 Tuesday evening. Traffic had once again slowed to a crawl. She glanced at the dashboard clock and estimated at this rate she’d be late to group therapy. She could have taken a back road and made it on time. Traffic at this time of night, during rush hour, could prove murder on the overstuffed interstate that wound through part of Colorado Springs. She couldn’t see if an accident had jammed things up, but cars barely moved. She’d forgotten the commute she used to make to the high school for work.
You’re soft.
Maybe. Even if she wasn’t having mental issues, she’d still want to teach students online now that she’d tried it.
She glanced at the dashboard clock yet again. Yep. Who knew how long this mess would take to clear up? She made a command decision to take the nearest exit and wind her way through town. It had to be faster than this. She wiped her left palm on her jeans again and drew in some deep breaths. She could control this weird feeling. She could.
Still, she didn’t like this impending sense of doom that started rattling her cage as soon as the traffic slowed. She hadn’t tried driving since meeting up with Aaron at the Italian restaurant and wished now she had.
Stubborn pride built inside her. She’d be damned if she relied on Aaron or anyone else for a ride again as long as she had a car to drive. Frustration brought tears to her eyes. She forced them back. She couldn’t see to drive if she didn’t control herself. The thought of getting off the road and parking somewhere, calling Aaron and surrendering to the shit crowding her head…yeah, she thought about it. Aaron would come for her. She had a feeling nothing would stop him from coming for her.
“I fucking hate this,” she almost growled the words. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. Shit. Hell. Damn it.”
As a rule she didn’t curse much, unless she was alone and driving. Then all bets were off.
Group therapy should be starting right about now. Aaron and the rest of the group would notice she hadn’t turned up, obviously.
Maybe she should call Aaron, but her anger at herself for not leaving her apartment earlier and for allowing the panic to creep up kept her hand off the cell phone. Seconds later it rang. Since the car barely inched along, she reached into her purse and snatched the phone. She glanced at the screen.
“Aaron,” she said in relief when his name flashed. She answered. “Hey, Aaron.”
“Hey.” His voice was soothing and deep. “You okay? Where are you?”
“I’m glad you called. I was just about to call you. I’m stuck in a horrible jam on I-25.”
“Yeah, Roxanne said there’s a three-car pile-up around the exit for Highway 24.”
“That far south? Damn. I didn’t leave early enough and then the traffic just came to a crawl.”
“How are you doing? Feeling okay?”
“Not really.” She hated admitting it.
“Did you take deep breaths?”
“Yes.”
“Did you put the radio on?” he asked.
“No. Why?”
“Trust me. Put the radio on. I was talking with this marine once with PTSD who couldn’t drive his car unless he listened to the radio or hooked his iPod up to it and listened to podcasts. It makes you think about something else.”
“Good idea.” She flipped on the radio and lowered the volume on a classical station. The same one she’d last listened to months ago.
“If you get off the next exit, you should be all right,” he said.
“I was thinking I’d take Nevada south from there.”
“Sounds good.”
“Are you talking with me while group is going on in the room?” she asked in curiosity.
“Hell, no. I told them I was worried that you hadn’t arrived and went outside to call.”
Goodie. Now everyone knew they had a connection. Or maybe they’d known beforehand.
“You sounded a little shaky when you answered the phone,” he said.
“I’m a bit freaked. It started creeping up on me when the traffic slowed down. I don’t know why. I was so good up until then.”
“Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason to it.”
“Aaron MacPherson, how do you know so damned much?”
She could almost see him shrug.
“I know a little about a lot of things. I don’t think it’s a special talent.”
She laughed softly. “Well, you’re sweet to worry and call.”
He snorted. “Sweet?”
“Well, okay…maybe you’re not sweet. I’d better let you get back to group.”
“Nope. I’m going to hang on the line until I’m sure you’re getting off the exit and you’re okay.”
Damn the man. If he kept this up, she’d fall more and more—
Her thoughts scrambled. Oh, hell no. She was not falling for a screwed-up tough guy marine. No and double no. She could hardly keep track of her own bizarre life.
“So distract me,” she said.
“Okay. I suppose we could have phone sex.”
His statement hit her like a cannon ball, and she felt the heat flame her face. “Aaron!”
“What? You’ve never had phone sex?”
“Well…no…but…”
“But?” He laughed. “Sorry, sweetheart. I’m teasing. When we have phone sex, I’d rather it be somewhere comfortable. Besides, I don’t want to get all worked up when I have to go into group therapy afterwards.”
When? When we have phone sex? She imagined him walking into group therapy sporting a hard-on. Her palms started to sweat again, but for a different reason.
She cleared her throat. “You’re evil, MacPherson.” Traffic started to pick up. “I’d better get off the phone before you make me wreck. Traffic is starting to move. I’m getting off at the next exit.”
“Roger that. See you soon.”
She hung up and slipped the cell phone back into her purse. Listening to the music, along with imagining what it would be like to have phone sex with Aaron, eased her panic away. As she eased off the highway onto the ramp, she smiled. Who knew that a promise of phone sex in the future and classical music in the background could cure panic? She felt good the rest of the way, and although she walked into group therapy late, self-consciousness didn’t assault her when she entered the room. Aaron had already briefed the group on what had happened to her. Everyone in the room seemed sympathetic to her traffic jam experience and added their own traffic stories.
Addy launched into a statement listing what she wished to accomplish for the evening. “We’ve heard from almost everyone on their traumatic experiences. However, we haven’t heard much from Lana and Aaron on their experiences. I’d like to ease you both into that today.”
“It’s only fair,” Roxanne said. “The rest of us have spilled our guts.”
Lana wanted to tell the woman to shut up, but resisted. Instead she glanced at Aaron. He winked at her, and his flirting manner eased the worry inside her. Did she want to regurgitate more of what happened to her in Costa Rica? Hell, no. Would it help? It might. She would push through it.
“Lana? Can you start?” Addy asked as she scribbled on her notepad.
For a wild second Lana almost said no. “Okay. Where do I start?”
Addy gave one of her warm therapist smiles. “Anywhere it seems the least scary. You’ve already told us some.”
Lana tried to relax by stretching her legs out in front of her and crossing them at the ankle. Maybe she’d look too relaxed, and maybe she wouldn’t feel relaxed at all. She truly didn’t know what to say, so she plunged right into her tale of Costa Rica.
“I saved up for a long time for the trip. It was scheduled for two weeks. The first week was great. Amazing, as a matter of fact. What we didn’t know was the tour bus driver had financial problems. His cousin belonged to this rebel extremist group with plans to overthrow the government. A little group, but with enough money to get weapons. One day the tour bus was heading to some ruins. We drove into this forested area. It didn’t seem right somehow—I don’t know why. Maybe my instincts told me something. The driver pulled over on this very deserted road, and at first my friend Jillie and I thought maybe the bus was breaking down. The bus driver opened the front area door, and all of a sudden these guys started running out of the jungle.”
She stopped, unsure how much of this they’d want to hear in one swath and how much she could stand to reveal. Go on. Just get the whole thing out.
A chill skated through her when she remembered the confusion that had spilled over her when the men had jumped onto the bus. Confusion quickly replaced by a dawning fear when she’d realized there was no earthly reason men with weapons should charge onto their bus.
“I’ve kind of already told you this part,” she said, feeling a weird sense of shame.
“It’s all right. You didn’t tell us that much detail the first time,” Addy said. “See if you can take us farther into your situation.”
She swallowed hard as her throat tightened. She glanced up and caught Magnus’s eye accidentally. In his gaze she saw coldness. No understanding. She jerked her attention from him to the one person in the room she felt she could trust. Her gaze tangled with Aaron’s, and his eyes flooded with warmth and sympathy. He understood, even if no one else did.
Addy placed her writing pad in her lap and leaned forward, her eyes fully on Lana as if she watched a fascinating movie. “Can you tell us more?”
Lana drew in a slow breath. “I…yes. I think so. There were twelve men, all of them wearing camo-type pants and black T-shirts and combat boots. They didn’t wear masks, but they were loaded down with ammo, Rambo style. They ran onto the bus and all of the women started screaming.” She tightened her lips in rejection of the idea. “I didn’t…I thought it would only make the thugs angry.”
“Isn’t screaming sort of involuntary in that situation?” Roxanne asked with a tone that conveyed disbelief.
Lana closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck. Soreness ran through her muscles. “It isn’t for me. I never scream when I’m scared.” She shrugged. “Call me different, I guess.”
“What happened then?” Elliot asked.
Lana blew air out of her mouth in a sigh. “They clubbed two of the women in the mouth to keep them quiet. Everyone stopped screaming after that.”
In Lana’s head she saw the butt of the weapon flying toward a screaming woman and the sound as it broke her jaw and knocked out teeth. Lana winced as she recalled the blood splattering, the woman’s agonized moan. Her husband launching from the bus seat in anger.
“The woman’s male companion tried to get up and retaliate,” she said. “They clubbed him too. I’m surprised they didn’t shoot someone.”
Roxanne put a hand to her mouth, and even her eyes looked shocked.
Addy’s brow furrowed. “An awful situation. What happened after that?”
Part of her didn’t want to…really, really didn’t want to say another damned word. Why rehash this? What was the point?
She licked her dry lips, wishing she’d remembered her water bottle outside in the car. She forced words out of her mouth. “They…one of the creeps who turned out to be the leader…Raul…he said they only needed one of us. So he yanked me out of my seat. Jillie didn’t scream, but she grabbed me by the arm and started saying no. One of the guys reached over to hit her, and I grabbed his arm. He slapped me across the face and almost split my lip. Then the guy walloped Jillie in the face. Raul then turned and told the guy to ease up, in Spanish. Raul dragged me out of the bus.”
“You didn’t resist?” Magnus asked.
“Of course. It was instinctive. The only thing I could think of was rape and murder. That had to be what they had in mind. The other men robbed everyone else of valuables and cash.”
“They didn’t say anything about being a rebel faction?” Richard asked.
“No.” Lana shook her head. “I just thought they were a bunch of criminals. As it turned out, that’s what they were anyway. They didn’t care anything about a coup, they wanted money, plain and simple. The kidnappers spoke reasonable English, and they said they were from the People’s Alliance Army. I found out after I was rescued it was all a lie. There’s no such thing.”
“You didn’t suspect it was a lie?” Richard asked.
“I did, but I wasn’t certain. Honestly I was more interested in how I was going to make it through, day by day.”
“Can you tell us what you felt during your captivity?” Addy asked.
A loaded question. The events that had transpired over the two weeks filtered into her head, sending a cold wave of fear over her she hadn’t expected. She smelled the damp rot of the jungle, the squish of vegetation under her feet. The screech of birds. The eerie vitality of the forest.
Somehow Lana found the words. “Fear, naturally. Sharp and intense. It settled into me and never left for the two weeks I was there.” Lana continued despite the fear rising inside her now. “They took me with them when they left the bus. We walked for several hours through the jungle. Raul gave orders, and the others followed without question. I’d hoped maybe I could reason with them, and I asked what they wanted and why they’d taken me and no one else. Raul didn’t answer.” Now she was on a roll, and decided to tell them the whole damned thing if they’d allow it. “They asked for one million dollars. My parents don’t have that kind of money. Later I heard they planned on putting their ranch up for sale if it came to that.”
“Oh, my God,” Roxanne said. “How horrible. Your parents must have been frantic.”
Roxanne’s sympathy surprised Lana.
“They were,” Lana said.
The room went silent again.
“They marched you into the jungle for hours,” Addy said as a prompt when the quiet went on too long.
Lana realized the words poured easily now, so she talked faster, eager to bleed the tale and get the poison out. “By nightfall I was about ready to drop. The heat and humidity were oppressive. I tried telling Raul a couple of times I needed water and shade, but they kept going. I finally passed out. That had never happened to me before.”
“Heat exhaustion?” Elliot asked.
“Close enough.” Lana glanced at him, and then at her hands. “I woke up and realized I was slung over Raul’s shoulder. Night had fallen. We came upon this camp area where they had put up some hut-like tents.”
“Let me guess. You were tossed in a hut?” Roxanne said, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
The woman’s switch from sympathy to blatant disbelief was weird as hell.
Lana continued. “First Raul sat me down and gave me water and this jerky stuff. Then he threw me in the prison-like hut. Luckily for me, it was a nicer accommodation than I expected. A bed, a primitive toilet. It was amazingly clean, even with a dirt floor. I could have been chucked into a nastier hell hole. I was grateful for that little bit.”
Roxanne nodded, but her eyes said she didn’t believe a word. “Uh-huh.”
Lana rubbed the back of her neck again. “Luckily for me, Raul had a weird sense of chivalry. I think it had more to do with machismo and owning me than it did any sense of humanity.”
Elliot shook his head and made a tsking sound. “Sick bastard.”
“So how did you survive two weeks there?” Magnus asked. “Stockholm Syndrome?”
“No.”
“They didn’t rape you?” Magnus said, his words shot out, the tone almost accusatory. His gaze lay on her, hot and interested.
Her skin crawled at the way he looked at her. “No, thankfully.”
“How?” Magnus asked. “How did you keep that from happening?”
Hot, then cold, ran over Lana and so did anger. “What do you mean?”
Addy cleared her throat. “Magnus, take it easy. Yes, we can ask her questions, but be sensitive to people’s feelings.”
Lana turned a look at Magnus as the anger rose a bit higher. “Anything conciliatory or nice I said to Raul or any of those other creeps was entirely playacting. I did it to survive.”
“Are you saying you let them…have you?” Magnus asked, that gleam still in his eyes.
A new spike of anger surged inside Lana. She didn’t want to deal with the shame of what she’d done to survive.
Aaron threw daggers with one look at Magnus. “What the hell did Addy just say? Shut the hell up.”
“Who died and made you boss?” Magnus threw an equally hostile glance at Aaron.
“Gentlemen.” Addy’s voice was the strongest Lana had heard in the group sessions. “That’s enough, or I’ll toss you both out and you won’t return.”
Lana looked at Aaron, and their eyes met. In the barest of seconds she saw both anger and concern in his eyes. She allowed a small smile to curve her lips and reassure him. She didn’t want him thrown out of the group.
“Sorry for the interruption.” Addy gestured quickly to Lana. “If you can, please go on.”
Lana sat up straight and rubbed her arms against the air-conditioned cold. “Raul didn’t have me. He never raped me or tried to. I don’t know why. The only thing I can think of was Raul’s sense of right and wrong.”
“Bizarre,” Richard said.
Lana nodded. “Any moment they could’ve just killed me. I was strung out on fear and steeped in exhaustion. I’d been there a day when I realized the hut next to me was occupied by another woman. I heard her…”
“Heard her?” Addy asked.
“She was crying out. Screaming in Spanish,” Lana said.
“So they’d kidnapped another woman,” Elliot said with horror in his voice.
Lana swallowed hard. “I think she’d been there before me…God only knows how long she was there.”
Lana closed her eyes and recalled. The heat, the sweat, the relentless terror of imagining a hundred different fates, all of them horrible. That’s what she’d lived. How did one convey that type of emotion? What she’d experienced? She kept her eyes closed and continued to explain. “I knew my parents would try and get me out, but there weren’t too many other people I interacted with back at the high school that would want to help. Jillie stayed in Costa Rica and did what she could from that end.”
When Lana’s eyes opened, she realized everyone stared at her.
“Why is that? That you wouldn’t have a lot of people pulling for you?” Addy asked.
Lana just let it hang out. “Because I’ve always been a bit of a loner. I don’t make friends that easily.”
“You’re an introvert?” Addy scribbled on her pad for the umpteenth time.
Lana felt she’d answered that question a million times in the past and always had to justify it. “Yes.”
Addy’s expression went thoughtful and maybe skeptical. “Did you feel as if the lack of friends would impede your chance of getting out of the situation?”
Lana didn’t know. “Maybe. Honestly I didn’t think of that. I was fixated on what these guys were going to do. What if they just took a ransom and then killed me anyway?”
“I can’t imagine.” Elliot’s voice was hushed, his eyes hollow. “Terrifying.”
Lana nodded, but her throat had gone tight. She didn’t know if she could choke out another word. “Raul threatened me numerous times with death. All different kinds of death.” Her stomach roiled. “Hanging. Shooting. Stabbing. Drowning. He told me if the time came, he’d let me choose which one I wanted.”
“Jesus Christ,” Aaron said, his voice a soft rumble.
Her eyes met his and suddenly tears were there. She held them off with a deep breath.
“What ran through your head?” Addy’s question was hushed.
“At first it was outright horror. He told me that the day they kidnapped me. So I had a lot of time to think which one I’d choose.”
“Which one?” Magnus asked.
Aaron glared at Magnus again, but no one said anything to Magnus for the probing question.
“I never chose.” Lana shook her head. “I couldn’t make myself. There was this superstitious part of me that was convinced if I chose…”
A hush settled over the room, waiting.
Aaron’s voice came out of the silence. “You’d be sealing your fate.”
Lana couldn’t deny it. “Exactly.”
Once more the room went grave silent.
“So did kidnap and ransom people get called in to try and negotiate?” Richard broke the lull.
“They tried, but it didn’t do much good.” Lana’s voice hovered low and soft.
She glanced around and saw questions in everyone’s eyes. Especially Aaron’s. His eyes, his entire face had a darkness to it. She thought she saw anger there boiling under the surface. Anger about what? Did he think she should have fought harder to get away?
As if she’d read her mind, Roxanne broke in. “Why didn’t you run? Try to get away?”
“I thought of it.” Lana shifted on the hard chair and rubbed her arms for what seemed the twentieth time that hour. Tears tried to come and hovered on the edge waiting for something to push them over. “The door was solid, the windows barred. I’m not MacGuyver.”
“They never let you out?” Roxanne’s expression held her usual perpetual disbelief.
Lana’s throat tightened and a lump formed there. A solid rock of pain. “No.”
“Did anyone come and tell you how things were going? Toward your freedom?” Richard leaned forward, as if caught up in the drama.
Tension built in Lana’s muscles until she ached. “Each day Raul would come tell me how the negotiation went. Which I thought was strange.”
“He used it as torture.” Aaron’s deep voice cut through the room. “Telling you each step was as bad as not knowing.”
Lana glanced at Aaron and saw the undeniable understanding in his eyes. “Yes. After a week went by, he told me things weren’t looking good for me. All that time I’d hear…at least once a day, I’d hear the woman scream. I finally asked Raul who the woman was. He just told me shut up and not ask.”
“What did they feed you?” Roxanne asked with an odd smile.
Lana thought the woman’s question came off weird and misplaced. “Beans mostly. This stuff that was like a trail mix and jerky. They gave me plenty of water, which surprised me. Two meals a day. I lost weight. Ten pounds in two weeks.”
Roxanne’s smile, which hadn’t faded, grew wider. “Now that’s a diet I could relate to.”
Everyone but Magnus looked at Roxanne as if she’d grown two extra heads and maybe even a tail.
Lana’s stomach rumbled again. Suddenly the air inside the cold room seemed hard to breath. “I can’t…I need to get a breath of fresh air. I can’t talk about this anymore.”
Lana stood, one hand pressed against her stomach as she rushed out of the room and through the glass doors to the steps outside. She took a huge breath of amazingly cool air. Cloud cover made it darker outside than it would have been this time of night. Tears ran down her cheeks, but she ignored them in favor of gulps of fresh air. She covered her face with her hands as trembling raced across her body.
The doors opened behind her. Addy was probably coming out to see if she’d freaked. She uncovered her face, ashamed at how she’d broken down.
“Hey.” Aaron’s voice brushed over her.
Surprised, she stayed immobile, staring at nothing and seeing nothing. Aaron came around in front of her, his big body blocking her view of the parking lot. He cupped her shoulders and drew her into him, his hands sliding to her back. Comfort started a slow and steady path through her veins. When she didn’t resist, he nestled her against his chest. Her forehead bumped against his chin, and then she rested her cheek against his right shoulder. Aaron enveloped her in heat and strength as his palms slid over her back. His arms drew her tighter against his long, tall length. Within seconds his maleness, his sheer force of personality shielded her. Standing here with him, Lana suddenly felt as if nothing and no one could harm her. Her fingers crumpled his T-shirt, and finally she slid her hands up over his muscular chest. He was so solid, so warm and strong. Arousal quivered in her belly, a strange reaction considering what she’d felt moments before. She wondered at the psyche, allowing so many emotions to float through her at the same time. Sadness. Fear. A longing for connection with him.
“Easy. You’re shaking.” His warm breath touched her ear as he spoke quietly. He kissed the side of her forehead. “Take some deep breaths.”
She did, aware of the tiny trembles that snaked through her body. “I’m fine, really.”
“You didn’t look fine when you left the room.”
“You didn’t have to come after me.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Why?”
“It was either that or get thrown out of group for kicking Magnus’s ass.”
She looked up at him. His eyes sparked with a combination of amusement and concern.
She sniffed and smiled. “Gee. And here I thought it was because you cared about me.”
He frowned, and for a moment she thought she’d said the wrong thing. Then he returned her grin. “I do care about you, Lana. You think I’d hold any woman in my arms like this?”
“I don’t know. Would you?”
“No.”
Attraction nipped at her again, flooding her with gratitude for his friendship and a burgeoning happiness that he cared for her. She slid her hand upward and gently swept her fingers over his bristly jaw. A five o’clock shadow peppered his face already. He looked rough and tough and so damned sexy she thought she’d melt.
“Thank you for caring, Aaron.”
“Mmm.” His grunt had that man sound. A primal noise that implied possible agreement.
He kissed her forehead, and a rush of heat poured into her belly. God, this man was too potent and dangerous to her heart.
The glass doors opened again and Lana eased back from him slightly as Addy walked through. He released Lana but stayed standing close to her.
“Everything all right?” Addy gave them a speculative look as she walked forward. “Lana?”
Lana brushed away a few rogue tears. She eased out of Aaron’s embrace. “I’m fine now.”
Doubt clouded Addy’s face. “You’re sure?”
“Yes. I’m sorry I freaked.” Lana’s face heated.
Addy smiled. “You did an amazing job. I’m sorry about Magnus.”
“Yeah, well he’s damned good at the ambush, isn’t he?” Aaron’s question held sarcasm. “There’s something you ought to know about him.”
Addy frowned. “Oh?”
Lana reached out and clasped Aaron’s biceps. “Aaron, not now.”
He glanced down at her. “Why not?”
“It’s not important.”
“Whatever it is, let’s talk about it after session.” Addy started back toward the doors. “Come in, please.”
Aaron gave Lana an exasperated look. “She needs to know.”
Lana didn’t want more conflict today. “Like she said. Later.”
Aaron rolled his eyes and whispered softly under his breath. “Shit.”
Once back inside with the group, Lana cringed as everyone stared. She berated the immature side of herself that wanted to launch into a tirade against the questions fired at her. She wanted to tell Magnus to fuck himself sideways. She almost smiled. Simply thinking of telling Magnus to screw himself made her feel better. So did the memory of Aaron’s arms around her and the comfort he’d offered.
As the session continued, Addy requested that someone else tell their story. This time it was Elliot, and Lana was relieved she didn’t have to reveal everything tonight. How could she? The story, if told like the gruesome and terrifying tale it was, would take a lot longer than one night.
* * * *
Emotions rocketed through Aaron as he watched Lana drive away from the therapy session. She’d left in a hurry, and part of him was glad for it. He’d come to the conclusion he’d become far more involved with her than he intended. He didn’t have a freaking clue what to do with his attraction for her.
He hadn’t pushed what he’d wanted to happen. He’d wanted to follow her home, to walk her to her door, to protect in every way it was possible for a man to shield a woman. He wanted to hug, kiss and—oh, yeah. Fuck her until neither one of them could see straight. Realistically that wouldn’t happen, at least not any time soon. Maybe not even in this universe. Instead of following all those wants, he’d told her he’d see her Thursday and waved while she jumped in her car and left the parking lot. More insane, he considered following Magnus as he pulled out of the parking lot. Magnus turned left rather than right and didn’t follow her. Good. Because Aaron would have chased after them to make certain the dipshit hadn’t followed Lana. He’d told Abby he wanted to talk with her, and waited patiently for her to exit the building.
The night was cooler than he’d expected—in the seventies somewhere. A light rainstorm had come through during their two-hour session and clouds covered the stars from view. Wind ruffled his hair. Behind him the glass doors opened. Addy walked toward him with a large tote bag slung over her shoulder.
“All right, we’re here.” Addy’s smile was cautious. “What did you need to tell me?”
“Like I said earlier, you need to know some things about Magnus.”
She turned her head slightly to the side, as if she wasn’t keen on hearing him out. “Go on.”
“He followed Lana to breakfast one morning when I was meeting her there. She was practicing to make sure she could drive herself. I got stuck in traffic, so I wasn’t right behind her. We planned to meet at a restaurant. When I got out of traffic and pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, guess who was standing there talking to her.?”
Addy nodded. “I can imagine. Magnus.”
“Right.” He gave a rundown of what Magnus had said and done, including pinning Lana between the cars. “There’s something seriously wrong with him.”
She shifted the big bag on her shoulder, as if it the burden had become heavier. “That isn’t behavior I’d equate with a stable man.”
“Is there something you know about him? Something dangerous?”
She held up both hands. “You know I can’t reveal anything in his file.”
Although Aaron understood that one hundred percent, he couldn’t help feel concern. “Fair enough. I just wanted you to be aware of what he did.”
“Thank you. Now if you don’t mind me asking, what is the relationship between you and Lana? It looks as if you’ve become involved.”
“No.” He practically spat the answer. “We’re friends.”
“I see.” Her response held conclusive doubt. “I’d advise that you take any relationship cautiously. This environment isn’t an even playing field for romantic relationships. You and Lana have issues to work out before you consider a relationship.”
He didn’t like being told not to have a romantic relationship with Lana, even if he agreed with Addy’s assessment. “I understand.”
“Good. Have a nice evening, Aaron. I’ll see you Thursday.”
Aaron continued on to his car, and as he drove back to his apartment, he considered Addy’s advice. He wasn’t the type of man to play games with a woman. If he decided a romantic relationship with Lana was a bad idea, he’d need to make it clear to her fast.
Hell, he’d need to make it clear to himself.