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Virat went looking for her after her shift two days after she’d returned to work. She’d texted him that Vince and Tony from security had walked her over to W4HAV. She was going to stay there until he could collect her. Then she’d drive them both back to her place.
His car was at the mechanic’s for routine maintenance. Fin had enjoyed being the one to drive them in that morning. She’d scared the hell out of him.
Fin liked to fly over the roads when she drove.
She was fearless behind the wheel. She terrified him.
She’d sent him a smiling pic of her and Izzie and a bunch of fliers advertising the upcoming benefit choir—that Fin had organized herself. She’d already recruited him and Cage to serve as ushers at the door. Rafe had been recruited, along with Houghton Barratt, to collect the actual pledges.
It was obvious that Fin had great skills in fund-raising. And organization.
He predicted he’d be doing a lot more volunteer work in his future.
He didn’t mind. He felt a duty to help where he could.
Thunder rumbled overhead. The weather reports stated more storms were on the way, but they hadn’t been expected to be severe. Still, that could change in any moment. It was Tornado Alley, after all.
He’d collect Fin, take her home, and then they would snuggle on her couch. Thomason had taken to giving them privacy as soon as they walked in the door. He hadn’t come out and said anything, but Virat got the impression that the man approved of Virat’s presence.
The security guard Ray crossed the road at the crosswalk about fifteen feet in front of him.
He stopped at the row of parked vehicles. Ray looked around.
Something about the guard’s mannerisms struck Virat as odd. Virat stopped walking. Watched.
When the guard lifted the wiper of Fin’s car and slipped something beneath it, Virat cursed.
He jogged across the parking lot. “What are you doing?”
The guard turned. “Get the hell away from me!”
“It’s you.” The fear and pain Fin had suffered flooded him, pushing his rage. Nikkie Jean could have died because of Ray. They both could have died. Because of Ray.
Virat clenched his fists. He took a step toward the guard.
Ray cursed and lunged. Virat jerked out of the way, but the guy’s punch had connected.
He fought every instinct telling him to tear the man into pieces.
There was a familiar envelope on Fin’s windshield. Every moment of fear Fin had experienced. The weeks she’d been so afraid and so alone...
Ray took off.
Virat started after him, but stopped himself. He wasn’t about to leave Fin across the street alone while he ran after a security guard. A guard who could very well be armed. Rage was one thing; stupidity was another.
His first priority was to protect Fin. To be with her.
Because he loved her. Just how deeply almost knocked him down to the ground faster than the wind ever could. He loved that woman, and that was never going to change.
Finding Fin and making certain she was safe was far more important than chasing down Ray.
He’d leave that for Dom and the TSP. He needed to find Fin.
He grabbed his phone instead.
**
“I’m going to head across the parking lot to meet Virat before the rain breaks loose,” Fin told Izzie. “I’ll see you later. Don’t work too hard, tonight.”
“The storm will bring out the weird cases. It always happens that way,” Izzie said. “And I’m working a double. I need to get going in a few. I’m supposed to clock in thirty minutes from now, and I need to find Annie before she heads out to meet the mayor.”
“Turner is remarkably reasonable,” Fin told her. “If he can help Annie and her family, he will.”
“The big word in that is if. I don’t see how anything is going to fix this.” Izzie lifted another box of fliers onto the shelf next to the receptionist Robin’s desk. Robin would hand them out when people entered the building. Fin would see to it that the nurses at the hospital also made them available. “I think it’s legal. According to what my cousin Phillip said. He works with the prosecutor’s office.”
“I just...hope everything works out for Annie.” Fin saw the same worry she felt reflected in Izzie’s eyes. Annie and her mother had taken in a friend’s children two years ago. If they were displaced, Annie was terrified what would happen to the kids she loved so much.
“Me, too.”
“I’ll keep calling people. See what I can do.” Fin had connections everywhere and she’d been trying to use them to find a solution to Annie’s problem, but it hadn’t panned out yet. But she wasn’t going to stop trying. “I can see Virat. I’m going to go. Talk to you tomorrow!”
“Be careful! I’ll wait for Robin to get in. Then I’ll follow you over there. Grab something from the vending machine and look for Annie.”
“Try to make it before the storm if you can.” Fin shivered after a look at the sky. “You don’t need to be out in any lightning.”
“I gotcha. Go. I think I see a handsome surgeon in your immediate future.”
Fin followed Izzie’s gaze. Virat was jogging across the parking lot now. “Ok, I’m gone.”
She opened the glass doors to W4HAV and went out to meet him.