Page 56 of Gator

“Great. I want you to meet them, anyway. You know Migs already from the salon, but I don’t think you’ve met the others.”

“I guess we’ll see when we get there. Now, what time is this brunch?”

A couple of hours later, we were almost halfway to Sweet Madeline’s when Gator’s phone rang.

“Hey, Kat, you’re on speaker, but it’s only me and Julius in the car. What’s up?”

“I have an update for you. Chance finally got his warrant to search Wade Roarke’s place, and it’s been cleaned out like he was never there.”

“So what does that mean, exactly?” I looked at Gator, but his face gave nothing away.

On the one hand, I thought it was good news because if he’d cleared out, he wouldn’t be after me, but on the other hand, who knew what that meant for Noah?

He shrugged. “It might mean they’ve moved on, and it might mean they’ve just changed locations.”

“Exactly,” Kat agreed. “Chance said to give him a few days and see if he can locate him, but odds are if they think the operation’s been compromised, they would’ve moved it.”

“So we might not find Noah then. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have someone snatch you like that and then no one be able to find you,” I said.

“We’ll keep trying,mon petit.” He didn’t say it, but I could tell from his expression that if they’d moved on and left the area, he didn’t think they would find him. “Anything else, Kat?”

“No, I just thought you would want the update right away. I hope this doesn’t ruin your day.”

“It doesn’t, Kat,” he reassured her. “We definitely wanted to know right away.”

He ended the call and reached for my hand. “Are you okay?”

I took in a deep breath. “Yeah, I just really thought we would find him.”

“We haven’t given up. Chance is determined to bring this guy down.”

I knew he was right, but the odds had also just gotten a whole lot slimmer.

“So, does that mean it’s safe for me to go back to my place?”

“Not yet. Odds are he moved on, but I’m not willing to bet when it comes to your safety.”

I nodded. I hadn’t even realized it until I asked, but that wasn’t the answer I wanted. I wanted him to say that it didn’t matter if the guys were still here or not, that I never had to go home. I bit back a sardonic chuckle. I was always the first one pointing out that forever wasn’t real and that happy ever after was a fantasy, but after just a few weeks with Gator, I was starting to sound like Harper.

“Okay, that sounds logical.” Because that was exactly how he’d sounded. I asked him if I could go home, and he’d given me a very logical answer without even a touch of emotion.

He must have picked up on something in my tone because he reached for my hand. “I know you’re worried about Noah, but we’ll keep looking.”

I sighed, because of course he thought that was what I was worried about, and of course I was. And that just made it worse. It was silly of me to be so worked up about this when that poor guy was suffering. But I couldn’t help it. I took a breath and painted on my smile. The last thing I wanted to do right before brunch with my friends was have this conversation.

“I know you will. I’m just worried.”

He gave me a look that told me he wasn’t quite buying it, but he let it go. We drove the rest of the way in silence.

We pulled into Sweet Madeline’s, and I reached for the door, but Gator stopped me. There was no way he felt the need to go check out the restaurant before we went in. It was full of strangers, soit wasn’t like he could tell if any bad guys were in there. I started to say as much, but before I got the chance, he spoke.

“Look at me,mon petit.”

I looked up into those gray-green eyes, and my breath caught. I had this feeling that he was about to say something, and that whatever he said was going to change everything. Part of me wanted to get out of the car and run inside so he couldn’t say it.

“Now listen to me. That fake cheery smile you give to your clients and even to your friends sometimes? That has no place here.” He motioned back and forth between us. “I want the real Julius, the good and the bad, and all the things in the middle. You got me,cher?”

I nodded, but didn’t say anything.