Page 75 of Gator
Gator finished up his call and came back over to us. “Okay, we got you all set. Caden is getting your key programmed, and Wolfe is letting Agent Kelly know where you’ll be staying.”
“Thank you both so much.”
“I’m just glad we found you. I wasn’t sure we would,” I told him.
“Oh, we were going to,” Gator insisted. “Julius here wasn’t giving up. He was determined to find you and bring you home.”
Hawk jogged over to us and held out a key fob. “What’s this?”
“I’m going to hitch a ride with Knox and Crowe. I thought y’all might want to get going. We’re almost done here, but not quite, but there’s no reason for you three to stick around.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said. “I would love a nice hot shower.” The idea of washing that basement off of me sounded amazing.
“Oh wow. A nice hot shower with a door that locks. Now that’s something I can get behind,” Noah said, and it hit me that what I’d been through today was nothing compared to what he’d endured over the last couple of weeks.
The thought must have shown on my face because he shoulder-bumped me and said, “Stop it right now. Even if you weren’t there long, you still got threatened, grabbed, and dumped in a basement by a couple of psychopaths. You’re allowed to want to wash it all away.”
“I don’t know how you survived with them that long, but I’m glad you did.”
“I’m stubborn. Now, how about we go get me a room so I can take that shower?”
“You two wait here. I’ll run and grab the SUV.”
I watched as Gator set off across the yard. I felt the silliest urge to go after him, like being even this far away from him wasn’t safe. I guess getting kidnapped, even for a day, wreaked havoc on your nervous system.
“He’ll be right back,” Hawk said. “Trust me, he isn’t gonna let you out of his sight anytime soon.” Then he looked Noah up and down. “You’ll need some clothes. You and Mika are about the same size, and I’m sure he would be happy to let you borrow a few outfits. I’ll call him and ask him to put them in your apartment.”
He pulled out his phone and waited until Mika answered. Then he gave us both a nod and walked off, talking to Mika.
“Who’s Mika?” Noah asked.
“He’s Hawk’s partner. They live on the top floor where Gator and I live. Mika is the sweetest, and Hawk’s right, he’d be happy to loan you some clothes.”
A minute or so later, Gator pulled up in the SUV, and Noah and I hopped in. Gator reached for my hand, lacing our fingers together. “I called your sister and Migs and let them know you were okay. I told both of them you’d call them tomorrow. Migs said he would let everyone at the salon know.”
“Thank you. I know they were all worried, but I don’t think I have the energy to deal with all the questions tonight.”
He looked in the rearview mirror at Noah. “We have a phone waiting for you. Caden put together a list of contacts from when we were trying to find you, so you can use that to get in touch with anyone you need to call.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
Gator pulled out onto the road to go home, and we couldn’t get there soon enough. Noah didn’t say much else on the ride. He mostly just stared out the window and watched the world go by.
I didn’t know much about his time in captivity. He said they told him he’d been sold to a man from overseas and that he was being held until the man could make arrangements to come get him, but that was all he’d told me.
Still, he had to be one of the strongest people I’d ever met to have made it that long, especially since he didn’t know if anyone was even looking for him. After less than a day down there, I was feeling anxious and jumpy as hell, and I’d known Gator would come for me. I couldn’t imagine what all those other people had gone through.
We pulled up in the parking garage, and he looked at me. “This is where you live?”
“Yep. Come on. Let’s go get that key and get you settled.”
He looked like he was less sure than he had been when we’d made the offer, but I got that. From the outside, you wouldn’t think it was a nice place to live. He would see once we got inside, though.
We entered the elevator, and Gator pushed the button for the eighth floor. “We’ll have to stop in here to get the key from Caden, and then we’ll head on up.”
When we stepped off, I saw him looking around at the setup. “Wow. This is an impressive operation.”
“We’re getting there,” Gator said proudly. “We started out small, doing basic events and personal security, but it’s grown quickly.”