Page 7 of James (Big Northwest #6)
CHAPTER SEVEN
JAMES
O NE OF PHILLIP'S eyes was twitching. Like, a lot.
It was a reaction that would normally have her smirking. Enjoying the hell out of his suffering. Because fuck men. Fuck them for what they’d done to her. To her sisters. To the world. She'd spent years claiming retribution. Using them the way they wanted to use her.
But the tiniest little part of her felt kind of bad for Phillip. He wasn't there to take advantage or manipulate. Hadn't tracked her down because he wanted something from her or viewed her as a commodity to exploit. He was there because her sisters asked him to be. Paid him to be.
And he hadn’t walked away. Not when he knew a whole team of men were planning to grab her. Not when he had to climb out the fifth-floor window of an apartment building. Not when he had to walk nearly naked through a sea of strangers like it was a normal Tuesday.
Not even when he discovered she’d killed a man and watched her commit vehicular assault on another.
“I’m really sorry for all of this.” James twisted both hands in front of her body, shifting from foot to foot. Apologizing wasn't an act she was accustomed to and the process was uncomfortable, bordering on painful.
But this guy had put his own life in danger to help save hers, so she owed him this small concession. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to continue. “If I'd known how it would go, I wouldn't have?—”
“You wouldn't have, what?” Phillip angled a brow at her. “Reacted the way you did when those men pissed you off?” His lips quirked, like the thought amused him. “Killed the guy who showed up at your work?” He stepped closer. “Or are you saying you wouldn't have hit the prick who rear ended us with a car?” His eyes moved over her face, like he was gauging how truthful she was being. “Because I don't think you’d take any of those back even if you could.”
He kind of had her there. None of the examples Phillip offered up were anything she would do differently. Every man who crossed her had gotten exactly what he deserved. She wasn't apologizing for them or to them. Never would.
But like it or not, this man was proving himself to be different from the others who’d crossed her path. So she gave him something she’d never offered anyone else. “I'm sorry you've been dragged into this. I know you don't want to be here.”
Phillip was quiet for a second. Probably from shock. They didn’t know each other well, but he already seemed to have a pretty good grasp on who she was. Her apology likely caught him off guard and confused the hell out of him.
The silence stretched between them, pulling tight. Finally he said, “If I didn’t want to be here, I would’ve walked away like I said I was going to.”
That was a good point, and offered the opening to ask a question niggling in her brain. “Why didn’t you walk away?”
Phillip stared at her, his jaw flexing. “Lots of reasons.” He ran one hand through his hair and turned away, striding to the bathroom. “We should get moving.”
She wanted to press him for more, but uncovering Phillip’s motivations seemed less important than getting out of town, so he could keep his little secret. For now.
He came out of the bathroom carrying her clothes and shoes. After passing off her shorts and sneakers, he dug a pair of socks from his suitcase, offering them up before dumping in his toiletries and zipping the bag closed.
Sitting on the bench at the foot of the bed, James pulled on the socks and her shoes. Standing, she shook out her hair as Phillip went to the closet and collected his suits, hooking them into the hanging bag. He took a second to button a fresh shirt over the T-shirt stained with her stage makeup. Once it was tucked into his pants, he turned to her. “Ready?”
“I guess.” She settled the baseball cap he’d given her earlier onto her head, sliding on the sunglasses as they walked out into the hall, heading for the elevator. The chances were low anyone would find her here, but they weren’t zero. Even that small risk had her stomach churning as they rode the elevator down to the main floor, Phillip’s broad body blocking her into the corner just like he did on the way up.
Only this time it lacked the sexual tension, which was a little disappointing. The distraction would have kept her mind off how deep the shit around her really was.
Saying she’d fucked up was a drastic understatement, but it was what kept her functioning for the past couple of years. A fuckup was fixable. Manageable.
But confessing the full extent of her fuckupery—saying it out loud—put it into perspective.
And the perspective wasn’t looking good.
The elevator opened, but instead of aiming for the garage, Phillip led her out the front doors of the hotel and onto the sidewalk of the strip. There were people everywhere—most of them drunk—and it had her tensing up. If someone wanted to grab her right now, they could, and Phillip probably wouldn’t even notice until she was packed in a car and driving off.
“I’ve got you.” Phillip’s hand found hers, holding tight as he pulled her into his side. “Stay right with me.”
James hooked her free hand around his bicep, using the added point of contact to make sure no one could get between them as they walked to the curb. One of the hotel attendants hustled up to a waiting cab, opening the back door. Phillip urged her in front of him, helping her inside while the attendant loaded his bags into the back.
She let out a little sigh of relief as Phillip settled next to her, closing them in. He told the driver to take them to the airport and they pulled away, leaving the crowd and the chaos behind.
Looping one arm around her shoulders, Phillip leaned into her ear, keeping his voice low. “You good?”
She nodded, surprised to find it was kind of true. All things considered.
She’d lost all her belongings. Her car. Her job. Her friends. But she was still alive and it seemed like no one knew who she really was, so that had to count for something.
Phillip was silent for the rest of the ride, so she stayed quiet too. The man was proving himself to be surprisingly capable, so if he kept his mouth shut, she’d shut hers too.
At least until they were alone again. Then all bets were off.
The lights of the strip were still easy to see when they pulled to a stop at the airport. Phillip got out, helping her onto the curb before collecting his bags from the trunk. Then they were moving again, passing through the automatic doors into the building.
“I’m assuming we’re not here for a flight.” She eyed the people coming and going. “Because my documents are a little charcoal broiled.”
“What about your driver’s license?” Phillip walked past security without pausing. “Where’s that?”
“I keep it in a safety deposit box.” She inched a little closer to Phillip as a man in a dark suit looked at her a little too long. “I only get it out once a month to send my sisters money.”
“Is the lease for the apartment in your name?” Phillip looped his arm around her waist, linking them together in a move that had her relaxing a tiny bit.
“No.” Her profession of choice initially started out as a way to fuck men over, but it ended up being her saving grace when the shit hit the fan. “One of my friends put it in his name.” She added on, “Same with my car.”
“Brilliant move.” Phillip’s reaction didn’t carry a hint of judgment.
Yet another thing that made him different from the men she was used to dealing with. Somehow, they could come into the club on their own two feet, willingly hand over money, and then try to look down their noses at her like she was the one in the wrong.
When really, she was just using their dumbsticks against them.
“Maybe I should get some of these friends.” His eyes came her way, a smile teasing his lips. “I’ve got a suit that needs to be replaced.”
James let her eyes skim down his form. “I bet you could make a mint.”
“Maybe you can show me some moves later.” He gave her a wink as they stepped up to the counter of a car rental company. After flashing the woman behind the counter a panty melting smile, Phillip listed off what he wanted and slid a driver’s license and a credit card across the counter.
Both issued to a dude named Chris Smith.
She eyed the cards, but kept her lips sealed as the woman went to work finding them a car, her attention occasionally jumping up to lock onto Phillip before snapping back to the screen.
Yeah. The man would for sure make bank as a stripper.
Phillip occasionally scanned the area around them, keeping one hand on her back as they waited. Finally, the woman behind the counter handed over a set of keys and gave Phillip directions on how to retrieve their car.
After walking back through the crowded airport, they crossed into the parking garage. The SUV assigned to Chris Smith was pearly white outside and luxurious inside, with leather seats and a sleek black dash. “Damn. Chris Smith doesn’t skimp.”
“Chris Smith wants to be comfortable since he has to drive across the fucking country.” Phillip opened the back hatch, depositing his bags into the trunk area before closing them in.
“I told you I can’t go back to Shadow Pine right now.” She wasn’t in the SUV yet, and if Phillip’s plan was to drive her back to Washington, she wouldn’t be getting in. “I’m not putting my sisters and their kids at risk.”
“Relax.” Phillip went to the driver’s side. “I said you’re not going back to Shadow Pine until we get all this straightened out and I meant it.” He slid behind the wheel, leaning down to peer at her across the interior of the luxury vehicle. “Are you getting in?”
“Where are we going?” Now that things were slowing down and no one was actively pursuing them, she was starting to wonder how in the fuck she would get out of this mess. Her options were slim. Even if she could find another friend to help her out, it was obviously only a matter of time before whoever the boss of those guys was would find her again.
“Tonight, we’re going to get a room and some food and some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll figure out what comes next.” Phillip laid out the simple explanation like it was a no brainer. Like this was a normal, everyday occurrence.
Maybe for him it was.
“Do you do things like this a lot?” Certainly her sisters had vetted this man. She wasn’t being stupid by getting in a car with him and trusting he wouldn’t put her in a shallow hole in the desert, right?
“Help people get away from someone trying to abduct them?” Phillip shook his head. “Not anymore.”
That was interesting. “Anymore?”
She’d already asked Phillip a lot of questions, but nearly every one had been about her sisters. The family she probably never should have left.
But she hadn’t asked much about him. Which was epically stupid since her life was kind of in his hands.
“I used to work for a company that handled situations similar to this.” Phillip offered up the answer easily, as if he wasn’t holding anything back. “But I didn’t like someone else controlling where I went and what I did, so I left and started my own company.” He lifted his brows. “Anything else you want to ask me while we’re sitting ducks?”
“I’m trying to do my due diligence.” She probably should have gotten in the habit a lot sooner. Then maybe they wouldn’t be in this position. “What if you don’t actually know my sisters? What if all this is bullshit?” A terrible thought jumped into her brain—terrible because it hadn’t occurred to her sooner. “What if Phillip Foster isn’t your real name either?”
He sighed, digging out his phone and swiping across the screen before turning it her direction. There, in front of her very eyes, was a photo of Phillip with Frankie and JD. He scrolled, revealing a photo of him with some other dude, Danny, and a taller version of her nephew Jude.
“Oh my God.” She jumped into the SUV, slamming her door as she snatched the phone away from him and looked over the images of Phillip with her family.
There were plenty.
Phillip and Charlie. Phillip and two older men with Alex. Phillip standing in front of a fancy sign welcoming people to Shadow Pine. Phillip sitting on Danny’s couch in a T-shirt and athletic pants drinking something disgusting looking from a shaker bottle while a little girl painted the nails on his free hand hot pink.
“I figured you would want proof at some point, so I made sure I had it.” His voice was low. “I also thought you might want to see everyone.” Reaching across the console to point at the little girl, he said, “That’s Lily, Sam’s husband’s niece.”
“She’s so pretty.” James swallowed against the emotion clogging her throat. “It looks like she likes you.”
“She likes that she can con me into giving her snacks.” His lips curved in a hint of a smile. “I don’t think Sam was as big of a fan.”
Going to the next photo, James’s smile slipped. It was a line of men she didn’t recognize, outside of JD and Phillip. “So much has happened since I’ve been gone.”
“That’s true.” Phillip’s hand dropped to her knee, the warm weight of it a comfort. “I can get you home.” He waited for her to meet his gaze. “Unfortunately, you’ll have to trust me for that to happen.”
Her eyes fell back to the line of men. It was easy to guess who they were. Each of them was handsome in his own way and similar in age. Somehow, all her sisters had found a way to trust a man. To let one into their life.
If they could do that, she could figure out how to deal with Phillip for a little while.
“Are you sure you can keep them safe?” Getting her home didn’t matter. She could have found her way back to Shadow Pine whenever she wanted to. “That you can make sure no one follows me?”
Phillip nodded. “I’m sure.” There was certainty in his voice. He genuinely believed he could do it.
And she genuinely knew she couldn’t do it alone.
“Fine.” James belted into her seat, keeping his phone as she continued looking through his photos. “But if anything happens to my family, I’ll kill you.”
Phillip’s lips twisted in a smirk as he punched the ignition, starting the engine. “If anything happens to your family, you’ll be the least of my problems.”