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COLE
C ole Reynolds had rarely dated, but the few times he had, he’d refused to take his date to one precious location.
It was his own personal oasis, a place he could go to when life seemed overwhelming and impossible.
He never brought his dates here because he knew the relationships weren’t going to last. He wasn’t the type to get serious and settle down.
The fact that his oasis was the first place he thought to bring Heather said something Cole wasn’t ready to admit just yet.
Instead, he told himself this was the only place he could think of on a whim.
He knew the menu was good, and the vibes were even better.
He knew it wouldn’t be too busy this time of day and that the sun would be just short of setting over the water.
With a patio table, the view was going to be gorgeous, and it made him feel proud that he knew exactly how to make Heather’s night a magical one without needing weeks to plan it.
The bar itself had a dark, cozy interior, with wooden details on the ceiling, some cushioned chairs, and a dark green couch in front of a gas fireplace that was more for ambiance than heat.
The fireplace itself was double-sided, one side facing inside and the other facing out.
It all worked out rather well in the usually warm weather of Los Angeles, and the patio was everyone’s favorite place to sit.
But Cole was a regular, friends with the owner, and he called ahead to get a table reserved.
He pulled up to the place feeling proud, like he was inviting a new girlfriend into his home.
The owner, a plump middle-aged man who also happened to be a veteran, greeted him from the bar.
“Been a minute, Cole,” he said in a gruff, familiar voice.
“Where have you been hiding?” Then he glanced over at Heather and added, “ Who have you been hiding?” with a suggestively arched eyebrow.
“Oh, right!” Cole gently guided Heather toward the bar with one hand on her back. “This is Heather, my stunt partner and my date for the night. Heather, this is my good friend Mike.”
Heather offered her hand. “It’s good to meet you, Mike.”
Mike shook her hand with a twinkle in his eye and said, “So this is why you wanted the good table, Cole, you bastard. Why didn’t you tell me you’d have a doll like this on your arm tonight?”
Heather blushed, and Cole answered, “Why ruin the surprise?”
After Mike told them to seat themselves, Cole lead Heather out the back to the patio.
There was a table waiting for them right in front of the fire.
From the raised patio, you could see the boardwalk, the ocean, and the sun that would be setting soon.
The weather was mild and pleasant enough that Heather actually removed her jacket.
It was the perfect evening, Cole thought — more than perfect now that she was with him.
A server walked up and asked them if they’d like some drinks. Heather ordered sangria and Cole got a pint.
“So,” he said after their server left. “Tell me everything I should know about you.”
“Not even going to beat around the bush a bit, are you?” she said, laughing.
He shook his head. “I’m a direct sort of guy.”
“I can appreciate that.” She looked out at the ocean for a minute before she answered, and Cole took the opportunity to appreciate her profile.
She had these large, wide eyes and a ski-jump nose that made him adore her all the more.
The way the orange light of the setting sun made her skin glow was like something out of a dream.
He tried to steer the conversation because if he didn’t, he’d probably be content to just sit and stare at her. He imagined she wouldn’t be comfortable with that. “What were your hobbies when you were a kid?” he asked.
She laughed and shook her head. “There was only ever one. I got into gymnastics pretty young. Some class my mom got me to take so I could make friends, but I was good at it. The teachers said I had natural talent, whatever that means.” There was a sad nostalgia in her smile that Cole wanted to know more about, but he knew better than to ask.
“It became my whole personality for a long time. I planned to compete at the highest levels, and hopefully become a professional gymnast one day.” She frowned. “It didn’t work out.”
“Life rarely works out the way we’d like it to,” Cole said. “I wanted to be an astronaut, but I didn’t have any talent in that respect. It was just a silly dream.”
“You didn’t even go to space camp or anything?” she asked.
The question made him sadder than he expected it to.
The truth was, his parents were only parents in the strictest sense of the word.
They hadn’t wanted to have him and made that clear on a regular basis.
He’d gotten out of there as quickly as he could.
It only took one military recruiter to make him look to the Navy as a way out.
At the very least, it was a way he could be of some use, a way he could be appreciated and needed.
“Space camp would have been nice,” was all the answer he could think to give.
“That’s too bad,” she said, and by the expression on her face, he could tell she was completely sincere. “Every kid should have a chance to test drive their dreams, you know? That’s what I think anyway.”
“But I wouldn’t change how things turned out,” Cole added.
“I love my job. If I’d told my kid-self I was going to grow up to be a stunt double, I think kid-me would probably be pretty impressed.
” He wanted to add, And I got to meet you , to that, but he figured it would probably be too much too soon.
“So what about you? Why’d you give up your dream of becoming a professional gymnast? ”
That was a bad question to ask, apparently. He could tell by the way her expression fell. He regretted asking when she stared down at her napkin and answered, “That’s a story for another time, I think.”
“No problem,” he said, trying to make it clear he did not intend to push her boundaries tonight.
He wanted this date to be as fun for her as possible.
As much as he liked her, the one aspect of her personality that he hadn’t clocked wrong, in his opinion, was that she had a hard time letting go and just enjoying herself. So Cole made that his challenge.
They ordered a sampler platter and Heather had a second drink. “This is on you, right?” she said with a wink.
“Of course it is,” Cole answered. That was never even in question. “I’m an old-fashioned kind of guy.”
She appeared to consider his announcement. “I guess I can get behind that.” She gave him a scrutinizing look as he scooted around the table to sit beside her.
“The best view is from this side,” he explained.
“Mm-hmm.” She didn’t believe him for one second, and he was perfectly fine with that.
They shared the sampler platter, and Heather let Cole have a taste of her drink. “That’s good,” he said, surprised. “I’ve never ordered sangria before. Maybe I should next time.”
The sunset was perfect. It sank slowly into the horizon and turned the sky and clouds all different shades of red and orange and pink.
Cole couldn’t have asked for a more perfect date night.
When Heather leaned her head on his shoulder, he had to suppress a grin.
“I don’t know how easy it’s going to be to punch you after this,” he admitted.
She laughed. “You know I’ll mock you mercilessly if you go too easy on me.”
“You already know how to motivate me,” he said, nudging her in the upper arm. “If I didn’t know any better, I might think we were made for each other.”
“Not a chance.”
Oh, this was going exceptionally well. She was happy, joking with him, and sharing her drink.
Every once in a while, he caught her glancing up at him when she thought he wasn’t looking.
Once, he took a chance, while she was busy staring at the sunset, and held her hand for a moment.
She looked up into his eyes, and he leaned down closer to her.
And he was sure, one hundred percent certain even, that he was about to have his first kiss with her.
And then her phone rang.
She pulled it out to see who was calling and gave him an apologetic look. “It’s my mom. Sorry. I have to take it. If I don’t answer when she calls, she assumes I’m dead in a ditch somewhere.”
“No worries,” he said, and she answered her phone.
“Hello?” she said. “Hey, Mom. What’s going on?” She stood and gave Cole a quick peck on the cheek. “I’ll be right back,” she said to him. “Enjoy the sunset, but don’t eat all the appetizers.” She winked and smiled and made her way into the restaurant to presumably take the call out front.
Cole supposed it was the most polite thing she could do under the circumstances, but something in him was uneasy about her being out of sight.
He was always a bit jumpy when it came to certain situations, so he told himself to stop overreacting.
It was funny, really. He was so confident in his ability to protect his partner doing the most dangerous version of every stunt, but if she stepped out of his view on a date, he started to panic.
He forced himself to sit and wait. He finished his drink.
He checked his watch. It had been five minutes, and to Cole, that seemed way too long.
His gut was telling him to check, and while he could try to fight it for a minute or two, he knew better than to fight it completely.
Listening to his gut had gotten him out of more than one deadly situation in the past. He was not about to ignore it now.
He rose from his seat and made his way through the bar, dodging waiters and patrons alike.
The closer he got to the front entrance, the more he knew something wasn’t right.
When he stepped outside, for a moment, he was relieved.
Heather stood on the edge of the curb, happily chatting into her phone.
Cole wondered whether she was talking about the date with her mother and hoped she had good things to say about him.
In an instant, though, a dark van drove up to her, a man in a mask leapt out and pushed her from behind, while four arms from within the van pulled her toward them. Cole shot forward, desperate to reach them, but he was too far, and they were too fast.
He didn’t have time to make a plan. He relied, instead, on his instincts.
The kidnappers started to drive away before the door was even closed.
Cole shouted for the people around the van to notice, to do something, but everyone nearby was more confused than anything.
He couldn’t even have been sure they had seen and understood what just happened in front of them.
They probably thought it was just some elaborate prank.
Heather had been so taken aback that she hadn’t even had a moment to scream.
Cole ran toward his car, his eyes constantly darting back toward the van to see which direction it was driving in.
He doubted they had noticed his presence.
If anything, Heather had probably looked like a woman who was alone, waiting for a ride, an easy target.
They probably weren’t driving evasively, which meant the direction they exited the bar parking lot from would say something about which highway they were heading toward.
There wasn’t a moment to spare. He hopped into his car, taking his eyes off the van for only a second.
When he looked back again, it had disappeared, but Cole had been smart enough to mark the direction it was heading.
There was a specific route they appeared to be taking that led to a highway.
That would be the most likely route to take for a number of destinations.
Once again, Cole followed his gut. He peeled out of the parking lot in the same direction as the van and headed straight for the highway.
There was no time to second-guess, no time for questions or doubts.
He briefly thought of the fact that he’d just dined and dashed at his favorite bar, but he was certain Mike would understand.
He would pay his bill later. Right now, all the mattered was getting Heather back.
Cole had no way of knowing what these people wanted with her. All he could do was hope that whatever it was, it would require them to keep her alive and deliver her unharmed to whatever location they were heading toward.
He entered the highway and held down the gas pedal until he was going well over the speed limit.
If anyone started chasing him with sirens, all the better.
More attention couldn’t possibly be a bad thing.
Like an idiot, he had left his phone at the bar, so calling the police wasn’t an option right now.
Just when he began to lose hope, he spotted it up ahead — the van. It had slowed down to the speed limit. They clearly were not interested in attracting the kind of attention Cole would have welcomed right now.
As soon as he was tailing them, Cole slowed down.
The last thing he wanted to do was start a high-speed chase.
As long as the people in the van, the men who had Heather, didn’t realize they were being followed, they would head straight to wherever they were planning on keeping her.
And Cole, for better or worse, had every intention of joining them there.
He had just begun to realize that he might have finally met someone he wanted to try a long-term relationship with.
That was something he would have told anyone was impossible two weeks ago.
Now that he had found her, he wasn’t willing to let her go, not for all the world.