50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Chapter Seventy-Eight

    There were several sightings of Palmer in Washington, D.C.

    "He went back," Destiny said, looking up from the laptop she had resting in her lap. She frowned at Brian. "What are you looking at?"

    Brian stood at the living room window, holding the curtains aside. He peered out into the night with a worried look on his face. "The cop car that was parked on the street when we pulled in...it's still there."

    "We should be glad he is there," she muttered, tucking hair behind her ear. "Did you hear what I said?"

    "No, I'm sorry." Brian let the curtain fall and stepped away from the window. "Since we don't know how far Palmer's reach is, seeing any car parked outside of my house, cop car or not, just makes me nervous."

    "So go out there and ask why he's there," Destiny suggested.

    He shook his head. "No, maybe you're right. I should be grateful that he's out there."

    She studied him. "You really do look nervous." She set her laptop beside her and stood up. "If you want me to, I'll ask."

    He laughed. "Send you out there for me? I'd never do that." With a sigh, he picked up the laptop and sat down on the couch. "Maybe the cops have finally wised up and are trying to keep an eye out for Palmer."

    She snapped her fingers. "Which brings me back to what I was telling you in the first place. If the cops are keeping an eye out for Palmer, they won't find him. He's back in D.C. But no signs of Aubrey anywhere. He hasn't been spotted."

    "So the question is, did Palmer take Aubrey with him, or did he hide Aubrey here somewhere?"

    "The video footage we saw of Aubrey was in an airport," she said, thinking out loud. "Maybe instead of flying off to some vacation destination, Aubrey was flying to D.C. I don't know...maybe Palmer was at the same airport."

    "The whole airport thing could have been for show," Brian pointed out, looking at the laptop monitor and looking over the Palmer sightings that Destiny found.

    She sat back down and leaned close so she could look at the monitor. "I feel like...I feel like he's in D.C. I don't think Palmer would keep him here, where he could easily be recognized."

    "I know we know him as Aubrey now, but he's Drake," Brian said. "Everyone would recognize him, no matter where he was."

    "Obviously, I know that," she said, looking up at him. "But think about it: having Aubrey go to the airport is risking him alerting authorities or running away or something. If you were kidnapping someone, would you take that risk without actually having him get on a plane? He flew somewhere. Palmer is in D.C. now. I'd be willing to bet that if we looked into it, Palmer flew out of the airport the same day that news report aired. So...call the private investigator. Have him check that. If we can confirm it, then we should be buying plane tickets to D.C."

    Brian narrowed his eyes at her. "You're that sure?" he asked.

    She nodded. "I am, yeah."

    "Okay. I'll put the call in to the P.I." Brian rose from the couch. "If he's able to confirm that, then we wouldn't even have to meet with him. We would head straight to D.C. in that case, like you said."

    She tucked one leg beneath her on the couch while watching him cross the room to retrieve his phone. Then she closed her laptop and placed it on the coffee table.

    The phone call that Brian placed was short and to the point. After ending the call, Brian said, "The P.I. said that he should that information within the next few hours."

    Her brows shot up. "That quick?"

    "Yeah." He pocketed his cell phone and started to pace. "We might finally be getting somewhere with this."

    "Then we're that much closer to bringing Aubrey back home," Destiny said, and the reality of that really hit home. We're that much closer to me having to face him after I've developed feelings for Brian. If his mother, who's only talked to me a handful of times, was able to take one look at me and know...

    Brian stopped pacing and stared at her. "Are you okay?"

    She bobbed her head up and down. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." I just don't know how I'm going to face Aubrey after all I've done. Out of the two amazing men I've grown attached to, I don't know how I'm supposed to choose just one of them. I feel like there's only one I can choose, but I don't want to hurt the other one. I wish I could have some 'Weird Science' type of experience and combine Aubrey and Brian into one perfect man, but...that isn't how the world works. I can only choose one.

    Brian walked over and gently closed her laptop. "How about...we put on a movie *while we wait for the P.I. to call back?"

    "That's a good idea," she said softly. Anything to distract me from these repetitive thoughts that keep going through my head. The same thoughts keep popping up and I haven't gotten any closer to a resolution, any closer to a way to have this entire mess end well for everyone involved.

    He picked up the remote control and carried it over to the armchair near the living room window.

    "Why are you sitting all the way over there?" she asked him.

    "Because I'm trying to give you space," he answered, pressing a button on the remote and turning on the television. "I don't want to smother you, not when..."

    Not when Aubrey is pretty much guaranteed to be coming back home, she finished for him. "Please don't sit all the way over there," she pleaded.

    He looked at her for a long moment. "I think it's best if we start to..." He paused, looking for the right word. "Disengage."

    That's how nice he is. Again, he's trying to end things definitively so I won't have to. "But..."

    He sat down in the armchair. "It's okay," he told her. "You don't have to worry about me."

    Those words should have calmed her down, should have made her feel better. Less guilty. Less worried about hurting his feelings. She knew in her mind and her heart that she was going to choose Aubrey. It had to be Aubrey. His mother was right; there wasn't much deciding that needed to be done. By sitting all the away across the room from her and telling her that they should disengage, Brian was pretty much saying that he knew she would choose Aubrey, assuring her that he would be okay. So...why didn't she feel better? Why did she feel just as shitty as ever? And why now, more than ever, did she ache to be closer to Brian?