Beloved Prey (Beloved Series #1)

Twenty Two

Patrick

My mind kept wandering to that weekend in Vegas the previous summer. When Ari climbed out of the taxi, the light in her eyes and the smile on her face instantly took my breath away, just as they had the day I met her. Once the four of us were together she told us about her phone call. The one phone call that changed the luck for our company. Her happiness that day was so infectious I felt anything was possible, and that included the possibility of her feeling the same way about me that I felt for her.

A few hours later, I got my own phone call. The one phone call that changed my luck and would take me away from her. After that phone call, I felt like I couldn't breathe. The timing was suddenly wrong once again. I reminded myself the separation would be temporary, and I would wait to tell her when she arrived in Canada.

I second guessed my decision all weekend. She seemed to sense something was wrong, and each time she asked time I told her I was just nervous about having to go to Canada to get the process going. I joked a few times that I was bummed that she wouldn't be around to keep me company and she said she was going to miss me. I came dangerously close to telling her right then, but I resisted.

I was due to leave for Toronto the Wednesday following our return that Sunday. The night before I left, she helped me haul the last of my stuff to the storage shed. She took me out to dinner, one last dinner at Paco's. Afterward, we went back to the apartment she shared with Nat and Petey. I was going to crash on their couch that night and Petey was going to take me to the airport in the morning. We stayed up most of the night just talking. Yet again, I came close to confessing my feelings. However, I lost my nerve and then we fell asleep snuggled together on the couch.

The next morning, I awoke and found her sleeping on me, her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and watched her sleep for half an hour before I got up to get ready for my flight. I memorized every part of her face, promising myself that I would tell her as soon as she arrived in Canada. She woke up and made me French Toast one last time. After breakfast, I told her there was something I needed to talk to her about the next time I saw her. She asked what it was, and I told her I couldn't tell her yet. She looked at me strangely, but agreed to wait. Before I left for the airport, I hugged her to me tightly and fought the urge to kiss her. Her big green eyes locked with mine and she told me she would miss me. It took every last ounce of strength I had to turn away from her and leave. As the plane took off for Toronto, my heart ached.

As I paced back and forth in my living room in the condo, that regret now tortured me. If I had told her how I felt that weekend, we would've started dating then and would be nearing our one-year anniversary. We would have had a year of happiness. Together.

More importantly, things would have been drastically different when she went to that conference in Vegas. Her path might have crossed with James, but there wouldn't have been the drunken hook-up. He wouldn't have come to Palo Alto and hurt her. He wouldn't have tracked her to Toronto. He wouldn't have set up cameras in her house, spied on her, or assaulted her on her birthday.

Had I manned up that one damn weekend, he wouldn't have her in his clutches right now.

"Patrick, please stop pacing. You're driving me crazy," Nat sniffed from the couch. Her eyes were red and puffy.

The police were trying to chase every lead on her disappearance. Mike, her usual security guard, had called in sick that day, and was now missing. The security company had a record of someone calling to cancel the service, but no name was given and the call had been untraceable. The police searched Ari's house and the "spy house" as I now called it for clues, and found none.