Page 23 of Let It Burn (The Barrington Billionaires 4)
They shared another laugh as they headed back. As they approached the spot where the path widened, Andrew stopped and brought Helene to a halt beside him. There was something he wanted to say before they were with her parents again. “Helene?”
“Yes?”
“What you do here is remarkable. Thank you for sharing it with me.”
The gentle smile she gave him shot right through the walls he’d built around his heart and shook him to the core. As if she knew he needed a little comic relief, she joked, “We’ll see if you’re singing the same tune tomorrow after you clean out a few pens.”
He chuckled, knowing he would be. Manual labor had never scared him. As Emmitt had reminded him, his head was in a better place when he kept his body busy. There was lightness in his step as they started walking again. For the first time in a very long time, he was where he wanted to be.
Chapter Thirteen
Ten days later, Helene was driving back after meeting with a concerned gas station owner who had expressed a fear that having a panther in his area would put his employees in danger. He’d become more and more vocal as the date of the panther’s release neared. Armed with maps, data, and the phone numbers of people who had accepted panthers into their area without incident, she’d spent over an hour reassuring him. Although he couldn’t legally block the release of the panther, nervous people called animal control over every rustle in the bushes until an animal was considered a nuisance even if it wasn’t. What seemed to win him over in the end was the tag that made it possible to always know the location of the panther.
It had been an emotional meeting, and Helene was glad Andrew hadn’t attended with her. The man had yelled at her to get a few of his early points across. Helene was used to working through such conversations, but Andrew might have felt he needed to protect her. Thankfully the panther’s final veterinarian visit was that morning, and Helene’s father had requested Andrew’s assistance. If all went well, the still tranquilized panther would be loaded into his travel crate for his trip to freedom.
Andrew had originally said he would stay to witness that. Helene didn’t know if that meant he had plans to leave after the release. It was a topic they’d avoided since that first day at the rescue.
There were a growing number of those—topics they pretended were non-issues. Although they’d spent every day together and slipped away each evening for a blissful romp at a hotel, Andrew had kept parts of himself closed to her. He wouldn’t talk about his family. He avoided any mention of his time in the Marines. Without discussing it, they’d come to a mutual agreement to not talk about what had happened in Aruba.
It was impossible to be upset with Andrew for what he withheld because he was so wonderful in other ways. He not only helped out at the rescue, he also seemed to genuinely enjoy her parents, and they liked him. He’d encouraged Helene to join him each morning for a run, a feat that had been hellish for her at first, but was getting easier. She didn’t have his stamina, but when she needed to walk, he walked beside her. He’d ask her a question and listen as if the sound of her voice was a pleasure to him.
On the outside they looked like any other couple, but Helene knew they couldn’t go on this way indefinitely. She was unable to talk with anyone about her gnawing sadness over her uncle. Andrew had found a place where he could escape whatever haunted him, but avoidance wasn’t the same as healing. The pain she’d witnessed in Aruba was there, locked within him, and it was only a matter of time before something would make him face it again. Would he find another place to hide when that happened?
We’re lovers. I’d like to think we’ve become friends. Are we more? Is more even possible for two people who met the way we did?
Helene pulled onto the dirt road that led to the gate of the rescue. A convertible Maserati was stopped in front of the gate. The driver was in a charcoal suit, and his hand was hovering over the keypad. It wasn’t unusual for someone Helene didn’t know to come to the rescue, but when the man swung around to look at her it was obvious he wasn’t happy. He turned the engine of his car off and got out, slamming the door of the convertible.
Who was he? And what was he doing there? There was only one way to find out. Helene stepped out of her vehicle.
He strode toward her and the dark expression on his face brought back how Helene had felt in Aruba when she’d realized her uncle was afraid enough to desert her. Fear. She took a step back and rethought the wisdom of facing him on her own. He wasn’t one of the people after her uncle, was he? “Who are you?” she called out.
“Who are you?” he snapped back.
Helene had never been the type to turn and run, but she’d left her cell phone in the car and was quickly realizing how foolish that might have been. She decided she didn’t care what he thought of her, before she gave into the panic that was nipping at her, she needed to ask her father if he was expecting anyone.
She bolted back into her car, closed and locked the door. Frantically, she searched through her purse for her phone and dialed her father’s number. No answer.
The man was already at her car window. He knocked on it and told her to lower it. She shook her head and waved her phone at him. He threw his hands, yelled something to her, then strode back to his car. Ring. Ring. Ring. No answer.
The man reached inside his car for something and was turning around with it in his hand when bullets rained down in a straight line between the cars. Helene screamed. The man spun, ducked down, and ran to the passenger side of her car. He was yelling again and trying to open it.
Okay, this shit is real. Her parents and Andrew were inside the rescue. She dialed Andrew. Everything she’d held in, every fear she’d pushed aside, came rushing in until she couldn’t think. As soon as he answered, she cried out, “They’re here. They found us. Please keep my parents safe. Promise me you won’t let anything happen to them.”
Andrew had been smiling when he’d answered his phone. His time with Helene and her family had filled him with a sense of peace he hadn’t thought he’d ever find again. Like her, they didn’t require him to be perfect. He was beginning to feel that he’d finally found where he belonged. He’d not only found a woman he couldn’t get enough of and a cause that needed him, but, in a similar way to how she felt, the rescue made sense to him.
I fit here.
A few minutes earlier her father had been lamenting about how he hated shooting tranquilizer darts when the animal was as far away as the panther was. Andrew had held out a hand, her father had handed the rifle over, and Andrew had made the shot easily. The proud look in Art’s eyes was what Andrew had
always missed with his own father.
Then he heard the panic in Helene’s voice and instantly transformed to Marine mode. He barked for Art and the veterinarian to go back to the house and get Rose inside as well. “Get back to the main house.”
“What the hell is going on?” Art demanded.
“I don’t know yet,” Andrew said, then turned his attention back to Helene. “Where are you? What do you mean they found us?”
“I’m at the gate. Someone is shooting at me from the trees. There’s a man trying to get into my car. This has to be the people my uncle was afraid of. Who else could it be? Oh, my God. I don’t know what to do.”
“Get out of there,” Andrew commanded.
“I can’t. I can’t leave. Should I ram his car? What do I do?”
Andrew turned to Dr. Robbins. “Give me the keys to your truck.” When the man hesitated, Andrew barked, “Now.” As soon as he had the keys, he said, “I’m coming. If someone is shooting from the trees and not hitting anyone, that’s my men, and those were warning shots. Who’s at your car?”
“Your men?” Art asked, grabbing Andrew’s arm to halt him.
“I don’t know. I don’t know who he is, but he’s not happy.” Then Helene asked in a panic at the same time, “What do you mean your men?”
“I told you I’d keep you safe,” Andrew said to Helene. To Art, he said, “I’ll explain later.”
“No way. I’m coming with you,” Art said. “What kind of trouble have you brought to my family?”
