Runaway Love Page 6

  “Why not you? You are incredibly beautiful, and I’d love to get to know you better.” He took a step closer to me and grabbed a tendril of hair that had fallen from my haphazard attempt at a ponytail and twirled it around his fingers.

  He wasn’t looking into my eyes but rather at my lips. Unaware, I bit my lip.

  Did I want to go out with Charlie? I think if I didn’t I would end up regretting it. It would be a case of shoulda, coulda, woulda.

  I sighed, trying to appear not overly excited, which was a huge task whenever your heart was slamming forcibly against your ribs.

  I made a judgment call and said the one word that would change my world forever, “Okay.”

  (Declan Smith)

  I couldn’t believe how easy it was to find out if Maggie was working. You’d think the hospital would have more semblance of confidentiality. Oh right, all I had to do was smile at the receptionist bimbo and she was readily willing to agree with anything that came out of my mouth.

  I could’ve told her to bend over the desk and she would’ve had her skirt pulled up around her waist and her panties discarded by the time I made it around the desk. It didn’t matter to her that she was in public and that anyone could see me fucking her.

  My name is Declan Smith, and I have a very special way with women. I am an extremely powerful man, and genuinely someone you don’t want to cross. I am eminently vain, and I’m not in the least bit ashamed to admit that. I won’t deny what’s obviously true.

  I was wanted all over the United States for human and drug trafficking and I was normally invisible. No one had ever been close to finding me.

  Until Now.

  Until Charlie Hennings.

  And I have Mason Walker to thank for that, the stupid fuckup. He practically served me to Charlie on a silver platter.

  Mason’s sister, Maggie, has been pin pointed by Charlie’s radar, which is making him even more hell-bent on exposing me.

  Mason has now went rogue and into hiding and he wasn’t responding to my numerous outreaches. He owed me money and needed to be taught a lesson.

  I was forwarding this one warning to him through Maggie before I turned to more drastic measures.

  Cracking my knuckles, I looked up in time to see Charlie making his way towards the hospitals exit.

  My point made, invisible. He didn’t even notice me and here I was merely fifteen feet from the man.

  Some successful FBI Agent he was, I bet he didn’t even know that I was even well aware of who he was. Having money could buy many, many things, and the best thing of all was the inside scoop on the police and other subsidiaries.

  Although, it could be the result of the ridiculously dopey grin that was plastered on his face. Stupid pansy fuck.

  I could have ten guesses, but all I’d need was one, he just left Maggie.

  Tired of being kept waiting, I raised myself out of the chair, readjusted my tie, and went about making my way down the hospital corridors to find Miss Walker.

  I immediately knew it was her once I approached a woman sitting at the nurse’s station, when she didn’t automatically raise her head to look at me.

  “Miss Walker a word, please,” I articulated sternly.

  Her instinctive reaction was to raise her head and arch her eyebrows to where they were practically reaching her hairline.

  “Uh...can I h...help you?” she stammered.

  Studying her, I almost thought about forgoing the warning and going straight for the punishment. This girl was not overly beautiful, but beautiful enough in her own mousy, homely way.

  The most attractive thing about her was her innocence.

  You could smell the purity.

  Now, I knew my women, and this one sitting here in front of me perched upon a stool screamed virgin.

  Being twenty-four and a virgin was a rarity, but extremely exciting nevertheless.

  I could easily sell her for double what I could normally get from someone more experienced.

  This information made me deliriously happy and caused my dick to twitch in my pants. I liked the idea of taking a virgin almost as much as I liked the amount of money I could make off of her.

  Almost.

  “You can help me out by passing along a little message to your darling brother for me.”

  Her posture straightened as her body tensed. I could tell by the scared shitless look she gave that she would do as I told her. Being submissive was embedded in her nature. I exuded authority and she had made a wise decision in listening to my commands.

  “You tell dear Mason that I want my money and I want it yesterday. He needs to come out of hiding and face me like the piece of shit he is. He already knows not to mess with me and well, let’s just say that he’s just let the lion loose out of his cage. Next time I won’t be as forthcoming.”

  Her eyes were wide and her mouth agape. I could see her physically trembling as she was taking my warning to heart.

  Splendid.

  “Who are you?” A rather large African American nurse asked as she walked up behind a shaking Maggie, glaring at me.

  “You may call me Declan.” I spun around on my heel and moved forth to leave, but I needed to heed another warning so I spun back around, facing the two nurses who were still watching me and kept slowly walking backwards.

  I busied my hands by digging into my pressed Armani suit jacket to retrieve a cigarette.

  “Oh and Miss Walker, do tell that boyfriend of yours to back off or he will get what’s coming to him as well.” And with my last warning having reached her, I spun around once again, hearing a loud gasp coming from the women.

  I traveled back down the corridors I came from just moments earlier, passing by the bimbo receptionist. I gave her a lopsided smirk before placing my unlit cigarette between my lips.

  My work here was done, for now.

  (Charlie)

  I didn’t think that I could’ve found Maggie at a better time. I knew it was morally wrong to eavesdrop on a conversation, especially between a nurse and their patient, but with the direction the discussion was headed, I figured I’d be in the clear.

  The old man was obviously sweet on her and honestly who could blame him.

  I loved seeing her cheeks tinged pink whenever she was embarrassed, which seemed to be quite often.

  When her eyes cut to mine, I felt the breath leave my body. She was insanely beautiful even in her scrubs.

  Visions of Maggie Walker had been constantly running through my thoughts on repeat. It was borderline obsessive behavior, but was quickly becoming something I craved.

  I was ecstatic that she accepted my request to take her out for dinner, even if she did seem a bit hesitant. Now, I have to come up with a kickass date that she’d never forget.

  I was on cloud nine as I was walking out of the hospital. I was thinking of all the ways that I wanted to kiss her, which was an obscene amount, that I didn’t even recall my walk to my car.

  Getting into my Camaro and feeling my phone vibrate in my front pocket, I dug into my jeans and pulled it out to see that my father was calling.

  My dad and I hadn’t been on actual speaking terms for a while. I’d mostly been relaying messages back and forth through my mother, who called us stubborn children for the way we’d each been acting. So it came as somewhat of a shock to me why my father would be calling at this moment. I finally got to the point to where I was fed up with him trying to control my life. Getting out of my profession and not following in his footsteps sounded more and more appealing every day.

  Sliding my finger across the screen of my cell phone to accept the call, I placed the phone to my ear, “Hello?”

  “Charles...” Paul Hennings breathed into the other end of the line.

  He never would call me Charlie, which further grew my irritation with him. I put the key in the ignition and listened as my Camaro fired up. Putting my baby into gear, I decided to go through with the inevitable; I needed to get this conversation over with.

 
“To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?” I replied a bit too oppressive.

  “Charles don’t be cocky, it doesn’t suit you.” Reining in my anger, I thought it’d be best just to be silent. “I’m calling to personally see how you are doing on the Smith case? Your supervisors want this case wrapped up as soon as possible. I know they’d like to put your skills to better use on another case.”

  Therein lies the problem, to me human and drug trafficking seemed pretty damn important, not only getting the drug portion off of the streets, but keeping women safe from being sold into a wealthy man’s harem.

  Taking a brief moment to gather my thoughts as to how I wanted to address what my father just said, I was thankfully interrupted by the call waiting signal.

  Removing my phone from my ear to see who it was, Maggie Calling flashed across the screen. Only having put her number in my phone just mere minutes ago, I was somewhat confused as to why she’d be calling, but glad nonetheless.

  “Hey dad, I have an important call coming through, I’ve gotta take this. Talk to you later,” or not, I thought as I pressed on the screen of my phone to accept Maggie’s call.

  “Hello?” I mumbled into the phone, a little bit too excitedly. Man I was turning into a wuss.

  “Charlie?!” Maggie cried into the phone. The terrifying way in which she sounded made my stomach drop.

  Slamming on my brakes, hearing the squealing of my tires, I immediately pulled into the nearest parking lot. “What’s wrong Maggie?”

  “A man came by looking for Mason, he said he owed him a lot of money and to come out of hiding and face him like a man,” her voice stammered a bit. “He also said to tell my boyfriend to back off or he’d also get what’s coming to him. I don’t have a boyfriend, so I’m assuming he meant you? What the hell is going on?”

  Panic rose within my chest. Had Declan grown impatient with waiting for Mason?

  “Did the guy tell you his name?”

  “All he said was to call him Declan and then he left. Marjorie was about to go bat shit crazy on the man. She came up while he was in the middle of threatening Mason. I’ve got to talk to Mason and see what the hell he has done!”

  “Fuck!” I shouted as I hit my fist on the steering wheel, a little too hard at that. I needed to put a stop to Mason and Declan. “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure everything will be ok. Mason probably just backed out of a job for the man or something.” Trying my best to get her mind off of the subject and evade her questioning. I couldn’t expose myself, not now.

  “Oh, ok,” she relented, almost a little too quickly.

  Everything went quiet on Maggie’s end. I checked my phone to make sure we were still connected.

  “Maggie, are you still there?

  “Uh yeah,” she said softly, so soft it was barely a whisper, “I’m sorry to have bothered you. I have to get back to work.” She quickly disconnected.

  We were going to have to talk about her shyness, hopefully I would be able to break into her shell somewhat easily. She should never ever apologize for calling me. Even if it was for a quick hello, I would always want to hear her melodic voice.

  Pulling up Hunter Severin’s name on my contact list, I pressed to connect the call and took a deep breath.

  Things just took a shitty turn, and I’d be damned if I allowed them to put Maggie in the middle of it.

  It was time to find Mason Walker and ultimately Declan Smith, and put an end to this shit.

  “Severin,” Hunter answered.

  “Hunt, I need you to try and run a trace on Mason Walker, it’s time I brought him in. I need to nail Declan Smith and fast!”

  He could tell by my tone that I wasn’t kidding around, this needed to be done and now.

  “Gotcha,” he replied.

  “Oh and uh,” I was hesitant to ask my next question, but if there was anything that needed to be seen, it was better to see it now before I became even more attached. “Can you send me the file on Margaret Walker? I need to see if there is anything tying her to this case,” which I hoped to hell there wasn’t.

  “Sure Charlie, you kinda sweet on Walker’s sister, eh?”

  “Just shut the hell up and do it!” I hollered into the phone.

  “No way, not until you say please,” Hunter joked, always the joker.

  “Fuck you, man!”

  “Nah, no thanks you aren’t my type, I like my men with hair on their chests. Now, I have work to do. Over and out...” Hunter chuckled as he disconnected the call.

  Severin was always good for a laugh, but he was also incredibly useful, intellectual wise. He could hack his way into any computer system without even breaking a sweat.

  A few minutes later, I received an e-mail from Hunt.

  FROM: Hunter Severin

  TO: Charlie Hennings, UCA

  SUBJECT: Margaret Walker

  Chuck, attached is the file on Miss Margaret Walker. If I do say so myself, which I obviously do, she is one sweet looking piece of tail. I sure wouldn’t mind having a taste of that. ;)

  HS

  Anger coursed through my veins, I didn’t appreciate anyone talking about Maggie like that, especially my so called friend and co-worker.

  She wasn’t a piece of tail that was ripe for the picking. She was a good honest woman, I hoped, and deserved to be treated as such. She deserved to be shown the world, loved and cherished. I was nowhere near a good, honest man, but I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to become a man that deserved her everything.

  (Maggie)

  I just barely made it home after my sixteen hour shift. Lucky for me, I got to do it all over again tomorrow.

  Tomorrow’s work day seriously couldn’t get any worse than todays.

  Today shall be dubbed the day from hell. Getting my things together and getting into my steamy shower, I reminisced over todays activities as I washed away the stress of the day. My hang over headache still hadn’t subsided. My visit from Mr. Big, Powerful, and Really Freaking Scary, which I still didn’t know what to think about that. My idiot brother was obviously dabbling where he had absolutely no business dabbling into, and what’s worse was he’d brought it right on my freaking doorstep.

  Pouring my peaches and cream scented shampoo into my hands and lathering my hair, I thought about the good aspects of the day. Chatting with Mr. Winiger was always a top favorite of mine; he knew just what to say to put a smile on my face. And I guess seeing Charlie could be considered a good thing as well, the jury was still out on that verdict.

  What was with him asking me out and me accepting no less? I’ll claim it as a moment of weakness.

  If he only knew how wrong we were for each other. I was shy, inexperienced, and clearly not a social butterfly. I think I’ll just end up making a complete fool of myself.

  At least today was a better day. No crazy interruptions, although I did get a few texts from Charlie.

  Charlie: Hi beautiful! What are your plans for Saturday?

  I’m sure you could guess that I blushed, and most definitely swooned after reading that.

  Me: Since I’m working another 16 hrs, I plan to sleep until noon, but nothing after that! Why?

  Charlie: Can I pick you up around 4:30 for our date?

  I hugged my phone because I was so giddy with excitement. I had trouble remembering that I was at work when all I wanted to do was dance around.

  Me: That sounds perfect! See you then!

  I also proceeded to give him my address. It wasn’t long before I had another ding from my text chime.

  Charlie: I can’t wait! Enjoy the rest of your day and don’t work too hard, beautiful! ;)

  This time I didn’t care. I looked around the hallway to make sure no one was coming, and I started jumping up and down!

  “Girl, you need to rein that shit in,” Marjorie said, as she came up behind me.

  I stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn’t believe I was being so unprofessional, and in front of my boss no less.

  I lowered my head to the
ground, and said, “I’m so sorry, I just got a little excited. It won’t happen again.”

  “Girl, cut that shit out too. I was just messing with ya. You don’t have to be all business all the time. Now, tell ol’ Marjorie what’s got you so excited,” she said in a playful tone and winked.

  “Oh, I uh. I’m going out on my first date tomorrow.”

  “Oh Lordy! You’ve never been on a date? How’d that happen? You sure are pretty enough.” Marjorie boasted.

  I did not want to be having this conversation now, with my boss, of all people. I needed to get out of this.

  Someone must have been listening to my plea because one of my patients pressed the nurse call button…Henry, I could kiss him right now.

  “Excuse me Marjorie, but I need to take this.”

  I didn’t even bother with asking Henry what he needed through the intercom; I just went directly towards his room.

  Walking into his room, I saw that he was sitting up watching T.V.

  “I got your page Henry. Was there something that you needed?”

  “No, I just thought you needed saving. I heard Marjorie’s loud ass mouth clear in here, harassing Missy about never having been on a date. So, tell me since I came to your rescue like the white knight that I am, is your date with the gentleman eavesdropper from yesterday?”

  Sighing, I said, “Yes, his name is Charlie. And he will be accompanying me on my first date. I’m not so sure he is aware that this is my first.”

  “Well, now listen here. I have all girls myself, three of them. And I’m going to tell you what I told each of them. You make sure he treats you with respect and he had better be a perfect gentleman or he will have me to answer to. I may not look like much more than an old bag of bones,” he indicated towards the covers where his frail body rested, “but I can deliver a tongue lashing like nobody’s business. You hear me Missy?” Henry exclaimed while pointing a finger in my direction.

  That was something that I’d been wondering about. I scooted a chair closer to Mr. Winiger’s bed and took a seat.