Run To You by Rachel Gibson Page A

breathing and calmed down.
    For some reason, the thought of getting on a plane and living out her childhood dream had finally shoved her into the panic attack she’d been avoiding since Ricky had grabbed her last night. It scared her more than mobsters busting into her apartment. Although that had scared her plenty.
    She slowly let her breath out and placed her forearms on her thighs. Sadie had hired Beau Junger to find her. Sadie wanted to meet Stella. So what was so scary? What had kept her from getting on that American flight to Texas?
    Stella relaxed her shoulders and stared at the toes of her boots. What was she afraid of? she asked herself, even though she knew the answer. Long ago she’d figured out that sometimes people just didn’t like her. Whether it was her sense of humor or her outlook on life, some people didn’t think she was as funny as she thought she was. Others didn’t like her lack of focus. She did seem to flit from job to job and place to place. There were even those in her own family who didn’t like her. They called her guera . White girl, and they didn’t mean it in a good way. They thought she was spoiled because of her father’s money, but the money had never been hers. The trust was in her name, but she’d never had any control over it.
    Tears stung the backs of Stella’s eyes. She felt like a kid again, lying on her bed, alone in her room as one of her biggest fears rolled through her head. What if Sadie didn’t like her? She’d rather live her whole life not knowing her sister than have Sadie look at her like some people did. Like their own father had.
    As the first tear dripped on the lens of her big sunglasses, the toes of black tactical boots appeared before her blurred vision.
    “You’re going to miss your flight.”
    She was almost relieved to hear his deep familiar voice. “How’d you find me?”
    “Your cell has a GPS.”
    She looked up. Up past his long legs and flat stomach, over his big chest and thick neck to the frown pulling at his mouth. “You got here pretty fast.”
    “I hadn’t gone far.”
    Her gaze continued to his gray eyes drilling into her. “Is Sadie paying you to make sure I get on the plane?”
    “No. I pulled into short-term to make some business calls.”
    With the sun pouring over his broad shoulders, he looked bigger than ever. “And to make sure I got on the plane.”
    A sharp nod confirmed her suspicion. “The next one doesn’t take off for three hours.”
    “Yeah.” She took off her sunglasses and wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. “I can’t get on it.”
    “Why?”
    She shrugged. “I just . . .” She lifted the hem of her dress and cleaned the lens of her glasses. “I don’t like heights.”
    “You’re afraid to fly?”
    She nodded. Much better to lie than tell him that she was afraid her sister wouldn’t like her.
    “Why didn’t you say that? I would have made other arrangements.”
    “You didn’t ask.” She returned the glasses to her face. “You just shoved a ticket at me.”
    He pulled out his phone and punched a few numbers. “Yeah,” he spoke into his cell. “I need you to look at bus schedules in Miami and find a ticket headed to Amarillo.”
    Stella stood. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but it for damn sure didn’t involve a bus. “Forget it. I’m not getting on a freaking bus.”
    His scowl reached his eyes. “I’ll have to get back to you.” He ended his conversation and shoved the phone in his pocket. “What are your plans, Stella?”
    Wow. That was frosty. Good. She liked frosty. It kind of snapped her out of her fog. She reached for her backpack and put it over one shoulder. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll . . .” What? “Maybe I’ll rent a car and go . . .” She stooped to pick up her duffel. “Somewhere for a while.” Until Ricky forgot about her. It couldn’t take too long. Could it?
    Mr. Stone Cold stared down at her. “Un-fucking-believable,” he said.