Free All of Me (Inside Out Series Book 6) by Lisa Renee Jones Page A

tears from her eyes.
    I laugh and hug her. “I’m just a phone call away.”
    She holds onto me a little too hard and a little too long to pass for a casual good-bye, and I can’t help but think that her promises of being unattached to Tristan are about as real as mine were with Chris. I lean back and study her, my hands on her shoulders. “You can come out here anytime, and you can always call me. About anything. Including Tristan.”
    She shoves her hands into the pockets of her trench coat. “I know that now—and I’m glad I do.”
    I can’t stop myself from saying, “Text me when you get home. That little fuel-saver car of yours scares me.”
    “Everyone drives small cars here.”
    “It’s terrifyingly small for a highway. Text me. Please.”
    “I’m not going straight home.”
    I see the comment as the test it most certainly is, and I aspire to pass my exam. “Then text me when you get to Tristan’s.”
    Her lips curve. “Okay.”
    I open the heavy wooden door and we step out onto the stone porch, a gust of cold wind blasting us. Chantal huddles into her coat, and I wish I had one. Shivering, I hug myself, and frown at the sight of Chris and Rey standing in the driveway beside Rey’s car.
    “What is he doing here?” Chantal asks tightly.
    “I don’t know,” I say, a gnawing, horrible sensation in my chest.
    Rey is wearing a ski jacket, his keys in his hand. Chris is in a T-shirt, as if he’d rushed out to keep his unexpected guest outside. Rey says something to Chris, who scrubs his jaw in obvious frustration. Rey is trying to find Ella, and whatever he has to say, Chris isn’t happy about.
    “I’m going to take off,” Chantal announces, rushing down the stairs. Both men look up, Chris focusing on me, Rey on Chantal, his gaze stormy, and I know she’s running from him. Rey goes in pursuit of her and Chris walks toward me, the set of his jaw grim.
    My mind is all over the place. I want to run to Chris and demand answers. I want to run away like Chantal and pretend this isn’t happening. I want to be back in my dress, with Chris kissing me and this being one of the happiest days of my life.
    Too soon, yet not soon enough, Chris stops in front of me, his big, strong hands coming down on my shoulders as he walks me back into the foyer, kicking the door shut, an act that says Rey isn’t getting an invitation inside. “Nothing is wrong, baby. Stop looking like that.”
    “If nothing is wrong, why are you acting like something’s wrong? Why is Rey here? It’s Ella, isn’t it?”
    “Nothing is wrong.”
    “Chris. I know your body language. I know you were upset. And you didn’t say it wasn’t Ella.”
    “Sara. No. Deep breath, baby.”
    My fingers close around his shirt. “Tell me what’s going on.”
    “Rey called me and said he had information he didn’t want to give me over the phone because it’s too sensitive.”
    “What information?”
    “We don’t know if this has any merit, but he has a contact inside Neville’s operation who says Neville believes Ella is alive, and he’s issued a reward for bringing her to him alive.”
    “That’s good, right?”
    “Yes and no. Alive is good. A reward for keeping her alive is good. Being hunted by someone connected to the mob is not. And buying information directly from someone inside the mob is not smart. It’s a potential blackmail situation that could end in very dangerous places.”
    “Are you saying we can’t buy the information?”
    “We can’t, but someone else can for us. That means using the contractors Rey suggests. So far, Blake says they’re ghosts; he has nothing on them, good or bad. I don’t like dealing with people we don’t know. I’m agreeing to use them for this one purchase to put distance between us and Neville, but I want them vetted before we go further.”
    Emotion punches at me, my eyes burning. “Chris. She really might be alive?”
    “We don’t know if this is real.”
    “But it’s a really