Chapter 18 #2
Nobody breathes until he crosses onto the deck.
North swings shuts the doors behind him.
Silence.
Then the four of us stand there in a line, watching him absolutely destroy a slice of cucumber through the glass.
“He eats like you,” I say to Luca.
Luca drags a hand over his face. “I resent that comparison.”
“Same level of commitment,” I say, grinning his way as he winks at me. Damn, he’s so sexy.
Ace leans his forehead against the glass, still grinning. “He saw your chest and took it personally.”
Luca looks down at himself, then at the bird. “That’s insane.”
North, still watching the rooster work through the plate, says, “He’ll be outside your window, Luca, watching you sleep.”
I turn to him. “Excuse me?”
“He’s found his nemesis.” North nods toward Luca with a smirk.
The rooster lifts his head from the cucumber, stares straight at Luca through the glass, and lets out one final, triumphant bwark.
Ace loses it all over again, holding his stomach from so much laughter.
Luca points at the bird. “I want it understood that this is not over, demon bird.”
The rooster returns to eating, which somehow feels like an answer.
North, already backing toward the hall, glances my way. “Get dressed and bring your swimsuit,” he says. “We’re going out.”
“We are?”
“Pretty sure I mentioned it yesterday.”
I blink at him and shake my head. “I don’t remember that.” Then again, yesterday was one long, emotional concussion, so that probably means nothing.
North disappears down the hall.
I turn to Ace and Luca, both of them still damp from the beach and far too amused for men who were just nearly taken out by a rooster. They drop onto the couch.
“You two also coming?” I ask.
Ace leans back against the couch, all easy calm and absolutely no intention of helping me. “Nope. We’ve got training at the tournament beach.”
“But have fun,” Luca says, and the way he says it makes me narrow my eyes. Both of them are smirking.
“What?” I ask slowly. “Why are you looking at me like that? Where’s he taking me?”
Ace and Luca glance at each other.
“It’s not the location,” Ace says.
Luca folds his arms. “It’s how much he was talking this morning about finally having you to himself for a few hours.”
I stare at them.
Then it clicks.
Oh.
OH!
Heat climbs straight up my neck.
Ace’s mouth curves. “Yeah.”
I clear my throat with as much dignity as possible. “Well. That sounds… fun. I can’t wait.”
Neither of them says anything. They just keep staring at me, and I point between them. “Do not make that face.”
“Maybe we should come,” Luca says.
“Nope,” I say immediately. “You’re busy and extremely committed to your training.”
Ace laughs. “You sure?”
“Yep.”
I back away toward the deck before either of them can make this worse, then slip outside so I can get dressed in the shack, as my clothes are still there.
If North is taking me out somewhere, I want actual clothes for the adventure.
And maybe a minute alone to get my pulse under control before I have to spend time with the Alpha who has apparently been talking about finally getting me to himself.
Fifteen minutes later, I’m sitting in North’s truck, my backpack in the rear seat. It’s enormous and silver and sits so high off the ground that climbing into the passenger seat requires climbing gear.
I pull the door shut, and his scent floods the truck completely. Pine and woodsmoke and, underneath them both, that salted caramel warmth, all of it so immediate and layered that I close my eyes for exactly three seconds and just breathe.
When I open them, he’s watching me. “You good?”
“Amazing, in fact.”
The corner of his mouth pulls upward, and damn him and that square jaw, the glint in his stare, the thick eyebrows that crown the most captivating brown eyes. “Ready?”
I nod and we’re moving. After the gates of their property open, he rolls us out onto the road and accelerates.
Oahu begins sliding past on both sides, the coast on one side, mountains on the other, brilliant and soothing in the morning.
I stare at his hands on the wheel. They’re large and strong, one resting easy on the top while the other controls the gear.
He catches me staring and wears a smug little grin. “You keep doing that…” he says, leaving the sentence unfinished.
My pulse gives one stupid kick. “Doing what?” I play dumb.
“Watching me like you’re trying to figure out whether I’m about to behave or make your life harder.”
His voice is low enough to sink straight under my skin.
God, that voice. Deep and steady and completely unfair in a confined space.
I shift in my seat, angling my face toward the window, and the ocean is suddenly the most fascinating thing on earth.
It isn’t. It’s the man driving this truck in a faded shirt with his forearm flexing every time he changes gears.
“Maybe both,” I say.
His mouth twitches at one corner. “Honestly?”
I shrug and give him a playful smile.
The truck hums along for another minute, tires eating up the miles, the air inside carrying salt and that sexy scent of his that has already become a problem for me. He makes me want to lean closer just to see what he’d do if I did.
I keep my hands firmly in my lap and try to be a person with self-control because I already lost control in the truck with Luca.
Then North says, “I actually have something I want to tell you. Now that I’ve got you to myself.”
The words slide through me like heat, and I twist toward him fully this time.
His eyes stay on the road. “Luca had discovered a tracker on your van at the garage from whoever’s been following you.
And I managed to find the people who put it there.
. I spoke to the man running that crew.” He changes lanes with that same smooth certainty he does everything with, while I’m frozen in my seat.
“He owed me. I collected. They’re cutting loose whoever hired them. They won’t keep following you.”
For a second, all I can do is stare at him. Is he serious? My heart is pounding at hearing this and how efficiently they took care of the problem.
“You did that for me?” I ask.
He nods, then glances over at me with the softest smile, and I’m still catching up with what he just revealed.
Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because I suddenly have too much.
Relief engulfs me so hard it nearly hurts, sharp and hot behind my ribs, and I have to turn my face toward the window for a second to blink away the tears.
“You really got rid of them,” I say softly. “God.”
His hand reaches over and settles on my thigh. It’s warm and heavy and completely comforting. “It doesn’t mean you’re clear,” he adds. “Whoever hired them can pay someone else. But it takes the pressure off for now. Gives us room to find who’s responsible and who might be looking for you next.”
I lean back and release a long breath, realizing he’s done something so huge for me that he may have put himself in danger. North glances at me briefly, then returns his attention to the road, his hand back on the gearshift. “Do you know who’s behind it?”
Of course I do.
Outside, the island keeps moving past in impossible beauty. Blue water. Bright roofs. Palms bending in the wind. And all I can see for a second is Daniel. At a charity event with his hand at the small of my back, steering instead of guiding, pressure to do as he said that night.
“Don’t ask questions tonight. Just smile.”
Then his office, when he was talking to that stranger about Thomas. And later, when Thomas was on the news, found dead.
My fingers curl tightly in my lap.
North notices immediately. His hand leaves the gearshift and settles on my thigh. “Easy,” he says.
That one word almost undoes me, and I place my hand over his, wanting his presence closer, his scent, anything he offers me.
Maybe I should tell him…
Don’t say it.
Say it.
If he’s protecting you, he needs the truth.
If you tell him, it draws him into your danger.
He’s already involved.
The fear crawls through me cold and quick now that I’m finally turning toward it properly. The knowledge of what Daniel is capable of. The quiet certainty that if he decides I’m worth removing, there are men who will do it for him if they get their hands on me.
North’s thumb presses once more into my thigh.
I suck in a shaky breath. “His name is Daniel Nixon.” Saying it out loud makes the cab feel smaller. “He owns the company I worked for. Lumen Creative in Los Angeles, a creative agency.” My voice is thinner than I want it to be, and I hate that. “I was also secretly dating him, my boss.”
North doesn’t interrupt or rush in to soothe the clearly stupid mistakes I made in the past. He just stays there beside me with his hand on my leg and all of his attention open.
So I keep going. “I heard him talking one night when I shouldn’t have been near his office. To a man I didn’t know. They were discussing someone.” I shake my head once. “And days later, that name was on the morning news when they found his body.” My throat closes for a second.
North’s hand tightens on my thigh.
“Afterward, Daniel told me not to leave the city, with a heavy implication that I’d be sorry if I did.” My laugh comes out wrong. Small. Sharp. “That was the moment I realized I wasn’t sleeping with an arrogant asshole, but with a monster.”
The palms blur past faster now, or maybe that’s just my breathing.
“I ran,” I admit. “I left everything that mattered and ran, and I keep telling myself that was survival, but part of me still feels insane when I say it out loud.” I drag a hand through my hair and stare straight ahead because looking at him now might crack me open.
“And I should have told you sooner. All of you. You have this beautiful life here, and I walked into it with this behind me, and now you’re making deals with dangerous men on my behalf and—” My voice breaks.
I hate that too.
“And I’m sorry,” I finish, quieter. “I’m sorry I brought this to your door.”