Chapter 15
PRESENT DAY
Tally knew it was wrong of her to ask her mystery man to speak. She’d felt the scars on his neck and knew there was a good possibility he couldn’t speak. It would be like someone demanding her to just see . But in the long moments of silence that filled her apartment after her unfair request, Tally got a sense—or maybe it was just wishful thinking—that he actually was going to talk to her.
Something shattered to her right. Tally’s head turned, automatically clicking her tongue in that direction to decipher the cause of the sound. After the night and day she’d just had, her first reaction was to wonder, what now ?
She felt a slight breeze, heated from the summer day and smelled exhaust from the streets below. Had her window been broken?
Mere seconds after the glass shattered, there was a bodily thud followed immediately by a thunderous crash as her apartment door burst open.
Tally screamed, but did not panic. Worry filled her for her mystery man, knowing that the thud she’d heard was him collapsing to the floor. Without a doubt, she knew that whatever had come through the window had hit him. Was he dead? Unconscious? But she couldn’t concentrate on that now.
Her training took over. The threat was at her door. She heard multiple boots on her hardwood. They were slowed by the bottleneck of her entryway but there were at least seven distinctive footfalls headed their way.
Tally did not have a weapon on her. Her walking canes were by her door and her knives were in her kitchen. She was in nothing but her robe, panties, and a tank.
But she knew her mystery man was armed. He always was. She could smell the distinctive scent of metal on him. After their evening at her storage unit, she knew he was a walking arsenal. Beyond the throwing knives and stars, she knew he also had a .45 caliber. Guns were harder for her to use and less practical because of their recoil and how noisy they were, but he’d allowed her to practice with his pistol. He’d even taken out a silencer for her, so it wouldn’t overwhelm her in the enclosed space. It had been such a great evening with him and Tally felt closer to him in a way, like they’d crossed the line into friendship.
Now she was rushing forward towards his body that was crumpled on her living room floor. The slickness of the hardwood allowed her to slide on her knees to get to him faster. As soon as her hands touched his back, she felt a hint of hesitation. It felt like a violation to touch him when he was down, but she knew in her gut that he would want her to protect herself.
This close to him, she heard the faintness of his soft breath and felt his exhale on her bare leg. He was alive!
Tally didn’t smell blood, but he was definitely unconscious. His breathing was too even to be otherwise. He was wearing something on his back. Like a vest, maybe? She didn’t have time to figure out the specifics. Whatever it was, it had a lot of pockets and was made of leather.
Only seconds had passed since he collapsed and her door was busted open. Tally knew he kept his gun on his left side—indicating that he was a righty, maybe?—and reached for it. Falling back on her ass, Tally tried to shield as much of his body with hers as possible while leveling the .45 at the intruders.
“Tally, no!”
Her finger hovered over the safety. “Dad?”
“It’s me, baby. Lower the gun.”
Tally recognized his voice but also knew that there was technology that could replicate his voice, either by a computer simulation or a recording. It wasn’t until she heard his walking gait and smelled his Armani cologne that she lowered the barrel of the gun.
Relief filled her. “Dad, you have to help him.” She turned towards her mystery man. If her father was here, then the other men in the room were trustworthy. Her father only revealed his identity, and by default hers and her mother’s, to a select few. Beyond her sense that her mystery man was good at heart, she knew she could trust him because of his connection to her father. Dangerous men could still be good.
Tally felt for his shoulder. He was wearing long sleeves, even in the Georgia heat. “I don’t know what happened. Something came through the window and he went down! Dad, you have to help him!”
She didn’t have the opportunity to turn him over onto his stomach before her dad was at her side, his hand on her wrist. Tally’s brows drew down when she realized he was stopping her from touching her mystery man.
“Tally Ally, stop. He’s not who you think he is.”
She tipped her head to the side. She’d never been this close to her mystery man before. The need to help, to protect him, was so strong that she didn’t pick up on her dad’s words immediately.
Confusion filled her. “What do you mean?”
“Baby, I need you to step away from him.”
Tally’s back stiffened. Her instinct to place her body over her mystery man’s returned. “No, I need to help him. Dad, I?—”
“Tally!” The harshness in her father’s voice stopped her words mid-sentence. He’d never taken that tone with her before. “I am telling you to step away from him. Whoever you think he is, I can guarantee you it’s a lie.”
A lie? “But…he works for you?”
“No, baby. He doesn’t.”
A cold chill fell over her. But he had to work for her father? He had to. Who else could he be? Why else would he have been with her for the past month? And she’d… She’d trusted him. She’d defended him.
Did he work for Gordon Tremont after all? Who was he?
“Who is he? How do you know him?” she demanded of her father.
“That’s classified, Tally.” Her father’s voice was still stern but was a bit kinder than a moment before. “All I can say is that he’s a very bad man who came here to harm you because it would hurt me .”
No . Her insides screamed at the notion. “He would never harm me.” She knew that. She believed it down to the marrow of her bones.
“I am so sorry, Tally. I have no idea how he found you or how he even knew you existed. My men have been hunting him for a long time. He’s a killer, Tally. He’s dangerous.”
Dangerous . She knew that too. It had been her first impression of him on the streets. The two thugs had attacked her and he’d…just watched. Thinking back on it, she wondered if he was enjoying watching her fight. He hadn’t helped her, but then again, she hadn’t needed help.
Tally was aware of how dangerous he was. Not only had that assessment of him been confirmed by the few people who had seen him, but she’d witnessed it firsthand the evening before in her storage unit. She had excellent aim, but she was nowhere near his level. He had been scarily accurate.
But there was something about him. It was more than the fact that he hadn’t hurt her, even when he’d had countless opportunities to. It was the way he helped her without being asked. Hell, he’d organized her desk for her! He’d moved items out of the way when she’d gone to Mark’s apartment. He cleaned up her dishes after she cooked him breakfast every morning.
And the little boy, Grayson… She knew he’d done more than help get food to him. She had a suspicion it had something to do with new clothing and shoes, but she was never close enough to Grayson to confirm and had been too distracted that morning to think to verify.
Thinking of Grayson made her think about the body the police had discovered behind her burned down restaurant. Even she’d suspected that her mystery man had been the one to kill him, but she’d also placed the disclaimer on that assumption that he’d done it to protect Grayson.
A protective killer.
Tally’s hands tightened around the leather on her mystery man’s back. “You’re wrong.” Well, not about the dangerous part and probably not about the killer part, but her dad was wrong that her mystery man was here to harm her. “Dad, who is he? Tell me his name.”
“I told you, that’s classified. Tally, I need you to let go of him.”
She heard others approach them from the other side of her mystery man. Tally stiffened, not liking the other men nearing her mystery man when he was so vulnerable.
Before Tally could tell them to back off, her dad put his hands on her upper arms and forcibly pulled her back.
“No!” Tally shouted. She’d been so shocked at her father’s actions that she hadn’t reacted quickly enough. She pulled, trying to get back to her mystery man.
“Tally, stop this! Stop this right now!” her father yelled, still pulling her backwards.
Tally struggled. As soon as her hold on her mystery man had been broken, the other men had swarmed in.
“Dad, no! Stop! What’s happening!?”
“It’s for the best, Tally. Trust me, baby. We’re going to take him where he can’t harm you anymore.”
“He didn’t harm me now!” Tally argued. Her father had pulled her on her backside nearly to her hallway leading back to her bedroom. As soon as he let go, Tally scrambled to her feet. Where was the gun? She’d stupidly put it down on the floor, thinking her father was there to help his employee.
“Tally!” Her father stepped in front of her, blocking her from getting back to her mystery man and weapon.
“Dad, don’t do this! I’m begging you, please! Tell me what’s going on! Are you arresting him? He didn’t do anything wrong!” She mentally rebutted her own words, thinking about the dead body behind her restaurant.
“Baby,” he took her shoulders, “I need you to listen to me very carefully. He was here to hurt you to get to me . Do you understand what I am saying to you?”
She understood what her father was saying, but she didn’t believe it. She couldn’t. “Why?” Tally demanded of her father. “Why would he want to hurt you?”
“It’s what bad men do, baby. They don’t need a reason.”
Tally wasn’t buying it. Being dangerous did not mean he was bad. A bad man would not have helped her as he had. A bad man would not have protected her. A bad man would not have stopped Tremont’s lackey from hurting Grayson. A bad man would not have listened to her babble on, day after day, about her life and whatever nonsense she felt like talking about. A bad man would not have made her fucking coffee!
She heard the footsteps of the others leave and she knew without having to click her tongue that they’d taken her unconscious mystery man with them. “Where are you taking him?”
“I can’t tell you that, baby.”
They weren’t taking him to jail then. They weren’t involving the police.
Her dad owned a paramilitary group, a world renowned security company. They employed veterans and traveled the world, helping to protect people. She knew her dad had enemies. That had been drilled into her before she even fully understood what it truly meant. Her father’s identity, as well as his relation to both Tally and her mother, were ‘classified’, as her father would say. Only a certain few knew her father’s name within his own company.
Tally did not doubt that harming her would harm her father. He’d fought her desire for independence but also trusted that her identity and link to him was secret enough to not require round the clock security. The only reason she’d believed her mystery man worked for her father was because of that phone conversation she’d had with him when he’d sounded distracted and worried.
But what if she’d made the wrong assumption? What if the reason he’d been distracted and worried was because of her mystery man?
She trusted her father. He was her father . But she also trusted her own instincts. She wouldn’t have gotten this far in life if she didn’t. So what did she do when her father was telling her one thing while her instincts were telling her another?
Logic would encourage her to listen to her father. After all, he clearly knew more about the situation than she did and he knew her mystery man. From the tone of his voice, it sounded like there was betrayal between them. She wanted to believe her dad, knew that he wouldn’t lie to her.
But…
Tally couldn’t do it. She could not believe that her mystery man was there to harm her. It would mean… It would mean that everything she’d been feeling for him and everything she was trying not to feel for him was a lie.
Was she just some dumb, na?ve, blind girl who’d been duped by a man?
A day ago—hell, an hour ago—Tally would have sworn hell no . She was not that clichéd, gullible woman.
She saw the world. More than anyone probably comprehended. Her eyes might be fake, but she saw so much that people with working eyes missed.
Unless she heard it from her mystery man’s own lips, she would not believe it. She couldn’t.
But what did her beliefs mean? What did they change? She’d come by her stubbornness honestly, and she knew that her father would never change his mind. She needed proof, but it wasn’t like she could tell her dad that her mystery man wasn’t the man he thought he was because he poured her coffee in the mornings.
Her father’s hands moved from her shoulders to cup her face. For once, the action did not comfort Tally as it always had before. He leaned in and pressed his lips to her forehead. “I have to go, Tally Ally. I am so sorry. I am leaving you real bodyguards and someone will be by within the hour to fix your door and your window. Be safe. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
And just like that, he was gone. The entire encounter, from the moment her window had shattered to now, had probably only been about ten minutes. But it felt like an eternity.
Tally was so confused. And the craziest part of it all? As dread and doom came over her, Tally sank to her knees, missing her mystery man’s silent presence like her father had taken a piece of her soul with him.
* * *
Tally paced her living room that night. She couldn’t have slept even if she wanted to. Her entire body was itchy, twitching with uncertainty.
Her father had been true to his word and repairmen had shown up within the hour of his departure. Her new bodyguards—or should she say, her real bodyguards—had stood guard as the two men had replaced her window and door. Then they returned to their post outside her apartment.
They were not standing inside her apartment. They were not slipping in and out of various places. Hell, they even knocked before coming inside. They were polite and seemed like decent, respectful men.
So why did Tally hate their presence so much? Why had she refused to allow them to introduce themselves when they’d tried? Why did she hate the sound of their voices?
Fuck, she was going insane.
What the fuck was wrong with her?
Clearly, her mystery man was her father’s enemy. That much was clear. But she had no other information beyond that. Additionally, the way he’d been taken down… It bothered her. Maybe it bothered her more because it was her father who’d captured him? Tally wasn’t sure, but the fact that her father had virtually kidnapped her mystery man sat like a heavy stone in her belly.
By morning, Tally was practically bouncing off of the walls. There was so much she needed to do, people she should be calling and needing to make public announcements about what had happened to her restaurant. Hell, now would be the time to start looking for construction bids so she could get her restaurant back as quickly as possible.
Her restaurant was her life. She’d put her heart, body, and soul into its very existence. So then, why didn’t she care about it? Why was it that she could only think about her mystery man?
Where had her father taken him? What was happening to him right now? If her father wasn’t taking him to jail, then where? Did… No, it was ridiculous. Her father didn’t have his own jail. That was…not possible.
How had her father taken her mystery man down? What had come through her window that had knocked him unconscious in a matter of seconds?
It had all happened so fast, Tally hadn’t had time to really process what had happened before her father and his men had come bursting through her door.
Tally needed some perspective. She needed… Fuck, she needed help.
Reaching for her phone, she called Simone. It was only after her best friend sleepily answered that Tally realized how early in the morning it was. Fuck.
Despite the early hour, though, Simone said that she and Tom would be over soon. Tally went to inform her new guards of her guests’ pending arrival.
* * *