Chapter 11
Zane
“She okay?” I ask when Anastasia steps into the main cabin and closes the door behind her. My team is waiting on the deck since I’d gotten the sense that Tessa was already overwhelmed enough.
“Sure. I brought her clothes and some toiletries just like you asked. I need to go now. I’m meeting Mom for—” She starts to push past me, so I reach out and gently grip her arm.
“Anastasia.”
“What?” She whirls on me, tears in her eyes.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m not the one who nearly died last night, am I?” she snaps. All the guys go silent, their gazes trained anywhere but on us. Except Sawyer—he’s watching Anastasia with his heart on his sleeve.
“I didn’t nearly die,” I tell her. “It was a scratch.”
“Let’s go get some sun,” Weston says as he stands. Ryker and Garrison follow, with Sawyer hesitating just a moment before doing the same. He offers me a tight smile in support before closing the door behind them.
“Are you kidding me, Zane?” she yells as soon as the door closes.
“One more centimeter and it would have taken off part of your face! You keep throwing yourself in these situations, and one of these days, you’re not going to walk away.
” Anastasia wipes her cheeks. “Look, Jon showed me pictures of the trailer when he came in this morning. The fact that you survived—”
“I know.” I make a mental note to tell Jon that, next time, he needs to keep things like that to himself. Never mind the fact that it’s an active crime scene and he had no business being out there. “I’m okay, Anastasia.”
She takes a deep breath. “This time. But what about next time? Can’t you just let the police handle this?”
“Who says I’m not?”
She glares at me as she crosses her arms. “Oh, I don’t know, the nine hundred pounds of muscle sitting behind me?”
I laugh and pull my sister in for a hug as I sense some of her anger dissipating. “We’re not diving headfirst into anything, but I’m not going to send her out on her own.”
“I can’t lose you,” Anastasia says. “Mom and I already lost Dad. Please don’t make us bury you, too.”
A lump forms in my throat, and I swallow hard. “I can’t let her fend for herself.”
She pulls away. “I know you can’t. But don’t lose yourself in the process. That’s all I’m asking.” Anastasia wipes her cheeks. “Sorry. I guess I needed a good meltdown. When I heard what happened—” She shakes her head. “Nope. You’re fine. God protected you both, and I’m going to focus on that.”
“Good.”
“Okay. Call me if you need me. Mom and I are headed to dinner and a movie, but I’m reachable by phone.”
“You’ve got it, sis. Thanks.”
She offers me a quick hug, then turns and leaves the cabin. I hear the guys greet her as she does, so I turn back toward the closed door leading down to my bedroom. Since Anastasia wasn’t in there long, I imagine Tessa insisted on getting dressed on her own.
With the pain she’s in today, I don’t know that that’s possible, so I step forward and knock, my chest tightening as I wait for her to answer.
I barely managed to keep my head last night when she’d needed help, and today we don’t have the distraction of being at the trailer.
But the idea of her hurting herself simply because she’s being stubborn is too much.
She needs help. And I need her to see that I’m here. In whatever capacity she wants me. I knock again. “Tessa?”
A shrill yelp echoes through the door less than a heartbeat before something—or someone—falls over and hits the ground with a thud. I don’t think, just burst through the door. “Are you okay?”
“Fine. I fell.” Tessa waves a hand from the other side of my bed. I can’t see her, but the sweats she’d had on are lying on the ground.
Heat slips up the back of my neck as desire punches me in the gut. “I’ll go get Anastasia. She’s probably still close enough that I—”
“No. I’m fine.”
“Tessa.”
“I don’t want her help,” she snaps. “She’s done enough.”
I turn away to give her some privacy. “Can I help?”
She takes a deep breath. “You’ve done enough, too.”
“I’d really rather you be fully dressed when you meet with my team. So I’m happy to lend a hand.”
“Keep your eyes closed.”
“Deal.”
I hear some rustling behind me. Then Tessa’s hand grips mine, and she pulls me back a few steps. Heat spreads up my arm at the contact, but I keep my eyes shut tightly, trusting her to guide me.
“Okay. Here.” She shoves a pair of pants into my hands, so I turn around and open my eyes just to make sure I don’t put them on backward, then close my eyes before turning again. Just like last night, I drop to my knees and hold them open so she can slide her legs into each of the holes.
“Good?” I ask.
“Yeah. I can do the rest. Thanks.”
“You sure?”
“Yes. I’ll be out in a minute.” Her tone is clipped, frustrated, so I don’t press. Instead, I turn and open my eyes again, then head up the stairs and close the door behind me.
As soon as it’s closed, I take a deep breath and rest both hands on my counter as I lean my head forward. My cheek aches, but it’s nothing compared to the burning in my heart.
The desperation to still be everything she needs despite our history.
Behind me, the door opens, so I turn to face her. As she limps out and closes the door. Both eyes are red and swollen. “Are you okay? Do you need pain meds?”
“No. I’m fine.” She forces a smile. “Let’s do this.”
“Look, Anastasia is—”
“Zane, you don’t owe me anything, okay? Anastasia is protective of you, and what I did was wrong. She’s right. You nearly died because of me.”
“I’d gladly give my life if it means saving yours.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.
“That’s not a fair trade, Zane,” she says. “Because yours is far more valuable than mine.”
Her words are more of a hit than any fist has ever delivered. Not because of the words themselves but because of the utter belief behind them. Tessa truly believes that her life is not worth what mine is.
How can she not see?
How can she be so blind to her own worth?
Gently, I place a hand on her arm when she starts to limp past me, and she stiffens. “You’ve forgotten,” I say softly. She tips her face up to look at me. “Just how much you’re worth. And even if it takes every moment of the rest of our time together, I’m going to make you remember.”
She takes a deep breath, her gaze never straying from mine. Tessa’s confidence had been at rock bottom when we met. She literally had to fight to survive, and neither of her parents ever told her she was worthy of anything.
I’d made sure I told her just how wrong they were, every opportunity I got.
Then, she’d been a young teenager with a heart open to love.
Now, she’s a woman who has built thick walls around that heart.
Walls I intend to demolish.
I release her, then wait until she’s moved past me before I follow. Because I sense she doesn’t want me to offer, I don’t ask if she needs help as she limps toward the bench seat of the table that doubled as my bed last night.
As she sits, she keeps her gaze away from me.
I pull the door open, and my team glances down at me. “Ready,” I tell them.
One by one, they get to their feet and come inside the small cabin. With all of them in here, it’s crowded, but I thought Tessa would be more comfortable here than anywhere else—at least, right now.
“Must be nice to be out of his rags,” Sawyer jokes.
Tessa smiles. “Something like that.”
Truthfully, I wish she were back in my clothes.
“Okay, so let’s get the big thing out of the way.” Weston leans back against the counter. “Does this have anything to do with why you left originally?”
Tessa’s smile falters, and I glare at Weston.
He simply shrugs, completely uncaring that he just dropped a stick of dynamite into an already tense situation.
“Since the reason I left is six feet under, I’m going to go with no,” Tessa says.
Weston nods. “It was your dad then?”
“We’re not here to discuss why I left,” she shoots back. “And if you are, you might as well leave.”
“We’re not,” I say quickly, shooting a glare at Weston. “Tell us about the company you worked for.”
“Southeast Environmental Commission?” she asks. I nod. “I don’t know much. I was only there a few months before everything went sideways.”
“Just tell us what you do know. Right now, that’s our best lead,” Garrison says softly. If anyone can get Tessa to open up, it’s him. Considering his day job is as a counselor for troubled teens, she’s right up his alley, albeit slightly older than his typical clientele.
“I was working two different jobs. One was as a night shift waitress for a twenty-four-hour diner. One night, we had a couple come in. They seemed happy and were really kind. The wife asked me if I enjoyed what I was doing.” She fidgets with her hands in her lap.
“I told her that it was just a means to an end, until I figured out something better. She said they were looking for someone to work the front desk at the environmental firm and said that she had a good feeling about me.” Tessa chews on her bottom lip.
I shift my attention away because, when she does that, her mouth is all I can focus on. “Anyway, I accepted on the spot.”
“Without learning more about the position? The pay?” Weston questions.
“I was making barely enough to cover my rent, and my day job was seasonal. I was going to be looking for another one soon enough and figured it couldn’t pay any less since I was making the bare minimum.”
“Keep going,” Garrison offers with a smile.
I cross my arms, trying to keep my head while she recounts a life of barely making it. How many nights did she lie awake at night, wondering if she was going to have a place to sleep tomorrow?
“When I went in to meet with their human resources woman to go over all the details, I half-expected her to slam the door in my face. Instead, she welcomed me in and ushered me into a conference room where platters of fruits and vegetables waited. They had a spread of juices, too. It was the most food I’d seen in a long time.
” Her gaze flicks to me, and it’s a fight to keep my expression neutral.
“Then what happened?” Garrison asks.
“The monthly pay was more than I’d see in three months working two jobs. They even gave me the first month up front and told me to consider it a bonus. Everyone was really kind and doing what they could to make a difference. Money aside, I wanted to be a part of doing something good.”
“Did the company seem legitimate?” Sawyer asks. “Were there any red flags?”
She shakes her head. “They seemed great. Right after I was hired on, the Bensons went on a trip overseas to see about getting clean water into some South American villages. While I was there, I answered phones, took notes in meetings, and that was about it. All in all, it was a great place to work.”
Except, based on what Tucker found, something’s off.
“What did the company do?” I question.
“They handled soil and water testing in residential areas as well as fighting to maintain nature preserves when big corporations tried to come in and buy the land.”
“That’s it?”
“They planted community gardens all over the city and were working to expand to other places, too. Why are you asking about them?”
“Because I have a guy looking into them, and he thinks something’s off.”
“What?” Her brows draw together. “What do you mean?”
“He said the company doesn’t look like a traditional environmental agency.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense. They were good people doing good work.” She shakes her head.
“Maybe,” I say, though my gut is telling me something else is going on.
They grabbed a night waitress from the middle of her shift and offered her more money than she’d seen in a long time?
It’s possible they were just being kind and trying to offer her a fresh start, but I don’t know that I’m buying it.
“We’ll continue looking into them. What were the first names of the people who hired you? ”
“Karver and Alara. Benson,” she adds.
The names don’t ring a bell, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Could just mean they’re not high-profile enough to have wound up on the radar. “Tell us about the day your apartment was ransacked.”
“I already told you what happened.”
“I mean your routine. Was anything different? Did anything feel off?”
She shakes her head. “I went to work like normal. Answered phones, then headed home with my dinner.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it,” she repeats. “Nothing was off. Nothing felt different.”
“Okay.”
“Do you really think they have something to do with this? It just doesn’t fit.”
“Sometimes it doesn’t until it does.” Sawyer stands. “I’ll start looking into the Bensons. See if I can find anything worth surveilling.”
“Great, thanks.”
“Yup.” He offers a salute then slips out of the cabin.
“What do you need me to do, Cap?” Ryker questions.
“Just keep your ear to the ground. If the guy who shot up the trailer is still here, I want to know about it.”
“On it.”
“I’ll do the same,” Garrison says. “And I’ll check in with my contacts to see if they know anything about anyone hired to do a job in this area.”
I offer them both nods, and they leave. Soon, it’s just Tessa, Weston, and me.
“You really should let this go, Zane,” Tessa says. “This guy tried to kill me—and you alongside me. They’re clearly dangerous. Killers.”
Weston laughs, then leans forward. “Depending on who you ask, so are we.”