Chapter 4
FOUR
CHLOE
The second West answered his phone, I heard Stone’s muffled, clipped voice.
We were in deep shit for leaving, so we wolfed down the rest of our food and chugged our drinks before we headed out.
Clinging to him on the ride back to the souped-up warehouse stirred things inside of me that I refused to entertain.
The last thing I needed was to further complicate things in an already complicated position.
But when Stone started laying into West the second we walked through the front door, I felt a protective wave wash over me.
“Are you fucking insane?” Stone bellowed.
The man stormed down the hallway just as I got the front door closed behind us. West stepped in front of me, and it gave me pause because no man had ever done that before. No man had ever thrown himself in front of me in order to keep me away from harm or danger.
If anything, the men in my life were the ones that caused the danger in the first place.
“Stone, I can explain,” West said.
The man went from bellowing to growling. “Save it because I don’t give a shit. You had a direct order from me for the safety of everyone in this damn place, and you chose to ignore it because of your own selfish whims. What the fuck do you have to say for yourself?”
I stepped out from behind him. “It’s my fault, actually.”
West shook his head. “She’s got nothing to do with it.”
But I stepped in front of West and looked up into the angry man’s face.
“I felt cooped up and claustrophobic around all of these people that I don’t know.
My anxiety ratcheted up and West heard it in my voice from behind a closed door.
He tried to talk me out of leaving because I was determined to do it.
Just to get out and get fresh air that isn’t recycled through these vents all the fucking time. ”
Stone glared down at me. “Do you know the kind of danger you put everyone in?”
I shrugged. “I don’t care. I don’t know you guys, I don’t care about you guys, and while I’m thankful for the protection, I’m never going to put your well-being over my own.
I almost had a panic attack while taking a bath.
I could’ve drowned. I was leaving anyway, so West tried to stop me.
I refused. So, he said he was coming with me if he couldn’t stop me.
That’s all that happened. So if you’ve got anger for anyone, it’s for me. So, have at it.”
I flopped my arms out before they came back down to my sides, inviting Stone to yell at me.
But all he did was volley his eyes between me and West. We all stood there, practically holding our breath as the man cracked his neck.
Stone rolled his shoulders back, and the anger that had washed over his face—as well as his voice—quickly disappeared.
“At least you weren’t completely disobeying orders,” Stone said to the man perched behind me.
Then, Stone’s attention dropped to me. “We are willingly giving you protection because of what happened. But that protection comes with rules. You don’t want to play ball? We don’t give you a bat. Understood?”
I nodded. “Read you loud and clear, boss man.”
“No one leaves this compound without discussing it with me first.”
I shrugged. “Sorry.”
“Are you, though?”
I scoffed. “You know nothing about me. You don’t even know why crowds of men make me so uncomfortable.
So, yeah, I’m sorry. But I’m also not going to grovel at your feet.
You either accept my apology, or you toss me out on my ass.
The choice is yours. But yeah, I’ll listen to your rules for now until I feel that I’m safe enough to go home.
Then, I’m going home whether you like it or not. ”
Someone whistled lowly down the hallway, but I stood my ground. This man wouldn’t bully me around. I didn’t even know who the hell he was! I outstared him, though. I kept gazing into his eyes until he pulled his own away and looked at West towering over my shoulder.
“If you leave again? You tell me. Understood?”
West cleared his throat. “Yep. Got it.”
“Good. Now, get the hell out of my sight.”
West led me around the angry man, and we passed by a couple of people whose names I couldn’t recall. We didn’t stop moving until we got to my bedroom, and the two of us slipped inside before he closed the door behind him.
And even though we were confined to my bedroom, he didn’t make me nervous.
“You didn’t have to take the blame for that,” he said as he turned to face me.
I snickered. “You’re welcome.”
“Thank you,” he said, “seriously. But you still didn’t have to do it. I had the situation under control.”
“He looked like he was about to break your jaw, West. I knew he wouldn't swing on me, though.”
“Not in a million years, he wouldn’t.”
That brought me a bit of comfort. “Would he have actually slugged you, though?”
He grinned. “Not unless he wanted to be laid out on the floor.”
I giggled, the sound tugging a smile across his face.
He has a nice smile.
“So,” West said as he walked over to a chair in the corner and sat down, “I didn’t get to hear much about your life since we were so rudely interrupted by Stone’s phone call. Care to finish up our conversation?”
I laughed as I went and laid down in bed. “What do you want to know?”
He peeked over at me. “What’s with all the shit you brought to the warehouse with you? Do you need that many outfit changes or something?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course, you’d think it's clothes. But it’s actually different computer parts and drives.”
“Something for work?”
I didn’t want to talk about my work, especially with a crew of gray-area misfits. Hell, I hadn’t even told Lexi the truth about my job. She thought I fucking hacked for security companies in order to find vulnerabilities in their systems, for crying out loud!
And I was pretty sure this crew wouldn’t take kindly to the fact that I was a contractor for the FBI. Specifically for an agent who caught me hacking their federal system when I was in high school.
“Something like that, yeah,” I said mindlessly.
West groaned as he stretched his legs out. “What kind of RAM do you run on your set-up for work?”
His one question opened up a slew of other ones that started a geekfest extravaganza of tech talk that I hadn’t had with someone in fucking years.
I turned onto my good side and propped myself up, ignoring the dull ache of my entire body while West and I geeked out about computer parts and talked about the setups we had built ourselves.
It was nice to talk to someone else about stuff I was passionate about, and the more we talked, the closer West scooted his chair toward the bed.
Until he was close enough that his body heat reached out for me.
“Have you ever been caught hacking anyone’s systems?” he asked.
Dodge the question. “Not really.”
“Not really? What does that mean?”
I groaned. “I mean, I almost got caught this one time. I was bored in class and decided to hack my professor’s laptop. I ended up scrolling through his porn stash at the time, but what I didn’t realize was that the mirror image up on the projector screen was a live broadcast.”
His eyes widened. “Holy fucking shit. You showed his porn to your entire class?”
I held up my finger. “I almost did. I caught what was happening and figured that those wouldn't roll over well. I mean, he was the only tolerable science teacher in the entire fucking school. I wasn’t about to get that man fired when he practically floated me through the class on extra credit assignments.”
He barked with laughter. “So, how did he almost catch you?”
I smiled. “He looked down at his computer and saw me exiting out of the folder.”
“And the class didn’t see the folder on the projector screen?”
I shook my head. “His PowerPoint presentation was running, so it wasn’t displaying background files being opened.”
He leaned a bit closer into me. “You’re a hell of a woman, you know that?”
His eyes dropped to my lips, and I knew where things were headed. I knew what he wanted. I knew what was rushing through his head. And while panic gripped my heart, I had to force myself to move away. I had to force myself to flop onto my back in order to get away from his arresting presence.
And the oaky, floral notes of his aftershave.
“I should get some rest,” I said as a yawn peeled from between my lips. “I feel like I just ran a fucking marathon.”
West stood to his feet and reached for the comforter at the foot of the bed. “Pain will do that to you. Do you need one of your pain pills?”
I shook my head as my eyes closed. “I’m good for now but thank you.”
He pulled the blanket over my body. “Can I get you anything before you rest?”
“No, but thanks for asking.”
He backtracked toward the door. “You get some good sleep.”
I yawned again. “You, too, when you go to bed.”
He chuckled. “It’s three in the afternoon. I won’t be asleep anytime soon.”
“Ugh, it feels like midnight.”
He turned off my bedroom light. “Goodnight, Chloe.”
“Mmmm, night, West.”
And as he closed my bedroom door behind him, I wondered how the hell I was going to stay here with everyone when I had upcoming meetings with Agent Chad Baker of the fucking FBI.
What a shitshow from hell.