Chapter 7
Tyler
Slow-moving traffic usually gave me a chance to think, driving being the perfect time to relax my brain and work over problems. Today, I wanted to tear up the fucking town. Dixie had asked to do this, and her reasoning was solid.
But what the fuck was I doing letting her out of my sight?
Every second of her absence twisted a screw in my chest. I’d felt the same in the weeks after her disappearance from the warehouse. The strength of it scared the fuck out of me. I’d never intended to get attached to anyone. It was a bad idea from all angles. I couldn’t help falling anyway.
The power behind my emotions over the lass had driven me to distraction once.
To the point of hunting her down and taking her home.
That was so far from the man I was, or thought I was, that I couldn’t justify it in any way.
It was the reason why I kept creating rules, and why today, I’d let her run the show.
The lights changed, and cars rolled by, a couple of buses in the queue down the street. I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel and watched their approach, illegally parked at the end of the bus stop, but precisely where I’d told Dixie I’d be.
My phone buzzed with a message, and I snatched it up.
Manny: As promised, the details for Buck. Let me know if you don’t handle him. I’m pretty certain he has something to do with the missing footage.
He’d sent me an address. Later, I’d pay a visit to the man who was supposed to have guarded Dixie on her final night in the club. Get some questions answered.
If I could drag myself away from her.
The first bus closed in, the destination displayed on the front showing it was a local runaround. It pulled into the stop ahead of my car.
I kept my gaze on the one following. It grew nearer, Edinburgh displayed on its screen.
I sat up taller, engine on and ready to go.
The Edinburgh bus sailed straight past. My heart skipped a beat. Dixie hadn’t got off. What the hell? It hadn’t stopped for her. Or she’d decided to change the plan. What if she hadn’t been on it at all? What if someone had found her?
Panic washed over me. I sorted through my choices, sweat breaking out on my brow. If I chased the bus, I could be leaving the city which still contained her. If I went back to the station, she could be long gone. We’d talked about trackers, but I’d resisted the urge to track her.
Fuck. In trying to not be any worse than I already was, I’d screwed up royally. Apparently, personal growth was going to kill me.
I swore a stream and grabbed the gearstick, needing to do something. Move. Search.
A knuckle rapped on the window.
Dixie waved and pointed at the door. “Unlock it?”
I could’ve fucking cried.
I thumped the handbrake button and reached over to let her in, needing to get closer than simply using the driver-side controls.
Dixie handed me a paper bag and dropped into her seat, a cup holder in her hand. “I got lunch—”
I interrupted. “Ye weren’t on the bus.”
“I know that, hun. It went thirty seconds early while I was paying in the café. A guard put me on the city bus. It cuts down a different street so gets to this stop first.” She peered at me. “You were worried.”
My damn heart thumped.
I closed my eyes for a beat but couldn’t stop the sense of dread that gripped me.
“Thought you’d be hungry,” she said quietly.
“Ye didn’t have to do that,” I muttered. Passing the bag back to her, I forced the emotion from my face. No need to scare her with my scowl.
Dixie curled in on herself anyway. “I did what I needed to, but I don’t like it out here. Take me home, kidnapper.”
“As you wish.”
She chuckled, but it was weak. “Suddenly I have a choice. Go me.”
I’d never been so happy to get on the road. We drove south, Dixie handing me my sandwiches one at a time so I could talk and drive. She’d bought me a coffee, strong and unsweetened, how I’d had it this morning.
She was wrong in implying that she had no choice. Today, she could’ve left me. I knew how good she was at slipping away and evading the hunt. But she hadn’t. That meant more than she could know and did dark things to my already twisted, obsessed heart.
Several hours later, and another nap on her part, we rolled up to my cabin. Kane and Lovelyn had reached Inverness and fully taken the bait, reporting their findings with excitement. Heretic and Ash had jumped on a call with us, and all were southbound, chasing that bus.
Dixie had given me a genuine smile of relief. She leapt from the car and danced up to the cabin door with a light step.
I didn’t share her joy. Though I was satisfied with a job well done, I couldn’t shake my fear from earlier. After I let her in, I paused on the threshold.
“I need to head out for a few hours.”
Dixie’s face fell. “Why?”
“Manny sent me some information on a man I need to see.” I gripped the doorjamb, wondering how much to say. “The guard on duty the night ye left the warehouse.”
Her gaze shuttered in an instant.
She backed away, into the house, automatic floor lights springing on.
I followed. “Stop.”
She clutched her elbows, appearing smaller. Frightened again. “Why would you do that?”
“Because something happened, and I don’t want to push ye for details. I already know from Manny that the guard was a waste of space, so I figured he was negligent, too. He wiped the CCTV footage.”
Her eyes shone with instant tears. “Then you don’t know. Nobody knows. I assumed they all did.”
My heart hurt again. I wanted to throw out my arms and offer a hug, but she wouldn’t take it. It could even make things worse.
Dixie worked through her thoughts, her gaze searching the middle distance. “Then Lovelyn thinks I ran because of the Marchant situation.”
“Didn’t ye?”
“In part, but that wasn’t all, or even close to the worst.”
My hold on the entryway could have cracked the wood. I was right. I swallowed. Kept my voice low. “Someone hurt ye.”
She stared, her chest rising and falling. “He did.”
Fucking Christ. Energy filled me, needing an outlet. A knife buried in someone’s chest. Yet I had to offer her a choice, so she could let go of the wheel, or maybe trust me enough to bring justice for this part.
“If ye tell me not to go, I won’t. I’ll stay here. Or, I do what needs to be done. If I find out the truth, I don’t need to question ye on any part of it. You’re in control of this. Tell me what to do.”
Dixie took a shuddering breath then lifted her chin.
“Go.”