Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
“Sweetheart!” Tyler jumped into her path. “I thought you were busy in the kitchen.” He reached out and his fingers curled around hers as she gripped the butcher knife.
“Sweetheart,” she cooed right back at him. “I thought you might need me out here.”
“Got it all under control.” He tugged the knife from her.
She let him take it. Not like she’d actually been planning to lunge at the man with the sheriff’s star gleaming on his nicely pressed uniform. Esme would hardly make such a mistake. She’d merely wanted to check on her husband. And she believed in being prepared, so she’d checked on him with a knife at the ready.
Maybe they should talk about her also getting a gun? She made a mental note to revisit the gun situation when she and Tyler were alone.
Tyler put the knife onto a nearby end table. But he kept his grip on her hand. “Our neighbor came by with a welcome basket. ”
She peeked around Tyler and sent a smile at the sheriff who watched her so intently. “Incredibly thoughtful of you.” She twisted around Tyler and strode toward the sheriff. Since Tyler didn’t let her go, she dragged him with her. But, after three steps, he did release her hand.
She extended said hand to the sheriff. “Esme Hollow. Pleasure to meet you.”
The sheriff was a devilishly handsome man with brown hair, green eyes, and tan skin. He was about Tyler’s height, but smaller in the shoulders. A much sleeker build. His hand reached out to take hers. Not in a handshake, as she’d expected. Instead, he caught her hand and lifted it up toward his face, as if he’d kiss her knuckles.
She was used to the gesture in Europe. But in the US? Not so much.
Then she realized he wasn’t going to kiss her knuckles. He was busy staring at her fingers. Or rather…
“No ring,” he murmured. “Yeah, hate to be the one to tell you, but that shit is a dead giveaway that you aren’t actually married.”
He dropped her hand. His hand went toward his holster.
Oh, no. Esme gulped. “I took off my ring while I was washing dishes.” A light laugh slipped from her. “I’ll just go get it.” She spun to dash back to the kitchen, but she basically slammed into Tyler.
Tyler’s hands closed around her shoulders. “He’s being a dick, darling.”
First “sweetheart” and now “darling” as an endearment? Oh, they were on a roll. “I don’t think you’re supposed to call the sheriff a ‘dick,’ darling,” she returned without missing a beat. “At least not to his face.”
“Yes, well, in my experience,” the sheriff drawled—and there was definitely a faint southern drawl that dipped and pitched in his voice, “Tyler never does what he’s supposed to do.”
Her head whipped back toward the sheriff. “You two know each other?”
“Served together once upon a time. Semper Fi.” Both of the sheriff’s hands were at his sides now. “When Tyler called and said he needed a safe place to crash for a few days, I was happy to offer this place. Not like I was doing a damn thing with it.”
She quickly realigned her ideas about the sheriff. He was not a bad guy there to sniff them out. He was…Tyler’s friend? This man had not come up in her recon/intel work. But there were only so many classified files that a woman could access. Only so many secrets that she could unearth. Especially in a world where people’s actions were buried by the government. Pasts were erased. And new lives were created.
Case in point, I’m now a married woman.
The sheriff grimaced. “No ring. A pillow and blanket on the floor. Not like I want to tell you how to do your job, Tyler, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t the way to run an operation.”
Tyler let her go.
“If I had been a real neighbor—you have some of those, by the way, and you should expect to meet them eventually. People in Asylum tend to be a curious lot. If I had been a real neighbor and was supposed to buy that you were madly-in-love newlyweds, I would have some questions.”
“Excuse me.” Esme cleared her throat. “Asylum? As in…insane asylum?” Where on earth had Tyler taken her ?
The sheriff—she still had not caught his name—laughed. It was a warm, rich sound. “We prefer to think of it as a place where people are given shelter. Right now, in case your hubby hasn’t informed you and it seems he has not , you are in Asylum, Alabama. We’re a small little town nestled along Mobile Bay. Tight-knit. Quiet.” A pause. “Safe.”
She could use some safety.
“I’m Clay Banks.” His head dipped toward her. “And I hear you’ve got yourself into a bit of trouble.”
Not exactly a bit.
“This won’t cut it.” Clay motioned toward the blanket and pillow. “And you are not acting like a husband at all, Tyler. Even in small towns, folks notice when shit is off. I get that you’re usually delivering prisoners and dropping off witnesses to their new lives, so you don’t have a lot of experience at playing parts.” He ambled around the room. Tugged sheets off furniture and tossed the balled-up material to the side. “But here are a few pro tips for you. One, don’t sleep on the den floor when you have a gorgeous bride upstairs.”
“Oh, darling…” She reached out and patted Tyler’s arm. “Your sheriff friend is absolutely charming and so insightful.”
“Put a ring on her finger,” Clay continued. “That’s pro tip number two.”
She stopped patting Tyler’s arm and instead lifted her hand so she could wiggle her ringless fingers at her husband.
Tyler’s jaw tightened.
“Number three? Maybe act like you can’t stand to keep your hands off her. You’re tense and glaring. Body language speaks volumes. Yours is screaming at me right now. Change it up. She’s the love of your life, remember? ”
“That’s me.” Esme touched her heart. “Love of your life.” She batted her lashes at Tyler.
A muscle jerked along his clenched jaw.
“He’s not a morning person,” she explained to Clay.
“Yeah, tell me some shit I don’t know.” He thrust back his shoulders as he kept his eyes on Tyler. “Hit town soon so we can go ahead and get this cover established for you. Come to the station, and I’ll introduce you as an old Marine buddy. I’ll let word spread that I’ve rented the house to you and your new bride.” He sauntered back toward the door. He tipped his head to Esme. “Nice meeting you.”
“The pleasure was all mine.”
His gaze swept over her. “Out of curiosity, what were you thinking to do with the knife?”
She didn’t blink. “I forgot I was even carrying it. I just came out to say hello.”
“Right. Sure. And if I’d been a bad guy when you came out to say hello, would that knife have wound up in my chest?”
It was her turn to give a soft ring of laughter. Though her laughter was forced, and she didn’t think the sheriff’s had been. “You aren’t a bad guy, are you? So I guess we’ll never know.”
His brows rose. But the sheriff just saluted Tyler and ambled out the door.
Only after Tyler had locked the door did Esme’s breath ease out. Tyler didn’t face her, not at first. His back was to her as his right palm pressed to the doorframe. “Thought I told you to hide.”
Uh, oh. She caught the thread of steel beneath those words. An angry thread. “I did hide. I went into the kitchen. Didn’t you see me go?” Speaking of going…Esme spun on her heel and began to hurry toward the kitchen again .
She didn’t get far.
Tyler snagged her wrist and spun her around to face him. “Repeat after me, Esme. I will follow Tyler’s rules. ”
“Fine,” she huffed out. What in the hell was she? A child? “I will follow Tyler’s rules.”
“Because if I don’t,” he continued, voice even darker, “then I’ll be dead. And Tyler has many skills, but he can’t bring me back from the dead.”
Her heart slammed into her chest. “Do I have to worry about your friend the sheriff killing me?”
“A seven-million-dollar bounty is on your head. Plenty of people would sell out their own mothers for that kind of money.”
Yes, she was aware. She’d caught that snippet from his phone conversation. Something else she’d caught? “The man who tried to kill me at the FBI office is dead.”
“He was murdered while in custody.” Tyler’s hold tightened on her. “That means whoever killed him either works at the Bureau or has significant pull. Enough pull to get someone murdered when the target was surrounded by law enforcement.” A rough exhale. “We have to be very careful who we trust.”
She licked her lips and had to say the part that worried her. “Grayson works at the Bureau.”
His head tilted the smallest fraction. “Gray isn’t selling us out.”
“Not even for seven million dollars? Because that’s the kind of money that can buy someone a new life.” And this absolutely terrified her, but she had to ask, “Is it the kind of money that could buy you a new life?”
And the tension between them got very, very thick.
She tugged her wrist free of his grip. Esme backed away from him. His expression had absolutely locked down, and that lack of emotion scared her. She’d tried to research him, but, as much as she hated to admit it, Esme had been wrong before. If she was wrong this time, she was a dead woman.
She retreated, but she’d misjudged where she was going, and her back hit the wall.
Tyler glanced at the very large knife on the table near him. He picked it up. Turned it so that the light hit the blade.
She really, really needed a gun. Though this did not seem to be the moment to bring up that conversational topic.
“You think I’ll sell you out, Esme?”
With her whole heart, she hoped he wouldn’t.
“Is that why you’re suddenly looking so worried as you stare at me with those big, dark eyes of yours? Because you realize I’ve taken you away from everything you’ve known. Every friend you had.”
She didn’t have a ton of those. Getting close enough for friendship was dangerous in her world.
He turned the knife in his hand. The blade was wickedly sharp and terrifying. “You realize that you are alone with me. It’s you and me, and it would be very easy for me to say…sneak up on you when you’re sleeping and get myself seven million dollars.”
“Stop.”
“Or, why bother with sleeping?” He’d been staring at the knife, but now he looked up at her. “I could get myself seven million dollars right now. You conveniently provided the weapon. It’s right here in my hand. Think you could stop me if I came at you?”
Her breath shuddered in and out .
“Fuck.” He dropped the knife back onto the table. In a flash, he’d eliminated the distance between them. Tyler didn’t touch her. He just stood right in front of her. Towered over her. “You get to play every game you want, but the minute I do… dammit, don’t look at me that way. ”
What way was she looking at him?
“You picked me,” Tyler said with certainty. “You knew you were going to use me even before you said those first words to me at Jorlan’s, didn’t you?”
Her lips pressed together.
“Dammit, answer me. ” Not loud. Low and lethal and somehow even scarier for it. His hands flew out, but, again, not to touch her. To press to the wall on either side of her as he caged her in place. “I am here to protect you. I’d take a bullet for you.”
Her head moved in a hard, instinctive, negative jerk.
“Kinda the job description, sweetheart. But instead of getting shot, I prefer to do the shooting. So how about I clarify things for you a bit?”
Her heart needed to stop its frantic racing.
“I will stop anyone who comes to attack you. I will kill to keep you safe. Better?”
Much better. So why wouldn’t her heart slow its wild beat?
“I deserve honesty from you. If I’m guarding that gorgeous body of yours, day and night, then you stop the games you’re playing with me.”
“What if I don’t know how to stop?” The minute the words were out, Esme wished she could take them back. But they were true. She’d been pretending for so long that she wasn’t even sure who she truly was any longer.
Socialite.
Spoiled rich daughter .
Thief.
Criminal.
“I’ll help you,” he told her.
“You don’t even like me,” she whispered back.
Tyler blinked. “Maybe I like you too damn much.”
Had he really said those words? Or had she just imagined them because she would love to hear words like those from him?
“Time for truth,” Tyler bit out. “You picked me, didn’t you? Before we even met?”
“It wasn’t exactly a spur of the moment decision.” Could she slip under his arm and dash upstairs? They needed some distance. She needed to get her control back. She was revealing things that she should not. And why was it so hot in there? Did the house’s AC system not work?
“You knew who I was before you approached me at Jorlan’s. You didn’t just look at me and realize I didn’t fit in with the too rich crowd. You knew I was undercover before you even said a word to me.”
She could lie. Absolutely, she could lie. And lie well. Without batting an eyelash. She could stare straight into his steely blue eyes and lie her brittle heart out. But… “Yes.” A sigh. A confession. “Yes, I knew who you were.”
“How?”
Had he leaned a little closer? Esme was pretty certain he had. “I couldn’t leave my safety to just anyone. I mean, it’s my life we’re talking about here. Sort of important to me, wouldn’t you say?”
“ Esme… ”
“Do you intend to sound so sexy when you rumble my name that way? If so, stop. It’s distracting, and I’m trying to bare my soul to you. I don’t do that often, so it’s rather a struggle for me. ”
He sucked in a breath.
“I have lots of contacts in this world. Some good and some bad.” For once, she spoke flatly. All bravado and coyness gone. Just quiet. Almost tired. She’d been tired for a long time, but Esme always had to pretend she wasn’t. With him, in this instance, she was done with the pretense. “One of those contacts owed me a great deal. I understood that trouble was coming my way, and I knew I would need protection. But, as you just pointed out, some people would sell out their own mothers for the kind of money that is currently on my head.” She licked her lower lip. “I needed someone who could not be bought. Someone who actually takes being good seriously. Someone who would never be swayed or tempted.” She’d thought for sure that someone was him but, again… I have been wrong before. So she’d gotten scared when he held the knife and seemed so cold and distant. “But you’re not tempted,” she said mostly to just hear the words. I am not wrong about you.
“Oh, I’m fucking tempted,” he returned in a deep, dark growl.
Her lips parted.
“Not by money, sweetness.” Another growl that rolled right through her. “By you, and that’s a very dangerous situation.” A muscle flexed near his jaw. “Let me make sure I’ve got all of this straight. You got some criminal buddy of yours to dig into my life and find out that I could be trusted?”
Oh, she’d done a bit more than that. And she’d never said it was a criminal buddy. Hadn’t she told him that she had good and bad contacts? “I arranged for you to be placed on the team at Jorlan’s house. I needed to see you in action for myself, after all.”
His eyes widened. “Thousands of people in the world and you picked me to be your protector? Why?” He appeared stunned.
She had that effect on some people. Unfortunately. But as to the why, well, she’d already started going down the truth road, so she’d just continue on this path. “Ten years ago, a hurricane slammed into a small southern town. Nearly wiped the place out. Marines rushed in to help the survivors. A picture circulated online of a man who was pulling a terrified family through waist-high water in a small boat. The boat the family huddled in was an old rowboat. Only no oars were in sight. The man was just walking. Pulling them. Not stopping.”
“That fucking picture.”
The picture had been of a younger Tyler. He’d been the one pulling the rowboat by hand through the water and helping the family. That picture was burned in her mind. She inclined her head. “Let’s talk about that same Marine, a few years later.”
Tension coiled around his body.
And hers. “A bomb went off in a Paris café.” The memory could still make her shudder. “Some Marines were in town, on leave, and they ran toward the explosion. They pulled out three survivors before the entire building collapsed. You were one of those Marines.”
“You have been doing your research. Consider me impressed.”
“I was in Paris that day.” Again, the words just slipped out. “I saw you.”
His eyes narrowed. Then widened. His stare swept over her. So intense. So sharp. So…
Her breath rushed out. It was almost a relief to get this out in the open. “I know sign language because right after the blast, I couldn’t hear. Not for several weeks, actually. I think that is probably why silence makes me uncomfortable. It takes me back to one of the worst times in my life.”
“No.” He backed away. “No fucking way.”
“Yes, yes, fucking way. I look different, of course.” She stepped away from the wall. Motioned toward herself. “At the time, I was in my blond hair period, though I doubt you noticed since I was covered in blood and ash and blackened debris.” Another heave of her breath. “It’s hard to look your best when you are at death’s door. So don’t hold that against me.”
Shock covered his face. “I-I tried to find you after?—”
“After you put me in the ambulance? Yes, I know. But my father didn’t want me to be found. I wasn’t supposed to be at that café, you see. So I wasn’t. He erased me. And it’s not like the brave Marine who saved my life was being chatty with the press. Instead, he was finishing up his service, and, lo and behold, he soon got the position he wanted with the U.S. Marshal’s office. He deserved that position. He deserved a lot of things.”
Tyler swiped a hand over his hard jaw. “Wait. You’re saying that you got me that position?”
“It was the least I could do.” She’d had to be careful and pull lots of strings without letting anyone know that she was the one working behind the scenes. “Without you, I would have died that day. I would have been buried beneath all of the debris and forgotten.”
His gaze slid over her. And then…
Tyler grabbed the hem of her shirt. Lifted it up.
“You should at least ask first,” she murmured. “Manners, you know. Personal space and all that. Not very gentlemanly to just lift up a woman’s shirt without asking permission first. Unless we are in the middle of a very sexy and intense scene, and we are currently not. ”
“You have the scar.” His fingers skimmed over the puckered line on her stomach. A line that snaked and twisted near her belly button. “ You were bleeding so much. You were covered in blood and ash.”
“Told you before.” Esme ignored the way her stomach seemed to be flipping and churning as he touched her. “I don’t mind scars. Not at all.”
“Fuck.”
He was staring at her as if he’d just seen a ghost.
“Fuck,” he bit off again.
“You said that already,” she pointed out. “Such dirty talk.”
His hand flew back.
“Once a hero, always a hero,” she told him. “At least, that was what I was hoping would be the case with you. I just needed to have that acquaintance of mine dig a little to see what you’d been doing since our paths last crossed.”
The shock had faded from his face, but Tyler still appeared dazed. Trapped between his memory of the past and her in the present. “You never opened your eyes. I never saw your eyes.”
“My eyes are open now.” Open and on him. “I needed a hero, so I found myself one.” Trips down memory road sucked, so she preferred to skip them whenever possible. “Despite the brief hesitation earlier—I’ll blame that on the large butcher knife and me not having enough sleep—I truly don’t think you’re the kind of man who would sell out his charge for seven million dollars. I don’t think you’re the kind of man that would ever sell out anyone. You’re a very rare breed. And you’re exactly what I need.”
“ They told me you died. ”
“Yes, that would be what I meant when I said my father erased me. A false name. A dead woman who wasn’t. And no one learned the truth. A very important man’s daughter was never in the café. She couldn’t be tied to what happened. Her father could be safe from the mob of the press. So could she.”
“You’re telling me the truth.”
She was. Esme nodded.
“What is going on?” Tyler demanded. “You pulled me in your web and now you tell me everything.”
She would tell the most important thing. But he already knew it, didn’t he? “Powerful people want me dead.”
“ Were you the target in the Paris bombing?”
She’d revealed enough for now. Big revelations were exhausting. “According to the press, that was a terror attack.” And she still fought the terror that rolled through her whenever she heard loud noises. “The perpetrators were caught. Sentenced. They should never get out again.”
“Then why did your father hide the fact that you were there for all this time? Why the lies?”
“Because fate is funny.” Hilarious some days. Horrible on others. “I was meeting with someone…let’s just say this individual could have caused a great deal of trouble in the international world. He had proof that certain powerful individuals were involved in a massive weapons and drug trade. If that proof had gotten into the right hands…” There was no point in the “if” talk. Her gaze darted away from Tyler and skimmed around the den. Paused a moment on the blanket and the pillow. “The proof was destroyed in the explosion.” Suddenly very weary, Esme headed for the stairs. “Lots of things were destroyed in that explosion.” Including the person she’d been before the world had erupted around her.
“Esme.”
Her hand reached for the banister .
“Were your hands the right ones? Is that why you were in the café? Were you the one who should have gotten the intel?”
She looked at her hand as it pressed to the wood.
“Were your hands the right ones?” Tyler asked again.
“Not then.” Because her job hadn’t been to make sure that proof got out…
Watch him, Esme. Stop him. Report back.
Her eyes closed. “You’re the hero, remember? Not me. Don’t ever forget that.” Enough sharing for the day. It was morning, and yet she was already soul weary. Esme climbed up the stairs and left her hero behind.
Oh, who was she kidding? She’d never been able to really leave him behind. For years, he’d stayed in her head.
When a man saved your life, you tended to never forget him.
“They’re here,” Clay Banks said into his phone. He sat behind the wheel of his patrol car, and his eyes were on the house that waited about twenty yards away. “Got eyes on their place right now.”
“And Tyler is staying close to her?”
He thought about the way Tyler had watched the woman. “Pretty sure you can count on him staying close.”
“The cameras are in place?”
He’d been the one to install them, so… “Yes.”
“You’ll report to me on everything that happens?”
Now this was the part that made him feel like shit. “Tyler is a friend of mine.”
“And you want your friend to stay alive, don’t you?”
Yeah, he damn well did .
“Seven million dollars is a lot of money.”
Under-freaking-statement.
“Report to me. The sharks will be closing in.”
Right. His fingers tapped on the steering wheel. For that much money, he expected a great white to be swimming through his town any minute.