Chapter 32
NORA
THE LITTLE device attached to the button on my shirt near my collar is tiny, and Rhys assured me it’s nearly impossible to detect. That doesn’t stop the cold sweat on my forehead and down my back.
Tuck, Mason, and Jax left an hour ago to ‘get into place’ around the gas station.
They were all dressed in black fatigues, tight long-sleeved shirts, and combat boots, giving me a glimpse of how they look when they’re working.
Even though my body is sore from our night last night, in the best way, seeing Tuck’s powerful body accentuated by the clothes and weapons hooked on him sent a rush of arousal to my center.
I’ve never considered myself the type of girl who gets off on strength, power, and aggression, but here I am, salivating over the physical strength and lethality of the man who will stand between me and danger. He also files away every little detail of what makes my body sing.
Just before they left, he pulled me into him, his nose buried in my neck. But needing some levity to calm my nerves, I whispered in his ear, “Can you wear that outfit later tonight?”
His baritone chuckle instantly soothed some of my nerves. If he’s not worried, I shouldn’t be worried. Right?
Setting his lips next to my ear, he whispered back. “Sugar, I’ll wear whatever you want me to wear.” The heat of his breath on the shell of my ear sent a shiver up my spine, and I gripped his shoulders tighter. Then he whispered, “Even though you won’t see me, I’ll be right there.”
Tears pricked my eyes, and I didn’t trust myself to talk, so I just nodded against his head. With another soft kiss, he walked out the door.
Rhys brought Kinley’s SUV for me to drive to the gas station, and my knuckles are white on the steering wheel as I take the curves on the picturesque road under the tree canopy.
I remember the night I drove into town a little more than a month ago and the sky was so gray and scary.
Today, the sun is out and the birds are singing - in direct opposition to my mood.
The parking lot of the station is the same, but with fewer cars, today there are only two sitting at the front curb. Parking just left of the front doors, where Rhys told me to park, I take a deep breath and shake my hands.
Trying not to look obvious, I glance to each side of the store to see if I can see black clothing anywhere, but I only see trees. Then I wonder if Mason is watching me right now. Knowing they are out there helps to calm my rapidly beating heart.
I look through the front window of the store and see one lone person sitting at the tables toward the back by the TV. Talking out loud so they can hear me through the spy button on my collar, I say, “I think I see him in the back of the store. He’s sitting at one of the tables.”
Rhys’s voice is smooth in the tiny communication device in my ear. “Roger that. You’re doing great, Nora.”
Fisting and flexing my hands in my lap, I count to three and take a deep breath as I open the car door. The inside of the store is exactly the way I remember it; it still smells like pizza. Pausing as the front door closes behind me, it feels like I’m being sealed into a ring with a hungry lion.
The brown eyes I’ve looked into a million times slide in my direction, and I can see anger looking at me. There’s also something else I’ve not seen before, there’s a coldness there like I’m just a bug to be squashed.
The sound of my pulse is rushing in my ears, and my legs move mechanically toward the back of the store, all the while twisting the ring on my finger faster with each step. Trying to calm my nerves, I remind myself that it’s just Matt and we are in a public place, but it works only minimally.
Stopping next to the bench across from him, I start to sit, and he shakes his head and stands, sweeping his hand to point at the bench he just vacated. “Sit next to me, beautiful.”
His tone is flat and cold, but I guess he feels like he doesn’t have to pretend anymore.
If he was just pretending the entire time, it makes my stomach churn.
Glancing around the store, I clear my throat and slide onto the bench before he sits next to me.
He turns in my direction and sets his arm on the back of the bench.
There is a folder of papers sitting on the table in front of us.
He stares at me, his eyes moving down my body and back up. With a smirk, he puts his other arm on the table, making the cage of his body feel more oppressive when he says, “I remember that look. You’ve got that just-been-fucked look, Nora.”
My skin turns scarlet in a wave from my chest to the top of my head which prickles with goosebumps. How did I never know he was such an asshole?
He runs his tongue over his teeth like he’s bored. “How’s the hick? I swear, I laughed so hard when I found out you were here in Oklahoma hanging out with a bunch of backwoods hillbillies. You’re so fucking predictable and sad, looking for attention anywhere you can get it.”
The insults sting, but in my ear, Rhys says, “He’s trying to get a rise out of you, Nora. Just take a breath and remember why you’re there.”
Rhys is right, he’s using his old tactics to make me feel bad about myself so he can control me. Curling my fingers into my palms until I feel the pinch of my nails digging into the skin, I take a deep breath. “What do you want, Matt?”
The smirk on his face falls, and his jaw ticks. “You’ve cost me a lot of money.”
Rhys told me to play dumb and respond as if I don’t know anything about the files he showed me.
Lifting my chin, I narrow my eyes. “I cost you nothing. I never took anything from the apartment that wasn’t mine.
In fact, you cost me a lot of money when you drained my bank account and closed my online business. ”
He leans his head back and looks at the ceiling like he’s talking to an irritating child. “The pennies in your bank account were nothing compared to the millions I have lost since you pulled your disappearing act.”
Pressing my lips together to control my anger, I take a few small breaths through my nose. “Walking away from a disgusting man-whore was not a disappearing act. And how have I cost you millions?”
He slams his hand on the counter, making me jump, and yells, “You knew you had to sign those documents every quarter, and you walked out on the day you were supposed to sign them. Every goddamn day they go unsigned, I lose money.”
Swallowing my fear while trying to calm my heart, I squeeze my body closer to the back of the booth. “It’s nothing for you to dissolve our accounts; you’re an attorney, that should be a push of a button for you.”
“There’s more to it than that, Nora.” He growls low.
The muscle next to his eye is jumping, and I look at the pulse point in his neck; the anger is making his heart beat faster. I act like I’m thinking as I look over his face. “What else was there, Matt? What was I really signing?”
He looks away like he’s guilty and then back to me with a smirk. “Obviously, nothing you were worried about.”
I shake my head. “I trusted you. The documents I signed were for our three bank accounts and the stocks for the technology place and the AI company. None of those required anything from me to dissolve our relationship.”
A little bit of the smile I’m used to softens his face as he looks at me.
“You know, Nora. The day I first saw you in that coffee shop, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, but once we started talking, I realized you were too soft, too innocent.
Just too fucking na?ve. The edgy, confident beauty I expected when I started talking to you faded with each blush and each time you would shrink from a challenge.
That was when Gene pointed out that you would make the perfect puppy for what we needed. ”
It was fake from the very beginning. All the sweet declarations, the nice dinners, vacations. Fake. Tears sting my eyes and I try to blink them back.
Rhys’s voice is low in my ear. “Question him about that, Nora. Try to get more details about why he needed a puppy.”
The humiliation and betrayal I felt when I saw all the documents Rhys set in front of me the other day washes over me, and my voice is small when I ask, “Puppy for what? What did you get me into?”
He turns to the folder in front of him and opens it. “Nothing you need to worry about if you sign all these.”
He sets printed documents, with ‘sign here’ stickers in different places on each one, across the table. I read the titles of some of them out loud for Rhys to hear.
I slide each one on the table toward me with my finger and read them out loud.
“Quitclaim Deed of Property Linked Stock. Stock Transfer Form. Uncooperative Owner Dispute. Formal Notice. Review Agreement.” My voice gets shriller with each title.
“What the fuck, Matt? What is this? This one says I’m part of a board that you want to buy me out of, and this one says you and Gene will be registered members once I’m gone.
” I look up at him. “What is this? What board am I the owner of? I’m not signing anything until you explain this. ”
Rhys’s voice is calm. “Good, Nora. Stay on that path.”
He leans toward me, his face just inches from mine, his arms resting on each side of me, and I lean away until I’m flush against the back of the booth. His lip curls, and the familiar smell of his aftershave drifts into my nose. The hatred in his eyes is crushing as he glares at me.
“You’ll sign the fucking documents, Nora, or one of your newfound friends might wake up one day to something very unfortunate. Now sign.” He taps his finger hard on the top of the table.
My heart is rattling in my chest like a caged animal, and my fast breaths through my nose are audible. The threat to my friends scares the shit out of me, but the threat is recoded, so I lean toward him, almost touching his nose. “No.”
A low growl rattles in his chest, and he lifts his hand to reach for my neck.
A tinking sound, like when something metal taps a marble countertop, comes from my left by the window, and then warm droplets splatter across my cheek and neck, I turn my head and close my eyes since I don’t know what just splattered onto my skin.
Loud shrieking assaults my ears, and I open my eyes to see Matt holding the bleeding hand he just reached for me with to his chest. Jerking my head to the window, I see a small bullet hole in the glass, and then the front door opens, and Tuck walks in, his gun in his hand and the fire of hell in his eyes.
Relief floods my system, and I choke on a sob of happiness.
In my ear, I hear Rhys say, “Let’s move.” Then I remember Rhys telling Tuck that he, Mason, and Jax can’t be here because the D.C. guys didn’t want any interruptions. Grabbing the collar of my shirt, I jerk the button microphone off and hold it in my closed hand.
It takes seconds for Tuck to reach the table.
I’ve never seen him move that fast. Matt doesn’t see him yet because he’s still facing me, staring at his hand and screaming at the same time.
Blood is running down his arm and dripping onto the bench between us, but all I can do is lean as far away as the wall behind me will let me and watch.
Grabbing Matt by the neck, Tuck jerks him off the bench and lets him fall to the floor. Matt’s eyes are wide and wild as he looks up at Tuck in shock. “Who the fuck are you?”
Standing over his body, Tuck reaches down and grabs Matt’s jacket to pull his upper body off the floor to get in his face before he growls, “I’m the hick that will hunt you down and gut you from stem to stern and still sleep like a fucking baby at night.
You even look in her direction again, and I swear to fucking God, I will end you. ”
Tuck shoves him to the floor, letting go of his jacket before he looks at me, it’s the same look I saw when he grabbed the guy in the pub - the look that claims me as his with a promise to protect me come hell or high water.
Standing upright, he slides his weapon back into its holster and holds his hand out to me. “Come here, sugar. You okay?”
Not wanting to slide across the blood, I pull my feet up to stand on the seat. Taking Tuck’s hand, I step over the blood and then set my hand on his shoulder so I can step down, but he grabs my waist and lifts me over Matt to pull me into him.
He only holds me for a second before he leans back. “I have to go. If they see me here, they’ll charge me with interfering with an investigation. Rhys will be here any second, are you okay to wait for him without me?”
I don’t want him to be charged, so I nod and look over his shoulder at the FBI van screeching into the parking lot. “Yes. Go!”
He kisses me before he fast-limps to the back of the store, his limp more pronounced. When he disappears around a corner, I open my palm and let the button fall to the ground next to Matt.
Men pour through the front door with guns drawn, wearing jackets that say FBI on them, and they surround me and Matt. Rhys pushes through the men and grabs my arm to pull me away.
He looks down at me and moves close to my ear. “Is he gone?”
Looking up into his eyes after he leans away, I weigh whether I can trust him but remind myself that he’s Kinley’s husband and she would skin him alive if anything happened to her brother, so I give him a small nod.
He takes a deep breath and turns toward the men surrounding Matt.