Control (Harper Security Ops #18)

Sixteen

SIXTEEN

Alana

It had been the best night of my life.

Over the last couple of weeks, the attraction and connection I felt to Ty had grown tremendously.

Tonight had solidified the feelings I had for him—the knowing looks, seductive smiles, and playful touches had been building me up in a way I hadn’t expected. Combining that with the conversation and laughter we had tonight and nearly every day we’d spent together, and it would have been impossible to not find myself growing fonder of him.

Then he brought me home and kissed me at my front door. It felt like the perfect end to a first date. But it was strange. Not the kiss. The kiss had been perfect, better than I could have hoped for it to be.

The strange part was that even though it was technically our first date, I felt like I’d known him for months. And for that reason, it became an exercise in self-control not to drag him inside with me.

There was something that held me back, and at first, I didn’t know what it was. But eventually, it hit me.

It wasn’t that long ago when Ty had shared with me that he’d just broken up with his ex-girlfriend. It had been a matter of weeks since he ended things with her. When that thought popped into my mind, I thought it was better to wait, to be sure that I wouldn’t wind up being a rebound for him.

Granted, Ty hadn’t done a single thing to indicate to me that he was still hung up on his ex—even now, it horrified and baffled me to think a woman would actually cheat on a man like Ty. I couldn’t imagine it was possible to find a man better than him.

Regardless of the attention he’d shown me and the attraction I felt to him, I thought it was best to go slow.

So, I didn’t invite him.

But perhaps I should have.

Because then I wouldn’t have been in this predicament.

I wouldn’t have been pacing inside my house, terrified, and looking out the window for him with my phone clutched in my hand and held up to my ear.

I couldn’t hang up.

I refused to lose the connection to him.

Not when I wasn’t sure I was even safe in my own home.

“I’m coming down your street now.”

“Please, hurry,” I begged, the tears pouring down my cheeks. My stomach was trembling. Every muscle in my body was quaking with fear.

“I’m almost there, baby. Just stay with me.”

His words barely registered, and it was only the sound of his voice that was keeping me from losing it completely.

The moment I saw the lights and his vehicle, I opened my door and bolted out as fast as I could for someone who still had a boot that made even walking awkward.

Ty brought his car to an abrupt stop, got out, and raced toward me. Our bodies collided, my arms going over his shoulders as his wrapped around my torso, my feet leaving the ground.

“Oh, my God,” I cried.

“You’re okay, Alana. I’m here.” My heart was pounding so hard, I was sure Ty could feel it against his own. He held me tight, giving me some time to collect myself, but that felt like an impossible task. Being the kind of man he was, Ty couldn’t remain in the dark. “Tell me what happened. Tell me what’s wrong.”

I didn’t want to let him go. I didn’t want him to leave me. My arms gripped him tighter. “Ty,” I whispered.

“Shhh. You’re okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. But I need you to tell me what’s going on. Are we in danger out here?”

At his question and the seriousness in his tone, I reluctantly loosened my hold and held the piece of paper up between us. He plucked it from my hand and read the words on it.

You were warned. Now, you die.

“Where did you find this?” he asked.

“I saw the fish first.”

“What?”

I took a shuddering breath. “The fish. I went to my refrigerator to get a drink before I went up to bed, and when I opened the refrigerator, there was a dead fish inside. I jumped back, and that’s when I caught sight of this note under one of my magnets.”

“Nobody was in there?” Ty pressed.

“I don’t know,” I croaked. “I didn’t see anyone.”

“Come and wait in my car while I go inside and check,” he urged.

I shook my head and gripped him tighter. “No. No, please don’t leave me alone.”

Ty’s features softened, and thanks to his headlights, I could see the war he was waging inside. He didn’t want to take me inside with him, but he didn’t want me even more frightened by being separated from him. “Okay. You come with me, but you stay behind me. And if I tell you to get out and run, you get out and run to my car. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

Satisfied with my response, Ty released his hold on me, took me by the hand, and led me to the house. He entered it ahead of me, nearly every light on the first floor having been turned on in my panicked state. I followed behind him, keeping close, and following several tense minutes as he made his way through the entire house, he stopped in my bedroom and said, “Pack a bag.”

“What?”

“You’re not staying here alone tonight. I could stay with you, but someone else has already been inside this house. We’re not staying here without any additional security. So, we’re going back to my place tonight and will stay there for the foreseeable future. You need to pack a bag.”

In any other situation, I would have been jumping for joy. My heart would have been soaring, making me feel like I was flying, if Ty had asked me to spend the night at his place. Of course, I was relieved he wasn’t going to leave me alone tonight, but I hated that I couldn’t appreciate being able to stay with him for the right reasons.

Feeling wildly uncomfortable about everything that had just happened, I didn’t delay. I went about packing a bag while Ty descended the stairs to take care of the fish and make a call. Who that call was to or what it was about, I had no idea. I could only assume it was to somebody else who worked at Harper Security Ops.

It surprised me just how fast I could pack a bag under pressure. Minutes after he’d asked me to do it, I was finished. I didn’t know how many days I’d need clothes for, but I packed about a week’s worth and figured I could wash everything at his place if he didn’t think it was safe to return to my place by then.

Ty took my bag from me the second he saw me descending the stairs with it. “Phone, keys, purse, laptop… Grab whatever else you think you might need.”

I gathered up everything I thought I’d need in addition to my clothes and toiletries before meeting Ty at the front door. He took me by the hand and led me outside, only letting go to allow me to lock up. I wondered if that was even necessary, considering someone had managed to get inside my house without any visible damage to it.

We had been driving for a few minutes in silence when I broke it and said, “Thank you for coming back, Ty.”

He already had my hand in his, but at my words, Ty offered a reassuring squeeze. “I don’t need you to thank me for that, Alana. I hate to think that you had to find what you did while you were alone.”

I winced, still recalling the cold, unwelcome feeling that settled over me the moment I saw that fish and the note.

My mind was so muddled, I didn’t pay much attention to where we were going, but we had soon arrived, and Ty didn’t hesitate to spring into action. He exited the vehicle, came around to my side to open my door, and grabbed my bags from the back seat.

And before I knew it, Ty had taken me inside and given me a quick tour, so I had the lay of the land. When we were standing there in the silence, I asked, “Am I going to be safe?”

He closed the distance between our bodies and pulled me into his arms. “I am not going to let anyone hurt you, babe. Especially not after I just had the best date of my whole life. I can promise you that.”

Ty’s tone was so confident, and the way he held his body was the same. Either he was just that good at hiding it, or he was telling me the truth. I didn’t think he was the kind of guy who’d lie to me, particularly when it came to something like this.

“Did I make a mistake?”

He tipped his head to the side and eyed me curiously. “What do you mean?”

I shook my head, feeling the worry creep in. “I was so insistent about doing this story, about finding out the truth of what happened to Annie. And Yasmine. Would I have been better off listening to my boss and sitting this one out?”

Ty reached his hand up to the side of my face, where he cupped my cheek. “You didn’t make a mistake. You did what you felt was right. I don’t blame you or fault you for it. I’d have done the same thing. And if nothing else, you were smart about it. You recognized there’s a threat, and you came to Harper Security Ops to ask me for help. What you choose to do from here on out is entirely up to you, but you should know that I’m more than prepared to stand by you and protect you if you choose to continue.”

A rush of air left my lungs, my head dropping forward until it hit his chest. Ty wrapped his arms around me and hugged me. “I don’t know what I want to do. I’ve never felt like this. For so long, I thought I was tough. In my career field, I expected danger every once in a while. But now? Now, I’m not so sure I’m up for this.”

I loved the feeling of his hand stroking up and down my back. “You don’t need to make a decision tonight. Give yourself some time. Take the night, get some rest, and you can think about what you want to do tomorrow morning.”

He was right.

I was far too emotional now to decide what the best course of action was moving forward. The best thing I could do was trust him to keep me safe, get some rest, and consider my options in the morning.

“Okay, Ty. I’ll worry about it in the morning.”

In a move I hadn’t been expecting, Ty pressed a soft kiss to the top of my head. Warmth moved through me, the final lingering bits of trembling muscles settling down. “Good. How about you get yourself dressed and ready for bed? I’m going to run back downstairs to grab us both some water and lock everything up. Do you want or need anything else?”

I didn’t want him to leave, but I had to be reasonable. He’d given me a task to do. If I knew anything about Ty, I was sure he’d go as fast as he could and return before I had even finished getting myself ready. Pulling my head back from his chest, I tipped my chin up to look at him. “Water is fine.”

He smiled at me, pressed a soft kiss to my forehead, and released me. A moment later, I was still standing where he left me in the middle of his bedroom. We still hadn’t discussed sleeping arrangements, but after getting a tour, I’d only noticed the single bed in his bedroom.

Snapping myself out of it, I grabbed my bag with my clothes and toiletries and made my way into the bathroom. After I changed into my pajamas—a pair of waffle-knit leggings and a loose-fitting, matching cotton long-sleeved shirt—I brushed my teeth and washed the makeup from my face. And sure enough, by the time I emerged from the bathroom, Ty had returned with two glasses of water.

His eyes raked over me from head to toe and back again, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “You look adorably comfortable.”

I glanced down at my PJs momentarily and said, “I get cold at night.”

He moved toward me and kissed my cheek tenderly. “Noted. I’m going to change and brush my teeth. I’ll be out in a minute. Why don’t you climb into bed, and I’ll be right there?”

Ty didn’t wait for me to respond before he disappeared into the bathroom. I guess he didn’t plan to have a discussion about sleeping arrangements. He’d already decided we were both going to be spending the night in his bed.

I didn’t mind. I wanted to be where he was. I just wished the first time I spent the night in his bed, it wasn’t because we’d been forced there. Ty was too good of a man to make me feel like I was an inconvenience, but I wondered if this situation was pushing us together in ways that he wasn’t ready for just yet.

Glancing at the nightstands on either side of the bed, I guessed the left side of the bed was Ty’s usual side, so I walked around to the right side of it, pulled the blanket back, and sat on the edge to remove my walking boot. Then I swung my legs in and waited.

When the bathroom door opened, my eyes went in that direction. Ty was wearing a pair of sweats and no shirt. My mouth watered at the sight of him half naked, and when I finally lifted my gaze to his, he revealed, “I’m a hot sleeper.”

I gave him a nod, but my mouth was too dry to respond. Needing a distraction, I turned and reached for the glass of water to take a sip.

Whether Ty understood the reaction I was having to seeing him like that or not, I didn’t know. But he didn’t make things much easier on me when he moved toward the bed, pulled the blanket back on his side, and slid in beside me.

How was it possible that not even an hour ago I was ready to drag this man into my house and right to my bed, where I wanted to strip us out of our clothes, but now I felt so nervous just sitting beside him?

It was the bed.

It had to be the bed.

I licked my lips, swallowed down the nerves, and said, “I’m sorry about this.”

“About what, exactly?”

“I’m sorry that my decision to continue with this story has led to this,” I explained. “Now you need to share your bed with me, and I never meant to become an inconvenience.”

“You are not an inconvenience,” he assured me without a second thought. “I hate what happened to you tonight, but I’m not the least bit upset that you’re here, in my bed, as a result. Your safety is my number one priority and the only thing that matters.”

While this made me feel marginally better—and I wholeheartedly trusted he meant every word of it—the problem was that he was overlooking the other component to all of this.

“I appreciate you saying that, Ty. It means everything to me that you’d go to such lengths to keep me safe.” Waving my hand between us, I said, “I just wish you didn’t have to be forced into this situation before you were ready.”

He raised a curious brow. “This situation?”

Ty was going to make me say it. Surely, he already knew what I was referring to, but he was clearly going to pretend he didn’t.

“Yes, this situation,” I insisted. “There was no plan for me to wind up in your bed with you tonight, and now, I’m here.”

He reached for my hand, squeezing it before stroking his thumb across my knuckles. “And you think I’m feeling forced?”

I shrugged. “Maybe that’s not the right word. I don’t doubt you are willingly allowing me to stay with you tonight because of what happened and to keep me safe. I was talking on a more personal level, outside of the danger.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

Looking away, I tried to come up with the right way to say this. I wasn’t quite sure I’d figured that out when I said, “You kissed me at my front door tonight before you left to come home and sleep in your bed alone. I would have slept alone in my bed. Obviously, this isn’t what you had planned.”

His lips twitched. “It’s arguably better.”

“Better? But… but what about the time you need?” I questioned him.

“Time? What time?”

My voice was just a touch over a whisper. “The time to get over your recent breakup.”

Disbelief washed over him, and for several long moments, he didn’t say anything. Just when I had all sorts of uncomfortable feelings and regret creeping in, Ty revealed, “I don’t need time to get over anything, Alana.”

“You don’t?”

“I’ve been over that for a while now,” he confessed. “You’re the only one who’s been consuming my mind night after night. You’re all I think about. Do you honestly believe I would have kissed you like I did tonight if I didn’t feel something for you?”

I nervously bit my lip. “I don’t know. I just… I don’t want to be the rebound girl.”

“You’re not the rebound girl.”

I held his stare. “You’re sure?”

His lips curved into a smile. “Positive. You could never be that, baby.”

Baby.

I vaguely recalled him saying that word to me earlier tonight, but I was too caught up in fear and emotions for it to register. Now, I could soak it up, let it sink in.

“Could I kiss you?”

His grin grew. “It’s insane to me that you think you need to ask.”

I smiled back. Then I leaned in and touched my lips to his. They’d barely gotten there and tasted the minty freshness of him when Ty took over and deepened the connection. One of his hands was holding the side of my head, my fingers curled around that wrist as his tongue plundered and explored my mouth.

I was dizzy with the taste of him, lost in a fog, when he separated his mouth from mine, pulled back a touch, and allowed his eyes to roam over my face. “You’re not the rebound girl.”

With that kiss, that much had become apparent.

“Are you tired?” he asked.

“It’s been an eventful evening. Scary, too.”

He nodded with understanding. “We’ll figure it all out in the morning. For tonight, just rest, knowing I’ll keep you safe.”

“Okay.”

His thumb moved tenderly along my jaw. Then, Ty twisted his body and turned off the light before the two of us shifted our bodies in the bed. I’d barely gotten my head on the pillow when I felt Ty’s arm clamp around my waist. That hadn’t quite registered when he hauled me up against his body and tucked me close to him, his front to my back.

My belly trembled, only this time, it wasn’t from fear. I felt safe and protected and cared for.

And mere minutes later, when my eyelids got heavy, I never expected I’d have the best night of sleep in my whole life.