10
Liam
Ty was right.
He deserved answers I never would have been willing to divulge until that night put us in the situation where he was now involved in the part of my life I’d walked away from. Although, deep down, I knew I could never really walk away from it.
Taking his hand, I guided him into the kitchen.
After I’d managed to take on those guys who’d attacked us outside Sidetrack, I threw Ty over my shoulder, then broke into and hot-wired a nearby car, driving it to this secure location I’d set aside for emergencies.
And talk about an emergency.
“How are you feeling? How’s your face? You took a pretty good hit. I tried to put some frozen peas on there earlier.”
I’d done my best to take care of him in the hours he’d been out.
“Who gives a fuck about my face? Who were those guys? When did you become a ninja? And why the fuck did you bring me here rather than back to your place?”
I led him to the dining table and sat him in a chair, then went to the counter by the sink, where I had a bag of items I’d picked up at a nearby gas station before heading over to our hideout. I fetched some Advil, a bag of peas from the freezer, and a bottle of water from the fridge.
Ty didn’t press or agitate me with the slew of questions I was certain he had. He must’ve known I was cornered, and that everything would be out in the open soon enough.
I handed him the Advil, peas, and water, and Ty opened the bottle and downed a few capsules as I sat in the chair adjacent to his.
“My place isn’t an option right now. We’re in a secluded wooded area near the Illinois-Kentucky border. This place wasn’t purchased under my name, and there’s no way to trace us back here, so you’ll be safe. But even if something does come up, I have other locations we can transfer to in case of emergency or if my intel compels me to believe we could be in even more danger. Now please, put those peas on your face. It’ll help with the swelling.”
It was already looking pretty red as it was.
He obeyed but continued to glare at me like he just wanted me to start talking. I fought this lump in my throat, all the parts of me built to keep secrets rather than divulge them, gulping before continuing, “And the reason I’ve been evasive…about my past and about what I used to do is because I was in a very dangerous line of work.”
“No kidding.” His brows arched as he leaned back in the chair. “I’m guessing that data-analysis bullshit was just that…bullshit.”
“There was truth to the title I used. I just never clarified the extent. The agency I worked for is a government agency. High security clearance…think FBI, but even more than that, we were basically auditors for the CIA, FBI, DHS. You name it, we cover it. Our jurisdiction is wherever the fuck we’re needed, nationally or internationally.”
“Like someX-Filesshit?”
“Well, that would be FBI, and you said they were like a joke to them. But no, we’re anything but. More like their worst nightmare. In terms of investigating and hunting monsters, yes, that was our specialty.”
“Wait, if you’re about to tell me someMen in Blackshit…or that monsters exist, I’m gonna go ahead and warn you that I’m gonna freak out.” He glanced around as though considering the ludicrous possibility, something I could empathize with, since how the hell was that much of a stretch from the truth after an attack that was about as far removed from his experience as any TV or movie monster.
“Oh, they exist alright, Ty. But not in forms like vampires or shape-shifters. No, just terrible human beings who’ve lost their humanity, become too powerful. Only vampires in the way they leech off human life, and only shape-shifters in the way they can disguise themselves among the rest of us.”
He stared at me for a moment, his brows tugged together. “Just in case you ever do have to explain this to someone else, you should lead with the part that they aren’t actual monsters.” He offered a sneaky smile, which pulled a laugh from me.
It was amazing hearing his sense of humor cut through the awkwardness of what I had to share with him.
“I’ll make a mental note,” I assured him. “But my point being, because of the nature of my line of work, I hunted some very dangerous people…in bed with a lot of other very dangerous people, meaning that now that they’ve seen the two of us together, you’re likely a target too. And until we can figure out who is tracking me, my job is to keep you safe.”
“I can take care of myself.”
He said it more out of pride, I figured, than feeling like he could manage the situation, but I corrected him, if only to help him grasp the seriousness of the situation. “Yeah, you really showed me that with those incredible martial-arts skills out there.”
His expression went from defensive to guilty in an instant. “I’m sorry I almost made things worse. I didn’t—”
“Ty, you couldn’t have known what was happening. Or that those weren’t just some assholes trying to rob us. You didn’t do anything wrong. If anything, I did something wrong by…by letting you into my life.” I grunted, wanting to punch myself for the nightmare I’d pulled him into. I’d known since the day we met that it wasn’t just Eric holding me back. “I’ve been doing this for long enough to know that even though I reached the dream of retiring, I could never really walk away from that life…that I would always be up to my waist in the blood from my past. I shouldn’t have gotten you involved in this.”
“You didn’t do this on purpose, Liam. And you didn’t exactly make it easy for me to be involved in your life. I wanted to be.”
