But far worse than my appearance or the way I felt, the cops thought Tyler killed Mr. Enoch.
Weirdly, my heart warmed.If Tyler did murder a man, should I be afraid?I contemplated my wishy-washy morals as I wandered back out to the sitting room. He’d unearthed a blanket from somewhere, and when I got close to him, he slung the thick material around my shoulders. After he pecked a kiss on my cheek, he groaned and did the same thing he always did at my apartment. Plopping down on the couch, he removed his leather coat and quickly unbuckled the holster on his shoulder. He smiled at me as he tucked the weapon under the furniture, between his feet. I drifted closer to him, and he pulled me carefully down to his side and wrapped me up in a hug, letting me lean against his warmth.
“I need to ask you to do a couple of things,” he said seriously, and my heart squeezed.
“Tyler, did you—”
“Notexactly,” he said.
I froze. His badge gleamed on its chain around his neck, and I danced my fingers over it. It seemed odd that he was still wearing it, after everything. I glanced up into his face, but it was unreadable. He tilted his chin and caught my eye, then slipped his fingers down to tug on the blindfold that hung around my neck like a scarf. I’d almost forgotten about it. I glanced around. My real scarf was missing.Damn it, Journey better not get mad about that.
“Pay attention. It’s important you wear this in the morning.” He plucked at the blindfold. “Don’t let me see your eyes.”
Huffing out a laugh, I leaned my head against his chest and stared at the dancing flames from the fire he’d started while I was in the bathroom. The air wasn’t warming up very fast, and that didn’t say many good things for my comfort here. “I don’t think I feel up to—”
“No matter what, keep it on,” he said harshly.
“Okay,” I whispered, and shivers racked me.
He gave me a little hug. “I’m going to leave at some point tomorrow, probably early. When I’m gone you can take off the blindfold. Before I leave, I’m going to barricade the doors, except for the back door. You’re going to do something with that after I’m gone. Now, this is the most important part,” he said, leaning back. He snagged my chin with two fingers and forced it higher. I stared into his eyes and couldn’t stop the shudder that raced along my spine at his serious stare. “Don’t let me in tomorrow night, the next day, or the following night. Not until sunrise, do you understand? No matter what you see. No matter what you hear. Do not let me in. I don’t care if I tell you I’m dying and only your sweet lips can save me.” He popped a kiss on my mouth. “Don’t open the door.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“Good. Youmustlisten.” His grip on my chin ached.
Fear tingled in my belly and I nodded.What the hell is going on?
Tyler bent and kissed me. “You’re the most beautiful soul. I….” He cleared his throat.
“It’s too soon for I love you,” I murmured and linked my fingers with his. He let me hold on tight. I was happy to see our hands together, his bigger one protecting mine. “But I get it. Me too. Be careful tomorrow. Are you going back to the city to tell them you’re innocent? Are you worried they’ll think I helped you? Is that why I need to stay here?”
Tyler cringed and drew his lips into his mouth. “I’m not certain what the police think at this point.”
I tipped my chin up, silently begging for another kiss. He darted down and attacked my mouth. After a while, he gave me one last, lingering press of his lips, then left the room. He brought back bottles of water, crackers, and a terrible can of cheese that I groaned my way through sharing with him, but I decided to treat this like we were camping. I didn’t complain. Every now and then he shot me a look that said he appreciated me going along with all of this.
I was feeling completely off my rocker and wasn’t really sure what I was thinking. I’d missed a shift at Healing Hearts. Journey would be going out of his mind with worry. Someone was supposed to be coming to fix the leaky faucet in the kitchen at my apartment. I wouldn’t be there to let the repairman in. All those normal things were going on somewhere far away from me, and it was difficult to make myself care about them the way I should.
It got dark out, and the fire was cheerful, even though it didn’t take up much space in the fireplace. Tyler left the room and was gone for a bit, and when he came back he had more blankets in his arms and a couple of pillows. He began to spread the bedding out on the floor, and I sighed.
“If there are blankets, doesn’t that mean there are mattresses somewhere?”
He paused and glanced over at me, eyes glittering darkly. “None we want to sleep on.”
Unease slithered through my gut again as he went back to work. “What does that mean? What is this place?”
“Not tonight,” he said simply, and anger clawed through my chest and settled in a furious knot in my stomach as he turned his back to me to smooth out a corner of the blankets.
“You dragged me into this,” I said, surprised to hear myself yelling. “You did this, and I think you owe me an answer or two, don’t you?”
He sighed and took his boots off, tossing them near the couch, then held out his arms toward me. Mad or not, I couldn’t deny the need on his face, and I stomped over to him. I carefully toed off my sneakers before I settled down beside him. He grabbed another blanket and pulled it over us while at the same time dragging me down to rest my head on his thick arm, rather than a pillow.
“I don’t want to talk about it because….” He sighed and closed his eyes. “This house belongs to Abraham Walker.”
“You mean you don’t like your past?” I asked. “You go by Tyler now.”
He twitched so violently it made my head twinge. “No, I don’t.”
“This was your family home?”
