“Thanks.”
Zane stepped from the car, and Luke called out, “Text me. Either way.”
“Yeah.” Zane watched as Luke drove away. Then he pulled the keycard to Tessa’s apartment from his wallet. He wasn’t worried about getting past the guards. He already had access to the building, the elevator, and the door to her hallway. No one would stop him.
He wouldn’t enter her apartment without her permission. But if she wouldn’t let him in tonight, she had to leave eventually, and when she did, he would be waiting.
THE SOFT SNICKof the front door filtered through the haze in her mind.
Zane.
She was going to take that keycard away from him as soon as she finished telling him off for invading her private space. She’d given him that card knowing he would never use it without her consent. But he’d walked right in. No knock. No called-out greeting.
She heard him pause at the door to her room.
“You’ve got some ner—” The words died on her lips as a man charged toward her. He was tall. He was blond. He had blue eyes.
But he was not Zane.
Tessa threw an arm up to block a blow that would have knocked her out and left her to this man’s mercy. His forward momentum sent him flying over her bed. She scrambled to the other side, but before she could reach the nightstand, he came at her and took her to the floor. He was heavy. Outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds. Maybe more.
He got a hand around her throat. Another hand pinned her left hand to the floor.
She thrashed underneath him, bucking her hips and twisting her legs. With her free hand, she tried to force his fingers to release her neck.
Her vision had clouded, air a commodity she would never again take for granted, when her assailant messed up. He shifted his position and came up on a knee. That was all the room she needed. She pulled her own knees to her chest and shoved outward. One leg caught his stomach. One foot made solid contact with a far more sensitive area of his body. The man crumpled on her but loosened his hold, and she was able to wriggle out from underneath him.
She ran straight to her nightstand and retrieved her weapon. She pointed it at her attacker. “Do not even think of moving,”she said to the man who lay curled in on himself on her floor, her voice a low rasp. “I will not hesitate to use this.”
19
THE KNOCK ONHER DOORwas unexpected, loud, and for a split-second, terrifying.
Then she heard his voice, muffled through the nearly soundproof door. “Tessa? I know you’re home. Open up. We need to talk.”
“Use your key.” Her words were too low, her throat too bruised from the attack, to project her voice enough for Zane to hear her. The soundproofing of the apartment—keeping outside sounds out and inside sounds in—had been a huge perk when she was looking for a home. She never considered a scenario where she would want someone in the hall to hear her. Zane must be yelling at full volume for her to be able to hear him.
He had a key, and because he was the kind of man he was, he wouldn’t use it. She knew that. Had always known that. But she’d let her anger twist the truth into a lie. If she hadn’t been so sure it was Zane coming in, she would have been armed before the intruder reached her bedroom door.
She wanted Zane in here with her, but she wasn’t going to leave her assailant, whose breathing had settled into a more natural rhythm, just so she could open the door.
“Come on, Tess. Please.”
Tessa called out, “Hey, Siri, text Zane Thacker.”
She could have cried in relief when the computerized voice with a plummy British accent responded. “What would you like to say to Zane Thacker?”
“Use your key.”
Siri repeated the message, then asked, “Ready to send it?”
“Yes.” Tessa never took her eyes away from the intruder, but she backed toward her bedroom door.
After what felt like an hour but was more like thirty seconds, she heard the lock disengage and Zane walk in. “Tess?”
“In here. Got a suspect on the floor. Bring your gun.”
“Tess? What’s wro—” Zane pulled his weapon from his waist and aimed it at the man on the floor. With his free hand, he tugged Tessa until she stood partly behind him. “Talk to me.”
