Tyler
I’d broken my rule. I didn’t regret it. Not for a second. Dixie loved me.
The knowledge woke me with a strange happiness I didn’t deserve, and I brushed her blonde hair from her eyes. Held back from kissing her awake.
Shelovedme.
Impossible. Incredible.
From the floor, a low drone stole my attention. My phone, vibrating with a call. I ignored it until it timed out, but there was no way I’d sleep now. Not here.
We needed to return upstairs, so I climbed from the bed and pulled on my clothes. Collected hers and set them on the sheet, then bundled her into it and lifted her in my arms.
I stole out of the room, to the lift, and up to floor seven without anyone seeing us, though from the sex noises, someone was still working. My phone buzzed again, this time deep in my pocket, but my hands were full of a precious load.
In our apartment, I settled Dixie into the bed, and she curled up without waking.
I pressed a kiss to her temple.
I should never have checked my screen.
Shouldn’t have taken in the words from my uncle, ones that took me straight back to a black hole of teenage years.
Jonas: Ignoring me won’t change anything. We need to talk about Seamus Johnston. I’m in your building. Come down now.
Johnston was the bastard who executed my family. Whatever my uncle had to say about him couldn’t be good.
His words twisted my quiet contentment to something oily and cold, memories forced to the surface. A rough floor, cold under my cheek. Anger brewing but fear following pain.
My blood.
My call log showed me security had tried me twice, presumably with Jonas complaining at them, so I called back.
“Ghost,” the guy on the desk said. One of the guards pulling dawn duty. “There was a guy here for you, door two.”
Was, he’d said. “Is he gone?”
“He left a note. Wouldn’t leave without me swearing to get it to you.”
“How long ago?” I asked.
“Just a few minutes.”
Which meant Jonas wouldn’t be far. My uncle drank like a fish, so he’d be stumbling down the harbour in search of a taxi to wherever he was staying tonight.
I hesitated, caught between the strongest need to curl up again around the woman in my bed and to find out what he wanted. The fact he’d left a note pissed me off. I pictured the old boy scrawling my business for anyone to read.
That final thought dragged me into action. “I’ll be right there.”
I hung up and took a breath, that need holding me in place for a few beats longer.
Dixie had made me hers. That meant protecting her, but it also meant handling a past I wished had stayed buried. Arran had told me so.
After everything I’d been through, it wasn’t done with me. Not even close.
I left the apartment, loading the app where we managed camera access while I descended the stairs. I wouldn’t be long, so I didn’t text her. Didn’t want her phone to wake her when I’d be back in minutes.
All was quiet around the warehouse, the clubs closed and corridors empty. It was almost dawn, the air still.
