My Tye (26 page)

“Hell,” Mac blew out quietly after running his hands down his face. “I hate that this happened to you. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but we’ve got every available person working on this. We’ll find him, Laine. That, I promise you.”

“I know you will.”
God, I hope you will.

Mac nodded once, flattening his palms on the top of his desk and pushing off to stand. “Let me go tell Jen that we’re ready for the lineup, then. It’ll take just a few minutes to get set up. Be right back.”

Tye sidestepped to let Mac by, then moved back to stand behind her chair. He settled his warm hands on her shoulders and rubbed gently. “Doing okay?”

“I’m going to take the fifth on that one.” She let her head fall back to rest against his waist. “This is all so nerve-racking—“

“It is,” Tye said, kneading a little harder.

“Knowing the man who hurt me could be in this building. That I might see him again in a matter of minutes.”

Tye squeezed tighter. “I’ll be with you the entire time.”

She closed her eyes and nuzzled her cheek against his forearm. “Thank you,” she whispered.

He stilled his hands. “You don’t ever have to thank me for standing by you. Or for protecting you.”

“I know. But I wanted to say it. I want you to know—”

Her thought was cut off by Mac’s return. “Ready?” he asked, looking serious and gruff.

She stood despite her knees taking on the consistency of jelly. “I think so.”

Mac opened the door all the way and stood aside to let them through. “Down to the left.”

She went first, followed by Tye and then Mac, who passed them halfway down the hall to open the next door. She stepped in, her thoughts buzzing as she prepared herself for the worst.

The room was small and dimly lit. A framed, two-way mirror took up the upper half of one wall. A tiny table and chair sat in the corner with two more chairs shoved up against the opposite wall. She’d dealt with numerous law enforcement agencies throughout the years, and she’d been inside plenty of interrogation rooms. But never as a victim. It felt…odd. Unreal.

Scary.

“Looks just like the movies,” she mused.

“Nothing cinematic about it,” Mac said as he picked up the phone receiver on the desk and tapped four numbers. “Go ahead,” was all he said before hitting the light switch by the door and dousing them in darkness.

Through the mirror, a light turned on. The room next to theirs was empty, but only for a moment before the door opened and six men filed in.

Laine wrung her hands as she waited for the men in the lineup to stop and turn her direction. Tye slid his hand around her waist while Mac leaned back against the closed door with a thud. She could feel them watching her, feel them waiting anxiously for a response, whether it be positive or negative.

She took her time, studying each of the suspects in turn as her heart started to beat harder. Number one was too short. Number two was too tall. Three was the right height and even had the scar, but it ran above his eye, not through it. Four, five and six… Well, they just didn’t match up with the person she remembered.

“None of them,” she said quietly. A weird combination of relief and disappointment tingled through her stomach. “He’s not here. It’s not him.”

From behind her, Tye dropped his chin to his chest and let out a heavy breath.

“You’re sure?” Mac asked.

She gave the men another once-over through the mirror, then nodded. “I am. The man who attacked me is not in this lineup.”

Mac dialed the phone again. “We’re done.”

As the men filed back out the way they came in, Tye situated himself between her and Mac. He cupped her chin the way he so often did, rubbing his thumb over the hollow of her cheek. Her hands instinctively went to his wrists and she held on.

“I’m sorry this isn’t over for you,” he said.

He wasn’t the only one. She was sorry too.

Mac’s voice was deep from his place by the door. “I had a feeling it’d be a long shot, but you never know.”

Tye glanced over his shoulder at him, and even though the only light in the room spilled in through the connecting mirror, the annoyance in his eyes blazed like an out-of-control fire. “How about we don’t put her through this again unless you’re sure it’s something more than a goddamn long shot?”

Mac flicked on the light switch and straightened, shoving his shoulders back. “I’m going to let that slide, Sheriff Carter, because I know that
you
know that’s what lineups sometimes are.”

The air between the two men sparked with tension, and she hated that it was all because of her. “Hey, guys. Ease up,” she said, trying to be the voice of reason in an otherwise shitty situation. “I had to do this. And despite how much we all hated it, we knew it had to be done.”

Mac eased a fraction, but Tye didn’t. He was her tireless warrior to the end, but right now she had to do something to defuse the pressure building inside him. She tugged on his wrist to get his attention. “I’m okay. Okay?”

He turned back to her and nodded once, even though he continued to hold his body taut.

“How about some water?” She swallowed past her truly dry throat. “Can you get me some water? Please?”

She needed to get him out of there before the situation escalated. These two men were friends and had been for years. She wasn’t going to let that come to an end because of her.

“Sure,” he answered, kissing her quickly yet firmly before grabbing the doorknob. “Keep an eye on her,” he threw at Mac. “I’ll be right back.”

Laine pushed away the tingles still spearing at her stomach before taking a step toward Mac. Defusing the growing animosity between the two wasn’t the only reason she wanted Tye out of the room. She hesitated for a second, forming the words she wanted to say in her head before deciding that simple and straightforward was the best way to go. “I wanted to thank you.”

Mac lifted his eyebrows. “For?”

“Your discretion. That you didn’t out me. That you gave me the chance to tell Tye where I’d gone that night myself.”

He eased his shoulders even more as he relaxed the set of his eyes. “I told you that the club takes privacy very seriously. Short of a court order, I wouldn’t have said anything. I’m glad you told him, though. Had I done a little mental math in the first place and realized the two of you had to know each other…”

She smiled, a little calmer now. “You would’ve played matchmaker?”

He cracked a smile, too. “Maybe. I’ve known Tye a long time. And going by what you told me you were looking for? He fits. You fit him.”

Her heart fluttered at that, yet she turned strangely solemn. To think that something so awful was what finally brought her and Tye together. “He’s worried about this. About me.”

“I know he is. I am too,” Mac said, turning serious as well.

She huffed past the zing returning to her stomach. “That’s reassuring.”

He shoved a hand through his hair. “I don’t see any benefit in sugar-coating it. This guy who’s out for you? He’s dangerous, and all he sees are bull’s-eyes where you’re concerned. But until we get a lead, something solid, my hands are pretty much tied. All I can do is order more patrols for the area around the club and hope for the best.”

Tye returned then with a bottle of water in his hand and a little less resentment in his expression. “Here you go,” he said, handing off the bottle to her.

“Thanks.” She took a long sip and recapped the bottle. “What’s next?”

“Aside from beefing up patrols, I’ll send my investigator out to the local businesses with the description you and the other woman gave me to see if this guy’s been hanging around and what he’s been up to. Again, it’s a long shot that anyone has seen him or remembered him, but for now it’s the best we can do.”

She hated this, hated feeling helpless and useless. But when the criminal had the upper hand, there was little to be done until he tripped up in some way.

“Keep us informed?” Tye asked.

“Of course,” Mac answered. “You do the same on your end.”

Tye nodded. All outward signs of their hostility toward each other had waned, which relieved her. Inside, she knew their agitation had sparked over their concern for her, not from any real animosity the two may feel for each other. The situation sucked, quite frankly, and as a result tensions ran high between all three of them.

The men shook hands before Mac turned to her. He took her hand as well, engulfing it between both of his and holding it there. “Stay smart and stay safe.”

She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. “I will, promise.”

As Mac handed her off to Tye, she couldn’t remember a time when she’d felt more protected. To have two Adonis-like gems care so much for her—never mind if it was the more platonic way she regarded Mac or the heart-stopping need that possessed her whenever she looked at Tye. The thought of being so cherished had her throat closing up as she and Tye said their goodbyes and made their way down the hallway and out the front doors to head toward his truck in the parking lot.

By the time they reached Tye’s vehicle, she’d composed herself enough that she was able to gather all those wayward emotions and tuck them safely away close to her heart. After telling Tye how strong she was, the last thing she wanted was to have another slobbery breakdown in front of him, to come off as a fraud or appear weak in any way.

They’d driven only about five miles when Tye reminded her about stopping for groceries. “There’s an organic market off this next exit. They carry some of the best grass-fed beef I’ve ever eaten. It’s perfect for the burgers I’m making tonight. Stopping won’t take long.”

“I don’t mind,” she said. “Food shopping sounds so…normal. And after the fun of the lineup, normal would be a welcomed change.”

He took her hand in his and entwined their fingers. After he kissed her knuckles, he said, “Normal it is then. We can even get a movie. Play it up all date-night-at-home style.”

A mellowing contentment warmed through her at the thought of spending such an ordinary evening with him. And as he turned into the parking lot, she returned the gesture, kissing the back of his hand, too. “A comedy,” she added. “Something light and fun where we don’t have to think too hard. Or think at all.”

“Perfect,” he said, turning down the middle row of the parking lot and pulling into a vacant spot toward the middle. They got out, and together they walked hand-in-hand into the store. He yanked a cart from its nestled lineup and the two of them set about gathering all the fixings for some killer grilled burgers.

Fifteen minutes later, they had everything they needed—along with an additional container of deli pasta salad and an extra six-pack of beer with lime—when she remembered one of the most important additions to any homemade burger. He’d already started unloading the cart onto the checkout belt when she said, “Tomato. We forgot a tomato.” She hitched her thumb over her shoulder toward the produce department. “Let me just run and get one.”

He looked like he wasn’t sure he wanted to let her go.

“Two seconds. That’s all it’ll take. I’ll be right back.”

She took off past the rows of checkout counters without another word, made it to the produce section just that quick and chose the biggest and ripest Beefsteak tomato she could find. She dropped it into a plastic bag, twist-tied the thing and turned to head back.

Only to run right into a chest the size of the Great Wall of China.

“Oh,” she said. “I’m so…”

The “sorry” part froze in her throat as an acrid stench blasted her nostrils.

That stench.

His
stench.

The man who stole her security. The creep who ripped her life out from under her.

Her heart hammered as she looked up in to a pair of sinister, unsettling eyes.
Those
sinister, unsettling eyes.

The stench of him combined with seeing his steely glare in person once again triggered a full-body reaction. Every muscle inside her shook as she was held hostage by his irate stare.

His left eye was an ordinary brown. But the right? The iris of the right glowered back at her, opaque and useless. Lifeless, like this man’s soul.

God, it was really him.

He wasn’t concealing his face this time. He was here, blatantly standing in front of her in the middle of the flipping produce department, staring her down without a scarf or a hat to hide behind. Here, in broad daylight, the scar dissecting his eyebrow, eyelid and part of his cheek below it taunted her. It dared her to remember everything he’d done to her.

His head had been recently shaved, which left a dirty shadow where his hairline naturally receded into severe widow’s peak at the top. More scars ran across his scalp, cutting a trench down the side of his face to end in a deep gouge millimeters away from the bottom of his right ear.

She wanted to scream. To Tye. For Tye. For anyone. She tried. Just like before, she tried. But no sound would come. No breath. No fucking thought.

“You think you’re safe?” he growled, blowing the even stronger stink of his breath into her face. “You think Sheriff Blowhard has what it takes to protect you?”