Rhys (9 page)

Tessa’s knuckles turned white as her fingers tightened around the pillow.

“What Dylan did to me was
basic
?” she asked.

“Very,” he said. “Soon it became clear that I had a talent for making people talk. It didn’t take long for those talents to come to the attention of my superiors. After that, I was recruited into Special Forces, where I learned a more sophisticated skillset.”

“And by
sophisticated
you mean more painful?” she said without blinking.

It was time to stop skirting around the issue.

Rhys leaned closer. She didn’t pull back, but she didn’t let go of her shield either.

“I learned how to break those who refused to be broken,” he said. “I learned the limits of human endurance. How to manipulate emotions. How to prey on people’s hopes and fears. How to coax a reaction with words or silence. And I learned how to do it quickly and efficiently.”

Tessa’s eyes went wide with understanding.

“That’s why you were at Anders’ house that night,” she said.

It wasn’t a question, but Rhys nodded anyway. “Dylan couldn’t break you. Boyd needed someone who could.”

She stared at him for a long moment, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

“Could you have done it?” she finally asked.

“I never would have. The second I drove up to that house I knew something was off. I—”

“That wasn’t what I asked,” she said, cutting him off. She sat up straighter. Her shoulders squared. She wasn’t afraid of him anymore, Rhys realized. She should be, but she wasn’t. “I asked if you
could
break me.”

Rhys’ jaw tightened. “Easily.”

Defiance lit up her eyes. She had no idea how quickly he could extinguish that fire if he tried. “I didn’t give up anything to Dylan.”

“I’m not Dylan,” Rhys said. “I wouldn’t have made the same mistakes. He expected you to be weak, to cave with simple pain, but I can see in an instant that whatever you’re holding back, it frightens you more than pain.”

Tessa recoiled, and Rhys knew he’d hit his mark. She didn’t like the idea that her most deeply held emotions could be used against her. No one did.

“But I didn’t take the job,” he said. “And Dylan has been calling me every day since, trying to convince me to bring you back to him. But I haven’t Tessa, and I never will.”

Her eyes narrowed. “So what if you’re not working for Dylan? You
are
working for Carter Macmillan, and I know what that man thinks of me.”

“It doesn’t matter what Carter thinks,” Rhys said. “He’s far more concerned with what Anders Boyd has planned than with you.”

“Even if that’s true, you’re still gathering information for him.” She looked away, shaking her head. “The kind words, the patience, chasing away my nightmares—it was all an act. And the stupid thing is I nearly fell for it. I was about to come out here and tell you everything. I was going to bare my goddamned soul.”

She was wrong. Her soul wasn’t damned. His was.

“I never did anything with the intention of manipulating you,” he said. He had to make her listen. “I knew what you needed and I wanted to give it to you. It’s as simple as that.”

“Right,” she said with open skepticism in her eyes. He couldn’t blame her, but he also couldn’t seem to tamp down his frustration. “You did all this out of the kindness of your heart, the one that tortured without regret.”

“No.” He inched forward, closing the gap between them. “I know regret more intimately than most.”

“Is that supposed to make it all better?” The pillow fell from her hands as the fire reignited in her eyes. She leaned toward him. It was strange that he would rather feel this closeness, even if it came at the price of her anger, than the chilly distance between them. “Should I be relieved that I’m just another one of your regrets? At least it explains a lot.”

“Explains?” he asked.

Her gaze became more pointed. “How you could sleep with me every night, but never touch me. I figured you thought of me as a sister, but I was wrong. I was just another job.”

“You are not
another
anything to me, Tessa.” He found himself moving even closer. “If you were, we wouldn’t be here. I would have pounced on you the moment I’d found you, while you were weak and vulnerable. I would have never protected you. I would have never
fought
for you.”

She looked up at him for a long time, studying his face.

“So why did you?” she asked finally. “What made me different than anyone else?”

It was a simple enough question, but Rhys hesitated. The answer was more complicated than the standard guilt and remorse that he was so used to living with.

But he owed her the truth, even if it was the first thing in a long time that frightened him.

“When I was a soldier, I did what was needed,” he said. “The people I interrogated were terrorists, bombers, murderers. I knew they were bad people, Tessa, but they were still people. I listened to their screams and their pleading. I watched their defenses shatter one by one, knowing that I was every bit the monster that they were.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, her brows pulling together.

“There is a cost of getting into someone’s head,” he explained. “Of seeing what they see, what they fear, what they love. All that comfortable distance that soldiers keep in battle between themselves and the enemy, that sense of
otherness
, disappears. I’ve seen through hundreds of eyes. I’ve felt their fear, their pain, their anger.”

Tessa stared up at him with unblinking eyes. Her mouth fell open.

“But everything was different when I looked inside you, Tessa,” he went on. “You were hurt, and you were scared, but there was so much more. You were filled with determination, and drive and hope. You made me want those things too.”

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“I know what people think of me,” he said. “They think I’m cold and distant to protect myself from the reality of what I do, but they have it backwards. I do it to protect them from all the crap I’ve taken on over the years.”

“Rhys—”

“You think that I held you every night because you were my job?” he cut her off, knowing that if he didn’t get it all out now, he never would. “I slept next to you because you were scared and alone and I
know
what that means. But I
held
you because I wanted to. Because you felt right in my arms. But I didn’t go any further, because you deserve someone a hell of a lot better than me.”

Tessa leaned forward, slipping her hand over his. “That’s not true, Rhys.”

He wrapped his fingers tight around hers, keeping her from moving any closer, but not pushing her away.

“Tessa, your emotions are running high. I don’t think you—”

His words were cut off by a loud knock on the front door.

Tessa froze instantly, every muscle in her body tensing. Fear filled up her amber eyes.

“Is it Boyd?” she asked in a frantic whisper.

“He wouldn’t knock,” Rhys tried to reassure her as he turned his head. “Probably just someone from the neighborhood. If we’re quiet, they’ll go away.”

The knock sounded again.

“Police,” a voice called from the other side of the door. “Open up.”

Or maybe they wouldn’t.

“Stay here,” Rhys said, squeezing Tessa’s hand.

He got up from the couch and cautiously went over to the door. He wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t think that it was Dylan or his men. A careful entry just wasn’t his old friend’s style.

Rhys slowly put his eye up to the peephole and saw two male officers in blue uniforms outside. They looked legit enough.

He slowly turned the knob and cracked open the door.

“Hello officers,” he said, wedging his body in the small open space. “Is there a problem?”

“We were hoping you could tell us, sir,” the taller cop said. “We got a call from one of your neighbors that they heard a disturbance from this house.”

“A disturbance?” Rhys asked.

“Screams,” his partner said. Rhys couldn’t see the man’s eyes behind his reflective sunglasses, but he could feel the intensity of the man’s stare.

“Must be some mistake,” Rhys said, keeping his voice flat and even. “There’s no disturbance here.”

“Is there another person in the house with you, sir?” the first cop asked.

“A woman?” the other one chimed in.

There was no sense in lying. They already knew from the neighbor’s call that there was, and Rhys really didn’t want to give them an excuse to try to search the house without a warrant.

Rhys turned over and looked at Tessa. Her eyes were just barely poking up over the back of the couch. If it wasn’t for the expression of terror hanging heavy on her brow, she would’ve looked downright adorable.

He nodded toward her, silently telling her it was all right.

Tessa slowly stood up and walked over to him. Rhys swung the door open another couple of inches, but was careful to keep his arm out in front of her as a barrier, just in case.

“Hello, gentlemen,” Tessa said.

Both men’s gazes zeroed in on her fading facial bruises right away.

“What’s your name, ma’am?” the first cop asked.

Rhys held his breath, praying that Tessa knew better than to tell him the truth.

Then again, maybe she wanted to go with the cops. She’d tried to run from him just minutes ago…and that was before she knew what he really was. It wouldn’t be the smartest plan, but at this point he wouldn’t blame her.

“Grace,” she said without missing a beat.

“Are you okay, Grace?” the first cop asked. “Are you in any trouble?”

Tessa shook her head, and Rhys felt his shoulders relax.

“A neighbor said she heard someone screaming in the backyard a little while ago,” the cop said. “Was that you?”

“We were back there,” Tessa said, biting into her lower lip. “But we were just messing around. Whoever heard us must have misinterpreted it.”

Both men gave her a long look. It was obvious they didn’t believe her, but Tessa didn’t blink.

“How did you get those bruises?” the second cop asked. There was something in his forceful tone that Rhys didn’t like. But he knew better than to show his true feelings.

Besides, Tessa was proving more than capable of taking care of herself.

“Motorcycle accident about a week ago,” she said.

The first cop’s brows arched up. He obviously hadn’t heard that one before. Neither had Rhys. The answer was almost shocking enough to cover the lie.

Almost.

“You’re sure everything is all right?” he asked again.

“You heard her,” his partner said, tapping him on the arm. “The lady says she’s fine.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Time for us to leave the nice couple alone,” the sunglass cop said, but his gaze stayed steady on Tessa.

Rhys narrowed his eyes at the man, unable to shake the feeling that something was off.

The first cop hesitated for a moment longer, but finally turned away. “Okay,” he said.

“Sorry about the interruption,” the second one said. “Hope you two have a good day.”

“No problem,” Tessa said.

Rhys lingered in the doorway, watching the pair walk down the stairs and back to their patrol car, before shutting the door.

“Well, that was easy,” Tessa said after a moment had passed.

“Too easy,” Rhys agreed.

“Do you think something is wrong?”

Rhys watched out the peephole as the cop car pulled away from the curb. Maybe he was just being overly cautious.

“Probably not.” He turned away from the door to look at her. “You didn’t tell them the truth.
Grace
.”

“No, I didn’t.” She leaned her back against the wall as she met his gaze. “And Grace is my middle name.”

He took a step toward her, even though his head told him to keep his distance. But there was something about the tilt of her chin and the playful sparkle in her eye that was downright irresistible.

“So…you trust me after all?” he asked.

“I was trying to tell you before the cops showed up, but you kept stopping me,” she said. “You should have been honest from the very beginning. I could have taken it.”

“I was afraid,” he admitted, moving closer until he was pressed right up against her. “I thought you’d hate me, that you’d fear me. I didn’t think I could take that.”

“I’m not scared of you, Rhys. I don’t pity you either.” Her low whisper brushed against his ear, fanning his quickly growing desire. “I just want the man who risked his life for mine. The one who took care of me. The one who was always there when the nightmares overwhelmed me. That’s the man I want to kiss.”

“Are you sure?” His voice was tight.

She wrapped her arms around his waist. “It’s just a kiss, Rhys.”