Third Chance (2 page)

Okay, time to focus.

Letting out a soft sigh, she sat straighter in her seat and strapped some steel to her spine. “Go back to sleep, Ryan. I need to get this done so I can get back to your side.”

“Justan has a set of keys to my place and he knows the alarm system. Have him drop you off at my house.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Well, first it feels weird to be wandering around your home without you there. I mean the only room I’ve really been in was your library.” He made a carnal groaning noise that she tried to ignore. Ryan had fucked her brains out in his library and they were both eager for a repeat performance. That was, once he recovered. Until that point she’d have to be…creative to not injure him further.

“Emma,” he replied in a soft, chiding voice. “My home is your home. I don’t give a shit if you decide to repaint every room in the house or take all the furniture and make a big bonfire in the backyard. It’s just stuff.”

His generosity touched her and she sighed, tracing her finger on the passenger window. “I think your neighbors might get a little upset if we did that.”

“Good point. Look, you do what you need to do and know that I’m here for anything, anything at all that you need to feel more safe or comfortable.”

Her heart tightened and she closed her eyes, savoring the feeling of Ryan’s genuine warmth and affection. “Thanks, honey.”

“Anytime, anyway, anywhere, Emma. I’ll always be here for you.”

Ignoring the stinging in her nose, she sat up and straightened her shoulders. “Okay, let me get this over with so I can go to your house and knock some walls down.”

He laughed, then made a pained noise. “I should be out of here later this afternoon.”

“I’ll be there—”

“Nah, let Justan pick me up. I want you in your most comfortable pajamas, lounging around my house and eating bonbons when I get home.”

“Awfully bossy, aren’t you? Isn’t that my job?”

“Nope, taking care of you is my job.”

Though her inner feminist rejected the idea, a soft girly part of her sighed in delight. “Whatever.”

Voices came from the background and Ryan quickly said, “Gotta go. Doc is here. Call me if you need me.”

“I will.”

“Promise. I know you’re invincible, but even Wonder Woman has to refuel her jet.”

“Fine, I promise. Bye, Ryan.”

“Bye, my Emma.”

He hung up and she let out a bemused sigh.

Justan spoke up, startling her. “Ready?”

She glanced over at him and nodded.

Ten minutes later, they were walking up the stairs to her second-floor apartment. Justan glanced at some graffiti on the wall declaring that this was Latin Kings territory, then back at her. She waited for him to say something about the kind of ghetto living conditions of her building, but he kept quiet.

Smart man. Her nerves were strung so tight she knew she’d snap at him. Despite his unconventional looks, Justan was very observant and she wondered if he had some kind of law enforcement training in his background. This impression was reinforced when he paused at her doorway then suddenly had her against his back, his frame hard blocking her as he visibly went on alert.

“What’s wrong?”

“Rigged the door before I left last night so I’d know if someone had been in.”

“You were at my house?”

He glanced over his shoulder. “My boy got shot here.”

Well, that was true enough. “Who let you in?”

“Let myself in, but we’ve got other shit to focus on at the moment. Someone has been in your apartment and I don’t know who. You got a busybody on your floor that likes to keep an eye on things? Someone who might have been up late enough? You know, one of those old ladies that has her eye pressed to the peep hole the second her floor creaks?”

“Uh — my neighbor is…suspicious. He might have heard someone.”

“Which door?”

A minute later, her neighbor Walter answered. Walter was a cute-enough guy in his late twenties who had seen some combat that had messed him up. Paranoia clung to him like a visible mantle, tinging every one of his movements with a slight edge. He used to make her tense, but now that they’d been neighbors for a while, she knew he’d never hurt her. His paranoia, however, had him flinching at the sound of anyone walking down the communal hallway.

As usual, Walter’s normally bright-blue eyes were bloodshot and red. He wore a clean but rumpled white t-shirt and a pair of jeans that hung off his hips. He’d lost weight since she’d seen him last and before she could stop herself, she found herself scolding him.

“Jesus Christ. When’s the last time you ate?”

“Nice to see you too, Emma,” he replied with a small smile that faded from his lips as he looked over Justan. “Who’s this?”

“I’m her boyfriend’s buddy,” Justan answered before she could.

To her surprise, Walter actually looked slightly hurt. “Boyfriend, huh? Knew I shoulda’ made my move last time you force-fed me your lasagna.”

She was grateful that he was being cool about it. “Hey, was anyone in my apartment last night?”

“You mean after the guy standing behind you broke in?”

“Yeah.”

“A cop was in there for a while.”

Emma relaxed. “Oh, okay.”

“What did he look like?” Justan took a step back and stood in front of her doorway. “Bigger or smaller than me?”

Walter cocked his head. “Smaller. Older, maybe in his fifties. Why?”

“Just want to be able to describe him to the police when Emma contacts them about why this guy was in her place, alone, in the deep of the night.”

Walter nodded. “If they have any questions, they can contact me. Sorry I wasn’t home when you were attacked, Emma. I would have stopped him before he even breathed on you.”

The guilt in his words made her pause. “I know you would have. Hey, you can’t be everywhere at once.”

A click sounded from behind her and she turned to watch Justan donned a pair of leather gloves before slowly entering her apartment.

“You’d better go before he starts going through your underwear drawer,” Walter said, drawing her attention back to him before she glanced at her apartment again.

“Yeah, I better keep an eye on him, and I need to get some stuff.”

“You staying with your boyfriend?”

A flush burned Emma’s cheeks, even though she knew it was silly to feel embarrassed about basically moving into her boyfriend’s place. “Yep. How did you know?”

“Figured a man who would take a bullet for you wouldn’t want you leaving his side.” His eyes warmed and he smiled, the tension between them melting away. “I’m happy for you, Emma. I really am. Just tell him if he makes you cry, I’ll come kick his ass.”

“Thanks, Walter. Now go eat something, for fuck’s sake. The heroin junkie look is so over.”

His laughter trailed behind her as she went to into her apartment, something she’d done a thousand times, but now felt as if she were entering an unfamiliar place. A quick scan from the foyer didn’t reveal Justan, but it did show that someone had put some holes in the walls, and some of her things had been moved around. Her breath came out in a hard shudder and she froze, her brain refusing to accept the reality before her. A sense of violation curled through her and she pressed her hand to her stomach.

Justan’s voice rumbled from somewhere to her left. “Stay there. Don’t come any farther. Don’t want you disturbing any evidence.”

The best her stunned mind could come up with was, “Evidence?”

He came into her line of sight and nailed her in place with his grim expression. “Notice anything about those holes in the walls?”

She shook her head and he sighed. “Ever see anyone hit a square hole into a wall?”

Shit, he was right. Those weren’t ragged craters in the drywall, but neatly cut sections.

“What the hell?”

His gaze softened, then he looked away. “I can’t say for sure, but I think someone was watching you. I found some wires that he left behind and some parts that would indicate he had cameras all over your place.”

“Cameras?”

Justan gave her a sympathetic look and said in a low voice, “Yeah.”

The sense of violation was so profound that all Emma could do was whimper. He’d been watching her in the privacy of her home, seeing every intimate thing she did…maybe recording it. A sob caught in her throat, but before she could let it loose, Justan was hugging her and leading her awkwardly out the door.

“Come on, Emma, nothing you can do here right now. Let’s you home.”

Emma’s breath hitched and she stuttered out, “I
am
home.”

Walter came out as they left the apartment, but Justan shook his head. “I’ll be back in forty-five minutes or so. Gotta get Emma somewhere she can feel safe. I need you to keep everyone out of there until the police arrive. Make sure you check their ID.”

“What’s going on?”

“Someone trashed her place last night.”

Her friend hesitated, then nodded. “I take it the officer that was here at four am wasn’t really a cop?”

“No.”

“Fuck. Emma, you call me if you need anything. You’ve got my number.”

Emma stiffened, the desire to call her parents flooding her. “I need my phone.”

“Where is it?”

“I was charging it, so it should be on the counter by my refrigerator. I’m OCD about making sure my phone works. It’s important. I need to talk to my Mom, my Dad.”

Even to herself she sounded as if she were hovering on the edges of a nervous breakdown, so she wasn’t surprised that Justan was treating her like glass right now. “Use my phone or Ryan’s. I don’t want you in there again. Not just ’cause I hate to see a woman cry, but because you might inadvertently mess up something. If he touched your phone, he may have left some prints.”

She bit her quivering lip and nodded, not fighting Justan as he led her back to his truck and drove her to Ryan’s place with soft jazz playing from the speakers.

Chapter Two

The floodlights illuminated the brick walkway leading up to his house and Ryan leaned up against Justan’s truck, the trip from the hospital having tired him out. His shoulder throbbed and his whole body ached, but those physical discomforts were secondary to his concern for Emma. The fear in her voice earlier, and the fact that he couldn’t help her, had brought him close to ripping out his IVs and taking a cab to her place. Thankfully, he was ready to be discharged so the second his signature was on the release papers and he had his scripts in hand, he’d called Justan and had him pick him up.

Since his clothing had been ruined by all the blood, he wore some yellow fundraiser t-shirt for the children’s ward at the hospital he’d stayed at, along with a pair of sweatpants and some flip-flops.

Justan came around the side of the truck and nodded to the black Range Rover parked next to the house. “Company?”

“Yeah, Moira came over to stay with Emma until I got home.”

The way Justan’s eyes widened was hard to miss, and Ryan had to struggle to contain a laugh at the slightly stunned look on his friend’s face. It was no secret between them that Justan was keeping an eye on Moira, and that he got crazy territorial over her. The endless parade of male submissives in and out of her home made Justan grit his teeth, but so far he hadn’t made a move on the stunning redhead. Ryan thought his friend should just make his interest known and be done with it, but Justan said he had a plan.

Evidently that plan didn’t include Moira seeing him now.

Unable to resist, Ryan put on a pained expression. “Hey, man, my shoulder hurts like a bitch. Can you help me inside?”

Justan rolled his eyes, but moved to Ryan’s good side and propped him up as they made their way up to the house. Before they’d gotten to the steps the exterior light turned on, bathing the porch in warm, golden glow. A moment later the front door opened and both men sucked in a quick, hard breath. How could they not when presented with such beauty?

It wasn’t that the women were wearing leather and latex, but rather that they both wore satiny, long robes with a tasteful amount of lace at the sleeves. Moira’s nightgown matched the emerald green of her robe, while Emma had opted for a soft, utterly feminine pink. She looked positively edible and he wondered if their guests would be offended if he put Emma on the nearest flat surface and ate the hell out of her pussy. His cock ached and he bit back a curse at the sight of his pants stretching out, the thin fabric making it hard to fight the flush rising from his chest to his ears. Gritting his teeth, he tried to will his erection away, but that fucker was staying hard.

The fact that he’d seen both women naked and knew what they sounded like when they came certainly didn’t help the situation.

Moira squinted at him, then at his crotch, and burst out into a melodious peel of laughter. Next to Ryan, Justan flinched as if he’d been hit. Most likely in his paranoid and guarded heart. He almost felt sorry for his buddy if he’d decided to hang his star on Moira. That woman liked a degree of control in her life that Ryan couldn’t deal with. What he and Emma had, on the other hand, was…perfect.

Case in point, the way Emma was giggling as she headed down the steps. At the sight of her footwear, pink high-heel shoes with some kind of fluffy feather shit at the toe, Ryan’s erection gave a renewed thrust against his pants. Still laughing, Emma came to him and smoothed her hands over Ryan’s cheeks, her gentle touch everything he’d ever wanted. She was overjoyed to see him — it was in her eyes as plain as day — but she was tired. It was that hint of weariness that made him aware that she hadn’t gotten much rest since the break-in and he pushed aside his own libido in favor of taking care of his woman.

Where nothing else would work, the concern that filled him managed to soften his cock. Her needs came first, always. They both needed to hide away from the world for a while, just spend time together in peace and safety. He wanted to give her that, to provide a haven for her, a home. The importance of this moment sank into him, and he realized that he never planned to let Emma move out. As far as he was concerned, she was here to stay, and he’d do his best to convince her of this truth. So they weren’t just going up the steps and through the front door, they were taking a big step to truly becoming something permanent, something so important it made his legs weak.