“What’s with all the noise?” John strolled into the room, his hands on his hips. He looked over at the bed and scowled. “What the fuck is that?”
Tucker rushed into the room, the look on his face deadly, a gun drawn and at his side. His eyes moved over the room quickly as he came to stand by me. He took in the bed and cursed. “What the fuck.”
I shuddered. In my bed was a carved-up pig carcass. I felt my stomach turn and clutched at it.
“Breathe, Charlie.” Tucker forced me into a chair and knelt in front of me. “Breathe. In and out.”
I choked out an exhale and started shaking. There was a pig carcass in my bed. “What the fuck is that? Why is it in my bed?”
John got closer and snorted. “Whoever this freak is, I owe him a favor. He didn’t get any of that shit on my side of the bed.”
Tucker growled and jerked around to face him. “Go downstairs and call the cops.”
“Fuck off. You’re the help. You do it.”
“I’m the one holding the gun. Go the fuck downstairs and call the cops. Find Gerald and stay together.”
I shoved my head between my knees and tuned out the rest of whatever John was saying. There was a pig in my bed. A slaughtered pig. I shivered. Maybe I was dreaming. I glanced over at the bed. Nope, not dreaming.
“Keep breathing, Charlie.”
“There’s a pig in my bed.”
“Yep.”
“Why is there a pig in my bed, Tucker?”
“I’m not really sure.” He hesitated. “I don’t know if this is something you’re into, but I’ve gotta be honest, Charlie. I’m not into dead pigs.”
I jerked upright, ready to rip him a new one, but saw the slight smile on his face. He was trying to make me feel better. It would’ve worked if he wasn’t standing in my room with a dead pig in the bed.
“Sorry.”
“Your timing is flawed, but the delivery was pretty good.”
“Hey.” He waited until I looked up at him. “I’m going to keep you safe. Okay?”
I hadn’t even thought about being in danger. I was just so floored and creeped out by the pig. Wasn’t that the gag? Pig in bed is pretty high on the list of ways to fuck with someone. I couldn’t imagine Sam doing much else. Unless he really did want to wear my blood.
Speaking of blood, I felt it all drain from my face with that thought. “This is getting out of hand.”
“Yep.”
“How unlucky am I that he guessed correctly which side of the bed I sleep on?”
Tucker didn’t reply and when I looked up at him, his face was hard. My stomach sank as I recognized the bad news in his eyes.
“You don’t think it was a guess? You think he knows which side is mine because…” I swallowed. “Because he’s seen me in it?”
Tucker blew out a breath and shrugged. “Let’s make sure John called the cops. I wouldn’t put it past him to fuck up that simple direction.”
I nodded and numbly followed him downstairs, away from my ruined bed.
Chapter 16
Tucker
If I’d thought that the pig in the bed was as bad as the night was going to get, I’d been wrong. Cops showed up, filled the house, and stayed long enough that I could see the strain and exhaustion physically wearing away at Charlie. A detective showed up, thankfully not one who’d been dealing with Mercer, and found a note stuck in the pig’s open thighs. It’d been another note from Sam, more of the same bullshit about wanting to hurt her.
Gerald and John acted more put out about not being able to go to sleep than about what Charlie was going through. At first, Gerald had seemed almost excited about the pig. I could see the money signs flashing in his eyes at the idea of what this new progression would do for getting free press on Charlie. After several hours with the police, though, he looked pissy.
I didn’t know what to think. Things seemed out of control, while also being oddly tidy. There hadn’t been any attacks on Charlie yet. The notes were getting progressively more awful, but she’d never seen him. I was a guard, not a detective, so maybe shit like that was normal, but I felt like she should’ve seen Sam by now. Not that I was eager for that. I didn’t want her anywhere near that shit.
When the cops finally left and a cleaning crew had been called in to handle the pig carcass, Charlie and I were the only ones still up. John and Gerald had retreated, John claiming a guest room upstairs. Charlie was sitting on the couch, looking shell-shocked.
I sat down next to her and sighed. “Okay?”
“No. This is all so fucked up.”
“Yep.” There was nothing else to do about any of it right then, so I stood up and held my hand out to her. “Ready for bed?”
She looked at me with wide eyes and my lips popped open. “I don’t think I can…”
I laughed. “Sleep, Charlie. Are you ready to go to sleep? I’m going to get you into a room and then set up camp outside of it.”
Her cheeks burned, the misunderstanding clear on her pretty face. “Sorry.”
I pulled her up and into my chest for a tight hug. Despite everything, my body still responded to hers, so I kept my hips angled away from her. “Don’t apologize. You’ve had a rough night. A lot’s happened.”
She blinked a few times. “You’re being so sweet. What happened to the real Tucker?”
I shifted and let her feel the erection throbbing in my pants. “He’s still here. Don’t worry.”
Thankfully, it made her giggle. She pressed a kiss to my cheek and let me take her hand as I led her to the stairs. Spark met us at the top, eager to see Charlie. Charlie, ever obliging to the traitorous cat, picked her up and held her to her chest.
“Can we stay in your room tonight? Spark is already used to it and it’s close to the stairs… in case we have to leave fast.”
I pulled her to my room and let her go in before me. I shut and locked the door behind us before grabbing a few dirty shirts off the bed and kicking them into the pile in the corner. I didn’t think about her sleeping in my bed. It wasn’t actually my bed, anyway. I wouldn’t be joining her, either.
Charlie picked up one of the shirts and held it up. “Can I sleep in this?”
Fuck. She was innocent in everything she was asking, but it was like a goddamn porn. Everything pointed to a good night of fucking, but that wasn’t going to happen. “Let me get you a clean one.”
She pulled the shirt to her nose and breathed in. I winced as she let out a sudden burst of laughter and dropped it onto the pile with the rest of the dirty clothes. “What happened to that?”
Embarrassed, I shook my head. “I might’ve packed a few dirty shirts. I’ll get some laundry done soon.”
“I don’t want to take your clean clothes. Will you go with me into my room to get something to wear?”
I could tell she didn’t want to go back in there yet. “It’s fine. I’ll do some laundry tomorrow. Here.”
She smiled lightly when I dragged a clean shirt out of my duffel bag and tossed it to her. She looked at the Navy logo across the front and lightly brushed her fingers over it. “You served?”
I nodded. “Yeah. SEALs.”
Her lips curled up on one side and she turned her back to me. She pulled my shirt on over her dress and did some wiggling under it and the next thing I knew, her dress was at her ankles and she was stepping out of it. It was like watching a fucking magic trick. My shirt hit her mid-thigh and though it wasn’t all that much shorter than her dress, it felt different. The heat in the room rocketed up by at least fifteen degrees.
She turned back to me, while folding her dress up, and raised her eyebrows. “Did you hear me?”
I cleared my throat and stepped back into the door. “Sorry. I zoned out for a second. What’d you say?”
“I said you must’ve had a lot of those… bunnies. Is that what they’re called? The women who scout the bars looking for SEALs?”
I wasn’t about to discuss my history with her. I had plans for her that didn’t
include her calling me a pig and refusing to touch me because of the sheer volume of women I’d been with. “Something like that. Go ahead and get in bed. I’ll wait until you’re asleep to do another round.”
She crawled into bed, flashing a lot of thigh, and hastily pulled the covers up to her chin. “Are you going to come to bed?”
Fuck, how I wanted to. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
She sat up suddenly and pulled Spark onto her lap. The damn cat purred loud enough for me to hear it across the room. “Is it weird after…”
“After I tried to fuck you against the side of a building?” I grinned as she flushed. “No, it’s not weird. It’s not weird at all. That’s the thing. If I crawl into that bed tonight, Charlie, I’m going to spend the rest of the night thinking about what we did. I’m going to think about how you sound when you come and how sweet you taste.”
She cleared her throat and nodded. “You’re right. It’s stupid that I would even ask you, right? We barely know each other and you work for me. I’m pretty sure that’s like sexual harassment. I don’t know what came over me.”
I crossed the room and leaned down so I could take her face in my hand and gently kiss her. “It’s not stupid. We know each other enough. You couldn’t harass me if you tried, and what came over you is stress and fear. It’s cute that you want me to sleep here with you. It makes me feel good. It would either end in me fucking you before you’re actually ready, because I can see the nerves on your face, or in me getting zero sleep and rocking a hard-on the whole night through, though.”
She wrapped her hand around the back of my neck and nuzzled her face against mine before pulling back and kissing me. “Where are you going to sleep?”
“In the chair. I’ll be fine there for the night.”
She nodded. “I can switch with you if you want. Just wake me up and ask.”
“Get some sleep.”
“Wait.” Charlie blew out a rough breath and looked up at me through her lowered eyelashes. “Do you think we’ll be safe? What if he comes back?”
I didn’t have to ask who she meant. “If he comes back, I’ll handle him. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
She looked up at me with an adoration that should’ve scared the hell out of me. That look could easily mean feelings. Coming from anyone else, it would’ve had me running. Looks like that came with trouble. For some reason, coming from Charlie, it made me feel fucking twenty feet tall.
I left her in the room with Spark while I made my rounds. I searched the house first and then made my way outside. I looked for entrance points that Sam, the stalker, could’ve used to gain access into the house, but everything was locked up tight. Maybe one of the many staff who worked for Charlie had left a door unlocked when they left.
I checked on Charlie again and found her passed out with Spark curled up against her back, spooning Charlie like I would’ve loved to do. I could’ve sworn the cat gave me a look before stretching and pressing even more of its body against her.
Seeing that she was okay and had her own protector, I went down to the kitchen and called Lauren. Even though it was late, I knew she wouldn’t be sleeping.
“Everything okay there?” She sounded worn out, but wide awake. I could practically see the coffee pot smoking from overuse in the background.
“Yeah, for now. Charlie’s asleep finally and everything’s settled down. I don’t think it’s over yet. I think it’s far from it, actually.”
“Talk to the manager about upping security. I can spare you Vince for a few hours every day.” She sighed. “Mercer was supposed to be interviewing an old friend of y’all next week, but…”
Her trailed-off thought sat heavily with me, too. I gave my own sigh. “Any word from the lawyers yet?”
“They’re doing what they can. This is ridiculous, Tucker. The DA is giving them such a hard time. The judge just got back from his lavish vacation and hasn’t had time to look over the case. Meanwhile, Mercer is sitting in jail.”
I sat down at the island and felt the weight of everything settle heavily on my shoulders. “I’m sorry I’m not there right now, Lauren. I know you and the guys need me.”
“It’s okay, Tuck. Everyone’s working their asses off right now to make sure this place stays in business. You’re all doing more than your fair share.”
“Still. I know you need a shoulder to cry on.”
That made her laugh. “Yeah, right. I’ve seen you when someone cries. You’re like Monk seeing someone with the flu.”
“That TV reference is too old for you. And, for the record, I’m getting better at dealing with tears.” I thought about how I’d patted Charlie on the back. “Well. I’m trying.”
“Lots of tears in the land of Charlotte Crier-Banks?”
I glanced back at the stairs and felt my stomach turn. “Probably should be more. This place isn’t what it seems.”
“Who would’ve thought it? A shiny little diamond all wrapped up in gold leaf and glitter—her career hardly seems like the place for tears and stress.”
“Yeah, well. Everyone has their shit, right?”
Lauren groaned. “You’re defensive over her. You’re fucking her. Tucker, don’t do this to me. I can’t handle the extra stress.”
I scoffed. “I’m not fucking anyone.”
“But you want to be.”
“I’m hanging up. I have to go make sure that some deranged stalker isn’t carving up the Christmas goose a little early.”
“I’ll let you know if anything changes with Mercer.” She grunted. “And don’t start fucking the DIY queen.”
I hung up and slipped the phone back into my pocket. Exhaustion wore at me, but my brain still worked a mile a minute. I was worried about Lauren and Mercer. I was worried about Black Dog Security. We needed Mercer. I was worried about why my brain kept trying to go to Charlie when I had so many other things to fucking worry about.
I shook my head at myself and went back up to my room. Charlie had turned around and was spooning Spark. Her arm was over the cat and her hand was between Spark’s front legs, cradling her chest. Spark looked like she’d died and gone to heaven.
Seeing Charlie sleep was strange. I would’ve thought that she’d look peaceful in her sleep. If I hadn’t seen more of her lately, I would’ve imagined that she looked like an angel when she slept. Perfect blond hair spread across her pillow, long eyelashes brushing gently against her cheeks, mouth pursed just so. Instead, her hair was trying to strangle her, tossed every which way across her face and neck, her eyes fluttered and her tiny wrinkle of stress was still there, in the middle of her forehead. And her mouth… her mouth made a sound that reminded me of a raccoon I’d once seen fighting an alligator back home. It was the oddest snore I’d ever heard and I almost laughed out loud at the sound.
Strangely, hauntingly, none of those things made me want her any less. She was still sexy as fuck, maybe even more so, in my Navy shirt. She was still wreaking havoc on my senses.
Chapter 17
Charlie
“You need to up security. I have a guy who can cover some, but I think you need more than that. This is getting a little too intense.”
“I hired you, Tucker. You’re good enough.”
Tucker growled and raked his hand through his hair. It immediately fell back across his forehead. “I’m good. I know that. Yet someone snuck in here, still, and left a giant fucking pig in a bed. I’m thinking we should have backup.”
Gerald just shook his head. “Look, Tucker, if you can’t do the job, I’ll hire someone else, but I think you’re good enough. This is crazy, sure, but Sam hasn’t tried to hurt Charlotte.”
“Yet.”
I hated the conversation they were having. I wanted to be safe, but I couldn’t imagine the house crawling with more guards. I didn’t know, though. I trusted Tucker. If he said we needed more people, maybe he was right.
“I’m getting on a plane in less than an hour with John. He’s got a shoot and
I’ve got meetings all day tomorrow. We don’t have time for this. I trust you. If you can’t do the job, tell me now, though. I’ll bring someone else on.”
Tucker’s jaws clenched, but he just shook his head. “I’m staying.”
Gerald grinned and tapped his hand on top of the latest newspaper that’d been dropped off that morning. On the front page was a picture of the pig in my bed, with words across it that suggested I was in dire trouble. The journalist wondered if I’d survive to tell the gruesome details of my story. I didn’t love it.
“Good. I’ve got to find out who snapped these and leaked them. They probably made good money off of this picture.”
John came into the kitchen and looked at me. “Find any more dead animals in your bed this morning?”
I stood up. “I’m going back upstairs.”
“Don’t forget that Carlos will be ready for you again this afternoon. For now, you’re supposed to be heading over to the recording booth. The podcast needs more.”
I waved my hand absently. I’d do my work. I didn’t need his shit.
I went back upstairs and took a shower in another guest bathroom and then got dressed in clothes that Tucker had grabbed from my room that morning. They weren’t my normal Charlotte clothes and I wondered if Tucker had done it on purpose.
Mike was waiting on me in the studio and seemed annoyed that he’d had to. Like I was used to finding fucking dead animals in my bed and could just get up the next morning and bounce back to whatever I was doing before. Sure, no problem, Mike. Talk about how to make a winter formal gown with a few yards of fabric, a bag of feathers, and a little fabric paint? No fucking problem!
Mike hadn’t even started recording yet when Tucker knocked on the door and came inside. I glanced up and found him watching me from the doorway.
“Sorry, man, but you’re done for the day. Charlotte is taking the day off. After yesterday, Gerald decided to give her some time to recover. You know how it is.”
Mike shook his head. “Gerald called me over this morning.”
“Well, I just sent him off to the airport. Call him if you want to. He didn’t want to be bothered, but I’m sure he won’t mind a call.”
Black Dog Security- Complete 5-Part Series Page 41