by T. S. Joyce
Suspicion made her take a second look at the man. Blue eyes, infused with an honest expression probably got him a lot of what he wanted from women. Dane was dead, but Stone was still alive. And that man had the uncanny ability to show up just when everything was going well. She narrowed her eyes and backed her hips against the cold metal railing. “Why do you ask?”
Hands shoved in his pockets, the man looked away first. “Just being friendly.”
The elevator doors opened and Hannah rushed out. When they closed again, she pressed her back against the wall. The air felt thick and made it hard to breath, hard to swallow. He was just a man asking a simple question. It didn’t mean anything. She had to get a grip. Riker had fixed everything and there was no need to be scared anymore.
Breathing steadied, she walked crisply to the end of the hall and kicked at the door. Riker opened it within moments. “What’s wrong?” He stuck his head outside and searched the hallway as she ducked around him.
“Nothing. Some guy was actually being nice and struck up a conversation in the elevator and I just about peed my pants.” The coffee cups made clunking sounds as she lowered them to the table. “I’ve turned into a wuss.”
“No,” he said, closing the door behind him. “You’ve just honed your instincts. You’ll relax over time, I promise.”
His hair was mussed and damp from a shower and the worry slowly left his gray eyes to be replaced by relief. She understood it. She’d only been away from him for twenty minutes and she’d felt like a piece of her had been missing until she laid eyes on him again.
“Is it like this because of our bond?” she asked, unable to drag her gaze from his.
“It’s like this because we’re important to each other. Not because of any supernatural pull that tells us to obsess. The bond is what we make it.”
Satisfied, she sat in the chair Riker pulled out for her and took a long pull of the cooling coffee. He lowered himself in the seat across the small table and drew her legs into his lap, then ate in companionable silence amid secret smiles and soft, affectionate brushes of her ankles. After breakfast, Riker shouldered the small traveling bag holding their menial amount of clothes and checked them out of the hotel.
The subway was an experiment in animal patience. On three separate occasions, she thought Riker would rip a man’s head off who sat too close and bumped his shoulder at every stop. He also talked loudly into his speakerphone to a hard of hearing family member and smelled like grilled onions. Riker kept clenching and unclenching his fists, but the fourth stop was theirs, and the man survived them.
“I should warn you,” she said, looking up at the heavily windowed apartment building she used to call home. “Robert and I almost dated.”
“Oh,” he said, seemingly distracted by the mass of bodies moving around them on the sidewalk. “You cared about him?”
“I think I would have,” she said honestly. “He asked me out several times. I thought it was just because we lived across the hall from each other and he wanted casual sex, so I told him no for months. But right when I had decided maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to go out on a date and forget the hell of the trial, Stone sent a man to my apartment to kill me. Jeremy picked me up the next day and took me to my first safe house. I only had time to beg Robert to store my valuables in case I ever made it back here again. Jimmy made sure everything else was sold and gave me the money. There wasn’t room in my new life for my stuff, much less a man I almost went out with once.”
She turned and jumped when she saw Riker standing directly behind her. Leaning forward, he rumbled against her ear, “He missed out. If I ever see Stone, I’ll be sure to thank him before I break his neck.”
God, but Riker was sexy when he was murderous on her behalf.
Three flights of stairs later and she was huffing and puffing. Riker’s breath came steady, the irritating man. His eyes betrayed him, however, and glowed like a demon’s.
“You want to stay out here?” She stopped at the door marked 415, her knuckles hovering over the warped wood, waiting. Purposefully, she didn’t look at the old door behind her. Ugly memories had been made in that place.
“Probably best,” he murmured. “I’ll be out here when you finish.”
Three knocks and she waited. If Robert still worked the same schedule, today should be his day off, and if not, it was the crack of dawn and he probably hadn’t left for his job yet.
Riker leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. She shrugged and knocked again.
“Coming, I’m coming,” Robert called.
“That’s what you said last night,” Riker said low.
A burning blush heated her cheeks by the time Robert opened the door. Damn Riker, he’d done that on purpose.
“H-hi,” she stammered.
Riker laughed.
Robert stood in the doorway clad in only a pair of sweat pants. His chiseled stomach and chest heaved as he rubbed his eyes and studied her face again. “Hannah?”
“I know it’s early, but I was wondering if I could pick up my—”
“Is it really you?” he asked. Before she could respond, he pulled her into a rib crushing hug.
Riker growled.
Moving her feet, she pushed them both into his apartment and slammed the door closed, lest Riker’s bear get the idea to eat her former neighbor.
“Whoa, okay. Come in.” He pulled back and ran a hand over his short dark hair. He hadn’t changed much. Perhaps he’d lost a little weight and it had done him good, but his eyes still held humor and concern, and his smile was still slow and shy. “The place is messy. I didn’t expect visitors today.”
“It’s okay, really. I just dropped by to pick up the things I left here last year. Do you still have them?”
“Uuh,” he drawled, frowning at something out the window. “I hid them. Give me a minute to track them down.”
“Hid them. Why?”
Obviously ruffled, he scratched his bottom lip with his thumbnail and disappeared into the back bedroom. Hannah followed and tried again. “Robert, why did you hide them?”
“Some guy keeps coming by and asking about you. He drops in every few weeks. He’s a cop and I didn’t want to get in trouble for having your stuff. I was afraid he’d think I wasn’t telling him everything I knew or something.”
“A cop comes by? But I’ve been in witness protection. Nobody is supposed to know where I am, so why is he…oh.” The rat. Jeremy had come back to New York to flush out a rat in his department who’d sold out every safe house she’d ever been in to Stone and his hit men.
A bike and two boxes labeled winter clothes with thick permanent marker came flying out of Robert’s bedroom closet. She ducked as a tennis racket followed. Finally he re-emerged and blew a healthy layer of dust from the ratty cardboard box she’d given him a year ago.
He set it in her hands and it nearly took her arms out of their sockets. Apparently she’d been cool with hoarding garden rocks in her old life.
“Here, let me,” Robert offered, pulling it from her failing grasp.
“Robert, what does the cop look like?”
“What cop?”
“The one who’s been looking for me.”
“Medium height, medium build. Short hair, brown eyes.”
All right, he could’ve just described himself or about half the population of New York. She needed more than that vague description. “Anything identifiable about him,” she asked, following him into the living room.
Riker stood in the doorway, his eyes passable as human once again.
“Can I help you?” Robert asked.
“I’m with her,” Riker said. He took the box from Robert’s arms and made it look like it was full of toilet paper rolls.
Hannah was in the middle of trying to count exactly how many months it had been since she’d last been to a gym when Robert offered his hand for a shake.
“Robert.”
Riker balanced the box and grasped his hand. It looked painful. �
��Benson.”
Feeling rude for not introducing them, Hannah tried to explain. “He’s my…” She wanted to say mate. Everyone used the word often enough in Bear Valley but it wasn’t exactly a popular term in common English. She’d thought Riker ran a cult when she’d first met his bears, but for some reason she couldn’t explain, she wanted Robert to accept Riker on her behalf. Old life meets new life and everyone gets along. She opened her mouth to say boyfriend, but Riker beat her to it.
“I’m her bodyguard,” he said, a slight frown pinching the corners of his eyes. Robert wouldn’t be able to tell he was upset, but she knew her mate.
“Robert, anything identifiable about him?” she pressed on.
“Not that I can think of. Wait. One of his front teeth overlaps the other one. I can’t stop staring at it when he talks.” He rested his hands on his hips and looked back and forth between Riker and Hannah. “That’s all I got.”
Riker’s gaze said he knew exactly who they were talking about. Maybe he’d heard their conversation with his super bear hearing. “Listen, I don’t think you should let that guy in here.”
“Why? He’s a cop. I don’t think I really have a choice about the matter.” Robert’s frown deepened. “What’s going on?”
“If that cop doesn’t have a warrant, you do have a choice,” Hannah explained. “He’s dangerous.”
He looked to Riker and then to her. “Funny. He said the same thing about you. Said you even killed people.”
Shock anchored her in place. True, she’d cursed anyone who came close to her in the first year of witness protection and they had died for their loyalty at the hands of Stone’s men. Even bigger than bad luck, she’d pulled the trigger on a man. But how did the rat know?
“Did he tell you his name? A badge number? Anything?” Her voice trembled like a flame on a wick.
“So, it’s true? You killed people?”
“In self-defense. I was shot too.” Her newly healed injuries burned just to mention them.
He stared at her for a long time, as if his emotions had been toyed with and he didn’t know whom to trust anymore. She hadn’t done that though. That was all thanks to the dirty cop who had spilled her secrets in his game of manipulation. “He gave me his card once. Said his name is Lieutenant Murphy.”
“With NYPD?” Riker asked.
“That’s what the card said.”
Riker adjusted the box and swung his gaze to her. “Do you know him?”
“There were so many people at the trial. I don’t remember him from the description but maybe he was behind the scenes, I don’t know. When was the last time he visited?”
“Day before yesterday,” Robert said, void of hesitation.
The blood drained from her face and limbs, leaving cold tingles in its wake. Two days ago. He was still after her. Jeremy and Riker had gambled wrong. Dane wasn’t the only one she had to worry about. This Murphy guy was still working for Stone too.
Tears blurred her vision and she swayed. Dammit! She’d thought she was safe. Had an entire night knowing that she didn’t have to run anymore.
“Hannah,” Riker warned. “It was two days ago, before Dane. They might have been working together and now he’s cut off too. You still might be safe.”
Not about to discuss her terror in front of Robert, who was now as much a stranger as the rest of the world had become in the last year of seclusion, she bolted for the door.
Might be. She might be safe. This morning she was undeniably safe though and the loss of that certainty ripped at her, shredding her until her knees felt like they’d buckle under the strain of her dismay.
“Thank you,” she whispered through trembling lips. She fled Robert’s apartment and sent a disparaging glance to the door across the hallway. That apartment had served as her personal torture chamber. She’d spent time with Jeremy and her sister there. It was full of ghosts.
“Hannah,” Robert said, following her into the hallway. “Are you okay?”
She’d been hunted like an animal relentlessly for a year, she’d lost her family, and Jimmy and Jeremy had died trying to protect her. She’d been tortured with her sister and suffered survivor’s guilt at living when Marian was the one who deserved life. She’d watched Riker’s clan bury their own dead because her past had come back to hurt them, and she’d been chained to a wall last night, thinking she’d lost Riker and her life all at once. No, she wasn’t fucking all right. She was a mess. A walking disaster that fate had pummeled until she wasn’t even recognizable anymore. She was a scarred shell of the woman she used to be, and now that she had a chance to put her old self back together again with the man she loved, even more threats sprang up from the woodwork. No one said life was easy, but it shouldn’t be this hard, for this long.
Robert didn’t have to know any of this though. He led a normal life where people weren’t trying to kill him or his loved ones. As a reward for his kindness, she wouldn’t taint his life with the truth of hers.
“I’m fine,” she said with a brave smile, then walked down the stairs of the apartment building without a single glance back.
Robert had dodged a bullet when their date had fallen through. He wasn’t strong enough to shoulder the burdens she carried but it wasn’t his fault. Only a man, not entirely human, dominant and battle hardened could bear the danger that enveloped her life and survive it.
She’d landed on Riker’s front porch because at least one of the fates was looking out for her, cheering on the underdog. And Hannah swore it with every breath she had remaining in her body, she wouldn’t let her lucky stars down.
She’d come too far and had too much to lose to break now.
Chapter Three
“Hey,” Riker called from behind.
Hannah hoofed it faster as warm tears trekked down her cheeks. People were starting to stare. Cutting through the throng of bodies walking the pavement, she stepped into the street and thrust her hand into the air. Three cabs passed her by, but the fourth pulled over. She slid in just as Riker reached her.
“Where to?” the cabby asked. His accent was thick and his coffee colored eyes landed on Hannah through the rearview.
Riker stared, confusion filling his eyes until she couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t handle failing anything else right now.
“The airport,” Riker said, turning his attention to the cab driver. “We have a flight to catch.”
“Just for the record,” she said, rambling and reeling, “I hesitated on telling Robert what we were because boyfriend didn’t sound serious enough and mate isn’t exactly universally accepted as a relationship status.”
His fingers clutched tighter to the box on his lip, as if he were forcing himself into stillness.
“No kissing in my cab,” the driver said, pointing a finger into the air.
Hannah dashed her tears away with the back of her hand. “We aren’t kissing.”
“Not yet, but I can see the look in your man’s face and none of that will occur in this car, am I clear?”
“I won’t touch her,” Riker said blandly.
“Of course he won’t. He’s my bodyguard.” She flung the last word into the universe like a curse.
“Don’t,” Riker warned.
“Why are you with me?”
His neck hit the headrest and he shook his head. “Jesus.”
“You’ve known me less than a month and I’m like a venus fly trap, except I don’t catch flies. I catch death. Marian, Jimmy, Jeremy,” she said, ticking names off her fingers.
Riker grabbed her hands so fast she gasped. “I said don’t.”
“No kissing,” the cabby sang.
Panic laced her veins and she rambled on, spewing her worst fears. “If you’d just chosen Merit, you would be with your people. You wouldn’t have had to do what you did for me last night. Your people would still be alive, Riker. Say it. Merit was the better choice.”
“Hannah, you’re scared and you aren’t thinking straight right now.”
“Say it!” she shrieked.
“Merit was the safer choice, Hannah. Not the better choice. You’re it for me.” He yanked her closer. “Dammit, can’t you see you’re it for me? Don’t bring her up again.”
“I have to.” Her voice had dipped to a ragged whisper.
“Why?”
“Because it’s not the summer solstice yet and you still have time to bail. You should remember your options.”
The muscle under his left eye twitched and he gritted his teeth. Inches separated them and the stormy color in his eyes said he wasn’t backing down. “No, this isn’t about my options. This is about you panicking and trying to push me away. You aren’t protecting me by doing this.” He gripped her hair and pulled her to him until the warmth of his mouth brushed her lips. “Won’t work, so cut it out.”
“No kissing.” The driver’s angry eyes flashed in the rearview mirror and Riker released her.
It wasn’t a test. He’d do best to remember he still had options if he didn’t want to tether himself to her. But if it were a test, he would’ve passed with flying colors and fireworks in the background.
“What do we do now?” she asked, sniffling.
“We go back home.”
“You mean we run.” The word tasted bitter against her tongue.
“It’s not running, Hannah. I can’t go up against every dirty cop in the NYPD and the further away you are from the city, the better a chance we have at him giving up on you. If he comes for you, we’ll cross that bridge then. As it stands, I’m not waiting around for Murphy to find you.” Relaxing into the seat, he muttered, “You’re too close to Stone’s grasp and it makes me want to kill things.”
He looked pissed but he linked his fingers with hers before he turned his attention to the passing city outside the window. And that one small gesture soothed her like a security blanket. It was terribly difficult to feel unsafe under the immediate protection of Benson Riker.
****
That asshole, Murphy. Hannah had been safe and now she was at risk again and Riker wanted to rip the man’s head from his shoulders. How did a cop sink low enough to work for a criminal like Stone? From prison? Riker wanted to spit.