Rhys by Adrienne Bell Page B

been calling for days now, since the moment they’d arrived at the safe house.
    Wait. That wasn’t exactly true.
    There were calls from him before that. During the time Dylan had her down in Boyd’s basement.
    He offered me a job . That’s what Rhys had told her when she’d asked what he was doing at Boyd’s house that night. It looked like that might have been the only thing that he’d been honest about.
    And she’d just been seconds away from revealing everything to him.
    Without hesitation, Tessa swept up Rhys’ keys and flung open the door. She flew down the steps and headed toward the garage.
    She refused to think of how just a few days ago he’d carried her across this lawn. How he’d taken care of her, helped her heal both physically and emotionally. And she’d let him in to her head and her heart. She’d wept in his arms. She’d slept by his side, for God’s sake. All because she’d trusted him.
    She’d been a fool. A gullible, needy fool, she chastised herself as she hurried across the grass. Tears pricked her eyes but she didn’t even lift her hands to wipe them away. She stayed focused on one thing—getting the hell out of there.
    She threw open the door of the barn…and crashed into Rhys’ chest.
    His hands came around her shoulders steadying her, but Tessa quickly wrenched away.
    “Tessa,” he said, with open concern showing in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
    He glanced behind her when she didn’t answer, but his gaze was back on her face a second later.
    “Wh-what are you doing out here?” she asked, stumbling back a step and then another.
    “I needed to grab something from the garage.” Rhys’ face turned into a cold mask as his gaze moved down to the car keys dangling from her fingers. “Tell me what’s going on, Tessa.”
    Damn her luck. Well, if she couldn’t make it to the car, it meant she only had one choice left. Run like hell.
    Tessa spun around and took off.
    It was no use. Rhys had her before she’d taken three steps. His arm wrapped around her middle and suddenly her legs were floating above the ground. He snatched the keys away from her.
    She drew in a sharp breath and screamed, but that was short lived too. His hand clamped over her mouth. She tried kicking and flailing, but it was like raging against a brick wall. He carried her effortlessly back to the living room and deposited her on the couch.
    But Tessa wasn’t giving up that easy. She dove for the back of the couch as soon as Rhys let her go.
    A heartbeat later, she was back in his grasp, her hands pinned next to her head. Tessa struggled against his hold, but it was no contest. He was just too strong.
    But unlike Dylan, Rhys wasn’t hurting her, just immobilizing her.
    Still, she couldn’t stop fighting. She kept up her futile struggle until her strength and the fire started to wane. She should have known that Rhys was too patient.
    When she was down to fumes and gasps, he eased his grip and pierced her with the force of his gaze.
    “Now,” he said, his voice preternaturally calm. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
    She glared up at him. “How about you tell me why Dylan Murtry has been calling you every day for the last week, instead?”
    A flicker of emotion—remorse, shame maybe—flashed over his face.
    “Because we know each other,” he said.
    “Yeah,” Tessa spat at him. “That part I put together all by myself.”
    “We were in the same Ranger unit years ago.” He slid his hands from her wrists but stayed right by her side. “He was the one who invited me to Boyd’s house the night I found you.”
    “Are you working with him now?” Tessa narrowed her eyes as she fumbled to lift herself up into a sitting position. “Is that what all this was about? Some kind of elaborate trick to get me to spill my secrets?”
    Hurt, plain and simple, flashed in his eyes.
    “I haven’t once pressured you to talk,” he said. “More than that, I have protected you from everyone who