Page 16 of Unlocked

Ryker stepped into view at the door into the closet. He glanced at Tatum. "Are you okay?"

She bit her lip and wobbled her head between a nod and a shake. Okay was not the word she would use. She was far from okay, but she couldn't say that to these men. From her time on the board, she understood something of what they dealt with on a regular basis. By comparison, this was nothing. She refused to be the person who fell apart over it.

Ryker's gaze moved briefly to Archer's arm, which was still around her waist. She realized with a start that he'd pulled her closer at some point, so that she was leaning against him.

She straightened. "I'm okay. Just surprised. I have no idea who would do this."

"I'm going down to talk to building security. There are cameras, so maybe we'll get lucky." Ryker looked at Archer.

"Check with the neighbors as well. See if anyone saw something." Archer turned to Tatum. "There are two other apartments on this floor?"

She nodded. "Don't bother with the neighbors. The Edgertons are in the Hamptons and the Gladstones are in London."

Ryker gave a nod as his cell went off. "I'll head down then." He answered the call. "Rush, I need your help." His voice faded as he left the closet.

"You have a safe room in your apartment." It wasn't a question.

She glanced over her shoulder. "Not exactly a safe room. I take on projects sometimes that require secrecy. I’m more comfortable having that information tucked away, but I like to leave it out rather than pack it up every time I walk away from it."

Archer frowned. "And you feel your home isn't a safe enough place to leave it out?"

"You obviously haven't met Bunny if you think my apartment would be a safe place to keep any secret."

Understanding moved across his face. "Your mother doesn't like the projects, I take it."

"Sometimes. Sometimes she just doesn't like not being fully in the know."

"You don't trust your mother." Again, not a question. A statement of fact delivered with the quiet certainty of a man who had been reading people his entire life.

The bluntness of it took her breath away. She had never quite thought of it in those terms before. "I… You're right. I don't trust my mother." The words landed strangely, heavy and liberating at the same time. The moment she said them, she knew them to be true, and an unexpected wave of relief moved through her. She didn't have to pretend. Not with Archer, apparently.

"Let's go take a look at the rest of your apartment and see if anything is missing."

Tatum nodded reluctantly. She was safe here in the closet with Archer. As upsetting as it was to see all of her things strewn about, she could manage it because he was here. The moment they left the closet it would all become real, and she knew that at some point Archer and his people would leave and she would be alone in her apartment with the knowledge that someone had broken in. Someone who had been following her. She didn't believe in coincidence. All of her poking around had brought trouble directly to her door. Ten days in Japan chasing nothing, and now this.

She looked at her grandfather's photograph one last time before she turned away.

What the hell had she done?

CHAPTER EIGHT

Archer led Tatum out of the closet. He wanted her to know she was safe and that he was there with her, because as soon as she saw the level of destruction, she was going to be devastated.

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed as they entered the bedroom.

Archer had rushed through it earlier trying to reach Tatum as quickly as possible, but now he took a moment to study it properly and knew immediately that the destruction had been done with intent.

The bed was the first thing that caught his eye, not because it was central but because it had been destroyed. The duvet and sheets had been ripped away and tossed aside, the mattress slashed open in long, brutal cuts that exposed foam and stuffing like a wound left deliberately uncovered. Whoever had done this hadn't been searching in a hurry. They'd taken their time.

Everything else bore the same careless violence.

Drawers yanked free of the dresser, the contents overturned. Underwear strewn across the floor, tangled and trampled. Books knocked from shelves, their spines cracked, pages splayed open where they'd landed. The bedside lamp lay on its side, bulb shattered, glass crunching softly underfoot as Archer moved farther in.

This wasn't a burglary. It was a message.

He was aware of Tatum beside him. She stopped just inside the doorway, shoulders stiff, breath shallow. Archer didn't look at her directly; he'd learned long ago that giving space in moments like this mattered, but he tracked her in his peripheral vision all the same.

She took one step forward. Then another.