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Phoebe stood and drifted into the back of the house. I started to go after her when Ayana grabbed me shook her head, stood to her feet, and trailed Phoebe. I was completely into my thoughts that I didn’t see Tyler come around to my side of the table and sit next to me.
“What are your plans, Detective?” I heard him ask.
I breathed out a tired yet hopeful sigh. “Well…” I ran my hand down my face, “we’ll hit the streets hard. Follow the spouses, check to —”
“No, I meant with Phoebe,” he charged.
Hearing her name, I brought narrowed eyes on him.
“Why do you care? From what I heard, you and Watson have been ignoring her calls and text messages for weeks now. Ever since she came here instead of going with you.”
Tyler ran his fingers through his short hair, his shoulders dropping in defeat. “I know. We let our pride get the better of us. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care about her. She’s been through a lot.”
“I know what she’s been through, Tyler,” I said quickly, then leaned in close to him and lowered my voice. “This whole big brother act is falling on deaf ears, especially if you plan on threatening me. I can tell you right now that shit will not go over well for you.”
Tyler leaned back from me, a smile on his face. “By no means would I threaten you. That’s not my style. But I can’t help but worry about Phoebe. As I was about to say, she’s been through a lot. Her heart is big, but it’s also fragile. She’s not used to men like you.”
It was my turn to lean back from him, my eyes hardening as the seconds ticked by. Tyler raised his hands up trying to stop my anger from rising to sonic levels. It wasn’t working.
“I’m not trying to insult you, I’m just saying. You’re domineering. You have this possessive nature about you. You like to have control over everything you do. I’m just saying, your personality could be too much for her.”
I tried not to let his words feed the fire burning inside me. He thinks he knows my woman, and he’s warning me off her, telling me she would be better off without me. Yeah, that shit isn’t going to happen.
“Tyler…” I held up a hand, stopping him from talking. “…let me stop you right there before you say something that will cause me to drag you out of my house on your face. I’m going to give you a pass this once because Phoebe cares about you. But you have no idea what Phoebe wants or needs. You think you know her, but you have no fucking clue. You’re right about one thing. I am very fucking possessive and overprotective. So let me say this to you, hurt my woman, treat her in any way other than what she deserves, and I’ll break every bone in your body. The fact that you and Watson thought it was okay to let her go into those houses alone tells me just how much you value her and her safety. Instead of being in my face, trying to warn me off what’s mine, what you need to do is go back there and apologize for being a fucking asshole to her. She didn’t deserve it. She was just following her heart, doing what she wanted, being withwhoshe wanted. You two immature babies should have known that.” I stood and hovered over him. “Make sure you relay my message to Watson too, including my warning. That was especially for him.”
I stepped away from the table into the kitchen to grab the case of beer I had in the fridge. When I stepped back out and placed the beer on the table, Tyler wasn’t sitting at the table any longer. My guess, he took heed to my warning.
I guess he was a smart man after all.
CHAPTER15
PHOEBE
Ifinally found myself alone in the TV room of Lock’s house. Everyone was either on their way home or, from what I could hear, about to leave.
It had been a tiring day for all of us, but I felt as if I had gone through a carwash without the car. I couldn’t believe Homer was attacked in the backyard just so someone could come afterme. And what did they plan to do with me once they had me? Were their orders to kill me? Take me? I had no clue, but I was sure whatever their goal was, it wouldn’t have turned out well for me.
Then, to top everything off, someone had hacked into Garrett’s system and put the lives of the women we helped in danger. From what we surmised, someone gave the locations of these women to their abusers, and they went hunting. Five women have lost their lives because of this breech.
I don’t care what Lock said, I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I promised these women they would be safe, and they trusted my word. It broke me to tell them that my word meant shit. That they had to continue to run for their lives, look over their shoulders.
Some of the women told me they understood what happened, assuring me it wasn’t my fault, but there were others where I could sense their contempt. They may not have out right blamed me, but I knew they did.
I was thankful that I didn’t have to go through all of this alone. Ayana was here and even though she gave me the riot act for not telling her about my vigilante side gig, she commended me on my courage and strength.
“Girl, if I wasn’t tired and hungry, I would beat your ass for keeping Operation Freedom a secret. I would have loved to go out with you, beat the fuck out of some lowlife who thought laying hands on defenseless women and kids was a good idea.”
“Uh-huh, and that’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. I had Reed and Garrett to keep in check, I couldn’t handle you too. You’re ten time worse than them. No telling what you would have done.”
“Oh, I can tell you exactly what I would have done, and it involves a knife and cutting off balls.”
I laughed as I watched the fire blazing in her eyes, knowing she wasn’t exaggerating.
“Well, I’ll be sure to call you if I go out again.” I had told her and she gave me this pitying look.
“Oh sweetheart, your vigilante days are over.”
“Why do you say that?”
