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I blinked, turning my head slowly and taking in his tattooed arm that led down to his tattooed hand that he was guiding the steering wheel with. He seemed so at ease, but I could see the tension in his shoulders and the frown marring his forehead.
“I didn’t need you to save me,” I told him, hating how I’d called Ronnie and it was him that had turned up. In the back of my mind I knew this was a good thing because it meant I could get close to him, but there was something else screaming in my brain too: he’d come to help me.
Bad men didn’t do things like that, right? But he was a bad man. I’d seen the chaos he caused when he did his crew’s signature heists. He didn’t have any regard for people's lives, yet he’d turned up when I’d asked for help.
“How did you know where to come?” I asked, feeling my muscles lock. My brain was a mess of thoughts, so much so that I couldn’t filter them before they came out of my mouth.
“Probably the same way he did,” Theo said easily, pulling to a stop at a red light. He raised a brow, his head turning just enough to look me in the eyes. “I’m not gonna hurt you, Lena, so you can stop gripping that gun as if you’re about to shoot me.”
I swallowed, glancing down at my lap. My knuckles were white with how hard I was gripping it. “Sorry.” I closed my eyes, hating how on edge I felt. Maybe being undercover wasn’t for me after all. Within one day, I’d already caused so much damage, and I’d shot someone.
Theo didn’t say anything else as the car moved, and I didn’t open my eyes again until he’d pulled to a complete stop and turned the engine off.
“Come on,” he murmured, placing his hand on my arm. “Let’s get you inside and cleaned up.”
I heaved in a breath, opened my eyes, then got out of his car, but I kept my gun in my hand. I was never going anywhere from now on without a weapon. This life was dangerous, and I had no idea how he lived it day to day.
The sun was starting to shine through the slits of the walls in the partially underground parking lot. In the back of my head I realized that I was about to have access to Theo’s apartment, but all that I could consciously think about was the throbbing in my face and the soreness of my throat and ribs.
“Thank you,” I whispered as we slipped inside an elevator. “For coming to help me,” I added.
“You’re welcome.”
I couldn't bring myself to look up at him, not when he was standing so close to me in an enclosed space. The air swirled around us, and I swore my breaths came faster. I stared up at the numbers above the door, needing them to hurry up in getting us to the floor we were going to as quickly as possible.
This wasn’t right. I couldn’t be here. I had to go.
No. I had to be here. It was my lifeline. But also, I had nowhere else to go and no one else to rely on.
Theo Black was my only option, and I had no idea how to feel about it.
Stressed.
Happy.
Sad.
Scared.
Elated.
Too many emotions all at once, but I couldn’t land on a single one. My head was fried, my body aching in places that I didn’t know it could ache in.
The doors whooshed open, saving me from myself, and I exited, only realizing that it led us right into the penthouse after I’d taken four steps.
I should have known that Theo lived in the penthouse.
“You can sleep in my guest room,” Theo said, walking ahead of me. He didn’t turn back to make sure I was following him, which was a good thing because I was scanning every area of the apartment.
It was completely open, a kitchen on the left with a dug out living room on the right. The sofa was so huge that it looked like four super-king beds pushed together, but the dark brown leather mixed perfectly with the wooden flooring.
It was a bachelor pad, but it also had a comfortable vibe, one that was seeping further and further into my bones the more I was here.
“Up here,” Theo said, leading me to a spiral, metal staircase in the middle of the room. At the top there was a door, one that he input a code in for it to open.
Safety first. That was smart, but it also made me feel…secure. The irony that I felt like that with the criminal I was trying to take down was not lost on me.
I kept my head down as we walked along a hallway and past four doors, until finally he opened the last one on the right. “Guest room.”
