“Rules are meant to be—” At a heavy scraping to her right, she turned. What the…
A man in green and brown camouflage gear and scraggly black hair trailing out from under his black balaclava scaled the high slatted perimeter fence. Beady black eyes sunken within yellow skin, the gaze of Johnny Taita’s murderer, drilled into her. The killer from the high profile hit-and-run she’d witnessed was back. Oh hell. No way.
“Lydia.” Tyler gripped her arms, dragged her back from her terrifying memories.
“I’m okay.”
“Where’d you go?”
She rubbed his warm hands. Tyler was here. He was alive. He had survived.
“What took you away from me?”
“Um, bad memories. It happens sometimes. Don’t you ever have those?” How could he not remember the horror of that day? It haunted her and would never leave.
“Life is too short for that sort of thing.” He caressed her back. “There’s something about you. You said the dinner was nice, but how did our date end?”
“Ah, it ended badly. You never called.” She stepped back, only she bumped into the bunks. Then he followed her, and boxed her in. “What are you doing?”
“Go out with me again.”
Go out with him for real? Could she do that?
She’d never had the chance back then, and now she was in The Program, one she wasn’t leaving anytime soon. But he wasn’t her bodyguard anymore. Well, not officially, and not that she would ever tell him.
“Say yes.”
She looked into his eyes, and his heat radiated to every inch of her. Oh, she was in trouble. “I’ve moved on. Haven’t you?”
Lies though. It was all she could offer him, no matter his answer.
“No. I have a feeling I’ve been waiting for you.”
Her pulse tripped over itself, her heartbeat hammering out of control.
Impossible.