Eric looked away, guilt all over his face. “Goddamn it, Del. Why him?”
“Because he never once let me down,” she whispered. “Because he would never do what you just did.”
“Fuck.” Eric blinked, frowned, as if finally realizing that he’d done something terribly wrong. He eased back into the nearest kitchen chair, folding his big body into it with a sigh and dropping his face into his hands. “I guess I deserved that. I never meant to hurt you . . . But you bruised my pride.”
“You bruised my trust.” Once it seemed clear that the fight had gone out of Eric, she reached for the rest of her clothes and yanked them on. “When we were married, I wanted to love and believe in you so badly, and when you turned your back on me for honoring your wishes . . . you crushed me.”
“I didn’t know how to handle what happened.” His face tightened, a deep frown settling between his brows. “I expected it to feel like I was with you again. Instead, it was like watching you reveal what was really in your heart.”
“Tyler made me feel beautiful and treasured that night. With all the anger you’d blasted at the world after your shooting, I hadn’t felt that in a really long time.”
Eric whipped a stunned stare up to her, as if she’d stabbed him in the heart again. The acceptance settled across his face. “I’m sorry. I loved you in my way. Maybe that wasn’t how you needed to be loved. God, I’m so fucked up. So damn angry.” His face crumbled, and he looked as if he might cry. But he manned up and swallowed the tears down.
With a frown, Eric waved a hand in the air. “Go. See if you can find what you’re looking for, then leave. I can’t do this anymore.”
Solemnly, Del nodded and approached Eric. “That makes two of us. Get some professional help. Find someone you can truly love. Handcuff key?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Eric fished it from his pocket and set it in her palm.
Tyler watched her make her way to him, then fit the key into the hole. He breathed out. It wasn’t a sigh of relief. Anticipation thrummed through him, making his heart race, his fists clench. He was going to destroy the fucker now—and he couldn’t wait. But the closer Del got, the more she looked pale and terrified. “Angel?”
She met his gaze, her blue eyes watery. “I’m fine.”
But she wasn’t, and a renewed ferocity consumed Tyler. “Bullshit. He hurt you.”
Closing her eyes, he saw as Del tried not to reveal how much Eric’s rough treatment had disturbed her, but it bled through. It wouldn’t be enough to leave Eric battered and dead on the floor. Tyler wanted to tear the asshole up into small, unrecognizable pieces. Whatever it took to keep her safe.
“I’ll be fine,” she murmured. “Are you all right? You’re bleeding.”
He glanced at his wrist. “It’s nothing. Let me loose. Let me at the son of a bitch.”
“No.” She turned the key and freed his wrist, leaving the other cuff attached to the refrigerator.
“I’m going to tear him limb from limb.” He took a ground-eating step toward Eric, menace charging through him.
Del grabbed his arm tightly with both hands and tugged. “Be smart. Don’t do it.”
His entire body shook with the need to dismantle Eric. Rage gnawed at him. His fists clenched. His heart pumped.
“If you touch him, they’ll throw the book at you,” Del pointed out. “And if you go to jail, what happens to me and Seth?”
They probably died. Fuck. And if he disrespected her wishes, was he any better than Eric?
Tyler gritted his teeth and dragged her into his arms. God, she felt good here, and he wanted to eliminate Eric because he couldn’t stand the thought of seeing Del hurt or threatened ever again. But in this case, she was right.
That didn’t stop the adrenaline from coursing through his system like a drug, revving him up. He was jagged, on edge. How the hell was he going to make her feel safe while taking the top off his frustration? He needed to either fight or fuck.
“All right. I won’t touch him.” Yet.
Emotional overload hit Del. She melted against him, trembling in his arms. Tyler did his best to manage his raving frustration and pulled her closer, where she’d be safe. But over her shoulder, he glared with blatant hostility at Eric.
“Thank you,” Del breathed.
She shouldn’t thank him yet. His restraint was only going to last for so long.
Tyler eased her back and thumbed the fresh tears from her face. “Let’s find your flash drive and go.”
He almost choked on the words. He really just wanted to kill the motherfucker, but Del needed his comfort and protection more than he needed to unleash his temper.
She gave him a watery smile and slipped her hand in his. The trust she showed him now, especially after Eric had abused hers so wretchedly, floored him.
Squeezing her hand, Tyler let her lead him through the house. They stepped over broken glass, around toppled furniture, their feet wrinkling papers beneath them. Finally, at the end of the hall, they entered one of the spare bedrooms. Del had used it for an office at one point. Now, it held Eric’s weight equipment, all scattered across the floor.
She trotted over to the closet and opened the door. The house had been built in the 1920s, and the tiny closet was almost nonexistent. The dark hardwood floors gleamed, and Del knelt and shoved her fingernail into a little ridge in the floorboard, popping the wooden plank up with the first yank. The board clattered to the floor as she stuck her hand inside the little hidden cubby.
A moment later, she froze and looked up at him with wide eyes. “It’s gone.”
AS soon as they left Eric’s house, Tyler folded Del into the car and pulled out his phone. Shit, she looked shell-shocked. Devastated. And his need to pound on the person responsible nearly pushed him beyond reason. He didn’t fucking know how to make this better for her. Eric claimed he didn’t know anything about her flash drive. Didn’t even know she’d ever hidden anything in that spot. He’d had some work done to the floors last month after the hot water heater had leaked and caused some flooding . . . right around the time Del had hidden the little device. And of course, someone had broken into the house. Anything could have happened. Anyone could have taken it.
Tyler didn’t like this shit. The urge to kill Eric still rode him hard. It had taken everything in him to leave the fucker alive. Now, dread gripped Tyler as well.
He grabbed Del’s hand. “We’ll figure this out. Who would have broken into Eric’s house? I doubt it was random or a simple burglar. You told your friend Lisa that you’d hidden the flash drive here?”
“Yes. I know what you’re thinking, but I can’t imagine that she’d betray me.”
“No one ever wants to imagine that someone they trust would willingly hurt them, but we have to look at every possibility. Who else knew where you’d hidden your information?”
“No one. Carlson must have decided to hit Eric’s place on the off chance that I’d hidden something there.”
Maybe. Maybe not. He’d keep working all those angles.
“I was trying to be clever, but Carlson’s mind works a lot more deviously than mine.” Del sighed tiredly. “Every bit of my research is gone. I’d been sketching a timeline, keeping track of contacts I’d made. I can probably remember some of it, but not phone numbers and exact dates and . . . I’d even started drafting a story. I never imagined that he’d blow up my laptop and that I’d have to start from scratch. That will take longer. I don’t know if I have that much time before he’s named DA.”
“You didn’t back up at the office?”
She shook her head. “A colleague had his work stolen about six weeks ago. He was working late at night, and some goons came in, roughed him up, and took everything he had on his story. The paper is supposed to be instituting new security procedures, but they haven’t implemented them yet. So I didn’t dare leave my stuff there.”
And home wouldn’t have been any better. In fact, Tyler bet if they went by her place now, they’d see that it had been violated, too. This fucker Carlson was thorough and seemingly one step ahead.
She blew out a deep, troubled breath, looking exhausted. “Maybe Seth and I should assume aliases and move out of the country. If I stay, there’s no way Carlson won’t hunt us down eventually and kill us. I don’t want to be always looking over my shoulder.”
Del covered her face with her hands. She didn’t sob aloud or shake with tears. But Tyler felt her desperation deep in the gnawing of his gut. He swore under his breath, even as he wrapped an arm around her. A deep sense of possession gripped him. No fucking way was she simply going to disappear. If she needed protection, he’d give it to her.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to help you.”
“I can’t ask you for more. You’ve already dropped your life to help me, been so supportive . . .”
“There’s no asking. It isn’t negotiable. I will help you. You and Seth will be safe. Put that worry from your mind for now. You start thinking about who you can talk to in order to rebuild your story. I’ll see about making sure we have a safe place to stay for a while. Now, how much did Eric hurt you? Do you need to go to the hospital?”
“He scared me and hurt my feelings more than anything. I . . .” She blinked away fresh tears. “I feel betrayed. I loved him once. If I hadn’t talked him down, I don’t know how far he would have gone.”
No question in Tyler’s mind that Eric would have pinned Del to the floor and done his worst. He didn’t even know the bitter, vindictive bastard Eric had become since the shooting—and the divorce. Just thinking about it made him violent again.
“Don’t worry,” Tyler whispered. “Deep breaths. Sit back. Let me handle this.”
With a soft touch, she reached up and cradled his jaw. “I’ve been alone for so long, it’s nice to have someone to lean on. I’ll miss this.”
When she’d gone. That was her intimation. Tyler tightened his jaw. Yeah, fuck that.
As if she had no clue that his tension was escalating, Del leaned back in the passenger’s seat. Tyler started the car, and a soft ballad drifted from the speakers, and though he hated the song, he didn’t touch the radio. If it brought her peace, he’d deal.
As he flipped a U-turn and gunned the car down the street, he looked back and saw Eric watching them from the front window, his gaze following until they turned out of sight. He gripped the wheel with white knuckles, wishing it was the asshole’s neck.
Reaching for his phone, he punched in Jack’s number. His pal and new boss answered on the first ring. “What’s up?”
“The flash drive is gone.”
“You saw the ex?”
“Yes.”
“Think he’s involved?”
Tyler hesitated. Del likely thought Eric was just lashing out. But Tyler couldn’t rule out the possibility that Eric was trying to sabotage her story, or worse, get her killed, for his vendetta. “Possible.”
“Is he dangerous?”
Now, Tyler didn’t skip a beat. “Very likely.”
“Can’t talk? Del near?”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll add him to my list of people to look into. You might have another problem. Del’s friend, Lisa? She’s had a bit of trouble with credit cards. She’s awfully fond of Nordstrom, Coach, and Prada. Has had a few maxed-out credit cards for a while. Transferring one balance to another card for lower interest rates, blah, blah, blah. She paid most of that off this morning, to the tune of thirty thousand dollars. I want to know where she suddenly got the money.”
Tyler wanted that answer, too. “Any record of interesting phone calls?”
“Nope. Squeaky clean. But that just means there may be a non-traceable, prepaid cell somewhere in the mix. I’ll keep running it down. There’s an answer, and I’m going to find it.”
Great. Another fucking traitor. That made Tyler’s mood even peachier.
“Anything else?”
“Digging into Carlson has been interesting. A lot of chatter. A lot of rumor and innuendo. If I had to bet, the guy is crooked as a dog’s hind leg. There’s a whole lotta people around him either toeing the company line or saying nothing at all. I don’t like the way it smells.”
“Me, either. Especially since someone broke into Eric’s house and trashed the place, but apparently didn’t take anything, except maybe her research.”
Jack hesitated. “Who knew you were going to see him?”
Tyler was intensely aware of Del’s eyes on him and couldn’t say a damn thing.
But Jack was intuitive, as always. “Let me guess, Lisa?”
“Yep.” He’d bet she’d sold Del out to Carlson for thirty grand. Tyler didn’t like where this conversation was going. His frustration ratcheted up another notch. “We’ve been in this car too long.”