The whole time he dabs alcohol on my back, I don’t utter a word. Not until he tells me that I won’t ever have to go back there. I sharply turn my head and look right into his eyes before laughing.
“I have no where else to go. I have to go back.”
He shakes his head and smiles. “Nah. I’ve got your back now. Chin up, buttercup. We’re a team now.”
*
True to his word, Coop became almost like a brother to me. He took me in and helped me get stronger. He had to go out to California, where he worked for a security company, but he made sure I was taken care of. They stayed busy and he hated leaving me alone, always worried that something would happen.
Six months after the momentous day he saved me from Shawn, he finally introduced me to Axel Reid, the owner of Corps Security, where Coop worked. Axel was apprehensive about hiring me since I was so young, but their company was growing so quickly, and college education or not, I’m now gratefully employed as a secretary for Corps Security.
For once, things are starting to look up. I have a great friend and a caring boss, and I wasn’t scared. I’ve mapped out my five-year plan, and I’m finally allowing myself to dream. All of those dreams explode in my face when I finally come face to face with him.
“Uh . . . can I help you?” I ask the man standing in front of my desk.
“Name.”
“Excuse me?”
His face remains expressionless. His dark eyes don’t travel down to my chest like I’ve been used to over the years, but he keeps me tapped in his gaze. My body becomes more and more paralyzed with each passing second that I look at this man.
“Your name,” he repeats.
“You want my name?” I stupidly reply.
One dark brow cocks without losing his stoic mask and he just waits. My cheeks heat and I have to fight my body’s reaction to this man in front of me.
“Em . . . Emersyn. Emmy. I mean, I’m Emmy,” I whisper.
He nods and then walks past my desk and down the hall.
It takes me a second to clear the unexpected fog of lust that is taking over my body. I jump up from my seat so quickly that it rolls into the wall behind me before I run after the tall, dark, stranger.
“Wait!” I yell.
He stops but doesn’t turn.
“You can’t just walk in here,” I gasp at his back.
“It’s fine, Emmy. That’s Locke. He’s our technical specialist. He’s just been out of town.” Beck says softly behind me.
I turn to gape at Beck, my mouth opening and closing like a guppy.
He just shakes his head and looks to where Locke is still standing with his back to us. “It’s cool, Em. Just go on back to the front, okay?” He offers me a sad smile and turns to walk over to Locke.
I give him another glance, noticing how tense his body is strung. His hands are clenched in a firm fist and his shoulders are pulled tight.
I head back to the front, thinking about Locke. He’s so intense. My body was on fire just from his eyes. He spoke three words to me and I’m already hooked.
It wasn’t love at first sight, but I’m drawn to him. Even now, with him down the hall from me, I can feel my skin tingle with the memory of his black eyes holding my own.
With a smile, I return to my work and think to myself that my five-year plan just got a lot more interesting.
CHAPTER 6
Emmy
Present Time
That son of a bitch!
Who the hell does he think he is? For years, he’s treated me with indifference. The only time I got past his thick shield was at Axel and Izzy’s wedding. He had so much to drink that he doesn’t even remember that he almost took me against the wall at the reception. Not one of my finest moments, but I savored those precious memories of his mouth and hands on my body. I’m not proud of it or what it makes me, but that small memory has carried me through some tough times lately.
Like a na?ve little girl, I’ve harbored my crush on Maddox Locke since the first time I met him back in California. It took losing the one person I considered family to wake me the hell up. I’ve been panting after the one man who couldn’t care less about me, giving him every second of my dreams, only to get pushed down each and every time. Sure, I’ve dated here and there, but no one has ever made me feel the way he did. It was hopeless.
Every since the day that Coop died, I feel like I’ve been struggling to find my place. Find where I belong. His death kills me daily. We weren’t as close as we had been four years ago. Between things picking up at CS and our moving from California to Georgia, we were just too busy. I regret that daily. I know I looked stupid for running, but I couldn’t stay. Not when I’d lost the one person who’d had my back like no one else. Sure, I was close with the girls—especially Melissa—but something held me back from giving them one hundred percent of Emersyn. To this day, the only ones who know my whole story are Axel and . . . well, Coop.