“The guards are finishing the sweep and installing a new security system at her house so we don’t have a repeat of last night.”
“You’re not good at asking for permission from me, are you?” Forget that she didn’t have money for that and had no idea how she’d keep up the monthly charges. Her bigger concern was his ongoing insistence that he knew how she should lead her life.
Yes, the break-ins scared the crap out of her. The implications, the connection to Tiffany, had panic eating away at her stomach lining. But she’d survived all these years and been able to function because she took control. She wasn’t ready to hand that over now.
Not that Wren looked convinced. He shot her one of those you-know-better expressions. “That’s not really my style, now is it?”
“A supremely tone-deaf response.” Garrett clapped Wren on the shoulder. “Well done.”
She ignored the show of male bonding and thought about the safety issues. She was not one to take that for granted. She’d lost so much and almost lost everything. Only lucky timing and a heap of teenage anger kept her from being in the wrong place when the horror came. Saved her from crossing the line into victimhood.
One point Wren was trying to make did get through. New alarm system or not, she couldn’t stay in her apartment.
Questions flooded her brain and she started asking them. “Is the plan to take me to a hotel or a secret cabin or—”
“My house.”
Garrett whistled.
Emery forgot how to breathe. It took all her concentration to get even a partial sentence out. “Where you live with . . . ?”
“Alone.” Wren morphed back into the brooding guy she met the first day. Brooding with a big splash of grumpiness. “I’m not going to kill you, if that’s the concern.”
“That’s . . . wow.” Garrett whistled again. “We need to work on your dating game.”
On that, Emery disagreed. She also wanted to stay on track, so she kept her focus on Wren. “I’m impressed you live in a house and not a bunker or hole of some kind.”
Wren glared at her. “You continue to be confused about whether I’m human.”
“Gee, I wonder why that’s confusing for her,” Garrett said.
She was too busy thinking about where he would live and what it would look like to get derailed. “This house doesn’t have one of those panic rooms, right?”
Wren shrugged. “Actually, it does.”
Of course it did. It probably also had an elevator and staff. Yeah, going anywhere near the place would be a mistake. She was about to tell him that but another sentence slipped out of her. “Let me put it this way. Do you plan to lock me in it?”
“You can go anywhere and do anything you want in my house, which is in DC and not out in the middle of nowhere.”
“You being invited into the inner sanctum is huge,” Garrett said. “Hell, you knowing his name is a stunner.”
Wren never broke eye contact with her. “Emery, your answer?”
“While I’m impressed, you’re acting as if you’re giving me a choice—”
“I’m trying not to make another misstep.”
She believed him. He knew he’d gone too far. For the right reasons, maybe, but he’d crossed a line. Now he was walking it back and doing it in a way that made much more sense. She decided to view that as progress. “Fine, but you should know I hate when you talk to me in that tone.”
“You’ve made that clear.”
Just when she was on the verge of giving him what he wanted he said something like that. “But yet you keep doing it.”
“It’s the only tone I have.”
“No, it’s not.” But she saw the way he curled his hands into balls and held his body so stiff. He was waiting for a blow, expecting her to refuse. That wasn’t going to happen. “You’re impossible, by the way.”
He must have sensed that he’d regained the upper hand. Some of the stress left his eyes and the frown tugging at the corners of his mouth eased. He barely spared Garrett a glance as he issued an order. “Get out.”
“On that note, I’ll leave you.” Garrett reached out and shook her hand. Held it for an extra second. “As long as you’re sure you’re okay.”
“I am, thanks.” She gave him a smile then let go.
She watched him walk to the front of the plane. Wren’s gaze nearly burned her cheek.
“Emery?”
Her gaze moved to him. Strong, determined Wren. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”
A look of satisfaction spread across his face as he nodded. “Excellent.”
“You’re not going to blindfold me, are you?” Though she wasn’t sure she hated the idea.
A smile lit his face. “Only if you ask very nicely.”
CHAPTER 21
Wren tried to see his house through Emery’s eyes. The layers of security. The cameras. The lead-in through the garage. It probably struck her as a cave. A place someone not normal would choose to live.