Page 38 of When He Protects

His brows rose. But the sheriff just saluted Tyler and ambled out the door.

Only after Tyler had locked the door did Esme’s breath ease out. Tyler didn’t face her, not at first. His back was to her as his right palm pressed to the doorframe. “Thought I told you to hide.”

Uh, oh. She caught the thread of steel beneath those words. An angry thread. “I did hide. I went into the kitchen. Didn’t you see me go?” Speaking of going…Esme spun on her heel and began to hurry toward the kitchen again.

She didn’t get far.

Tyler snagged her wrist and spun her around to face him. “Repeat after me, Esme.I will follow Tyler’s rules.”

“Fine,” she huffed out. What in the hell was she? A child? “I will follow Tyler’s rules.”

“Because if I don’t,” he continued, voice even darker, “then I’ll be dead. And Tyler has many skills, but he can’t bring me back from the dead.”

Her heart slammed into her chest. “Do I have to worry about yourfriendthe sheriff killing me?”

“A seven-million-dollar bounty is on your head. Plenty of people would sell out their own mothers for that kind of money.”

Yes, she was aware. She’d caught that snippet from his phone conversation. Something else she’d caught? “The man who tried to kill me at the FBI office is dead.”

“He was murdered while in custody.” Tyler’s hold tightened on her. “That means whoever killed him either works at the Bureau or has significant pull. Enough pull to get someone murdered when the target was surrounded by law enforcement.” A rough exhale. “We have to be very careful who we trust.”

She licked her lips and had to say the part that worried her. “Grayson works at the Bureau.”

His head tilted the smallest fraction. “Gray isn’t selling us out.”

“Not even for seven million dollars? Because that’s the kind of money that can buy someone a new life.” And this absolutely terrified her, but she had to ask, “Is it the kind of money that could buyyoua new life?”

And the tension between them got very, very thick.

She tugged her wrist free of his grip. Esme backed awayfrom him. His expression had absolutely locked down, and that lack of emotion scared her. She’d tried to research him, but, as much as she hated to admit it, Esme had been wrong before. If she was wrong this time, she was a dead woman.

She retreated, but she’d misjudged where she was going, and her back hit the wall.

Tyler glanced at the very large knife on the table near him. He picked it up. Turned it so that the light hit the blade.

She really, really needed a gun. Though this did not seem to be the moment to bring up that conversational topic.

“You think I’ll sell you out, Esme?”

With her whole heart, she hoped he wouldn’t.

“Is that why you’re suddenly looking so worried as you stare at me with those big, dark eyes of yours? Because you realize I’ve taken you away from everything you’ve known. Every friend you had.”

She didn’t have a ton of those. Getting close enough for friendship was dangerous in her world.

He turned the knife in his hand. The blade was wickedly sharp and terrifying. “You realize that you are alone with me. It’s you and me, and it would be very easy for me to say…sneak up on you when you’re sleeping and get myself seven million dollars.”

“Stop.”

“Or, why bother with sleeping?” He’d been staring at the knife, but now he looked up at her. “I could get myself seven million dollars right now. You conveniently provided the weapon. It’s right here in my hand. Think you could stop me if I came at you?”

Her breath shuddered in and out.

“Fuck.” He dropped the knife back onto the table. In a flash, he’d eliminated the distance between them. Tyler didn’t touch her. He just stood right in front of her. Towered over her. “You get to play every game you want, but the minute I do…dammit, don’t look at me that way.”

What way was she looking at him?

“You picked me,” Tyler said with certainty. “You knew you were going to use me even before you said those first words to me at Jorlan’s, didn’t you?”

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