Tyler (Blue Halo Book 6)

Tyler hit the bag so hard, it surged back with the force. He was in the Blue Halo workout room. He wasn’t sure if he was hitting the heavy bag out of rage or frustration or the deep hurt that ran through his chest. Probably a mix of all three. A perfect fucking cocktail of chaos.

He hit the bag harder. Again, it flew and shook.

Emerson had intentionally withheld the truth. Asked him to help a man she knew he considered an enemy. To save him.

He hit the bag three more times, not caring that he was on the verge of splitting the damn thing in two.

He’d known she was hiding something, but this…this was so much bigger than he’d thought.

His foot connected with the bag next.

Footsteps sounded in the hall, then stopped outside the door. It opened. He turned his head to see Logan lean a shoulder on the doorframe.

For the first time in hours, Tyler’s fists dropped. He tugged the gloves from his hands.

“How are you doing?” Logan asked.

Tyler had notified his entire team about Levi the second he’d left Emerson’s house. Even typing the words into his phone had been damn painful.

“I’ve been better.” He threw the gloves into a box full of others in the corner.

“Wanna talk about it?”

Did he? Could he even articulate the fucking emotions swirling in his gut stealing his ability to breathe and damn near function? “I lost my mother when we were in there.”

“You did,” Logan said quietly.

“She died not knowing what happened to me. Whether I was dead or alive.” His jaw ticked. “My disappearance killed her. I didn’t need to be with her to know that.”

Plenty of others had told him that his mother had never recovered from his disappearance—her medical team, her friends and neighbors. It was why she’d stopped taking care of herself. Why she’d stopped eating properly and taking her medication like she was supposed to.

“I’m sorry, Ty.”

He shook his head. “I’ve been trying to help a man who knew what was happening and could have done something to end it. I could have killed him in those woods, then again in the grocery store. I didn’t for her. Because she let me believe he was a prisoner. Because she told me he was worth saving.” Every word made her betrayal more real.

“You’re right,” Logan agreed. “She shouldn’t have let us believe a lie.”

He grabbed his water and emptied half the bottle. Even that tasted like acid on his tongue.

“But that’s not even what has me feeling like I have a hollow fucking hole in my chest.” He swallowed. “Levi had PTSD. I understand that. And I understand how Hylar would have preyed on his vulnerability. What I can’t wrap my head around is that she didn’t trust me enough to tell me vital information, especially after we…” He couldn’t even think about their night in his bed. “I had to find out through a damn painting of hers.”

Trust. She didn’t trust him. And that realization sat the heaviest inside him.

“You’re right again.” Logan straightened. “Trust is important. But we all know that when there’s a lot at stake, and putting your faith in the wrong person can end in devastation, trust can take a bit longer to build.”

Tyler ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what the hell to think.”

Her deception burned through his veins. They’d slept together. He’d claimed her. All the while, she’d been keeping a secret from him that she knew would have destructive consequences.

“We also need to remember,” Logan continued, “it was a huge risk for her to come here and ask for our help. She must have been extremely desperate.” He paused. “I wonder if what happened between Levi and her father has something to do with her loyalty.”

It had everything to do with her loyalty. He didn’t need her confirmation to know that. But, fuck, he wished he knew more about the incident. He should have pressed her for information. Did her fear of the dark and small spaces have something to do with all of it?

Of course it did.

“Has she told you about that?’ Logan asked.

“I didn’t ask.” Stupid. He’d been so blindsided by her deceit, he hadn’t stuck around to ask questions.

Logan’s shoulder lifted. “So ask.”

Tyler ran a hand through his hair. He could have done a lot of things differently. Even been more patient when she was trying to explain this morning. But he’d been standing in that cabin feeling so damn connected to her that finding the painting, having the evidence of her lie right in front of him… God, she may as well have dug her hand into his chest and ripped out his heart.

“You forgave Grace after what she did,” he said quietly.

It wasn’t a question, but it kind of was. Grace had revealed facts about Project Arma to a reporter. That was literally how everyone in the world had learned their secret.

Logan hadn’t told his family about what he’d been through, but thanks to Grace’s revelations and the ensuing media frenzy, they’d found out. It made his friends’ lives difficult, and the lives of their families.

Logan nodded. “I did.”

“Was it easy? Moving past that?”

“Before I knew her, I had a lot of anger toward her for what she’d done. Then we grew closer. I learned her story, learned what had driven her to do what she did.” Logan’s muscles visibly bunched, and Tyler’s also went hard.

Grace’s background involved sex traffickers and running for her life. Hiding for years. That woman had been through hell.

“I learned,” Logan said quietly, “that good people are sometimes pushed into doing bad things.”

Fuck.

He was right.

Tyler should have listened to her. He should have asked more questions. Regardless of whatever was going on with her stepbrother, Emerson wasn’t a bad or cruel person. He knew evil, and she wasn’t it.

He blew out a long breath. “Thanks, Logan.”

“Let me know if you need a sparring partner.”

Oh, he’d definitely be needing that. But the second his friend disappeared, he grabbed his shit. He needed a shower, then he’d figure out what the hell he was going to say to Emerson.

Emerson’s feet beat against the uneven dirt path. Wind whipped across her face, and the sounds of the forest pierced her ears.

She wasn’t a big runner, but right now, she needed to move. Get out of the house and exhaust her body until that look on Tyler’s face scrubbed clean from her mind.

Shock. Hurt. Disappointment. It had all been there, mixed to create a perfect storm that spelled the end of them.

She’d tried painting. She’d even worked on the piece she’d started of her and Tyler. The piece with him standing at her back, his fingers holding her wrists. She’d wanted to wait to do their faces. There was a lot of complexity involved in capturing a person’s unique expression. The emotion driving them in the moment she was trying to recreate.

She’d waited because she wanted to capture love. Affection. She’d wanted to wait until their feelings for each other grew.

And they’d started to. For a brief, fleeting moment. Until the truth had destroyed their progress.

So instead of love, and instead of the alternative—what she’d seen on his face this morning—she’d painted shadows across Tyler’s face. Deep, dark shadows that reminded her of the sky before a storm.

While she’d riddled her features with pain—a vivid agony that dulled her amber eyes and tugged the corners of her lips down.

So, yeah…painting hadn’t helped.

She moved her feet faster, letting the burn of her lungs compete with the pain in her heart. Callum was behind her somewhere, watching her. Although, while her breathing was heavy and her footsteps loud, he was completely silent.

A part of her wished she could press rewind on this awful day. Return to where they’d been this morning. In a fog of love.

Well, love for her.

She sucked in air. She should have told him earlier. Why hadn’t she told him earlier? But she knew the answer to that.

Fear.

Christ, she hated how much this hurt. She hated that she’d fallen for a man she told herself not to fall for.

She rounded a tree, pumping her arms even though her body cried to stop, her lungs burning and her previously sprained ankle now aching.

Maybe others would have stopped trying to save Levi long ago. Maybe after he’d decided to work for Project Arma. Or when he’d gone missing. But Emerson couldn’t do that. She couldn’t stop. The memory of him protecting her in their youth, and others of him pulling her out of that dark closet. Keeping her awful secret when he was only a child himself. He’d been the first person in her life to ever save her. And now she was all he had.

That couldn’t be for no reason.

She increased her speed again, welcoming the pain cascading throughout her body.

Levi had been desperate to chase away his demons. Find meaning in what had become a meaningless world. Hylar had known that, and he’d promised things he had no business promising.

The air was roughly sawing in and out of her chest when a hand touched her shoulder.

“Hey. Slow down.”

Callum’s gentle words pulled her out of her hazy pain, and she finally allowed her feet to slow, then stop. She was panting hard, her chest tight like it was bound.

Callum stepped closer, a supportive hand on her upper back. “Breathe. In…and out.”

He took deep breaths, and she matched them until finally, she was back to semi-normal. Her heart still beat fast, and sweat beaded her forehead, but her breathing was easier.

“Thank you.” She scrubbed a hand over her face, feeling its dampness. “I don’t run often, but I needed to get out of the house and…”

“Exhaust yourself?” He finished when she couldn’t.

“Yeah.”

“I get it. I do that too. Or try to…”

At least it wasn’t just her.

He tilted his chin back toward the house. “Come on.”

She walked beside him but was very aware of his gaze on her, as if he thought she might pass out. Which wasn’t an unfounded concern. She’d been so deep in her own head, she’d pushed herself too hard.

She snuck a peak at Callum from beneath her lashes. She’d expected him and every other man on the team to be angry with her. The man would know who Levi was by now, so she’d just assumed the entire team would look at her with distrust.

But he didn’t.

They were silent the entire way back to the cabin. Every so often, he’d help her over a log or touch the small of her back in support. Sweet. Callum was very sweet.

He entered the house behind her, making the small space feel even tinier. Callum was the tallest on the team, which said something, because Tyler and all the others were huge. He had intelligent light brown eyes and almost honey-colored hair. Handsome. And dangerous, of course.

She moved over to the fridge and opened the door. “Would you like a drink?” She certainly needed one. Her throat was so dry it felt like sandpaper.

“Sure.”

“I have juice, sparkling or still water, or I could make you a coffee, but it would just be instant.”

“Still water would be great.”

“You got it.” She grabbed two bottles from the fridge and handed one to him.

He uncapped it and drank some before he spoke. “Are you okay?”

She took a small sip, turning the question over in her mind. She wasn’t. But she didn’t feel deserving of his sympathy.

“I was planning on telling him today.” Her words were quiet, like she expected him not to believe her. “I hate that he found out the way he did. I didn’t get a chance to explain anything.”

Callum was silent for a moment, but he did the same thing Tyler did. Gave her that concentrated look, where she could almost feel him digging around and pulling out all her secrets.

“Tyler feels a lot of anger about losing his mother while he was away,” Callum finally said. “She died six months after he was taken due to complications with her diabetes.”

Her heart thudded. “And if he’d been around, he could have made sure it was managed well.”

“Yeah. He was an only child, and he and his mom were close.”

His inability to accept that anyone involved in Project Arma might be worthy of saving finally made sense. Because no one had cared enough to save him, and in turn, his mother.

Levi could have done that. He could have let authorities know the second he’d learned what was happening. He didn’t.

It hit her then—Tyler was never going to forgive Levi. How could he? No one could give him that time back with his mother. Stolen time. In Tyler’s mind, Levi might not have kidnapped and drugged him, but he was equally to blame.

Nausea swelled in her belly.

Callum’s brow furrowed. He straightened and stepped toward her. “Hey. It’ll be okay.”

No. It wouldn’t. Because she had to choose. Tyler or Levi. She couldn’t have both. It was a realization that almost made her knees buckle.

She was all Levi had. So as much as she wanted to choose Tyler, to beg the man for forgiveness, tell him that her heart belonged to him…that would seal Levi’s fate.

She forced a small smile she didn’t feel. “Of course it will.” She wet her lips. “I have a commissioned piece I need to mail. Would we be able to go into town?”

Callum opened his mouth to respond, then his gaze rose above her head. His expression changed. Hardened. And something dangerous took over. “Stay here.”

He reached for the tranquilizer on his holster.

“Callum?”

“I’ll be back in a second.” He stepped out of the house and pulled the door closed behind him.

Her heart jolted painfully. She swallowed and closed her eyes, saying a little prayer that no one got hurt. She was just opening them when she heard it. The patter of feet on the front deck. Her throat closed. She ran forward and looked through the peephole.

Levi’s back was visible for a split second, then he was moving so fast, he was a blur, running from the house and into the trees. Callum followed but stopped not far from the house, gun aimed and ready.

She swallowed, opening the door, and immediately saw the folded piece of paper on the deck.

Goose bumps erupted on her arms. Slowly, she bent down and, with trembling fingers, picked up and unfolded the piece of paper to see Levi’s scribbled handwriting.

I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, Emerson. Last chance. Leave, or I’ll kill any man I have to.

Fear like nothing she’d ever experienced coursed through her body, turning her skin to ice.

Callum remained in her yard, tranq gun aimed toward the woods.

So that was it. If Tyler didn’t find Levi and make him pay for his crimes, Levi would find and kill Tyler and his friends.

There was no scenario where staying in Cradle Mountain kept the two men she loved safe.