Chapter 12

“Wait here,”Angelo commanded Teresa before he got out of the car.

Her eye roll wasn’t hard to miss, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to let her out until he confirmed they weren’t being observed.

Angelo scanned the apartment building opposite Teresa’s. Not a blind or curtain flickered to indicate someone was watching. Satisfied nothing was out of the ordinary, he turned his attention to her place. Again, nothing moved. Neither did the bushes surrounding the entrance shake, as though someone might’ve shifted if they were taking cover.

His instincts weren’t screaming that danger lurked, like the unsettling feeling he’d had when he’d walked into Teresa’s apartment hours ago. So maybe it really was okay—for now.

Happy that it was safe enough, Angelo opened the door for Teresa and held out his hand.

“I’m guessing it’s safe to exit the vehicle?” she said sarcastically, ignoring his hand as she hopped down from the SUV.

“As far as I can tell, but I’m not going to relax until we’re back in the car and far away from here.” He triggered the alarm, so if there was any motion or someone tried to place something on the vehicle, Alliez would be notified.

All cars had been fitted with specially designed motion sensors and other nifty devices Cass had sourced.

He’d learned not to ask where she got things, and he suspected so had Ox. They’d be safe from an attack—at least in theory.

“Are you coming, or are you going to stand there all night?” Teresa asked from the front door of her building.

Fuck, when had she moved?

Angelo closed the distance between them quickly. “Don’t ever walk away from me like that again.”

“Umm, excuse me, you’re not my boss. Or my father. What you do sound like though, is a controlling asshole that has red flags flying everywhere.”

Dammit, she was right.

He took a deep, calming breath, holding it for a beat before letting it whoosh out. “You’re right. Sorry. It’s just, there’s not enough intel on your building or the residents. Anyone could be waiting for you.”

“You said it was okay,” Teresa countered, none of the fight leaving her.

God, he loved that about her. The way she didn’t back down and was ready to face danger head-on.

That idea didn’t sit well with Angelo, but he couldn’t change it or her because that was who she was.

“I said as okay as it can be.” He shifted so he was standing in front of her and waited for her to look at him. “I need you to stick close to me the whole time we’re here. Can you do that?”

“I can.”

“Good. Now let’s get inside. The longer we stand here, the more chance of us being spotted.”

“I think the big black SUV at the curb is a huge ‘hey, we’re here’ sign.”

There was nothing Angelo could say to that. It was true, black SUVs always attracted attention. If he argued with Teresa about it, it would only prolong them being outside, which was what he didn’t want.

“Come on, the sooner we get into your place, the sooner we can leave.”

“We’ve got to visit Phillip first.”

It was his turn to roll his eyes, but he did it mentally. Teresa’s neighbor was the last person he wanted to see, but they’d already argued the point and if she could see for herself the man was fine, then she wouldn’t worry about him anymore and Phillip could fade into the background.

“Right,” Angelo grumbled and waited for her to enter the elevator before him.

The ride to her floor was over quickly. He took Teresa’s hand. If they had to make a run for it, he could pull her along if necessary. Plus, it didn’t hurt if good ol’ Phil saw that Teresa was taken.

Wait—not taken.

Angelo might want to give Phillip the impression that Teresa was his, but it was all for show. It didn’t matter that holding her hand felt as natural as breathing. Or that the kiss they’d shared at Alliez was still at the forefront of his mind. Or that he wanted to taste her lips again to see if she tasted the same.

No, none of that mattered. All that did was keep Phillip from getting any ideas about dating Teresa.

And Teresa, what if she wants to date Phillip, and not you?

Angelo was going to slap that inner voice if it was going to keep saying things like that. If Phillip was in any way, shape, or form important to Teresa, she wouldn’t have forgotten he’d existed.

Yes, she’d been insistent that she go to the hospital the previous evening, but he hadn’t seen anything in her body language or the way she’d acted around him that indicated she wanted a relationship with Phillip.

He could spend his whole evening going round and round in circles with this situation. Better to get the visit over and done with, and then he could get them the hell away from this place and to the safety of his home.

Angelo’s security and camera system hadn’t pinged with any notifications to suggest that people were casing his place or trying to enter it. For that, he was grateful for and hoped it remained that way.

“You ready to do this?” he asked when they stopped at her door.

“Yep. First Phillip, then pack,” Teresa said, going the short distance to her neighbor’s door. She hadn’t let go of his hand.

If anything, her fingers squeezed his a little tighter.

Phillip opened the door at the first knock.

Had he been waiting for them to turn up? Had he known they were at the building? Or had he just been close by his door?

Angelo’s senses went on alert. The feeling of mistrust he had whenever he saw this man kicked into overdrive.

“Hey, Teresa, it’s good to see you.” Phillip pulled her close for a hug, and because they were still connected by their hands, Angelo slapped his hand on the wall by the open door to stop himself from crashing into Teresa’s back.

Teresa made no effort to return the hug, and she scrambled out of Phillip’s hold as quickly as possible.

“I just wanted to check on you, see if you’re doing okay,” she explained.

Was there a little shake in her voice?

Angelo couldn’t tell, but he released her hand and slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her tighter to his side.

Her body stiffened for a moment before relaxing against him.

Phillip’s eyes narrowed in on where Angelo’s hand was. The man’s lips tightened into a thin line for a second before he relaxed into a fake smile.

As always, Angelo’s instincts were spot on. There was something about this guy and his interest in Teresa.

“Do you want to come in? Have a drink?” the neighbor asked, as if he hadn’t totally wanted to take a swing at Angelo.

“Umm, thanks, but no. We’ve got dinner plans. I just came by to coll?—”

“Teresa wanted to make sure you were okay,” Angelo interrupted. The last thing he wanted was for Phillip to know she wasn’t going to be staying in her apartment for the foreseeable future.

It might’ve pained him to utter the words, and they might give Phillip the wrong idea, but sometimes the means justifies the end result. They needed to keep their plans to themselves.

“Oh, right, well, okay. I guess I’ll see you around. Thanks again for checking up on me.”

Phillip was saying all the right things. Giving the impression that he was being neighborly, Angelo didn’t believe him for one second.

His mouth said one thing, but his eyes were portraying something completely different, and because he kept darting them in Angelo’s direction, he saw Phillip was anything but happy with the current turn of events.

It was clear the man was interested in Teresa. His gaze had never left her body, and Angelo may well have been a shadow for all the attention Phillip gave him.

It was the way Teresa kept herself plastered to his side, her hand covering the one he had on her hip, that convinced Angelo there wasn’t even a spark of interest in Phillip from her.

If anything, she wasn’t comfortable around the man.

While Angelo loved that she was close to him, if it was anyone else they were talking to, he doubted she’d be standing so close.

“It’s nothing, Phillip. I’m just glad you’re okay. Thanks again for your help. And yeah, I’ll see you around.” Teresa injected a hint of happiness into her voice, but it was forced.

He’d heard her happiness, and it sounded very different from the way she sounded right now.

Together, they turned back to Teresa’s apartment.

Angelo took the keys, aware Phillip hadn’t entered his own home. Hadn’t closed his door. The neighbor remained watching, as though he was waiting for something to happen.

He didn’t like that at all and glanced over his shoulder, glaring at the man.

Phillip just smirked before closing the door with a quiet click.

“Angelo?”

He looked at the woman in his arms, seeing the question in her eyes. “I don’t trust him,” he said quietly, suspecting Phillip was standing by his door, hoping to hear anything either one of them might say. He ushered Teresa into her apartment and closed the door.

“He was giving off strange vibes, wasn’t he?” Teresa said as she dumped her purse on the table by the door.

He wasn’t surprised Teresa had picked up on Phillip’s weirdness. She was an investigative journalist, after all. She’d worked numerous undercover jobs. Over the years, she had to have picked up a few tricks on interpreting how people were acting. When they were lying or telling the truth.

“He was. Let’s get you packed and get out of here.” Angelo glanced around, not seeing anything out of place. Everything looked the same as it had when he and Growler had walked out hours ago.

“I won’t be long.” Teresa disappeared into her bedroom and he wanted to follow, to make sure nothing happened to her, but he stayed where he was.

Another scan of the room wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Methodically, Angelo picked up items and replaced them, pleased when he didn’t find any bugs in hiding. He hadn’t expected to. The people wanting to listen to Teresa, whoever they were, weren’t novices.

Or maybe they were, considering the amount of devices they’d found, but he didn’t think they’d come and replace everything immediately. They’d give it a couple of days, a week at most, before they set foot in this space.

They could do whatever they wanted because all they would be hearing would be silence. If he had his way, Teresa would not be returning to this apartment ever again.