Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

TATE

P ulling Lily with me, I force our way through the crowd of waiting fans– who are all calling out their congratulations– to where my car is parked. Opening the door, I practically push her inside the back seat ahead of me.

She glares at me as she slides across the seat, and I can see she’s about to speak.

‘I know, I know you’re supposed to be in charge here,’ I tell her. ‘But from a purely practical perspective, I’m bigger than you.’

She pinches her mouth. ‘True,’ she concedes, ‘but I don’t have to like it.’

The car pulls away and Lily closes the glass window between us and the driver.

‘We need to agree some ground rules,’ she says. ‘About kissing and PDAs.’

‘Right,’ I say. And even though I’m still smarting from her rejection, her primness amuses me.

‘I’m serious. There need to be boundaries.’

‘I agree,’ I say, and lean back, folding my arms, prepared to be entertained. ‘You’re in the driving seat.’

I let my gaze rest on her lips, which are pouty with irritation, and she narrows her eyes. ‘No kissing on the lips,’ she says.

‘Okay.’ I say with a nod. ‘I think I’ve got that one.’ She made it pretty damn clear back there, after all.

‘And no kissing… you know, anywhere sexual.’

‘Such as?’ I quirk an eyebrow at her.

‘Funny,’ she says, her jaw tightening. ‘Just stick to pecks on the cheek.’

‘What about touching?’ I ask, starting to enjoy myself. ‘Can I put my arm around you? Hold your hand? Touch you in the small of your back?’ I immediately think of that silky red dress she wore, the way it dipped to reveal the long, smooth, sexy line of her back.

‘Try and think about what normal couples do in public,’ she says with a snap.

‘I’m guessing not Kourtney and Travis, then,’ I suggest.

‘Think more William and Kate,’ she says.

I wince. ‘Lily, I have a reputation to uphold.’

‘Just do what you would normally do with a girlfriend, then,’ she snaps, then adds, ‘in public.’

* * *

The car drives into the underground car park below my apartment block. I thank the driver, who is a little put out that we insisted on taking the luggage up ourselves, and open up the trunk to take out Lily’s cases. As of today, she’s moving in with me.

God help me. It feels like temptation is being waved in my face with her tantalising scent, the softness of her skin a mere touch away, the silkiness of her hair waving around her delicate face. I need some me-time or a very long, cold shower.

I use my code to programme the lift and we stand in silence, side by side, as it ascends. I study her in the mirrored wall. Today she looks drop-dead gorgeous in a dress that subtly highlights her narrow frame, elegant limbs and pert breasts. Everything is covered up in a way that makes me want to unwrap her like a special gift I’ve been looking forward to forever. The lift takes its sweet time reaching the top floor.

Eventually, we land on the top floor and the doors open. In another life, I’d sweep her into my arms and carry her straight to bed. Unfortunately, this life has other ideas.

Lily shoots an arm out in front of me, barring my way.

‘What the—?’ I bat her arm away, then see what’s down the hallway.

My front door is covered in red paint. Someone has daubed a message on the white wall of the corridor in big red letters.

I’M WATCHING YOU, DONAGHUE

What the fuck?

The paint has dripped down the walls like blood, which strikes me as a ridiculous third-rate movie cliché. But somehow, I know the intent is serious.

‘Tate, stop.’ Lily steps right in front of me. ‘Let me handle this.’

She’s taking no prisoners. Her face is set and severe. She means business.

I watch as she opens the fancy purse she’s been toting all morning and takes out a gun. I’m shocked at how smoothly she handles it, as if it’s an extension of her body. It seems so at odds with the carefree girl I knew, and I look at her with fresh eyes.

‘Wait here,’ she says.

‘No fucking way,’ I whisper.

‘Just stay here.’

‘No.’

She huffs out an irritated sigh. ‘Stay behind me, then.’

She approaches the door slowly, having kicked off her shoes outside the elevator, and moves with sinuous, silent grace. They’ve made a mess of my door, the red gloss paint has dried in tacky furrows and there are spatters of paint all over the carpet.

The door is still closed, which is some relief, but someone has clearly tried to get in, there are gashes in the paintwork around the lock.

Lily is already looking up, studying the security camera, the lens of which is coated in a layer of red paint, as is the one by the elevator and the door to the fire escape, I notice.

‘Give me your key.’ Lily holds out her palm.

‘No,’ I say, and side-stepping the paint on the floor, I insert my key in the lock.

‘Tate!’ She grabs my hand. ‘Wait.’

‘Seriously. This is the work of dumb kid.’ I’m angry at the damage to my home. FFS.

‘A dumb kid who managed to bypass the security and get this far?’ Lily’s expression is stony. ‘You don’t know they haven’t got into your apartment. Or that they’re not lying in wait.’ She lets out a long breath. ‘Now. Please move out of the way.’

She pushes me to one side, then crouches down beside the door. It’s still locked.

She holds out her hand and I give her the key, watching as she inches the door open, her gun at the ready. She peers around it and then carefully rises to her feet. Light streams in from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living area through the double doors on the right.

It takes a good five minutes before Lily’s satisfied that this floor is clear. Then she mounts the open staircase up to the next level.

I walk into the kitchen and switch on my fancy-ass coffee maker, which has taken me six months to master but it’s worth it. I make myself a coffee and pour in some creamer. I’m tempted to yell up the stairs and ask Lily if she’d like one, too, but decide to let her carry on doing her job. Something tells me she wouldn’t take kindly to her focus being diverted, and this is what she’s being paid for, right?

I make myself useful by getting on to the maintenance team to sort out the door, and then, while I’m sipping a second coffee, Nancy Drew returns with a perturbed look on her face.

‘Find anything?’ I ask.

‘No, ‘she says.

‘Want a coffee?’

‘Yes please.’ She frowns. ‘It’s worrying that they got to your floor.’

‘But they didn’t get in.’

Her mouth purses. ‘Do you have a number for the building’s security?’

Over coffee, she goes into command mode, phoning her boss, Winston, and the building’s security asking if they can review the feeds and share them with her. I leave her to it and head up to my home gym to work out a few kinks, amongst other things.

* * *

I’m sweating, my biceps straining under the weight they’re bearing, and I feel like shit. The team doc was right, it’s going to take a couple of days to get over the anaphylactic shock and ensuing chemical blast, but I’m not giving up yet. I’ve got a game to prepare for. The biggest of my life. Dogged determination has got me this far, and I’m no quitter. Unfortunately, there’s a car due in half an hour to take me to training. I thought I’d be okay with a bit of strength conditioning beforehand.

‘So, this is where you’re hiding.’ Lily walks in carrying a glass of water. Barefoot, and now dressed in jeans and an oversized sweater, which has slipped off her shoulder. She looks completely at home already.

Grateful for the interruption, although I’m not going to show it, I put down the weight and turn round to face her, pleased to note that she’s not unaffected by the sight of my toned chest and abs, judging by her eyes zoning in on that part of my body.

‘I’m not hiding, I live here,’ I say, stretching my arms above my head. ‘Found the perp yet, Agent Heath?’

‘Very funny.’

She sits down on the bench opposite me and I feel duty-bound to pick up another weight and start a bicep curl, even though I’ve already done reps on this side.

‘I’ve reviewed the security footage,’ she says, little furrows forming in her forehead making her look like an earnest schoolteacher.

‘And what conclusions have you come to?’ I continue flexing my muscles, amused by her surreptitious glances their way.

‘That whoever did this, knew their way around the building. They knew where all the cameras were, the weak spots. They used a selfie stick to paint out the cameras so that they couldn’t be seen. They knew the code to the lift. Just like they knew that you were at the stadium yesterday. You weren’t scheduled to be. This is someone close to you, related to the team in some way. Someone you know.’

I lay down the weight, careful and deliberate and give her an icy look. ‘Don’t go making trouble where there is none. The team is tight. You’re wrong.’

She sighs. ‘I know you don’t like hearing this, and you have a loyalty to the team, but I have to consider the balance of probabilities.’

I glare at her. I refuse to think about it. ‘My focus is on preparing for the game.’

‘I know, and I’ll do my best to make sure any security detail doesn’t interfere with that.’ She gives me a half-smile. ‘I hope it’s okay, but I’ve taken the guest room on the second floor.’

‘Sure, sleep where you like. You always could.’ The words slip out before I can stop them. It’s getting harder and harder not to refer to the past. She was like a cat back then, able to sleep anywhere, anytime, especially in my single bed when there really wasn’t much room. She’d curl around me in whatever limited available space there was.

‘I never did tell you why I slept so well with you or why I couldn’t watch the Harry Potter film,’ she suddenly says, reading my mind. She links her hands together over her knees.

‘No, you didn’t.’ We’d settled down to watch the movie one rainy afternoon, then Lily left to go to the bathroom and didn’t come back.

‘Occasionally, my dad had me sleep in a cupboard, or a treehouse, or a tent. Part of the self-sufficiency training. His view was that sleep was valuable in self-survival. If you can sleep anywhere, you can face anything the next day– because you never know what life will throw at you. He was referring to my mum leaving. Teaching me to be resilient. Prepared for the worst. Which is why I never knew when I might be woken.’ She pauses and looks at me, with a sad smile. ‘Sleeping with you always made me feel safe and I always knew what the day would bring, until the day it didn’t. And I’ve no idea why I’m telling you this now.’ She stands up and brushes down her jeans.

‘Wait—’ I say, but I’m interrupted by the sharp buzz of the front doorbell.

Lily and I exchange a glance.

No one is supposed to come up here without the front desk phoning up first.