Scarlett Red: A Billionaire SEAL Story, Part 2 (In the Shadows) (25 page)

The single gunshot deafens me, and I feel the bullet whiz past my cheek before it slams Tommy back into the stack of boats behind us.

Sebastian hauls me into his arms before Tommy even hits the floor. “Fuck, that was close,” he whispers harshly against my temple.

As I stare at Tommy’s unmoving body, I know he’s dead. Sebastian’s sniper skills assured that. “Are you talking about the bullet that came with an inch of my face or the fact I almost died?” I ask in a shaky voice, lifting my hand to the belt around my neck.

Sebastian slides the belt off for me, then turns my face toward his, his voice a rough rasp. “I’m talking about how close I came to losing you. I’m sorry, Talia. For everything.”

Knowing we still need to talk, I nod. “How did you know where to find us?”

He snorts and shakes his head. “Your shrewd mind helped me piece it together, while your stubbornness saved your life.”

When I raise my eyebrows, he nods. “It’s true. If you hadn’t left your phone behind in my room, I wouldn’t have known where to start looking. Your phone had all the info I needed to connect Cynthia to Tommy.”

“It did? But
I
didn’t connect Cynthia to Tommy. How did you?”

“Your notes on Tommy’s folder, the background picture of that fan club event on your phone, and Cynthia’s text and selfie with you was all I needed to head toward the beach, where thankfully the impending storm hadn’t fully erased your tracks leading here.”

“Okay, so that’s how you found us.” But when I pause and eye him skeptically, he shrugs.

“I did have some great facial recognition software that plots the entire face. Tommy making himself a geek girl in your club was ingenious. The long straight black hair and glasses definitely threw me off, but he didn’t change the structure of his face. The software saw past his disguise. And if he played a woman once before, he could’ve done it again. That’s how I matched his face to Cynthia’s.”

I stare at him, a bit awed that he figured it out. “But I still don’t see how you even thought to check the photo on my phone?”

He flashes a confident smile. “Where had Tommy worked at Columbia? Do you remember?”

“He worked in the main office and the theater department.” I let out a half-laugh. “The theater…that must be how he learned to disguise himself so well.”

“If you hadn’t highlighted his employment at Columbia in your notes, I might not have looked twice at his background there.”

I grimace. “It turns out you were right about our cases crossing too.”

“They did connect?”

Nodding, I tell him how Tommy was involved in the drug ring I stopped back in college.

Sebastian rolls his shoulders. “I thought it was crazy that the two cases could be connected, but the overlaps just felt too coincidental.”

“Tommy had to have been the redhead who paid Hank to buy that Hawthorne voucher.” Sighing, I blow out a relieved breath. “At least it’s over.”

“Not quite.” Sebastian sighs. “We still have to go over all this with Simon and the police. Are you ready?”

When I nod, he pulls my phone from his jean pocket and dials.

A
fter a whole day spent at the police station, including a quick dinner of pizza while signing tons of paperwork, I’m exhausted by the time Sebastian and I reach the resort.

“I feel like I could sleep for a week,” I say as I lean against the elevator wall and close my eyes. “At least I don’t have to be back until later tomorrow night. I can sleep in.”

Sebastian grunts and pushes the elevator buttons. When the bell pings, I open my eyes and frown when I see we’re on Sebastian’s floor. “I’m on five.”

“Why don’t you stay in my room? You can take a shower and go to bed early if you want.”

I tilt my head. “I can do that in my own room.”

“Do you really want to be alone tonight?”

No, I don’t, but I also don’t have the brainpower for a battle of wits with you either.
“I’m all questioned out right now.”

Just as I lean over to push the button for my floor, Sebastian captures my hand, his eyes searching mine. “Do it for me, Talia. I almost lost you today.”

The concern in his voice melts my heart, so I nod and follow him to his room. Once we walk in, I say, “I’m grabbing a hot shower to wash off all the sand.”

When I start to move away, Sebastian’s fingers lace with mine. Rubbing his thumb over mine, he says softly, “What made you angrier? The fact that I invaded your privacy, or that I didn’t do anything with the information?”

“Both made me equally mad.”

His gaze searches mine. “I only bugged your phone to know where you were at all times. I wasn’t taking a chance that I might’ve missed something and you were still in danger.”

“You should’ve told me.”

His mouth presses in a stubborn line. “I don’t regret the time we had together without the case getting in the way, Talia.”

The emotion reflected in his voice softens my anger. I don’t either. And if he hadn’t bugged my phone, I never would’ve been pissed enough to leave it in his room in the first place, and I’d be dead, so his instincts weren’t off. When I nod and he starts to smile, I add, “Just don’t ever do that again.”

I move to pull away, but he holds fast. “What did I say to you when you wouldn’t tell me your name that night at the party? Do you remember?”

“I remember you chose my body over my name,” I say, smirking.

His expression hardens. Releasing me, he walks toward the desk, saying over his shoulder, “While you’re in the shower, try to remember.”

I take an extra long shower, doing everything I can to scrub the experience with Tommy from my mind and body.

While I blow-dry my hair, my gaze locks on the pearls for the hundredth time since I walked in the bathroom. Sebastian had returned them to the hand towel where he’d found them this morning and apparently hadn’t touched them since.

The answer to Sebastian’s question pops into my head as I’m finger-combing my hair into a tousled style.

Sliding back into my underwear, tank-top, and shorts, I open the door and step out of the steamy bathroom, saying, “I remember—” But I cut myself off when I see him sitting on the end of his bed, elbows on his knees, his watch dangling between his fingers. I step closer and touch his bent head. “Is everything okay?”

Sebastian sets the watch on the bed and stands to cup my jaw, his blue eyes tracing my face like he’s seeing it for the first time. “That was you that night eleven years ago?”

My attention snags on the white box and my note sitting on the desk next to the open brown box. He said it was stuff from his sister. Guess she finally found the box and sent it. Blinking back tears, I nod. “I was telling you the truth the night of the party. I was Red.”

“I
knew
you recognized me.” He shakes his head, frustration flickering as his thumbs trace my cheekbones. “Why didn’t you tell me we’d met before?”

I clasp his wrists, my heart racing. “For obvious reasons, I don’t talk about my past.”

Frustration reflects in his eyes, then his tone softens as he trails his knuckles over my cheek. “That’s where ‘rainbow’ came from, isn’t it?”

My face flushes, full of heat. “It’s the first word that popped into my mind. I’m glad you finally got your watch, Sebastian. At least now you know your father really did care and was proud of you. I wanted you to have it back as soon as possible, so you could start working on mending things with him. I guess three years late is better than never.”

He snorts. “I never went back to the Hamptons house. And giving something to Mina for safekeeping…let’s just say you haven’t seen her room when life is going well. I’m surprised she can find herself in there.”

“Why didn’t you do anything with the information your investigator collected on me?”

He releases me, his hands falling to his sides. “I just wanted to know you were okay. Don’t look at me like that. You didn’t meet me at the coffee house. Nor did you try to find me.”

“I knew you weren’t going to hang around.” When he frowns at me, I smile and place my hand on his chest. “But I’m glad to know I was wrong about you. You’re definitely someone I can depend on.”

Sebastian visibly stiffens. “I’m not that person, Talia. I’m a lot of things: a protector, a defender, I’m fair and bluntly honest, and yeah, I’m fucking good in bed, but I’m not always going to be there.”

I step back, his words hitting me hard. Every man in my life has abandoned me in some way or another. Sebastian isn’t like any of them. “I know different.”

He shakes his head, his jaw tightening. “No, you don’t.”

Why does he seem angry? “Yes, I do. At least you used to be someone to depend on,” I say, glancing at the end of the bed.

He frowns and points to the watch. “Are you talking about that? Slipping that watch in your pocket back then was a reckless, youthful mistake. One I can never take back.”

Mistake? He read the note I wrote. How can he not know how much his words hurt me?
“You know what, I’m suddenly very tired.” I pivot and head for the door.

Just as I start to grab my purse, he turns me around, his hands on my shoulders. “Where are you going?”

“I’m all talked out for the night.”

His brows pull down. “We’re not done talking.”

I raise my chin, my heart pounding from anger, and hurt, and other emotions I don’t want to think about. “I think we’ve said enough
.
”

His expression hardens and his fingers tighten on my shoulders. “You’re right. Let’s do what we do best.” Before I can respond, he jerks me close and plants a searing kiss on me that sends a jolt of molten desire firing through my body.

Just when my hands uncurl by my sides, he sets me back against the door and flattens his palms against the wood on either side of me. “I’m going to give you one chance to walk out this door.” His piercing hunter’s gaze slides over my face, down my throat and then back up. “Know this, if you stay, I’m not holding back. You’d better be damn sure before you use your safe word. There’ll be no crying wolf. Not tonight.” He inhales next to my neck, a low, primal groan vibrating deep in his throat. “Punishment will be torturous.”

I’ve never seen such an intensely hungry look in his eyes before. My body wants him with a fierceness that scares me, but my mind is rebelling, telling me to leave before he fully captures the one thing I can’t protect from him, my heart.

As if he knows I’m waging an internal battle and half out the door already, Sebastian kisses me just behind my ear. “We’re fucking fantastic together.” His lips make my skin prickle while his deep voice slides hotly through my veins like a smooth top shelf whisky. “That’s one thing you can’t ignore or debate or talk yourself out of. What we have is a primal connection. Give us free rein and let it burn.”

Maybe he’s right. If I let whatever this is ignite between us tonight, maybe it’ll be like a comet, burning hard and fast, but will fizzle out. At least then, I’ll no longer feel this strong gravitational pull to his forceful nature.

Sebastian slides his hands away from the door and takes a step back, waiting.

My breathing ramps as I match his steady regard, but can I really stay with him another night? This sexy man, with his black hair, arresting blue eyes, and sinful smile, makes my heart thunder like it’s trying to break out of my chest. Will tonight change us?