Page 86 of Tempt

At all.

“Something, Joe. You’ve got to give me something before I lose my damn mind. Is he alive?”

Joe swallowed, looking uncharacteristically nervous.

Well damn, I was actually getting through to him. Maybe there was hope of melting his icy heart after all.

“All I can say is that we haveallbeen working ‘round the clock.”

I felt a little pang of guilt for everyone involved in this. Joe was stuck with me. Day and night. The only time he ever left me was after I was settled in at work. That was when Seth relieved him for five hours. Inside the iON Building I was safer than anywhere else and it gave Joe time to eat, shower, and get a little sleep before he was back at my side to take me home.

“How much longer is this going to take?” It had already been four days.

Joe took a deep breath and settled into his wide stance, crossing his arms so that I could see his gun strapped under his blazer. It was so strange to see a gun on him. Or anyone for that matter. We certainly weren’t in Texas. The cops here didn’t even carry guns and Joe shouldn’t be armed…but he was.

“It takes time to do things right.” Was all he said.

“You’re torturing them.”

His frown deepened. “We must be sure that all avenues are properly closed.”

What did that even mean? Bank accounts? Contacts? Body parts? “So you’re torturing them while you do all that other stuff?”

His lips thinned into a line. “I have been in this life for a long, long time and trust me, Miss Riley,” his voice was firm and dark, “you want this done right.”

“What life is that?”

He didn’t miss a beat. “The one most people like you don’t even realize runs just below the surface.”

I cracked my neck—and I never cracked my neck. “Can you at least get him a message?”

He shook his head. “No, I can’t.”

I don’t know what came over me. Probably explosive frustration, which was totally understandable given the circumstances. I picked up my water glass and threw it at the wall, watching it shatter into a thousand pieces of glass and splattering the last of my water across the wall.

How could Theo do this? How could he leave me without any word? Not knowing if he was okay? Yes, we’d torn each other to emotional shreds, but this? This was a torture I never imagined living.

Joe shook his head. “Feel better?”

“Not really.”

“I can tell you this,” he said much more gently than he’d been speaking a moment ago. “If he were hurt or…”

“Dead?” My heart stopped for a moment. Even thinking about it made me want to cry.

Joe nodded. “If he were hurt or dead, you would be the first one to know.”

I sat back down. All the blood was draining south until I was lightheaded. “When did he give that instruction?” It had to be an old one, a leftover from before I tore out his heart and insisted I didn’t love him.

“At my check-in two nights ago.”

Oh...“What did he say, exactly?” It was like the lightest of ghostly touches from a man so far away. I was going to hang on to every word, every tone change, like a scrap of food.

“He said that if anything were to happen, that we were to inform you first.”

So few words, but they meant so much.

“He’s getting pulled back in. He won’t be the same after this, will he?” I looked up at Joe, pleading for an answer. I was so sick of feeling alone and adrift in all of this.