He was back in Chicago, and he didn’t seem to be hiding.
I leaned back in my chair, my hands sweating, my heart hammering. This was what I’d been dreaming about for days. There he was, back out in the open, and suddenly I was afraid.
I was never afraid. I got nervous and worried, but never actually afraid. Now, suddenly, I was afraid of Wyatt, or at least afraid of how he was going to respond to me.
He had every right to tell me to go fuck myself. At the time, in the heat of the moment, it made perfect sense to me that he was the traitor and that he had sold us out.
But as time passed and I really thought about it, that couldn’t be right. Wyatt hadn’t sought me out. I went to him. And he didn’t want to get involved with me, I had to convince him.
Most importantly, he knew where the safe house was before the trap. If he really was the traitor and he wanted to destroy us, he could have given my father my location as soon as he found out about it. He could have destroyed us instead of injuring us.
Wyatt hadn’t turned on us. I had listened to Kasia and fear against my own rational judgment, and I put his life in jeopardy because of it. My father now knew that Wyatt was working with me, and I was sure that he had sent men to kill him.
Still, the fact that Wyatt was back in the city said a lot to me. I didn’t know what he was doing, but he must have made some kind of deal for his life. Maybe I was in danger after all.
I took a sharp breath. No, I couldn’t think that way. That was the old way of thinking, the paranoid way that had gotten me into this trouble to begin with.
I took over his computer. The cursor blinked. I could picture him sitting there in his suit, frowning at his computer, waiting for me to type.
Instead, he started.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
I bit my lip, smiling. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay. Despite your father.”
“I’m sorry, Wyatt. I made a mistake.”
There was a long pause. “I know,” he said finally.
“Come meet me.”
“Where?”
“There’s a safe house we’re working on. It’s not ready yet.”
“When?”
“Now.”
Another pause, this time shorter.
“Okay,” he said. “Send me the address.”
I typed it and hit enter. When I was done, I released his computer and stood. I shut down my work station, threw some clothes on, and ran out the door.
I didn’t know if this was stupid or a great idea. I didn’t know if I was putting myself in serious danger or if I was finally doing what I really wanted to do, what I knew was right.
The only thing I knew for sure was that I had to take a chance. I had to at least try. I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t give myself this opportunity to make things right.
The safe house was at the edge of town in a rundown neighborhood. The outside looked like it was just another abandoned building, but inside was pretty nice. Some of the girls had been working hard on rehabbing it, and so far it was coming out beautiful. There was enough room for at least ten people, plus a nice little panic room and armory in the basement.
I got there before Wyatt. I leaned up against a wall in the mostly-empty living room and stared at all the building materials and power tools that had been left behind.
I knew I should probably feel worried, but I really felt nothing but excited. I was finally going to get to see Wyatt again, although I never thought I would. Part of me believed that he was going to disappear from my life forever, all because I was stupid enough to send him away.
But I should have known better than that. Wyatt wasn’t that kind of man. He was smart to get out of the city and to lay low, but he was back now. He wasn’t going to just turn tail and run away. Wyatt wasn’t that kind of man.
After ten minutes, I heard his steps on the front stoop. He paused out front, almost as if thinking about something, and then finally knocked softly.
“Come in,” I called out.
He opened the door and stepped in, closing it behind him.
I stared at him for a second. Wyatt smiled at me, that cocky, brash smile of his. He was so damn handsome. I’d almost forgotten about his bright eyes, his clean jaw, his slight stubble, and his muscular body. I’d almost forgotten how he looked like he could break me in half, and that made me more excited than I wanted to admit.
“I’m surprised you wanted to see me,” he said.
“I don’t think I was fair to you.”
“No.” He stepped inside, looking around. “Looks like you’re still working on this place.”
“We’re opening a few new places.”
“A lot of new recruits?”
I shook my head. “Not really. But we’re working on that.”