“You have to go back and take care of him!”
“No f**king chance. I’m with you every step of the way until Carlson is dead or behind bars. You’re not getting more than five feet from me. No negotiations, no arguments. If you don’t like it, Jack and Deke will be happy to help me keep you locked down in Lafayette while I put Carlson away myself. Your choice.”
“I’m going! You have no right to take over or make decisions for me,” she hissed.
“I’m making it my right.”
Del didn’t dare ask what that meant. It sounded possessive. Her belly flipped. “You don’t get to do that! I’m a grown woman and—”
“Who almost got herself killed not five minutes ago. You’re out of your element and in over your head. If you insist on coming with me, this is where I take over. You stand a much better chance surviving to raise Seth if you let me help you.”
Tyler’s words sank in. Del couldn’t deny that he was right. It bugged the hell out of her, but she’d be stupid to insist that she had this under control. Clearly, Carlson’s reach was farther and his methods more ruthless than she’d imagined.
Still . . . “This can’t be your fight. What if Carlson kills us both? Then Seth has no parents.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
What a male thing to say. “Is that you being arrogant or trying to make me feel better?”
Wrapping his arm around her waist, Tyler brought her even closer as he led her toward his truck. “It’s the truth.”
“Wait! My car is this way.” She pointed across the garage in the opposite direction.
“Exactly.” With another tug, he dragged her away from her neighbor’s old compact.
A part of her was infuriated—at both him and herself for allowing it. Another part was simply relieved.
“What happened to the two goons?”
“I hit the one with the dark hair in the back of the head with a luggage cart. I tased the other and sat him on a nearby chair so that he looks asleep. I have their weapons tucked in my waistband.”
He’d done all that by himself, without wasting a second or raising a ruckus?
Eric had always called Tyler a bad ass when they’d been partners, but he’d never been anything but teasing and kind with her. Del felt like she was seeing a whole new side of her son’s father.
“How long do you think we have?”
“Before Carlson sends more ass**les after you? Thirty minutes, tops. We’ve got to get on the road ASAP.”
“On the road?”
“I’m driving you to L.A. We’re going to put Carlson down together.”
Del opened her mouth to object . . . but didn’t have any new excuses to give him. Seth wouldn’t be safe with them, and she had to believe that he was in capable hands. She’d be safer with Tyler by her side while she regathered her evidence, wrote her article, and put Carlson down.
The thing she feared for most now? Her heart.
Tyler shoved Del into his truck and down to the floorboard. She glared at him with confusion before he thrust a khaki green blanket at her. “Cover up. Security cameras are swarming. They’ll catch us walking together in the parking garage. I parked in a very dark corner, so there’s a chance they won’t be able to see if you got in the truck. It has to look like you’re not with me when we leave the airport.”
He was right. With a nod, she crouched down and covered herself, thankful when he turned on the air-conditioning. The sun’s zenith might be hours away, but the stifling Louisiana humidity was nothing this California girl had ever felt.
“Sorry,” he grunted. Then he set a backpack on top of her.
It wasn’t the lightest thing, but it wouldn’t take long to get out of the airport. The extra cover would be more convincing for the cameras.
“It’s fine.”
The first few minutes were nerve-racking. A million thoughts raced through her head in the silence. Every bump in the road was magnified on the floorboard, as was the purr of the engine. Moments later, his phone rang.