“Kyo and Marcus are at the east gate.” Tyler stepped closer. “They’ll get you home, but you better hurry before the announcement is blasted through all the speakers.”
Dot and Charlie hurried away, and Tyler finally held a hand out to me, his warm gray eyes full of an emotion I couldn’t nail down.
I rushed to him, fully intending to wrap myself around him and never let go, but he took my hand firmly in his and set a fast pace toward the admin building, the four agents closing in around us.
Twenty-Two
I gripped Tyler’s hand and struggled to keep up, but we reached the brightly lit lobby in no time.
Stacey was behind the reception counter, looking harried as Bradford Hills staff and Melior Group staff rushed around. She saw us but kept speaking to the man beside her.
Tyler bypassed the elevators and ushered me into a small meeting room. He slammed the door shut with his foot and finally pulled me into his arms.
As the announcement that the campus was on lockdown reverberated through every speaker on site, Tyler held me close. I buried my face in his neck, curling my arms around his waist and holding tightly to the fabric of his shirt. An arm around my back almost crushed me, and another pressed against the back of my head.
His heartbeat was erratic, a staccato rhythm hammering under my cheek, and his labored breaths fanned over my hair.
We didn’t speak. We just held each other. He was my anchor—something to keep me tethered to this world, to keep away the panic once again clawing at my throat.
I focused on his firm grip, his warm breath, the texture of his cotton shirt in my fists. But I didn’t close my eyes. If I closed my eyes, I would start to relive it, along with all the other things that resided in that festering, fucked-up, traumatized part of my brain.
The branches restraining me, making it hard to breathe.
The blood pooling around Alec’s still body.
The steel bars of a cage in a basement.
Beth getting knocked off her feet.
My mother’s stunned face as her hand slipped out of mine.
I had to keep my eyes open, keep my focus on the here and now. Or I’d completely fall apart.
After a few minutes, or maybe it was days, Tyler’s heart rate began to slow down, his breathing became more measured. My own inhalations and exhalations matched up to his instinctually.
“Nowhere is safe, is it?” My voice was flat—just stating a fact, even if I posed it as a question.
He loosened his grip and leaned back. His eyes searched mine as his mouth opened, then snapped shut again. Finally he sighed and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
Tyler couldn’t lie to me—not anymore—and there was nothing else to say.
The sound of the door opening made us pull apart, and then I was crushed to another broad, strong chest.
Alec lifted me clear off the ground, both arms around my middle and his face buried in my neck.
I returned the embrace. It felt good to have him holding me up—both physically and metaphorically. His strength made me feel stronger.
The sound of a female voice made me lift my head. Stacey had followed Alec into the room and was speaking with Tyler in hushed tones, their heads bent together. A Bradford Hills Institute staffer and another Melior Group operative joined us too. The black-clad woman closed the door behind her.
Suddenly, I didn’t want to be held off the ground like a child anymore. I wanted to stand on my own two adult feet.
I gave Alec a squeeze and pulled back. Instead of setting me down, he lifted his face and mashed his lips to mine. The kiss was desperate—full of the fear and frustration I was feeling myself. Alec didn’t give a shit that we had an audience. He needed to feel me, safe and warm in his arms, needed to reassure himself that I was OK.
I held the back of his head, feeling the demanding strokes of his tongue and the prickles of his buzzed hair under my palm.
Tyler cleared his throat loudly, and we pulled apart. Alec’s ice-blue eyes stared me down, searching, but I looked away.
“Faculty and students have all been informed of the lockdown. The protocols are being put into place,” the Bradford Hills staffer informed the room as Alec slowly lowered me to the ground.
“All the gates are secured,” the woman in black reported, “and we have extra men in place along