“How do you know my real name?” he finally asked, breaking the silence. “I kept that hidden. Don’t like it.”
“Background check,” I said simply.
He snorted. I took another sip of my coffee. “Finally caved and got curious?”
I shrugged one shoulder in answer. I had but that was because I needed something on him besides Preston, who I really didn’t want to ever use against him again, especially now that I cared so much for the young man, too.
He shook his head, then pushed up from the couch. “Just don’t use my name again, yeah?”
I studied him for a moment, taking in the tense set of his shoulders. Nothing else gave away that his name screwed with him. Instead of pushing his boundaries like he tended to push mine, I just dipped my chin. “Understood.” He turned to look at me in surprise. “See how I’m respecting your boundaries, X? You should try the same.”
Rolling his eyes, he snorted and leaned down, bringing our faces mere inches apart. “And miss out on the way it twists you all around and has you caving to us and what we want more and more, Ghost? No fucking way.”
With that, he straightened and turned, heading for his bedroom. Preston hadn’t emerged since we brought him home, and X told me he was just resting and not to worry about him too much. Said it wasn’t often he had panic attacks, but when he did, they just took everything out of him. Made sense considering all the stress he’d been under because of this asshole who was going after X. X and I could handle this kind of shit, but Preston was sweet and warm. Innocent. He healed people, for fuck’s sake. And now, solely because he loved a sociopath, he was being targeted by a murderer.
“Goodnight,” I called.
X glanced at me over his shoulder. “Goodnight, Ghost.” And with that, he disappeared down the hall, leaving me alone once more.
I glanced at my phone, then toward their bedroom. I’d give it time, then I was leaving. I’d gotten a ping earlier from my contact who had gotten out around the same time I did, letting me know he’d tracked a burner phone this person might be using. And I planned to go check it out.
If I could get my hands on them tonight, too, I’d do that for fucking sure. Solve the problem, keeping Preston and X safe without this asshole ever touching either of them. They’d already been too close to Preston for my fucking tastes, and they’d disrupted his life.
And to keep X from doing something stupid and reckless, I needed to take care of this on my own. Because X wouldn’t watch his back, keep a level head on his shoulders, and make sure he wasn’t caught when taking this person out. His overprotectiveness of Preston would be his driving force, and that was dangerous in a situation like this when there were no government employees at his fingertips to make any incriminating evidence disappear.
I finished off my coffee, then took the mug to the kitchen. After rinsing it out, I stuck it in the dishwasher, then turned off all the lights on my way back to the couch. I laid back and got comfortable. X would sense me leaving if I left too soon, so I had a while before I could slip out. So, I’d catch a couple hours of shut eye, and then, I’d attempt to find this mother fucker and show him what happened when they fucked with what was mine.
And Preston and X? They one-hundred percent belonged to me. They’d created this protective monster, and now, they—and the rest of the world—had to deal with it.
Chapter 16
Preston
X was passed out beside me on his back, one arm tucked beneath his head, the other draped over his abs. The blanket had been mostly kicked off, revealing his black, silky boxer briefs, which meant he’d gotten hot at some point and had rolled away from me to cool off. It was a nightly occurrence. X got hot easily, but he always eventually rolled back over and curled his body back around mine. As if he were afraid I’d somehow disappear in the middle of the night and he’d never find me again.
I was low-key obsessed with how possessive he was of me. I should’ve seen it as a red flag, and I definitely should not have been enabling his behavior, but sue me. I loved being wanted. And X? He wanted me like it was a visceral need.
Easing out of bed, I padded barefoot to the bedroom door and eased it open so I wouldn’t wake X, then headed toward the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. Like it was second nature, my eyes trailed to the couch so I could take Shane in when he was at his most relaxed?—
He wasn’t there.
I came to an abrupt halt, a frown tugging at my lips. The blanket he normally used was folded and laying exactly where I’d put it a few hours ago before crawling into bed the rest of the day and sleeping. A glance at the side table, where he usually kept his phone, showed it was also missing, the cord rolled up and sitting exactly where he’d left it before heading into work the day before.
A glance at the clock on the wall, which I’d only ever truly used for decoration before, showed it was after two in the morning.
Had he… left? But if he truly left—like left-left—I didn’t think he was the type to leave his phone cord behind. Shane wasn’t irresponsible like that. So, where the fuck was he, and what the fuck would need his attention at two in the goddamn morning?
Had he found something out about whoever was after X and me and gone to take care of it by himself? That seemed the most likely scenario, and it had my stomach twisting uncomfortably with worry and concern. Nausea rose up my esophagus. What if something happened to him? How were we meant to find him? And if something happened to him and he went missing too—just disappeared like the tech guy X had always used—how would we ever be meant to find him?
Sure, we could call the police, but then, that brought on a slew of other questions—questions that would be difficult to answer without sending my boyfriend to prison for illegal underground fighting, gambling—from betting on fights—and keeping information from law enforcement about literal fugitives—his tech guy having been one of them.
“Preston?” X’s sleep-coated voice jerked me out of my thoughts. I spun around to face him. He was standing right behind me, his brows furrowed low over his dark eyes. “What are you doing up, baby?”
“I wanted water, but Shane is gone.”
X frowned, then peered around me to the couch. He clenched his jaw for a moment, then forced it to loosen. Sighing, he gripped the back of my neck and pulled me into him. His other arm circled around my back, pressing me tight against his hard, muscular body. I burrowed my face in the curve of his neck, inhaling his scent—something woodsy and earthy, just like always—and let it settle me some and rid me of the nausea damn near choking me.
“Whatever he’s doing and wherever he’s at, baby, I know he’s okay, you hear me?” X massaged the muscles in the back of my neck, and I barely bit back a groan because why did that feel so good? “Shane is smart, and he’s safe. He’s not reckless—not like me.” I snorted a weak laugh. “Take a deep breath. We’ll wait up for him, okay? I bet it won’t even be long before he walks through the front door. If he waited until we were both asleep to leave, he never intended for us to find out he left until he wanted us to know he’d done so, which means he won’t be gone long.”