HE WAS SO MERCURIAL AND confusing, I wasn’t surprised Ty wasn’t his full name. I was only surprised he’d told me. And his name fit him, but he would always be just Ty to me.

Someone knocked on the door again. “Ty?”

“Coming,” Ty called over his shoulder before grasping my chin in a dominant gesture I wished didn’t make my knees weak. “You good?”

Good was a hot cup of coffee when you were cold.

Good was a decent night’s sleep.

Good wasn’t losing your virginity to a man who scared you how much he was wrong for you but you couldn’t think of a single thing you wanted more than to be with him.

I lied. “I’m good.”

He nodded once and dropped his hand to the gun in his back waistband. “Let’s go.” His other hand went to the small of my back, and he walked us to the front door and opened it.

A man almost as tall as Ty and just as muscular, but with a completely different disposition, stood on the doorstep.

His smile kind, his brown eyes warm, he held his hand out. “Miss Loic, I’m André Luna. Your father hired my firm to get you home safely. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

My back stiffening at the mention of my father, I shook André’s hand. “Thank you… for everything.”

He clapped Ty’s shoulder. “All Ty’s doing, ma’am.” His expression turned serious. “Now, if you’ll follow me, I’d like to get you home.” He cupped my upper arm.

I flinched.

André dropped his hand as his gaze cut to Ty and he raised an eyebrow.

“Surface wound,” Ty clipped, stepping to the opposite side of me as André.

“Was she checked out?” Looking over my head at Ty, André asked the question almost accusingly.

“I checked her out.” Ty gave André a warning glare as his hand moved to the space between my shoulder blades. “She’ll be fine. Let’s move.” He stepped forward, pulling the door shut behind us.

Flanking me, André didn’t let it go. “I made Loic a promise.”

This was ridiculous. “I’m right here, and I can answer for myself. I’m fine.”

Both of them scanned the street as an identical black SUV to the one already parked in the driveway pulled up.

André opened the back door of the Escalade that was already parked. “In you go, chica.” He nodded at the SUV behind us before closing my door.

I settled in to the soft leather as Ty first stopped by the paramedic’s car, then got in the front passenger seat as André got behind the wheel. Both men were quiet, but I could feel the tension as they scanned the street and surrounding houses.

André touched a device in his ear. “Collins, you’re taking the lead. Direct route.” He reversed out of the driveway and fell in behind the other Escalade.

We were all silent as André wove through residential streets and picked up US 1 heading north.

I didn’t have a sense of what time it was or even what day it was at this point, but every second the Escalade drove further north, I got more anxious.

I didn’t want to see my father, and I didn’t want my mother to see me like this. If I was lucky, my father didn’t even tell my mother what had happened. It would only upset her, and anything stressful made her symptoms worse.

André kept glancing in the rearview mirror at me, and Ty stared out the window. An uncomfortable silence had descended as the reality of the situation sank in.

I couldn’t go to my condo. I wouldn’t be safe there alone. And after experiencing what had happened, I had zero confidence in my father’s security personal. I’d never questioned their qualifications before, but it was clear anything less than what Ty was capable of would not keep me safe.

I couldn’t go home, I couldn’t go to my parents, and none of the casual friendships I’d maintained since high school or college were an option.

André glanced at me in the rearview mirror again. “We’ll have you home in three hours.”

There was only one option I could think of.

“May I borrow your phone?” I asked André.

“For?”

“To call Falcon.” I didn’t know his last name, but I knew he worked for André, and I couldn’t think where else to go, or who else to impose upon. Ty had said he was going after Dante, and I didn’t doubt him. But I didn’t know what would come of that, or how long it would take, and I just couldn’t go home. Dreena and her boyfriend seemed like my only option, but I didn’t know if André would have her number, and I didn’t have my own phone to look it up.

André frowned. “You want to talk to Tank?”

Ty turned in his seat to glare at me.

I ignored him. I had to. “Yes, I want to—”

I never got the rest of the sentence out.

A vehicle slammed into the side of the Escalade.

Screeching tires, crunching metal, breaking glass—Ty was half out of his seat, grasping a handful of the front of my dress and yanking me to the floor before the SUV had even stopped moving from the impact of the crash.

“Down, down, down!” His other arm straight out, he held me to the floor and fired off shots as bullets hit the side of the Escalade.