The Billionaire's Challenging Beauty (Bold, Alaskan Men Book 2) (12 page)

“So are you going to tell me why your suitcase was out on the bed?” he asked her after they’d ordered their breakfast at the local diner. 

“No,” she told him, and stuffed more pancakes into her mouth.

Saeger watched her, not sure what was going on.  She was a confusing woman, that was for sure.  The attraction between the two of them had been mind-blowing but he’d been determined to avoid her, to live up to his promise to Matt.  But when she’d shown up at his door last night, more uncovered that covered, he hadn’t been able to resist her any longer.  Tyla as temptation was stronger than his moral compass. 

He’d just have to make things right, he thought.  Marriage.  Babies.  Yeah, lots of babies, he thought.  He liked the image of Tyla as a mother.  She was strong and courageous, everything he’d never realized that he’d wanted in a wife.  Hell, he’d never thought he’d want a wife! 

But yeah, Tyla would be an incredible mother. 

Well, after he’d had a few years alone with her.  He liked the idea of making love to Tyla over and over again, waking up with her in his bed, knowing she would be coming home to him at the end of the day.

And he wanted to know what she was doing on that computer all the time too.  He wanted to know all of her secrets.  Ahh, discovering all the secrets of Tyla.  What a fantastic pastime. 

“When does Matt come home?” he asked, thinking he needed to talk to Matt before he proposed to Tyla.  Not that he was asking permission, just that he wanted Matt to be aware of what was going on before the guy became aware of the issues. 

Tyla heard the question and all the bad memories came rushing back to her.  “I don’t know,” and she put her fork down, unable to eat any more. 

Glancing out the window, she tried to figure out what she was going to do, how she was going to find the willpower to walk away from Saeger. 

She shouldn’t have gone to his house last night.  She should have stayed away.  “I need to talk to Cliff,” she told him, completely out of the blue. 

Saeger froze.  “Cliff?” he asked, staring at her profile.  “As in Sheriff Cliff?”

Tyla nodded.  “Yes.  I need to talk to him today.”  She hid her hands underneath the table.  “But I need to…” She realized what she was about to admit and looked up at Saeger.  “I just need to talk to him.”

She could see the confusion in his eyes.  “Okay.  I’ll take you to him,” he agreed.  “Finish your breakfast and we’ll go there right after…”

“No.  I need to do this alone.”

Saeger didn’t like that at all.  “Why?”

She shook her head.  “I just need to do this.  Okay?”

Saeger wanted to tell her that no, it wasn’t okay.  But something in her eyes made his gut clench with concern.  “Tyla, I think we need to talk about this.  If there’s something in your past, something that you’ve done, then I want to be there for you.”  He couldn’t think of any reason why Tyla would need to talk to law enforcement, alone, other than to confess to a crime.  “Do you need a lawyer?  I have a damn good lawyer on staff.  Hell, I have an entire legal team on staff and we can help you.  No matter what you’ve done.”

Tyla smiled at him, her heart melting at his instant support.  “You don’t know what I might confess and yet, you’re still willing to put your legal team on standby, just for me?”  She wanted to sob out her love for this man, but she couldn’t.  She had to keep quiet.  She had to somehow protect the man from…well, whoever was threatening both of them. 

“No matter what, Tyla,” he assured her with absolute conviction.  “I know you well enough.  You haven’t done anything horrible.”

She swallowed and looked down at her half-eaten breakfast.  “Oh, you’d be surprised what I’m capable of doing.”  She thought about stealing, of trying to figure out a way to avoid stealing.  She’d even considered shooting the guy who had threatened her.  Unfortunately, there were several problems with that idea.  First of all, she didn’t know how to shoot.  Secondly, she didn’t own a gun.  And thirdly, she was pretty sure that she was incapable of killing someone.  Good grief, she couldn’t even maim the guy!  What was the term?  Kneecap?  Yeah, she’d like to kneecap him, but even that… well, she wasn’t exactly sure if that meant she should shoot bullets into his knees or if it meant she was supposed to just kick his knees.

Either way, the idea made her own knees ache and her stomach roil. 

Nope, physical violence was out of the question. 

So that left her with… well, not much. 

“I need to go,” she told him.  “But would you mind… could you tell Cliff to meet me somewhere?  Out of uniform?”

Saeger tossed his fork onto his plate.  “Okay, what’s going on?  Why all the cloak and dagger stuff?”

She sighed, clenching her fingers together underneath the table.  Thankfully, he couldn’t see the telltale sign of her nervousness.  She wasn’t aware of his eyes noticing the other signs such as the tension in her eyes, the stiffness of her neck and shoulders.  Tyla was normally smiling either because she was happy or because she was about to be mischievous.  Right now, she was frowning and he suspected she was fighting back tears. 

“Okay, let’s go,” he told her and stood up, dropping money on the table before he took her hand and led her out of the diner.  They both waved to Debbie, their waitress as they left as well as several of the other diners, but they didn’t stop and chat as they normally would. 

He started to head towards the one story sheriff’s office, but she pulled back.  “No.  You can’t go there directly,” she explained.  She reached up to kiss him.  “Go do something else and call Cliff, ask him to meet me at the boulder on Salmon Run,” she told him, naming the long hiking path up the mountain. 

He shook his head.  “Not until you explain, Tyla.”

She clenched her hands together.  “Please, Saeger, just do it.  I know you can’t trust me.  I know I sound crazy but…”

She thought he didn’t trust her?  Hell, he trusted her more than any other woman he’d ever met! 

“Fine!” he snapped.  But he moved closer, his hand cupping her cheek and jaw while his fingers tangled in her hair.  “But I do trust you.  I trust you completely, Tyla.”

She shook her head frantically.  “No.  Don’t trust me, Saeger.  Don’t trust me at all!”

And with those words, she turned and almost ran the two blocks to her apartment.  She was trying to act as she normally would, but all of this danger and theft stuff was making her crazy.  She wasn’t good at being a spy.  She was a waitress trying to become a graphic designer.  She read about spies and espionage!  She didn’t want to live that life! 

With a sigh of frustration, she slammed her apartment door closed and leaned against it, trying to figure out what she was going to do. 

She didn’t trust Saeger to get Cliff to the point on the hiking trail where the boulder rested.  Or more specifically, she didn’t trust Saeger not to be there with Cliff. 

She picked up her cell phone and dialed his number.  As soon as he answered, she burst into speech.  “Saeger, it’s me again.  Don’t worry about Cliff.  I’m fine.  I’m just having problems with something and I thought he could give me some advice on it, but I figured it out.  Everything is okay.”

There was a long silence but he came back and said, “I’m coming over.  You’re going to tell me what’s going on.”

She thought quickly, not wanting him to see her again.  “You can’t!” she gasped out.  “Violet called and she needs help over at her shop.  I’m going to fill in for a few hours, earn a couple extra bucks.”

She could tell by the following silence that he still didn’t believe her.  “Tyla, what’s going on, honey?  You can trust me.  Just tell me and let me help you.”

She fought the tears, taking in deep breaths.  “I’m fine.  I promise!” she lied. 

Tyla heard his impatience.  “Tyla, so help me, if you don’t start talking to me…”

“I really have to go.  Violet sounded pretty frantic.”

He still wouldn’t believe her.  “Tyla, come to my place tonight.  We’re going to talk.  And you’re going to tell me what’s going on.”

Violet!  She should call Violet and ask her to have the local law enforcement meet her at her shop!  The stranger who was threatening her wouldn’t know anything about Violet! 

“Fine.  Tonight.  Gotta go!” and she pressed the end button. 

She hurried into her bedroom, determined to pack her suitcase just in case her latest plan didn’t work.  She’d just leave town and….

There was a small piece of paper laying inside her suitcase.  “No!” she whispered, her hand shaking as she reached down to touch the note.  All it said was, “Going somewhere?  Don’t you have a job to do first?”

Nothing else. 

She looked around her apartment, trying to see if anything had been disturbed.  But she had a tiny place and not a lot of stuff.  Even the two towels she and Saeger had used this morning were carefully hung up on the towel rack, right where she’d left them. 

Nothing seemed to be out of place, but it still made her skin crawl to know that someone, that horrible stranger, had been in her apartment. 

Had he been watching?  Had he seen her with Saeger earlier this morning? 

She wanted to throw up at the possibility. 

Violet!  She needed to get to Violet!  She needed to get out of Winthrop for a little while and hopefully get some help from Violet or the law enforcement there.  Of course, she’d thought of Cliff because he’d been in the military, he knew what could and couldn’t happen.  She grabbed her car keys and backpack, stuffing her laptop into one of the large pockets.  She felt better having her computer with her, knowing that her work was safe.

She rushed out the door and practically jumped into her Jeep.  She was just about to pull out of her parking lot when she noticed the man standing on the corner.  It wasn’t the stranger who had threatened her, but another man, dressed similarly.  His eyes were darker, his body more slender, but there was still the same menace in the way he was watching her. 

She’d just convinced herself that she was imagining things.  She couldn’t think that every stranger who came into Winthrop was a bad person.  But then the man tilted his head towards her.  To anyone looking on, it would appear that he was simply acknowledging her.

But he wasn’t!  She could feel it in her bones.  That man was sending her a silent message. 

She pressed on the accelerator, practically skidding on the gravel as she peeled out of the parking lot. 

She had to get to Violet!  Or to someone!  She couldn’t deal with this alone! 

Saeger watched as Tyla sped down the street out of town.  She hadn’t been hauling her suitcase so he could find some sort of relief from that.  But something was going on.  He had no idea what might be happening, but he was going to figure it out.

His eyes narrowed as he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye.  Had he just imagined a guy walking into the woods on the other side of Tyla’s building?

Thinking about Tyla’s strange behavior, he wasn’t taking any chances.  Tyla wasn’t flighty and she wasn’t prone to crazy ideas.  She was a sane, smart woman who was spooked for some reason.  A stranger walking into the woods around her building?  Yeah, he was going to take that seriously.  Even if it was nothing, the guy was spooking his woman.  Enough said. 

“Hey Cliff,” he called out as soon as he’d walked into the sheriff’s office.

“Saeger!” the man said, turning around and extending his hand in greeting.  “Word on the street is that you finally caught Tyla.  Rumors true?” he teased. 

“Any strangers in town lately?” Saeger asked, ignoring the comment about the town gossip. 

Cliff’s eyes narrowed, understanding that Saeger wasn’t just making idle chitchat.  “A couple of fishermen came in a couple of days ago.  They seem okay.”

Saeger thought about that for a moment, crossing his arms over his chest.  “Where are they fishing?”

Cliff rested his hands on his leather belt, one hand covering his pistol.  “They go out on a boat each day.  Haven’t actually seen them fishing, now that you mention it.”

Saeger’s head nodded.  “Hold on,” he said and lifted his cell phone, dialing a number.  When Creek answered his phone, he went right to the point.  “Hey, did Violet call Tyla this morning and ask for help in her shop?”

Saeger’s jaw clenched when he heard the answer.  “Got it.”  He hesitated for a long moment.  “Okay, well, if Tyla shows up at Violet’s shop, can you talk to her?  Find out if she’s okay?”

When Creek agreed, Saeger snapped his phone shut.  He turned back to Cliff.  “Something is very wrong.”

“Tyla is in danger,” Cliff said and his shoulders squared.  “Tell me what you know.”

The two men leaned over Cliff’s desk as Saeger updated him on the small things he’d gathered.  It wasn’t much, but Cliff understood that something or someone had spooked Tyla.  And Tyla wasn’t one to spook easily. 

“Okay, let me look into things from my end.”  He stood up and rubbed his chin.  “Far as I know, the only things that would scare Tyla might be…”

Saeger’s jaw tensed.  “A threat to her brother.”

Cliff hesitated.  “Yeah.  But he’s overseas, isn’t he?”