I shook my head. “I don’t think –”

“I got no time and I got shit to do. You’re gonna bail, you can walk out that door. I got nothin’ to offer you but cash and my word. I can see you pickin’ me up from prison, my word don’t mean dick to you but I’m tellin’ you right now, and it’s up to you to believe it or not, my word is solid. No harm will come to you and nothin’ from my business will blow back on you. You’ll be my wife, you’ll act like my wife and you’ll do it until this is done. That’s it. Then we go our separate ways.”

“I’ll act like your wife?” I asked quietly.

He shook his head once. “You wanna let me into that pu**y, I’ll take it. No increase in money, I don’t pay for pu**y. That you give if you got a mind to give it. You don’t, I’ll find what I need elsewhere and that won’t blow back on you either.”

This was not exactly the romantic, tender marriage proposal every girl dreamed of.

“Ty,” I started, lifting up a hand, palm out then dropping it. “I’ve been…” I hesitated. “I’ve managed to…” I stopped again.

“Jesus, spit out,” he rumbled.

I nodded and spit it out. “That world has been at the edge of mine a long time, pushing in and I’ve managed to steer clear. I don’t know what this business of yours is and I don’t know you and I already have the leftover bullshit that comes from broken promises. I don’t need more.”

“I told you none of my shit would blow back on you,” he reminded me.

“And I told you I’ve heard that before and here I stand,” I reminded him.

He stared at me, still unreadable but something about him made me think that he wasn’t blank, he was alert and assessing and he gave no indication of it but it felt like he was reading me down to my bones.

Then he said quietly, “Shift has f**ked you.”

“I know,” I said quietly back and he had. Shift knew this, he knew Walker wanted this, he sent me anyway, he blew right through my boundaries, lying to me and putting me in the clutches of a huge, terrifying, taciturn, freshly-released ex-con with enemies and a gun.

“This time, you walk out that door, nothin’ bites you,” Walker told me. “You go back to him, he’ll find a way to f**k you worse and how he does it, you might not be walkin’ out the door.”

I pressed my lips together then unpressed them and whispered, “I know.”

“I can get you clear of that.”

I had to admit, that was definitely something to consider.

He kept talking. “Fifty G’s will set you up anywhere you wanna go. I’ll take care of Shift.”

He held my eyes. I noted his were unwavering. He was hiding from me, I knew it. Though I figured you learned a pokerface in prison, probably not healthy to wear your heart on your sleeve. But he held my eyes, he didn’t look away, whatever he was hiding was his to hide from the world, not something he was specifically hiding from me.

And he was also not in my face. He wasn’t pissed. He wasn’t shouting. He wasn’t threatening. He told me I could walk out and I believed him. In fact, everything he told me, I believed. I’d been around a lot of the dregs, Ronnie saw to that, so I had a highly tuned bullshit detector. Whatever this man was, he was not bullshitting me.

And he could get me clear of Shift, I knew it. I knew it because Shift was scared of him, I could see this now. That was the reason behind the frantic phone call. He wanted to make sure Ty Walker got what he wanted and liked what he saw. He’d played me to make sure Walker didn’t lose it and take what Shift owed him a different way.

And he was right, I pulled up stakes, fifty thousand dollars would set me up.

And I’d be clear of Shift.

And away from that life, clean and free.

Clean and free.

Finally.

“How long would this, um… business last?” I asked.

I didn’t know if I was seeing things but I could swear it looked like his body relaxed even if the change was so slight it seemed like an illusion.

“Don’t know,” he answered.

“I have a job,” I told him.

“You want clear of Shift, you gotta leave Dallas. You leave Dallas, you leave your job. Might as well do it now.”

This was true. It sucked because I liked my job; I’d been working at Lowenstein’s for nearly ten years. But I always knew I’d be leaving it one day, either when I gave up on Ronnie or when Ronnie made a break for it and took a chance on us and, more recently, to get away from Shift.

However…

“I didn’t give notice.”

“Emergency,” he said.

“What?”

“Emergency leave of absence. You gotta look after your sick Mom. Your Mom don’t get better, you don’t go back. Shit happens. They’ll deal.”

“I don’t have a Mom.”

He went silent and did that blank but still alert and assessing thing.

Then he said, “Your Dad.”

“I don’t have one of those either.”

Again, I could swear something happened to his body even though I couldn’t be sure but this time it wasn’t relaxing, it was tensing.

“Don’t give a f**k who it is, a grandparent, whatever –”

I shook my head indicating I didn’t have grandparents either.

He stared at me.

Then he whispered, “Jesus.”

“Long story,” I muttered.

He went silent again and stared at me.

This went on awhile.

Then he said, “I told you, got shit to do. I don’t have time to give you a chance to consider your options. It’s now or never. Walk out that door or stay and become Mrs. Walker.”

I pressed my lips together.

Then I took the nanosecond he was giving me to consider my options.

Then I sucked in breath.

Then I asked, “Can I have the first shower?”

* * * * *

Ty

Lexie’s phone rang as he walked out of the phone store. He yanked it out of his back pocket, turned it and saw the Colorado area code on the display, a number he knew. He flipped it open and put it to his ear.

“Yeah?”

“Bad news, brother,” Tate’s voice came at him and Ty pulled in breath.

Tate had been hard at work, not a surprise.

That was because Tatum Jackson always had his back. He probably didn’t sleep last night in order to have Walker’s back.

“Yeah?” he repeated.