The Insiders by Tijan

TWENTY-SIX

I was jarred.

It was abrupt. It was harsh, and it sent me back to that night.

I was in that dark room, but I wasn’t. My mind was back there, in my mom’s house, in my room. A hand was over my mouth in my home again.

I was remembering …

“Stop fighting and pay attention.”

Who was here?

“Bailey.” A sharp rasp. “I asked you a question.”

I was feeling pulled down, down. I was falling. The smell of that room again, feeling a cold breeze from him as he pressed against me. The sound of his silent footsteps as he caught me before I could run, as he pushed me to the wall.

“They’re going to think I raped you, and you’ll cry.”

“Bailey.”

I looked to the side, but it was just darkness. I could only feel him, sense him. He had trapped me again. A fog was clouding over my mind, dragging me still down, back into my memories.

I didn’t want to go there, and a whimper left me.

“Bailey.” Softer this time.

A hand slid to the back of my neck. His forehead touched mine, and I felt his chest. My hand raised there, touching him, holding him back.

“I will not let them hurt you. Got it?”

“Your house. Your territory. Your only shot of living.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. A hand moved on my neck—not Chase’s hand, but a different hand. Kash’s hand.

Kash was here.

I was not there.

I was safe. Here. With Kash. Not. There.

His thumb stroking back and forth, sliding up into my hair. A whispered, “Bailey,” before he moved even closer, his head falling beside mine. His cheek against mine, holding there, steady there. Never leaving there.

I sucked my breath in at the reminder of that night.

“Shh.”

A gargled cry had slipped from me. I was moving my head back and forth. It was hard to breathe. Harder still. An invisible pressure was pushing me down. The room was closing in on us.

I grabbed for him, my hand splaying out. Up. Over his strong chest, over muscles that I was faintly registering, over tight shoulders, around a rigid back.

He held still over me, above me. His head lifted back and he was watching me. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I felt his gaze.

I choked out, “Kash?”

His arms folded around me, tugging me the last bit of space and holding me against him. He buried his head in my neck, his body slightly trembling. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He breathed out against my skin. “It’s okay. You’re safe. You’re safe. It’s just me. It’s Kash.”

A light turned on.

His hand came back. He was cupping both sides of my face.

His forehead was almost touching. His eyes boring into mine. A fierceness in there that had me pausing, waiting.

“Tell me you’re okay.” His hands tightened on my face. “Tell me, Bailey. I need to hear the words.”

My mind was spinning. Different thoughts were coming at me, snapping at me. They were quick and harsh and terrifying.

I paused, my heart pounding.

I sucked in a shuddering breath. “I’m fine.” I said it faintly, but I was. And I said it stronger, clearer, because I meant it. “I’m fine. I’m sorry. I just—”

His hands were sweeping back my hair and he shook his head, his forehead moving on mine. “You’re fine. I grabbed you fast. I wasn’t thinking. It’s me.”

His arms moved more around me, and I could feel his breath. His lips were so close to mine, but then he was talking. “We can talk later. I promise. But first…” He moved back again, the same glittering fierceness coming back. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Oh.” I rested my head against the wall, my insides sagging in relief for the moment. “Matt said you called, said Peter was coming back also. Quinn wanted me gone.”

His hand had tightened as I spoke, until the last part. “The fuck?”

I didn’t know what to say, so I only lifted a shoulder up and down. “We have security on us…”

“I know. That’s how I found you. I flew in thirty minutes ago.”

Thirty. Whoa. He had come straight here from the airport.

“We’ve been trying to locate the Arcane team after their last attempt. They went underground after losing you.”

That was—wow. That was just wow.

“Their last…”

Last.

And then, “Their last attempt?” Now my eyes were blazing. “What haven’t you been telling me?”

A sad look had him dropping his hand, but he didn’t move away. He closed his eyes, standing toe to toe with me. Chest to chest. Forehead resting on mine, and he said softly, “This was their third try.”

I hadn’t heard that right.

No way.

I couldn’t have.

Right?

Third. Try.

Third. Attempt.

This.

This was what it felt like to have the world fall from under your feet, because I dropped.

I was mad. I was pissed, but I was also light-headed.

Seriouslylight-headed.

My knees buckled and my body went down, but Kash caught me.

“Whoa. Bailey.” He grunted from the surprise and swiftness of it, but then he was swinging me up in his arms.

“No, Kash.”

“Shh.” He shifted me, cradling me, and his one hand smoothed back some of my hair. He pressed my head to the crook of his neck and shoulder. “Come on. I’ll take you to my place.”

I couldn’t process what was happening. My world had been turned upside down for the final time, and I was out.

The booze might’ve helped.

I felt him move, kicking the door. It was opened from the other side.

“Wha—”

“Call ahead. I want my car brought to the rear. We’re going out that way.”

Kash was carrying me through the nightclub.

“Mr. Colello.” An anxious female, maybe a staff member? “Is everything okay? Should I call for an ambulance?”

“No,” Kash clipped out. “I need a clear path to your rear exit. That’s it.”

“Yes, sir. Certainly, sir.”

She rushed off.

The guard veered in close. I heard him say, “Matt is looking for her. He’s worried.”

“Matt?” Every inch of Kash went rigid underneath me.

“I meant Mr. Francis.” A pause. “Sir.”

“You’ll tell him I have her, and escort him to his own place.”

“And when he asks where you’re taking her?”

Kash stopped again, rounding with a snap. “Excuse me?”

The guard sounded apologetic. “You know he’ll ask, sir. He’ll come around to look for her too.”

Kash’s voice rumbled from his chest, and he started forward again. “Tell him I have her and I’m taking her back to the estate.”

“And are you?”

Kash stopped and pivoted back once again.

The guard added, “Sir.”

“How the hell is that any of your business?”

He waited.

No answer.

I lifted my head up. The two were in a stare-off. The guard took me in, and his features tightened. He dropped his face, saying, “She’s cared for, sir. By others now.”

“Fucking hell.” Kash’s arms tightened under me, his hand digging into my thigh. “You’ll relay my message to Mr. Francis, then you’re relieved for the night, Helms. Don’t come to work for three days. You and I will have a meeting before you’re back on duty. Or, I swear to God, I will drop you right now.”

I frowned. My head was pounding. I didn’t understand the animosity, but Helms dipped his head in an abrupt nod. “Yes, sir.” One step back, his eyes flicked up to mine, and he was swallowed up by the crowd. He had stood out before, following me from the upper level. Now he hid.

“What was that about?” I tried to ask. My tongue was heavy, and I mumbled out two of the words to sound like “Whahsssthadabout?”

Kash shifted his hold on me, lifting me higher so he was back to holding me up with only one arm. He said, roughly, “Nothing. Lay your head back. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“This way, Mr. Colello.” That same female from before.

I saw it was the girl who had given me the free drink. She was extending her hand toward a back hallway, a clipboard in hand, an earpiece in place. She met my gaze for a second, swallowing, and looked away.

All these people clambered under Kash. No one had spoken against him, no one—until tonight, and he got suspended from his job for three days.

A shiver went through me.

Feeling my reaction, Kash was moving down the hallway, but he turned so his eyes could catch mine. His face was right there. One move and our lips would touch. One brush. He frowned, his eyes dipping down to my lips, staying there.

“This way, Mr. Colello.” The same girl. She slipped past us, opening another door.

No one was down here, until we turned into the second hallway. Voices echoed across from us. We were in a kitchen area. Kash was following her, walking us through a maze of hallways and doors.

He held me until she opened the last door, a cool breeze from the night greeting us.

“Mr. Colello.”

“Mr. Colello.”

Two voices greeted us, both male.

A door was opened. Kash ducked, holding me, and placed me in a backseat. He shifted me over so I was in the middle before he climbed in next to me. The employee had followed us, and she waited off to the side.

Kash dug into his pocket and pulled out some money. He held it out. “Thank you for your discretion.”

“Of course, sir.” She stepped forward, took the money, and her eyes slid to mine again. “Feel better, miss.”

I sank down onto the seat, my body molding to it, and my eyelids were closing again. Quinn’s rejection. The drinks. The shock of Kash showing up.

I wanted to sleep for days.

The door still hadn’t shut, and Kash was saying something short and clipped to the woman. She dipped her head down, stepping back. “I’ll see to it myself.” Then she was gone, going back into the club. The back door was shut. A front door opened. A driver got in, and we were off. There was a car in front of us. As it turned, we turned. As it slowed, we slowed. There were other guards in there, or so I was assuming.

Kash waited a beat before turning to me. He took one look, and all the tension lifted from him as well. He reached for me at the same time I went to him, climbing into his lap.

I had missed him. I mean, I hadn’t missed him.

I was letting him hold me. Yeah. I was doing him a favor.

It wasn’t long, maybe twelve minutes or so, until we pulled into a basement garage of an apartment building. When the SUV stopped in front of some elevators, Kash nudged me. “Bailey?”

His arms felt so warm, so strong. Sheltered and protected. That’s what I felt, along with a whole host of butterflies and tingles that I knew I shouldn’t be feeling. My blood was on a slow boil, getting warmer and warmer the longer I stayed in his lap. It was so hard, my eyelids felt like a pound of cement were on them, but I forced them open and tipped my head back to look at him.

Then I paused.

God.

Beautiful. Dangerous. Mysterious. And I was in his arms.

My tongue swelled up. A whole host of sensations were sending my body on vibrate. Gone was the exhaustion, in that mere look, as his eyes were smoldering down at me. I felt zapped, as if he had touched my chest and gave me an electric jolt.

I was breathless too.

Unthinking, unable to think, my hand raised, and I touched his cheek. “You’re back.”

He stilled, blinking a second, then a slow grin spread—and holy hell. That smile, in that moment, in the way he was looking at me, holding me, and my heart was stampeding out of my chest. My whole blood just wooshed over itself, a wave crashing hard on me, and I was sputtering in its wake, in his wake.

I wanted him.

“I came back.”

The world went away.

It was only Kash and me, and his eyes went to my lips, holding there. I was yearning for it, for him. I wanted to feel his mouth on mine. I wanted to feel more, so much more, but his mouth first and foremost.

I was lifting up.

He was leaning down—

His phone started ringing.

Just like that, the spell was broken.

Kash’s entire body turned into a cement block. He drew in a sharp breath before turning his head away from mine. He warned, darkly, “Someone needs to be in the hospital or a body bag, otherwise I’m going to be putting them in the hospital or a body bag myself.”

An awkward cough as we waited. Then, “It’s Mr. Francis. Matthew. Sir.”

“What is it?” Kash clipped out, a savage growl right behind it.

“There’s a problem at the penthouse.”

“Fuck.”

Exactly.

I hated it, my entire body was protesting, but I was sitting up. Feeling me move, Kash helped deposit me beside him. He turned his back to the guard, looking at me straight on.

“You want to come with me?”

There was no real question there. “Hell yes.”

I was suddenly awake, so awake I didn’t think I’d sleep again.

He closed his eyes, groaning again before shifting back in his seat. “Take us to Matt’s.”