Exposed: Book 2 MAC Security Series (15 page)

Turning the water off, I stepped out of the shower and pulled a towel around me. I frowned at the raised voices I could hear now that I wasn’t locked away in the bathroom. I walked out of the room and checked on Eli. Still asleep. That boy could sleep through anything.

“I don’t give a fuck!” Ty shouted, I winced at how loud he was.

“Boss-

“No! This ain’t your house, this is mine and Kay’s home. What gives you the right to think you can stay when she’s gone to bed?”

“I didn’t think it would matter,” I heard Kitty reply.

“The fuck? If I went to bed would you still stay?” Ty growled back.

Stepping closer to the top of the stairs, I held my towel tighter around me and carried on listening.

“Calm down, boss,” Evan said softly.

“Listen, I didn’t realize that she was living here permanently. I just thought it was a stop gap,” Kitty said, the bitchy tone in her voice evident.

“What the fuck would make you think that?” Ty growled.

“Well, with Serena back-”

“Don’t,” Evan warned her.

My hand rubbed my chest, a pain shooting through it. They always said be careful who you listen to, I didn’t know who ‘they’ were. But right now? I wish I would have taken that advice after hearing Kitty talk about me like that. It hurt.

“Listen, and listen good Kitty, you don’t know what the fuck went on with Serena. You have no fuckin’ idea. I’d never fuckin’ go back to her.”

“I just thought…”

“Well you thought fuckin’ wrong. If you can’t respect me and Kay, then you know what you can do!” I winced at how loud his voice became. I’d never heard him shout like that before.

“I-”

“Leave it, Kitty, let’s go” Evan said, the door shutting behind them a few seconds later.

“Fuck!” Ty shouted again. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and turned back to my room.

I couldn’t be around him when he was like that, no matter how much I knew that he wouldn’t hurt me. I just couldn’t be around it.

There was too much going on and my mind was a whirl of thoughts. When I shut my bedroom door, I pushed the chair up against it, locking myself away for the night.

Pulling on one of Corey t-shirts, I snuggled under the covers and closed my eyes.

Everything would be better in the morning. It had to be.

Rolling over in bed, I reached my hand out for Kay, forgetting that she wasn’t there. I cracked my eye open just to make sure that she wasn’t in the room, because she had a tendency to go and sit on the chair and stare out of the window.

I’d hardly slept last night; all I could hear were Kay’s cries. Not being able to get to her killed me, several times I’d debated on breaking her door down. I’d managed to talk myself out of it but that didn’t stop me from sitting on the other side of the door.

It was my fault; she must have heard me lose it with Kitty last night. I couldn’t believe what she had done, her bitchy tone and face told me enough. There was no way that Kay would have told her that she had to leave and Kitty knew that.

She was pushing it. Something was clearly going on with her, and any other time I’d have been there for her to talk to but I had so much on my plate, I didn’t have time for all of her petty bullshit. And I certainly wasn’t gonna put up with her upsetting Kay.

When the sun started to come up, I decided to go to bed and now all I’d had was a few hours’ sleep. Looking around the room, trying to figure out what woke me up, I saw the door handle turn and Eli’s face pop through the gap.

“Ty?”

I sat up, scrubbing my hands down my face. “Yeah, bud?” I didn’t want him to see any of this, as far as he was concerned, everything was good. At least, that’s what I wanted him to think. The reality of it was, things were going far from good. My team were falling apart.

Always having one of us off the compound was affecting the whole team and now this thing with Kitty was just adding to the strain.

“Mama’s crying again,” he said, looking down at the floor. His hair was sticking up in all directions and his spider-man teddy dangled from his hand and onto the floor.

“I know, bud.” Smiling sadly, I patted the bed beside me and waved him in. “Come here.”

He ran over and jumped up onto the bed, slipping in beside me and leaning his head on the same pillow that Kay slept on. This was the first time in so long that we hadn’t slept in the same bed and I hated it. It didn’t feel right, not having her next to me.

“I don’t like it when she cries,” he whispered, turning his sad green eyes to me.

“Me neither, bud.” He fidgeted on the bed, looking up at me before turning away. “What’s up?” I raised a brow.

“I just don’t want mama to get sad again.” He shrugged.

A lump formed in my throat. I knew how he felt and I’d noticed her pulling away from all of us again. She liked to hide her emotions; putting up a wall, she did it well. But I could see past them. I had since that very first day; I saw all of the pain that she was feeling, that she carried around with her on a daily basis.

I didn’t want to see her back in that head space again, and whether I liked to think it or not, it was partly my fault. Serena being back didn’t make things any easier and I knew that Kay still had nightmares about that sick fuck.

“I’ll make sure she doesn’t, okay?” I said, ruffling his hair.

“Promise?” He turned back to me with hope in his eyes.

“Promise.” I nodded.

“Okay.” He held his hand out and said, “You gotta shake on it. Uncle Luke says that when men make a deal, you have to shake on it.”

Chuckling, I placed my hand in his, my large hand encasing his small one. “Well, if Uncle Luke says it then it must be true.”

“Yep!”

“How about this?” I asked. “Shall we get ready and get some pancakes before preschool? Give mama a lie in?”

“Yeah!” He threw his fist in the air and jumped off the bed.

“You get dressed and I’ll meet you in the bathroom for wash and teeth. Yeah?”

“Okay!” He jumped down, running off as fast as his little legs could take him, completely forgetting about his spider-man teddy.

Maybe that was all she needed? To just get some extra sleep? All I knew was that she was going to tell me what was going on inside that head of hers. She couldn’t keep it all locked up inside of her.

That shit didn’t do anybody any good.

After eating the biggest stack of pancakes each, we both waddled to the car with full stomachs. Maybe I shouldn’t have let him each that much? I just didn’t have the heart to tell him not to eat all that he wanted. I knew food wasn’t a substitute but if he wanted to eat his weight in pancakes then I wasn’t gonna stop him.

I dropped Eli off at preschool and started the drive back to the compound. Pressing the buttons on the steering wheel, I dialed Luke’s number.

“Boss?” he answered.

“Come back to the compound.” I stopped at some lights and waited.

“No one has taken the shift over yet.”

“Yeah, I know. We’re gonna look into a different route. It ain’t good to always have one of us off the compound.”

“Has something happened?” he asked, his voice becoming deeper.

The lights changed and I drove forward, debating what to actually say to him. I didn’t want to sugar coat it but, at the same time, I didn’t want him knowing mine and Kay’s business. His past made him able to connect with Kay and understand her in a way that I was afraid I never would.

I scrubbed my hand down my face and blew out a frustrated breath.

“It’s too much,” I started. “I don’t know what’s going on with Kitty, some shit went down last night and I came home to Kay locked in her room.”

“The fuck?” I heard his car start in the background. “She okay?”

“Kitty? Fuck knows. I ain’t seen her since I told her to get out of my house.”

“No,” he growled. “Kay?”

“Fuck!” I turned onto the road that led to the compound. “She’s still in her room. She barricaded herself in.”

“Shit,” Luke said under his breath. “This ain’t good.”

“Your fuckin’ tellin’ me.” I pressed the button to open the gates and drove on through. “We need to get together as a whole team and sort all this shit out.”

“Yeah, Boss. I’m on my way.”

I pressed the end call button as I parked my truck, then jumped down and heard a car pull up to the gates as I was about to go into the warehouse. Moving closer so I could see who it was, I groaned. I recognized that car.

I looked over at the house, hoping that Kay was still in her room because she didn’t need to see this.

I stomped to the gate, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. What the hell did she think she was doing here?

“What the fuck are you doin’ here, Serena?” I growled.

“Ah, Ty Ty.” She smiled, walking closer to the gates and wrapping her hands around the bars. “You gonna let me in?”

“Hell to the fuckin’ no.” Stepping back, I crossed my arms over my chest and watched her.

“It’s important,” she cooed, fluttering her eyelashes at me.

“Yeah? You have my divorce papers signed?” I raised a brow.

“Ah, don’t be like that, Ty Ty.” She scowled, but schooled her features quickly. Any other person wouldn’t have seen it. Me? I saw that shit and I hated it.

She was dressed impeccably; suit dress and jacket to match with shoes so high that I wondered how she could even walk on the things. She pouted, probably thinking that would work on me like it used to.