Page 19 of Unbound

“Nothing bad.” I cover my face with both hands. “This is so freaking embarrassing.”

Walker snorts. “I think being embarrassed is the least of your worries right now.”

“You would think, but no.” I drop my hands, taking a deep breath as I meet his hard gaze. “I need to explain some things.”

“Sybil.” Titus’s voice is sharp as it carries from where he stands on Trevor’s front porch.

Stifling a groan at the ill-timed interruption, I turn toward Walker’s cousin. “What?”

“What hotel were you staying at?” he asks.

I give him the name of the extended stay chain located a few minutes from McKinley’s offices. “Why?”

Titus’s mouth flattens into a grim line. “Because last night a group of armed men broke into one of their rooms and ransacked the place.”

Well…that doesn’t sound good.

On the plus side, it’s distracting everyone from their plan to go through my computer. I don’t expect them to completely forget about it, but the more time before Walker finds out about my dirty little secret, the better.

Is it just delaying the inevitable? Yup.

But I’m really not looking forward to that particular inevitability.

Wiping both sweating palms down the front of my borrowed sweatpants, I ask Titus, “Which room?”

I mentally cross my fingers, hoping maybe it was just a random incident. That it has nothing to do with me. Because if those men were there for me, it makes it way more likely the shooter was too. Unfortunately, when Titus offers the number of the room I vacated last night, I’m forced to accept the truth.

Someone definitely might be trying to kill me.

Walker steps closer to me, his broad body blocking out the early morning sun. “Is that the room you were staying in?”

“Of course it’s the room I was staying in.” I let my head drop back on a groan. “What in the hell am I gonna do now?” Facing my own mortality is way more irritating than I expected.

I can’t die. I have shit to do. I need to find out what happened to my dad.

I haven’t been able to rest since my mother finally confessed she had questions about the circumstances of his death. It’s become a fixation I can’t seem to shake. And dying would really put a kink in my ability to solve this mystery.

“Now, you’re going to go inside, put on some clothes, and show Titus and Heidi what you’ve been doing.” Walker rests one big, warm hand on my shoulder, the weight of it grounding me. “Then we’re going to figure out what in the hell’s going on.”

He makes it sound so simple. So easy. It’s not. I know that firsthand.

“Okay.” I force on as much of a smile as I can manage. “Hopefully it doesn’t take two more years.”

Walker’s brows lift. “You’ve been doing this for two years?”

“Pretty much.” I swipe at the hair blowing into my face. “And I just finally started getting somewhere a couple months ago.” The day I found the link between Walker’s mother and my dad that brought me to his doorstep.

Well… Department.

Walker stares at me for a second longer, like he’s digesting what I’ve said. The silence stretches out until he finally turns to the house. “Come on.”

Walker’s a man of few words—I figured that out the first day we met—and so far most of them seem to be centered around telling me what to do. I don’t really mind it either. I honestly probably need someone to boss me around a little. Because, left to my own devices, I’ll sit in front of a computer for hours on end, existing on Cheetos and diet Dr. Pepper.

Walker carries both of my bags into Trevor and Maren’s house, but instead of going back into the great room, he turns at the short hall leading to the first floor half bath. He ushers me into the decently large area, leaving my computer bag outside the door before hefting my suitcase onto the vanity.

He reaches for the zipper, and I try to stop him. “I can get that. There’s no reason for you to⁠—”

I don’t know how he gets my suitcase open as fast as he does, but before I can intervene, my luggage is flipped open to reveal one of my dirty little secrets.