Exposed (MAC Security 2)

I squinted my eyes at her, not knowing whether to believe what she was saying. My eyes flicked to the house and then to Evan.

“She’s still in there, boss,” he whispered.

Closing my eyes, I tried to decide what to do. Letting her on the compound could upset Kay and after last night, I didn’t want to make things worse. But if she did have information about Daley, information that could help the case, then it was worth bringing her onto the compound.

The sound of another car had my eyes opening. Luke stuck his head out of the window and I could see the fire in his eyes from here.

“What’s that bitch doing here?”

Serena whipped her head around to Luke and gasped. “Are you going to let him talk to me like that, Ty Ty?”

Chuckling, I stepped forward. “Yep.” Her hand flew to her chest but I knew it was all an act.

“You come in, tell us what you know and then you leave,” I told her, making sure she knew that I was dead serious.

“But-”

“No,” I ground out. “You leave when you’ve told us what you know.” I said turning back to the warehouse.

“Clear the wall,” I said in a low voice to Evan. She didn’t need to know what we knew, after all, I still didn’t trust her.

He nodded, and I watched him jog back to the warehouse.

“And Serena?” I turned my face back to her.

“Yes,” she said, pulling her shoulders back and facing me head on.

“You mess us about and you’ll regret it.” Spinning around I walked a few steps and shouted, “Let her in!”

I woke up in a panic, seeing the time on my phone and rushed to push the chair away from my door. I couldn’t believe I’d overslept, I never slept in this late. I hadn’t for the last four years.

“Eli!” I shouted, getting no response. “Ty!”

I ran down the stairs, finding a note on the kitchen counter from Ty telling me that he had taken Eli for pancakes and then to preschool.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I looked around me and out into the garden. The woods calling to me in that way that they always did. Only this time, it was louder than ever before.

Running back up the stairs, I got dressed in my gym clothes, deciding that a walk up to the clearing would do me some good. Grabbing a bottle of water, I pushed out the sliding doors into the back garden, slipping out of the gate at the back and straight into the woods.

I was overthinking everything, I felt like I’d taken three steps forward and five back. I didn’t want to go back to how things were, I didn’t want to be that person again.

I was losing the battle of talking to any of the guys about Serena. It didn’t matter how many times I said it. When it came from me, it looked like nothing but jealousy.

I had to come up with a way to still investigate her without the rest of the guys knowing. I didn’t trust her and there was a reason why my gut was telling me that.

I just had to find out that reason.

The fuzzy head that I had from lack of sleep started to clear as I got closer to the clearing, the fresh air making me feel a million times better than I had.

By the time I came to the clearing, I was sweating but had a smile on my face. I had a plan, a plan that would mean I wouldn’t be seen as the jealous girl.

I needed to put that plan into action, without any of the guys knowing what I was doing.

If the nightmares would stop, that would be even better, but I couldn’t see that happening anytime soon. Every night since that day, I had at least one a night. The only time they seemed to settle was when Ty was next to me. It was partly my own fault for locking myself in my room last night.

Gulping down half of my water, I admired the view from here. The woods a magnificent green, flowers lining the entire clearing. Even with all the equipment that Ty had put up here, the view was still breath-taking.

With one last look, I spun around and headed back down to the house. I was determined to get a start on my plan. The ironic thing was that I knew Ty would be proud of my plan. If only he knew about it.