Free Rhys by Adrienne Bell

didn’t have any money, but she wasn’t above panhandling. She didn’t need much. Just enough to make it to San Jose.
    After that it didn’t matter what happened to her.
    Tessa knew it wasn’t a great plan. There were a million ways for it to go wrong, for someone to see her slinking around and call the cops, for Rhys—or, God forbid, one of Boyd’s men—to find her, but it would have to do.
    She didn’t dare try to run down the hallway. She’d never make it more than a couple of steps. Slow and steady would have to win this race. Right now, it was enough that her knees were strong enough to hold her upright.
    Tessa focused on that only bright spot as she forced one foot in front of the other all the way down the long hallway. She was almost afraid to breathe until she reached the front door, certain that at any second Carter Macmillan was going to come in through the back and catch her red-handed.
    Tessa let out a sigh as she finally made it to the front of the house and wrapped her fingers around the doorknob. She turned it and threw it open.
    And stopped cold.
    Her heart jumped up into her throat at the sight of Rhys leaning against one of the painted wood beams that held up the covered porch. He slowly lifted his head as Tessa gasped.
    “R-Rhys,” Tessa stuttered. “What are you doing out here?”
    “Waiting for you,” he said as he pushed off the railing. His expression was flat, not showing even a flicker of anger, or disappointment…or surprise.
    Damn it. She’d been so close.
    Tessa staggered back a step, moving deeper into the house. Rhys followed.
    “I…I can explain,” she said.
    Of course, she couldn’t. Not in a way that would make anything better, at least. Tessa had the terrible feeling that she’d crossed the closest thing she’d had to an ally in this whole mess. After this, there would be no more understanding gazes, no more calm reassurances. Just demands that she couldn’t meet.
    “No need to explain.” He followed her inside the house, and turned to close the door behind him. “I knew you were going to try and run the moment Carter officially assigned me to look after you.”
    Her mouth fell open. “How could you possibly know that?”
    “Because I’m very good at reading people, Tessa.” He turned to face her. The look in his eyes was direct, but without judgment. “I know when they’re lying. I can tell when they’re hiding something. I can even see when someone is so terrified of their own secrets that they’re willing to run away from the people that are trying to help.”
    Tessa swallowed down past the lump in her throat. Surely, he couldn’t tell all of that just by looking at her. She shuffled back a few more steps until her legs hit the back of the couch.
    Rhys didn’t follow her this time. He just watched her with seemingly endless patience with his hands clasped in front of him.
    “What if that person is afraid that no one is listening to her? That they’re all putting themselves in danger by protecting her? That the only way to keep them alive is to run as far away as she can?”
    The words tumbled out of Tessa’s mouth, each one more frantic than the last.
    Rhys held her gaze for another moment, studying her face. Then he took a slow step toward her, moving at a non-threatening pace until he was only a few inches away.
    “I would remind her that the people helping her have done this sort of thing before,” he said, placing a calming hand on her shoulder. “That this is what they’ve been trained for. That this is what they do.”
    His eyes never left hers as his hand slid down her arm until it reached the duffel bag in her hand. Gently, his fingers wrapped around hers, peeling them back until the straps slipped from her grasp. The bag fell with a thud to the floor.
    “Then I would explain again how good I am at my job,” he said.
    Tessa blinked, not realizing until that moment how caught up she’d been in his gaze. So much, that she’d almost let