Because I Can Read online

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  THE WALKER SECURITY: ADRIAN TRILOGY

  THE BRILLIANCE TRILOGY

  THE LILAH LOVE SERIES

  ALSO BY LISA RENEE JONES

  ABOUT LISA RENEE JONES

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to the supplier and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at lisareneejones.com/contact

  All characters in this book are fictional and figments of the author’s imagination. www.lisareneejones.com.

  BECAUSE I CAN

  Lisa Renee Jones

  Book TWO in the Necklace Trilogy

  CHAPTER ONE

  Once the lights go out upstairs, I know I’m not crazy.

  Someone is in the house.

  Huddled in the dark corner of the wine cellar of the house Tyler inherited from his grandmother, the home I’m presently living in, I listen for any and all sounds, praying whoever is here will just go away. I’ve given up on the call to 911 actually connecting and I can only pray that when Dash and I were disconnected, he called them for me. Seconds tick by like hours and there is nothing happening. I begin to explain away what is happening.

  Could the other Allison be in the house? Maybe it’s her and she has no idea there’s another tenant? Who else has the alarm code but her? Tyler, I think. Natalie from Human Resources, as well. I should have changed it. Why didn’t I change it?

  More time passes, and then suddenly rapid, heavy footsteps sound above. My heart thunders in my chest before I hear, “Allie!”

  At the sound of Dash’s voice, I’m on my feet screaming, “Dash! Dash! Down here.” The lights are on again above.

  I’m already running up the stairs when he appears at the top in the doorway. Relief, so much relief, floods my body, at the sight of him. He catches me as I clear the last step and pulls me into his arms. “Are you okay?” he demands urgently, scooping me close. “Are you okay?”

  “Now I am,” I say, clinging to the T-shirt he’s wearing, and swallowing hard with the sight of his black eye and swollen face. “God,” I whisper, touching his jaw. “Dash.”

  He catches my hand, ignoring my concern for his own. “You scared the fuck out of me, Allie.”

  As he did me, I think, flashing back to him in that underground club, about him daring the other fighter to hit him, wanting him to hit him. Wanting me to go away and just let him self-destruct, when that was never going to happen. But he’s here now. He came for me when I wasn’t sure he would, not after what I witnessed in that underground club.

  “Not intentionally,” I say. “Dash I—I didn’t think you’d come.”

  Footsteps sound, and already on edge, I jerk around to find a tall, dark-haired man wearing jeans and a T-shirt approaching. “All clear,” he announces, holstering his weapon.

  Dash’s hand is on my shoulder. “Easy, baby. He’s a friend.”

  Baby.

  As if were still together. As if I’m still in his life.

  “Thanks, Jack,” Dash says, releasing me to shake his hand. “I owe you. Come drive the M4. Hell, I’ll give you the damn thing.”

  It hits me then that this is the cop who pulled Dash over that first night we were together. Jack chuckles. “I won’t hold you to that, man. Just happy I was nearby,” he adds, glancing at me. “You okay ma’am?”

  “I am,” I say. “Thank you for coming. I swear I set the alarm. I don’t know how anyone got in here, but someone was here. I heard them walking around. They turned out the light.”

  “I checked the alarm,” Jack says. “It’s off. If someone was here, they had the code. Who would that be?”

  Dash’s jaw sets hard, and I know immediately where his head is at. “It wasn’t Tyler.” I glance at Jack. “That’s my landlord,” I explain. “He wasn’t here. I talked to him. It could have been the woman who lived here before me. She had a personal relationship with my landlord. I’m not sure she knew someone else moved in.”

  “Then why run off when we arrived?” Jack asks, obviously not buying that idea.

  My cellphone rings in my hand, and I know with dread in my belly and without even looking at caller ID that it’s going to be Tyler. Sure enough, it’s Tyler, and considering the circumstances, there’s really no way to avoid him right now. I glance at the other two men. “It’s my landlord.” My gaze goes to Dash. “I called him to see if he was here and then hung up on him. I need to—”

  “Take the call.”

  The command is short, biting, and feels like a slammed door between us, a reminder of what I walked into tonight at that fight ring, and who lead me there. Tyler might have had good intentions, for at least part of this night, but he instigated trouble. Unable to win or fight this moment, I answer the line, “Tyler.”

  “What the hell?” he demands. “I tried to call you back ten fucking times. I called the police.”

  “So did Dash,” I say quickly. “And they’re here.”

  “As in the police or the police and Dash?”

  “Both,” I say, as Jack asks, “Can I talk to him?”

  “One of the officers wants to talk to you, Tyler,” I say. “Can I put him on?”

  “I’m almost there, but yes, put him on.”

  Wonderful. He’s almost here. This night just won’t stop giving. “Don’t,” I say, hoping he reads between the lines, hoping he’s smart enough to know that he and Dash, together tonight is the hornet’s nest of all hornet’s nest. “But here is the officer.” I hand the phone to Jack while my gaze collides with Dash’s.

  Jack begins talking to Tyler while Dash and I just stare at each other, his eyes narrowing on mine, understanding in their depths. He knows I told Tyler to stay away. I’m glad he knows. After a night fighting over Tyler, Dash needs to know I chose him as if that was ever even up for discussion. Of course, I chose him.

  But despite m
y intended message, the pulse in Dash’s jaw says he is not pleased, and I get it, I do. Tyler insinuated himself into Dash’s life tonight, and me with him, in a way Dash had not yet intended, and may never have allowed, which was intrusive. He stole Dash’s freedom to choose and exposed his dirty secret. But on the flip side of the coin, Tyler wasn’t wrong to be worried about him. And I can’t regret knowing what I now know, not if I can help Dash. I just really hate the way this all came about.

  But the universe works in mysterious ways and Dash needed an intervention.

  I know that now, standing here with Dash, looking at the damage to his face. That doesn’t mean Tyler is forgiven or welcomed either. He needs to stay away right now. He needs to give Dash space. He needs to give me a chance to protect him, to help him. To just be with him.

  Seconds have ticked by like hours when Jack finally hands me the phone. “He wants to talk to you.”

  He being Tyler again, of course, and I accept the phone while Jack eyes Dash. “I’m going to look around out back. You two stay here in the kitchen until I give you the ‘all clear.’”

  “Thank you,” I say, but Jack is already heading toward the door.

  I press the phone to my ear and say, “Tyler?”

  Dash’s expression tightens, almost as if he can’t even stand Tyler’s name on my lips. So much so that he turns away, walking to the kitchen, his back to me, as he presses his hands onto the island, his shoulders bunched.

  “Are you sure someone was in the house?” Tyler asks.

  “Someone was here,” I assure him. “The lights were on and they went out.” As if reacting to news he’s already heard, but perhaps digests differently or fully now, Dash turns to face me again as I add, “I know I turned on the alarm, but it’s off now. Could it have been Allison?”

  There’s a several-beat pause before Tyler says, “I don’t know. Maybe. I’m trying to reach her. If I hear anything I’ll call you.” He hesitates. “I wasn’t wrong tonight. Talk sense into him or I will before he self-destructs.”

  My agitation with Tyler is real. He pushed Dash tonight and he knew what he was doing. Or perhaps he didn’t expect to push Dash as far as he did. I don’t know what to think at this point.

  I slide my phone into the pocket of my jeans. Dash catches my hand and walks me to him, the heat in our touch as addictive as I fear it is radioactive. We’re still all taut anger and attraction, mixed together in combustible heat. His fingers slide under my hair and he drags my mouth to his. There’s a pulse between us and then he’s kissing me, a deep, demanding, angry kiss before he says, “You aren’t staying here. You’re coming home with me.”

  I could tell him that we can’t pretend tonight didn’t happen. I could remind him that we just talked about me moving in with him, and recap all the reasons I said no. I could tell him that when I saw the Russian Beast beating on him, the idea of him being hurt, destroyed me.

  There are so many things I could say, but right now, in this volatile state that defines us, I decide that less is more. “Yes.” That is all I say. Just yes.

  “Can I have a word, Dash?”

  At the sound of Jack’s voice, Dash strokes my hair. “Go pack.”

  “I already have my things at your place. I really don’t need anything.”

  He turns me toward the bedroom. “Take more,” he orders softly, which could mean he still wants me to live with him, or maybe he just wants to get rid of me to talk to Jack. The reality here is that after tonight, I don’t know where we stand, what he wants, or even what I want.

  For now, a reprieve is welcomed and the truth is, I do need to pack. I quit my job and I’ll have to move anyway. I don’t know what that means for the charity event or my involvement, but I know that my working for Tyler is causing trouble. Ironically, I think as I step into the bathroom, I’ve blamed myself for tonight, but at the root of every problem, was Tyler. He showed up at the bar tonight. He picked a fight with Dash. He was what triggered me and Dash fighting.

  I grab a bag from the closet and start filling it, a bit sad that my new house is already my old house, but it’s not really about the house as much as it is yet another shift in my life. I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m doing, but if I’m honest with myself, that reaches well beyond one night. I need to dig my feet in and be emotionally brave enough to really face my future, which means facing my past. Just not tonight.

  I open a drawer and there sits the necklace box, at least one connection between my life and Allison’s in one place. She left her career behind, perhaps more. But did she really walk away, or did she walk forward to something better?

  I pick up the box and lift the lid, staring down at the gorgeous stones.

  “You’re obsessed with that necklace,” Dash says from the doorway.

  I shut the lid and turn back to face him. “It’s thousands of dollars. What if someone came for it, not me, tonight?”

  “That sounds like a good reason to get you out of here.”

  “There are cameras,” I remember. “We should be able to see who was here on the cameras.”

  “They were off,” he announces. “Jack checked.”

  My brows dip. “What do you mean off? The cameras work even when the security system is off.”

  “I mean they were working up until tonight and somehow they were just flipped off.”

  I curl forward, hugging myself. “What is this Dash?”

  He catches my waist and walks me to him, “I just want you out of here.”

  I don’t argue. I’m suddenly more eager than ever to leave this house and not come back.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The problem with the unknown is its haunting ability to know what you do not. It’s such a silly wordplay I know, but it’s also the truth. The unknown is the monster that wants to remain unknown, and it drives us crazy. Dash hangs out while I pack, hovering nearby as if he feels the presence of that monster and fears I may be snatched out of his reach any moment.

  For me, that monster is the necklace and yet, I’m going to take it with me, rather than leave it behind.

  I retrieve it from the bathroom counter, grab it and stick it in one of my overnight bags. Dash manages to appear in the doorway at just that moment. “Before you say I’m obsessed with it again, I don’t know what to do with it,” I say. “And it’s too expensive for me to just leave behind, especially when it’s a compelling reason to break into the house in the first place.”

  “Carrying it around isn’t the answer,” he says, obviously referencing the way I’d had it with me when I’d had drinks with Tyler and his father, whose name is ironically, considering the officer’s name helping us tonight, Jack. The necklace had fallen out of my purse and ultimately Tyler had learned that it was Allison’s, a gift from another man. I guess on some level he didn’t want to believe there was someone else in her life.

  “We’ll start by locking it in my safe,” Dash suggests, snapping me out of my reverie. “And you in my apartment.”

  “You’re going to lock me in your apartment?” I challenge.

  He catches my hips, his touch possessive as he walks me to him. “Yes. If that’s what it takes to protect you.”

  There’s a dark pulse between us that radiates with every moment that went oh so terribly wrong tonight. He says he wants to protect me and that feels kind of nice, but I’m not the only one that needs protection. He does, too. My hands go to his wrist. “Will you be with me?”

  “I shouldn’t have let you leave in the first place. I shouldn’t have walked away when I did. Then none of this would have happened.”

  None of this.

  Three extremely simple and yet complicated words, too much to even touch right now. “Should we talk to Jack about the necklace?”

  “There’s a lot about tonight, neither of us understands,” he says. “Let’s figure out our own questions and answers before we go creating new problems.”

  In other words, he’s not sure Tyler doesn’t have everythin
g to do with everything that happened tonight. And the thing is, I’m not sure I can argue otherwise, but what I can’t do is ignore how ever-present, and yet absent, Allison is in every moment of my life. “I’m starting to worry about Allison, Dash. Should I be worried?”

  His jaw flexes. “What did Tyler say?”

  “He’s trying to reach her.”

  “He might not be the one to actually get her to respond.” There’s disapproval in his tone that speaks of the two men’s history, and I’m reminded of Tyler’s insistence that Dash is not only bad for me, but Dash knows that as a fact. But there was also a reference to Dash warning Tyler away from another woman.

  Allison, I wonder?

  It’s a question for later, not now. “I’ve tried to reach her as well,” I say. “That’s why I worry we need to talk to Jack.”

  “We’ll have Jack reach out to her.”

  “Thank you, Dash. I’m sure my worries for Allison are unfounded, but I can’t say they don’t exist anymore. They do.”

  “She left, Allie. Just like you left publishing. Everything different isn’t bad.”

  He’s right, of course. Logically I know this, but my gut isn’t about logic. It’s about something that cannot be seen or spoken. It’s just there, demanding attention. Needing to hear something to shut it up I say, “And you think that was better for her.” It’s not really a question considering his obvious feelings, and yet, I need an answer.

  His cellphone rings and his lips press together. “Almost as if the universe doesn’t want me to go there.” He snakes his phone from his pocket. “My sister.”

  “She probably heard there was an issue at the bar.”

  “Or Tyler called her.”

  “He didn’t. He told me you wouldn’t want him to call her.”

  His lips press together, his eyes shuttering, as he answers his phone, turning away from me as he does. And I fear that is exactly where we are headed—me standing right in front of him and him turning away.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The idea that Allison was here, rather than someone else, settles into my gut and wants to hang out, but it’s also far more appealing an idea than an intruder.