Chapter 4
Makayla doesn't know when Mateo arrives but she's getting checked out by the EMTs when he does come over to her. Before she can say anything Mateo beats her to it except it's not her he addresses his inquisition at but the EMT guy.
"Is she okay?"
The man gives a nod and starts packing up his apparatus.
"She'll live. Slight to mild concussion to keep an eye on. Ms Summers, if you start vomiting, experience seizures, fluid or blood draining from the nose or ears or any other symptom that doesn't get better over time then come into the hospital. Otherwise, you should be better in a few days to weeks with sufficient rest."
After delivering the practiced lines, he shrugs off his gloves and closes up his case when Mateo stops him by the arm.
"Should she be allowed to sleep?" he asks.
Makayla shrugs off the blanket they'd given her since clearly apart from having a slight shock there's nothing much wrong with her. Of course, her throbbing head would protest that opinion.
"Wait a while to ensure her symptoms don't get worse. Then if she's able to hold a conversation and walk okay, it should be safe for her to sleep."
"Great. Thanks."
She hops down only to stumble into Mateo. He catches her by the waist and keeps his hold on there even as she straightens up. She would argue to be released but truthfully, she is still feeling slightly nauseous caused in part by the vertigo.
"It was him. Mateo, it was him," she mutters while he helps her onto the sidewalk.
"Okay, let's get you home."
"I tried to get a look at him. He was tall. Taller than you..." she winces trying to remember the rest of the details she'd caught.
"Makayla stop. Let's get you home first. We'll talk there."
Since thinking too hard makes her head pound Makayla allows him to escort her home. Even though it's not a long way, Mateo had driven so they take his car which Makayla's grateful for.
When they make it up into her house, she doesn't have so much trouble with walking. It's the blinding headache that bothers her the most. Nonetheless she persists with the knowledge the day that had started out rather well then gone to shit is almost over. As soon as they're inside, Makayla hangs up her coat and turns to Mateo.
"Thanks for walking me home," she mutters, "I gave my statement to the cops on the scene but I don't think it made much sense. I was still pretty out of it."
"You were, I talked to them. We decided it was better I take your statement tomorrow. Luckily the witness was helpful."
Tomorrow sounds like a good idea that Makayla's grateful for. Of course, that will mean she'll have to take some time off work.
"I'll come in tomorrow. But how did that guy know to get you? Did the uniforms figure it out from seeing me?"
He doesn't answer for a second, instead his brows coming together in confusion before he smooths out his features.
"You told the witness, chica," he explains gently.
This time it's Makayla who looks at him in confusion. Did she say that? Go her. But she can't remember when she said it. She remembers the guy with the running, a man helping her and then she fell asleep. No, not asleep, unconsciousness. When she woke, there were cops around her, the EMTs arrived and well, the rest she knows. So when between that did she tell him to get Mateo? What else has she forgot? There's a sharp stab of pain at her head when she tries to recall her evening. She fights through it because what if she's already starting to forget things? What if tomorrow she'll have permanently forgot it all?
"Right, right, of course. Maybe we should talk now before I forget anything else."
Mateo places an hand on her shoulder and disagrees, "it doesn't work like that. You're only going to hurt yourself trying to remember tonight. You heard the EMT, you need rest."
She sighs with no small amount of relief.
"Alright, thank you Mateo. I'll come by the precinct tomorrow then-"
"Not so fast, Makayla. I'm not leaving you here alone tonight. You asked for me for a reason and it wasn't just because I'm the lead on this case."
Makayla opens her mouth to correct them but has to quickly shut it again. True, she doesn't remember telling the man who helped her to call for Mateo however, there is a prickle at the back of her head that tells her what she'd been feeling at that time was the need to see him not so he could catch the guy but to just be there with her.
Dipping her head slightly in agreement at his deductions, Makayla hesitates, wondering what now? She knows she wants a hot shower and to get to bed as soon as possible but since Mateo's sticking around, she supposes she should be a good host and sort him out first.
"Hold on," he says when she makes move to head up the stairs, "you set up the security system for the night and wait here. I'll do a walk about of the upstairs and then come get you. I doubt he's back for round 2 tonight but it doesn't hurt to be sure."
Makayla's sure that's just overkill however at this point she'd rather be overly cautious. They hadn't predicted the kid would attack her at gunpoint so brazenly so there's no telling how things will escalate from here. And Makayla's pretty sure it is only going to escalate.
She secures her house and sinks her butt onto the bottom of the stair, already starting to pull out the pins from her updo while waiting for Mateo to finish his...walking about? She's not sure exactly what he's doing though having a man with a gun doing it does make her feel better.
He returns just as she sighs in relief at the pressure that eases from her hair being released. Although she wears her bun low, it can still sometimes cause her headaches and now with this apparent concussion she has it's only been exasperated.
"Secure," states Mateo, "you go get ready for bed. I'll check the downstairs too."
"Okay. Thank you."
********
The heat and steam from the shower helps her headache too. She keeps it short, especially since the heat while helping her head hurts the scrapes at her knee. Besides, she's so tired if she'd stayed there any longer, she may have just decided to sleep in the tub. Makayla slips on her usual nightgown- a silky one, the only kind she owns. Maybe she should have some more modesty with Mateo in her house but it's not like they're doing anything tonight. When she is better, well, the plan had always been to sleep with him and get the novelty over with anyway. Besides, yesterday he'd basically seen her in it anyway.
Not bothering with the hair bonnet tonight since she really can't deal with the band it brushing against her bruised head, Makayla lazily rubs in her face and hand lotion while wondering where her sudden houseguest has gone.
She's about to call out to him when he appears at her open doorway.
"There you are," she smiles, noting with some amusement the cup in his hand.
Makayla fine with him helping himself to coffee or any other hot drink but it is funny to her how he did make himself immediately comfortable.
Her observation of him holding the cup in his hands makes her miss his own perusal of her.
"I found this in your cupboards. Figured you could use it," he says gently, handing over the cup to her and taking a seat beside her on the side of the bed.
She takes the cup of course and breaks out into a big grin. Tea. He'd made her tea. The grin fades as she realises that they're not even dating and he's doing shit like this. That's not good. She takes a sip and beats back the barrage of disjointed thoughts that spring to mind with just one kind gesture.
"Thanks," she chokes out.
He's silent in response making Makayla turn to look towards him. Mateo's hard gaze is focused on the bruise diagonal to her eyebrow. He raises his hand up towards it though knows better than to actually touch there. Instead, his fingers push back one of her curls that's escaped as his fingers whisper over her hairline near the damaged area.
"He's lucky he missed your temple," growls Mateo, more she thinks to himself than her.
Makayla just sips her tea and smiles, "yeah considering some of the alternatives, I suppose I am grateful for just a few knee scrapes and a headache."
Mateo's not feeling as grateful it seems since his face gets a lot more frown-y. She pokes him in his hard chest light enough not to be mean but hard enough to get his attention.
"Lighten up, buttercup. I'll live."
He doesn't laugh or lighten up as she commands but at least his frown eases into one of grim displeasure.
"We are going to catch him, Makayla. I'm not going to let him have a chance to get that close to you again. Tonight...I should have been-"
Makayla brings her fingers to his lips since that's the only way she can think to stop him talking without her yelling. Her head hurts too much to yell tonight.
This isn't on him.
She doesn't need him shouldering all this responsibility because she knows how this goes. It's always the same with these 'rah-rah. macho' type guys. Everything bad that happens, they take it on themselves and it also usually means refusing any help from a little female. Nevermind, that she's had her fair share of life experiences that have made her mentally strong in her own way. Oh no, she must be shielded from it all because it's either too complicated, or too dangerous or too difficult for her to possibly comprehend.
"This isn't your fault, don't make it yours Mateo. Shouldering guilt or blame isn't what's going to help anyone, it's not what you need and it's certainly not what I need from you."
He exhales the breath he holds from his nose and slowly blinks in agreement. That's another surprise from him, he listened to her. Squeezing his hand in gratitude, she leaves it there even when his expression has mellowed out.
"Drink your tea, baby. Before it gets cold."
Even though his tone is soft that's definitely a command. Bossy man. Thoughtful and sweet bossy man but still very bossy.
Nonetheless, Makayla drowns the tea, leaving only a little bit with the dregs of it. Unable to help it she yawns with fatigue. She safe, warm and now completely wiped.
"Makayla," calls Mateo, "where am I sleeping tonight?"
Makayla doesn't understand, hadn't he just said he was staying with her.
"What do you mean?" she says, "here."
"Here, where?"
Is this a concussion thing? Why is he just repeating her?
"In my house," slowly drawls Makayla.
Apparently, her perplexity is what makes him smile. His head tips down as he snorts a chuckle.
"No, Makayla I know that. That's not what..." he struggles containing his amusement and spells out, "how many beds you got in this house?"
"2," she states, her poor brain still catching up.
"Right so which one am I sleeping in?"
Oh. Her eyes widen in realisation. She hadn't thought of that. It's true she does have a guest bedroom and although the bed will need new sheets, it's still a bed. But it's also in another room. Makayla can try justify having him beside her is to make her feel safer however she may be able to lie to him but not to herself.
Looking to the other side of her spacious double she tries to casually answer, "plenty of space here."
From the way his lips quirk up, she's pretty sure he sees through her façade though he has the decency not to comment on it.
"Alright. Give me a few minutes. Then we'll settle in for the night."
Makayla's already starting to fall asleep when he returns. In the dark, she vaguely sees him strip before climbing in. By the time he's got comfortable, she's already fast asleep.
***********
The bed is empty the next morning. Makayla stretches out to feel his side but it's cool. He must have woken up a while ago. She grabs her phone to note that it's not that early. Later than she normally gets up but it's still morning. Well, it's exactly how she envisioned she'd be sleeping with Mateo Rojas to be but to be fair to her, she hadn't exactly predicted getting hit on the head by a gun.
First thing first, she sends both her boss's the same text of taking the morning off. The polite and right thing to do would probably be to ask for time off but with them, they know she wouldn't miss work unless necessary so she's sure she'll instead get questions of concern. They're not ones she really feels like answering so she puts her phone on silent and takes stock of her ailments. The throbbing of her head has levelled out to a dull ache which she hopes will improve throughout the day, the nausea and dizziness though are thankfully gone. Getting up, she decides to brush her teeth before going exploring for her babysitter.
In her smallish house it doesn't take long to find him. He's in the kitchen, working through a cup of coffee and a last bite of a slice of toast while holding a phone up to his ear.
"...yeah, thanks. Appreciate it," he says into the phone before ending the conversation and pocketing the device.
Makayla takes the few moments she has before he spots him to catalogue his appearance. She's pretty sure he stripped off before sleeping in the same bed as her but damn is she disappointed she missed the show. Apparently, unlike her he's a bit of a prude about his incredible body. Especially since he's back in his clothes from last night- t-shirt and jeans. There's no way he slept in jeans and that t-shirt's not rumpled enough to suggest she wore it to bed. Still, she had a rough night he could have at least done her the curtesy of leaving it off this morning.
"Hi," she greets him, shuffling around him to grab herself a drink.
"Morning," he replies, "I hope you don't mind I helped myself."
"Nope. Not at all. Mi casa, su casa," she mutters.
"Hablas espanol?"
Makayla spins, sweet caffeine in hand and shakes her head.
"What? Oh no, I only know that much because it was in a Shakira song."
Again, she's not sure what's so funny with what she said since it was only the truth but he bursts out into laughter. Mateo laughing is quite a spectacle especially because he's so rigid most of the time. Where she'd normally be annoyed since she's not in on this hilarious joke, this morning she simply smiles and is content to observe.
When the chuckles die down, he grins broadly at her and shakes his head while rinsing his dishes and loading them into the dishwasher.
"I don't understand what's so funny," she mumbles, lips against her cup.
His hand curls across her stomach to her waist in an unexpected but welcome gesture. Lightly, his lips brush against the temple of her head, the uninjured side, in a soft kiss.
"You, chica. You're not who I expected."
Of course, because he thought she would just be a full-time bitch.
"Mmhmm," she grumbles, "and just what is that supposed to mean?"
He has the good sense to not give her answer that landmine of a question. Instead, he gives another butterfly, temple kiss and squeezes her waist before releasing.
"Did you get time off this morning to come to the station?" he asks, switching to the serious matters at hand.
Makayla does wish they could go back to the fun part of this morning but apparently that's over now and they need to deal with the aftermath of yesterday.
"Yes, I thought I'd get dressed and come straight in," she informs him.
"Hold off on that," he instructs, "I have to head home quickly. I won't be long but when I get back, I'll escort you to the station. We'll go through what you remember and then I'll take you to work. It's safer for now if you don't go anywhere unescorted or without security."
That seems very restrictive for woman like her who is used to dropping by tiny, hole in the wall restaurants or deciding to go to for happy hour drinks at the last minute. Still, he's got a point. She does need to be careful. Maybe it would be worth getting some bodyguards. It's weird to think about her having bodyguards since she's only ever thought of celebrities having the additional security but she can't really expect Mateo to follow her everywhere. Both options sound absolutely suffocating. Then again, it's better than actually being suffocated.
"Agreed," she sighs, "maybe I should get some bodyguards or hire one of those security firms."
She prepares her arguments for why it is necessary and he can't be the one to shoulder that entire responsibility. It's obvious but she braces herself to explain to him that he can't possibly expect her to stop doing her job and stop him doing his for an undefined amount of time to catch a criminal from the very limited evidence they have. Turns out, there's no need since he shocks her by putting aside his ego and agreeing.
"That's not a bad idea. I can make some recommendations and calls. I have a friend I served with who's in the security business now. Firm he works at is the best in the city."
Of course, Makayla's happy to hear he has a recommendation. It'll save her some of the searching time. Though she's more curious about his service. He obviously means in the military and it is a usual transition from there to cop.
"Which branch?" she asks.
" 'Branch'? He's on the bodyguard side of the business."
"No, I meant your service. Which branch did you serve in?"
"Oh. Army."
She has so many more questions like for long? Was it just the Army or was he a Green Beret? Did he go into therapy after? Where did he serve? Also as the daughter of a deceased politics professor, she'd of course have to ask as well whether he truly believed in the military advertisement that he was 'fighting for freedom'. Unfortunately, they don't have the time to get into that.
"Walk me out?" he rhetorically asks already heading towards the front door.
She places down her half-drunken cup and follows him, disarming her system so he can go through without it sounding the alarms. Just when he's finished tugging on his jacket, Makayla grasps his arm, pulling him back to her. As she steps into those strong arms, her hands smoothing over his steel chest his own hands automatically rest at her hips. She rises to her tiptoes and is met halfway with him lowering his head.
Makayla gets to kiss him for approximately one second before he's taking over. He drags her closer to him and the sweet, goodbye for now, kiss she'd planned turns into something far hotter. Her arms raise, grasping at his broad shoulders while her chest plasters against his. That sinful mouth of his urges her lips to part for him while his arms tighten around her. One of his large hands slips down from her lower back to grab her ass.
He doesn't push for more than that but even the making out is enough for Makayla's body to soften. It's not because she's easily turned on either, he's just that good of a kisser. It's not the easiest skill to learn either but the man's mastered the art of it. He's rough without actually hurting her, knowing when to give and when to tease so that she's left craving more while simultaneously unable to simply make him bend to her will. It makes her wonder, would he be as unmovable in other sexual acts? He's a natural dominant, that much is obvious to Makayla though the question is does he realise it?
All too soon, his grip on her softens until it falls off completely while his mouth also tears away from hers. Instinctively she pokes forwards to seek for more but he resists. Her mind catches up with her hormones and with reluctance, Makayla follows his lead and detangles herself from him too.
"Not that I'm complaining but what was that for?" he exhales.
That is a question she's not quite ready to answer herself so she gives him a shaky smile and a slight lift of her shoulder.
"Following the recent pattern of events, I have to infer my day's only going to get worse from here onwards. I wanted something good to at least start it off."
The somewhat dazed expression on his face is wiped off at her words and instead replaced with strong determination. He cups her cheek and gives her one hard kiss before stepping back.
"We'll get through it," he promises heading for the front door.
Makayla watches that door swing shut at his exit and lets out a sigh. Yeah, she'll get it through it.