Chapter 5
Rocky
“Fucking piece of shit!” Genesis figured if he couldn’t get to me in real life, he would fuck with me through my online store, placing order after order with ominous messages on them. They were all some variation of the “mine” theme he was going with. You’re mine or just the more threatening Mine. Embroidered, hand-stitched, knitted or crocheted, he requested it all.
And I did what any businesswoman in her right mind would, I canceled the orders and refunded his money because I knew exactly what the rat bastard was up to. He thought he could trace me, knowing I’d never complete his order. But what he didn’t know or perhaps didn’t realize, was that I’d learned a lot in the sixteen months since I’d called him my boyfriend, and one of the things I’d learned early on was that a virtual private network meant no one, not even Genesis, could track me online.
“Ma’am, are you all right?”
I looked up at the pretty middle-aged librarian who smiled at me with concern in her violet eyes. “I am, thank you. Just a client with unreasonable demands. I’ll keep it down.” I probably wouldn’t keep it down, because Genesis had wasted hours of my time sifting through his phony orders and the air conditioning in the library could use a serious upgrade. “Sorry.”
“No problem. Thank you for your patronage.”
That pulled a smile from me. “I actually have a box of books from a recent move. Would you be interested in them?”
Her smile lit up as she gave me information on donating books to the Mayhem Public Library and it was just enough to make me forget about my own life. For a minute, anyway.
I gave a friendly wave and made my way back to the Blazer and groaned as the leather seats singed my skin. It was too damn hot in the desert and I knew that wherever I moved next, it wouldn’t be a place that was all heat and no wind. I was forced to do the one thing I didn’t want to, go back to Lasso’s house, even though he wasn’t home yet. I hated to do it, but it had to be done, so I made a compromise with myself. I stayed on the sofa with my laptop and a giant plastic case of beads and worked until my fingers and my back ached and sweat dripped down my neck.
Eventually hunger called and roused myself from the sofa to make something to eat. I just hoped like hell I would be able to keep it down. Yesterday I’d gone grocery shopping, so I pulled out mahi-mahi, asparagus and mashed potatoes from the refrigerator and forty minutes later dinner was almost ready and still no nausea in sight.
“Thank all the goddesses in the sky!” I whispered as I wiped down the counter.
“Interesting.” Lasso’s deep voice sc
ared the shit out of me.
“What the hell?” My heart thudded so loud and so hard, I had to catch my breath. “Stop doing that.”
He smirked. “Aren’t you supposed to be keeping an eye out for bad guys?”
He was right of course, the bastard. “Yeah, well, silly me, I thought I was safe here.” That wasn’t fair, of course, but I didn’t give a damn. I shook off my annoyance and piled the fish on a plate and put it on the table with the rest of the food. “There’s enough for two if you’re hungry and don’t worry, I bought this myself.” He hadn’t said anything yet, but I knew he didn’t want me here and I was determined not to be a burden.
“I wasn’t worried. And I told you to stop this crazy shit, leaving while I’m gone. It’s fucking stupid.”
I gave him a cold stare and took a seat before I served myself. “Your opinion,” I said and then started to eat, slowly in case the baby decided he or she was no longer hungry.
“You look upset, want to talk about it?”
“Nope.” Genesis was a problem I couldn’t avoid, but my disappearance had given me time to come up with a foolproof plan. “You?”
“Not even a little.”
“Great.” I stared at him for a long moment and he stared back at me, our eyes connected the way they had when he was buried deep, plowing me to an indescribable pleasure I’d never felt before. But that was Dallas, a handsome, charming and gorgeous man who’d stepped in to help me. It wasn’t Lasso, a hardened, cold biker who was grumpy and didn’t want me around.
I preferred Dallas, but I was grateful for Lasso because he was the alphahole who’d make it easy for me to walk away in a few days.
***
MINE FOREVER. Fuck. It was another message from Genesis, disguised as an order for an oversized blanket this time and this time I had a decision to make. I needed to decide if I would pull the trigger on the only viable plan that had come together over the past week. A new identity, a new look and a new town. It’d have to be far from here just to make sure I didn’t accidentally run into anyone I knew. And it meant saying goodbye to the few friends like Kody I’d made over the years.
Fucking Genesis. He was determined to ruin my life if he couldn’t be part of it or benefit from it. Asshole.
The idea of erasing myself completely didn’t sit well with me, but then again, I didn’t have much in this life to hang on to anyway. And this was the only option that didn’t end ten or twenty years later, with me right where Genesis wanted me. I just needed to let the idea sit another day before I decided what to do. I shut down my computer and lay back on the Adirondack chaise that I’d rescued from the shed behind the garage.
“We’re going out to eat. Get dressed.” Lasso stood tall, casting a long shadow over me.
I stared up at him with a blank look, amazed a man so large was able to move so quietly and pissed that he thought he could order me around. “Was that an invitation? Because it needs work.”