Until Series: Box set (25 page)

“Are you going to close the account?”

He keeps up the tickling. “YES!” I screech my agreement about the dating site. “Please stop. I’m going to pee.” I am finally able to say a full sentence and he stops immediately. I jump up and run to the bathroom without looking back. When I am walking back toward the kitchen, I hear Asher and his dad talking.

“I want this shit done.”

“Call Kenton and ask him to make November a priority. You can always send her to him to keep safe.” Hmm, that’s interesting. I’ve been wondering what Kenton does for a living but every time I ask about it, I get the run around.

His laugh holds no humor. Then he answers, “He met November at the Christmas party and was getting ready to go in for the Kenton kill when I told him she was mine.”

“He would never cross that line and you know it.”

“The only thing I know is that I want this shit done,” he growls. “I’m too selfish to send her away. I wouldn’t be able to function knowing she was staying with Kenton.” I hear him take a breath. “If things escalate, I’ll take her to the cabin.”

“Your cousin is a good man. He’s also one of the best at what he does.”

“I don’t give a fuck. You were not there. You didn’t see the way he looked at her. I know Kenton better than anyone. And unless something else happens, she stays here with me.”

“Your jealousy could end up getting her hurt,” his dad whispers and my heart starts beating double time.

“I would never let anything happen to her. I have my fucking reasons for not trusting anyone with her.” I know I need to quit eavesdropping, but it is like I’m glued in place. “We don’t even know what’s going on. The only thing we do know is that she was attacked in New York. That may not even have anything to do with what’s happening here.”

“The card shows the New York City skyline. I think whoever is doing this knows her from New York. We don’t know if the attack and the things happening here are connected, but since she’s been in Tennessee, she has had two separate instances where someone left poetry. This thing is messy. We just need to clean it up and put the pieces together. I’m going into town to the florist. I’ll call and let you know if I find out anything from them.”

“In the meantime, I’m gonna talk to my friend in Jersey and tell him about what happened today.” I can hear the frustration in Asher’s voice.

I walk out of my hiding place in the hall just as Mr. Mayson is opening the front door. He tips his head in my direction, his eyes soft on me. “I want you to be extra careful.” I can tell that his tone is not that of the sheriff, but as a man who cares about me like a daughter. “If you’re out, you need to watch who’s around you. If anyone makes you feel even the slightest bit of unease, you go somewhere where with a lot of people and call me or one of my boys. As I told Asher, this whole situation is a mess. I just need to see if I can dig anything up that will straighten everything out. In the meantime, stay safe.”

“Thanks for everything.” I walk to him and hug him around the waist. He gives me a one-armed hug, his other arm full with his notebook, his plastic bag with the card inside, and a coffee cup.

“I’m sure Susan is going to be stopping by soon and will want to see for herself that you’re safe.” He was not wrong. Susan was a momma bear and very protective of her cubs. Since being brought into the family, she has taken me under her care and made it known far and wide that if you messed with me, you would have to deal with her.

“Okay,” I murmur. My real mother might not want me, but Susan loves me and she is better than anything I could ever ask for in a mother. Asher’s brothers are always giving me a hard time, telling me I am a suck up but I don’t care.

Asher hooks me around my waist, pulling my back to his front. “Talk to you soon, Dad,” Asher says, shuffling us to the door as his dad closes it behind him. He locks it and turns me around, his hands framing my face. “You okay?” I can see the worry in his eyes.

“I’m fine. I just want to know who is doing this and why.”

“Me too, baby,” he says, laying his forehead against mine.

“Is it me, or is that poem totally creepy?” I whisper.

“It’s not just you.”

“What do you think it means?”

“I don’t know, baby,” he says quietly. I wrap my arms tighter around him and hold on. I can tell he hates this more than I do.

“B
ye,” I call
over my shoulder as I walked out of Temptations.

“Bye, honey,” Liz calls through the open door of her shop. I got up early to meet Liz for coffee and to explain to her about what happened yesterday. She knew I received flowers yesterday because I had called her, and everyone else I knew, to see who sent them. She, like everyone else, said she didn’t send anything and wondered why I was asking but I couldn’t explain the situation at the time. Plus with each phone call I made, I got more and more scared and was too freaked out to talk to anyone about what happened. Then Mr. Mayson showed up and we found the card. So, I knew it was more than just a nice gesture from a friend.

After Mr. Mayson left, Asher dragged me into the office, sat me at the desk, got my phone book and had me log onto the online dating site. He dragged me out of the chair, sat down, and pulled me into his lap. I poked around on the website and looked at any messages I had received from guys. I clicked on my profile and the picture I used was not my favorite. He grunted a few times while reading some of the information I posted. I was surprised by the amount of inquiries I received. Some were normal, others disturbing. The normal ones were just,
would you like to have dinner with me
questions. Others were,
would you like to meet to have sex?
Those surprised me. I never knew people used the internet for one night stand type of situations.

Once he was satisfied that no one from the website was stalking me, he canceled my account. I sat quietly in his lap the whole time, fighting the laughter that was getting ready to explode out of me while he was clicking away on the computer. When he was done and the computer was shutting down, I turned to look at him. “All mine.” He grunted and I could no longer hold it in. I started laughing.

“You’re such a caveman,” I said, kissing him.

*

“Oh my God.
I’m so sorry,” I’m apologizing to the person I just bumped into.

The woman mumbles and her body bends down to pick up a file. “You need to watch where you’re going.”

I know that voice. My body freezes.

“Mom?” I whisper in complete shock as her head comes up. Her hair is different, a little longer and I can see a few new wrinkles around her eyes. She probably had to cut back on her Botox treatments now that I’m not there to help her with money.

“November,” she says and gives me a curt nod, but she doesn’t say anything else. She is wearing her usual gear. Black, wide leg slacks, a lavender blouse that I know is real silk, and shiny, black dominatrix shoes. Well, that’s what I call them. The heel looks like it can be used as a weapon. I also know that those shoes have a red bottom.

One of her ex-boyfriends bought them for her before his wife found out that he was keeping a woman on the side. She told him that if he continued on with the affair, she was going to take him to the cleaners. That was the last gift he gave my mother and the only thing she kept. All the jewelry and expensive handbags he bought for her got pawned. Well, any jewelry or handbags that anyone bought for her went to the pawn shop. She never kept anything except clothing unless it had the tags. Then, she would either get the money back or get a store credit for the item and find something else that she liked more.

“Mom, what are you doing here?” I ask, starting to freak out. I don’t want my dad to see her and I really don’t want my grandmother to see her. I look around to see if there is anyone out that I know, and luckily for me, the streets are quiet.

“Well, it’s good to see you too,” she snaps. Her tone says that it isn’t good to see me.

“Sorry, I’m just surprised. I mean, I tried to call you and you haven’t returned any of my phone calls.”

“You abandoned me for your father. He wanted nothing to do with you, yet you still left me for him.” Great, now how do I deal with this? My dad didn’t abandon me. My mother kept me from him, but I really don’t want to get into an argument with her in the middle of the town square. Word travels fast in this town and I don’t want my family to know that she has even been in the city.

“Mom, please. I didn’t abandon you. You know what happened to me. I couldn’t stay in New York anymore.”

I watch her roll her eyes, completely disregarding my attack. “That kind of thing happens every day in the city, November. Don’t be such a drama queen.”

Oh my God. I want to scream in her face. I know that bad things happen in the city. I lived there my whole life. I watched the news, and read the paper. But it didn’t happen to someone else. It happened to me, her daughter, someone that she was supposed to love and look after. “Mom, I could have died. I could have been raped. You heard what the police said. And trust me, I know that bad things happen, but I didn’t feel safe there anymore.” I take a deep breath. “You didn’t answer my question. Why are you in town? Is everything okay?”

She shakes her head and presses her lips into a flat line before answering me. “Everything is fine. I had to see the lawyer in town for something that doesn’t concern you.” I am kind of curious about her meeting with the lawyer, but I’m not going to ask her about it. I want her to leave before anyone sees her.

I take a breath, hoping that the answer to my next question is a big no. “Are you in town for long?”

She looks around and scrunches up her face in disgust. “No, it’s a one day trip. My flight leaves in a few hours.” Well, thank God for small favors.

“Okay.” That was all I could say. I wasn’t sad that she was leaving.

“You look like you fit in here with these people,” she says, looking down her nose at me. The words “these people” was said like they were, in fact, not people at all, but a secret alien race trying to take over the world. She takes a step away from me, pulling her bag closer to her body like I’m planning on ripping it out of her hands and taking off down the street with it. I almost laugh. I look down at what I am wearing and I do fit in here. I have on a pair of dark jeans and long sleeve black shirt with a puffy pink vest over it. And on my feet, I have a pair of plain black boots. I look normal. Not New York upper west side normal, but Tennessee normal.

“Thanks.” I smile.

She huffs out a breath then looks around. Obviously, I didn’t give her the response she wants. “I need to go,” she says and I feel tears sting my nose. Stupid, I know, but she is the only mother I have and I hate that we aren’t close. For my whole life, I wished for her to act like she cared about me. It killed me each time she proved that she never would.

“Okay, have a safe fight,” I mumble, realizing that I’m not a kid anymore. I don’t have to explain to people why my mother was never around like all the other kids’ moms. Realizing that I have family and friends here, people who love me, gives me strength. She has no part in my life. I don’t need her. With that thought in my head, I walk around her, down the sidewalk to my car, get in and call Asher.

“Hey, baby. I’m in the middle of something. Can I call you back?”

“No. Uh…um…that’s not necessary. I just wanted to tell you I love you.”

“Are you okay? You sound freaked.”

“I’m great, actually. Really, really great,” I tell him truthfully. I know happiness because of him, his family, and mine.

He is quiet and I hear him take a breath. “Love you too, baby.” His voice sounds gruff.

“Good,” I whisper, closing my eyes.

“Good,” he whispers back. He is quiet a minute then he tells me, “I’ll see you at home.”

“Okay,” I whisper again.

“Later,” he chuckles and that makes me giggle.

“Yeah, later.” I hang up before I am an even bigger dork. I look in my rearview mirror and see my smile. I am going home. Home. To a home I have with Asher and Beast. I put my car in reverse and drive.

*