The wire was tangled up in my sweater.
I checked it, part of me hoping it had gone dead during my time with Rafe.
No such luck.
Sighing, I took care of myself.
Every other time we’d had sex, they’d taken care of me afterward.
I wasn’t exactly surprised that Rafe had left me to do it myself.
It was part of the callous, uncaring persona he’d built.
But was it real?
He hadn’t hurt me.
He’d given me more pleasure than I’d ever known.
I couldn’t be angry about that, even if I’d face the ridicule of my entire department when I returned.
Anger at the way they’d treated me through the years spiraled up hot and fast.
I knotted the wire up in my hand and shoved it behind the pipe beneath the sink.
I leaned in close to the microphone.
“Fuck you.” Fuck all of them for making me feel insignificant and not good enough.
Ash, Bishop, and Rafe were ten times the men my coworkers were, and I planned to prove it.
15
ASH
Standing in the middle of the garage, I gassed up my bike and gave it one last check.
Rafe hadn’t said anything about fixing the power.
’Course, he’d been a little occupied teaching Noelle a lesson.
I’d like to have seen that, but without Rafe’s express invitation, I knew better than to interfere.
I checked my map again, making sure I knew the route to the generating station.
I’d passed it a few times over the years but never stopped, and I didn’t want my phone on and the light obscuring my vision as I drove in the dark.
Ricky and a few others who’d drifted back through after delivering the soup waved at me from the driveway.
“See you, man.” Ricky threw out a two-finger salute and revved his bike’s engine.
He peeled out, the others close on his heels.
I put the gas can back on the bottom shelf and shrugged into my leather jacket.
“Where are you going?” Noelle’s surprise lingered in her tone.
She stood in the open doorway between the garage and the kitchen, arms crossed over her red sweater.
