I’m safe. You can go home now.
Chapter 14
Something weird was going on.I couldn’t quite place my finger on it, but James’s odd behavior when the fire alarm was tripped last night had my senses heightened. James decided to close the bar that Sunday night, and without a shift to keep me busy, it dragged on and on. I met Hannah for lunch, and I got to practice my “don’t start” face when she pried about James again. The face must’ve worked; she only brought it up once.
Monday was more of the same, and when I returned to work on Tuesday, things were still strange. There was tension in the air that I couldn’t place. I tested the fire door myself—it didn’t so much as budge from the outside, which made me uneasy.
Halloween came and went—oddly calm compared to the intensity of The Devil’s Hopyard—and the next couple of weeks were full of weird happenings and strange behavior on James’s part. He started to pull back. He hid out in his office most shifts, barely making an appearance except when we needed him. Dani or I would bring him the receipts at the end of the night, and aside from a quiet thank-you, he didn’t really say anything.
Despite the oddities, I finally found myself falling into aroutine. Work. Meet with Hannah. Even Erin and I struck a tolerable balance. Sure, she still doubted my skills as a parent, but I couldn’t say I blamed her. It didn’t stop me from doing everything I could to prove myself. I saw Hannah at least once a week, more if I could. I went to her debate club competitions and volunteered at the pet store’s pre-Thanksgiving adoption event, which only left me wanting a pet of my own. Still, it seemed like we’d found a happy medium in everything.
James’s refusal to talk to me didn’t mean I’d stopped thinking about him. No matter what I was doing, he somehow worked his way into my brain. My feelings for him likewise didn’t fade at all. In fact, they only grew stronger. Remembering the way he’d ushered me out of the bar that night and how his hand felt resting gently on the small of my back gave me butterflies. It was instinctive, protective: hecaredabout me. In spite of his insistence that he cared aboutallof his employees, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else between us.
I tried to bring up that night, to get some idea of why he’d just let it go, but he shot me down every time. He seemed to know more than he let on.
One evening, I took the receipts back to his office while Dani finished cleaning the front of house, and I heard our song playing behind the door again. It was loud enough to hear if I focused hard enough but not so loud that I could hear it down the hall. I leaned against the doorway and let the song play out, smiling to myself when he turned it back to the beginning.
I didn’t want to, but I interrupted Luke Combs time. The music stopped, and when James told me to come in, I already had my hand on the doorknob. I hesitantly pushed it open.
James took the receipts from my hand, adding them to a pile on his desk. Emboldened from hearing that song, I didn’t promptly leave as I had the last few weeks. Instead, I stood in front of his desk, waiting for him to glance up from his laptop.
“Was there something else you needed, Ryder?”
“Can we talk?”
James gave a curt nod and gestured across the room. “Close the door.” I did as he said, then returned to my spot in front of him. “Is everything okay?”
“Not really. I wanted to talk to you about that night?—”
“I know it was scary, but I promise I’d never put you or Dani in any danger. There’s a police detail watching the bar at all times.”
“You’re lying,” I stated plainly. “We both know you never called the police.”
James scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “And you didn’t go home like I told you to.”
“Hey, you only get to boss me around when I’m clocked in.” I gave him my best smirk. “I guess you’ve never met someone as stubborn as you are.”
James shook his head, visibly biting back a grin. “You’re right, I haven’t. But you really shouldn’t worry. I promise everything’s taken care of.”
I mulled over his words before deciding his answer wasn’t good enough. “Why didn’t you call the police?” I could see from his expression that he was about to feed me another line, so I quickly added, “You know what happened, don’t you?”
His face darkened. “I have an idea.” His voice was becoming angrier. “And as I said, I’ve dealt with it.”
“Oh?”
James shot out of his chair and rounded the desk to stand in front of me. I fought against the urge to back down, instead crossing my arms in front of me in the only self-defense mechanism I could think to conjure.
Our eyes met. He waited for me to back down, but I refused. I planted my feet; I wasn’t budging.
“I told you Ryder,” he growled. “I would never let anything happen to anyone here—especially you.”
My breath came in quick bursts.Especially you. The fuck was that supposed to mean? “What are you talking about?”
James’s nostrils flared. He looked on the verge of saying something I desperately wanted to hear—when a noise from the window caught our attention.
“Oh, fuckthis,” I snarled. I was sick of being interrupted.
I whipped around, yanking the door open and storming down the hall.
