“What did I tell you about laughing at me, baby?” he asks. I see the look in his eyes so I jump off the counter and start to run to get away from him. Sadly, his legs are longer and his speed is faster, so I don’t have a chance to escape before I am lying on the floor and his big body is pinning me down, tickling me.
My head is thrashing back and forth. I am begging him to stop and then Beast comes over, not to help me, but to assist Asher in his torture. He is licking my face while Asher tickles my ribs.
“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. “Ifthings 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 thewaist. 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.
Chapter 9
“BYE,” 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 mequestions. 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.
