I could ask Nico for a short-term loan and increase my hours to repay him. Maybe I could scrap my car and get a little money from it. Who even knows where my car is? It wasn’t outside my apartment when Elias drove past it. The sheriff or the firefighters must have had it towed somewhere.
She opens her mouth to respond, but Wyatt wraps his arm around my shoulder. “We’ll talk about it.”
I frown.
Lina bounces her gaze from me to Wyatt and retreats a step. “I can come back.”
“Give us a couple of minutes,” Knox suggests.
“I won’t wander far,” Lina says, and walks off with a smile.
I focus on the four silent alphas I’m sharing a booth with. They have jobs they need to be at all day. Derek could walk into the diner at any time and sit in my section, and if he caused trouble, I’d be on my own until the sheriff turned up to arrest him.
“You don’t think working in the diner is a good idea, do you?” I ask, mainly because I don’t think it’s a good idea either. I freaked out when a guy tried to grab my wrist. If Derek walked in, I’d have a full-blown panic attack and run into a wall, knocking myself out getting away from him.
That’s why Wyatt suggested we talk about it. I see it in all their eyes. They know I’m in danger, and none of them wants to be the one to tell me because it’ll scare me.
Wyatt gives my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll figure something out. For now, you need rest. Your voice is still a little raspy. While we’re in town, we could swing by the doctor’s office for a quick checkup.”
He says it so casually.Toocasually. It wouldn’t be a stretch to believe they already talked about this, and this trip into town had two purposes: scare Derek away when he sees four big alphas hovering protectively over me, and get me to see the doctor I refused last night.
“You are very good at maneuvering me,” I tell him quietly, unsure if it’s a compliment or a criticism.
Derek’s form of moving me was physical. Sometimes emotional, but often physical. My bruises have faded, but I remember everything he ever did to control me.
When Wyatt kissed me before, it was deep and passionate. He wanted to draw eyes to us so everyone would believe we were sleeping with each other. The kiss in our booth is sweet, as intimate as it is apologetic. No one would see it but Hunter, Elias, and Knox.
“I’m not trying to maneuver you,” he says so quietly that if Lina were still at our table, she would struggle to hear him. “I intend to treat you with the care you deserve, darlin’. Never doubt that for a second. And if you doubt it, then I’m doing something very,verywrong.”
I give him a searching look and sigh, knowing this visit to see the doctor comes from concern, not a need to control me. “Okay. I’ll see the doctor for aquickcheckup. I don’t need it, but I will.”
Knox calls Lina back to our table, and she takes our order, starting with me.
I order a chicken burger with fries and a soda, then sit quietly, my mind wandering as Lina takes Elias, Wyatt, Knox, and Hunter’s orders.
When I’m not the one who has to cook, my appetite has always been bigger than when I’m doing the cooking. Derek made me second-guess myself so constantly that I came to dread it. I hadn’t expected to enjoy baking pies for Nico when he was sick one morning as much as I did. Enough that I agreed to keep doing it. As I made pie dough and filling, I couldn’t help but smile when I remembered weekends laughing with my sister and grandma.
My eyes meet Winston’s in the kitchen, and he grins and waves when he sees me. I wave back. Even if I wanted to keep making pies for Nico, I couldn’t. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been staying for a couple of hours after serving tables, making the pies in one tiny corner of the kitchen so Nico could bake them when he opened the next morning. I have no car and no way to get from the farmhouse to the diner, even if I might be safer from Derek if I stayed in the kitchen instead of serving tables.
Only after Lina returns with our drinks and tells us that our food will be ready in about twenty minutes does Knox say, “We haven’t seen any new arrivals in town. We asked the other guys if they’ve seen anyone at the motel, and they said they’ll keep an eye open.”
Considering they don’t even know who they’re keeping an eye out for, that’s going to be close to impossible. I’ve not told them about Derek, though they must be curious about whowould want me dead. I haven’t even told the sheriff, and he’s made more than one pointed comment over the last month that if I had any trouble, he’s ready to step in and help.
“I appreciate you doing all this,” I say, playing with my straw, “but I can’t imagine he’s still here. He wanted me dead, and he’s probably left.”
Wyatt shakes his head. “If he wanted you dead, there would have been an easier, less explosive way to do it.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t list them out. I would never sleep again.
“So, what was he doing?” I ask.
“Scaring you so badly you’d run,” Wyatt says.
When they all nod, it’s clear that they’ve talked about this. Probably after I went to sleep last night.
“I don’t understand.” I push my drink aside and sit back in my seat, twisting my fingers together as nerves get the better of me.
“He wanted you afraid and alone,” Knox says. “But you’ve been here for a month. You have a job.” His eyes track Lina, who weaves between the tables, a constant flurry of efficiency. “Friends.” He looks at me. “If he’d been in town long enough, he’d know the sheriff was checking in with you as well. If I were him, I’d think that you were looking to settle down here and build a life where people knew you, liked you, and cared about you. And if I wanted you alone and desperate, the first thing I’d want to do is scare you so badly you’d take off in a blind panic so I could easily scoop you up.”
