Behind me, the kitchen is silent.
I peer over my shoulder to find exactly what I expected. Four alphas have abandoned their breakfast of blueberry pie, pancakes, bacon, and eggs at the dining table to focus on me, and none of them looks the least bit pleased.
Lina just asked me to cover a busy lunch shift for her, which they all overheard. With all my alphas at work and me no longer having a deputy parked outside to watch the house, I have no one to take me and no way to get into town on my own. Derek torched my car, and even if I’d wanted to buy another one, I can’t afford to yet.
“Give me five minutes, Lina,” I say down the phone. “I’ll call you back.”
No sooner have I ended the call than Wyatt says, “It’s a bad idea.”
I set my phone down on the counter and join them at the table.
The last few days have been bliss. If I were ever this happy, I have no memory of it.
Knox surprised me with a new cell phone, smiling as he said, “This isn’t because you drained my battery on your last call with Missy. You need one of your own, and I should have thought to get you one before now.”
He said I should be able to speak to her whenever I wanted and not be reliant on him or anyone else being around so I could use their cell phone.
It’s only through speaking to my sister for an hour almost every night that I realize how much Derek isolated me. Having a phone that no one is going to go through my calls and text messages the way Derek used to has been liberating. It isn’t just a way to keep in touch with my sister and my niece and nephew, who have been telling me they are literally counting down the days until they come and visit. It’s reopening my world when before it was so small. Some cages you see; others you never notice until you step out of them.
Fear kept me with Derek and kept me away from the people he would have hurt if I had left him. People I love so much I’d have lived the rest of my life alone, shuffling from filthy motel rooms to hourly paid jobs if it kept them safe. My world isn’t just bigger; I’m no longer making myself smaller to fit the prison Derek made of my life. And it’s all because of the four men at this table who aren’t even trying to hide their concern from me.
“I can drive, and I promise if you let me borrow your car, I won’t crash it,” I say.
“It’s not about you crashing, Maisie.” Knox frowns as he nudges his half-finished breakfast aside. “It’s about us not being around if you need us.”
They’ve worried about my safety for longer than I knew.
We’ve talked a lot these last several days. About our future, about making Rios home, our businesses, eventually starting a family, and about how they quietly watched over me when theysaw my bruises and made a promise that I would never be afraid again.
And even though I still worry about Derek, who no one has seen, I refuse to live my life in the cage Derek put me in. He’s ruined my life for long enough; I refuse to let him do it anymore.
Only Hunter is not looking desperately worried. “How many hours?”
Knox, Wyatt, and Elias snap their heads toward him, scowling.
Hunter keeps his eyes on me. “Maisie really wants to do this, and she needs to live her life again. Not stay cooped up in this house, afraid something will happen to her if she goes into town on her own.”
I flash him a grateful smile, relieved he gets it. “I’ll just be covering for Lina for a couple of hours while she takes her son for a checkup. She wouldn’t have asked at all if they weren’t so desperate. Lina and Nico have done so much for me, and I want to help out.”
Wyatt glances at Elias. “The sheriff said there’s been no sightings of Derek.”
Elias scratches his jaw. “Itcouldmean he’s gotten the message that there’s no getting to Maisie without going through us.”
“Or it could mean that he’s waiting for a chance to get her alone,” Knox says quietly, his concern so tangible I can feel it. “And we’d be giving him a big one while we’re all at work.”
“I could call in,” Elias offers.
I shake my head. “This is the last week of the condo build. Youallhave to be there.”
Lawrence, one of Sheriff Watson’s deputies, has watched over me whenever my alphas had to all go into work. For the last two days, when it was just me at the house, it was lonely, and I was more than a little worried. With the security system, anew cell phone, and clear instructions on where to hide if Derek showed up, I felt prepared for anything.
My alphas checked up on me, but the longer nothing happened, the more convinced I was that nothing would. I relaxed and focused on making pies. It’s why I’m even agreeing to this shift at the diner. For the first time in so long, I feel safe. Wherever Derek is, he’s staying away from the farmhouse and from me.
They glance at each other.
“I still don’t like it,” Wyatt says.
“I’ll be inside the diner the whole time,” I tell him. “Just working the tables like usual. Nico will keep an eye on me, and Winston will be in the kitchen. I’ll be safe.”
