“Go to breakfast with us tomorrow, or meet us somewhere we can talk? I’m Isidro, I met your boyfriend yesterday. He was cute,” the beta shrugs.
“Somehow, I think flirting with her man isn’t going to make things better,” Harlan laughs.
I purse my lips, thoroughly unimpressed.
“Come on, out guys,” Emmett says. “Silva doesn’t actually need me to throw you out. She’ll do it in a way that you’ll be burned and bruised for days.”
“Silva?” Isidro asks, brow raised. If he knows who Sy is, then he damn well knows my name too.
I feel as if I’m being played, caught in some weird web not of my own making. I hate being the butt of a joke I don’t understand, and that’s exactly what’s happening.
Fuck, it also serves to remind me that Harlan knew my date of birth. He shouldn’t have known that, not as someone I’ve never met before.
“Come back tomorrow, around two in the afternoon,” I grunt, turning my back on them.
I want them to think that they’re nothing. Taking a deep breath, I freeze. It’s as if the air conditioner blew down on us and cleared the air around me so that I can breathe their scents in.
No.My heart beats so hard, everything falls away. The alphas behind me mean more to me suddenly than they should, and I wonder if they know that. What they are means that I’m trapped, something I told myself would never happen again.
Pushing my legs into motion, I decide to make sure I keep my distance from them tomorrow until I know what they’re about. Just because I’m locked into the scent match to these alphas, doesn’t mean I want them to know.
They’re officially earmarked in the dangerous category. If they’re already this bold, nothing will stop them if they know we’re scent matched.
My movements are almost robotic as I put Charlie away and I make sure Harlan, Kyren, and Isidro vacate the building. I clean up the mess I left behind, serve customers, reply when spoken to, but there’s no one home inside. I feel as if I’m drowning with this new information, and I’m not sure what to do.
Should I tell Syrus? I should, right?
I’m breathing heavier than I should be, and pretend it’s because I’m being run off my feet. I have a few hours left, and then I can figure out what to do next.
If the other shoe to drop was a size fifteen with a bad attitude, of course it would fucking find me.
Chapter Eleven
Syrus
I’ve had a busy day, but I’m happy I’ve been able to hang out with Silva so much today. I noticed the shadows under her eyes, and how shocked she was when I knocked on her bedroom door.
I haven’t given her back her house key, and she hasn’t asked for it. I refuse to abuse her trust, but knew the odds of her being up at six in the morning were slim. I wanted to surprise her, I just didn’t expect her to appear so small in her huge bed.
I often wonder if she’s sleeping well. Lexi’s words haunt me from time to time. I can’t bring myself to ask Silva questions about her past. It feels like an invasion of privacy, and we haven’t been dating for very long. I want that information to come from her because she trusts me, not from my pressuring her.
I’m not necessarily open with my past either. I have no business being pushy.
Shep is finally done with Silva’s truck. He’s following in my SUV while I drive her baby back to her. He said he wanted todrop by and apologize for the millionth time for the trouble, even though I explained that it wasn’t his fault.
I think he’s a little afraid of Silva. She’s not someone to fuss about delays, as she knows as a business owner that sometimes, shit out of one’s control happens.
As we pull into the parking lot, I see Isidro and two alphas walking out of the club as they argue with Emmett. It makes me wonder what kind of bullshit they decided to start, and I pull too sharply into a spot.
Hauling ass, I get out of the truck and slam the door, not bothering to lock up as I avoid Shep as he parks and jogs across the lot.
“What do we have here?” I ask, my voice booming.
I glare at Isidro’s sheepish expression, not impressed. I’d tell him that I thought he was going to ‘lie low’, but I don’t want to be linked to him in any way.
“We came on too strong,” he mumbles.
I almost stumble at that. Like a cartoon where you’re too slow to process things, I rock back on my heels.
