I grit my teeth.Pull yourself together.This is the shit I’ve been dealt, so deal with it.
I’ve been in far worse situations. This is nothing. We have enough for the current batch, which means I have time to figure out an alternative. If I can’t find a supplier in Indonesia, then Malaysia. We’ll look at rescaling, or focus on just printing in themeantime while we try to find a solution. Maybe we’ll expand the factory to make the wafers too. Or maybe the pirates will wipe us off the map.
Or it could be a Nat and Deedee problem if Tommy or whoever was at my place last night kills me.
Who knows.
The possibilities are endless.
I scrub my face, fighting back the tears.
Tomorrow. I can’t think when I’m running on fumes. I need to sleep, even for a couple hours. Everything else can wait until I can regroup and talk to the girls about what we should do.
Taking a deep breath, I fix my stare on the beach at the end of the street.Survive the night, and tomorrow, I can go. “Fix it.” The words fall without infliction.
Wayan scoffs. “What do you expect me to?—”
“I don’t give a shit what you have to do, youfix.It.You have one job.One. I don’t care if you’re busy. I don’t give a shit if your kid has her first fucking school play. You get paid to do a job, sodo it.”
I’m out of the car, slamming the door behind me without waiting for his response.
Nausea churns in my stomach. I sounded like Tommy. He had the means to back up his threat, but there’s nothing I can do to Wayan. No one will back me up.
My thumb taps an erratic rhythm against my thigh as I will the memories to fade. I try to blink away my blurring vision. My eyes dart from person to person, swinging my attention behind me then to the side into each store. Every person begins looking like they havehismoldy green eyes,hisdirty blond hair.
Tommy’s laughing at me. I’m nothing, just like he said. No one wants me. No one’s there for me. It’s just me. I’m nothing.
Oxygen burns a path down my lungs as the sound of motors and chatter grows louder, the smell of garbage and fumesstronger, and the moonlight bears down on me like a tangible weight. Each flickering light is the spark of a bullet, every movement a threat.
He’s here. He’s everywhere.
My throat starts to close. I can’t breathe. I’ve got to get out of here?—
The air whooshes out of me when I collide with a brick wall. Strong hands steady me, keeping me close as I blink away the shock to get my bearings.
“I caught you.”
“Get your hands—” My attention snaps up to the man with the deep, melodic voice, and for a moment, I’m completely transfixed. The words are dead on my tongue. His scent engulfs me, so potent that my knees threaten to give out beneath me. It’s like I’m stepping straight onto a beach untouched by humankind—where the salty air tastes fresher with the scent of rain and the breeze feels freer.
I’ve never seen someone so…beautiful. He’s almost ethereal with the way his tanned skin glows beneath the fluorescent lights from the nearby stores. It catches on his deep blue eyes, the shadows dipping beneath his cheekbones before cutting into a lethally sharp jaw paired with sinfully soft lips.
Raven black hair spills over his broad shoulders and onto his burly chest, grazing the bottom of his ribs. For a second, I want to reach out to touch the silky strands to see if it’s as soft as it looks, but my thoughts fizzle out when my attention lands on his naked torso.
The muscles of his pectorals and shoulders tighten as he pulls me closer to his orbit. I’m helpless to drop my gaze to the hard expense of his abdomen, every dip kissed by shadows to accentuate his Greek God–like appearance only amplified by his towering height. He must be over 6’6”, maybe taller.
Something molten heats my core as I follow the prominent lines down to the deep V that trails below a pair of shorts to a massive bulge. My stomach quivers at the thought of what he’d look like without a single string of thread to cover him.
My slow perusal lands on the strong hands around my shoulder.
The realization makes me leap out of his hold with a snarl. My skin burns where he touched me. Panic rises in my throat.
“Don’t touch me,” I hiss.
He can’t be touching me. No one can touch me.
“Mate,” he whispers.
Blue eyes flicker to green. Long, black hair shortens to dirty blond.
