My aching body screamed at me as I hauled ass to the lobby of the hotel. I was snagged by Melody and Peyton the second I stepped out of the elevator.
“What’s going on?” I asked, not missing the stares we were all getting.
“Um that’s a loaded question,” Melody replied, keeping a firm grip on my hand.
We made our way through the parking lot to Peyton’s Telsa––me taking shotgun.
“What’s going on?” I asked again, rolling down the window to let some heated air out.
“Look at this.” Peyton grabbed a manila folder off his dash and handed it to me. I flipped it open.
My brow wrinkled and my neck stiffened when it finally registered what I was looking at.
It was a deed. A copy of a deed to my parent’s estate with both mine and Mateo’s name on it, giving us joint ownership.
Before I could question it, another copied document joined it. This one was a promissory note with a sum that made my head spin and my name written beneath it.
“I was told to bring you straight to him, and if I didn’t, he would have you brought to him by his own methods.”
“I don’t––what the fuck is going on?” I flipped the folder shut.
“Did something happen last night?” Melody asked as Peyton pulled out of his parking spot.
“Besides great mind-blowing sex? No. Wait, he got a phone call, and then he never came back.”
“So we need to figure out what the call was,” Melody enthused.
“No, take me to him.”
“What?” Echoed around the cabin of the car.
“I’ve been here for weeks being a little bitch about everything going on and clearly something has happened. Regardless, he has no right to my parents’ home.”
“You have no idea what is waiting for you,” Melody protested.
“I have no idea what will happen if I don’t go,” I levelly retorted.
And so it began. The pros and cons of me walking like a slab of meat into the wolves den or stalling until Mateo sent one of his gooiness after me.
“You’re right,” Peyton reluctantly agreed after a tense silence had befallen upon us. “Because there’s a big ass Yukon that’s been trailing me since I left the parking lot.”
I looked in my side mirror and immediately spotted the truck in question. It wasn’t even bothering to be discreet.
Hitting send on Mateo’s number for what had to be the fifth time I was once again greeted by his voicemail. There’s no way he would turn his phone off so I could only assume he blocked my number, which led me to conclude he was ensuring whatever conversation we needed to have would be done in person.
So I told my best-friend to take me to him.
Ididn’t think of it as him and I.
Or me and him.
I thought me verses. him.
My mind was oddly calm, my nerves buzzing with only slight worry.
The gates to his estate were already wide open when we arrived.
They closed as soon as Peyton’s car made it through with the Yukon right behind us.
