Page 12 of Brock’s Mate

For a moment she felt completely frozen. How the hell had he tracked her down this time?

Brock’s voice broke through her stupor. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” she said automatically. Everything was not fine. She had to get the hell out of town. She started to get a weird panicked feeling inside her, and her vision blurred around the edges.

Oh, no. She couldn’t have a blackout now.

“I have to go to the ladies’ room,” she said abruptly, and pushed away from the table, stumbling in her hurry.

She headed for the back, leaving her phone on the table. She couldn’t use it anymore anyway; now that Jered knew the number, he could use it to track her.

There were two ladies’ rooms to one men’s room—more good management—so no line. Desi pushed inside and locked herself in a stall, dropping to her knees in front of the toilet. She felt like she was going to throw up. Her insides were twisting—hell, it felt like all of her muscles and bones were twisting, and she still couldn’t see right.

Had someone put something in her drink? No, she couldn’t blame anyone here. This was Jered’s fault. Whatever he’d done to her had brought on these recurring panic attacks.

It pissed her off. She’d never been like that. Letting fear get the better of her.

But she still couldn’t quite get her breath, and her body felt like it was going in all directions.

You know why that is, said the voice in her head.

No, she didn’t. She would not accept the crazy. She refused.

She got to her feet, holding on to the wall until she could see straight, and then went out of the stall and splashed water on her face. It helped a little.

She had to get out of here. She had to get home, grab her stuff and get out before Jered found her.

Fuck. Her jacket. She’d left it in the booth, and her keys were in it. Should she go back?

No. Too dangerous. Jered might have people looking for her—or Brock might still be around, asking more questions. Lucky she had that spare car key in her wheel well.

She vaguely remembered seeing an exit at the end of the hall. She could go out that way. If Jered were in the area, watching her car, he wouldn’t expect her to come around from the back. She’d be able to see if anyone was hanging around.

She didn’t want to run into Brock, though. There was a girl at the sink next to her, just blotting her lipstick. Desi said, “Can you look out the door and see if there’s a tall, excellent-looking guy with red-brown hair outside, wearing a green t-shirt and black flannel?”

The woman grimaced. “A clinger, huh?”

“Something like that.”

She pushed the door open a bit and looked out. “Nope.”

Desi hesitated, then pulled a wad of money out of her back pocket. She didn’t have a lot, but Callie and the others had been nice to her. She didn’t want to stiff them. She peeled off a couple of bills and handed them to the other woman. “Do me a favor, give this to the guy running the Speed Dating and tell him it’s from the girl who didn’t make his life a misery, to pay for dinner. Got that?”

The woman shrugged. “Sure, whatever.” She hesitated, then said, “Do you want me to get my boyfriend to walk you to your car? You don’t look so good.”

“I’m fine, but thank you.”

The girl left with a shrug that said she’d done all she could. Desi checked the hallway again, and took off out the back exit.

Chapter 5

Brock sat at the table, watching Desi go, his hand clenched into a fist.

Her eyes had flashed gold after she got the text message. Her scent was confused, hard to pin down, but he knew two things for sure.

She was a wolf.

And she was about to lose control.