Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 59146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
“I know.” I sat on the edge of the bed, elbows on my knees, phone pressed to my ear. “I’m coming to get you for work in the morning.”
There was a brief silence before she spoke. “Why?”
“We need to talk.”
“About what?”
“About Brett casing out your bakery and even going inside. A storage fire he might be linked to. About the fact the more Knight digs into this guy, the worse I’m feeling about the whole situation.” I knew I needed to stop and take a breath, but the familiar spiral rode me hard. I needed to protect this woman, and not being able to was messing with my head.
Another pause. Longer this time. I could hear her breathing while she tried to put the pieces together.
“What storage fire?”
“It was a couple of years ago. They ruled it undetermined, but someone suspected something was off. But the unit belonged to a recent ex-girlfriend.”
She was quiet for so long I thought she might have hung up. Then she stated the obvious. “You know, right now, you’re the one stalking me.”
I gave a long sigh. “Yeah. I’ve told myself that. Several times,” I muttered. “There’s a reason I am the way I am. I lost someone important to me once and never want that to happen again. Doesn’t make stalking you right, but…”
Again, there was a prolonged silence. “I have to be at the bakery by three-thirty.”
I let out a breath I’d been holding. “I’ll pick you up at three.”
“I’m giving you this, Inferno. I happen to believe you mean well. But I will take my own car, and I’m not going to hide out somewhere. You can escort me or ride with me or whatever else you need to do within reason.”
“I’m not asking you to hide. That’s why my brothers are going to help. I promise they’ll stay out of sight. The only thing I want is to make sure Brett can’t get to you. We’ll figure it out from there.”
“OK,” she said. “I’ll see you at three.”
“Thanks, Juniper.” I meant it too. I didn’t know what was going on with me, but I knew how crazy I sounded.
“I think I should be the one thanking you. I’d be lying if I said your accusations shocked me. Brett was never anything other than psychologically manipulative to me. He never hit me or yelled at me. His abuse was much more subtle, and I’m only now realizing how bad it got. Don’t make me regret trusting you instead of reporting you to the cops.”
“You have my word, Juniper.”
I ended the call and set the phone on the nightstand, then killed the lamp and lay in the dark. I had a couple of hours before I needed to be up. Considering how little sleep I got last night and today, I needed every second I could get. I closed my eyes and didn’t sleep.
Chapter Seven
Juniper
The alarm went off at 2:30 but I was already awake. I hadn’t been able to go back to sleep after talking with Inferno. I dressed in the dark because, despite owning a bakery, I hated getting up in the morning. The darker the better.
I slid on jeans and a thermal shirt. My hair went into a tight bun and I wore no makeup. Nobody was going to see me at four in the morning except flour, yeast, and the man who’d called me at two a.m. to, apparently, lay down the law. OK, so that’s not exactly what he’d done, but the longer I thought about it, the more I wondered exactly what he’d been doing.
So, I admit, everything he told me about Brett combined with the way Brett had grabbed me so hard I’d bruised, had me spooked on so many levels I didn’t even know where to begin.
First, I might have a stalker. Second, I wasn’t exactly sure which man was stalking me. Third, I might just a tiny bit like the fact one of them cared enough to stalk me. And fourth, the fact that I might like the idea of Inferno stalking me didn’t terrify me told me all I needed to know about my current mental state. Which was totally fucking stupid. That was my mental state. Totally. Fucking. Stupid.
When I stepped outside at three-fifteen, Inferno sat at the curb on his bike waiting. Just like he’d promised. He nodded when he saw me. I got in my car. The low rumble of his motorcycle followed me all the way to the bakery, always at a respectable distance.
Once inside, I flipped on the lights, turned on the ovens, and got to work. Inferno parked around back and came in behind me.
“Flour’s in the storage closet,” I said. “Would you mind getting me three of the fifty-pound bags, please?”
He nodded. When I opened my mouth to tell him where, he’d already turned and started down the hall to my walk-in pantry storage without comment. He’d been in here once, for ten minutes, and he already had the layout. That should have bothered me. It didn’t.