10. Chapter Eight
CHAPTER EIGHT
ECHO
“ I ’m sorry, you can’t buy that,” the guy in the knife store said.
Her eyebrows drew together. She couldn’t buy it?
“Why? I took the class yesterday; I have a coupon. I even have cash if you want it,” Echo exasperated.
“I know all of that, but I can’t sell these knives to you,” he explained.
“Why?”
The man looked uncomfortable as he stared right back at her. Why? Why was he looking like that?
“Why can’t I buy any? Why are you refusing my money?”
“Because I can,” he replied.
She took a deep breath and let it out, trying to control her anger. “I want to know the reason why,” she calmly said.
“I can’t sell you anything. He told me not to.”
Her eyes went wide. “ Who told you not to?”
“I’m not saying. You can’t purchase anything from here. I don’t want to get into trouble. He threatened to cut my fingers off. I’m sorry, but that’s not going to happen, so you can’t buy anything from here,” he rushed out. “I have already told all my employees if they see you not to let you buuy anything. I’m sorry, but I want my fingers, and I especially want my life. So please, leave.”
Blinking, she stared at him for several seconds. That was a lot of information to process.
“Can you say that again?” she asked.
“No. You heard everything I said. I am not going to repeat it. You need to leave now. You aren’t welcome here.” He shooed her away with his hands.
Echo growled in frustration as she walked out of the store. She knew who was responsible for this and her anger was roiling inside her. How dare he mess with her life. He couldn’t do that. It was her life and she could do with it what she wanted.
She wanted to stalk over to the clubhouse and yell at him. She wanted to tell him how she really felt, but she couldn’t.
Not now.
Not until she came up with a plan. Until she figured out her thoughts and could yell at him with everything she had. She needed to wrap her brain around everything he had done.
Oh, she couldn’t wait until she could. Would he be shocked? Echo had lashed out at him before, but she wanted this one to be good and calculated.
Sighing, Echo walked into the coffee shop and sat down at a table.
“Regular?” Flemming asked.
“Please,” Echo almost begged.
She felt a headache coming on from everything that had happened today. Was she going to have a lot of them until this all got sorted out? Echo hoped not; she couldn’t handle this many headaches, especially when she had to look at her computer screen and bartend too.
“Here you go, enjoy.” Flemming set the cup of coffee on the table.
“Thank you,” Echo called out.
She took a big sip and relaxed in her chair and made some graphics for her authors. She absolutely adored working for them. Never in her life would she have imagined she would get to read books, create graphics, and help authors with everything they needed. Sure, some of the tasks weren’t her favorite, but she got to read to pull out quotes.
A dream come true.
A coupleof hours went by as she took the last sip of her coffee. Groaning, she pushed her chair back and walked up to the front counter. Flemming was still making coffee.
“Hey, Flemming,” Echo said.
“What can I do for you?” she asked, turning around.
“Can I get a refill?” Flemming shook her cup.
A sympathetic look crossed Flemming’s face. “Sorry, I can’t. You can only have one a day.”
Echo’s mouth fell open. “One a day?”
“Yeah, one a day. I can get you a cup of tea if you want.”
She shook her head. “No, I would like some coffee. I didn’t tell you that I could only have one day. That isn’t a thing. I am an adult.”
Who drank one cup of coffee a day? Echo probably drank ten a day to function. Was it healthy? No, but it was how she survived. She needed the caffeine.
Okay, maybe Echo was a little addicted to coffee, but who wasn’t? It was her drink of choice. She could have a way worse addiction, but she chose coffee.
“One coffee a day. I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Who told you this?” Echo asked.
She had a suspicion she knew who it was, but she was hoping it was wrong. Maybe Hedda and Charlotte were playing a prank on her. She hoped they were.
“Ummm,” Flemming looked uncomfortable.
“Who told you? Was it Hedda and Charlotte?”
“No, it wasn’t them. It was a man.”
“Was he tall, covered in tattoos, wears a leather cut, shaved head, and is really muscular and tall?” Echo described Deccan to a tee.
“Yeah, that’s him. He told me bad things could happen if I or anyone else gave you more than one cup of coffee a day. I’m really sorry, but I like my life.”
She growled and closed her eyes. Who did Deccan think he was? Why was he doing this to her? Was he trying to show her that she couldn’t get away from him? That he controlled her?
Echo wanted to go against Deccan’s rules, but she didn’t want innocent people to get harmed. They didn’t deserve it.
“I’m really sorry, Echo. I would love to give you more than one coffee, but I just…I can’t. But I bet you could bring a thermos with coffee in it. I can give you one, and then you can refill it as much as you want since you made it,” Flemming offered.
“Thank you,” Echo whispered. “Just put it on my card.”
Echo came to the coffee shop so much that they had her card information and would charge her without even having to swipe it.
After walking back to her computer, she quickly closed everything and stalked out of the shop. Anger was flowing through her like a river.
How dare he do this. Who did he think he was? She was a grown woman. She had been taking care of herself for years.
People looked at her weirdly as she headed down the sidewalk. Did they know? Was he telling everyone to stay clear of her? Why was he doing that?
Echo gripped the strap of her bag extra tightly. She couldn’t wrap her brain around him doing these things. Why did it matter?
Deccan wasn’t anywhere near her right now. Was he avoiding her because he knew how mad she would be? Or was he actually busy with something with the club?
Unlocking her house, Echo walked in and set her bag on a chair. She started pacing back and forth, trying to think of what to do. What was she going to do? What could she do?
Echo wanted to go to Deccan and talk to him, shout at him for what he’d done. But was that what he wanted? Did he expect her to get all angry and run to him, yelling and screaming?
Yeah, she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of that. No way in hell would she do that.
Grabbing some of her hair, she pulled it in frustration, turning to her stuffed koala, Jingles.
“Jingles, it’s unfair,” she whined. “So unfair.”
He just stared at her.
“Like, he shouldn’t be doing any of this. He doesn't own me. This is my own life. I’m a grown adult. Do you think he knows that?” she asked and shook her head. “Of course he knows. He has acknowledged that part, but he doesn’t own me. He really doesn’t own me.”
Echo yelled out in frustration before lying on the couch.
“What am I going to do?” she whispered. “I can’t give him the satisfaction of making me this angry and annoyed. Oh, but this is so hard.”
Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths to calm herself down. She needed to stop working herself up so much or else she was going to go to his clubhouse and yell at him. Echo rolled onto her side; she looked at the time and realized she needed to get dressed.
Sadly, she had a shift at the bar, her last one if the week or so she hoped. Sometimes, she magically forgot she took an extra shift for the money.
Sighing, she pushed herself off the couch and toward her room. What was she going to wear tonight? Normally, she wore a long-sleeved shirt and a longer skirt, but she wasn’t feeling that tonight.
Her eye caught this tight pink crop top and black short skirt. She smiled.
Perfect.
Just perfect.
Two can play that game.