Chapter 3
If you already know I have an attitude problem, why would you upset me?
— Milena’s secret thoughts
MILENA
“ I’m so fucking sorry,” Brecken repeated for the fourth time. “ We were supposed to be home in time, but this stupid traffic is insane! I mean, what the fuck?”
I smiled.
“ It’s okay, I promise,” I repeated. “ I swear, I’m more than okay sitting at home in my pajamas and not going out tonight. It’s been a long day, anyway. I had another employee quit.”
“ Was Shasha responsible for this one, too?” she asked, sounding like she was sending accusatory glares toward her husband who was likely the one driving.
“ I did no such thing,” Shasha said. “ I haven’t even been into the damn shop in a week now because she doesn’t want me there until she finishes the remodel. She says that I scare the contractors.”
Which he did.
“ Uh , huh.” Brecken didn’t sound very convinced.
“ I promise, it was not me,” Shasha repeated.
“ It wasn’t,” I said. “ I caught one of them stealing from the drawer. I fired her.”
“ How did that interview go?” she asked.
“ It didn’t work out.” I paused. “ She told me that she has time blindness, and asked me if I’d make accommodations for her. After the last girl I fired with ‘time blindness,’ her words, not mine, I am gun shy over that term.”
“ What the fuck is time blindness?” Brecken asked.
“ According to her, she doesn’t realize what time it is, so she just flies by the seat of her pants. She says she’ll try to make it in on time, but there’s a high possibility that she could be upward to an hour late.”
“ Oh , boy.” Brecken laughed. “ Kids these days.”
Brecken knew what I was going through.
She worked with juniors and seniors in high school, which was a lot of the pool I hired from to work.
Pretty much, working at a coffee shop was an entry-level job for most people. They worked there for a few years while they either went to school or figured out what they really wanted to do with their lives.
The ones that were older than twenty-five either loved the job, or didn’t want any more responsibilities than what they had working for me.
For instance, I had one long-standing employee that was twenty-seven and only worked because she was a people person and wanted to get out of the house for three to four days a week.
Her husband was a pilot, and she only worked on the days he was out of town.
She was fantastic, and I loved her to death. But she was adamant about not working when her husband was home.
Which was why I’d been looking for a new hire.
Sadly , finding new hires that were competent was hard.
And I was exhausted from searching.
“ Okay , okay.” She added, “ How about we bring pizza over?”
I winced. “ It’s already eight…if you’re stuck in traffic for who knows how much longer, I’ll be ready for bed. I’ll just do a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and we can celebrate tomorrow.”
“ Fine ,” she grumbled. “ I’ll relay it to Maven and Nastya .”
After a few more minutes of talking, she finally let me go, and I collapsed onto the couch.
I closed my eyes and contemplated just going to sleep, but a sound had my ears straining.
That sound got closer and closer, and it finally came to a stop outside of my house.
There was a knock at my door moments later, and I was unsurprised to find out who it was when I looked through the peephole.
I cautiously opened the door and said, “ Asher , what are you doing here?”
“ I came back early to make it in time for your birthday.” He looked sort of apologetic.
Like he was kicking himself for acting like he’d acted.
And because I was such a sucker, I didn’t tell him to go fuck himself like I should have.
Plus , I was bummed because everyone was busy tonight.
Maven’s son, Redford , had been in a school play tonight. Everyone had gone to watch but me because I’d had no employees to cover the shift at The Grizzly .
That had to be why I agreed to go out on a ride with him.
Feeling sorry for myself and all that.
When we got outside—me dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved tee and boots—he smiled at me sheepishly and said, “ We have to go to my house to pick up your helmet. I came straight here.”
That was when I should’ve automatically said no.
That’d been something that I’d done from day one.
For some reason, the thought of my brothers and sisters finding me dead from riding a bike without a helmet really made me feel awful, so I’d always been sure to wear one.
I shouldn’t have disregarded that gut feeling, but I did.
I got on the back of his bike, wrapped my arms around his torso, and had the thought of “this feels wrong.”
Especially when he put on his own helmet and started to ride.
At first, it wasn’t too bad.
He kept it slow in the neighborhood.
But he got faster.
And faster.
And faster.
Until my heart was beating so hard there was no way he couldn’t feel it.
“ Would you please slow down?” I begged.
I wasn’t wearing a helmet for Christ’s sake.
Why had I agreed to go on a slow ride with him around the lake without a helmet?
How dumb could I be?
He didn’t slow down.
He only laughed and said, “ Live a little, Milena . This is what I’m talking about. You have no clue how to let loose.”
I felt my stomach clenching.
“ I’ll fucking call my brothers,” I growled, knowing he could hear me, and knowing it would piss him off. He hated when I threatened to call my brothers, or brothers-in-law, to come get me. “ Slow down and let me off!”
He only sped up.
He was going so fast that I was hyperventilating now.
He left the lake area and shot off onto I30 , making my heart feel like it was going to burst inside of my chest.
We were on one of the busiest roads in Dallas now, weaving in and out of traffic, and I was so scared that I was seconds away from throwing up.
My hair was flying straight back from my face, and I swear to God , my skin was being flayed off with each whip of my long strands.
A group of motorcycles up ahead caught my attention.
They were going fast.
But nowhere near as fast as Asher and I were.
But , as if there were divine miracles after all, upon seeing those bikers, Asher slowed down to fall into formation right beside them, as if that’d been his destination all along.
He made some weird hand gestures or something, and I looked over at the man on the bike that was a little behind the one that Asher was hand gesturing at.
The man’s head turned to me, and I knew that he saw the terror in my eyes.
His gaze narrowed on mine.
I held out my hand, my fingers aching from holding on to my wrist so hard, and mouthed, “ Please .”
In one swift movement, the man moved over, crowding Asher .
Asher slowed even more and turned his head toward the biker that was now almost kissing handlebars with his.
His arm came out, and as if he’d practiced it a thousand times, he pulled me off of Asher’s bike and onto his.
It was the smoothest movement I’d ever felt.
One second I was on Asher’s , and the next I was bear hugging a stranger and burying my face into the leather jacket covering his back.
I closed my eyes and held on for dear life, so freakin’ relieved that I couldn’t breathe.
I wasn’t aware that we’d even stopped until the rumble pulled me from my thoughts.
Safe .
I was finally safe.
The smell of cedar, pine and something else invaded my senses, and for the first time since this ride had started, I felt like I could breathe again.