Chapter 20
Bianca
Hey, my love. I’m sorry, but I’m going to put some distance between us for a few weeks.
I don’t want you to think I’m running away or that I love you any less.
I have some demons I’ve got to face so I can become the best version of myself.
Only then can I be with you, to even attempt to deserve you.
The text woke me up and then brought tears to my eyes. It’d been four days since I told Wayne I needed some space. He’d texted me several times a day, which I didn’t mind at all. I cared deeply about him. Loved him, even, though I hadn’t said the words yet.
I replied and told him to do what he needed to do, and to take care of himself.
He replied that he missed me, and he’d see me soon.
The last text felt like it held a hint of finality, even though he’d said soon.
I plastered a happy grin on my face and climbed out of bed to do another sponsored video.
I would not overthink things. He wasn’t running away or dumping me.
He needed to deal with his past. His father had done a damn number on him.
Maybe he was taking time to deal with that. Facing his demons.
After all day of filming, I was still wired, so I jumped into editing, which I usually did on certain days to maintain a routine.
But even when I got all my edits done, my brain was still going a mile a minute and I couldn’t get it to shut the hell off. I tried to take a bath, tried to watch TV, then tried to read.
Nothing worked. I was dying to know what Wayne was doing that would take him away from me for weeks. What demons? Why couldn’t he talk to me about it?
But I didn’t want to be a brat and intrude on his space, in his personal drama that maybe he wasn’t ready to share with me yet. He would tell me when he was ready.
I had to be patient.
Ugh. Patience was not my strong suit.
I texted Liza, and she was actually off work, which was a damn miracle. She came right over, and I poured us both generous glasses of wine. “So, distract me,” I said. “Wayne and I are taking a bit of a break, and my mind is all over the place.”
She gave me a half hug and sighed. “Uh, well, I’ve got to find a new place to live.
I can’t take it there anymore. Our lease is almost up, thank goodness.
The landlord wouldn’t even let us switch the names on the lease, but I think that’s because he didn’t want my ex living here. Not that I blame him.”
She’d tried so hard to get out of living with her ex-best friend once they’d admitted to her that they were in love.
“I thought they spent most of their time at his house?” I asked.
“They do. But still, her stuff is there, and every day I live there is a distraction.” She sighed and took a long drink of her wine. “Maybe you and I could be roommates,” she suggested. “We could live in my apartment. It’s a little bigger, so we’d each have a bedroom and you’d have a studio still.”
I sighed. “That sounds like a lot of fun, but if I’m being honest, Wayne and I all but live together, except for the last few days. Maybe once we figure out this argument, which I know we will, we can work something out for you taking over this lease.”
Liza brightened up, but then slumped her shoulders again. “I don’t know if I could afford it on my own.”
“Well, we’ll find you something. Heck, if worse comes to worst, I’ll talk my parents into letting you rent the apartment over their garage.”
She giggled as I refilled our glasses. “That’s a plan.”
“I hate not being around him,” I mused. “It makes my chest ache, like a part of my own body is missing.”
Liza raised her eyebrows. “Damn. That’s pretty intense considering how long you two have been dating.”
I gave her a wry smile and wished I could explain about the whole fated mate thing.
“I know. But sometimes love works like that.” A big part of me wanted to go to him and tell him to forget about the fight, but that wouldn’t benefit either of us if we just swept his behavior under the rug. That was how nasty cycles were started.
Mom had told me about our biological father and his abuse. She’d wanted to prevent us from falling for the same type of guy, and she’d always told us the signs to look for, but unfortunately, Bri had fallen for an abusive asshole, anyway.
It had eventually led her to her true mate, Jace, but the road to get there had been awful, traumatizing.
I never wanted to have to escape a relationship. And I did love Wayne, so that meant he had to fix it. Now. Early.
Which meant I sat here with my friend and drank wine instead of calling Wayne and asking him to come over. He needed the space to work on himself, to create a good change in himself. Otherwise, I’d have to let him go.
Two weeks flew by with me more and more restless.
I invited everyone over to spend time with me, from my sister and niece, and of course that sweet new nephew, to Kaylee and her growing belly, to my mom.
Liza was over any time she was off. I finally bought that small bed to put in the studio, so she’d even slept over a few times.
Wayne texted every day, which helped. Sometimes multiple times a day. But damn, I just missed him like crazy.
“Just have patience,” Bri said one afternoon, just after I’d gotten a text from Wayne telling me how much he missed me. “You’ll be rewarded in the long run that you both did this.”
I grumbled and took Josh from her, nuzzling his sweet, soft cheeks. We sat on the guest room bed while Hayden played in my makeup. She was old enough to do it now without actually ruining anything, so we didn’t care to let her play.
I took my sister’s advice. I did everything I could to distract myself. I did another meet and greet, and even though Wayne’s company did the catering, he didn’t come. He sent Livvie, Miss Olivia’s granddaughter, to oversee things.
I tasted him in the food, though. He’d prepared it, or at the very least, they were his recipes.
When the meet and greet was nearly over, I got a phone call from Porter. Kaylee was in early labor. It was too soon. The baby was only about thirty-two weeks along, but they couldn’t get her labor to stop. Our new little sweet girl was coming, like it or not.
I hurried my clients out the door and grabbed Briana. “Come on,” I said. “Kaylee is in labor.”
Jace jumped up from where he’d been hiding in the corner, holding Josh. Hayden and Bri had helped me with the meet and greet. We all piled into Jace’s SUV and he drove us straight to the hospital.
By the time we got there, Kaylee had already had the baby and they’d rushed her to the NICU. We had to wait in the waiting room for a while. Kaylee’s grandfather and Porter’s mom all came while we waited. His mom must’ve majorly sped down the interstate to get here so quickly.
Finally, they let us go back. Kaylee was propped up in bed, looking like she’d just had a day at the spa. “How do you look so gorgeous?” I asked.
Kaylee chuckled, and a tear slipped down her cheek. Probably wasn’t the best first question to ask.
The room became crowded fast. “How’s the baby?” Bri asked.
“Are you okay?” Skye asked.
Kaylee sucked in a deep breath, but Porter held up a hand. “Kaitlyn Cheyanne is actually really great. They took her to the neonatal intensive care unit to be safe since she’s eight weeks early, but I’d say she’ll be back in here with us soon.”
“What about you?” I asked Kaylee.
She nodded. “I’m okay. My emotions are going up and down, but the labor wasn’t bad. Nowhere near what I expected.”
“The baby is so small,” Porter said.
Bri hiccupped back a sob. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
Jace put his arms around Bri, and Anthony put his around Skye. Porter settled on the bed and gathered Kaylee against him.
I felt my emotions going pretty damn strong as I looked around and saw everyone with their mates, and all I wanted was to hug Wayne close.
Tears slipped down my cheeks. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” I whispered, holding it together.
My pain didn’t compare to what Kaylee had to be going through, with her new little girl being in the NICU without her.
As soon as I could, I slipped away and called a rideshare to take me home after waving Bri off. Halfway there, I remembered my car was at the club where I’d had the meet and greet and sent the rideshare driver toward downtown.
I paid him with the app, and added my tip as we pulled up, so my nose was in my phone. When I got out of the car, I pulled my keys out of my purse and turned to hit the unlock button on my fob.
And my gaze fell squarely on Andre. He was waiting for me, leaned against his trunk. Oh, fuck, I wished so hard Wayne were here with me.
But if wishes were fishes… “What are you doing here?” I asked as my heart pounded. I tried to look around the parking lot without being super obvious, praying somehow Wayne’s catering company was still here cleaning up, but no such luck. Mine was the only car in the lot.
“I’ve been keeping my distance,” he said. “I was going to let you go if you were happy, but I couldn’t help but notice that you finally got rid of the meathead.”
“What?” I gasped. He’d been watching me so closely he’d been able to tell that Wayne and I hadn’t been together.
“I was hoping you’d have your fun with him and cut him loose,” he said. “And you did.” He grinned. “It’s time to stop playing games. Come back to me so we can pretend our breakup never happened.”
I slowly backed away, keeping as much distance as possible between us. Jace’s Place was just a few doors down, but I was on the wrong side. I’d have to go around Andre to get there. “They were supposed to warn you to stay away,” I said with my hands up. “You were scaring me.”
He scoffed. “I’m not someone to get afraid of a few warnings,” he said. “And you shouldn’t be afraid of me. I love you. Now stop being stupid and take me back.”
I didn’t even notice Wayne approaching. But the next thing I knew, he had Andre by the neck. At first, relief poured over me, and I breathed a sigh of thanks that he’d somehow been nearby. But as Andre’s face turned a bit purple, I rushed forward. “Wayne! Don’t kill him.”
I touched his arm, and he let go of Andre’s neck, but then he pushed his forearm against Andre’s chest, keeping him in place.
Wayne smiled down at me. “You look beautiful,” he said before returning his attention to my asshole ex.
“You’re damn lucky I’m on a path to a calmer life, or I’d beat you until your own mama wouldn’t recognize you.
” And then he growled, which hit me in my core.
As much as I didn’t want him to do this macho bullshit, the growl was fucking hot.
But Andre laughed.
“I don’t think this is the best time for you to be laughing.” I tried to warn him, but the fucker just laughed harder.
“You’re only temporary,” Andre said in a wheezing voice. Then, he turned his gaze to me over Wayne’s shoulder. “Did you like the cake I sent you for Thanksgiving dinner?”
My stomach sank. “That was from you?” I asked with a groan. “Gross.” I’d eaten that thing thinking it was full of love from Wayne.
Andre jerked out from under Wayne’s arm, and I grabbed my mate to keep him from trying to kill my ex again.
Keeping his gaze on me, Andre just couldn’t leave, he had to say something else. “This isn’t over. It’ll never be over, Bianca.”
Wayne stepped in front of me, getting all up in Andre’s personal space. Most men would’ve been scared shitless by the enormous Wayne threatening them, but Andre wasn’t most men. He was a bit more than unhinged, and he stood his ground.
“This is over,” Wayne spat out. “Your following Bianca around ends today. Now.”
“And what are you going to do about it?” Andre said. “I’m not scared of you.”
Wayne shoved Andre, but Andre bounced back quickly. It was obvious that Wayne was doing his best to stay calm and grounded as he avoided Andre’s fists, but eventually he tired of it. Wayne pulled his fist back and punched Andre square in the nose.
The crack of Andre’s nose made my stomach turn, and he hit the ground.
Wayne turned toward me. “Are you okay?”
I barely saw him, but Andre got up. A flash of silver made me scream. “He has a knife!”
But I didn’t see him in time. Andre stabbed his knife into Wayne’s side when his back was turned.
Wayne grunted and turned, pulling the knife from his side. Andre stared with wide eyes as Wayne threw the knife far across the parking lot.
As Andre staggered backward and Wayne advanced on him, for the first time, real fear crossed Andre’s face. He recognized the predator in Wayne, some visceral part of him. He’d figured out that he’d picked a fight with the wrong man.
I moved with them, staying where I could see both of them and figure out what they were going to do.
Wayne let his eyes shift, and fangs protruded from his mouth. When he spoke, his voice was growlier than I’d ever heard it. “If you come near Bianca again,” he said, “I’ll steal your soul and take it straight to Hell.”
“What are you?” Andre asked. He whimpered, and I glanced at him.
His khaki pants slowly darkened as he wet himself.
Wayne ignored that and kept advancing. “I’m something from your worst nightmares. Unless you want to see everything I’m capable of, you’ll be smart to get away and stay away. Get over our obsession with my mate.”
Andre nodded. “It’s over! I’m done.”
“Going to jail will be the least of your worries, boy,” Wayne said as Andre fell backward on his ass.
Scrambling, my coward, asshole ex turned over and began to run, out of the parking lot and down the sidewalk. He darted into an alley and disappeared.
Wayne turned back to me, looking like himself. “I smelled the fear on him,” he said. “I don’t think he’ll be back. I would be surprised if he doesn’t move away.”
Stumbling forward into my arms, Wayne hugged me tight. “Hey,” he whispered. “I missed you.”