Chapter 15 #2
“Well,” I took another bite of my sandwich. “I have some issues today, and I wanted to run them by you to see if maybe I’m just fucking crazy or not.”
His stared at me while he took a massive bite of his sandwich, mayo dropping down his fingers and his chin, plopping onto the paper his sandwich had once been wrapped in.
The sound of nail guns, music, and shouting filled the air around us for a few long seconds before I finally decided…fuck it.
I told him everything, ending with, “And now no one will see me because he won’t relinquish me, or whatever that means.”
He put his sandwich down with a deceptive calm, and at first I thought maybe I was overreacting. Maybe I was making something out of nothing.
But then he asked, “Please tell me again, from the very beginning.”
So I did, leaving nothing out.
Not the way I felt in that meeting.
Not the utter relief I felt when he’d interrupted said meeting.
Not the way I felt when I heard that he was stopping me from seeing other therapists in the area.
I gave it all to him, ending with, “Am I overreacting?”
“No,” he said softly, food completely abandoned. “You are not overreacting. Something doesn’t sit right about this. Do you mind if I have Apollo look into it?”
I scrunched up my nose. “Actually, no. I don’t mind you bringing him into it, but I don’t really feel that it’s necessary to have him in this just yet.
I think I need to confront the doctor himself and find out why he is acting like this.
Then, if we don’t like what he has to say, then we can give him to Apollo. ”
“We?” He grinned.
“We.” I smiled.
And wouldn’t you know it, when we arrived just before closing time for the office of Dr. Russel Stoker, he was there to greet us as if he was waiting for us to arrive.
I shivered on the back of Audric’s bike, not liking the way he was looking at us as we pulled up.
“What a fuckin’ weirdo,” Audric said as he patted my thigh and got off the bike.
“Agreed,” I muttered as I got off after him.
It was three hours after our lunch, and an hour before we were supposed to be at his club for dinner, and we were making a quick stop to give Dr. Stoker his notice to cease and desist, and I should’ve been calm.
Watching him watch us walk up felt like my stomach was sinking down between my toes.
“Come on,” he said as he took my hand.
I squeezed it for dear life, relishing the fact that he now felt like a lifeline for me whenever other men still gave me palpitations.
I walked two steps behind him as he led me to where Dr. Stoker was standing.
“Ahh, I was wondering when I’d see you again, Ms. Williams.” Dr. Stoker smiled.
It sent disgusted vibes racing through my veins.
“She’s here because she wants you to stop harassing her when she tries to switch to a new doctor,” Audric said. “She’s telling you this once, and once only.”
“And what is that?” Dr. Stoker asked.
“That you will stop whatever it is you are doing that is keeping her from finding another psychiatrist,” he said. “That’s not fair to her, and you know it. Next time, we’ll be filing a complaint with the medical board for your behavior.”
Dr. Stoker didn’t look worried.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’ll be sure to look into it.” He lied so smoothly I almost wondered if I’d imagined all the phone calls that had denied me treatment this week.
But then Audric snorted, and I was reminded he had a good bullshit meter and always had.
“One and only warning, doc,” he said. “Have a nice night.”
Audric tugged my hand, and we walked back to his bike, and I felt the doctor’s gaze on me the entire way.
He was handing me my helmet when I asked, “Do you think he gets off on women who are victims?”
His eyes flashed to mine. “For his sake, I hope not. Because if he does, I’ll be handling him appropriately.”
The resolute certainty in his voice had me breathing out a sigh of relief. “He gives me the creeps, Audric.”
Audric cupped my head for a long second, gaze taking me in, before he said, “You can move in tomorrow and I’ll be your knight in shining armor if you let me.”
“You live with your kind of little girl, and another man. I can’t move in.” I smiled.
His grin was slow when he said, “Says who?”
Dinner with his friends was amazing.
He sat me in the corner of the tables where there was a wall behind and beside me, leaving a table in between me and the closest man.
That closest man being Cakes, who was talking about his cakes and when he was cooking his next one for the group.
Apparently they were a big deal, and they didn’t happen very often.
That was also how he’d gotten his road name, and though I wasn’t a cake person, I found that I would love to taste his cake.
Cakes’s newfound daughter, Aella, was sitting next to him giving him shit about his lack of social life. Aella’s husband, Chevy, was beside her, and he was talking with his brother, Cutter, about their next family dinner that was set for next week.
I fell into the chaos, realizing that I’d shut myself out of life so completely that I hadn’t realized what I was missing until right then.
And the man at my side had given that to me.
He’d made sure that I felt safe.
And I was slowly falling in love with him.
An adult love this time that I didn’t think that I would ever be able to get out of.