Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lennix
For the first time I could recall, I wanted to ditch out on work. This place that had always been like a second home to me suddenly felt more like a holding cell. All because I was desperate to get out of there so I could go home to Raylan.
It was becoming a sickness, my growing desire for him.
We’d been together nearly two months now, and I was still as addicted to the man as I was in the very beginning.
A small voice in the back of my head told me that was a problem, but I couldn’t seem to bring myself to care.
I’d promised a day at a time and I was determined to do exactly that.
Fortunately, as the days passed, it was getting easier to push that uncertainty deep down.
I could pretend I wasn’t constantly wondering where this thing between us was going or that I feared it would all eventually blow up in my face in an epic fashion.
I knew suppressing my feelings like that wasn’t healthy—hell, nothing we were doing was healthy—but I couldn’t get enough of how he made me feel.
How I never failed to melt under his touch.
With Raylan, I felt cherished. Beautiful.
I couldn’t get enough of watching the gunmetal in his gaze darken with need and desire every time he looked at me.
And I could have sworn, I’d caught him looking at me like I was his reason for existing more than once.
He’d wiped his expression clear every time, but I knew what I’d seen.
A tiny yip pulled me out of my daydream, and I looked down as Havoc latched onto the hem of my pant leg, emitting what he probably thought was a vicious snarl as he tugged and jerked his head around.
He was still a tiny little thing, probably the runt of his litter, but he was on puppy food, and Hardin assured me he was healthy and thriving.
He’d adapted to the rest of my brood as well as I knew he would, becoming a little tag-along for Ziggy and another pain in the ass for Pirate.
He was like a tiny, ferocious missing piece to our menagerie puzzle.
I could have left him at home instead of bringing him to work with me, but I’d gotten used to having him with me while I worked.
He provided the perfect company. He wasn’t mouthy or loud.
He didn’t throw his opinions around like fact, and he didn’t interrupt at the most inconvenient times.
That was one of the reasons why the company of animals felt far superior to that of humans.
“Are you causing problems again?” I asked, smiling down at him while I wiggled my foot to give him something to play with.
He yipped again, hunching down on his front legs while his back end stayed in the air, his tail wagging like crazy.
“Yeah, you’re a little ball of anarchy covered in fur, aren’t you? ”
His rump hit the floor, his tail swishing back and forth. His tongue fell out of his mouth and his head tilted to the side in a way that almost made it look like he was smiling. “You’re ready to go home, aren’t you?”
Havoc began to pant, so excited at the word home, his tiny butt wiggled manically, making me laugh. That was all the excuse I needed to shut things down and call it a night.
I hooked my purse over my shoulder, gathered the squirming ball of fluff in my arms, and headed out, locking up my office as I went. Instead of going out the back like I usually did, I headed to the front so I could run some things by Sam before I left.
Davis waved a white dish rag from his place behind the bar as I passed by. “You ducking out early, Boss Lady?”
I shot him a smile, speaking as I kept moving.
“Yep. Decided to play a little hooky since I know you guys have it covered.” It wasn’t really early, given that it was already dark outside, but I usually stayed until closing, so I’d be home several hours earlier than I normally was. I felt like I’d earned it.
He chuckled and went back to making drinks as I closed in on my shift supervisor. “Hey,” I waved to catch her attention as she slammed the drawer of the till closed and passed the customer his change.
“Hey.” She spotted Havoc in my arm. “You leaving?”
“That I am. But you know the rules.”
She smiled brightly and brushed her braids over her shoulder. “Yeah, yeah. I know. If we need anything, you’re just a phone call away.”
Even when I wasn’t at the bar, I wanted my staff to know I was available to them whenever the need arose. It had been important to maintain the atmosphere my parents, and grandparents before them, cultivated of everyone at the Tap Room being like family. I would always have their backs in anything.
“Go,” Sam ordered, lifting her arm and pointing toward the door.
“Get out of here and go have a life, would you? You work too damn much. Have fun. Go crazy.” She arched her pierced brow, the metal of the barbell standing out against her flawless dark brown skin.
“In fact, go get yourself laid, would you?”
“I volunteer as tribute,” Davis declared . . . loudly.
I shot him a look before cutting my gaze back to Sam. I did my best not to blush. That would give too much away. I’d never had a problem with that before this whole . . . thing with Raylan. But now that I’d started, I couldn’t make it stop. My cheeks seemed to heat on the daily lately.
“I’m perfectly capable of handling my love life on my own, thank you very much. I don’t need help from either of you.”
Davis snickered and moved down the bar as Sam propped one hand on her hip and the other on the scarred patina of the bar top. “You spend so much of your time looking out for us, I think it’s only fair we return the favor.”
I smiled, my chest feeling light and warm. “I’m good, hon. I promise.”
Her eyes moved, scanning me from top to toe before a tiny smirk curled the corner of her mouth upward.
I had a feeling I knew exactly what she saw.
Something told me I was glowing like a woman who was getting it good on the regular.
She was not wrong, but I needed to do a better job of hiding it or people were going to start asking questions, and everything would go up in smoke.
“See you tomorrow,” she said with a cheeky wink.
I rolled my eyes on a small giggle and made my way to the door. I lifted my face to the sky, pulling the cool, pine-tinged air into my lungs. To me, that was one of the prominent smells of home, and it never failed to slide through me like a calming balm.
Unfortunately, that calm was obliterated by a single voice coming from behind me.
“Lennix.”
I swallowed down a groan and stopped, despite my body’s desire to keep going.
Pushing out a gust of air, I turned to face the voice just as Mitch stepped out of the shadows cast by the lights streaming through the windows by the door.
It looked like he’d been leaning against the brick wall . . . waiting.
That realization sent a shiver down my spine. “Mitch. What are you doing out here? Have you been waiting for me?”
He closed the distance between us, only stopping when Havoc let out a low growl.
It was a useless noise, seeing as he wasn’t big enough to do much of anything, but I still loved him to death for being protective.
The fur stood along his spine as he eyed Mitch like he was waiting to take a tiny chunk out of him.
“Hey.” I waited for more, but that was all he said. Just hey.
I glanced around the parking lot. The bar was still going strong inside, but at this time of night, most people who wanted to be here already were.
The parking lot wasn’t completely empty of people, walking in or out, but I would have preferred having more around.
More witnesses . . . just in case. “How long have you been standing out here?”
“Not long. I just . . . I wanted to see you.”
“So you’ve been standing out here waiting instead of coming inside? You can understand why that might come off a little creepy, right?”
His expression closed down, his features hardening. “It’s not like that. I only wanted a chance to talk to you.”
It took everything I had to keep from sighing dramatically. It felt like I was stuck in some sort of loop with this guy. Anything that needed to be said already had been. The guy was beating a dead horse at this point.
“Mitch, we’ve been over this again and again. There’s nothing left to talk about. We broke up. That’s it. I’m really sorry I hurt you, I hope you believe that. But you need to move on.”
His face flushed red with anger and his top lip curled up in a sneer. “So that’s it, huh? You got yours and now you’re done. If you were just out for a little dick, you should have said so. We could’ve really had some fun.”
That hit the button that lit a fire in my gut.
My face pinched up in a look of pure rage.
“You know, men always take it so personally when a woman says she’d pick the bear, yet you guys keep doing shit like this.
I will not stand here and be judged or slut-shamed by you or any man who walks this planet, you understand me?
I will not apologize for the things I’ve done or the way I’ve behaved.
God forbid a woman likes sex and dares to embrace her sexuality.
You assholes run around sticking your dicks in any willing woman, and no one has an opinion about it.
But the woman who behaves the same way gets judged and gossiped about.
” I took a step closer and jabbed my finger into the center of his chest. “Well guess what, dickface? Times are changing, and I am not the woman you want to fuck with. Now, I really wanted to keep this as civil as possible, but you shot that straight to hell. Consider this your lifetime ban from The Tap Room.” I started to turn but decided to say one last thing.
“Oh, and you had one thing right. It really was a little dick.”
With that, I swung around and stomped off toward the staff lot at the back of the building as Havoc growled in my arms.
“I know, little guy. But it’s okay. The bad man is gone.
” The general public wasn’t allowed in the back lot, so as soon as I rounded the corner, I let out a relieved breath, knowing Mitch wouldn’t follow me.
I needed to have a word with Zeke about Mitch’s lifetime ban, but that was something I could handle another time.
Or by email. I was a firm believer if it could be handled by email, it should be.
I tried to push the anger that encounter had created to the back of my mind and focus on the fact I would be seeing Raylan soon enough. That was enough to put a smile on my face. However, that fell as soon as my car came into view.
A sudden chill skittered across my skin and burrowed down deep, wrapping around my bones as I took in the flower and note on the hood of my SUV.
Only, it wasn’t like the times before. I moved forward tentatively, goosebumps spreading along my arms and the back of my neck.
The head of the tulip had been ripped from the stem, the petals ripped apart and strewn about.
The note was in a crumpled ball, like whoever had been holding it squeezed their hand into a tight fist. My own hand trembled as I reached out to grab it.
Unsteady fingers worked to unfold the paper, and what I saw written in thick, black bold ink turned the blood in my veins to icy slush.
The same two words were written, only beauty had been scribbled over so sharply that the author’s anger felt clear as day.
Whoever had destroyed the words was so mad, they’d ripped the paper in places from pressing too hard with their pen.
The cold beneath my skin grew more intense, wrapping around me to the point I couldn’t stop shivering as I let the note fall from my hand and drop onto the dirty blacktop at my feet.
Reading the change in my emotions, Havoc let out a whimper and squirmed in my arms, trying to lift himself up so he could lick at the underneath of my chin. I held him closer—more for my comfort than for his—and took a step backward as I reached into my purse with my free hand for my cellphone.
I tapped the screen to find the number I needed and brought the phone to my ear. It barely finished the first ring before Raylan answered. “Hey, Chaos.”
Those two words said in that rasp, like velvet over craggy stone, helped to soothe the worst of the fear coating my skin, but definitely not all of it. “Raylan?”
He must have heard it in my voice, because the next words out of his mouth were clipped and hard, panic riding the edges to make them razor sharp. “What’s wrong? Where are you?”
“I’m still at work. I . . . Raylan, there was another note.”
“I want you to get in your car right now, baby, and get to me, okay? Fast as you can. I’m going to your place right now.”
I looked back at my car, curling my lips between my teeth and biting down. “I can’t.” I told him, finally getting to the worst of it. “Someone slashed my tires.”
A rapid-fire burst of curse words exploded through the phone, but beneath that, I heard movement, and what sounded like the clinking of keys slapping together. “Inside, baby. Inside the bar, and lock yourself in the office until I get there. Don’t open it for anyone but me.”