Chapter 32
CHAPTER 32
brEE
Cole doesn’t return like he said he would.
She texts him. She even calls him, but he doesn’t answer.
Maybe this is his way of saying he changed his mind about her after she demanded space.
His duffel bag is gone. He has no reason to come back if he decided she wasn’t worth it.
She tells herself it’s a good thing. This is what she wanted—a fling, then to go back to her normal life.
Even if her normal life is based on telling other people’s stories and never enjoying her own.
She wanted to escape for a bit, to enjoy the fantasy that someone could care for her despite all her obvious flaws.
But it hurts.
It fucking hurts when she realizes he’s not coming back for her.
After going over her interview questions, she decides to busy herself with packing .
Do not cry about this. He changed his mind. It happens.
She makes the bed and folds the excess blankets they used during her Heat. His black jacket falls to the floor, and her heart aches when she picks it up, his scent washing over her.
She’ll never forget that scent as long as she lives.
Maybe it’s not the best idea, but if he left his jacket, she’s going to take it with her back to Holden.
But something falls out of the pocket, and she stares at it with wide eyes.
It’s her favorite pair of panties, the ones she was wearing the night she touched herself thinking about him.
She couldn’t find them in the morning.
They were in Cole’s pocket.
There’s no logical reason for him to have them. She had tossed them to the floor, expecting to throw them in the laundry when she woke up.
Dread bubbles in her stomach.
It’s irrational, but she drops to her hands and knees and peers under the bed.
There’s enough room for her to fit under there easily, and Cole’s concentrated scent hits her once she crawls under the mattress.
“No,” she whispers.
He wasn’t there that night. He couldn’t have been.
That would be fucking crazy.
She hyperventilates under the bed, trying to find a rational explanation as to why his scent is so concentrated there and why he has her panties.
Scrambling out from under the bed, she grabs her phone to shoot a text to Darlene, but pauses when she receives a notification.
There’s an app she doesn’t recognize that needs an update.
Which would be fine if the app didn’t show a detailed map of her location, or the number of times the phone moved within the last day.
It’s a tracking app.
Cole must have installed it when he grabbed her phone at the café.
“Oh, no,” she whispers.
She doesn’t know how to uninstall it. It requires a password, and tears spring to her eyes with every failed attempt to remove it from her phone. She even tries to reset the device, but the app stops her from doing it.
Her agony from Cole’s sudden departure morphs into fear and anger.
How fucking dare he?
She packs the rest of her items in record time, suitcases ready to go the moment she’s done with her interview.
She cries and bites her nails to the quick on the way to Doctor Porter’s office.
Was Cole watching her at the antique store? Is that how he knew to buy her the pen set?
When else was he in her cabin without her knowing?
The doctor’s office is in a business park forty minutes from Green Woods. The area is upscale and quaint, with lush green landscaping surrounding the newly constructed building.
Her hands shake as she knocks on the door to his office.
“Come in,” a voice says, and she swings open the door to see the face of Erik Hart’s psychologist.
All thoughts of Cole leave her mind.