Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
L ucky was officially done with working.
Her last day had been bittersweet, but she was happy to be done.
The housewife life was not something she ever saw for herself, but she could get excited about the soft life.
Her dad had often reminded her that she got into trouble when she was idle, so she didn’t know how long she would last without a job.
On the positive side, it would give her a chance to explore what she really wanted to do with her life. She was looking forward to that.
She’d been working from the moment she’d left her family home.
Grinding was in her nature. She often teased Keisha about how much she worked, but both women had learned that life could change in a moment’s notice.
Being able to take care of themselves was something they never took lightly.
Trusting Ezra enough to give up her job was a big leap for her, but every instinct she had told her that it was the right move in this moment.
That didn’t mean she would lose her sense of self.
Lucky sighed as she left the last happy hour she would have with her coworkers. She was in her feelings a little bit. The hardest part had been telling her regulars that she was leaving. Her heart had broken, but she’d promised herself that she would still check on the ones she’d come to love.
As Kathleen kept reminding her, Lucky was moving a whole hour away, so she would no longer see and talk with them every day.
She’d skipped alcohol while they were out, deciding not to add to the melancholy.
On top of that, she had to wake up early for her hair appointment, and a hangover was not the move.
Lucky wrinkled her nose as she stepped out of the hookah lounge they’d decided on. It was full-on dark, and she still needed to go on the other side of town to her favorite hair store.
Ugh.
She would have to find a new hair store in Oakridge and she knew it wouldn’t be the same.
Hell, the hair store on her side of town wasn’t as good as the one on the West side.
It’s the reason she was rushing to get there before they closed.
She had bohemian hair already at home, but it wasn’t the color that she wanted.
The blonde highlights would look sexy against her skin and she couldn’t wait until Ezra saw them.
Humming along with the music, Lucky navigated evening traffic.
Her phone rang the minute her car tires hit the railroad tracks that separated the West side from the rest of Eastfield.
“Princess,” was Ezra’s greeting.
The dark, deep tone of his voice had her stomach clenching. She knew who she was talking to.
“Yes, Tiger.”
“What are you doing in Greenridge after dark?”
Lucky rolled her eyes. Her mate was never beating the stalking allegations. “I’m getting my hair braided tomorrow and need to stop by this hair store.”
“We’ve talked about how you move around Eastfield now, right?”
Pursing her lips, Lucky decided how to answer that. This week, Ezra had warned her there were some issues and that she needed to be more security-conscious. She didn’t think it meant she couldn’t move around the town she knew like the back of her hand.
“I mean, yeah, but you know who my daddy is. Ain’t nobody finna bother me.”
“And if I called Sin and told him where you were, he’d agree with that?”
Yikes. Her father knew exactly where the hair store she liked was, so Lucky could imagine his lecture.
“My security is right behind me. It’s just a quick in and out, I’ll be fine.”
He hummed and she somehow knew that wasn’t him agreeing with her.
“Straight home afterward, princess.”
Lucky narrowed her eyes. She was stopping to get a fish plate at King’s since she was over here. Did that count? That was probably best kept to herself.
“Okay, love,” she agreed.
He grunted. “Princess.”
She swallowed nervously. Could he read her mind already? No…right?
“You’re going to wanna test me and make another stop. Resist temptation, hear?” His warning rumbled through her speaker and boy oh boy, did her panther like that.
A whole bird she was.
She should probably tell him about the food. “Well, since I’m?—”
“Princess. Straight home,” were his parting words before he hung up.
He didn’t even give her the opportunity to tell him that she was going to get food before she went home.
He would probably fuss, but it’s his fault for not letting her talk.
Deciding that was the argument she would use, Lucky pulled into the shopping plaza where the hair store was, driving slowly over the pitted concrete.
She got out and ignored the catcalls. She’d gotten extra cute for her last day of work, but she knew even in bummy clothes, the shifters hanging out on the corner would be annoying.
Quickly grabbing what she needed, Lucky made her way over to the seafood spot that was three doors down from the hair store.
Technically this wasn’t another stop since it was all in the same plaza.
The scent of fried fish met her at the door, making her mouth water.
She spoke to a couple of the regulars that she knew and gave her order to Mr. Walter, who ran King’s Seafood.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket as she sat in a booth to wait on her food.
She ignored it because she knew it was her mate.
Her security guards were a bunch of snitches.
Lucky looked up as the door opened. Lord, what had she done to deserve the aggravation swaggering into the restaurant?
Leo spotted her immediately and smirked, heading to her booth.
The wolf was a past mistake, and even without Ezra, it wasn’t one she had plans on repeating.
Leo had taught her many lessons about herself, namely what she would and wouldn’t tolerate in a relationship.
After him, she’d cut off both wolves and shifters from the West side.
Leo knew too many people and keeping track to stay out of his circle wasn’t worth the trouble he’d brought into her life.
“If it isn’t Lucky Bryant.”
“Boy, gone somewhere,” she murmured, not in the mood to deal with this jackass.
“You still moving around the hood like your daddy’s name gon’ cover you from everything.” His snide tone grated.
Lucky rolled her eyes. “Don’t be bitter, Leo. It’s not a good look on you.”
“You fucked with my money with that lil stunt you pulled.” He settled back into the booth as though he had no plans to leave.
That had always been her issue with him. The wolf could never read the room.
“I pulled? You should be grateful I stopped my brother from putting silver bullets in his gun that day.” Her gaze skimmed his form, noticing that he wasn’t in the designer threads he used to rock. “Maybe now you’ll keep your hands to yourself.”
He lifted his lip, his gold fangs showing. “I’ma always have motion. One bitch don’t stop my show.”
“Bitch?” she snapped.
Nah. Instead of getting beside herself, Lucky knew she would need to extricate herself from this conversation.
Leo had always managed to bring out the worst in her.
The relationship had been toxic, the back and forth entertaining until it wasn’t.
She stood to go wait for her order at the counter.
Lightning quick, Leo’s hand snapped out and gripped her forearm tightly, holding her in place.
“Richie ain’t here to do shit, so what’s up?”
See, she was finna cut up in this place.
Her panther slammed against her chest, the hair on the back of her neck raising as her animal primed itself for whatever Lucky was on.
Reaching into her bag, her palm was resting on her gun, ready to bust his ass.
Before she could do anything more than wrap her fingers around the grip, her security entered the restaurant, their menace and feral energy filling the place.
Hakeem raked his gaze over her to make sure she wasn’t hurt before turning his full attention to Leo. The wolf frowned and moved his hand from Lucky as Hakeem crowded him. Dave, her second security guard, stood at the door, his hard gaze keeping the rest of the patrons in their booths.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Hakeem held out his cell phone to the wolf. “You’re gonna wanna take this call,” was all he said.
The two males faced off, the tension ratcheting until Lucky thought violence would explode between them.
Leo was no match for Hakeem and he fucking knew it, so after a few moments of tense silence, the wolf snatched the phone and put it to his ear.
Lucky moved her hand out of her purse and took a deep breath.
A minute later, Leo’s face blanched, his expression turning from hard meanness to fear before he could hide it.
He gave the phone back to her security and, without a word, left her booth and the restaurant.
Lucky’s name was called for her food, and in a confused daze, she rushed to the counter to grab it.
Hakeem was waiting for her at the door without Dave, opening it and standing to the side. He walked her back to her car, the catcalls nonexistent as he moved silently next to her.
“What was that?” she finally asked when he opened her door.
He chuckled darkly. “Careful getting home, Mrs. Kaine. We’re right behind you.”
Her phone pinged with a text message and she pulled it out of her purse.
Rah : Pick a number between two and ten.
Lucky frowned and instead of answering, she called him. The call was forwarded to voicemail.
Rah: Pick, princess.
Hands trembling, she attempted to call him again, with the same results. Straight to voicemail. She growled in irritation, not wanting to play whatever game he was playing.
Rah: Very well, my love.
That made her nervous, and her panther moved through her body in anticipation.
Her mind replayed the interaction with Leo.
The wolf was trouble personified and not in a good way.
She’d broken it off with him when he’d decided to slap her during one of their arguments.
Richie had pistol-whipped Leo, put a hot one in his ass, and then warned Lucky that if she kept messing with him, he would make him disappear.
Sin hadn’t put hands on the wolf, but he had made it known that doing business with Leo came with consequences.
Lucky had been a lot more careful with her situationships after that, though, like Richie constantly told her, she had a type. Ezra was the first time she’d broken from that. And it turned out that her mate was more dangerous than any of the other males she’d dated.
She drove home with the radio low. Ezra was mad, that much was clear. What would he do about it? There was no fear, more curiosity and just a shade of caution. Her panther was excited for whatever the consequences were and Lucky could only roll her eyes at that.
She’d calmed her nerves by the time she reached her building. Hakeem and Dave rode the elevator up with her to her floor, waiting at their door for her to go inside her condo. She nodded her head to let them know she was fine.
It wasn’t until she opened the door that she remembered they were supposed to clear her apartment before she entered. But the moment she stepped inside, she realized why. Rah stood in the foyer, his arms crossed over his chest, his tiger lighting his eyes. Her panther preened.
Oh, damn.