Chapter 21
All men are not the same. They’re all disappointing in their own way.
— Maven’s secret thoughts
MAVEN
“ Would you rather leave me alone in the woods with a man or a bear?” I asked sleepily.
It’d been a full day.
I’d gotten delivery of all my house and business belongings via the Carter Moving Company , and while they moved stuff in, I positioned things.
I also got word from Pepper that not only was she more than willing to follow me to Sunnyvale , she’d also fully intended to keep opening for me as long as I got all the food baked or prepped the day before.
Needless to say, today had been a very full day.
And I hadn’t even been doing any heavy lifting like the man lying at my side.
The man who’d told me to stay with him for just one more day while they installed a state-of-the-art security system in my new workplace as well as the apartment area.
Oh , and I’d signed the lease sometime in between truck loads.
In forty years—unless I paid more than my monthly payment— I would be the proud owner of a bakery.
Auden stilled, twisting his body so that he was facing me in the dark. “ I mean, I would never leave you alone in the woods, with a man or a bear. So this question is irrelevant. Why are you asking?”
“ This is a new trend that women are asking their men.” I smiled at him, not surprised in the least with his answer.
“ There are too many variables,” he said. “ I mean, is this man bad? Is he good? Will he hurt you? What kind of bear is it? Is it a polar bear? Because if it was, I’d rather leave you taking your chances with a serial killer than a polar bear.”
I snickered at his words, but closed my eyes, my body sinking further into Auden’s back.
But another question popped into my head, momentarily forcing me to open my eyes once again to speak.
“ Can I ask you another question?” I asked into the darkness, tracing circles along the middle of his spine.
He groaned into his pillow, then flipped so his face was toward me before saying, “ Yes , I’d stay with you if you turned into a worm. No , I wouldn’t ever leave you if you got fat. No , you’re not fat. Yes , I want this to go somewhere.”
I found myself smiling into the darkness.
“ I wasn’t going to ask about that last part,” I said. “ But thank you for confirming it for me anyway.”
He sighed and laid his head back in its original position.
“ What I was going to ask…”
I let out a squeal when one second, I was facing him, and the next he had me face down in the bed.
“ If you have this much energy,” he growled as he yanked my panties from my body. “ I guess I’ll have to wear you out enough to get you to stay quiet so I can sleep.”
I didn’t exactly have energy, but what I did have was a spinning mind.
Tomorrow it was expected to get the info back on my DNA test.
And with that information, I could finally process that I’d been stolen from my family. That my ‘father’ wasn’t even my father. That Brock Austin , the man who was supposed to always protect me, had been the one I’d needed protecting from.
Plus , I really, really wanted some answers to all my burning questions.
His mouth went to my neck, and his hand went to my ass, and he pulled me into him.
I was ready to give him anything he wanted, truly I was, but the man was tired.
He had to be up at four in the morning for his first shift at Sunnyvale PD . And I wasn’t about to start something that very well might take a long time to finish.
“ Sleep ,” I murmured. “ We’ll revisit this when you’re not so tired.”
He mumbled something against my throat, but ultimately didn’t push it any further.
For him not to take me when it was so freely offered really showed just how tired he was.
I wrapped my arms around his head, then said one last thing before he went to sleep. “ I want this to go somewhere, too.”
I woke up to my phone ringing.
I rolled over in bed, eyes bleary, and stared at the brand new, very confusing phone.
Yesterday at some point, Auden had gotten rid of my phone and tossed it into a trash can outside my house.
He’d gotten me a new phone on his plan, and it had every single bell and whistle available.
Which ultimately made me feel kind of dumb, because my iPhone eleven, that had been working since I’d bought it new in high school, was leaps and bounds better than the one he’d replaced it with.
Even worse, I now had green text message bubbles.
Ew . Android .
“ Hello ?” I mumbled into the phone, not bothering to look to see who was calling.
“ Ms . Brumfield ?” a cultured male voice asked.
I sat bolt upright in bed.
“ I am she.” I then frowned, wondering if that was the correct way to say I was me.
“ This is Jefferson Evador . I’m a special agent with the FBI ,” he introduced himself.
My stomach was doing summersaults inside my torso as I said, “ Hi .”
“ I assume you were aware of the DNA tests that were conducted on you?” he asked.
“ Y -yes,” I stuttered. “ I am.”
“ The DNA tests were a hundred percent match,” he said. “ You are the daughter of Josey and Wayne Semyonov . You’re Marina Semyonov .”
Marina Semyonov . “ Call me Maven , please.”
I felt sick to my stomach all of a sudden.
How was this going to work?
What did I do now?
“ Of course,” he said. “ I’m assuming you have a lot of questions.”
“ I do,” I confirmed.
“ Where would be best for you to meet?” he asked.
I thought about it for all of two seconds before I said, “ Can I get you to call me back in like ten minutes? I need to talk to a friend who can let me know where best to meet.” I paused. “ We’re worried that my dad—not dad—will try something, and I want to be in a safe place.”
Like hell I’d tell him where that safe place was, though.
He may be on the up and up, but my dad was the chief of police for Dallas PD . I wasn’t taking any unnecessary chances.
“ Of course,” he said. “ Ten minutes.”
I got up, snatched up my clothes from the floor, and stepped into them on the run.
When I got to the living room, I was very unsurprised to find a Carter already standing in it.
“ Hey ,” I breathed. “ Where’s Boss ?”
I mean, priorities.
“ He’s sleeping in the sun,” Garrett jerked his chin at me.
I walked over to the sleeping dog and bent down, giving him some cuddles which he didn’t bother to return.
“ What has your feathers ruffled?” Garrett questioned.
I stood up and turned before explaining.
He nodded. “ Unsurprised , right?”
“ Right .” I licked my lips nervously. “ The special agent in charge, Jefferson Evador , wants to know where we can meet to discuss.”
Garrett pulled out his phone and placed a call.
“ Auden ,” he said. “ Since you’re the only one with an active duty job right now, run this man’s name and tell me who he is.”
He relayed the information, and I had to stop myself from reaching for the phone so I could hear Auden’s voice more clearly.
“ Yeah , she got ’em back. They’re positive it’s her now,” he said.
Garrett’s eyes came to me, and I watched him still before saying, “ I’ll keep an eye on her, I promise. Won’t let her out of my sight. The police station? Yes . That works for me. We’ll probably be up there in about thirty minutes, since I’m guessing this special agent’s already in town. Or at least in the area.”
The phone rang, and instead of answering it myself, I handed it off to Garrett . “ I gotta go. I’ll call you back with details.”
He hung up with Auden only to answer the special agent—who might I add had a private number.
“ Hello ?” Garrett answered.
Instead of listening to his conversation, I went back to the bedroom to brush my teeth, brush my hair, and get dressed more fully.
When I was done, Garrett had his keys in his hand and was waiting for me at the door.
“ I was right,” he said as he saw me. “ He’s in town. But he’s a bit farther away than I expected, so we’ll go by the donut place and grab subpar donuts.”
I laughed out loud, covering my mouth with my hand as it became a little too over the top.
“ When do you think you’ll be able to open again?” he asked.
“ Soon ,” I said. “ Since all I really needed were ingredients, and Chief Kurosaka was able to push my business operating permit through with the city of Sunnyvale , all I’m really waiting for is getting set up and the health inspection.”
“ Which you’ll pass easily,” he chuckled. “ One thing your kidnapper did for you was force you to be a clean queen.”
Wasn’t that the truth.
When we got to the police station, and I had more than a few glaze flakes in my lap, I started to get nervous.
“ There’s nothing they can really do that you don’t want them to do,” he pointed out. “ He’s going to give you all the information he has, then he’s going to let your family know.”
My family.
That was so weird to hear.
Once upon a time, all I’d had was Dorsey .
Now , I had four other siblings and a grandmother who was about to be a hundred years old.
This was going to be great… right?