Chapter 16
“This has Jeremy or the tramp written all over it.”
Alex threw the notes on her coffee table.
“Why do this?” I dropped my head back against her couch, my eyes closing. “It makes no sense. If they get caught, it would bite him in the ass in court. And why tell me to leave Maplehurst? Jeremy wants me as far away as possible so no one at his company realizes he was cheating.”
And why wouldn’t they know that, you ask? Because Jeremy had been telling people for six months prior to hooking up with Layla that we’d been separated.
In actuality, I was madly finishing the next two Asher General books for my romance collection and the final Cursed Bonds book. I’d barely left the house except for when Lock needed me to. It had been enough of a withdrawal to allow Jeremy to be believed.
Go back to the city, or everyone will know what a depraved whore you are.
What would your new friends think knowing you’re a liar?
Leave, or I’m going to tell everyone who you are.
Each note was delivered with one of my books. One with a Cursed Bonds book. Another with a book from the Asher General series. A third with both books. Someone knew both names and that both names were mine.
“How would anyone have connected me to either one of my pen names, let alone both?” There were a handful of people on the planet who knew who I was.
My publisher wasn’t going to reveal my identity; they’d be sued right out of business.
Aunt Edit, Alex, and my lawyer would die before revealing me.
My parents were embarrassed by what I did, being the right upstanding Southern couple they were, which left Jeremy and Layla.
And I just couldn’t see them doing this.
“We’ll find out who they are.” Alex grabbed my hand, forcing me to look at her. “We’ll find them and crush them.”
She had the determined look on her face I’d come to know and slightly dread. Alex was unhinged under normal circumstances; you fuck with someone she loves…I was glad I bought the house in France where extradition wasn’t a concern.
“I love you.” I pulled her in for a hug.
“What’s not to love?” she said into my hair. Patting my knee, she stood. “Now, let’s go out!”
“Yeah, no.” I didn’t need to be around more people. “Besides, what about Preston?”
I hated Preston, Alex’s on-again, off-again boyfriend of the last three years. He’d lose his crap when he found out I was here for a few days. Not that I cared. But she cared about him, and I cared about her, so I couldn’t exactly ignore the man.
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what the hell she saw in him. The man was…trying, in all terrible senses of the word.
“Psshht,” she snorted. “He can handle his own dinner tonight. My girl is in town, and we are going to live it up!” She yanked me off the couch.
“What about those?” I jerked my head to the letters on the table. The words that were the reason I had barely slept in the last week.
“Those, my darling bestie, will be tackled tomorrow. Don’t worry. None of your strait-laced, Nora Roberts-loving new friends will find out what a dirty mind you have or find out about your love for a certain tattooed contractor,” she said, tongue in cheek.
Smacking her upside the head, I snickered. “Stop being you.”
“Why? I’m amazing!” She preened.
Grabbing my purse, she stopped me at the door for one of those moments. “We’ll figure this out. No one is going to run you out of your new home. I’m betting it’s Layla and Jeremy. How would anyone in your new town even figure out your…you?”
She had a point. Besides, all my work was carefully locked away in my office at home. I even took the job baking cookies for Maple Mornings when Aaron, the one man I listened to no matter what, told me plainly I needed cover and baking for the café was perfect.
It’d been difficult coming up with a reason to bake at home and not the café, so I’d used the migraines I got sometimes shamelessly.
“Of course I have a point,” she declared.
Looping her arm through mine, she yelled at Preston, who refused to leave their bedroom since I arrived last night, to forage for his own food.
We met up with Abby and Albert, Abby’s sort of boss, and some friends for dinner.
As some of the people I loved most in the world surrounded me, I forgot all about the fact I hadn’t cleaned up my office before I’d left Maplehurst. And that the night before I’d spent a rather satisfying night working through a new romance scene.
Oh, I also forgot Ty was supposed to be working there this weekend.