by Parker, Ali
“Yes, it is. And you know how I feel about Owen. And you know he’s one of the good ones. So I don’t want this to happen again, okay?”
“Okay,” she said.
There was awkward tension on the line now. I licked my lips. “I love you, dummy.”
Her voice lightened up a bit. “I love you too. Let me know if any of those bikers are cute and single, will you? Maybe I need a change of pace. They could help me broaden my horizons.”
I laughed almost hysterically.
“What?” Victoria asked innocently. “What’s so funny?”
“You think you could date one of them? Oh God, now I’ve heard it all.” I could barely contain my laughter as I snorted into the phone.
“You don’t think I could handle it?”
“Nope. I do not. In fact, I know you couldn’t.”
“And why the hell not? You can!”
“Yeah, I can. But I also don’t have a problem with riding on the back of motorcycles or eating leftovers or—”
“Leftovers?” She balked.
“Yeah. Or burgers fresh off the barbeque. Or pizza and beer. I love that shit. You on the other hand… you’re more of a lady than I am, Victoria. Always have been. And there’s nothing wrong with that. You’ll find a perfectly nice gentleman one day who knows how lucky he is to have a girl like you. Trust me.”
Victoria sighed dreamily into the phone. “Yeah. And he’ll probably wear Armani. And have a really nice car. And be so handsome I can’t keep my hands off him.”
I chuckled. “See? You know exactly what you want. And it’s not a biker.”
“I suppose you’re right. But maybe one day, I can meet these friends of Owen’s? I could see firsthand what you’re talking about. Maybe it will help with my… privilege.”
I smiled. “I think that would be nice. I also think you’d broaden their perspective, too.”
“How so?” she asked.
I tucked my hair behind my ears and sipped my water. “Well, for starters, I don’t think they’ve ever met anyone who wears as much jewelry as you. Or who looks like a real, talking Barbie doll.”
She giggled. “I’d love to grace them with my presence.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t say shit like that if you ever do meet them.”
“I wouldn’t.”
I didn’t believe her.
I glanced at the clock on my stove and frowned. I’d been talking the time away with Victoria and hadn’t even noticed that Owen was over half an hour late.
“Odd,” I muttered.
“What’s up?”
“Owen was supposed to be here half an hour ago.”
“He’s probably stuck in traffic.”
I pursed my lips. Owen didn’t get stuck in traffic. He sped through traffic on his bike like a madman. “I don’t think so,” I muttered. “Sorry, Victoria. I’m going to let you go and give him a call. We’ll talk soon, okay?”
“Okay, have fun on your date night, you lucky bitch. Tell Owen he can cook for me anytime.”
We ended the call, and I dialed Owen. I called him three times, and it went straight to voicemail each time.
My stomach began rolling with uneasiness. Something felt off.
I couldn’t explain it, but I couldn’t pretend I didn’t feel it either. Owen was never late. And if he was, I knew he would call me to give me the heads-up, especially if he knew I was waiting on him. This was totally out of character and made me nervous.
Had he crashed his bike?
Unlikely. He was a skilled rider. But other drivers were unpredictable assholes on the road, and sometimes, you had no escape route, especially when you were on a bike. If he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, something bad might have happened.
My mind started reeling, and my thoughts spun out of control.
What if he was lying in the middle of the road somewhere?
What if he was in a hospital bed unconscious? They wouldn’t know to call me. How would I find him? How would I get to him? How would—
My phone rang.
I snatched it up off the counter without even looking at the name that flashed across the screen.
“Owen?” I asked breathlessly, pressing a hand to my chest.
It wasn’t Owen’s voice that flooded my speaker. “Evangeline. Where are you?”
“Matthew?” I asked, recognizing his smooth drawl almost immediately. Why the hell was he calling me? And was it just a coincidence that he happened to be calling when Owen was half an hour late?
I doubted it.
Red flags started popping up, and a warning rang in my ears.
“Yes, it’s me,” Matthew said. He was out of breath. His voice sound strained. “Where are you?”
“I’m at home,” I said, my sense of uneasiness growing.
“Are you alone?”
I considered telling him I was not. But instead, I walked to my front door and bolted the locks. “Yes. I’m alone.”
“Thank God,” he muttered.
“Matthew. What the fuck is going on? Why are you calling me? What do you want?”
“You need to be careful, Evangeline. Owen’s a fucking madman.”
My pulse fluttered at my throat.
Matthew continued. “I ran into him at a liquor store, and he came after me like a fucking psychopath. I told him I was butting out and minding my own business, but he wouldn’t leave it alone. I told him you and I were through Evangeline, but he was enraged. I didn’t even recognize him. It was like he turned into a fucking animal, and he just lost it. And now I’m waiting in the emergency room. I think he broke my fucking arm.”
“What?” I breathed.
I heard him swallow, and I couldn’t deny that it sounded like he was in pain. “Please. Lock your door, okay? The bastard came unhinged, and I wouldn’t put it past him to show up at your place looking for more trouble.”
“Matthew, I—”
“Just lock your door. Do you hear me?”
“Y-yes,” I stammered.
“I have to go. The doctor’s here. Watch your back, okay?”
He hung up on me. I stared at the phone, and my heart raced in my chest like a frightened little rodent trying to escape a bloodthirsty predator.
Chapter 27
Owen
The ride from the liquor store to Evangeline’s apartment building was one of the most uncomfortable of my life. My shoulder ached fiercely, and the rest of my body screamed for me to get the hell off the bike and get horizontal.
Matthew and his fucking posse had done a number on me.
But not before I managed to mess them up pretty good.
I parked my bike at the curb, left the champagne-soaked backpack on the seat, and walked the rest of the way down the block to her building clutching my aching ribs with one hand. I couldn’t straighten up all the way without my side flaring with pain, so I hunched over, took shorter steps than normal, and eventually made it to her building and up the front steps to the doors.
The doorman did not want to open the door for me.
I couldn’t blame him. I was a fucking mess. There was blood in my right eye and in my mouth and down the front of my shirt. My knuckles were split open and raw, and I had no idea what the extent of damage was to my face.
It must have been bad because he recoiled from me like I’d pulled a gun on him.
“I was jumped,” I said, hoping he’d believe me.
The doorman, a wispy guy in his late forties, looked me up and down. “Shouldn’t you go to a hospital?”
I shrugged, and it hurt. Damn it. “Shouldn’t you mind your own business?”
He shrank in on himself.
I shook my head and grimaced. Staying on my feet was a chore. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. I’m here to see Evangeline Snow on the top floor. You can call up and ask her if you need to.”
He pursed his lips and studied me for a good thirty seconds. Then he opened the door. “No. Go ahead. I’ve seen you around here plenty. Ar
e you sure you shouldn’t call an ambulance?”
“I’m sure,” I said. I’d had much worse than this.
Much, much worse.
I crossed the marble floor of the lobby to make my way to the elevators.
But lo and behold, I was stopped by Barry. Insufferable, irritating, ass-kissing fucking Barry.
He scampered out from behind his concierge desk and waved his hands in my face to stop me. “Sir! Sir! You cannot come in here like this. You need to leave. Now.”
I was aware of the people sitting in the lounge on the other side of the lobby. I’d stolen all of their attention, and a hush had fallen over the place. I narrowed my eyes at Barry. “Move.”
He swallowed and shook his head. “I can’t do that.”
For a brief second, I admired his resolve.
Brief.
Then I moved forward and closed a hand on his shoulder. “Listen, Barry. I just had a really shitty go of things, in case you haven’t noticed. And all I want is to get upstairs and see my girl and make sure the assholes that did this to me aren’t going to show up at her place. So you know what you’re going to do?”
Barry’s mouth hung open, and he shook his head slowly.
I leaned in close, my lips peeling off my teeth in a snarl as my side flared with more pain. “You’re going to get the fuck out of my way. Now.”
Barry stood there with his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
I tightened my grip on his shoulder.
Barry let out a little yelp and shrugged away from me before stepping aside and motioning for me to carry on toward the elevators. “I didn’t realize it was you,” he said.
“Get bent,” I growled, blowing past him and heading for the elevators.
“Should I call an ambulance?” he hollered after me.
“No,” I said over my shoulder.
I stood at the elevators and jabbed the button furiously. I had to wait for what felt like ages before one arrived on the first floor, and I had to wait more as six people piled off it and cast wary glances in my direction. I scowled right back at them.
My patience was wearing thin.
Once I stepped on the elevator and I was heading for Evangeline’s floor, I slumped against the wall and breathed a sigh of relief.
My reflection caught my eye on the mirrored wall on the far side of the elevator.
“Jesus,” I muttered as I looked myself over.
I was a mess.
My hair was matted with sweat and blood from a gash at my hairline on the right side. At some point, I must have run my fingers through my hair because there were streaks of red running through it. My jaw was already bruised, and I’d earned myself another gash in my right eyebrow which had stopped bleeding but was the culprit for the blood blurring my vision.
My jacket was ruined.
That stung a bit.
I wasn’t sure of the extent of the damage under my clothes, and I didn’t have time to check it out before the elevator doors slid open and I stumbled out into the little lobby to make my way to Evangeline’s front door.
She was going to freak out when she saw me.
I rested my forehead on her door and closed my eyes. I’d have to warn her first.
I knocked softly.
There was no answer.
I waited. A minute passed. Thirty more seconds. And then I knocked again.
“Angel?”
Ten seconds.
“Owen?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Are you all right in there?”
She didn’t answer right away, and when she did, her voice was shaky. “Yes. What’s happened? Why are you so late?”
I sighed. “I ran into Matthew and his goons.” Well, I hadn’t run into them. They’d been lying in wait for me. They must have tailed me to the liquor store without me noticing. “They ambushed me at the liquor store and came after me with a baseball bat. Angel, before you open the door, I need to warn you. There’s a lot of blood.”
“What?” Her voice was sharp.
Seconds later, the lock was sliding out of place, and she wrenched the door open with so much force that it caused a gust of air to blow her hair back over her shoulders.
When she saw me, her eyes went wide, and she covered her open mouth with one hand. “Oh my God, Owen. What did they do to you?”
I tried to smile and failed. “Nothing I didn’t do right back to them.”
Evangeline snapped into action and came to me, slipping under my arm and offering her support. I leaned on her, but not too heavily, and she helped me into the living room. She started lowering me onto the couch.
“You should put sheets down or something. I don’t want to stain your—”
“Shut up,” she said bossily. “It’s just a sofa. Sit.”
I sat.
Evangeline helped me out of my leather jacket and frowned at it as she held it up, pinched between her fingers. She gave it a sniff. “Champagne?”
I nodded. “I had grand plans for our date tonight.”
“Fucking Matthew.” She scowled as she rested my jacket on the coffee table.
My muscles sighed with relief as I leaned back on the sofa and closed my eyes.
“I’m sorry, Owen. I’m so fucking sorry.”
I cracked open one eye. “This isn’t your fault.”
“Yes, but—”
“No.” I shook my head. “No ‘but’.”
She pressed her hand to her forehead. “He called me fifteen minutes ago.”
“Who did?” I asked, my head fuzzy from the pain.
“Matthew.”
“What?”
She nodded. “He called me and told me you attacked him and put him in the hospital. Did you break his arm?”
I swallowed. “Maybe.”
She rubbed her eyes and left dark smudges of mascara on her skin. “He’s such an ass. I shouldn’t have put it past him to pull something like this. Men like him will do whatever it takes to get what they want, and he must have thought if he could trick me into thinking you were dangerous, I’d go running back to him.” She scoffed and shook her head before lifting her eyes toward the ceiling. “What a dick. I’m going to kill him.”
“He’ll be easy to find. He’s not getting out of the hospital anytime soon.”
“Good.”
I arched an eyebrow at her.
Evangeline crossed her arms under her breasts. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I'm rubbing off on you,” I said.
She shrugged. “Yeah, a little.”
I grinned.
Evangeline cracked a smile of her own too. Then she shook her head. “Now is not the time for jokes. What do I do?”
My stomach growled.
Evangeline covered her mouth when she started to giggle.
I scratched my jaw and tried to play it cool. “Well, I had grand plans of cooking you a nice steak and serving you nice champagne. But it’s all blown to pieces in my bag with my bike.”
“I’ll order us pizza,” she said.
“You’re a fucking mind reader.”
Evangeline laughed and grabbed her phone from the counter. As the phone rang, she nodded at me. “Take your shirt off. I want to make sure everything is in the right place under there.”
“You just want to get me naked,” I said through gritted teeth as I pulled my shirt off over my head.
Evangeline let out a little gasp, and I looked down at myself.
Yep. It was bad.
But not as bad as I was expecting. I’d been to hell and back when it came to recovering from injuries like this, and in comparison to some of the really bad ones I’d had, this was nothing. I’d be back to tiptop shape in no time.
Well, a couple of weeks, more like.
But that was still decent.
“It’s not that bad,” I told her.
She couldn’t answer me. The pizza place had answered her call, and she gave them our order while she went to the freezer and gra
bbed some icepacks from the shelf on the door. Then she rummaged through some cupboards for hand towels, which she wrapped around the icepacks. She gathered a couple of other things: extra hand towels, a bowl of hot water, and rubbing alcohol.
Damn it. She wasn’t going to let this slide.
When she hung up the phone, she came and sat down beside me. She held her hand out for mine and started by patting my busted knuckles with a hot towel. Then she dabbed them with a splash of rubbing alcohol, which burned like hell, and then handed me an icepack wrapped in a thin towel. “Hold it on your knuckles to stop the swelling.”
“You could have been a nurse,” I said.
“I don’t like people enough to be a nurse.”
I chuckled.
Evangeline proceeded to take care of my injuries. She gently poked at my ribs, which made me flinch, and her brow creased with concern.
“They’re not broken,” I assured her. “Just bruised. They’ll heal on their own.”
When all my cuts and scrapes and gashes were taken care of, she tucked her legs under herself and stared at me. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Owen. Who would have thought my social circles would be the one getting you in trouble?”
“You never know what people have up their sleeves,” I said.
“Apparently,” she muttered.
“You know what would speed up my healing tenfold?”
She narrowed her eyes. “What?”
I gave her a cocky smile.
Evangeline threw her head back and laughed.
And I knew I was going to get what I wanted when she set her gaze back on me and her eyes twinkled deviously.
Chapter 28
Evangeline
Owen looked rough.
But that charming smile was as handsome as ever.
“Down, boy,” I said, swatting at his hand as he reached for me. “You need to take it easy.”
“Screw that. Are you really going to turn me down? After everything I went through?” He pouted and gave me big puppy dog eyes.
“Oh no. That’s not going to work on me.”
“But, babe.”
“No,” I said firmly, holding up a finger and pointing it at his chest. It was like I was scolding a toddler.
