by Allie York
“I’m fine. How are you, Davis?” Jovie took a wide step around him toward me. I nearly spit my coffee. Surely, I misheard her. The man in front of me couldn’t have been the same arsehole who treated my Jovie like shit, the one who crushed her trust and ruined her self-esteem.
“Good, good. I got married, got a couple of step kids, had a baby, Lacey makes bank so I only work part time for a security firm. Desk job. And she’s a fine piece of ass.” The asshole actually looked proud to be so damn lazy. He nodded slowly and finally noticed me. “Davis Lockmore.” He stuck his hand in my face.
“Ewan Alexander,” I deadpanned, stepping closer to her. I dwarfed the guy. Hell, Davis was barely taller than Jovie.
“Whoa! I know your accent gets her going.” Davis laughed, and Jovie crossed her arms. “Am I right, Jove?” He popped his eye brows at her making her groan as she took Merlin’s leash. “Say, how did you get her out of the jeans and Star Wars shirts? I tried forever to make her dress like a lady, but boy is the girl stubborn.” Davis looked at her purple top and khakis, winking at her. What the hell had she seen in him? He was creepy to say the least. The guy was disgusting, sloppy, and condescending. He certainly wasn’t deserving of a woman like her.
“It was good to see you, Davis, but I need to get to work.”
Jovie turned to leave, but I leaned in and whispered to Davis before patting his back and leaving him standing on the patio. “I can get her out of anything I want, including Star Wars shirts. And she fucking loves it.” He looked dumbfounded, and I grinned, chasing after her. We were a block from The Dog House before she dared to ask what I had said.
I laughed. “You’ll just get mad,” She pulled me to a stop and cocked her head for me to tell her. I confessed what I had said, and Jovie punched me playfully in the arm, blushing and smiling bashfully. My girl was adorable.
I hung around at the shop until Nick showed up with his Boston terrier, Liara. Jovie would never admit to being scared of her stalker showing up again, but she was, so Nick and I were tag teaming. We made sure she wasn’t ever without one of us, or in a safe place. I pulled her into another long apologetic kiss before heading home to help Amelia get the house ready for six screaming teenage girls to invade. The more I thought about the party, the less excited I was, but at least I could go and spend some time with the guys. It meant leaving her alone, but we were meeting at Briggs’s place right down the road, so I would be close if there were any issues.
Chapter Fifteen
JOVIE
“So, how is Mr. Perfect?” Erica snatched a towel I was folding to dry a dog and Nick started sweeping. He always brought Liara on Saturdays, but was also showing up after he got off. They would deny it, but I was pretty sure my best friend was helping Ewan keep an eye on me. I was slowly coming out of my seclusion as Mason stayed away, but Nick and Ewan were playing security guard. Erica teased me relentlessly until Nick and Liara went home to Rae, making me promise I would call if anything weird happened or if I even felt creeped out.
Erica and I talked shamelessly about my new found sex life as she probed me for details vulgar enough to make me blush. It was our last work day as a two-some. Cori would be there starting Monday. It was bittersweet. We needed the help, and I was excited about the prospect of befriending Cori, but Erica and I had been in it together for three years. I didn’t cope well with change, and my partner didn’t work well with others, so I hoped Cori worked out with no issues.
I was checking dogs out when Ewan came back to pick me up with a shopping bag. He settled on the bench just inside the door and waited for me to hand off a freshly groomed Shih Tzu before he winked at me and slid through the gate to the back. I watched him walk down the hall, jerking to attention when a blond girl came in. She chatted on her cell phone loudly and pushed her sunglasses on her head, handing me a credit card. I paid careful attention when I checked dogs in, and the woman hadn’t dropped one off, so I had no idea who she was paying for. I would have remembered her dangerously short skirt and overflowing top. I stood waiting for her to finish her call.
She hung up and looked at me stupidly. “I need to pick up my dog.” She dropped the phone in her over-sized pink bag and waved her hand for me to run the card. Her nails actually matched her purse and platform sandals.
“Of course. Which dog is yours?”
“CeeCee.” The blond rolled her eyes, giving me a duh look. I forced a smile, trying not to let my bitch face betray me, and slid the card. The man who brought in CeeCee was about fifty, wearing a suit, and held the dog like it was refuse instead of a beloved pet. I tried to figure out if he was her daddy or her sugar daddy, but I suspected the latter. I handed her the card back, and her fake smile moved from me to something behind me. The smile vanished, and I heard Ewan mumble a less-than-quiet “shit” from behind me. “What the hell are you doing here?” She curled her nose and snatched the card roughly from my hand. I took a step back to retrieve her dog, eyes darting between them.
Ewan was quiet for a moment. He had the same hard expression I had seen on his face that morning, but it was more upset than angry. I moved past him to get her poodle from the back. When I returned, he was sitting on the bench again, thumbing through his phone, and the woman was pouting in front of the computer, arms crossed and nose turned up. Erica looked at me with wide eyes, indicating something went down that I missed. I handed her the dog and she narrowed her eyes at me. “Can I give you some advice, hun?” Did the blonde bitch just call me hun? I half expected her to say something about the grooming job on her dog, but she said something else entirely. “Don’t expect him to make you his priority.” She tossed a glance at Ewan, who was watching the exchange from over his phone. “He may be decent in bed, but his needy little sister will always be more important than you.” The woman looked at me like her words were some deep-seated knowledge only she possessed. Darcy. Two exes in one day, what were the odds?
I laughed and it wasn’t a quiet one. “Of course Amelia is the priority. She’s his sister. Who would be conceited enough to try to come between that?” Yup, the woman, or more likely her sugar daddy, had just paid me and I insulted her, but she started it. I smiled at her. “You guys have a nice weekend.” Erica snorted a laugh from the grooming table and Ewan went back to flipping through his phone. Darcy spun and left like I had insulted her fake tan. I wanted to shake Ewan and ask what the hell he saw in her to begin with but thought better of it. After how disgusting and creepy Davis had been, it was stupid to rub Darcy in his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but I held my hand up and shook my head. Too much in one day. First we fought, then we saw Davis and then Darcy. I was done. I felt his eyes on me as I went to Merlin and gestured him onto my grooming table. My dog jumped up, standing completely still.
I dragged the comb through him slowly and methodically, taking care to remove any snags as I went before I picked up my scissors to trim his feet and face. Ewan walked around to my seat behind the counter and watched me work. I ignored him. Erica ignored the tension like I did when she and her husband fought, and that happened more often than anyone wanted to discuss. I wasn’t mad at Ewan, but I needed to process the wretched things Darcy said about Amelia before I jumped the counter and knocked her perfect white teeth in.
Ewan didn’t bother saying anything to me until I locked the front door behind us to leave. He took my hand as we moved slowly toward his house and the impending slumber party. “Are you mad?” Boy, isn’t he perceptive. “What part of today are you angry about?” He tightened his grip on the bag in his hand when I eyed it.
“It infuriates me that anyone would talk about Amelia that way. It’s pretty frowned upon to throat punch a person once they’ve paid for your services, but I came pretty damn close today.” I had to grit my teeth just thinking about it.
“So it wasn’t her accusing me of only being decent in bed?” Ewan bumped me with his shoulder, and I laughed.
“There’s the ego.”
Ewan kissed my head and hand
ed me the bag. “I got you something,” I had hoped it was for Amelia, not me. I was always grateful for gifts, but was terrible at saying thank you for some reason. The whole process made me flustered. “It wasn’t expensive, but I think you will be satisfied.” Good, I thought we had established that I could buy my own stuff, but I wasn’t turning away gifts from him. I opened the bag to find a stack of three books. All three were on my to be read list. “I had Amelia stalk you on GoodReads then went to the book store.” He looked proud of his ingenuity.
“Thank you, Ewan. You have definitely learned the way to my heart.” He chuckled, and my stomach fluttered. Food and books pretty much did it for me, and his laugh did something else entirely. I was only partially joking about him learning his way to my heart. I was undoubtedly in love and it was amazing. Ewan left “his girls” at the house to go to a co-worker’s house to have a man night. Before he left, Ewan made it very clear that anything weird was to be reported immediately.
Two hours later, I was refilling party trays and counting out black and gold candles in the kitchen while Amelia and five other teen girls sang and squealed from the living room. The TV blared some top forty pop music and the gold wine flutes overflowed with sparkling grape juice. Black and gold streamers were everywhere accompanied by a nauseating amount of confetti. Ewan had gone to teach a class then planned on meeting his “mates” for a late dinner. It was cute to see him excited to go do something with his dude friends and get a break from playing parent for a while. He had skipped a couple of nights out to be home with me since the Mason incident, but the party was a perfect opportunity. I had just settled down at the breakfast nook to start on a new book, trying to stay out of the way, when Amelia ran in and snatched it from me.
“Nope! We are doing your makeup,” She dropped the book on the table right as I heard a car horn from outside. I peeked through the glass on the door as the girls dragged me by, but there was nothing. I locked it and let Amelia drag me into the living room. A quilt was down and all of Ulta was spread out over it. I knew fighting was pointless so I sat to let them make me look like a drag queen.
“So is Ewan a good kisser?” Cadence brushed a shimmery eyeshadow on me and Amelia let out a loud “ew”. I didn’t answer. “I bet he’s a good kisser. Ugh, those lips.” My eyes were closed but I could imagine her face. “You should take us swimming with you this summer. I want a peek at his abs.”
“Cadence, you are disgusting,” Amelia and I could agree on that one.
“No, I’m just not blind. Your brother is hot. Like beyond sexy.” The other girls giggled in agreement, and Amelia groaned. “Right, Jovie, tell her he’s sexy.” Cadence’s hazel eyes looked at me expectantly. Teenagers were the worst.
“I really don’t want to talkabout Ewan since the poor guy isn’t here to defend himself.” Or because you are sixteen and it’s weird as hell. Cadence rolled her eyes and whispered to Tia, who shook her head. Good girl, cousin.
Amelia took a million pictures, and I took a million more. The horn honked again, and I looked through the blinds, still nothing. Stupid neighbors. The girls ate, danced and ate some more before going upstairs. The horn happened about half a dozen more times, but I quit worrying about it. It was probably a boyfriend of one of the girls at the party. A paranoia tickled at the back of my mind, but I pushed it aside. We had left my car around back at work and had heard nothing from Mason in nearly a week.
The dogs went out, the dishes were clean, and the coffee pot was set for the next morning. Cinnamon rolls were in the fridge, ready to go straight in the oven. I was pretty proud to have survived. The house got quiet as the giggles from upstairs died out and I laid back on the couch with my book. The horn blared another dozen times before I drifted off with my new book in my hand.
Chapter Sixteen
EWAN
Briggs lived in one of the Victorian-style places similar to mine on the other side of the historic district. His mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s a few months before, and he quickly sold his house to move in with her. The house was huge, way too big for two people. He had an amazing home theatre set up in a bonus room, including a pool table and a full-sized fridge. It was an enviable set up for sure. His brother, Beck, worked for another local architectural firm, and had moved into the third floor of the house around the same time Briggs had. Briggs made it very clear that we were lucky Beck was out for the night. Apparently, there was no love lost between the brothers. Briggs was a quiet guy, but was adamant about Beck being anything but.
The pizza was gone, the TV was blaring in the background, and we were deep into our third hand when my phone rang. Bev from next door. She called me when Clark got too rowdy and with Merlin staying the dogs were probably playing too loud outside. I ignored the call and dropped my cards on the table. The phone rang again. I huffed, collecting my chips from the center, and answered the phone. “Hey, Bev.”
“I hate to bother you but there is a man dumping bags on your lawn.” She didn’t sound drunk, but her statement made no sense. I tried to figure out if I had misheard her. “Ewan?”
“Uh, yeah, sorry. What do you mean?” I stood, catching my mates’ eyes as I grabbed my shoes and headed for the door. They all yelled for me to call if I needed them. I tossed my hand up, fumbling for my keys and ran to my car. My heart hammered against my ribs and my hands started sweating. The motherfucker was at my house. She was just feeling safe, and the nightmares had finally stopped.
“He’s gone, and your house is dark now, but there was a man with trash bags and he was emptying them out in your grass. I couldn’t make out details in the dark, but it looks like clothes. Should I call the police?” Before I could answer, another call came in. Nick.
“Please, Bev. I’ll be there in a few. Don’t go out there. Thanks for calling.” I quickly flipped to the next call to Nick. “Yeah.” I slammed my car door, shoving the key in the ignition.
“Ewan, where is Jovie? Her phone is off or dead and something happened.” Nick was always level-headed, a calm guy, but this call was different. I pushed my foot harder on the pedal, rushing home. I told him she was at my house with the party and Nick described the scene they had just walked into. He and Rae had been out late, and when they got home Rae noticed Jovie’s door ajar. He called her, then the police when she didn’t answer. Her house was trashed. Books were strewn across the living room, the couch was slashed, and her clothes were all gone. Whore was painted across her door in red paint and her blankets had been shredded. Nick said the intruder had been in her bathroom, her bed was covered in bodily fluids and his tires had been slashed. I thanked him, promising to have Jovie call him as I leapt from the car and bounded up the front stairs. The police caught me as I unlocked the door. Cruisers were pulling up, lining my street, and I could see neighbors coming out to watch the scene. I peeked inside through the half-circle window in the top of the door to see her asleep on the couch. My girls were safe so I could relax slightly.
The scene in my yard was less appealing. Her clothes were everywhere, some were shredded, but it had to be everything she owned that wasn’t at my place. I clenched my fists, breathing through my nose. The first officer approached me, taking my information while I tried to keep from biting his head off. Samuel pulled up right as I was losing my patience with the officer. As a detective, he had insider information. I only wanted to get to Jovie, but was forced to keep answering questions. I just wanted to touch her, be reassured she was safe. I explained the situation, giving him the bastard’s name and struggling to keep my cool. Sam finally let me go get her while other officers checked the perimeter and took photos.
I eased the front door open and crouched by the couch, trying not to wake the girls upstairs. I whispered her name, but the girls must have worn her out because Jovie didn’t move. I brushed her hair back to study the makeup caked on her face from the partiers and nearly laughed. She rarely wore makeup; she didn’t need to. I nudged her again, saying her name, and her eyes fluttered open. She smile
d at me and touched my face softly. I hated to break up the moment, but I had to get her outside. Before I could, she noticed the flashing blue lights and sat up, looking terrified. I wrapped my arms around her, trying to be reassuring as we walked out to the circus outside my house.
“Miss Reed?” The officer I had talked to spoke softly to her, but Jovie was focused on her things in the yard. Her hand covered her mouth, covering the sob erupting from her lips. I gripped her shoulder tighter, and she leaned into me. “We need you to identify your things.” Jovie finally looked at him and nodded once, twisting her fingers into my shirt at my waist. We followed the officer and scanned the yard.
“It’s all mine.” I saw her jaw clench and I wrapped her in my arms. Tears trickled down her cheeks into my shirt. “I don’t want any of it. Please throw it out.” I whispered a promise to take care of it, smoothing her hair. “What-What happened?” Her voice shook, stoking my anger.
“A Nick Schriber called when he saw someone had been in your apartment. The suspect was gone when officers arrived, but then a neighbor here called about a disturbance and we found your things here.” The officer paused to flip through his notebook. “Your apartment is being treated as a crime scene, and we have officers there now. Mr. Alexander filled us in on the events leading up to tonight and we strongly suggest an order of protection.” Jovie bobbed her head while he spoke, giving her details on the state of her condo and going over procedure, but she was focused on her clothes. The tears stopped and she seemed calm, but I knew it was shock, not acceptance. I was something else entirely. I was pissed. Every nerve in my body wanted to kill the bastard. To beat the life out of him. There was no doubt he was sick, but ill or not, the bastard was threatening her, threatening our happiness.
