by A. M. Myers
“I’m going to run inside but I’ll be quick,” Cora says as she grabs the door handle and I nod as I pull my wallet out of my back pocket. After pulling out a twenty dollar bill, I hand it to her.
“Would you mind grabbing me a coffee and a candy bar?”
“Cream or sugar?”
I shake my head. “Black.”
“And the candy bar? Any preference?”
“Anything with chocolate will do.”
Nodding, she hops out of the truck and I watch her walk into the gas station before climbing out and prying open the gas cap. As the truck is filling up, I lean back against the side and sigh, rubbing a hand over my face. We started our thirteen-hour trip in Baton Rouge at three this morning and I swear I’m ready to crash out before driving back tomorrow. Normally, we wouldn’t leave so early but in this case, it was necessary. Cora first contacted the club three months ago when a man on the cleaning staff at the company she worked for started stalking her. At first, it was harmless enough - flowers sent to her apartment and gifts left at her door but he soon made it clear that he was always watching her and she panicked. When we stepped in, we put a guard on her for a little while - just to let him know that he couldn’t get to her so easily - and Rodriguez confronted him about his behavior but without much evidence, our hands were tied so Cora made the decision to leave everything behind and start over in Miami with her sister. Freddie, her stalker, works the night shift so leaving so early in the morning gave us the biggest head start before he realizes that she is gone and I’m hoping the thousand miles I have put between them today will be enough to keep Cora safe.
My phone starts ringing and I sigh as I dig it out of my pocket and check the screen. This damn thing is the other reason I’m so damn irritable today. Tawny’s name flashes on the screen and I decline her call before slipping the phone back in my pocket. The day after her infamous “you’re going to fucking regret this” speech, Tawny started calling me again, apologizing for her crazy behavior and begging me for another chance but there is no way in hell I’m falling down that rabbit hole again. Before she and I hooked up, I thought I wanted something real but if this is what I have to look forward to, maybe I was wrong. Then again, my brothers make it look so damn appealing.
My phone rings again and I growl as I dig the phone out of my pocket and hit the decline button. She’s fucking delusional if she thinks any of this is going to work but of course, just telling her that has gotten me nowhere so I have to just keep ignoring her calls for now. It’s not the best solution in the world but it is all I’ve got until I can get back to Baton Rouge and make things clear to her. When my phone starts ringing for a third time, I shove myself off of the truck and barely resist the urge to punch something before digging it out of my pocket. Just as I’m about to throw it across the lot, I notice Blaze’s name on the screen and my body sags as I release a breath and answer it.
“Hey, boss.”
“Moose,” he replies. His voice is all business but I can hear the guys in the background, laughing and having a good time.
“Y’all decide to throw a party without me?”
“Naw, we’re just lettin’ off some steam. How are things going?”
I nod as I watch the number tick by on the gas pump. “Good. We’re about an hour outside of Miami.”
“No trouble?”
“Nope. It’s been a quiet trip so far, knock on wood. We got eyes on Freddie?”
He sighs. “Yeah. He just woke up and realized she’s gone.”
“Is he losing it?”
“Like you wouldn’t fucking believe but don’t worry about a thing. If he makes any moves, we’ll know about it.”
I nod. “Sounds good.”
“Listen, I just got a call from Ali. Apparently, her boss, Mercedes, has a friend out in Miami that needs a lift back to Baton Rouge. You mind hanging out tonight and driving back with her tomorrow?”
I check my watch and shrug. “Yeah, I was planning on grabbing a hotel room anyway so it’s not a big deal. Is she in trouble?”
“Not that I know of but Ali didn’t know much more than I told you.”
I nod, all the different scenarios running through my mind. This could turn out to be dangerous if she is in some kind of trouble and I’m out here on my own but Storm’s old lady, Ali, is family and we would all do anything for her. Or any of the girls, really. In the last couple of years, most of the guys have found “the one” and put a ring on her finger before she wised up. Fuzz, Streak, and I are the only single guys left in the club and it certainly has changed the dynamic but I can’t say that I mind. We are a family now in a way that we never were when it was just the guys.
“Moose? You still there?”
I nod, pushing off the truck. “Yeah, sorry. Where am I picking her up?”
“Mercedes sent me the address of a restaurant. She said she’ll meet you there at midnight.”
“Midnight, huh?” Certainly doesn’t sound like someone who just needs a ride. “What’s her name?”
“Juliette.”
Cora walks out of the gas station with her hands full and I nod. “Yeah, all right. I’ll pick her up and call you before we take off tomorrow.”
“Sounds good. Make sure you call if you run into any trouble.”
I nod as Cora stops at the hood of the truck. “Will do. Talk to you tomorrow.”
We say good-bye and Cora steps closer with a smile as she holds out my cup of coffee to me. She has a plastic bag in her other hand and my stomach growls as I spot a couple different candy bars.
“Can you put the coffee in the cup holder for me?” I ask as the numbers on the pump slow. She nods and carries my drink and her bag of goodies around to the passenger side before climbing in. When the tank is full, I pull the nozzle out of the truck and grab my receipt on my way back to my door.
“How much longer?” Cora asks as I slip behind the wheel and drop my phone in the holder before bringing up the GPS.
“About an hour.”
She nods and begins typing out a text to her sister on the burner phone I gave her at the start of this trip. I barely make it out of the parking lot when she sighs and shakes her head. “Gah, I hate this thing.”
“As soon as you’re settled, you can get a new phone but we couldn’t risk him following you.”
“I know,” she whispers, peeking up from the phone. “He has to know I’m gone by now.”
I nod. “He does.”
“Is he freaking out?” she asks, her voice shaking and it sends me into a rage. Nothing in this world makes me angrier than a woman with terror in her voice and tears in her eyes. I’ve seen way too much of it for my liking and I wish there was more I could do.
“You don’t need to worry about him anymore. We’re keeping a close eye on him and you are safe.”
She sighs. “Thank you again for this. I’m sure you have better things to do with your weekend than babysit me.”
“Don’t worry about it. We just want you to be safe.”
My phone starts ringing before she can reply and I growl when Tawny’s name pops up on the screen again. Leaning forward, I silence it as her gaze bores into the side of my head.
“Girl trouble?” she asks as the cab falls silent again. I scoff, my grip tightening on the wheel.
“Yeah, something like that.” I glance over and find her studying me with a curious expression.
“Wanna talk about it?”
I bark out a laugh. “No.”
“Oh, come on. We have to pass the time somehow and it’ll be nice to think about someone else’s mess for a little while… please?”
“Fine,” I grumble, rolling my eyes and she claps her hands before turning to face me on the bench seat.
“Okay, start at the beginning. How did you meet her?”
Reluctantly, I start telling her all about Tawny - how we met at a clubhouse party after she’d tried her hand with a few other guys and how it was only supposed to be casual but then she started
getting attached.
“You know what I think?” she asks, interrupting me and I shake my head.
“No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
She nods. “Yes, I am.”
“Go on, then. Tell me why I can’t pick a good woman.”
“Oh, you’re perfectly capable of picking a good woman. You just choose not to.”
Turning to her, I blink in confusion as I try to process her words but she doesn’t give me any time to respond.
“See, I think you want something real. I think you want the same thing your brothers have found but there’s something holding you back. You’re scared which is why you chose someone that you knew it would never work with. You sabotage yourself.”
I suck in a breath and turn back to the road in front of us. “I’m not afraid of a relationship.”
“Mmhmm,” she hums, turning to the front of the truck. “You can deny it all you want but you know I’m right. If you truly want something real and something that will last, you have to push yourself past whatever it is that scares the shit out of you.”
“How the hell did you get that I want something real from what I told you? I was only looking for something casual.”
“Then why the hell did you pick a woman that made it very clear she wanted a relationship?”
I open my mouth to reply but nothing comes out. Shit. Why did I choose to hook up with Tawny knowing she wanted more than just sex? It was a disaster from the start and I knew it. There was always that little voice in my head telling me what a bad idea it was but the loneliness forced that voice to shut the hell up real quick.
“Now, you just need to figure out what scares you so badly about being in a relationship.”
I grunt and shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m swearing off women until I get my shit together.”
“Yeah.” She laughs. “Good luck with that. I can’t tell you how many people I know who have said the same thing and the next thing you know, they’ve met their soul mate.”
“Yeah, right. I think I’d have better luck with the lottery.”
She points to my face. “And you just proved my point.”
“Which point would that be?”
“That you want a relationship,” she answers, looking smug. “But you’re also scared to open up your heart to someone.”
“What is it you do for work again?” I ask, glancing over at her. I’m certain she’s not a therapist but I feel like I just got thoroughly shrinked and now I’m questioning everything I thought I knew. She laughs.
“I’m an accountant.”
I scoff, shaking my head. “Maybe you should think about a career change because you have a talent.”
“Naw. Girls are just better at this kind of thing. Besides, I did a whole lot of work on myself in the last year but I’m glad to see my self-help book addiction helped someone.”
She starts telling me all about her massive shelf of self-help books and how each one helped her and the closer we get to Miami, the more animated she becomes. It’s like watching her being released from a cage and one of my favorite things about the work we do. Each woman we help does things at her own pace but at some point, she realizes she is safe and she is free. She starts living again and I love watching the life spark in their eyes again. For some, it takes years of therapy and work but for Cora, all it took was getting away from Freddie and her life in Baton Rouge where the memories of his torment haunted her everyday of her life.
“So what is it?” she asks. Her whole body is twisted in the seat so she can study me as I drive and I glance over at her with an arched brow.
“What is what?”
“The reason you’re scared.”
My gaze flicks between her and the road a couple times before I let out a sigh. “Let’s just say past heartbreak and not take it any further.”
“And now you’re terrified to open up to someone again.”
“Something like that,” I grumble, refusing to look in her direction. The things in my past are not something I want to talk about… now or ever. “Looks like we’re getting close to your sister’s place.”
She nods and launches into telling me about some other book she thinks might really help me but I keep my gaze focused on the road in front of me, fighting back painful memories. By the time we pull into her sister’s neighborhood, she has run out of things to talk about but her leg bounces like crazy and she squirms in her seat, the excitement almost too much to bear.
“When was the last time you saw your sister?” I ask as we pull up in front of a cute little coral colored cottage near the beach.
“Almost two years ago. It’ll be so nice to reconnect with her.”
I nod as I put the truck in park and open my door. The front door of the cottage swings open and a woman who looks identical to Cora steps outside and runs down the sidewalk as Cora jumps out of the truck. They crash together, wrapping each other up in a tight hug as I round the back of the truck and pull Cora’s bags out of the bed. As I set them on the sidewalk, Cora’s sister glances up at me with tears in her eyes and beams.
“You must be Moose. Thank you so much for taking such good care of my baby sister,” she says, releasing Cora to shake my hand and I nod.
“Just call me Sawyer, Ma’am, and it was my pleasure.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Sawyer. I’m Lana and thank you again. I’ve been so worried about her with that psycho running around,” Lana says, wrapping her arm around Cora’s shoulders.
“Like I said, it was my pleasure.”
“Excuse me if this is rude but are you sure he didn’t follow you? Does he even know she’s gone yet?”
I nod. “We stopped for gas about an hour ago and I spoke to my president. Freddie knows she’s gone but y’all don’t need to worry about a thing. If he starts heading your way, we’ll know about it and beat him here.”
“Okay,” she whispers, uncertainty lighting up her eyes for a moment before she blows out a breath and shakes it off. She turns to the bags before gasping and spinning around to face me again. “You should stay for dinner.”
“Oh.” I shake my head. “Thank you but I really should get going.”
“I insist,” she urges, grabbing onto my arm and I glance at Cora, who shrugs. As nice as a home cooked meal sounds, I’m afraid if I get too comfortable, I’ll just pass out wherever I land. I gently pull my arm from her grasp and shake my head.
“No, that’s all right. I don’t want to intrude and I’m sure y’all have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Besides, I’m sure he’ll want to get some sleep. He’s been up since three this morning,” Cora adds and I nod, wondering if it would be possible for me to catch a nap in my truck before I have to go pick up Juliette. Lana frowns.
“Well, okay. If you’re sure…”
I nod. “I am but thank you for the offer. It was very kind.”
Lana nods before turning to grab the bags and I glance at Cora.
“Stay safe and remember, if you ever need anything, just give any of us a call. We’ll keep an eye on Freddie until we’re sure that he’s not a threat anymore.”
She nods, tears welling up in her eyes. “I know Lana already said this several times but truly, thank you. I was beginning to think I’d never feel safe again but you guys changed that for me.”
“Of course.” She launches herself at me and I give her a quick hug before I take a step back and hold up a hand to wave good-bye. They both inch closer to the front door of the cottage before turning back to wave.
“Drive safe!” Cora yells as I round the hood of the truck and I nod, waving to them again before climbing behind the wheel and starting the truck. When I’m on the next street over, I pull over to the side of the road and grab my phone. I’ll need to get a hotel room for the night but there’s no way I’ll be able to wake up in a couple hours if I get into a bed. Opening the internet, I search for a secluded beach and program it into the GPS before pulling away from the curb agai
n. It’s not ideal but at least I’ll be able to grab a couple hours of sleep before I need to pick up Juliette. Hopefully, Blaze was right and she just needs a ride back to Baton Rouge but, as usual, I’ve got a bad feeling about the whole thing.
Chapter Eight
Juliette
My stomach churns and my throat feels tight as I wring my hands together and trek across the bedroom. The moonlight casts an eerie, blue hue over the room as it shines down on me through the wall of windows and I suck in a breath as I turn and walk back along the same path. I’ve been like this for an hour, at least, pacing through my room and struggling to breathe as I wait to make my move. I swear, if a pin dropped across the apartment, I’d be able to hear it and there’s a fairly good chance it would make me jump out of my skin. Grabbing my phone, I pull up the text Mercedes sent me a couple of hours after I got off the phone with her this morning.
Mercedes:
His name is Sawyer and
he’ll meet you at the diner down
the street from your place at midnight.
Sucking in a breath, I read the text two more times before checking the clock again. Eleven fifteen. Time to go. As I tuck the phone into my back pocket, I walk over to the little desk in the corner of the room and sink into the chair in front of it. A stack of letterhead with my company’s logo greets me as I open the first drawer and I pull out a piece before grabbing a pen. My pen hovers above the page for a second before I sigh. This whole situation… it’s just so fucked and me running out on Gavin in the middle of the night isn’t fair but neither is expecting me to hang around here when nothing feels right anymore. I know I need to go find my memories in my own way, in my own time but it doesn’t make it any easier.
After hanging up with Mercedes this morning, I spent hours going through the massive closet and packing everything I wanted to take with me before wasting the rest of the day thinking about all the things I want to do when I get back to Baton Rouge. It’s weird that even though I don’t remember being away, I somehow miss my city and the longer I spend in Miami, I’m wondering what it was that kept me here. Was it Dad? My company? None of it makes any sense which is all the more reason why I need to go even if I do feel guilty for what I’m about to do to a perfectly nice man. It also doesn’t help that he came from work this afternoon with flowers in hand and cooked me a delicious meal that I could barely eat due to my tumultuous stomach. I got away with telling him that I didn’t feel well, which wasn’t as much of a lie as I thought it would be, and disappearing into the bedroom right afterward. Sighing, I stare down at the paper and shake my head as I start writing.
