I shrug. “He tried to blackmail me into giving him head and when I said no, he grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.”
“Motherfucker,” he snarls, looking toward the machine as the message finally cuts off. He clenches his jaw and he balls his fists, looking ready to murder someone.
“Hey, it’s okay because I took care of it.”
“Yeah?” he asks, turning back to me. “And what if he decides to take this further and shows up here?”
I laugh, picturing just how that would go down. Reed wouldn’t even know what hit him. “Oh, I wish he would.”
“You’re terrifying,” he tells me, a smile teasing his lips and I grin.
“Only if you cross me so, you know… don’t do that.”
He nods, grabbing his coffee out of my hand and turning toward the dining room table. “Noted. You ready to talk?”
“Yeah,” I answer, sucking in a breath and grabbing a fresh cup of coffee for myself. “Let’s do this.”
We sit across from each other at the table and I pull the gun out of my waistband, setting it down between us. He arches a brow and I shrug, smiling at him.
“So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?” he asks and my stomach does a little flip.
“Uh… you know how I told you about the pregnancy scare in high school?”
He nods. “Yes.”
“Well, that was really only the start of it. I moved out right after graduation because I was rebellious and wanted to be on my own but it was way harder than I ever thought it would be. I was struggling to make ends meet when I met Beth. She was working as an escort and told me all about how much money I could make…”
“Are you saying you were a hooker?” he asks, shock filling his voice and I glance down at the table, twisting my fingers together. Why do I even care so much what he thinks of me?
“Not exactly. I never had sex with anyone but I did get paid to go out on dates with them.”
“So, in the coffee shop, when you told me that you’d been waiting for someone special, was that a lie?”
I shake my head. “No. Those dates, they weren’t real. I was there for companionship and they could talk to me about anything they needed to get off their chests but that was it. As soon as the date was over, I didn’t speak to them again unless they booked another date and I never even kissed anyone.”
“Why did you quit?”
“One day, Beth showed up at my apartment, beat to shit. Apparently, her date didn’t get the memo about the no sex thing and when she told him, he lost it. I rushed her to the hospital and she was there for three days. By the time she was discharged it just wasn’t worth it to me anymore.”
He stares at me as he lifts his coffee cup to his mouth and I wring my hands together under the table, fighting my urge to get up and run into the kitchen. “Did your mom know? Does your brother?”
“No and I would prefer that Theo never finds out. It’s not a time in my life that I’m proud of but I was too determined to make it on my own without my mother’s help. Please tell me you don’t think I’m a terrible person?”
With a quick shake of his head, he reaches across the table and grabs my hand. “No, Tate. I think you are one of, if not the strongest person I’ve ever met in my life and I certainly can’t judge you for your past when you haven’t judged me for mine.”
“Why haven’t you been in a relationship in six years?” I ask and he sighs, scrubbing his face with his free hand.
“I suppose turn about is fair play, huh?”
I nod.
“After Nora died, I was lost and I met this girl, Tara, who made me feel sane again. Looking back, all she did was give me a place to hide and pretend like I was fine again but at the time, she felt like my saving grace so I asked her to marry me.”
I suck in a breath and try to pull my hand away but he refuses to release me.
“On our wedding day, I was standing at the altar, waiting for her to walk down to me when my mom walked into the church and told me that Tara had run off with my best friend.”
Her loss, I think and try not to look smug as he continues his story.
“Anyway, I kind of lost it after that, packed up everything I owned and threw it in the back of the Camaro. I left town and just traveled all over the country for two years until I landed in Baton Rouge and I promised myself that I would never get close to anyone again.”
“You and I are so alike it’s a little scary,” I say and he smiles as the phone starts ringing again. Sighing, he glances over his shoulder.
“What are you going to do about that?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know yet. I’ve been kind of hoping that he’d get bored.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
Shrugging, I squeeze his hand. “Then, we’ll deal with it.”
“I like the sound of that. Do I get official boyfriend privileges now?”
Boyfriend.
My mind spins at the mention of the word and I suck in a breath, meeting his warm golden gaze.
“About that… I do want this but I need to take it slow. I’m not just going to jump into bed with you because you used the word boyfriend or say you want more.”
He smirks, leaning back in his chair. “Shit. I knew you wouldn’t make this easy on me.”
“Yeah,” I muse, standing up from my chair as the machine picks up and I silence it as I pass by before sitting down in Lincoln’s lap. “But it will be so worth it.”
Leaning in, I thread my fingers through his dark hair and press my lips to his as he lets out a low groan that shoots straight to my neglected core. Damn, resisting him is going to be one hell of a challenge but I’m determined to do things right this time.
Chapter Twelve
Lincoln
Where the fuck is she?
I frantically flick through each video feed, searching for movement or a shock of red hair but I come up with nothing. Glancing up at the house, I sigh. I watched her walk in the front door ten minutes ago and after going through her mail and deleting more weird messages from the answering machine, she went into her mother’s room and disappeared. The only reasonable explanation is that she’s in the closet but I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why. When I first started following her, I went through each room in her house so I could see the layout in my mind and the closet in her mom’s room is so small, I don’t even know how she fits in there.
The phone rings and I go back to the bedroom camera, waiting with bated breath and sure enough, a few seconds later, she appears at the bottom of the screen and walks out of the bedroom.
What the fuck?
When she gets to the dining room, she sets a piece of paper down on the table and I squint at the screen, trying to read it but it’s impossible.
“Hey, Theo,” she answers, leaning back against the wall. “Yeah, I’m doing all right. How are you?”
Putting the phone on speakerphone, she sets it on the dining room table and walks to the fridge.
“I’m fine, T. Same as always. But I’m worried about you,” Theo says, his voice barely audible and I turn the volume up on the tablet. Tate laughs.