“Right,” I answer, laughing as I turn back to the racks as I imagine what my brother’s reaction would be if he ever found out. My stomach rolls at the thought and I don’t have to dive into my imagination too much to realize it would be a disaster. I turn back to Tate as she picks up a pair of panties. “What do you mean you’ve done worse though?”
She sighs, tossing the underwear back onto the rack before glancing over her shoulder at Piper, who is flicking through another rack as she chews on her bottom lip. Grabbing my arm, she pulls me away in the other direction. “So, this isn’t really public knowledge but before I met your brother, I did whatever it took to survive and for a while, that included escorting.”
My eyes widen in shock and she shakes her head.
“I never had sex with any of them or anything but there were some girls who did.”
I nod, trying to wrap my mind around this new information. “So, what did you do then?”
“Basically… I was arm candy,” she answers with a shrug as she begins browsing through one of the racks and I watch her, seeing her in a whole new light. At first, I thought maybe she was just being nice to me and keeping my secrets to try and build a relationship between the two of us but the more I get to know her, the more it’s clear to me that this is who she truly is - kind, funny as hell, open minded, and the least judgmental person I’ve ever met.
“Ooh, want to get this for Streak?” she asks, holding up a black lace bodysuit with baby pink frill around the edges and I fight back a smile as I shake my head.
“I already have one like that.”
She laughs as she puts it back on the rack and nods in approval. “All right, girl, get it. You are going to get something for him though, right?”
“Uh… I don’t know. I thought about it but I don’t think you’re supposed to get the guy you’re casually fucking a Christmas present.”
The sales lady’s head whips in our direction and I realize how loudly I was talking as blood rushes to my cheeks and Tate laughs again, moving closer to me to continue our conversation.
“First of all, that was amazing. Second, y’all are not casual.”
I scowl at her as I grab a sheer baby doll off of the rack. “What are you talking about? We are casual.”
“Okay,” she shoots back, clearly not buying it and I prop my hand on my hip as I narrow my eyes at her. She sighs. “You can look at me like that all you want but it still won’t change the fact that you and Streak are so far from casual that I can hear wedding bells.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
She shakes her head. “No, what’s ridiculous is y’all pretending like there is nothing there when anyone with eyes can see the connection you share.”
Before I can respond, my phone starts ringing and I sigh, putting the hanger back on the rack before pulling it out of my bag. Ash’s name stares back at me and I roll my eyes as I silence it.
“Who was that?”
Sighing, I slip the phone back into my bag. “Ash.”
“Still?” she snaps, her eyes widening as she studies me. “I thought that he had stopped.”
“Nope. He still calls every couple of days and leaves me a voice mail begging me to just talk to him and saying how much he misses me. On the last one, he talked about how empty the house was and how miserable he was without me until my voice mail cut him off.”
She shakes her head. “Jesus Christ. I was joking the first couple of times I talked about jumping on a plane but the boy is clearly not getting the message.”
“Whatever. Maybe I’ll just go get a new number and he can call this phone to his heart’s content.”
Laughing, she wraps her arm around my shoulders and nods. “We should. There’s a cell phone store in the mall we could swing by.”
“Let see how much shopping Blaze actually lets us get away with first,” I answer, grinning as I turn to check on the old man at his post. His arms are still crossed over his chest but he seems to have relaxed a little bit so maybe he won’t be rushing us out of here anytime soon. As I turn back toward Tate, my gaze sweeps over the crowd and I freeze, my heart jumping into my throat as I grip the closest rack to keep myself from collapsing. The man in the white mask, the same one from the nightclub, stands in the middle of the crowd – mothers, daughters, teenagers, fathers – all milling around him without a care in the world. It’s like he’s invisible because none of them even spare the strange man in a white mask a second glance.
Fuck.
Am I hallucinating this?
He’s standing at such an angle that I don’t think Blaze can see him from his post and my heart races as my gaze flicks from Piper to Blaze before finally turning to Tate. She takes one look at my face and grips my arm as her brows knit together and she searches my face.
“Rowan, what is it?”
I try to swallow my fear but I swear, I can feel his gaze in the side of my head and I’m thrust right back into that nightclub as he stalked closer and closer to Travis and me. “It’s him… the man from the club… the one in the mask…”
“Blaze,” she calls out as she turns to search the crowd. Blaze rushes into the store and walks over with Piper on his heels and when he stops in front of us, Tate sucks in a breath, pointing to the man. “There.”
Blaze follows her gaze, his entire body tensing. “We need to go.”
“Fuck no,” she hisses, releasing my arm to reach behind her back and grab her gun. “Let’s end this now.”
He shakes his head. “Absolutely not.”
“Why? I’m so fucking tired of this asshole and his shit. I know you are, too.”
“Tate, put your gun away,” he growls, the command in his voice clear as he levels a glare at her. Her gaze flicks between him and the man in the hall.
“We have the chance to put an end to all of this right now. Same way I could have ended it at the nightclub if Lincoln hadn’t stopped me.”
Blaze shakes his head. “There are far too many people here to start shooting and you could just as easily get killed. Not to mention, the police raid and investigation. We. need. to. go.”
“Fine,” she snarls, shoving her gun back in its holster as I glance back out at the hallway. The man is still there, completely unbothered by the fact that we know he’s there and my heart races as I think about all the things he’s done to the club over the past two weeks and questions bombard me.
What is he doing here?
Why is he just watching us?
What is his plan?
“Rowan, let’s move,” Blaze says, snapping me out of my thoughts and my belly does a little flip as I nod, unable to take my eyes off of the man. I remember the utter sense of dread I felt the night we all went out to the club and the certainty I had that we weren’t going to make it out unscathed. But we did…
Blaze goes first, putting a protective arm around Piper andTate does the same with me as we follow them out of the store. I can feel every ounce of tension in the air but it’s such a contrast from all of the normal people around us just finishing up their holiday shopping without even realizing the threat that is right next to them. In the hallway, I glance to where he was standing but my heart stops when I can’t find him.