Back in the bedroom, he showed Lisa where all the hair tools he’d bought for her were, then he sat on the edge of his bed watching how she got ready for the day.
They dropped in at her place so she could change into something more comfortable, and once he zipped her into a jacket and helped her on with a helmet, they took off for a ride, knowing his woman loved being on his bike. He kept going for ages, only stopping when he wanted to get her ice cream.
Major fucking mistake, he realized when he watched Lisa’s tongue lick around the waffle cone like a seductive serpent for a third time, and his dick was straining against his jeans, eager to answer to the siren’s call. Being in public, it wasn’t as though he could drop to his knees for her.
“You’re teasing me, woman.” He groaned close to her ear and watched how she smiled, continuing her licking.
“How am I teasing you, Ryan? I’m eating a chocolate cone; you know it’s my one weakness.”
“Woman, you and your weaknesses are gonna be the death of me.”
“I don’t want you to die,” she said, almost fluttering her lashes at him, definitely teasing him, the little minx. And then she ran her finger along the back of his hand, tracing one of his tattoos. “I really like you. Really, really like you. So, I can’t kill you with my feminine wiles just yet.”
Before heading off, he went inside to stand in line to get Lisa a bag of blue cotton candy to take home. He cast a glance outside and saw she was on the phone.
It was only a few minutes later, with the goods in hand, that he strode out to continue their ride along the mountainside. But seeing Lisa’s pale and drawn face, he immediately went on alert and looked around to see what could have caused it.
But nothing seemed weird enough to make her look that way.
He tossed the cotton candy onto the umbrella table and went down on his haunches in front of her.
“Are you not feeling well, sweetheart?”
“I. I... Ryan.”
He knew then it was some shit.
The phone call? Had a client gone off on her again?
“Who called you?” he asked in a steady voice, but inside, Splice was ready to slay demons for her.
When she raised her head, he saw the fear instantly, and Splice cupped the side of Lisa’s face.
“Tell me, baby.”
“That man,” she croaked. And he didn’t understand for a second. What man? The jerk from the restaurant who’d belittled her? “It was an unknown number; I thought it was for work. It was that man from years ago, the one who told me to get out of town, to leave you.”
“You recognized the voice as being the same as before?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. It only lasted about ten seconds. He said… he said I better listen to him this time, that he’s already given me warnings I didn’t take notice of, he’s not playing around, and he’ll kill you if I open my mouth.” He was trying to keep his anger in check so he wouldn’t freak her out but seeing how terrified she was made him feel sick. After a shaky breath, he pulled her in for a hug. Lisa hugged him tight, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Why is this happening again? He cut me off and hung up before I could explain he had it wrong.”
“No one is gonna get to you, baby,” he promised, knowing he’d do any-fucking-thing to protect his woman. There was no ceiling on that.
His gut feeling was spot on; this clown was linked to all her accidents. He was primed for murder, his nervous system clicking into high gear and locking onto his target.
He had to find out who it was and do it soon.
“Did you recognize the voice at all? Someone you might have come into contact with?”
“It sounded like he was using one of those voice modulators.”
Stroking her back, Splice soothed his woman in the only way he could.
“He’s going to hurt you, Ryan.” She sounded close to tears, and he pulled back to cup her face gently, smiling, even though he felt nothing close to happiness.
“That isn’t gonna happen, sweetheart. It’s an inept scumbag who probably wants to extort money, or something like that.”
