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I rushed to the ground level to meet the courier, making sure the new phone was functional before I sent him on his way with a generous tip. With the device powered on, I was half-distracted making my way back to the elevator to return to my office. Being able to simply log in to the new phone and pull all my information from cloud storage made things very easy—a little too easy to get absorbed in, and not pay nearly enough attention to my surroundings.
“Laaani.”
I froze at the sound of that, taking my time to turn around and face the source of the voice.
EJ.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, tucking the phone into the pocket of my slacks and crossing my arms.
“Damn… you only been married what… a week or two? Already no love for EJ?”
“If you came here to start shit, no,” I told him. “No love for EJ.”
“That’s fucked up, bae.”
“Notyour bae, haven’t been that for a long time, so… please.”
“Please… what?” he asked, stepping in much closer than I was comfortable with.
“Please go somewhere with the nonsense,” I replied. I put up my hands, moving back to get some distance. “I’m busy and we both know you’re not here with any good intentions, so…”
“Oh I’m here with thebestintentions,” he countered. “I was asked to keep an eye out for you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Asked bywho?”
“Who do you think?”
“Ithinkyou and whoever asked you to ‘keep an eye out for me’are both outside your lane.”
EJ smirked. “Right… you probably think your little husband has you covered.”
“There’s nothinglittleabout him,” I snapped. “And yeah… Idothink he has me covered.”
“That’s funny to me, ’cause… if you’re so covered… what aboutthis,” he said, suddenly snatching me by the front of my blouse, dragging me against him. Before I could swing, he used his other hand to catch mine, holding me. “Where’s your bitch ass husbandright now?”
“You’ve got two seconds to get the fuck off me before I start screaming,” I warned, and he immediately let me go. It was so sudden that I stumbled, but quickly caught myself instead of tumbling to the ground.
“Just showing you the vulnerabilities,” he claimed, smirking as he backed up. “You’re not as protected as you think.”
“Are you offering to save me?” I asked, straightening my clothes. My wrists burned where he’d grabbed me, but I refused to let it show. “Get the fuck out of my store,” I demanded. “And if I see you here again, trust me, you will regret stepping over this threshold.”
He scoffed. “Yourstore? Not what I heard.”
“You heard wrong and I willnottell you again.Leave.”
Instead of doing that, he just stood there, leering, daring me to do something about the fact that he wasn’t removing himself.
SoImoved, toward the security call button on the wall right above the elevator panel. Before I could press it, a new person rounded the corner, one I’d never been so relieved to see.
“EJ, what’s up?” Soren asked, giving him a bit of side eye as he approached. He and EJ had never had an issue, but the tension was too thick for him to not feel it.
“What’s up, lil bro?” EJ asked, extending a fist for Soren to tap, which he did, but my brother’s eyes were on me, seeking directions I didn’t want to give.
“Punching in for the day, same old story,” Soren answered, moving to stand next to me. “Everything good here?”
EJ nodded. “Peachy. Just… reminding your sister what home looks like, you know how it is.”
“Nah, I don’t know shit about that,” Soren told him, shoulders squared as stepped in front of me a bit. “She’s a married woman. I think she knows pretty well where home is.”
