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It’s her parents and the accident that took their lives when she was fourteen.
After losing my mother, I knew how she felt, but I didn’t see my mother die.
She saw her mother take her final breath.
With no hesitation, my grandparents took her in and cared for her when her aunt, the only family she had, rejected her, wanting her to live in social care.
That’s why Dru believes she owes me.
“Gwen, please don’t argue with me. This is a really fucked-up situation. We don’t know what Conrad is capable of, and I’m sure we don’twantto know.”
“No, we really don’t.” I lower my voice.
“Exactly. So, if I get this loan, it fixes the problem, and hopefully, you’ll never have to see Conrad again.”
“It’s a lot to ask of you.”
“But you didn’t ask.” She gives me a bright smile. “I offered. There’s a big fat difference. And I figured with how well we’re doing, there should be no problem paying everything back in a few months.”
I nod with determination. “I promise I will work so damn hard to pay it off. And get us to our bigger goal.”
“The bigger goal would be great. I’m so ready to leave this town behind.”
“Me too.”
That damn goal to have our own store in a promising city like New York or L.A. was what got me in trouble in the first place with Gage. He lured me in when he said he had a friend who could get us a deal for a store on Santa Monica Blvd. if I invested the money to refurbish the place.
To scam me out of everything I owned, the asshole even went as far as taking me to the site to show me the store, then, when we returned, he set up Zoom calls with the contractors’ team leader for progress reports and all sorts of shit I believed.
“One thing at a time,” Dru says, pulling me from my sordid thoughts before I go down the river of doom again.
“Thank you so much. This means everything to me.”
“Thank me later. We have forms to fill out and various other things. If you could stay back from the restaurant today, that would be great, so we can get started on the pre-orders.”
“I will absolutely sort something out.” Maybe I can go later tonight. “What is—”
My voice cuts when the thud of heavy footsteps sounds on the floor above us. It’s coming from my bedroom.
“Is someone here?” Dru rasps, keeping her voice low.
“No.” I shake my head, but we hear the sound again, and that definitely
suggests someoneishere.
This time, the sound is louder and followed by the patter of soft dog feet. That
would be Sebastian.
Given the circumstances with me owing money to a dangerous loan shark, Dru and I both start for the door when the footsteps come down the stairs. But we freeze, when a shirtless god-like man descends like he’s walking straight out of a fantasy.
The instant I see him, my jaw drops, and I remember him as the seriously hot guy from Duke’s Bar.
The seriously hot guy I propositioned at the bar who told me he didn’t fuck drunk women.
He’s in my home, half naked and exceeding the fantasy I conjured when I first saw him.
As he locks his gaze on to me with those sharp eyes, I look from his face to his hard muscles and then the tattoo on his left pec of what looks like a leviathan dragon with a sword running through it.
