AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“To take a shower,” she replies, glancing back at me over her shoulder. “We’ve gotta go to work, remember?”
I throw back the covers, stalking over to her even as she laughs and runs into the bathroom. “Oh, you better run, baby,” I threaten, following her into the shower.
CHAPTER22
ZOEY
It’s been a week since the whole missed phone call incident, but that seems to be the way this guy operates. He disappears for a while, giving both Ethan and me the appearance of being safe, the appearance that it’s over, but then something new happens.
I still can’t figure out what he wants, why he’s still doing this. Does he want money? If he does, then just come right out and ask for it. Obviously, it doesn’t matter because Ethan or my family won’t pay him, but it would be good to know this guy’s motives.
I know he initially sent a ransom note to Ethan and my parents, but the number he gave went dead after I escaped. The coward realized that with me free and knowing a few things about him, he could have easily been caught if he went through with the transaction.
I’m just about to leave work to go back and get ready for Tracy’s bachelorette party when my phone chimes out. Seeing a text from Delaney, I pick up my phone.
Delaney: Hey! You have some mail here if you want to come by and pick it up. No rush
Me: I’ll swing by in ten minutes. You home?
Delaney: Yep, Alex and I are both here. We’re heading to dinner in about an hour.
Me: See you soon
I look out the door, seeing Eric, my security guard sitting in a chair right outside the door. The poor guy literally spends his days watching me. He has to be so fucking bored. As much as I hate that this is what my life has come to, I understand Ethan’s need to protect me. I could have died that day, and the thought of it happening again is terrifying. I do feel safer with Eric here, as awkward as it is.
“Hey,” I call out to Eric and his head whips around to look at me. “I gotta stop at my friend’s house to pick up some mail before going home. That cool?”
“Whatever you need, Ms. Holden,” he replies, and I try not to laugh at how he calls me Ms. Holden. I’ve told him multiple times to call me Zoey, but he just won’t.
I pack up my things, and head up to Ethan’s office with Eric following behind me like my shadow. I can’t help but wonder what this guy has seen in his employment as a private security guard. Not just with me but with anyone else he’s worked for. He basically sits outside of Ethan’s house at night, walking the property and then returning to his post.
I knock on Ethan’s closed door, and I hear his perfectly deep voice call for me to come in. When he sees me, he rolls his eyes, a huge smile on his face.
“You don’t have to knock, Zoey, you know that,” he says, standing up and walking over to greet me with a kiss.
“Yeah, but what if you were in a meeting or were in here firing someone,” I joke, Ethan’s hands resting on my hips.
“I don’t have to fire people. That’s why I have you and Elissa,” he teases back. “I make you two the bad guys.”
“What about Casey?” I ask, my brows going up. “I think you fired her, making you the bad guy. I was the one who didn’t fire her.”
“That’s a different situation. I didn’t want that blowing back on you with everything going on and she should have been fired long before all that.”
I kiss the tip of his nose, a smile still on my face. I look over my shoulder and there’s Eric standing outside the door, not necessarily watching us, but there’s no way he can’t hear our conversation. It has to be weird knowing so much about people’s lives, but he is like a double locked safe of quiet.
“I’m going to run by Delaney’s and pick up some mail from there before I go home and get ready for Tracy’s bachelorette party,” I tell him, and he opens his mouth to say something, and I press my finger to his lips. “And yes, I will take Eric with me.”
“I wasn’t going to tell you that,” he defends with a smirk on his face. I brush his blonde hair back off his forehead, pushing up on my toes to kiss him.
“Yes, you were, but that’s okay.” I slip out of his hold, walking over to the window to take in the view. It’s my favorite part of Ethan’s office. He offered to move my office up here and I went back and forth on if he should or not. Eventually, I said yes, despite loving my little office where I started my career that’s on the same floor as the lodge. It reminds me that I did all of this on my own, but being closer to Ethan always feels like the right choice. I did make one suggestion to him, one that has nothing to do with me.
I asked Ethan to create an office for Elissa in the new ski lodge. The poor girl has been working here since she was fifteen and has never had a proper office there. She deserves it. If anything, she’s Badger Creek’s most loyal employee. Sometimes I think she’s as hard of a worker as she is because she tries to forget that she was supposed to have a different life.
“This view,” I say, when Ethan joins me. “I love it when the mountains are all covered in snow, but it’s equally as beautiful in the spring and summer. I don’t think there’s anything greener than it.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty fucking great.”
“What time are you heading out for Brandon’s bachelor party?” I now ask. Tracy and Brandon made them on the same day so that I wasn’t without Ethan for two days, which feels crazy that everyone is catering to me. They didn’t have to do that, but I am grateful. Brandon also opted to keep things local so that Ethan isn’t too far.
