AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And Barrett. I still don’t know much more about him than I did in Vegas. To his credit, hedidanswer my questions, but I haven’t spent enough time with him to know the man outside of a dream rooftop date and spending hours naked in his bed. He’s good with his mouth—both talking and… other things—and he worshipped my body like he was born to do it, but that is all.
My breath hitches when the events outside the Jacobs Publishing building come back to me. Aiden saw Barrett kiss me. He would have seen me melt in his arms and lose myself to the man, the same man I let take me to his bed just days after Aiden had left to go home.A man Aiden called Lucas…Something nags at the back of my brain, and suddenly it’s like I’m connecting dots I never knew were there.
I’m facing the most unlikely of conundrums at the most inopportune time. I have a company to win back and a mother to help annul a marriage, and both of those things should take priority over deciding which of the two law enforcement officers in my life I want to be with—or even if I deserve to be witheitherof them.
Butmostof all, I feel the sudden need to escape my life and bury my head in the sand to avoid all of the turmoil and trouble that seems to follow me right now.
“I’m sorry,” I say, turning my head back to look out the window.
“What are you sorry for?” Aiden's voice is tight and low and devoid of the warmth I've come to expect.
“For kissing him.”
“He kissed you.”
“But there’s more—“
Aiden sighs loudly and takes the next exit, pulling off at the first safe place a little while later before turning the car off and spinning his body to face mine. “Aly, right now I have a very loose grip on my emotions and I’m barely holding it together. And that’s not just because of Lucas—although he’s definitely not fucking helping.”
“I’m sor—”
“Don’t apologize, Aly. I’m not ready to hear any of the reasons why you feel you owe that asshole anything.”
“Then what do you want me to say,” I implore, my own frustrations rising to the surface.
“Nothing. I’m torn between taking you back to San Francisco and getting you away from Gavin and Lucas and your life.”
I stare into his eyes, studying him as I roll the idea of leaving everything behind for a while around in my mind. “You have no idea how good that sounds but I should stay and fight Gavin . . .”
His head jerks back then a look of determination transforms his features. “Let’s do it then.”
I blink when his words register in my brain. “What?”
“Let’s go straight to the airport and get out of here. We can be at my house in four hours give or take.”
“You can’t be serious, Aiden. I know things are fucked up right now, but I can’t just jump on a plane andleave?”
“I’m dead serious, beautiful. You should know me well enough by now to know that I protect those I care about. It’s not just my job; it’s the man I am. Ever since you called me from Vegas, I’ve been wanting to take you away from all of this and look after you. I couldn’t before, but now that I can, I’m two bad decisions away from kidnapping you and taking you anyway.”
“Aiden, we should talk about this. I know a lot has happened. But—"
“Not now we don’t,” he says with gritted teeth. "I may have let you go, Aly, but I also said I'd fight for you. I need to be in the right head space—and hundreds of miles away—before you tell me anything about what Gavin has done to you, butespeciallyabout MarkfuckingLucas.”
Then those dots I couldn't connect before finally all click into place. “You and Barrett know each other, don’t you? Even before you saw him on the plane,” I wait with bated breath for his answer, but it doesn't come. Instead, he clenches his jaw and averts his eyes. I keep pushing. "Ok, then. How did you know where I was?”
“I came to find you. Harrison and I worked out something was going to happen when we tracked Gavin to Seattle.”
I don’t forget that he skipped answering my question about knowing Barrett but the impression I’m getting is that when it comes to that man, Aiden doesnotwant to talk about it. Avoidance, guilt, arrogance, or some misguided possessive caveman shit, I do not know. Maybe it’s all of the above. But it doesn’t take away from the blunt truth that I have nowhere I have to be because Gavin has turned my life upside down, and Barrett Matthews has turned it inside out. What is there to keep me in Seattle right now?
“Okay,” I say softly, leaning my head against the passenger window, closing my eyes and hoping that I can be like Dorothy and tap my feet three times to have everything go back to normal, before this morning when Gavin fired me, before two weeks ago when Mom married the vile man, and maybe even before my trip to Vegas.But then I wouldn’t have met Barrett, wouldn’t have realized I had feelings for Aiden, none of it…
Twenty minutes and two packed bags later, we lock up my apartment and head back toward the airport. Four hours after that we’re landing in San Francisco.
My mind is still a blur, my emotions seesawing between despair, guilt, confusion and worry. Forefront in my mind is my Mom. I tried calling her again before we boarded the plane, and again as soon as I could when we had landed, but both times it went straight through to voicemail.
All the notifications I received when I turned my phone on were from Barrett. Text after text, call after call. The problem is, I don’t know what to say to him, so instead of answering him, I send a text saying that I simply need time and space but assuring him that I am safe.
I don’t know what else to say to Aiden either. And as if he senses I need space, he hasn’t pressed me on anything other than surface-level, as-needed information. To be honest, I don’t feel capable of much else right now. Half of my heart is in Seattle, my mind is on Vegas and my Mom, and my body is operating on auto-pilot. I can’t even think about what I should do—what Ineedto do—to try and get my company back and out of Gavin's clutches.
