AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But these days, it’s been tough to do a lot of sharing.
They don’t know that I have a stalker or that the big guy in the corner of the room nearest us and the skinny but scary one who’s sitting at a table by himself pretending to read a book are my private security hired by the overprotective Viking man whose baby I’m carrying.
And since they don’t know about the stalker, they also don’t know about my newest letter. They don’t know about Viv, either.
So on second thought, maybe “open book” is overselling it a little bit. We have a lot to catch up on.
Finally, Cassie comes rushing up and collapses into her chair, sweaty hair plastered to her forehead. “Oh my god. Have you guys ridden a bus lately? The public transportation in this town is shit.” Her voice is loud enough that the women at the next table look over in alarm. Cassie stares back at them with a scowl. “What? You don’t ride the bus? Do plastic bucket seats not go well with your Brazilian Butt Lift?”
The other women glance away and mutter angrily amongst themselves as Monroe and I stifle laughter. Roe reaches out and touches Cassie’s elbow. “Easy now. Put the badass back in the bottle, love.”
Cassie huffs but relents. Then she looks over her shoulder and locks eyes with my twin man-mountain companions. “I can feel your friends staring at us, Slo.”
I wince. They’re hard to miss. With their dark glasses and black suits, they look like mafia hitmen. I’m also fairly sure that the skinny one is holding the book he’s “reading” upside down.
“Ignore them. Anyway,” Monroe says, playing at being the reasonable one for a change. “How are you? How’s everything? You said you wanted to chat about some stuff. So let’s chat.”
It’s the opening I need to tell all. I start talking and it all comes out in a torrent of word vomit. Every new detail makes Monroe’s and Cassie’s jaws droop closer and closer to the ground.
“… And so, in summary: pregnant, stalker, togetherwith Beck, fired, and my ex-boss is sending me hate texts at all hours of the day and night.”
Weirdly enough, Viv’s most threatening messages never come when Beck is in the vicinity. It’s like she has a certain spidey sense about when to be a bitch. I would think she has eyes on us, but with all the security we have, I can’t figure out how she would possibly manage it. It’s probably just my paranoia talking.
“Wow. Uh, okay. That’s a lot. We have got to start talking more.” Monroe’s eyes went wide about halfway through my sordid tale and haven’t yet gone back to normal. It isn’t often I can out-Monroe Monroe, but I might have very well accomplished it with my recent tales of woe and weirdness. Gold star for me, I guess.
“I know. Tell me about it.”
“Stalker?” Cassie looks at me. “You were serious about that? I thought you were joking.”
“Nope. After the kidnapping?—”
“The fuckingwhat?” Now, it’s Monroe’s voice that has the other customers turning to look. Softer by only a little bit, she leans in and asks, “Did you just saykidnapping?”
“Yeah. The Bloodhound. It’s a long story. I’m fine.”
“Do you think he’s your stalker?” Cassie lays her hand over mine and gives me a squeeze.
“No. Stalking is a bit more creative energy than he’s willing to expend.” I sigh. “He only kidnapped me to get to Beck.”
Although I’ve never been able to figure outwhyhe wanted to. He didn’t try to extort money. Didn’t threaten Beck. So I don’t really know why he wanted him there. I only know that he did.
“Going around you to get to the moneybags.” Monroe nods wisely. “Cutting out the middleman.”
I shrug. “Yeah, could be. That makes as much sense as anything else I’ve been able to come up with.”
“Okay, well, let’s put a pin in that and circle back in a second because I don’t think I can process it all at once. Back to the low-hanging fruit: how is everything else with Beck?”
I take a deep breath. “He’s domineering and controlling and demanding and bossy and…” I pause because I’m not proud of the next part, but these are my best friends, so I can tell them anything without judgment. “… And so fucking hot sometimes I forget to breathe.”
They both snort with laughter. “I had no idea hockey players were so sexy underneath all that padding and those giant shorts.” Cassie laughs and fans herself with her napkin.
“I didn’t, either.” I’ve known the kind of body Beck is working with since the first day I worked for him and yanked his blanket off his very naked self. “But I do now.”
“I haven’t had sex in…” She starts counting on her fingers. “Yikes. Is it possible for me to grow my virginity back?”
Monroe laughs. “It’s called Tinder, dummy. It’s free.” She turns back to me. “What are you going to do about that bitch Vivian?”
Oh, if only I knew.“I have no clue. She is vile.”
