MAYBE IT WAS the fact I was still floating on a cloud after my date with Seth.
Maybe it was because I got very little sleep last night, as I stayed up devouring one of the books his friend Vi wrote, knowing Seth was the one who taught her everything she’d put in the stories. Not to mention the long phone conversation we had in the middle of the night, where he basically decided on his own that sometime next week we’d be going away to some beach house one of his partners owns. When I reminded him I have to work, he told me not to worry about it; he’d have a talk with my boss. He used his bossy voice, so there was no arguing.
Or maybe it was because he’d made me feel completely safe for the first time in almost three months, allowing me to let my guard down and just be in the moment.
Whatever the reason may have been, as I came upon my car in the underground garage of my apartment building the next morning, after spending so many hours thinking about nothing but Seth and the way he makes me feel whole, it doesn’t even register what I’m looking at.
I pick up the envelope that’s held down to the glass by my windshield wiper, turning it over in my hand. Scrawled across the front in red is the name Roberta Card. Is this one of my sister’s makeup statements? If so, why would they put it on my car? Plus, there’s no mailing label on the outside, just the name. No one here knows my sister’s online persona. Hell, no one besides me anywhere knows that Roberta Card is actually Astrid Quill.
A terrible feeling washes over me, turning my insides to bricks of ice, and I shiver. What do I do? God only knows what’s inside the envelope. I’ve studied enough shit to remember the different chemicals sent through the mail to hurt people when a letter is opened. Agent Orange, anyone?
One thing is for certain: I don’t want to tell Astrid. She’s been through enough. If I can take care of this without her ever finding out, that would be the best course of action.
My first instinct is to run to Seth, into his arms, my safe place. I’d give anything to just go to him and hide in his fortress of an apartment, and just pretend I didn’t find some creepy envelope on my car, with a name on it that no one should know. But I just found him. Our relationship, if I can even call it that yet, is so new. I don’t want to suddenly drop this bomb on him.
Or I could be completely overreacting, and it’s something the mailman dropped off, matching the name to the various shipments of makeup my sister receives. But the mailman wouldn’t know my car. And wouldn’t he just leave it at the front office?
No, I know something is wrong. This isn’t some innocent piece of mail. I can feel it. So what do I do? Do I go to the police? No, can’t do that either. I don’t want to draw any attention to us. In such a small town, I’m sure word spreads fast when police get involved with anything.
Something niggles at my mind. A security office. Didn’t I see one next to Club Alias? I’m not exactly sure what they could do, but maybe they’ll at least have some advice.
I hop in my car, too creeped out to walk the short distance after this, and from the weird feeling of being watched yesterday. I pull up in front of Imperium Security only a couple minutes later, texting Roxanne that I may be a little late for my shift before grabbing the letter off my passenger seat. The business hours on the door show they just opened, so hopefully there won’t be anyone ahead of me.
I pull open the glass door, the electronic bell dinging as I enter the empty room. And as the door behind the front desk opens, my brow furrows as Seth walks out.
“Well hello there, doll,” he greets, coming around the desk to pull me against him.
I glance behind me stupidly, making sure I hadn’t gone through the unmarked entrance of Club Alias by mistake before turning to meet his smiling face once again. “What are you doing here?” I ask, wondering if he’s just visiting his business neighbor.
“I could ask you the same thing, but since you asked first… I work here,” he replies with a shrug.
“But I thought this was a security office. Like… an office… with um, security guards or something.” I’m so confused.
“Let’s just call this my day job,” he states, before letting go of me to take a seat in the rolling chair behind the desk. “And what might you need from an office with security guards or something, lovely Twyla?”
I bite my lip, wondering if I should tuck tail and run. I hadn’t gone to Seth because I wasn’t ready to explain the darkness of my sister’s past, which had brought us to the other side of the country. Anytime he asked me about why I left California, I always changed the subject. But now, do I really have a choice? My promise to always be open and honest tells me no.
I slump in defeat and take the seat in front of him, placing the envelope on top of the desk. “This was on my car this morning. I don’t know who it’s from, and whoever it is shouldn’t have that name.”
He picks up the envelope, flipping it over to see I haven’t opened it yet. “Who’s Roberta Card?”
I take a deep breath. “My sister, Astrid. That’s the fake name she uses for her online makeup business.”
“I see.” He sits back in his chair and meets my eyes. “Are you finally ready to tell me what brought you two here? What are you running from?”
I gulp down the lump in my throat and then begin. “My older sister was in an abusive relationship. He’d always been terribly controlling, but then the emotional abuse turned physical.” His brow furrows and he sits forward, taking my hand when my voice cracks. “You wondered why a successful chemical engineer is now working somewhere she hasn’t the foggiest idea what she’s doing? It’s because I quit my job and basically rescued Astrid from her own home. She snuck out in the middle of the night, and we drove across the country, not knowing where the hell we were going, just that we wanted it to be far, far away from him. This is where fate landed us.”
“And you said this name, Roberta Card, is a fake name she made up for her online business?”
“Yes. She makes pretty good money selling makeup in a Facebook group. When we moved, she posted that she was quitting so Brandon wouldn’t be able to see her activity, but then private messaged each of her customers and referred them to Roberta Card so she could delete her old profile,” I explain.
“No one else knows that name? Just her online customers?” he questions.
I shake my head. “No one. And none of them would know where she lives now.”
He holds the envelope up to the light, trying to see what’s inside it before lowering it back to the desk. “It seems to only be paper inside. Do you want me to open it?”
I look down in my lap. “I’m sorry, Seth. I didn’t mean to get you involved in all this,” I murmur.
“Twyla,” he says in his commanding tone, and my eyes lift to his. “My only regret is you didn’t come straight to me, knowingly. I know it’s happening a little fast, this thing between us, but I want to be the person you turn to when you’re afraid, when you need anything. I want to be involved in your everything, even the bad parts.”
My eyes fill with tears, so unused to anyone wanting to be close to me, much less wanting to be the person I run to. I nod vigorously, wiping the corners of my eyes. “I want that too,” I confess, and feel him squeeze my hand before letting go.
He opens the drawer in front of him and pulls out a silver letter opener, and a pair of rubber gloves from the one beside him. He slips them on, and then carefully slices the top of the legal-size envelope, sliding a personal-size one out that had already been ripped open. Turning that one over in his hands, he then removes the folded sheet of paper inside.
I exhale the breath I didn’t realize I was holding, seeing that’s the only thing hidden inside. “What’s it say?” I whisper, too nervous to speak any louder. My gut is still telling me it’s something bad. After looking at the paper, he hands it over to me, and I read, my heart dropping solidly into my stomach.
Astrid Quill
372 Piney View Rd.
San Diego, CA 92106
Dear Tiara Beauty Consultant,
This is to confirm that your online shop's name has successfully been updated in our system.
Roberta Card
We see you’ve filled out a change of address form, which will take effect in 3-5 business days. New shipments of products will be sent after this address has been confirmed, so please look for that letter’s arrival at the new address.
We appreciate your business,
Your friends at Tiara Beauty
I glance up at Seth, my hand trembling as I grip the letter. “But—” My voice cracks, so I clear my throat and try again. “But he couldn’t find her just by a name, right? She has a post office box for her business, not a real home address.”
I can’t read his face as he wiggles the mouse on the desk, bringing his computer to life. And as he turns the wide screen to face me more, I watch with growing horror as he begins his search.
He types into Google: Roberta Card.
The first link in the search results: www.tiarabeauty.com/RobertaCard
He clicks on the link, and on the left is a menu. The first option: Meet Your Consultant.
We read Astrid’s fake profile, and at the bottom, the payment options she accepts. Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and PayPal.
He goes back to Google and types in Roberta Card Tiara Beauty PayPal.
And I choke back a sob when in the summary below the first search result is the new town we live in.
That fast.
That fast, and Seth already showed me how easy it would be for Brandon to find Astrid just by knowing her new fake name. He didn’t even have to break out his technical genius skills. Just a simple Google search and the monster we’ve been hiding from narrowed us down to the small blip on the map where we’ve been living.
“Anyone could’ve found that, doll. And if he hired anyone to dig further….” He begins typing, and an array of screens flash before my eyes. He works so quickly I barely have time to register the words IP Address Location before a map of Earth fills the screen. It feels as if my heart stops beating as it zooms in until I’m staring at my apartment building.
I feel dizzy, and before I even know what’s happening, I see Seth lunge at me. And everything goes black.
“…FREAKING OUT SAYING she felt like she was being watched yesterday, and now this. What should we do, Doc?”
I hear Seth’s voice as if he’s at a far distance. Did he say Doc? Where am I? A hospital? I can’t seem to open my eyes to see what’s going on.
“Looks like your little doll is starting to come around,” a deep, masculine voice says, confusing me even more. Why would a doctor know the nickname Seth calls me? And in my jumbled thoughts, I realize I forgot to Google what he said about my name being linked to some kind of doll.
“Twyla? Hey, beautiful.” I feel the stroke of his finger down my cheek, a smile pulling at the corners of my lips. I love it when he does that. “Open those pretty eyes for me.”
I struggle and finally blink my eyes open, my lashes fluttering as I try to adjust to the bright light of the room we’re in. My glasses are gently slid onto my face, and when I’m eventually able to focus, I see we’re in one of the offices we passed yesterday when we were walking down the hallway toward Seth’s loft, and I’m sprawled on a black leather couch. Seth’s handsome face appears clearly right above me, and when I look over his shoulder, a ridiculously tall and handsome man with a goatee peers down at me with soft eyes.
“What happened?” I croak, trying to sit up.
“Whoa, baby. Chillax for a bit, okay? You fainted in our security office,” Seth reminds me, and I nod, the movement making my head swim.
And then what we found registers in my confused brain.
“Oh, God. Oh, shit! Seth. He knows where we live! What if….” Something hits me. “She’s there by herself. Seth, Astrid is home alone right now. And he left that letter on my car!” My voice is full of panic, but he stays calm, running his fingers through my hair.
“It’s okay. We called her, and Doc was just about to leave to go pick her up when you started coming to,” he tells me quietly.
“How did you call her? How do you know her number? It’s brand-new. Could he have that—”
“Child prodigy. Masters from MIT, remember, doll?” He smiles, leaning down to kiss my forehead.
I look over his shoulder at the tall man. “You’re Doc?”
“I am,” he replies with a nod.
“What are you waiting for? Go get my sister. Please! You have no idea how horrible her ex is. He already turned her black and blue. I can’t even imagine what he’d do now since she ran away from him.” I don’t mean to sound so rude. I just have a really bad feeling that I need to get her out of there and fast. “I’m sorry. I—”
“No need to apologize. I’ll be right back with your sister. You just take it easy,” he instructs as he leaves, and there’s something in his voice that makes me do just that. He sounds very sure of himself, like what he says is fact. And the sheer size of him makes me believe that if he were to come face-to-face with Brandon, he’d be able to squash him like a bug.
“Don’t worry, Twyla,” Seth tells me. “We’ll take care of it.”
My eyes well up at the sincerity in his. “I’m so sorry. I never wanted you to have to know about this. I didn’t want to be the girl with all the baggage. We just wanted a fresh start.”
“We all have baggage, doll. And if you ask me, I consider myself lucky. Just call me Lucky Number Seven.” He grins as he continues to stroke my hair.
“Why in the world would you consider yourself lucky having to deal with a chick’s sister’s crazy ex?” My voice is squeaky with bewilderment.
“It’s like what the brilliant Cher Horowitz once said. ‘You see how picky I am about my shoes, and they only go on my feet,’” he says in a high-pitched voice mimicking a Valley girl. When he reads my blank face, his eyes turn up to the ceiling as he sighs. “What am I gonna do with you, woman? Cher Horowitz. Clueless?”
I shake my head, my face scrunching up.
“Dear God. Okay. Cher is the most beautiful, popular girl in school, and she’s a virgin. Her new friend who moves to California from New York is scandalized by the fact she’s never had sex before. Cher, and I quote, is ‘saving herself for Luke Perry.’ Meaning she’s waiting for the right person.” He leans down and kisses me softly on the lips before pulling back to whisper, “You chose me as your Luke Perry. I’m one lucky motherfucker. And if all I have to do is take care of one measly asshole stalking your sister, then that’s something I am more than willing to do. Believe me, this is child’s play compared to what we usually do in our line of work.”
My face softens at his ability to turn a silly movie quote into something sweet and meaningful. And completely distracting.
“This makes much more sense,” I tell him, and it’s his turn to look confused. “A prodigal child, master in computers, who now owns a BDSM club… and runs a security company by day.”
“Had to put my degree to use somehow, doll.” He smirks, pretending to flip hair over his shoulder, and I can’t help but giggle. “There’s my smile.” He traces my jawline with his fingertip. “Everything’s gonna be all right, Twlya. We’ve got this. I promise.”
I let myself sink back into the couch at his words, but still feel uneasy with my sister out of my sight. “I won’t be able to completely relax until Astrid is here. Will you just talk to me until then? Tell me about Imperium Security. I definitely wasn’t expecting to see you there.” He stiffens a bit at my request, which is surprising. He’s never had a problem answering any of my questions before. “Or not,” I murmur, pulling his eyes back to me.
“No… it’s not… I…” He sighs, all traces of his ever-present humor disappearing. His face turns serious, putting me on edge. This isn’t the reaction I was anticipating. “I made a promise to you. I swore that if you were open and honest with me, then I would do the same.” He pauses a moment, seeming to think carefully about his next words. “In light of the fact you were not ready for me to know everything about your past and didn’t tell me the reason you moved here with your sister, I’d appreciate a pass on getting into the details of my security company… for right now.”
I’m taken aback by this. On the one hand, he’s actually being open and honest by revealing there is something he isn’t ready to tell me about, and he has a point. It’s only fair since I kept him in the dark about Brandon. Yet, on the other hand, his admission makes me ridiculously curious. But he did say it was just for now. I’d much rather he tell me when he’s ready, seeing how he hadn’t pressured me in any way when I avoided his questions about my recent past.
I smile gently, hoping to lower the drawbridge he’d yanked up inside himself at my question. “Pass granted.”
He nods. “I’ll tell you all about it sometime, doll. But for now, I’ll give you this much. Our security team came first. It’s run by me and my same partners here at the club. I was a little nervous about income, if we’d be able to make enough money in that line of work, so I opened up Club Alias. Imperium is the intellectual side of me. Club Alias is my passion. At least… I thought it was.” His face goes from serious to mischievous.
My brow furrows. “What do you mean?”
His smile is heart stopping. “I thought what I felt when I’m in my Dom persona, when I’m Seven, was passion. But it doesn’t compare in the slightest to what I feel when all I do is touch you.” He slides his fingertip lightly down my nose and his eyes heat. “That… is passion.”
If it weren’t for being stuck to his leather couch, I would’ve slid right off onto the floor in a melted pile of goo. I had never dreamed of a man thinking about me in such a way, much less him being vocal about it.
I have no idea how to respond to that, and before I make a fool of myself even trying, we hear the door to the second-floor hallway open and then close with a heavy thud. Next thing I know, my sister is smothering me as she throws herself practically on top of me.
“Oh my God! Twy, what happened? That bullheaded giant wouldn’t tell me anything except you fainted. Are you all right?” she frets, squeezing the life out of me.
I look up at Doc, and he reaches his hand up to run it down his face as he sighs. Clearly, she’d been a handful on the short drive over here from our apartment. I open my lips to answer her, but her long hair fills my mouth, and I sputter and wiggle to get her off me.
“Let’s give her some air,” Seth says, and Astrid sits up abruptly, her face turning to look at the man beside me as if she hadn’t even noticed he was there.
“Who are you?” she demands, her hand taking hold of mine.
“I’m Seth. I’m the one who called you,” he tells her, and she visibly relaxes before her eyes spark. They move from him, to me, and then back to him, her face going from surprise to… something that looks like approval?
“So you’re Twy’s sex teacher?” she prompts, her eyes taking in his entire squatted figure. I groan in embarrassment.
“I am,” he confirms. “And I’m also one of the owners of the security company next door, which is where your sister fainted.”
She turns to look down at me, and the weight of her stare feels too heavy with me lying flat on my back. I start to sit up, and Seth’s arm immediately wraps around my back, helping me into a seated position.
“Why were you at a security office?” Astrid asks sharply, but I can already see the spark of fear in her eyes.
I know there’s no way to protect her from this now. It wouldn’t be safe for her not to know she’s in danger. I have no choice but to tell her everything. Taking a deep breath, I do just that. And when I’m finished, I wrap my arms around my older sister’s trembling body as she tries her best to keep her tears at bay.
“He found us,” she sobs. “He found us, and it’s all my fault. I couldn’t just listen when you told me I shouldn’t worry about working. No, I couldn’t just hold off until we knew we were perfectly safe. And now he knows where we live! He’s leaving shit on your car!” Her panic grows until her voice is borderline hysterical.
“It’s okay, Astrid. Seth and Doc—”
“Why would he leave that on your windshield, Twy? Why let us know he’s here and give us a warning?” Her eyes search mine for answers I don’t have, and when all I can do is shrug and shake my head, she loses what little control over her emotions she had left.
All this time, even as bruised and beaten down as she was when I first picked her up that night in California, she had never lost control of herself. She’d stayed strong this entire time. Never once had she broken down, not during our long phone conversations when I’d planned to get her out of there, and not during the frustrating time when I was looking for a job. She might’ve shed a couple tears here and there, but it wasn’t the distraught despair we were witnessing now. Brandon finding us must be the straw that finally broke her. To see my big sister this way, I feel absolutely helpless, and without even meaning to, my eyes turn to Seth for support.
But it’s Doc who steps in.
I watch wide-eyed as his massive frame folds onto the couch cushion to my left, and in one swift move, he has Astrid in his lap, cradled in his arms. She looks childlike, so small, and curled up as she is with his big body wrapped around her, his voice a tone that would tame the wildest of beasts.
“You are unbreakable. You are much stronger than you believe. And with us between you and him, you are untouchable.” He has that air about him as he did before, like what he says is fact. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. If he says she’s safe, then the world itself will heed his statement as truth. And sooner than I thought possible, after such an explosion of anguish, her crying softens until there’s nothing left but the tears on her face, which Doc wipes away with his thumb. His hand looks so big next to her feminine features, yet his touch is so tender, using a gentleness my sister probably hasn’t felt in almost a decade.
Suddenly feeling like I’m peeking in on a private moment, my cheeks heat and I turn to face Seth. His expression is one of complete shock as his eyes fix on the two people beside me. I clear my throat gently to pull his attention toward me, trying not to disturb Doc and Astrid. I’ve never seen my sister so peaceful, especially since she’s in the arms of a stranger, and I want her to have it for as long as she can.
Seth looks at me, and his face sobers. “For now, we have to make a plan. You ladies need to lie low until we can get everything sorted and figure out a way to take care of Astrid’s ex and make sure he’ll never bother you again. Why doesn’t she come with us on our trip? Get you two out of the city where you can relax,” he offers, but my sister speaks up before I can even think about answering.
“No. No way. Last night, I had to hear her going on and on about how excited she was about going away with you, and… what might happen on your trip. I am not getting in the way of that.” She shakes her head, sitting up but not moving from Doc’s lap.
“You wouldn’t be—”
“No!” she interrupts me. “I refuse to be a third wheel. And on top of that, I’ve already been enough of a burden. Twy, you deserve this getaway after all you’ve done for me. I’m not going with you.” Her voice is full of finality.
“She can stay with me,” Doc says to me, and my eyes widen as his move to Astrid, who spins sharply to look at him. “You shouldn’t stay at your apartment alone if he knows where you live. You can stay with me. I have a guest bedroom you can use, state of the art security system built by a technological genius—”
“That’s me!” Seth stage-whispers behind the back of his hand.
“—and my dog can keep you company while I’m at the office for appointments,” Doc finishes.
“Appointments?” Astrid prompts.
“I’m a therapist.”
She cocks her head to the side, her eyebrow lifting. “What kind of dog?”
“He’s an Australian shepherd,” he replies.
Astrid’s mouth twists as if she’s biting the inside of her cheek, before she finally replies, “Deal.” She turns to me. “I’m staying with the giant. You’re free to go on your trip.”
With everyone staring at me with expectant looks, I feel like I have no choice but to give in. I don’t know Doc, but if Seth trusts him, and with my sister agreeing, then I don’t really have a say. “If you’re sure,” I tell Astrid.
“Positive.” She nods.
“And we should move our trip up,” Seth inserts. “We can tell Roxanne what’s going on, and we’ll leave immediately.
“That woman is going to hate me. She just hired me, taking this big leap of faith, and now I’m asking for all this time off? I suck so hard.” My lips pooch out, disappointed in myself.
“That’s what she said,” Astrid quips, and I turn to glare at her while the guys laugh.
Seth reaches out and squeezes my hand. “Trust me, doll. Roxanne will understand. She really likes you, and when we tell her your safety is at risk, she’ll want us to do everything we can to take care of the problem.”
“If you say so,” I grumble.
“Okay, so first thing’s first. We’ll take you ladies back to your apartment so you can get packed, and while you’re doing that…” Seth stands and walks over to his desk, where he closes his laptop and slides it into a black backpack before slipping it onto his shoulder. He then reaches beneath his desk and pulls out a small duffel that seems to already be full. “I’ll start my research on this bag of dick tips.”
Astrid bursts out laughing, and I side-eye her. “Fucking love that movie,” she murmurs. When she sees my face show confusion, she rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “I swear, sis. Come on. Deadpool?” At my blank expression, she glances up at Seth as he comes to pull me up off the couch. “Please, for the love of all things Marvel, make her watch that while you are gone.”
“Consider it done,” he replies, wrapping his arm around my waist as we all make our way out of his office. “We can watch it while you’re recovering from what I plan on doing to you,” he whispers into my ear, quiet enough for only me to hear.
My face heats, but for the first time, it’s not out of embarrassment. It’s pure desire I feel as I become hyperaware of the way his body is pressed against mine while he helps me down the stairs into the main part of the club. When we exit the building, Doc locks the unmarked door behind us before turning to unlock the black SUV parked along the curb. He then holds open the passenger door for Astrid as she slips into the front seat.
Seth takes my hand, and as we start down the sidewalk, he calls over his shoulder, “Meet you there,” and Doc waves as he hops in the driver seat, then drives off in the direction of our apartment building.
When we turn the corner, Seth opens a metal door that leads down a flight of stairs and into a parking garage. Directly at the bottom of the steps is a shiny army-green motorcycle, and my eyes widen when I see him reach for the black helmet hanging off the handlebar. Oh shit. I’ve never been on one before, and with my nerves already pretty shot from everything that’s happened today, I don’t know if it’s the best time for such an adrenaline rush.
But before I can voice my concern, he pauses midreach, and I see his brow furrow when he glances from the bike then up to my nervous face.
“What?” I squeak, not understanding his hesitation. I may be petrified of the thought of getting on the motorcycle, but now my worry comes from his confused look.
“I didn’t even think about it until now. All I was thinking was keeping you with me,” he says, but I still don’t get where his expression is coming from.
“Um… so I’m already freaked the hell out that you want me to get on that thing, but now you’re really starting to scare me. What’s wrong?”
“It’s a single seat.” He gestures toward the padded black leather seat. “I’ve never ridden with anyone on the back before. Never wanted to either. So I didn’t get the extension, extra set of footrests, and the sissy bar.”
“The sissy what?” I ask, even as warmth spreads throughout my body that I’m the first person he’s ever wanted on his motorcycle with him.
“Sissy bar. It’s like the back of a chair to keep you from going off the back,” he explains.
“So…?” I drawl.
“So I guess we’ll walk to your apartment. We’ll take your car to the beach house,” he says, his face disappointed.
“You don’t have a car?” I ask, surprised.
“Nah. I rarely leave this building. Only places I go are to the grocery store and to your work to restock the club’s toys. I have the saddle bags for that, so I really had no use for a car.”
“Okay, no big deal.” I shrug, not understanding why he looks so upset.
He takes hold of my hand and leads me back up the staircase. “I’ll put that on my list of shit to do,” he murmurs.
I look up at him as we exit the building once again and start walking toward my apartment complex. “Add what? Buy a car?”
“Fuck no.” He chuckles, and my lips twitch as my brow wrinkles in confusion. “Add your second seat.”
And even though my heart pounds at the thought of riding on the back of his motorcycle, I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face over the fact he called it my seat.