I was running late, which wasn’t unusual.

Only my car was on empty once again, and I needed to get to work. The problem was I swore I filled the tank up three days ago, and I had only driven to work once. There was no way I should be out, but that stupid little light flashed at me telling me I was wrong.

My mind must have been playing tricks on me or something was wrong with my car. While she wasn’t brand new, she wasn’t old either. I had two years left to pay the little Honda Accord off. If it was the gauge, I had some savings to cover the expense. It just meant putting off the girls’ trip to Vegas for another year. Tatum and Terrie would understand. Being an adult sucked sometimes, especially when it came to paying bills.

I stood at the gas pump and slid in my credit card, waiting for the stupid thing to go through all the do you want a car wash? How about a Big Gulp? What about our two-for-one donuts? Every time it was annoying as shit to have to go through all of it to get to the fuel.

In bold letters that flashed Decline appeared on the screen. Maybe it was a hiccup.

I tried going through all the steps once again, but only found the same results.

On a frustrated sigh, I took out another credit card that was intended for emergencies only and tried again.

Decline.

“What the fuck!” I said to the damn pump, but it didn’t respond.

I wasn’t rolling in money, but my credit cards were paid in full and I had a little nest egg. While I may not have been a millionaire, there was absolutely no reason my cards shouldn’t be working. I made my way inside the store where I tried to swipe my card again to find the same results. Paying with the little bit of cash I had on me, I finally got my gas and made it to my office.

As I turned on my computer, I logged into my bank to see every account closed.

Panic.

My pulse quickened as I stared at the screen in shock. This couldn’t be. My money, my accounts, all closed, shut down, access to history denied.

Every. Single. One.

What the ever-loving fuck was I supposed to do? Was this what those identity theft commercials warned of? I always thought that was just credit card fraud. Who took all my money? Everything I worked so hard for was gone, and I was lost. What would it take to get it back?

This had to be a mistake. Maybe someone put a virus in the banking systems. It was a glitch. I continued running through my head everything that could have possible gone wrong.

My insides felt like they dropped to the floor, while bile rose from my empty stomach and burned my throat.

Frantically, I called the bank. It was a smaller bank with a local branch. There was no way with my trembling fingers I could have gotten through an automated system today.

“First National, this is Julia, how can I help you?” the way too happy voice on the line greeted. Someone definitely had their fair share of coffee this morning.

“This is Laurel Conrad,” I stated before taking a deep breath. My emotions had my voice cracking, and I needed to remain calm. “Something seems to be wrong, and my accounts are closed.”

After a few moments of sharing information to verify my identification, my world stopped as she explained my situation, and a large hole formed under my feet sucking me down.

“It would seem, Miss Conrad, you gave access to your accounts to a Mr. Paxton Williams through a legal Power of Attorney. He came in yesterday and froze everything. All of his paperwork was in order along with a Mr. Garrett Monroe, who showed proof as your legal counsel. According to the notes this was done for your protection given your current situation.”

I opened and closed my mouth, but no words came out. I was dumbfounded, spiraling down a rabbit hole as my world flashed before my eyes.

“Current situation?” I asked, truly lost as to why Paxton would even do this much less add some situation I was most certainly not in. He was an asshole. My ex-love completely crushed my heart; ex and a complete dickhead who followed me everywhere. Everywhere I turned Pax was there. While he wanted me, he told me repeatedly he was no good for me.

Something he didn’t need to tell me. I still felt the pain all these years later from the first time I allowed myself to fall in love with him. I didn’t need a round two.

My life was boring by most standards, and I liked it that way. Other than Pax showing up places, I was comfortable and content. Nothing was hard, and there wasn’t anything to shake up my day-to-day patterns. Until today.

“You have been under mental duress from a stalker. Therefore, Mr. Monroe, as your legal counsel, advised you to protect your assets with a Power of Attorney, to which you appointed Mr. Williams.”

Mental duress? Was she fucking serious? The only mental duress I was under came from Paxton Williams who never seemed to go away. And if anyone was to be my stalker it would be him.

I wanted to scream all of this at Julia, the overly happy to be of assistance lady, but instead I kept my mouth shut.

“I’ll be right in,” I told her, disconnecting the call.

Rushing from my office, I made it to the bank in record time while my mind reeled.

Of course, I knew who Paxton Williams was as well as his buddy, Garrett Monroe. The two were inseparable when we were kids growing up in a hell I’d tried to forget. While I didn’t live with them at the orphanage, Paxton had shared the horrors they faced. I knew too much and so little at the same time. Paxton confided in me years ago. It was too dark, too raw for my young mind to comprehend. His only reprieve from the nightmare was this unlikely brotherhood he formed with Dane, Onyx, and Garrett. Especially Garrett. Even now, the same was true. Garrett worked as an attorney in his own firm in downtown Philly where he shared an office with Paxton Williams, an accountant.

Apparently, my accountant and legal Power of Attorney.

He was the one man my body couldn’t deny every time I thought of him, but my mind screamed danger, forcing me to keep my distance. Paxton was like a tidal wave and I knew the minute I allowed him to crash into my space, he would swallow me whole. I would drown under his presence and lose myself in his world.

He was that powerful and all-consuming. He was also dangerous. It radiated from him.

The one man who twisted me up inside without a single care about the damage he’d be sure to leave behind when he finished with me was never far away. I had no doubt he would break me, and it was a heartache I wouldn’t survive a second time.

Paxton Williams was all things wrong and oh so right at the same time.

He was sexy as sin, confident, and not afraid to go after what he wanted.

And what he wanted was me. He’d made it clear on many occasions.

The problem was Paxton had this edge to him that I just knew would break me. He had the ability to suck me in and never let me up for air. It was too much. He was too much. He was fearless and haunted. I saw it in his captivating eyes every time he was near me.

He didn’t really want me though—not the way a man wanted a woman. No, I was a possession that told him no, and no one said that word to Pax—ever. I was no more than a challenge for him and once he got what he wanted, he’d leave me without a fuck off, because that’s the kind of man he was.

I knew it. He knew it. And he refused to make any concessions or excuses for it. I had to take him as he came, and that was a man who wanted me under his thumb. I simply wasn’t that kind of woman, period.

Inside the bank, I was once again greeted by the ever peppy Julia, who immediately recognized me. This was the nice thing about working with a local branch on a regular basis. They knew me here and should help me get my accounts back. I entered feeling confident this misunderstanding could be easily fixed and life could return to normal.

“Is there any way for me to get this reversed and gain access to my accounts again?” I muttered the words quickly, wanting this all to go away.

The petite woman with dark brown curly hair looked as though I just asked her to climb Mount Everest, pregnant with a weight on her back. It wasn’t that serious, right? With a few key strokes they could undo what they did just as simply.

“I’m very sorry, ma’am, but it will take some time to do that, and it has to be approved by the CEO. Once an account is frozen and if it were to ever want to be reopened, there is a vetting process it must go through. There is a bunch of paperwork that needs to be done.”

I blew out a breath. Okay paperwork, I could tackle that. But a process? I didn’t have time for that. My eyes narrowed as I clenched my hands around the strap of my purse. “You mean to tell me that someone, who I did not give access to, can come in and close down my accounts in one day, but I, the owner of the account, can’t get it reinstated for what—weeks? Months? Years?”

She became flustered, shuffling papers around her slim deck and looking at her computer. I knocked on the desktop grabbing her attention. “I’d like an answer.”

“Ma’am, I assure you that Mr. Williams had all the necessary paperwork, with a signature that was double checked with your original paperwork and driver’s license.”

This was absolutely absurd!

I cut her off. “Were you the one to get this done?”

She nodded. “I met with Mr. Williams and Mr. Monroe first. Then, I took it to Misty, our head teller to approve. She got the approval from John, the lead banker present, and we all agreed his documentation was in order, Ms. Conrad.”

“I want to talk to your CEO, now.” Pointing my finger on her desk did nothing to get her to pick up her phone and dial the extension, only angering me more. “You connect me with someone who can help me.”

“Yes, of course.” She nodded as she picked up the phone on her desk, punched some numbers, and got through to whomever she felt I needed to talk to.

The relief didn’t come one bit as I waited on pins and needles. A large man in height with light brown hair that stuck up all around approached me. “Miss Conrad, I’m Marvin Steanger, and I’ll be happy to help you. Please come this way.” He extended his arm to the door off to the side.

Once in his immaculate office, he had me sit in front of him. His desk was three times the size of Julia’s cubical area, and the view screamed this was a man of importance, which gave me hope.

“Julia informed me of your situation, and I’ve brought up your file.” He set a manila folder on his desk, then turned the computer screen toward me. Pulling out several sheets of paper, my hands shook causing the thin contract to do the same. There in perfect words stated that Paxton Williams was my Power of Attorney. My blood boiled. He was like a tick I couldn’t pull off me, sucking me dry. Even his scrawl on the bottom of the page pissed me off.

“As you can see, ma’am, all the paperwork was in order.” He laid out the rest of it as I read as quickly as I could. “Mr. Williams had every right to freeze these accounts.”

“No, he didn’t,” I ground out between clenched teeth. “I never signed this document. Or any document with Paxton or Garrett’s name on them. Ever. And you didn’t think to contact me to validate this before shutting me down?”

He coughed slightly then clasped his hands in front of him. “Ma’am, this happens all of the time. People get hurt and are in the hospital. Others are committed into institutions and need someone to look over their accounts. We do not know these reasons, only look at the documents provided. The signatures matched what we have on file.”

“What was given to you was a fake. I never signed anything, and isn’t that against the law?” I took in a deep breath because this wasn’t getting me back to my money.

“Well, I’m sure you can seek legal representation to fight this in court. But that’s going to be between you and a judge. Once you sort that out and a judge signs off that this was indeed fraud, we can reverse the freeze.”

I gasped in shock. “A judge!”

“Well, Ms. Conrad, if you feel this was an error then you must follow all the steps including the legal ones.”

“Look, I need to reverse this. As you can perfectly see, I’m not sick, nor am I going to an institution. And to be clear, I don’t have a stalker except Mr. Williams, so I certainly wouldn’t give him access and power over me like this.” I threw my hands up in the air in frustration. I’d deal with the legal ramifications of pressing charges later. “I need to get my accounts back so I can live and you know—pay my bills including legal representation, as you put it.”

“I’m really sorry, but that will take some time. We have a process that we must follow from the Federal Government to get them turned back on. I understand that you’re upset, but there isn’t anything I can do other than submit the paperwork to get this started.”

I stood from the chair needing to move. “This has to be some sick joke. Pax can shut my accounts down in a day and yet, I can’t get them back up.” I threw my hands up wildly as the emotions were too much. I wanted to scream, cry, throw something.

“Pax, ma’am? It sounds as though you have a relationship with Mr. Williams. Maybe with all of your stress from the stalker you don’t remember signing the documents.”

The laugh that left me was dark and heavy. “There is no relationship. And I assure you the only stalker I have is HIM!”

His face paled. “Would you like for me to start the paperwork, ma’am?”

Clenching my teeth, I growled out my words, “Yes, considering you fucked up by closing my accounts when you were not authorized to. And believe me, there will be action taken against you and whoever is involved with this.” I would make them all pay no matter what it took.

Storming out the office, I felt the world falling around me. How could this happen? When I got my money back, it certainly wouldn’t be staying in this bank. One thing was for certain, Paxton Williams was giving me my money back, I wouldn’t take no for an answer!