Chapter 30
Alexa
I had to take time off work again. I was so stressed after everything that had happened that I couldn’t think about going back to the office. I’d been on the news, and I was sure that was the only reason Miranda had given me some time off again. After the two weeks of family leave I’d gotten after Dalton’s funeral, I should not have been able to take paid leave.
But everyone at the office was worried about me, and when I’d spoken to Miranda on the phone about it, she’d told me not to worry about it. I could take as much time as I needed.
“Just get better, and for God’s sake, stay out of trouble,” she’d said.
I was planning on doing just that. I’d had enough trauma for one lifetime.
Luke was there for me all the time. On Monday morning we headed back to my apartment. Luke wanted me to stay with him until my concussion healed, and I was happy with that. When I walked to my door, though, I started panicking. Fear crept up on me and tackled me. I got flashes of the day I’d been kidnapped, and I couldn’t breathe.
“It’s okay,” Luke said. “I’m here. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
Logically, I knew he was right, but I couldn’t convince my body to calm down.
In the end, Luke went in and grabbed the clothes I’d asked for. I waited in the car. I was relieved I hadn’t gone to work. If I was freaking out about this, how would I deal with work? Of course, nothing traumatic had happened there, but with the panic my headache had intensified and I’d felt like I was going to faint.
When Luke returned to the car with my bag, packed with everything I’d asked for, he got in behind the steering wheel.
“There was no one up there, babe,” he said to me. “You don’t need to worry.”
I nodded. “I know,” I said. But that was so much easier said than done. The truth was that I was terrified. I was so scared that I didn’t know what to do with myself, and that made my headache so much worse.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” Luke said as if he knew what I was feeling. Maybe it showed on my face.
We went back to Luke’s place. He had taken the day off to make sure I was settled. He would have to go back to work tomorrow, but at least he was with me today.
When we got back to the apartment, Luke made coffee while I went to the bathroom to shower. I had meant to shower at my place, but that had proven to be impossible. Luke had packed my bathroom bag, too, and I had everything I needed right here.
Luke was a bad boy, an alpha male, rough around the edges, but lately he’d really been showing how much he cared. It was reassuring to know how involved he was, how attentive. It let me fall apart and know he would be there to help me pick up the pieces.
I looked in the mirror after I got out of the shower. My black eye was starting to turn greenish purple. There were no other signs of bruising on my body, but I was still sore when I moved now and then. My skin was pale and I had dark circles beneath my eyes.
And still, Luke made me feel special and beautiful. When we’d had sex last night, I hadn’t felt like anything less than I always was. He brought that out in me.
I got dressed and dried my hair as much as I could without hurting my head before I joined Luke in the kitchen. He handed me my cup of coffee.
“Thank you,” I said. “What are you going to do today?”
He shrugged.
“You can’t just sit around looking after me all day,” I said.
“It’s why I’ve taken the day off. I’ll get back to work and not watching you like a hawk tomorrow.”
I grinned. My phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number. My stomach tightened, but I answered it anyway. I couldn’t fear everything for the rest of my life.
“Is this Alexa Starr?” a deep voice asked on the other end of the line.
“It is,” I said. Luke leaned in and put his ear against the back of my phone to hear what was being said.
“You’re speaking to Jerry Buck. I’m the VP of the Samurai, and with Koby Mason in prison, I’m acting as president.”
My heart beat in my throat. I swallowed hard, trying to keep breathing.
“Why are you calling me?” I asked.
“I want to meet with you to talk, if you’re up for it,” Buck said. “We—”
Luke grabbed the phone before Buck could finish his sentence and pressed it against his ear.
“Listen here, asshole,” he said. “Don’t call this number ever again. This is your only warning.”
He hung up and glared at me.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked, immediately angry.
“Are you kidding me?” Luke asked. “That was the VP of the Samurai. Or are you going to fall right back into their hands? Have you learned nothing?”
“God, you’re a dick,” I said. “That was my phone and my call and you had no right to interfere. What if I wanted to talk to him?”
“Why don’t you just hand yourself over in handcuffs again? I’ll cable tie your wrists for you.”
“Shut up. You’re overreacting and you know it. He didn’t even get a chance to explain.”
“He didn’t need one,” Luke said.
I shook my head. It still ached, but I was angry and the pain seemed small in comparison. I grabbed my phone from the counter where Luke had set it down and stormed away. I left the apartment and walked into the road. My anger was greater than my fear, and I didn’t even look over my shoulder.
I dialed the number that was in my call log and waited for the calling tone. I willed Buck to answer.
“I’m sorry about that,” I said when he did. “My friends and family are all a little worried about me right now.”
“Understandable. So, Miss Starr—”
“Alexa.”
“Alexa. You’ve been through a lot, but that’s why we want to talk to you. It will be nothing more than a conversation.”
I didn’t know if I could trust this man. I had just been kidnapped by his people.
“Where?” I asked. I was curious about what he had to say.
“Would you be willing to come to the Rat & Parrot?” he asked.
I still didn’t know if I was making a mistake. I waited for that little voice in the back of my head telling me I was. I waited for the fear to creep in, the paranoia that something terrible would happen again.
None of that happened.
“Today?” I asked.
“If you can. At sunset.”
It sounded poetic. Was I going to be poetically killed?
“I’ll be there,” I said. I wanted to know what they had to say to me.
I hung up the phone and pocketed it.
“Alexa,” Luke said behind me. Great. He’d followed me. I was upset with him.
“What?” I said.
He raised his eyebrows at me. I wondered if he was going to tell me to watch my mouth the way he had in the private room at Blush, but this was hardly the place or the time. When we weren’t in the bedroom playing BDSM games, there was no way I was going to defer to him. Luke and I were equals.
“Are you going to stand out here all day?” he asked.
“If that’s what I want.”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be childish, Lex.”
I shook my head. “You don’t get to call the shots. If I want to do something, you’re not allowed to stop me.”
“I am if you’re putting yourself in danger.”
“Says who? I can do what I want, Luke. I know I’ve been through a lot and I’m grateful you saved me, but I’m not going to sit back and let you dictate my life.”
Luke was getting pissed off, too.
“So, what, you’re going to go?”
“I want to know what they have to say.”
Luke threw his hands up in the air. He was frustrated with me and struggling to control his temper.
“I want to know, Luke. I want to get to the bottom of this. This isn’t over for me. You know that. I want closure, or something.”
“And what if they hurt you?” he asked. “What if something happens to you?”
I shook my head. “Taking that risk is my own choice.”
Luke looked so angry. I was nervous he might lose control of that temper for a moment.
“You know what? Fine. Do you. Go where you need to go. If you want to put yourself in danger, then there’s nothing I can do about it, is there? I think you’re a fool for doing it, especially so soon after what happened to you, but if you want to go?” He flicked his hands toward me in a very “fuck you” gesture without actually flipping me off. “Just don’t come back once you’re done.”
I blinked at him. “Are you being serious? You’re kicking me out of your life because you don’t agree with a choice I’m making for myself as an adult?”
“You summarized that about right, sweetheart,” he said. God, I hated it when he was like this. He was so sarcastic, sneering at me, angry that I hadn’t given him his way. “I’m not going to be there to keep saving you if you insist on putting yourself in this position repeatedly. If you’re going to put yourself in danger, I’m just going to sit back and let you deal with it.”
“For a knight in shining armor, you sound a hell of a lot like an asshole,” I said. I turned around and marched back to his apartment.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he called after me.
“To get my stuff from your place so I can get out of your hair.”
I wasn’t going to listen to anything else he had to say. Unfortunately, he didn’t try, either. It was much harder to storm away from someone who didn’t care that I was leaving.
In the apartment, I pulled my few things together, and it took me no time at all. Luke wasn’t around. He stayed away until I was ready to leave. I waited only five minutes, and when he still didn’t show face, I left.
I wasn’t going to wait for him to tell me how much he didn’t want me.
I walked to my car and got in. I wasn’t going to cry about it. Luke’s little temper fit to get his way wasn’t worth my tears. Somewhere deep down inside, I was terrified that Luke had meant it, that he really didn’t want me to come back if I was going to do this, but I had to do this. I had to find out what was happening.
There were more important things than Luke’s ego right now—like where I was going to stay when I couldn’t go home and what Buck wanted to say to me.
The latter was first and foremost on my mind. I was scared to go, but I was also curious about what was going on, and something told me that this wasn’t unsafe. Koby had never contacted me. He’d done everything underhand.
Buck was playing it differently. He’d contacted me directly and been up front about his intention. Could he still stab me in the back and could it all go south? Yes. Very much so. But I was willing to take that risk this time.