Outcast (Supernaturals Book 2) (13 page)

“What’s wrong?” I asked, my heart plummeting.

“Sorry, for a second I was so caught up in you that I forgot that I walked here. That’s why I was late.”

“Why did you walk?”

“Some asshole slashed the tires on my SUV about an hour before I was to leave the house. I came home from work about one-thirty. I wasn’t in the house twenty minutes when I remembered I left something in the car. I stepped out to get it and saw my tires. I had it towed, but the dealership is out of stock on the tires I need. They are overnighting them, so I won’t have a vehicle until tomorrow. I’m so sorry. I was so caught up in wanting to be with you that I forgot about the SUV. Can we reschedule for tomorrow?”

He looked so cute with his red face and embarrassed expression that I wanted to pounce on him right then and there. “No,” I said, too quickly because I didn’t want him to leave, but the word came out sounding as if I didn’t want to be with him period.

“I see,” he said and started to walk away.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, no, we can go ahead with our plans for the night. I can drive. I don’t mind.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, unless you are too manly to ride in the passenger seat, then you can drive.”

“I’m not too manly, and whereas I don’t mind driving if you want me to, I’ll let you since you know the area better than I do.”

“Great,” I said, nervously turning to pay for my drink.

Chapter 15 ~ Aggravations

~~~Leigh~~~

“What the hell is wrong now,” I said, stepping into my apartment and flipping the switch for the living room light to come on—only it didn’t.

“What’s wrong?” Ryan asked, following me inside.

“I don’t know. I think the bulb blew.” I moved to turn on the lamp on the end table, but it wasn’t working either.

“I think your power is out,” Ryan said from the kitchen. He had tried that switch, but nothing came on.

“Ms. Alexander,” a voice from out in the hall said.

“Yes,” I said, turning to the person to see that it was Mrs. Cole, my landlady.

“Are you just now getting home?” the elderly lady asked.

“Yes, ma’am. I’ve been at work all day, and then I met my friend Ryan,” I pointed to the man standing in my small kitchen, “at the coffee shop afterwards. Do you know what’s going on with my electricity?”

“The electricity to the entire building is out. It went out about two hours ago. The police have been here. They think someone purposely cut the lines. They’ve just left after interviewing everyone that was here. I told them you’d been having some strange trouble, so they’ll probably contact you. The utility department is on its way to start working on getting it all back on.”

“I’m so sorry. You don’t think this has anything to do with me, do you?” I looked from the woman to Ryan in panic.

Mrs. Cole took a long moment to think about things before answering. “I want to say no. I hope not, but, sweetie, you have to admit a lot of strange things have been happening around you since you got back from your sister’s wedding.”

“You aren’t evicting me, are you?” I asked, knowing I wouldn’t be able to deal with another blow.

Again, the woman took her time answering me. Letting out a long breath, she said, “No. Not unless this comes back to be about you. I’m sorry, but I can’t put my other tenants in danger, and I won’t tolerate damage to my home. My husband built this building for me. I’ve taken great care in keeping it up.”

“I know, Mrs. Cole. And I’m so sorry for everything that’s going on, but I don’t have a clue as to who’s doing all of this or why. I don’t have any enemies.”

“Whatever’s going on here, you need to fix it,” the elderly woman said and left the apartment.

“What was she talking about?” Ryan asked.

I jumped at the sound of his voice, not having heard him walk up behind me.

“Nothing,” I said, not wanting to bother him with my problems.

“That didn’t sound like nothing. It sounded like…”

A knock on my door interrupted whatever it was he was about to say. Sighing, I went to the door. I opened it wide for the same two police officers who had been there on a number of occasions in the last two months concerning reports that I’d filed.

“Why am I not surprised?” the first man said, stepping into the room.

“Officer O’Neil, Officer Dawson, please come in,” I said.

The men took a few steps in followed by another cop I didn’t know. O’Neil and Dawson stopped in the middle of the living room and looked from me to Ryan and back again.

“Do I know you?” Dawson asked Ryan.

“Kind of. You answered my call about my slashed tires earlier today.”

“Huh. So is it a coincidence that you’ve both had such similar things happen to you within a short period of time and now you are both here after this event.”

“As far as I know, yes,” Ryan said, shrugging.

“What do you think?” he turned to ask me.

“Yeah. It has to be. I didn’t even know Ryan was in town until two nights ago, and I hadn’t seen him until this afternoon right after I got off work.”

“So you’ve been at work all day?” Dawson asked me, pulling out his note pad.

“Yep. I went in at nine and got off at three. I met Ryan at the coffee shop right after. We were there about forty-five minutes before coming here. My time clock will show the hours I worked. My co-workers can tell you I was there, and the barista, Jenna, can tell you we were in the coffee shop. We haven’t been here more than about fifteen minutes or so.”

“And…Mr. Hart, was it?”

“Yes, and I was at work most of the morning. I went home for a bit. While I was there, someone sliced my tires. I talked to you for a while, the dealership picked up my car to repair the tires, I walked to the book store, met Leigh, and we came here.”

“Neither one of you saw anything here?”

Ryan shook his head, and I said, “Nope. The power was fine when I left this morning and was off when I got home.”

“You don’t know anyone who could or would do something like this?”

“No,” Ryan and I said in unison.

“I’m finding that harder and harder to believe, Ms. Alexander.”

“I get that,” I said, “but I’m telling you, I don’t have a clue as to who would have a vendetta against me.”

“Are the two of you a couple?” he asked us.

“No,” I said.

“Yes,” Ryan said.

Sighing, I said, “No. We would like to be, but his family doesn’t approve of me.”

“And I’m telling you I don’t care what they think,” Ryan said, coming to stand beside me.

“His family doesn’t approve of your relationship, yet you two are telling me you can think of no one who has it out for you?” Dawson said.

“His family wouldn’t stoop so low,” I said.

“Besides, they are all the way across the country,” Ryan said.

“Do they know you two are here together?” O’Neil asked.

“My family and his family know where I am. I don’t know if anyone knows he is here.” I said, looking pointedly at Ryan.

“Your dad knows. My parents have probably figured it out, but I didn’t tell them,” he said.

“Why does my dad know you’re here?” I asked before the police officer could ask another question.

“I went to him after I quit my job. I needed help. He helped get me a job here and gave me money to live on until I got on my feet. I’m supposed to start paying him back in one year or I’ll lose my job.”

“He threatened you?” Officer O’Neil asked.

“Oh, no. The guy I work for is a cousin of Leigh’s dad. That was my agreement. Mr. Alexander would give me money and help me get settled. I had one year to do so before I had to start paying the money back. If I didn’t, Victor would fire me. That was the only threat.”

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” I asked, ignoring the police officer.

“We haven’t had much time to talk about all that has happened since you left,” he answered.

“Why didn’t you let me know when you first moved back?” I asked to the annoyance of the two officers.

“I didn’t want you to see me like that. I was basically homeless and living in a cheap motel until I could get on my feet. Your dad only gave me so much money, and I needed it to last. I didn’t know what the job would pay or what the cost of living was like here. I’ve never had to worry about anything like that before. I didn’t want you feeling sorry for me or looking down on me now that I don’t have my family’s money.”

“Do you think I care about that? Look at what I do for a living. Look at where I live. My car is ten years old. I barely make it from one paycheck to another most weeks. I would have never judged you for that.”

“I know,” he said, flopping down on my sofa. “But look at the world I come from. Nearly everyone I know would have judged me for it.”

I started to go to him when the cops I had forgotten were there spoke up. “I take it from your conversation, you left home abruptly. Possibly angering a few people as you did so,” O’Neil said.

“Maybe,” Ryan admitted, “but I honestly don’t think my parents would do anything like this to us. The worst thing they could think of would be taking my money away, and I gave it up when I left.”

“Okay,” the officer said, taking a few notes.

“What about your fiancée?” I asked, not hiding my pissy tone.

“She isn’t my fiancée, and she isn’t smart enough to do all of this,” Ryan said, sounding annoyed at having to repeat himself.

“Are you sure?” I demanded.

“Yeah. Besides, right after your sister’s wedding when I informed her, her parents, my parents, and everyone else who was standing outside the hotel that morning that I would never marry her, she left…left the country left. She has family in New Zealand, and she went there to sulk.”

My mood changed dramatically when he said this.

“She could still be a suspect and the most likely one, considering you jilted her publicly and the two of you have had some other issues. I’ll need all of her information please, so that I can look into things,” Officer Dawson said to Ryan.

Ryan nodded, and I went into my bedroom to change while the two men talked. Once I was ready and the cops had left, Ryan pulled me into his arms and hugged me for a long time.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he said into my hair.

“I’ve missed you. I started missing you the moment you left my hotel room. I hate that you and your parents are on bad terms, but I’m so thankful you’re here.”

“I love my parents, but I promise you, I’m not letting anyone stand between us.” He kissed me then. He kissed me long and deep, until my legs started to go limp and my head was swimming with desire for him.

I was seconds away from saying, screw dinner; let’s go straight for dessert, when his cell rang. Both of us tried to ignore it, but it kept going off.

Agitated, he answered the phone with a gruff, “What?”

I couldn’t hear what the person on the other end said, but I saw his body tighten in annoyance and maybe anger.

“All right, I’m on my way out to dinner. I’ll stop by and see what happened.” After another long pause on Ryan’s end as he listened to whatever it was the other person was saying, he said, “I’ll see you in a bit,” then hung up.

“Is something wrong?” I asked, knowing there was, but I felt compelled to ask.

“Yeah. I have to run by work to check on something. Nothing major,” he said, giving me a quick kiss as he pocketed the phone.

“Anything we should report to the police?”

“Nah. I just have to fax some paperwork. I was sure I emailed all the information before I left today, but somehow it got lost in the ether. It won’t take me long. Do you mind taking me by there?”

“No.” I took his hand and led him out of the apartment.

He was right. What he had to do didn’t take any more than about five minutes. After that, we stopped at an Oriental restaurant for sushi then went to a movie. I told him I was fine with Red Boxing something or ordering a movie off On Demand, but he wanted to go to the movies and have a real date. Considering that I hadn’t seen a movie in a theater in nearly a year, I didn’t argue. Before going home, we stopped for some frozen yogurt.

While we ate our yogurt, I asked him again why he waited so long to let me know he was in town. Again, he told me he wanted to be settled first. This didn’t feel completely true to me, so I pushed, and he finally relented, saying that he was afraid that if he didn’t have a job or a home first, I wouldn’t believe that he was serious about leaving his home to be with me. He wanted to be tied down to Washington so that I wouldn’t worry every moment that he could easily walk away from our life. That I understood, but it still hurt me that he had been so close and I didn’t even know it.

Knowing that I should take things slow with Ryan, but not wanting to, I invited him back to my apartment for the night. He tried not to sound too eager when he said yes.

All through the drive back to my apartment, I felt the sexual energy between us. Ryan constantly ran his hand up and down the length of my thigh as I drove, and every time I glanced his way, I saw him looking at me. The hunger, the longing in his eyes was so intense that I nearly came when he let his hand brush smoothly between my legs.

The second I pulled up in front of my apartment, he was out of the vehicle and at my door, helping me out of the car. He all but carried me up the front walk, up the stairs, and through my front door. By the time we reached my bedroom, we were nearly naked, and his mouth had kissed every inch of my exposed flesh. I was so desperate for him that I almost didn’t notice that he wasn’t wearing a condom when we fell onto the bed, and he crawled between my legs. He was about to enter me when his cell phone rang. Ryan kept kissing me though. He was lazily running his tongue around one of my nipples when his phone stopped ringing and mine started.

“What the hell?” I said, leaning up a bit, causing him to sit back on his heels. The sight of how ready he was to take me made me temporarily forget about the ringing phone. I reached my hand out to stroke his cock and my phone stopped ringing.
Perfect,
I thought,
now we can get back to giving each other orgasms.
But the second my phone stopped, his started up again.

“Son-of-a…” he snarled and moved off the bed, making me whine with disappointment.

“Who is it?” I asked, crawling off the bed. His phone stopped ringing, and in the time it took me to grab mine to see who had called, it started again. I looked at the caller ID, but it only said unknown name and there wasn’t a number listed. Irritated, I answered the call with a brusque, “Hello.” No one was on the line. A half a minute later, Ryan’s phone began to ring. He answered in much the same way, though no one was there.