by R. A. Boyd
“Fucking… damn-it!” Simon yelled. He was now so far away that Riley could barely hear his voice. “My hip.”
For some strange reason, Riley snickered at the thought of him breaking his hip. She couldn’t tell if she was laughing because it was actually funny or because she was scared shitless. That deadly, badass, prehistoric, saber-tooth cat was Cass. Was this in Riley’s future? Hell yeah. She would be so awesome.
“You asked for it, idiot,” Riley whispered. She flinched and froze as everyone turned and looked at her. Had they heard her? “Fuck,” she sang as she sat back in the truck and rolled up the window.
Riley sat forward and glued her eyes to the hall. She didn’t want everyone’s attention on her. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, hoping that when she opened them all the people would be back to talking to each other and helping hip-boy out.
No such luck. Riley could hear, and feel, the ginormous footsteps of a beast making its way toward her. Was Cass upset with her? She hoped to the Good Lord above that she wasn’t. Riley would never recover from a slap like the one she gave to Simon.
From her peripheral vision, Riley watched in horror the passenger side and part of the front window of the truck fogged up. The fog advanced and retreated, advanced and retreated, as Cass took huge breaths while standing too close for Riley’s comfort.
With trembling movements, Riley turned her eyes to Cass. “Hey… Cass.” Riley wanted to throw up, and she knew that if her bladder had been full its contents would be on Teague’s nice soft seats. “I’m not gonna tell anyone you hit douche nozzle over there. Holy shit,” she whisper-yelled at Cass’s large, flat snout bumped against the side of the truck. The sound of her teeth made a soft and solid clinking noise against the glass.
Where was Teague? If he let her die she was going to come back and haunt him.
The vehicle door opened and Riley made a closed mouth yell that sounded more like she was trying to talk through a mouthful of food.
“Come on, Pastry-girl,” Audra said, giving her hand to Riley to help her down from the high-sitting truck. “She’s not going to hurt you. We just want to welcome you home.”
Teague watched in awe as his mate sat with his people. She was completely at ease now, sitting between Audra and Cass. Riley was all smiles and giggles, and was comforted when Aiden went to help Simon set the break in his hip and arm, and then took him home. He might be a douche but she didn’t want him to suffer.
Riley apologized to Teague and the rest of the clan. She hadn’t meant to laugh when Simon cursed and screamed about his hip. Though, it sure was funny.
“Everything that was going on was too much for me, and I have a tendency to laugh when I’m scared, nervous, or in pain. I also cry when I’m supremely happy. I’m as backward as they come,” she’d told them.
Teague had fixed her a plate of food before the leftovers had been put away. He watched her eat, listening to her tell them about her divorce.
“You’re our sister now,” Audra had told Riley. “I’ll fix your ex for you if he tries to keep your girl away from you.”
Riley threw her arms around Audra and thanked her, saying it was the sweetest thing anyone had offered to do for her. The women in his clan were crazier and more blood thirsty than the men. His mate would fit right in.
He was happy. And terrified. He’d found the love of his life but was afraid that if he didn’t claim her soon, she may be in danger like Cass had been. The mere thought of someone putting their hands on his woman caused a low growl to rumble in his chest. He had to keep her safe. Samael might not show up if another one of their mates faced death.
Damon clamped his hand on Teague’s shoulder and brought him from his thoughts, offering him a cold beer. “Is she going to let you claim her?” he asked.
His Omega could sense what they were feeling, and right now Teague could only imagine what emotions were emanating from him.
Teague looked down at his hands and saw his knuckles were white from squeezing his hands into fists. He cleared his throat, flexed his fingers, and took the beer from Damon. “She wants to wait so she can talk to her kid about it, get things straight at her shop just in case she has to take off any time.” He glanced over at Damon, giving him a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Don’t know how I’ll make it that long. I don’t want her to get hurt.”
He wanted to tell Damon that he didn’t want Riley to die, but he couldn’t seem to press those words through his lips. It was a sore subject for him, Jax, and Cass. They never talked about it, but everyone knew what the plan was: if any of them ran into the shifter that drowned Cass they would bring him to her so she could finish him. Slowly. Painfully.
Teague’s house sat across from theirs, and he could remember the first few nights after they brought Cass home. She would wake up screaming. They had to replace the furniture in their living room a month ago. Cass had taken a nap on the couch, but when she woke up yelling and fighting she shifted and sent Jax right to a shifter physician. She’d almost cut him in half with her claws.
“I understand why you’re afraid,” Damon said, putting his feet up on the foot rest of his recliner. “You don’t have to say it. We’ll help you keep an eye on her until you claim her. It’s too much crazy roaming around the streets of New Rose now. Did you tell her how much danger she could be in?”
Teague nodded slowly, and then shook his head. “I did but I didn’t tell her about what happened. I don’t want to rush her. She just signed divorce papers this morning and she has a custody hearing next week. Be best if we did it after those court dates are over. All Aaron needs is a reason to keep Riley away from Liv. She’d never get partial custody if she ate Aaron in front of a judge.”
Damon’s laugh vibrated in his chest and sat back in his chair, clinking his bottle against Teague’s before bringing it up to his lips for a long pull. “Yeah. That might not go down so well.” He looked over at the women of the Ghost clan and nodded. “She’s taken well to what’s happening here so far. A few of us had a bet about what Riley would do if she saw Cass pummel Simon, and sure as shit you bring her here just as it happened. She’s completely in love with you, just so you know. What else is bothering you?”
“I fucking hate that, man.” Teague took a few sips of his beer, watching Riley listen to Cass talk about mauling Simon a few weeks ago. “A cougar. At Riley’s shop a few nights ago and then again today. Whoever it is knows that I’ve found her. Could be someone from the rogue pack trying to do whatever dumb shit they’ve planned.”
Damon motioned for Jax to join them, and Teague told them what happened when he first encountered the cougar and the visit earlier this evening.
“They’ll be after her now,” Teague said.
Jax reached forward and tapped his beer bottle against Teague’s. “Loosen up that grip before you break the glass,” Jax told him. “We’ll help keep an eye on her. You think she’ll be okay during the day when the shop is open?”
Teague thought for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah. There’s always people in and out of her shop. The local college is only a few blocks away. Students go there to study, eat, and take naps. Seems like the shifter only comes after business hours, which would make sense if they were following me. Damn-it,” he said, running one hand down his face and grabbing hold of his collar. “She needs to be okay. I don’t think I’d make it if she wasn’t.”
“She will be,” Audra said from across the room, never breaking eye contact with Riley. “My new sister is going to be just fine.”
Chapter 7
“New Rose Book and Eatery,” Riley said as she answered the phone in the shop. No one ever called this line. Everyone knew the hours of the store and exactly what Riley served, and she didn’t deliver.
“Were you fucking Durrell the whole tie we were married?” Aaron asked. His voice was heavy, angry. Disgust dripped from his words as he accused her of doing the exact thing he’d done to her again and again.
Riley pulled the phon
e away from her ear and looked at it as if trying to figure out who the hell he was talking to. “What? No. Absolutely not. I’m not you,” she whispered into the phone. “And how the hell do you know about us?”
Aaron let out a cruel laugh that made Riley’s skin crawl. “That’s all the guys talked about last night at the pub down the street from your shop. You, yelling at Teague from your shop and him slinking in and not coming out until late. And you left with him. Not to fucking mention that the Pruitts’ from the shop next door asked if we’d made up. Said they heard pounding and yelling. The good kind.”
Riley had to stop herself from snorting out a laugh. She knew the nosey couple would rat her out. “First off Aaron, what I do now is none of your fucking business.” She glanced out over the shop to make sure everyone was okay and then disappeared into the kitchen area behind the closed door. “Second, I never cheated on you. Ever. I thought about it after the second time I found out you were screwing that slut-bag Rhonda Prevas, but I didn’t. I honored every vow I took to you, regardless of whether you did or not. And third, don’t you ever call me questioning what I do. You lost the right. Stay in your fucking lane.”
Riley felt empowered. She’d been dying to tell him off but hadn’t wanted to. She was afraid she would lose her cool and scream like a lunatic, but she hadn’t. Even as she told him off now over the phone her voice was calm, level. She would never allow him to make her lose her cool again. She’d given him that power for way too long, letting herself cry and scream over a man who looked at her like she was a house-keeping, clothes washing, errand running piece of live-in pussy that he came home to when he wanted. No more of that shit.
“Aaron. I’m busy. I have to—”
“Riley, please.” His voice was grainy and low now. Was he crying? “I’m sorry. I know I messed up, but please. We’re a family. I’ve loved you since I met you. I don’t want anyone else. Yes I made mistakes, plenty of them, but us finally being apart made me see the truth. Divorced? I don’t want that. We can be happy now, Riley. I’m a better man than I was before. I would never do anything to hurt you now. Not ever. I can’t. We belong together.”
The son of a bitch was crying. After all this time he finally put his heart on the table, and Riley wished she could stab that bastard with a butter knife and watch it bleed out. She would have laughed if she didn’t think he’d give her hell over Liv. He was her father, her blood relative. Riley had legally adopted Liv a year after she and Aaron were married, but she was his daughter. Riley didn’t know how negotiable a judge would be without Aaron’s consent.
She sighed into the phone and leaned her hip against the wall, looking through the little window to watch the customers. “Aaron. Our chapter is over. You have what you wanted all along.”
“I want you.”
“No. You don’t. You want the idea of us. You want a happy family at home waiting for you, but you still want to be able to run the streets and live the life of a single man. I stopped counting after the third time you cheated.” Silence sat thick between them as Riley measured her words. She put her finger into a little divot on the wall where the cordless phone used to hang before she moved it. “I wouldn’t be able to respect myself if I stayed. Aaron, I don’t love you anymore. This wasn’t something that was sudden. I’d been gradually falling out of love with you for years, but I stayed and hoped you would change. You didn’t.”
“But Riley, I have now. More than you know.”
“But you didn’t. How many times did you promise me you wouldn’t break my heart again, huh? How many, because I lost count. And it’s okay now. You should have fun and do what you want. You won’t have to avoid coming home to see me shooting daggers at you with my eyes,” she said, huffing a soft laugh. “I’m going to be happy. You should too.”
“Riley, I can do that now. I was made for you and you for me. I see that now.”
Nope. He saw that she no longer wanted to put up with his mess, and that made her even more appealing to him. Oh, if he would have talked this pretty shit a year ago Riley just may have believed him. But she didn’t now, and probably wouldn’t have then. This was done. She didn’t even hate him anymore.
“Aaron. Keep doing what you were doing and have fun doing it. I bear no ill will toward you. We’re good now. Goodbye.”
She hung up the phone and fought the urge to give it the finger. It wasn’t the phone’s fault he was a liar. Riley was over him, over them as a couple, and she was happy now. Not because of Teague. Well, not only because of Teague. Riley was happy because of her. She’d made it through this without harboring so much hatred and pain in her heart that she couldn’t breathe.
It was done. It was over.
And she was good.
Over the days that passed, Riley fell into the groove of seeing the Ghost Shifter clan members in and out of her shop. They were looking out for her. At first, she thought they were coming in just to say hello and support her business.
Simon spilled the beans when he came in yesterday complaining about it being his only day off and being pissed for having to babysit her. I’m going to eat so much of these fucking cakes and shits you’ll be busy baking all day long. Just watch, he’d declared.
After his fourth doughnut and fifth sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich he gave Riley his credit card and told her to start a tab and keep the chamomile tea coming. She’d accept his annoying looks and grunts as he ate as long as he kept the money rolling in. He could come babysit her everyday as far as she was concerned. He was her best customer.
The nights that Liv stayed at her father’s house were the ones Riley savored. She and Teague would spend all night making love and flat out fucking on any surface he could prop her on top of or against. He had a wicked tongue. And hands. And nose. Good gravy, every part of the man was wicked and welcome. He was stationed at the firehouse for the next twenty-four hours, so Cass and Audra were coming to have a sleepover at her place tonight to keep her and Liv company. And to make sure Riley didn’t get taken.
It was an hour before the shop closed, and Riley stood at the counter taking a few orders before she headed to the back to get things ready for the next day. Aiden had left about an hour ago and made her promise to call one of them if all of her customers left before she closed and locked the door. Audra and Cass would be there shortly, but Aiden had to leave to work the oil rig for the next two weeks.
Riley was safe in her shop. As long as there were people around. Riley was more worried about Teague than herself. Both times the cougar had shown up it was there to check him out, not her. Besides, she kept a .45 caliber automatic handgun under the cash register. She hated guns, but before her dad died he’d taught her to shoot and made her promise to keep one locked away. But that was back where she grew up. Nothing ever happened in New Rose. That was one reason she loved it so much here.
New Rose was a sleepy town where two degrees of separation was the norm. Everyone might not know everyone else, but most likely they’d gone to school or worked with your dad or cousin. And the residents watched out for each other. The nights that Riley had stayed too late at her shop and it was full on dark, there was always someone outside from the surrounding businesses who would make sure she got to her car safely.
“Can I get a coffee and my wife back, please?”
Riley looked up and saw Aaron standing across from her. She jumped and grabbed her chest before letting out a quiet laugh.
“You scared me, Aaron.” She’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn’t even hear the bell ring at the door. “You can definitely have coffee, but I’m off the menu. Please tell me that’s not why you’re here. And why aren’t you at work? This is your shift.”
Teague and Aaron had worked the same shift since before they got married. Maybe that’s why he wasn’t there.
Riley looked around the shop and saw that a few of the patrons were watching them. News of their divorce had already made it around Main Street where the shops were, and the only firehouse
stationed in New Rose. She caught the eye of Daisy sitting with a few of the ladies from the coding company. Riley nodded at her, letting her know that everything was okay.
Aaron sniffed and pushed his sunglasses further up his nose and shifted from side to side, giving her a tight smile. As the sun shined brightly behind him, his red hair looked like golden fire. His creamy skin was beet red around his ears and his cheeks. He was upset. Or nervous. His head jerked this way and that as if looking around to see who was watching them.
He sucked his teeth and put his hand on the counter. “I can’t work with him anymore. Knowing that you and him are together hurts me, Riley. I still love you. We took vows.”
“And you broke every single one of them. Look,” she said, reaching over to grab the coffee pot and a large cup to keep her hands busy. “It’s done. We are officially divorced, and no matter what you think Teague and I never touched each other while you and I were married. Never. You need to let go, Aaron. I already have.”
“Because of him?”
“Because of you!” she whisper-yelled. Riley cleared her throat and took a deep breath. She would not lose her shit in front of all these people. Hell, she wouldn’t do it alone either. He wasn’t worth it. “You made it easy not to love you anymore. But I already told you, it’s fine. We’re fine. Here,” she said, filling the coffee cup, sliding it across the counter to him, and packaging up a strawberry pastry. “Consider this a peace offering. I know you love these. Take it and go. We have a daughter to raise—”
Interrupting her, Aaron snorted and shook his head. “We have a daughter to raise? She’s mine.”
Here it was. The only way he knew he could get to her. Riley felt heat soar through her body as if she’d dumped the whole pot of scalding coffee onto her own head. She just might let Cass eat him if he tried to keep Liv away from her.