“What happened?”
“She and Ben seemed to have hit it off pretty well. We all went out to dinner and he asked her out on a date afterwards.”
Alex didn’t know how he felt about Anna dating someone. Devin would only stand for her attention to be drawn away from himself for so long. Alex liked the idea of her being happy, but didn’t like the idea of another man touching her. Not that he had much choice in the latter area.
“Is he a good guy? Ben, I mean?”
“Yeah. He is.”
“All right.” He couldn’t do anything about it right now. He would just have to hope that she’d be over him by the time he got back to San Francisco. Or at least that he’d be able to woo her away from him. “Just…keep her as safe as you can without her knowing about it.”
“Yes, sir.”
They hung up, and a few minutes later Alex called Devin.
“Why are you allowing men to go to Anna’s apartment and abuse her?” he demanded as soon as Devin answered the phone.
“What are you talking about, Alex?” Devin sounded bored.
“Someone went over to her apartment and tore her up real bad. Was he sent to punish her?”
“Oh, that must have been Zach. He has…unusual appetites.”
“And you let him satisfy them with Anna?”
“Why not? She can handle it. Did she call you and complain?”
“No, of course not. My man told me.”
“The babysitter?”
“Devin,” Alex growled, “you better tell this Zach to treat Anna with more respect or I will have Greg tear his head off the next time he tries to touch Anna.”
“You can’t do that,” Devin sputtered.
“I can and I will. You have Red Girls. Have him use them.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
Alex gritted his teeth. “If you allow men to go over and hurt Anna like that again, you will start having a tremendous number of unsolved murders in your city. I may not be able to kill you, but I can kill a fuckload of other people that you need in your life.”
“You wouldn’t.”
Alex let his tone reflect the hardness he felt. “I would. Having Anna does not mean you have the right to arbitrarily abuse her.”
Devin was quiet for a long moment, and then he huffed. “Fine. I’ll tell Zach to back off.”
“Good.”
“Anything else?” Devin asked sarcastically.
Alex made him wait for it, then spit out a single word. “No.”
“Good.” Devin hung up.
Alex ran his hands through his hair again. If he hadn’t been making so much progress, he would have given up and gone to steal Anna away. But he was finally getting somewhere in his studies. Finally. The very fact that he had been able to threaten Devin successfully was encouraging.
Alex smiled. Very encouraging.
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Thanks for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, won’t you please take a moment to leave a review at your favorite retailer?
Thanks!
Marissa Honeycutt
About Marissa Honeycutt
Marissa's story of Anna began with a dream about being kidnapped with Adam Savage from the Mythbusters (Yes, really). Over the next year and a half, it morphed into the story you just read. She has several other stories in progress, one of which is based on her kidnapped dream.
When she's not writing or editing, Marissa is taking care of two young boys, training to be an astronaut, running her household, wrestling with gorillas, playing around on Facebook, promoting whirled peas, and busting her tush for her accounting degree. She enjoys chocolate, air conditioning in the desert's summer heat, really good strawberry margaritas, sleeping, and shopping.
Stalk Marissa:
on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MarissaHoneycuttAuthor
on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8306428.Marissa_Honeycutt
On Twitter @Marihoneycutt
Reader’s discussion & support group for Part 1: http://on.fb.me/1qlo0Iq
Reader’s discussion & support group for Part 2: http://on.fb.me/1szorn9
Deleted scenes coming soon to Marissa’s blog: http://marissahoneycutt.wordpress.com/
The Life of Anna, Part 2: Entwined Page 50