“Let’s go inside. Go grab Poppy a glass of water, Dolcezza,” he murmurs, and leads me to the couch after closing and locking the door.
I’m shivering when I take a seat and Tony grabs the throw blanket off the back of the couch and lays it over my shoulders. He rubs up and down my arms, trying to knock the shivers out of me. Liv comes out with a glass of water and I unclasp my tight hands and take it from her, gulping down several swallows before handing it back to her.
“Thank you,” I say. I try to smile, but I’m sure it comes off as weak.
Tony sits down beside me and leans forward so his elbows are resting on his knees. Liv sits on my other side, grabs my hand and brings it to her lap. I soak up the warmth of her palm in mine.
“Tell us what’s going on?” Tony says quietly.
I give my head a shake and sit up straighter in my seat. My fingers squeeze Liv’s. She grips mine tighter in comfort and it helps lessen the anxiety I’m feeling. I keep my eyes forward when I start talking.
“About a week ago, I think someone broke into my house and rifled through my lingerie drawer. At the time I thought I had just forgot to close it the last time I was getting something out, but now I’m not so sure. A few days ago, in Dallas, I got a weird text from a private number. It was threat, but I’m not sure if it was more for me or Asher. Asher knows about it and assured me he’d take care of it. Then today, I got a phone call.” I start shivering again. “H-he told m-me he was coming for me.”
“Jesus Christ,” Tony mutters, raking his hands through his hair. He turns to me. “Asher is your and Liv’s boss, right?”
“Yes,” Liv answers for me.
“Do you know what he’s done with this?”
“No, just that he’s taking care of it. I don’t really care what he does, as long as it stops. I don’t feel safe in my own home right now, and I hate that feeling.”
“Does he know about the phone call from tonight?”
I look down and pull at a loose string on the throw blanket that’s partially sitting in my lap.
“No.”
Tony gets up from the couch and pulls out his phone. “Liv, you and Poppy go grab a bag with a couple days’ worth of clothes. You’re coming home with us.”
“Tony, I don’t…” I start. I don’t feel right encroaching on their home. I know they wouldn’t care, but it still feels wrong to bring this to their doorstep. This isn’t their problem. I shouldn’t have called them.
“It’s not up for debate,” Tony says, his eyes hard. “We don’t know who this guy is or what he’s capable of. Not only will Liv kick my ass if something were to happen to you, it would devastate her. You know I don’t like when my woman gets hurt. Now, go with Liv and grab some clothes.” His eyes soften slightly when he sees me worriedly biting my lip. He walks over and looks down at me. “Poppy, please, just do what I say. This is going to be taken care of, but I need to know you won’t get hurt in the process.”
I look over at Liv and see her watching me. The worry on her face breaks my heart. These two people are my only two friends, and friends help each other, protect each other. There’s no way either will give in on this, just like I wouldn’t give in if it were Liv in this situation.
I nod and Liv pulls me up from the couch. I close my eyes when Tony leans down and kisses my forehead, not realizing how much I needed them until just now. With Asher out of the picture, I have no one I can ask for help. And I don’t think going to the police will do much. You hear all the time when victims contact the police and nothing happens until it’s too late. If something were to happen to me, I would just be another statistic.
After Liv receives a much more wet kiss from Tony, she leads me from the living room. “Come on.”
We walk to my room and I go straight to my closet to grab a small bag. I grab the same travel bag I used for my trip to Texas. My chest aches when I think back to yesterday morning, when I woke up with a smile on my face and thoughts of the night before, when Asher took me so passionately. I still feel his hands on my body and his taste in my mouth. I was happy, happier than I’ve ever been. Then a few text messages screwed that happiness up.
I walk out, once again pushing the tears back. It seems like all I want to do since yesterday is cry. I would have thought my body would be dry by now, but I guess the body is capable of producing numerous amounts of tears.
I throw my bag down on the bed, just as Liv comes up with a handful of clothes from my dresser. I unzip the bag and she tosses the items inside. Liv sees my sagged shoulders and turns to pull me into her arms. I wrap my arms around her middle. I feel like a little kid being comforted.
“Hey, everything is going to be okay,” she murmurs against my hair.
I sniff and nod my head against her shoulder. After several moments, I pull back. She uses her fingers to rub the wetness off my cheeks.
“I’m giving you until we get to the house for you to tell me what happened between you and Asher. You came back a day early, so obviously something happened.”
The look she gives me says I’m not going to get out of telling her.
&nbs
p; “Okay.”
I give her a watery smile. Maybe telling her the wreck of my current life will help. Maybe she can help me shed some light on what I should do. I can’t control what is happening with the jerk that’s taunting me, but maybe I can have some with the situation with Asher. It’s barely been twenty-four hours since I last saw him, but it seems like twenty-four days, which is weird because I go weekends without seeing him every week. This is different. Even though we’ve only just started… whatever we started, it feels longer. I guess in a sense, it has been. More like eight months, when he started sending me flowers.