Inhaling before I slowly exhaled, I let him see that I was pissed. He moved into the corner and watched me, his face showed concern for his own safety, finally.
“Evie was not with me. The only time I’ve been close to her was yesterday morning when she was upset. As for the time-lapse, I’ve no idea what’s going on with that. You know that I have no clue about anything to do with technology. But we weren’t together, and I came straight in and to my apartment.”
He couldn’t decide whether or not I told him the truth, it was in his eyes.
“Regardless, Evie will be my wife very soon. In fact, I’m on my way to pick her up for a visit to her parents’ house for the weekend.” He smirked. “So go…make my family more money this weekend and I’ll try and forget the lapse in time.”
My first thought was to pound into him, or warn him of what would happen if he so much as laid a hand on Evie again.
Seconds from doing what I wanted, I jumped out of the car and walked.
They’d follow me.
Right now I didn’t give a fuck what they did.
She wouldn’t be here for the fight.
Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much I wanted her there. I wanted her in my corner, my name on her lips. Not Stryker…Jake.
That couldn’t happen.
Didn’t stop me from wanting it…wanting it so badly that I was that close to telling them to have her there or there’d be no fight.
I gave a mirthless laugh. I wouldn’t do that because then they’d realize that she meant something to me. They’d use that against me, and maybe harm Evie. I wouldn’t allow that, or be responsible.
Reaching the park, I took off. I needed to run. And I needed to run fast.
So what if I knew they couldn’t keep up to me.
Evie
I WAS NERVOUS AS hell that Patrick was picking me up, and had been surprised that he wanted to travel together for an unplanned party at my parents’ house. The only thing keeping my fear at bay was the fact that we’d be in the car and then at my parents’ house. He’d only be able to use words to get at me, instead of his strength.
Closing my eyes, I tried to center myself and calm my nerves.
I could do this.
I had to do this.
I had to end whatever this was over the weekend.
Sighing, I met my gaze in the mirror and carefully applied my plum-colored lip-gloss while I tried to get my mind focused. Being distracted would be noticeable, and my father never missed anything. How could I focus when I knew Stryker was fighting over the weekend? I wouldn’t be there to watch him. To wrap my arms around him and ease his aching muscles.
But I could let him know I might not be there for him at the fight but my heart was.
He didn’t have a cell though, but Millie was finally seeing Carter tonight, so maybe…
Spying my cell lying next to my purse, I turned it over in my hands, dropped to the sofa in my living room and went for it.
Waiting for Millie to pick up, my foot tapped against the floor with impatience, more so when I noticed the time. Patrick would be here soon. Ten minutes. He’d be five minutes early like always.
“Evie, is everything okay?” My breathless friend sounded worried.
“I guess.”
I let the silence hang while I tried to figure out what to say, but in the end, straightforward would work best. “I need you to ask Carter to get a message to Stryker for me. Can you do that?”
“Evie, you don’t need to ask. I’ll do anything to help. You know that. Tell me the message?”