I gritted my teeth, plucked the aviator glasses from my face, and then hooked them onto the collar of my shirt.
Once my eyes adjusted, I walked over to Lulu‘s desk to stand beside her.
Lulu coming with the business had been great. The man that I’d replaced had recently retired, and Lulu knew what she was doing when it came to running an office.
She handled all the bills, all the client accounts, and did the shit that I didn’t want to do.
“Couple of bills, Lulu,” I told her as we made eye contact and I held out the mail for her to take.
She studied me for a long time, not reaching for the mail, as she tried to decide what to do.
Finally, upon reading whatever it was she needed to in my eyes, she reached up and took the mail.
“There’s always bills, darlin’,” she said. “I’d be more surprised if there weren’t bills.”
I winked at her, grinning wider when I heard the impatient woman at my back clear her throat.
Lulu’s eye twitched, as if she wanted to give Ames a piece of her mind.
And hell, maybe she did.
We took new clients by walk-in only. For her to stop by and stay went against Lulu’s routine, and Lulu didn’t like getting off her routine.
After rapping my knuckles on Lulu’s desk, I turned around and moved slightly to the left so Lulu could see, then leaned my ass against it while studying Ames.
She’d aged quite a bit since I’d last seen her before the shit had gone down with Brees.
Her hair was longer, but it was also grayer, as if she’d aged a shit ton and didn’t even care.
She was also heavier. She’d put on quite a bit of weight.
“How can I help you?” I asked carefully. Neutrally.
At least, I hoped what it came off as was neutral.
Based on the way Ames’ eye twitched, I was thinking it didn’t.
“I didn’t realize you lived here,” she said.
My brow rose. “I do. What’s it matter?”
“You need to leave,” she said. “Jaycen and I were here first.”
Jaycen.
I’d heard Brees called that only during the trial that sent me to prison.
“Sorry for your bad luck,” I said calmly. “But this is where I live now. I’m not leaving, whether you want me to or not.”
Ames’ jaw clenched and unclenched as she processed those words.
“We’re happy,” Ames continued. “My kid is in daycare here. We can’t leave. You can, though.”
The understanding that Brees and Ames lived here—I mean how fucking bad could my luck get?—was a punch to the gut.
I mean, seriously. How the fuck, out of all the places in the world, did they end up here?
“Are you actually living in this town?” I asked curiously.
Her eyelid twitched. “No. I live in Bear Bottom. But it’s close enough to here. I have a mail route that I run for this part of the area. And I was here first.”
My eyelids twitched. First the left one. Then the right.
Then I shook my head.
But before I could speak up, Lulu was there.
“Honey,” Lulu said, “you don’t just get to say someone needs to leave. They’re here. You’re here. They’re not leaving. Obviously, you’re not leaving. I honestly don’t see what you hoped to happen by coming here. I mean the man has a business. He’s part of a motorcycle club here. What do you do? Work for the federal government delivering mail? You could leave easier than he could.”
That’s why I loved Lulu. She told it like it was, and she was so blunt sometimes that it hurt.
But for Ames, she really needed to hear the shit that she was spewing.
I mean, would I have come here if I’d known that her and her husband, the asshole, were here? Probably. It wouldn’t have changed anything.
But I surely would’ve warned Blaise first before she followed me to this area.
Ames growled, narrowing her eyes. “I’ll get a restraining order.”
“Go ahead,” I suggested, then narrowed my eyes. “Why do you know that we’re here? Who did you see today?”
I knew who she saw today. I just wanted to see if she would tell me the truth.
I was honestly surprised when she did.
“I run your mail route.” She clenched and unclenched her teeth. “And I saw that woman that started this all.”
I had the urge to laugh at her words.
Instead of doing that, I decided to keep my cool and hope that it would make her leave faster.
“Maybe you should switch that up if you plan on getting a restraining order,” I suggested.
Ames narrowed her eyes. “I was on that route first. Maybe you should move.”
I did nothing but shake my head. “Oh, Ames. You never cease to amaze me.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “What is that supposed to mean?”
I leaned forward then, getting into her space.
“It amazes me,” I said, “that you stayed with a man that would have no problem hurting a woman the way your husband did. He beat the shit out of her. Was in the process of raping her when I came along. Why would you want to have a family with a man like that? What if he did that to your kid?”