Page 9 of Unleashed

He steps toward me, like he plans to follow. “Don’t you think we should talk about this?”

“Why?” I open the door, breathing out a sigh of relief when there are no judgmental eyeballs on the other side waiting for my walk of shame. “It was just sex.”

“So you’re just going to come to work Monday and act like nothing happened?” Trevor sounds shocked. Like he can’t imagine for a second that’s possible.

Joke’s on him. Because that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

“Yup.” I stride through Brooke and Toby’s bedroom, hurrying out into the hall without looking back. I don’t have time for second thoughts or second glances. I’m running late. The sitter could only stay until seven, and it’s almost six thirty.

After getting my purse and swiping another piece of cake for the ride home, I jump into the sedan I’m trading in tomorrow and aim for home.

I pull into the trailer park where I rent a single-wide with three minutes to spare. Lauren—the cute high school girl Zara likely loves more than she loves me—is already putting on her shoes when I walk in the door. I drop my bags on the tiny table situated in the eating area across from our galley kitchen. “Everything go okay?”

“Everything was awesome.” Lauren jumps up, looking every bit the cheerleader she is with a wide smile and perky tone. “I just love your sister. She’s one of my favorite people.”

“That’s because she doesn’t give you the shit she gives me.” I go to the fridge and pull out a diet soda. “Which is probably good. If she did, you would never babysit for me again.”

Lauren gives me a dimpled smile. “I will always babysit for you.” She bounces toward the door, pausing before stepping out onto the porch. “Oh. Some guy came to the door looking for a woman named Janine. I told him she didn’t live here, but he didn’t look like he believed me.”

Any residual dopamine still coursing through my veins evaporates. “Did he leave his name?”

Lauren shakes her head, cute little nose wrinkling. “No, but he was gross.”

I’m sure he was. Gross and sketchy and probably strung out.

Those are the only kind of people who come looking for my mother.

3

Trevor

“We need to give every employee a bonus this year.” Toby scrubs one hand over his face. He looks exhausted. Probably because he spent the remainder of the weekend fucking his new wife.

And good for him. Seriously.

I’m not quite as bitter as I normally would be about everyone getting laid but me. Well, everyone but me and Walker.

Except, now it’s just Walker in a monogamous relationship with the palm of his hand.

“We already give all of our employees a bonus every year.” I hold up my pointer and middle finger. “Two bonuses, actually.”

I agree they’re well-deserved, and have zero problem passing them out. But adding a third is a touch too far. I’m all for being generous, but we still have to be reasonable. Hundreds of people count on us running this business in a way that will make it possible for us to continue employing them indefinitely. It’s important to keep our spending in check so we stay in the black.

Especially considering it’s been nearly a year since the first Dead Dan attempted to blow up our servers, and we still don’t know the reason behind his attack. The same way we don’t know why Dead Dan number two wrecked into Toby and Walker, or who was blackmailing Ray into betraying our trust.

It’s fucking maddening. Has me on edge and hanging by a thread. I’m not a laid-back person to start with, and all the unknowns have my fuse shorter than Tucker’s attention span. I’m not sleeping well. Wouldn’t eat if it wasn’t for Ruth. If we don’t figure this shit out soon, I might peel my fucking skin off.

“Are you concerned employees are thinking of leaving?” Titus asks. “Because that could change things.”

“Not yet, but at some point they’re going to start coming to me for answers.” Toby blows out a frustrated sigh. “And I’ve got nothing.”

I hold back a scoff. Toby is as far from having nothing as it gets. He has a wife. Somebody to come home to. To love. Someone to keep his life from feeling like a fucking echo chamber of isolation and misery.

I thought by now I’d be okay with the decisions I made based on the choices I had, but the bitterness lingers. Probably a good indication I made the right call. If I can’t even make time for someone, being an asshole to them on top of it sure wouldn’t fucking help things.

“Unfortunately, Heidi thinks that when they started cracking down on the guys in Nashville, they tightened their ranks. Sealed off any leaks, making it hard as hell for us to figure out who was targeting us using the same group of hired hands.” Titus leans back in his seat. “As much as I hate to say it, we might just have to wait for something else to happen.”

“Maybe it doesn’t.” Tucker—ever the optimist—shrugs. “Maybe they figured out getting through our security wasn’t going to be as easy as they expected, and decided it wasn’t worth the effort.”