Page 34 of Riding Hard

“The only bill I have is my cell phone, but I’m going to dump it.”

I don’t know for sure, but I’m pretty sure that’s how Victor has been tracking me. I didn’t think about it. My bills are all sent electronically, and I pay them that way. There’s never been mail delivered to any of my physical addresses.

All I can think is that he’s got a tracking app or something on either my car or my phone. The car is gone, and now it’s time for the phone. I don’t want Victor to find me, ever. I know he will, though.

He’s like a bad case of eczema.

He never truly goes away.

Just when I think that I’ve gotten rid of him, he comes right back to ruin my life. Over and over. I want to be done with it, and I want him gone. I could never imagine stalking someone the way he has done me. He doesn’t love me, he doesn’t miss me, he doesn’t even like me.

This is only about control and nothing else.

“If you want me to go with you to check this place out, I don’t mind,” Alex states.

“We’ll all go. Maybe we can get in today.”

Today is their only day off each week, aside from Sunday. I don’t understand why they would want to do this with me. I open my mouth to say as much, but Elodie snatches the phone off the table and has it up to her ear.

“I guess it would be pointless to say that you don’t have to do that,” I murmur.

Alex laughs softly, then I feel his fingers curl around my wrist. He squeezes once before releasing it. His gaze focuses on mine, his eyes searching my own. He leans forward slightly before he speaks.

“It would be pointless. We’re your friends now, babe. We’re going to help you out, and fuck that sonofabitch for what he’s done to you, but thank fuck you found your way here.”

Tears fill my eyes. I try to blink them away, but I fail, and they end up sliding down my cheeks.

“Okay, we can go in an hour to look at the place,” Elodie announces as she slips the phone back into Alex’s hand.

I don’t have the heart to tell them that while I can pay for the first and last month’s rent—and, working full time, I can afford this apartment—I won’t be able to save a whole bunch of money every month. I’m just hoping I won’t need to anymore.

What’s really bothering me is the fact that I’ll have this place but nothing to even sleep on. I don’t tell them that, though. Beds and furniture? I can worry about later. A place of my own—that’s what I should be focusing on.

I stand, throwing my trash away, and start to walk back to the table when something catches the corner of my eye. I turn my head, and my heart races as my gaze scans the sidewalk.

“You good?” Alex calls out as he steps up beside me.

Nodding, I slide my tongue across my bottom lip, wetting it as I continue to watch the people moving around. I don’t see him anywhere. I thought I did. I thought he was standing at the window, watching me.

“Just trying to ignore the ghost of my past,” I mutter. “And my paranoia.”

“Loot won’t let anything happen to you. You’re safe here,” he says.

I almost laugh because I can’t imagine that I could or would ever be safe. No matter how good that man makes me feel, I can’t trust that false sense of safety, even if I really want to. I need to stay on guard at all times.

“Why do you call him Loot? That’s not what he told me to call him,” I change the subject.

Alex’s eyes dance as he searches my gaze with his own. “He gave you his real name?”

I shrug a shoulder, unsure of what that means, but the way Alex asks, I can’t help but wonder if it’s a big deal. It feels like it might be. I honestly don’t even know if Slade is his real name. It doesn’t sound real, but what the hell do I know?

“He told me to call him Slade.”

“Slade,” Alex hums. “That’s hot, for sure. It’s a big deal he gave you his actual name.”

“It is?” I ask

He nods a couple of times, then clears his throat. “Fucking massively huge.”