Page 39 of Elijah’s Whim

Goddammit. I should’ve never brought Shawna to my house that first night. She was a wild fuck, no doubt about it, and I was feeling particularly sorry for myself that night and wasn’t thinking clearly after too much tequila.

The things I wanted to do to her were not permitted at LuLu’s, so she’d suggested we meet somewhere else, and like a dumb, horny guy, I’d brought her back to my house. Now the woman was acting like a love-sick stalker, and if she didn’t heed my warning, I’d be calling my attorney about filing a restraining order.

I’m not in town. Call

you when I return.

Carmen, my assistant, looked up from his monitor when I strode past him. “Good morning, Mr. Banks. How’s your day so far, boss?”

“Well, until about three minutes ago, I would’ve said pretty damn good.”

“And now?” the young man prompted.

“Now I’m just pissed,” I growled.

“Is there something I can help with?”

“I don’t think so. I got myself into this mess. I need to get myself out. Can you please ensure a car is waiting downstairs in ten or fifteen minutes? Let me know when it’s here.”

“You got it.”

When I got behind my closed office door, I pulled out my phone to see if Hannah had responded, only to find another message from Shawna.

Perfect. That gives me some

alone time with your new friend.

Don’t hurry home.

Deciding not to message Shawna back, I dialed Grant directly from my desk to his. Hopefully he was already seated by his phone.

“Damn, you’re kind of clingy today, even for you. What’s going on, pretty boy?” Twombley laughed into the receiver.

“Dude. Fucking Shawna has lost her damn mind,” I growled.

My friend groaned on the other end of the call. “Shit. Do I want to know?”

“Probably not, but I need to talk to someone about this or I’m going to storm out of here and go hurt that woman. And probably not in the way she had in mind. How didn’t we see these tendencies in her before?”

“Hey, speak for yourself, dude. But again, what did she do?” Grant asked a little more impatiently.

“I got a text from her saying she was coming over tonight. I told her no, that I wasn’t in town, and her follow-up text was something like ‘oh good, that gives me more time with your new friend’ or some shit like that.”

“Elijah, breathe for a minute, brother. You’re not using your head. The women are at the kitchen in Inglewood and will be for a few more hours. Shawna doesn’t know where that is, right? She was just trying to get you riled up.”

“Fuck me, you’re right.” I raked my fingers through my already messy hair. “You’re totally right. Well, it worked. I can’t even think straight.”

“Why don’t you meet her somewhere public and explain it to her—very rationally, of course.”

“Of course,” I sarcastically injected into his plan.

“Do you want my help or not? Because I have about twelve other things I need to do right now, but I picked up your phone call, stalker bait.”

“Don’t even joke about that. Christ, Hannah’s already skittish enough.”

“Okay, we are definitely revisiting that. I am, after all, the resident expert on skittish females.”

“Ahh, let’s not and say we did. How’s that?” I offered instead.