Rather than going home, she took the freeway up into the mountains, pulling over at one of the overlooks and watching the city move beneath her. She wasn’t far from the view she and Ryan would have shared if they had gone all the way up the mountain the night their clothes were taken, but you could only reach that one by foot. She considered doing it for a moment, but decided she didn’t really have time if she was going to get back and get ready for a night out.
Her phone rang and she looked at it. It was Ryan. She wasn’t ready to talk to him yet, so she let it go to voice-mail. Instead, she just sat out on the hood of her car, looking at the view and trying to clear her head. She wanted him, wanted to be with him, but she didn’t want to feel like she was owned. She needed to keep her own identity and that is what she should have told him instead of losing her cool and kicking him out.
He called again, but she still didn’t answer. As much as she wanted to make things right with him, she wasn’t ready yet. She didn’t know what to say and didn’t trust herself not to get the words all tangled up. She’d asked for time and he’d given it to her. There was no reason to rush this. She’d take the weekend to sort out her head and then talk to him. She knew that was what was best, but already her heart ached.
As the sun began to slip downward, she decided to head back home, feeling a little calmer. She called Sasha as she sat down in the car.
“I forgot to ask where we are going? The Monkey Cage?”
That was their usual place, but every once in a while they changed it up. She just didn’t want to turn up at the wrong club and look like an idiot.
“Yep. That’s where we’ll be, girl. See you at seven then?”
“I’ll be there.”
“See you in a while.”
“See you.”
Lucy started the car and pulled away from the overlook, nearly clipping a car passing by. They sat down on their horn and she slammed on the brakes.
“Get your head out of your ass, Lucy,” she said aloud, taking another look down the road before pulling any further out this time.
Her heart thudded against her chest, her inattention to the road undoing every bit of tranquility she had managed to achieve while sitting out in the open air with her thoughts. She was going to need a drink or few just to calm back down. Her phone rang several times on her way home, but she didn’t attempt to answer. She’d already had one near miss for the evening and wasn’t going to risk even looking to see who was calling. She’d call whoever it was back when she got home - unless it was Ryan. She still wasn’t quite up to that yet.
Her car flashed on empty just as she pulled off the freeway, so she stopped at the convenience store to fill it up before going home. She grabbed a sandwich combo from their deli while she was there. It was exactly haute cuisine, but she needed something in her stomach if she was going to drink and couldn’t remember if she had anything quick at home other than the leftover lasagna from last night, which didn’t sound like something she wanted to eat before a night out clubbing.
She ate it on the way home, picking up the containers from her meal and throwing them in the plastic bag they had come in. With the bag and her phone in one hand, she made her way to the front door and raised her keys to unlock the door. She was about to insert it when she heard footsteps behind her, they were quick and heavy, but she didn’t even get fully turned around before a large hand covered her mouth and something sharp stabbed into her neck.
She only felt a moment of panic before everything went black.CHAPTER TWELVERyan
Ryan was miserable. He went over and over the conversation with Lucy in his mind and couldn’t figure out what he had done wrong. He finally tried to put herself in her place, a woman who wanted to be her own person and not be owned by some Alpha. He realized he had done the one thing she hated most. He had tried to take care of her instead of trusting her to take care of herself.
That’s when he had started calling her, hoping she would eventually give in and answer. After a half dozen calls, he finally realized he was probably only making things worse. He decided to give her the day and let her cool down. Perhaps by tomorrow she would feel more like talking to him. He tried to focus on something else instead, making the drive home to see his parents.