Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I didn’t know what to say. With my ripped dress tucked under my arm, it looked like I was coming from some sort of booty call at Andrew’s. Yet I couldn’t tell the truth, either, not with my attacker right in front of me.

“Yes,” was all I could manage to say.

“Here discussing the wedding planning?” Bob said, as though leading me in the direction he wanted the alibi

to go.

“Yes,” I said again. Andrew would know it wasn’t true if it got back to him, but he would probably think that I just didn’t want anyone to know that I was almost raped.

Iwa

“Well, that’s nice,” Lisa said, although she did not seem to fully believe the excuse. She eyed the dress tucked under my arm, then stared me in the face but didn’t say anything more.

I took a deep breath, trying to compose myself, and said, “I should get going. There’s a lot to do.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Bob said. To others, it would seem as though he were being polite and genuine, but I could see right through him. He was taunting me.

“1 will see both of you later,” I said.

“Yes, you will.”

Flustered, I charged to the Civic, threw my stuff in the back, and sat in the driver’s seat. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to collect myself, but the image of Bob’s smug face was seared into my brain. Bitter tears formed at the corners of my eyes.

I couldn’t let him win, especially not like this. He didn’t deserve it.

As much as I didn’t want to admit it, a part of me wanted to protect Lisa from him, too. She might not like me, but she didn’t deserve to have someone like Bob attached to her for the rest of her life–no one did.

He had to be stopped.

I glared at him out of my rearview mirror as I typed a text to him. I still knew his number, but since this was a new phone that Lily got me, he wouldn’t recognize the number. Even so, he would know exactly who the message was from.

It read, I will never let you go. If we’re going to hell, let’s go together. I have nothing to lose, what about you?

To be safe, I added, Bob, I guarantee you will lose everything you have now.

I hit “send” and tossed my phone in the passenger’s seat. Before he could fully read it, I was driving away, but I could see his reaction in the rearview mirror.

I saw him shouting what was certainly “Shit!” and throwing his phone at the ground. Then he glared at my car as I drove away.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to face the road.

War had been declared, and I wasn’t entirely sure that I was prepared for it.

Just because I wasn’t fully prepared didn’t mean that I regretted throwing down the gauntlet. Once Bob was out of my sight, I felt freer than I had these past three months since being released from jail–since being incarcerated, in fact.

At lunch that day, after Terri and the others had left for their break, I went to the employee lounge and called Noah, I filled him in on everything, though I just told him that Bob attacked me and didn’t go into any more detail than that.

“Are you okay?” he asked. The concern in his tone was endearing,

“Yeah, just some minor bruises and scratches.”

I didn’t tell him about the hit I took to my head because I knew that he would tell me to go to the hospital, and I wasn’t up

for dealing with that. I was certain by this point that I didn’t have a concussion, so I didn’t see any

point in it.

“You should call the police.”

“And tell them what? That the future son–in–law of the Alpha King attacked me? That I didn’t see him but I knew that it was him based on his smell?”

Noah didn’t reply.

“It would be my word against his, and we both know how that would turn out. That’s not to mention how it would affect Lily’s business.”

He sighed.

“You’re right. I’m just worried, that’s all. You’ve declared war on someone who’s essentially untouchable.

“I know. That’s why I need your help. We need to get him locked up, sooner rather than later.” There was a pause. For a moment, I was afraid that Noah might back out of the case.

“You can count on me,” he finally said. “I will find the evidence as soon as possible, and we will send Bob to prison.”

I let out a breath that I hadn’t realized I had been holding.

“Thank you, Noah. I knew I could rely on you.”

For a few days, everything seemed peaceful, I thought that I could carry on business as usual while waited for Noah to find the evidence, though I decided to never lock up the store alone again. Things seemed almost back to normal, even as I constantly looked over my shoulder waiting for another attack.

Then one evening, we had a couple in who was interested in using our services. The woman asked to see our selection of wedding dresses while her fiancé looked through some of the more technical aspects with Terri. I didn’t see the harm in it, so long as she was careful and didn’t touch the custom–made dresses.

After a while, I thought I would go check on her to make sure that she wasn’t messing with any of the dresses. Lost within a sea of white, I began to smell something familiar yet out of place. It was thickly sweet, appealing but suffocating.

I was about to identify it when the smell quickly changed into something I did recognize immediately: smoke. The woman came running by me, a panicked look on her face.

“Fire!” she screamed, shoving me aside so that she could get by. “Fire!”

My brain did not register at first that I should leave. Instead, I became focused on saving the dresses, on saving everything in the store. When I should have run away from the fire, I instead ran towards it, trying to pull dresses away from the dancing flames.

I felt the fire engulf one of my arms. I heard myself cry out in pain. Yet I could not get myself to react normally.

I was too focused on saving everything I had worked for these past few months, without even thinking properly as to how to save it. That’s when I felt an arm yank me away from the dresses and saw another pair of arms wrap a drenched towel around my burnt arm, extinguishing the flames.

Terri and another colleague pulled me out of the building and into the street. I could hear them berating me about how seriously I could have been injured, none of that mattered. All that mattered was stopping the fire before it consumed the entire store.

We didn’t have time to wait for the fire department. We had to act fast.

I instructed Terri to go back inside, get the fire extinguisher off the wall by the front door, and use it on the fire. I told our other colleague to find any water she could and use it to dowse out any flames that Terri couldn’t get. They looked at me like I was crazy, but they followed my commands.

We had the fire out just as the fire truck pulled up. The firemen did their rounds, declaring it an electrical fire from one of the dresses being set up too close to a faulty outlet. Something didn’t sit right with me about that verdict, and my mind kept drifting back to the thick, sweet smell I had picked up on just before the fire began.

If I could only figure out what it was, then I would know the true reason for the fire. Of course, I had my suspicions already; I just wouldn’t say them out loud…yet.

It could not be a coincidence that the bridal shop would set on fire so close to when I declared war on Bob. He had to have a hand in it. I just wasn’t sure how.

I pushed these thoughts aside as I returned to the shop to assess the damage. Seeing it, it took all of my self–control to not break down. An entire rack of wedding dresses had been destroyed, including some custom–made ones.

I panicked as I recognized the one on the very end of the rack.

“No, no, no.”

The color drained from my face. Lisa’s dress. It was ruined.