Page 49 of Fastlander Fealty

“You teach people how to sign their names?”

“Yeah, but in a professional setting. Here, let me show you.” She pulled a pen from her purse and drew a careful signature onto a napkin. Sexynuts Owen.

He pulled it toward him and laughed. “Okay, this is actually really good.”

She shrugged and grinned at the compliment. “I have a lot of years of experience. I make my clients and entire video teaching them how to do their custom signature, and put together sheets of practice signatures for them to trace until they get used to the movement.”

“Okay, so Rook traced you through your bank last time.”

“Yep. I already pulled all my cash out of my accounts, and I can set up a meeting soon to close the accounts completely so he can’t track my movements or when I use a card connected to them, and then I will open new accounts with a new bank, and screen customers.”

“Smart. Rook will still target your company though, or have someone else do it.”

“Oh he absolutely will, which is why I set up a sister company secretly months ago.”

“Bait and switch move.” Owen nodded. “Impressive.”

“I’ve been building my clients and marketing over there, but still running my other website. Rook has no idea I have the sister company. I was careful to keep it a secret.”

“So you’ve known you were going to run again.”

“Not really. I just wanted to feel not as…”

“Trapped?”

“Yeah. I felt stronger if I at least had a pathway out.”

“Where did you live the last time you escaped?”

“Denver,” she murmured. “I got a little studio apartment in the city, and travelled out to the woods to Change when I needed to. I was terrified and paranoid, but after a few months I felt…happiness. I even met a couple of friends who were nice and took me out for coffee sometimes.”

“Rook threatened them. Scared them and they wanted nothing to do with contacting me again after he brought me back to the Pride. I miss them, but mostly I missed who I was around them. I don’t blame them for getting scared off friendship with me,” she admitted. “Rook can be terrifying. I always felt bad that they went through a threat like that because of me. They were really nice ladies.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that though. Rook being a controlling asshole is on him and him alone. You were just trying to move forward.”

“I’ve noticed over time that Rook has to alienate me to maintain control. I didn’t realize that was happening at first because it was this subtle thing, but he needed me separated from my mom and Jaren early on. And then my friends one by one until I had nothing left but him and the Pride.”

The server came over as she finished that admission, and they ordered a huge pizza to share, as well as garlic knot bread with marinara dipping sauce and mozzarella sticks for an appetizer.

“You’re life has been hard,” Owen said as soon as she left, “but it doesn’t always have to be like that.”

She shrugged and took a long sip of her soda.

“You don’t believe me?”

“I think some people are born for suffering, and some people are born for an easier life. I used to be angry that my life wasn’t easier, but I couldn’t do that forever. At some point, I had to accept it.”

“But you didn’t really accept it,” Owen told her. “If you had, you would be headed back to Rook right now, or trying to manipulate your way back into the Fastlanders to finish the job for him. You’re running toward a better life instead. Sink or swim, you are doing it, Silver. Do you realize how tough you are?” He leaned forward on his elbows and lowered his voice, blue eyes boring into hers. “Do you really understand what you are?”

Confused, she shook her head.

“I can feel how strong you are. I can feel it. You are resilient woman. A fighter.”

“Fighters don’t get sucked into cult Prides.”

“I didn’t say you aren’t vulnerable. You’re a shifter, Silver. There is good and bad and weak and strong in you. You make mistakes sometimes, and you triumph sometimes, and that’s what life is about. It’s not being perfect, or making every right decision, or going through your existence living a beige life where you do everything just right. It’s up and down. It’s a roller coaster. You’re riding it. Fuck, I’ve known you for just a little while and I want to be climbing into the roller coaster seat beside you. You just have something in you that draws people to you, and unfortunately you attracted Rook. I can understand how an obsessive fuck like him doesn’t want lose you, how he wants to use you. You’re strong. Stronger than him.”

“Oh, not me,” she said, dipping her gaze to the candle that flickered by the parmesan shaker on the left side of the table. “His lion is a titan.”

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