Page 63 of Outside The Wire

I hope you’re not planning on driving in this.

No, I’m not. I was planning to stay here for the night.

And just how do you plan on taking care of yourself if the power goes out?

Wow.Taking care of myself? Maybe it was the fact that I was extremely tired or that I really didn’t want a man telling me that I was incapable, but I got pissed.

I imagine I’ll take care of myself the way I have the previous adult years of my life.

He didn’t respondthat time, and that pissed me off even more. I was tired and angry with myself for being so caught up in work that I hadn’t noticed anything else. And what about Noelle? Had she made it home safe? I hadn’t even checked in with her. Was it too late to check on her now?

I chewed on my lip as I paced the kitchen, trying to think of what I should do. Damnit, I hated when I got myself in these kinds of situations. What I really wanted right now was a hug from Asher, but I wasn’t about to admit to him right now that I needed him, especially when it wasn’t feasible for him to actually get here.

I would not cry and fall apart like a sad sack woman. I could handle this. So what if there was a snowstorm raging outside? Did it really matter if I was all alone in this shop? I wasn’t some pathetic woman who couldn’t take care of herself. Besides, I had my cat.

Mr. Fluffington would keep me company. He purred as he rubbed up against my leg, then walked over to his bed, curled up in a ball, and went to sleep.

I snarled at him. “That’s not keeping me company.”

“Perhaps I can do that,” Asher’s deep voice said from behind me.

I gasped as I spun around, pressing a hand to my chest in surprise. “What the hell are you doing here?”

15

ASHER

Five fucking hoursof wondering where the hell she was, thinking she was dead on the side of the road or trapped in her car in the fucking snow. I was going out of my mind with worry until I got her fucking message, and by then, I had already pulled up to her shop and saw her SUV parked in her usual spot.

It took me a hot minute to cool the fuck down and not blow a gasket. What the hell was she thinking, staying here so long when there was a snowstorm raging outside? When I talked to Noelle hours ago, she said Holly was leaving right after her. So, imagine my surprise when I headed over to her house to find her and no one was home. Then the panic set in.

Another car accident.

Another woman dead.

Another fucking nightmare that I couldn’t contend with.

Yet, here she was. Safe and sound.

If she had just fucking texted me back, I would have known she was safe. As it was, the roads were shit, and it took me forever to get to her after getting stuck behind pile-ups and roadblocks. And the entire fucking time, I was going out of my mind.

I took a deep breath and opened the door, shutting it quickly to block the snow from following me inside. The wind was howling outside, making such a racket that it filled the house with an unsettling feeling.

After stomping my boots on the rug, I wandered through the house, peeking into the various rooms until I came to the kitchen where I saw Holly looking down at her cat.

“That’s not keeping me company.”

I shook my head, unable to stay mad at her when she was talking to a cat.

“Perhaps I can do that.”

My girl gasped, whirling around and glaring at me with daggers. It wasn’t quite the reception I was hoping for. “What the hell are you doing here?”

My toes were freezing, my hands were like icicles, and I had to piss from driving on the slickest roads for fucking hours to get here and make sure she was okay. I did not want her attitude right now.

“Call me crazy, but I wanted to make sure my girl was okay.”

Her jaw dropped, but then all the anger fled from her face as tears pricked her eyes. In an instant, she was running toward me, throwing herself at me and crying into my arms. I had no idea what elicited this kind of reaction, but all the anger I felt about her putting herself in danger by staying so fucking long fled in an instant.

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