Page 74 of Toxic

Billie

Iwas in so much trouble. It’d been two days since Toxic left, without a word, and I missed him. I actually missed him. I wasn’t even pissed about the fact that he’d left without a word. Not anymore. I just wanted to see him. And it had only been two days.

I’d been able to keep myself confined to my room before he left because I knew he was there. I’d been shocked when I woke up the other morning and he was gone. Well, the shocking part had been the man sitting at my table drinking coffee like he had not a care in the world.

He’d smiled my way as his eyes raked over me. The grin hadn’t stayed long when I’d reached under my side table in the hallway and pulled out the revolver hidden under it. He’d froze and eyed me with respect after that.

He was the one who’d told me that Toxic had to go out of town and that he and Isla would be ‘watching over me’.

I didn’t need babysitters. Huffing out a breath, I loaded up another fifty-pound bag of chicken feed into the back of my truck. Isla was right there with me, loading bags. I was surprised she wasn’t complaining. It was the second week of September now, but it was still hot as hell out here. That was Tucson for you, there were very few months of cooler weather.

I’d come to like this woman even more over the last couple days. She was strong and just pitched in where I needed help. I always admired a good work ethic and it was clear she had one. Not to mention she managed to make me laugh more often than not.

Warrant had slipped right into Toxic’s role of taking care of the animals and fixing things around the house. He hadn’t looked even a bit sheepish when the shipment of metal came in yesterday and he told me that Toxic had bought it to redo my house’s roof. It was as though that was a completely normal thing for a man to do. It wasn’t. Men didn’t buy women roofs. Or repaint their barns. Or repair their tractors. At least, most men didn’t. Turned out that was exactly what Toxic did.

So, here I was, sweating my boobs off in the Arizona sun instead of yelling at him for spending way too much money on me and for leaving me. Warrant was nice enough, but he wasn’t Toxic. Sure, he was gorgeous, which one of these men wasn’t? And he was easy going enough. But there was a difference. I didn’t know what it was yet, but I was irritated that Toxic was gone and he was here.

I wrote it off as it was better to have the devil I now knew invading my life than some new one. Deep down, I knew the truth. I was just lying to myself. I was worried. Isla told me that Toxic had gone to confront Brently.

Sighing, I shut the tailgate now that we were done and smiled at the kid who worked at the feed store. “Thanks. Just put it on my tab. I’ll settle up at the end of the month.”

They knew me here. Knew I was good for the money, so he just waved and headed back inside the store. We didn’t have that many chickens. I kept them around mostly for the eggs and because I liked them, same with the other fowl we had, so I didn’t need to buy the feed in bulk the same way I did for the cattle. So I just came once a month and bought enough to get me through thirty days at a time. It got me off the ranch and forced some contact with humans.

“You ready?” I asked Isla. Warrant was back at the ranch, making sure no one bothered my animals while we were in town.

“Sure,” she said, getting into the truck. She eyed me as I pulled out onto the road. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” I replied. I’d finished all my bookkeeping. Which meant I was free to catch up on everything else I’d been neglecting. Gramps and his brother were doing great. They were having a good time together. Everything was great. Except the fact that the infuriating biker who’d shoved his way into my life had up and left without a word. Why was it bothering me so badly?

“You’ve been quiet,” Isla commented.

“How do you know I’m not always like that?” I asked with a smile.

“Don’t seem like the type,” she replied with a shrug. “Not this quiet anyway. Something bothering you?” There was a grin on her face.

I rolled my eyes. “No.”

“Really?” she teased. “Because it seems to me like you’re upset that Toxic is gone.”

“Nope.”

“Have you changed your mind about sleeping with him?”

I gasped and glared over at her. “No. Besides, how can I do that when he’s not here anyway?”

Her smile took on a satisfied look. “Knew it.”

I frowned, confused. “Knew what?”

“You’re upset that he’s gone.”

“That- What?” I asked. “How are you getting that from what I said?” Before she could answer, the wheel jerked in my hands. Gripping it tight, I swore and took the exit off I-10 for a rest stop. I was grateful it was there so that I wouldn’t have to change a damn tire on the side of the road.

I’d had enough flat tires to know exactly why the steering wheel was fighting me like this. “Flat,” I told her when she arched a brow in my direction.

“Great,” she muttered.

I pulled into an open spot. There were a lot of people parked all around us. She hopped out of my truck, eyes scanning each person suspiciously. It was as though she thought they caused the flat tire just to get me out in the open. I shook my head at her paranoia.

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