Page 68 of Resisting Temptation

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Of all the places I could have been hit off the road, not fucking here. Not where he attacked me. Picking up my pace, I hug my bag to my chest, completely freaked out as I almost run back toward town.

A car passes me, speeding toward town, then does a one-eighty and comes right back toward me. “Paisley, what the hell?” a familiar, deep male voice calls from the car as he pulls up by my side. He’s out of the car faster than I know who it is standing right in front of me. “What the hell happened to you?” Noah pulls me toward him, hugging me into his chest, and I let him. I’m so terrified, I let Noah hug me as I cry into his chest. Thank God he was only minutes behind me; I was about one second away from an all-out panic attack.

Chapter 37

Noah

Paisley bawls in my arms, and I hold her as close as I can. She’s frightened and trembling all over. Looking her over, I notice her hand is also bleeding. When I saw her van back up the road, I thought the worst. But she’s alive. She’s okay. Just shaken up. “What happened to your van?” I whisper, trying to make sense of all this.

“Someone hit me,” she mumbles through her tears.

“Hit you? Like from behind?”

She pulls back slightly, looking dazed. I brush her hair out of her eyes. “I’m not really sure. I was just driving home thinking about… I was just driving, and then out of nowhere I felt a bump, and while I was trying to get the van under control, they hit me again, forcing me down the ditch. I couldn’t stop.” Her bottom lip trembles, then she bursts into tears again.

“Hey, baby, don’t cry, I’ve got you. You’re safe with me.” I rub her back, glancing back up the road, trying to work out what happened. I left Brody’s right after her and couldn’t have been more than five minutes behind. I thought I was being careful, making sure she got home safe without her knowing I was trailing her, but I didn’t see the other car. Were they waiting for her? If she was struck twice, it doesn't seem like a typical hit-and-run incident. It seems deliberate. “Come on, you can wait in my car for the police to arrive,” I say, wanting to get her out of the cold.

“No, I just want to go home, Noah.” Her eyes plead with me to just take her home. She looks so fragile that it’s all I want to do. Take her home and look after her, take away all of her fear. But things are getting serious, and we can’t let whoever did this to her get away with it.

“Baby, this wasn’t just some accident. You know we have to call the cops.” I take her hand and lead her back to my car, getting her settled in the passenger side as I call in the accident. “That was Detective McAllister. They won’t be too long,” I tell her.

“Why would someone hit my van, Noah?” she whispers, her worried eyes meeting mine.

“I don’t know, but we will find out who it was, and they will pay for doing this to you.” A sick feeling washes over me as I recall the threat Mr. Giorgio gave me on Friday night. Margo said she fixed this, that he was going to back off, but something tells me he’s involved. Trying to teach me a lesson for ignoring his intimidation techniques.

“Baby, I know you’re not going to want to hear this. But I think someone might have targeted you to get to me.”

She looks up at me, a fresh wave of fear in her eyes, and I feel terrible.

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to worry you, and I thought I had it under control, but at the dinner, Margo introduced me to a business owner. He threatened me, said it was in my best interests to break it off with you. Something about us not wanting to be associated with the Whittakers.”

“What the hell, Noah!”

“I know how bad it looks now, and I’m so sorry. I talked to Margo about him, she said she had it handled, that he was backing down.”

“And you believed her? Can you even trust her?” she snaps angrily, tears still rolling down her cheeks.

I glance her over, knowing now’s not the best time to tell her this, but I want to be completely transparent. “After last night, I’m not so sure.”

Her eyes go wide. “What did she do, Noah?”

I watch her, wondering how I tell her this. If the situation was reversed, I would be furious. “After you left, she arrived at my door. Told me she fixed the problem with Giorgio. But she wasn’t just there to tell me that. She only had on a coat, and she showed me the skimpy lingerie that was underneath and offered to give me some stress relief.”

Paisley’s eyes blazed with a furious, untamed fire. “Are you kidding me? I’m going to kill the bitch.”

“I didn’t do anything, Paisley,” I say quickly so she knows I’m not that guy. I would never do that to her.

“Well, of course you didn’t. But how dare she think this is okay. You have to fire her.”

“I think the problem might be bigger than just firing her.” I spot the police car pull past and park just infront of me. “Maybe leave all that out when you’re telling the detective. The fewer people who know about the threat the better.”

Detective McAllister arrives. The flashlight beam cuts through the darkness, illuminating Paisley’s flower van sitting in the ditch, her back bumper destroyed. “Is everyone okay?” he calls to us.

“Just a bit rattled,” Paisley says, her voice still shaky, but now I think it’s with anger aimed at Margo.

“Would you mind sharing the details of what happened?” he asks, his voice kind but serious.

While Paisley recalls the events of the crash, I slip out of my car and make a call to Parker. “Someone hit her car off the road,” I say, keeping my voice low.

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