Page 42 of Scar

Logically, Scar knew that the two were not connected. His team hadn’t been ambushedbecauseScar had taken a nap. His team had been on the road for hours and Scar had been awake planning with their Commander for nearly twenty-six hours before they’d bugged out. It was entirely reasonable that he could get some shuteye in the MV.

The not-so-logical part of his brain would not accept that rationalization though, which was the root cause of his insomnia. He knew this. He’d been living it for the past decade, only catching some shuteye when he felt completely safe, and even then, only for several minutes at a time.

Looking at Tally’s screen on her phone, it was nearly three in the morning. Her audiobook had been playing for almost three hours straight. He’d been asleep for two of those hours.

Scar could not recall if Tally had fallen asleep before or after him. If it was before… He looked over at her shadowed sleeping form. She was Alpha’sdaughter. He should not feel safe around her. But he’d eaten her food, drank her water, and now had fallen asleep beside her.

Once more, logic was leading him down a path that Scar could not accept. Because heshouldn’tfeel safe around Alpha’s daughter, and yet, apparently, he did.

* * *

[WiseWave620: I asked Angel to start training me. I know I was in the Navy, but unlike you guys, I did my time behind a desk. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t the best shot when I was at boot camp. Anyway, I couldn’t ask Ghost or Ranger. They’re great guys, but a bit intimidating, you know? And I haven’t been able to look Bulldog in the eyes since I asked about your will.]

* * *

Her mystery manwas no longer hiding. This made Tally happy, though it didn’t lessen the frustration of his silent presence any. Why wouldn’t he talk to her? She asked him a lot of questions and never received a single answer.

The most important question being: “What’s your name?”

Over the next two weeks, they fell into a routine of sorts. Simone, Tom, and Mark had all been by to see her, both at her restaurant and at her apartment. Simone had even pulled Tally aside to ask her if ‘her stalker’ was in the room with them. Tally had not been able to detect him at that specific time, yet he’d reappeared the moment they’d left out the front door.

“Are you ever going to tell me how the fuck you do that?” she demanded and, of course, got no answer.

Gordon Tremont stopped by her restaurant twice more. Once, he even took her up on her offer to eat lunch. Tally felt a great amount of satisfaction when her dining room was so full that her hostess, Chelsea, had to inform Mr. Tremont that there was a wait of over an hour to be seated.

It did not pass her notice that her mystery man disappeared after the first visit when Gordon Tremont decided an hour wait was not worth annoying her with his presence in her dining room.

However, the second time Gordon Tremont had shown up, her mystery man had. not only walked up behind Tally in the crowded restaurant, but also stayed with her afterwards. The fact that Gordon Tremont had nearly pissed his pants in fear at her mystery man’s appearance told Tally that she’d been right; the two were not acquainted, which meant that her mystery mandidwork for her father.

Tally had a basic idea of what her mystery man looked like, but the specifics about his featureswerea mystery. Like the shape of his nose, the set of his eyes, the curve of his ears… Was it wrong that she wanted more than anything to ask him if she could touch him so she would know? To run her fingertips over his face, to feel his breath on her skin, to bring her hands lower to his chest and the muscles she knew she’d find there…

Whoa, she needed to stop that train of thought in its tracks. Immediately. Full stop, Do Not Pass Go. She couldnotbe getting aroused by a man when she didn’t even know his fuckingname.

Nope, nope, nope. Not happening. Nope.

Roughly a week after Gordon Tremont’s last visit, a health inspector showed up for a surprise inspection due to an anonymous report of ‘unsanitary cooking conditions’. Thankfully, it was an inspector Tally knew and the walk-through was relatively painless. Thanks to her office now being organized, she even had all the paperwork he required ready to hand over without having to call Simone to find out where it was.

When a food blogger called to ask if she could come in to review Tally’s restaurant, Tally had been thrilled and agreed to the private interview. Tally thought the blogger was impressed and the interview went very well. Unfortunately, what was printed was not so nice. Her signature dish of Marry Me Chicken was called ‘bland’ and ‘unoriginal’ and her in-house bread was ‘stale’ and ‘tasted store bought’.

Tally wanted to cry. She knew not everyone would like her food, but to have such a low review about how The Blind Chef of Atlanta doesn’t live up to her hype…? Yeah, that hurt. That hurt a lot.

The day after the review was published, a retraction was posted, along with an apology to the Blind Chef of Atlanta. The new blog post went on to say that they’d been pressured to leave a bad review and they were ashamed of their lack of integrity. To say Tally was surprised by the rebuttal was an understatement. She was thrilled when she heard therealreview, which was phenomenal.

She was choosing to ignore the fact that her mystery man had disappeared nearly the entire afternoon after she’d cried while listening to the original review.

CHAPTER11

[WiseWave620: Scotty’s been asking us if we’ve found any lollipops around. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?]

* * *

Tally had scheduled the day off for Mark’s birthday party months ago. Only now, she was attending as his friend and not his girlfriend. To her uncomfortable surprise, none of his relatives knew this. Both Tally and Simone had words with Mark about him not informing his family of his change in relationship status. After the fifth or sixth time of an aunt, female cousin, or a grandmother asking Tally if there were any plans of a wedding in their future, Tally had decided to get out of there. She didn’t want to cause a stink on Mark’s birthday or at his party, but she also wasn’t going to go along with his lie.

Simone and Tom decided to leave early, too.

“I mean,” Tom tried to defend his friend as they walked out of the hotel where the party was being held, “he wasn’tlying. He just didn’t tell them you two had broken up. It wasn’t like he lied and said you were dating when you were just friends.”

Tally heard Simone roll her eyes. “Don’t try to defend the man. A lie of omission is still a lie.”

---