Page 15 of Bewitching the Dragon
Apartment shopping was the pits.
Everything was too expensive, too small, too inconvenient, too… There was always something.
She’d had it easy for her entire adult life. Pacey could be making a small fortune every month if she rented the guesthouse for what it was worth instead of letting Becca stay there for free. Even when Petra had been renting it, Pacey hadn’t charged her anywhere close to fair market value.
Her aunt was the definition of a bleeding heart, so it would seem.
She had also, in Becca’s opinion, overreacted when Becca had informed her aunt that she was getting her own place soon. For God’s sake, she’d acted like Becca’s moving out was going to put her in imminent danger.
To be honest, now that she’d started the process, maybe Pacey knew what she was talking about. Becca’s current weekly paycheck and her own expectations certainly couldn’t afford the sort of places she wanted to live.
Sighing, she stepped into a small deli to grab a late lunch. She’d visited six potential new living spaces since ten this morning, and each had seemed worse than the one before. It was possible, however, that her mounting dislike was a direct result of an empty stomach. Maybe she’d try again after stuffing her face and her opinions wouldn’t be quite so negative.
Accepting her muffuletta and Coke from the kid behind the counter, she headed over to a two-top near the window and ate while scrolling through more living-space prospects on her phone. She was down to two bites left and nothing but ice in her cup when she realized someone was watching her.
Awareness buzzed along the skin on her arm—not that exciting, electric current she felt whenever Rahu touched her but something different. This felt…negative. Wrong, somehow.
She glanced up and locked gazes with a guy sitting at a nearby table. He was with his buddies, three of them in total, and they were all staring at her.
Theoretically, she could decide to feel flattered. Her thick, blonde hair and brown skin tone had attracted plenty of attention throughout her life. She knew she was pretty, but she wasn’t overconfident. Honestly, the attention made her wary most of the time. Like, were guys checking her out simply because she was unique?
Or, in this case, because they knew her? In that case, she most certainly wasn’t flattered.
Shit.
A year ago, she was babysitting Petra’s infant daughter and ordered pizza. Two guys had knocked on the door.
Two of the three who were currently staring at her.
In retrospect, they hadn’t looked like pizza delivery guys. For one thing, there had been two of them. And neither of them had nametags, and, like now, their expressions weren’t particularly welcoming.
Pretty amazing she still loved ham and pineapple, to be honest.
Yeah, she let them into the house. And then, while one of them was video-recording the scene with his phone, the other grabbed her and placed something over her mouth and nose, and that was pretty much all Becca recalled until she woke up in her bedroom in Pacey’s house with a raging headache and no idea who those guys were or why they’d knocked her unconscious.
She eventually learned that they’d kidnapped Sadie, but she hadn’t ever figured out why, and she’d never understood why Pacey had insisted she not file a police report.
Especially now that it looked like those two guys hadn’t forgotten the incident either, and might possibly want a replay, sans the baby kidnapping.
One of them shifted in his seat. They all had dark hair and menacing looks, and, seriously, these guys were massive. Like football linebacker or pro wrestler big.
Not her type. Not that she really had a type until recently. But since meeting Rahu, for some reason, her type could be narrowed down to tall, slim, good looking, charming in a silly, self-deprecating sort of way, and could hold his own in a bar fight with four other guys.
She really wished Rahu were here right now, truth be told.
Wait a minute. She wasn’t one of those girls. She didn’t need to be rescued. For one thing, they were in a public place, so even if these guys watching her had less than pure intentions, what the hell were they going to do in a crowded deli on a Sunday afternoon?
She stood and carried her trash to the nearest bin, dumping it and placing the tray on top. Out of her peripheral vision, she noted the three big guys stood too.
Great. Now what? She’d be more vulnerable out on the sidewalk. The first time she walked past an alley, they could push her into it and then what the hell would she do?
Or maybe she was being overdramatic, strung out, and suspicious. She’d never felt vulnerable like this before, but then again, she’d never had that weird, bug-crawling-on-her-skin sensation before either. Maybe she’d just been lucky in life and had never been in a situation where she might possibly be in danger.
She loitered near the trash bin for a few minutes, hoping those guys would leave, but they seemed as inclined as her to hang around. Yep, something was definitely up. And considering none of them was approaching her to hit on her, she was reasonably confident whatever they wanted from her was not a good thing.
She spotted a woman stepping out of the restroom and hurried over to take her place in the small, windowless, single-stall room. Locking the door, she leaned against it and pulled her phone out of her purse.
Now, who should she call for help?
