Page 5 of Ensnared
His eyes seemed to follow her movements, stopping for just a second on her cleavage before traveling back up to her face. Normally, something like that would have triggered her defenses but there was something different about the way he looked at her. There was no heat or lust in his penetrating eyes. Everything about him seemed to be carefully in control.
"You're welcome," he said in his thick accent.
Nodding awkwardly, she turned and headed back to the staff hallway. Her feet were killing her and all she wanted to do was get back home and go to sleep.
By the time she pulled into the driveway, she was practically a zombie. Dressed in a pair of leggings and oversized shirt, she let herself in through the back door and stopped at the sight of the open fridge.
"Lola," she growled under her breath.
God, give her strength. If it wasn’t her grandmother leaving the fridge open or secretly turning down the AC at night it was her grandfather leaving the back door ajar in the middle of a blistering summer causing the AC to run even more. Between the two of them and their forgetfulness, they were single-handedly running up the electricity bill to triple digits.
Eve resisted slamming the fridge shut and opted to close it softly.
"My luck," she muttered, "the dang thing would just break off and then there would be another bill we couldn't pay."
It was late and she knew her grandparents were asleep already. Walking down the hall to her room, she passed by a closed bedroom door on her right and her stomach knotted in anger.
"Not yet," she commanded herself. Not until she was safely inside her room and lying on her bed would she give in to the constant thoughts ready to drag her down.
Refusing to look at her brother's bedroom door, she kept her eyes straight ahead and marched into her room. As soon as she entered through the doorway a warm presence caressed her leg. Looking down, Eve smiled at the cute face of her British Shorthair Munchkin cat.
"Hi Mochi," she cooed at the cat.
Eve shucked off most of her clothes onto the floor, leaving only her underwear. The stubby-legged cat meowed back at her and watched her as she grabbed her phone. Eve turned, picked up the cat, and let herself fall back onto the bed, landing with a slight bounce.
She held up her phone and stared at it as Mochi nuzzled her neck. Zero notifications. No missed calls or texts from the man that ruined her life and none from her brother, Ricky.
Admittedly the lack of calls from her brother hurt far worse. How long had it been since she heard from him? Nearly a month?
Going to her email, she checked her inbox and spam filter. None there either. The last message she had from him was over three weeks ago saying that the new job he had was going well and he would call her soon.
The night before he left, she had stood in his doorway and watched him as he packed his duffel bag.
"So, since you won't tell me where you're going..." she began, the skepticism clear in her voice. She was beyond confused about this whole thing. The more she thought about it, the more it angered her.
Ricky paused at his dresser drawer and turned to give her an impatient look. "I told you I can't, okay? I'm going to be working for a very discreet company and I'll be back in a few weeks."
"But-"
Ricky raised a hand to stop her. "Hey, I didn't question you when you moved in with that jackass, did I?"
Eve reeled back at that. It had been a few months since she reluctantly returned to her grandparents' house after being kicked out of her ex's place. It was something she and Ricky only really spoke about a couple of times. He knew she was hurting and he had always politely steered away from the subject.
Ricky closed his eyes briefly. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"
Eve shook her head. "Whatever. You're going and you'll be back in a few weeks, right?"
"Yeah." Coming over to her, Ricky grasped her by the shoulders and smiled at her. "I promise things will be better. I'll have more money and we can finally take care of some of the issues around here."
Eve couldn't help but roll her eyes and smile at that. There were so very many issues in this old house.
"And maybe I'll have enough left over so we can talk about paying off some of your student loans and get you into a master's program."
A tear fell down her face as she stared back at her phone. She should've asked so many more questions that night. She should have demanded he tell her where he was going. Now she had no answers whatsoever. No idea where he was or if he was all right and had no clue when he was coming back. Her grandfather was the only one in the house who was optimistic. While she and her grandmother traded worried looks, he was convinced that Ricky was doing fine and that they should have faith and be patient.
But just how much more patient was that toad expecting her to be?! Rolling over onto her stomach, she typed another furious text to him, one of probably a hundred since a week ago when her worry mutated into anger.
Eve:I'm being for real, please text me back. I'm seriously contemplating going to the police and reporting you as a missing person.
