Page 103 of Lilacs and Leather

A wave of her scent hits me, and I whimper at the strong taste of cloves and spices on my tongue. Her face is a cool mask, but I can feel her stress and worry as I breathe her in. She looks at me and gives me a little, sad smile that does nothing to reassure me.

Lucas merely nods, and Rhett crosses to the fridge, pulling the bottle from within. He starts to open a cupboard, but Alexandra just gestures at Rhett to hand her the whole thing. My jaw goes a little slack as she pulls the loosened cork out with her teeth and spits it in a perfect arch across to the sink before taking a long pull directly from the bottle.

“We have glasses, you know,” Lucas says mildly, kneading the dough ball in front of him.

Alexandra’s answer is a single, perfectly manicured middle finger in his direction as she drinks. When she finally comes up for air, she shudders and sighs.

“So what did he have to say,” she deadpans, not looking at me.

I swallow, and Mateo rubs my shoulder slightly in comfort. I let his warmth, the weight of his arms around me steady me.

“He’s been in touch with my ex, Darren. He’s said that if I don’t leave y’all, he’s going to tell Darren where to find me,” I say with a little difficulty.

Alexandra swears, and even her cursing is more elegant than should be allowed. She pushes her hair back and rests her forehead on her hand, bracing it against the countertop. I can’t see him, but I hear Rhett’s protective growl, and his leather and whiskey scent grows stronger as he slides in beside Mateo to be close to me.

“Do you want to?” Lucas asks, voice low and hesitant.

I look at him with wide eyes and raised brows. Even though I’d had the thought cross my mind in the heat of the moment, I know now that I can’t leave them. These people, this pack means too much to me. I have a life here, one that I built on my own, and I don’t want to give that up because I’m afraid.

“No. I’m not letting Darren ruin my life again. I’m not running,” I say emphatically.

Mateo sags against me, and I feel his purr against my arm as he brushes his lips along my hair. I put my hand over his, letting Rhett take the other one and squeeze. The whiskey and lemonade combination of them settles my fluttering heart.

“You know the one thing I don’t get—”

“One thing,” I mumble as Lucas starts, making Mateo snort.

“Why is Seth even bothering? What could he possibly be getting out of exposing you to your ex?” he goes on, grunting a little with the effort.

I sigh, shrugging. “It would get me away from y’all. It could be as simple as ‘if I can’t have them, no one can.’”

Alexandra hums thoughtfully, spinning the wine bottle slowly between her palms. “I think there’s something else going on. You haven’t heard of any weird behavior from your ex? No attempts to contact you, to figure out where you are?”

I shake my head. “Jason is the only person I talk to with any real frequency. I texted my brother a while back, and spoke to my mother on the phone once, but—”

“You spoke to your mother? She knows you’re here?” Alexandra interjects, sitting up straight.

I nod slowly, confusion and worry creeping into my chest. “Yeah, she called me at Wila’s and even sent my brother’s wedding invitation there. Why?”

Alexandra blinks as she absorbs that, her brow pulling down as she purses her lips in thought. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Would you like to bring the rest of us along for the ride on your train of thought?” Lucas asks with an exasperated sigh.

Alexandra looks at me, and I blink in surprise as I see the slightest hint of pink along the tops of her cheeks. Her smile is shy, something so unlike anything I’ve seen from her that for a moment my mind refuses to believe it.

“I’ve had my team doing some… well, let’s just call a spade a spade. They’ve been snooping through social media to see what there is to see about you. I will give you credit where it’s due, because you did make it exceptionally difficult for them to track you down, and we were only able to do that because we know your name and what you look like. We found your old profiles and those of your family members. And for the last four years, your mother and Darren have been treating you like a missing person rather than someone who moved out and cut ties,” Alexandra explains.

My whole body goes tense as my mind struggles to take in that information. But as I think about it, things start to make more and more sense. How insistent my mother has been to get me home lately. How Darren has been trying to figure out where I am. And what Seth could possibly get out of this.

“Diane, you scheming bitch,” I hiss under my breath.

“What do you mean?” Mateo asks, confused.

I sigh, rubbing the bridge of my nose slightly as I feel a headache coming on. “This is a long story,” I start.

“Well, lucky for you Lex still has half a bottle, and this dough has to proof,” Lucas says with a resigned sigh.

He pulls a metal bowl out from under the island and oils it with practiced efficiency. I consider where to start as I watch him work, how to explain the inner workings of my mother’s mind. I feel everyone’s eyes on me, but I turn the details over and over until Lucas puts the dough in its bowl and drapes a towel over it.

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