Page 130 of Billionaire Romance

“That’s okay; I’m just going to meet him at the office. I’ll walk.” It isn’t far from the penthouse. Ankor had planned ahead well when he moved to the city. Back then, work had been his biggest concern, so he’d been sure to find an apartment within jogging distance of his desk.

These days, he has a much better work-life balance. But still, sometimes duty calls. I don’t mind. It gives me time to catch up on my own projects. Time to figure out what I’d like to pursue, going forward.

Time to start hunting for new nursing jobs in the area. I haven’t told Ankor yet, but I know he’ll approve. After all, he’s happy when I’m happy. And I’m happy when I’m doing my job and helping people.

After kissing Margot’s cheek as she leaves, I pack the pie I’ve baked into a little cooler and sling it over one shoulder. I head down the elevator and wave to the front desk man, Andy, on my way out. Outside, it’s a deceptively nice day. Warm, sunny, bright. I’m glad I decided to walk.

Since we moved here, I spent the first few weeks holed up indoors. But lately, I’ve started venturing out more. Daring to walk down the street, unafraid. I run errands to the grocery store by myself. I walk through Central Park some days, by myself, and go lounge on the lawns or buy ice cream and stroll past the pond, watching kids feed the ducks.

Every day, I get a little more rooted in the present. A little farther from the dark past that sent me running to Maui in the first place. But I’m grateful, in the end. Without all of that, I would never have found Ankor. And I can’t imagine my life without him now.

I’m thinking all this as I cut across the avenue nearest our apartment and jog up the cross streets. I’m thinking it as a man climbs out of a cab on the corner and starts to shout.

I’m so lost in those thoughts that I don’t realize for a moment… He’s shouting my name.

On instinct, I turn to look at him, and freeze. Every muscle, every bone in my body, everything in me just… freezes.

Because it’s him.

“Sinclair.” Lenn sneers at me. His smile is exactly the same, creepy and leering. His face is the same, narrow and pinched like he’s sucking on lemons. His gangly, bony arms and thick legs are the same.

Panic starts to creep through my veins and up my throat. How are you here? Why are you here? I want to shout all of that, but I don’t. I just freeze there in panic.

And then he grabs me.

I scream, too little too late, into the palm of his hand where it’s crushed over my mouth. I feel my feet leave the ground, feel him start to drag me, backwards, I’m not sure where. I flail my arms. The nice New York City street disappears around a corner as he drags me into a tight alley. He must have been waiting. He must have been watching, picking out a spot to do this. I wonder how long he’s waited. How long he’s known exactly where I am and how to get to me.

Did he plan this all out? What happens next?

I don’t want to find out.

He slams me against the wall of the alley, cold brick fraying the cotton of my T-shirt.

“You think you can just walk away from me?” he snarls, full in my face, his breath hot and reeking. Exactly like I remember that, too.

But me? I’m not like he remembers. I’m not the broken, beaten-down girl he kicked around for all those years.

I remember all those months ago in the pool, when I finally swam across it all the way through the deep end that first time. The expression on Ankor’s face when he looked at me, so full of confidence and support.

You’re so damn brave, he told me. You can do anything, you know that? You warrior.

And he was right. I can do anything. I am a warrior.

I reach into the bag at my waist, without Lenn even noticing. He’s not used to resistance. He’s used to me crumpling in fear. But not anymore. I close my hands around the pie plate. And then, at the same time that I open my mouth and bite down on his hand as hard as I can—making him scream and curse, dropping his hand from my mouth—I raise the pie plate and smash it across his head.

It shatters, pie splattering over both of us. He collapses to the muddy alley in front of me in shock, eyes wide, bleeding where the glass shattered and cut his bald head. But I don’t wait. I scream in fury and kick him full in the stomach. He curls around my foot, and I wrench free of him.

“Don’t you ever come near me again, you pathetic creep,” I shout.

Dimly, I’m aware of people stopping outside the alley. A couple of burly guys catch my eye, and one of them mouths You okay?

I nod at him, just once. But he stays close anyway. I love New Yorkers sometimes.

“Are you listening to me?” I bend down close to Lenn until he tilts his head up, one bruised eye opening to meet mine. “If you come anywhere near me or my boyfriend again, I’m having you arrested. Do you understand me? And when my boyfriend’s lawyers are through with you, you’d be lucky to see the outside of a jail cell before you’re seventy.”

I raise my fists, and he flinches. It’s enough to make me smile, vicious.

Ankor is right. I’m brave. I’m a warrior.

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