Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

Fuck. I squint into my rearview mirror, trying to make out who’s driving the black car behind me, but the windshield is too tinted. What do they want?

Hastily I take a right instead of a left, away from my apartment. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that it looks like the same black car that followed me before, but the last thing I need is to show them where I live.

I keep driving, taking random turns. The car continues following me, mimicking each one, but keeping a good distance behind me as if they think I haven’t noticed them yet. I’m starting to panic, wondering where I could go that they wouldn’t tail me. What would they do if I stopped? Would they jump out of the car and swarm me?

Then I remember: the guys are working in the next neighborhood over. Surely if I can find them, I’ll be safe from whoever is on my ass.

Immediately I hang a right in the direction of Work Street. The SUV continues following as I pull into the fancy neighborhood, driving straight for the house with the Lupine Landscaping truck parked outside.

I sigh with relief that it’s still here. Leon, Jace and Quinn will know what to do.

But when I pull up, there’s only one person there working. It’s Eli, with his short-cropped, dark hair, leaning over a shovel.

I hurriedly park next to the truck, then watch in my rearview mirror as the SUV continues past me with a vroom . When they’re gone, I exhale a long breath and drop my forehead against the steering wheel.

“Are you okay?”

I didn’t realize my window was down until Eli peers into it. He has that same inscrutable look on his face as he did this morning—and the same one he had yesterday when he found Quinn and me together in the princess’s castle.

My anxiety, which is already on high alert, has now decided that look of his is certainly because he hates me.

“Y-yeah.” I sit up straight in my seat and force on a smile, even though the panic is still boiling underneath my skin. “Everything is fine.”

“Then why are you pulled over to the side of the road looking like a ghost?” He furrows his brow.

“That car was following me. The black one.” I peer into my side-view mirror, just in case they made a loop.

“Following you?” His frown gets deeper. “Are you sure?”

“I know. It doesn’t make sense. Why would someone be following me ?” A shiver ripples down my spine. “They did it a while ago, too. Same car. I thought it was weird then, but for it to happen again today…”

I trail off. I must sound like an idiot. I’m not special enough for someone to be following me, I know that.

Suddenly, Eli opens the door to my car, and I’m tempted to reach over and yank it closed again. I realize that I’m scared right out of my skin, and adrenaline is coursing hot through my veins, so even Eli is making me want to flee like a rabbit. But he settles in my passenger seat anyway.

“Is that why you came by?” he asks. “To get them off your tail?”

“I thought if I stopped near other people, they would piss off,” I say, clenching my hands on the steering wheel to stop them from shaking.

“You hoped Leon and the others might be here?”

I nod slowly, feeling like I’m stepping into a trap.

“I see.” Eli looks out the front windshield. “And were you disappointed to find it was just me?”

Now, surprise seeps in through my fear. Is Eli offended? I think I’ve said the exact wrong thing.

“I’m actually glad you were here,” I say. And that’s the truth. I remember the day when I met them, and Eli was the one who led me to the truck bed to sit down. He seemed to know what I was feeling, and how to help me through it. He made sure that I had space to think when Leon and I had conflict. Even though we didn’t leave it on the best terms on the mini-golf course, I also felt like he understood me—like perhaps he even struggles as much as I do with his own emotional turmoil.

“Hmm.” Eli continues looking straight ahead. “Well, looks like your tail is gone now, so you can probably head home if you want.” He reaches for the door handle to let himself out. “I’m just cleaning up here because I drew the short straw. I’m sure if you needed company, you could go find my brothers at Lucky’s.”

Sure, seeing the others sounds good, but now that Eli’s here, I don’t want him to go. I want to understand what happened yesterday, why he left in such a rush. I’m definitely not ready to drive again; my hands are still trembling, and my heart is speeding along like a runaway train. I think I might get into a wreck if I tried to get myself home.

“Can I just stay here with you while you clean up?” I ask at last. His eyebrows rise almost to his hair.

“You want to hang out here?” That frown deepens. “I’m getting dirt everywhere.”

“I probably shouldn’t drive for a while.” I’m afraid of saying what I want to say: that I want his company, that I want to understand him and find out how to repair the bridge between us. But what if he rejects me? I can’t take that right now. “It would be nice to talk to you until I calm down.”

“I see.” His mouth opens like he’s going to continue, then he closes it again. It seems like Eli is trying hard not to say all the things he wants to, and I wish I could tell him it was all right to speak his mind, and I’m not afraid of how he really feels about me. It would hurt my feelings to hear out loud, but I can bear it if it means I know the truth. I’d prefer that over perpetually wondering.

Eventually, Eli gets out of the car. “All right.” He turns around and walks away without sparing me another look. “I’ll be about half an hour, so you can hang out until then.”

I emerge from the car, too, and head over to the work site, where the guys have dug a trench and are filling it with wooden squares.

“What are those?” I ask, peering down into the trench.

Eli sighs as he gathers up tools. “Frames for pouring concrete.”

I get the sense my question annoyed him, so I don’t say anything else as he works. The thick muscles of his back flex as he picks up heavy bags and carries them to the truck bed, tossing them into the back. Not sure where else I belong, I open the passenger side door and flop down on the seat, just watching him as he wipes the sweat off his forehead. Even though the sun’s gone down, it’s still pretty warm out. If he’s losing all that moisture, he must be getting dehydrated.

I look around for a water bottle, but there’s nothing in sight, so I head over to my car to grab mine out of my bag. When I approach him with the water bottle, Eli glances up. For a split second, I see the sweet, friendly guy who first said hello to me.

“You’re sweating bullets,” I say, handing him the bottle. “And you need to stay hydrated.”

He glances down at the bottle, then back up at me, one eyebrow arched. After a moment of hesitation, he flicks back the lid of the bottle and chugs it down.

“Thanks.” He hands the empty bottle back to me. “I’m gonna be wrapping up here soon.”

I’m not shaking anymore, and I think I’m good to drive home given I don’t run into any more creepy black SUVs on the way.

“Right. I’ll go, too. Thank you for keeping me company.” I glance up at him. “Can you, um, not tell Leon and the others about this? I don’t want them to worry.”

He quirks an eyebrow. “You want me to keep it a secret that you’re being followed?”

I swallow. “Yeah. Just between us? For now. Until I find out what’s going on. I know they’ll freak out.”

Eli considers this, then nods. “I won’t say anything. They would probably overreact, like they always do when it comes to you.”

I don’t know why, but that sounds like a dig.

When neither of us speaks further, I hop out of the truck and shut the door behind me, wishing Eli hadn’t put up such a tall, firm wall between us. All I want is to tease apart the confusing edges of him and figure out what’s inside. I wish I could undo what happened, and we could start over.

It hurts that he won’t look at me the same way now. I sniffle as I head back to my car.

“Tiff.” Eli’s voice takes me by surprise. “Did work go all right today?”

“Huh?” I ask stupidly. When I turn around, Eli is leaning on the bed of the truck with a dark look on his face.

“Today,” he says. “After what happened last night at the restaurant.”

I shudder just thinking about arriving in the office this morning. “It was… fine. My boss didn’t say anything to me, which is maybe worse. He just had this horrible grin on his face the whole time.” I wrap my arms around myself. “He’s going to hold this over me forever.”

“What’s your boss’s name?”

The question is so out of left field that it takes me a few seconds to process what he’s asking.

“Oh, um,” I stutter, “it’s Mr. Bosley.”

Eli shakes his head. “His real, full name.”

Why does he want to know? Eli’s expression is intense. I think if he were in his wolf form, whatever that looks like, his mane would be bristling. What’s on his mind? He’s so opaque.

“Orland. Orland Bosley.” It really is the world’s worst name. “Why?”

Eli ignores my question. “What has you so scared of a guy named ‘Orland’?” His tone makes me flinch.

Why is he being so... I don’t know, mean ? He must really find me distasteful.

Fine. If he’s going to be like this, I’m not going to stand for it.

“Oh, besides the fact that he’s my boss?” I shoot back. “That he’s the guy who writes me a check every two weeks?” All my bottled-up fear and frustration bursts out of me as anger. “The guy who could decide at any time to fire me, and then I’d be without that paycheck and unable to pay my rent? Yeah, I don’t know why I’d be scared of that guy.”

Eli's mouth tilts down at my answer, but he doesn’t have a quippy response. Good. I don’t need him telling me to quit, too—as if it’s that easy to snap your fingers and get another job.

“He’s done a number on you,” Eli says at last, and this time his voice is much softer. “How has this man convinced you that you’re not worth more?”

“It’s just life to have a boss you hate.” I shove my hands into my pockets and look down at the ground. “That’s how it is when you work for other people.”

Eli studies my face. “All right,” he finally says, and I didn’t realize how close he had been until he steps away, grabbing a shovel and tossing it into the back of the truck. “If that’s how you feel. I’m going to head home for the night.”

It’s so dismissive that I flinch.

“Oh. Okay.” I start heading back to my car. “Thanks for, um… being here.”

“You can count on me.” Strangely, it doesn’t sound sarcastic. “Take care of yourself.”

I’m sad to drive away with Eli still thinking I’m weak, that I let some asshole like Mr. Bosley control my life. I probably care too much about his opinion, but at the same time, it hurts to know that somehow, I’ve ruined whatever chance I had at a relationship with him, even just as friends.

I spend the night watching reruns and wishing I’d had the nerve to ask Eli what I could do to fix things between us.

And what does the driver of that black car want with me? Whatever shit Mr. Bosley is getting into, I just hope it hasn’t dripped off his roof and landed on me.

Finally, I give up and flick the TV off around ten. When I head to bed, I get a text from Leon.

Thinking of you. Hoping your day was okay with Mr. Fuckface

I smile down at the message. He’s truly a good guy, and I’m lucky to have him.

Something weird was going on. He didn’t seem to care about me at all

There’s a pause before I see the three dots.

Maybe he knew we could beat him up before he had time to call the cops ;)

I laugh outright at this, imagining Jace, Leon and Quinn roughing up Mr. Bosley. It brings me immense joy, actually, so I continue imagining it as I head off to bed.