Twelve

Blaze

How could I even keep my eyes open right now?

Considering I was currently behind the wheel of my truck as I drove myself to work, I had no choice but to stay awake, but with everything that had happened last night, it was no surprise I’d struggled to get any rest. Typically, I was the kind of guy who never had a problem sleeping, but I was now finding my thoughts before bed were always on Harlow, which led to less and less hours of sleep.

I wasn’t complaining at all, either.

Because it would have been easy to be thinking about other, less pleasing things, like work or another bad date with someone who didn’t make me feel the way Harlow did.

So, I didn’t mind the lack of sleep when the reason for it was that I was so caught up in thoughts of the best thing that had ever happened to me.

God, it felt crazy to make such a bold statement after knowing her for only a few short weeks, but it was the absolute truth of how I felt about her. Maybe it was a testament to just how incredible she was.

Last night had been the most challenging night for me, because I couldn’t stop thinking about everything we’d done on her couch. While there was still a lot left for us to explore when it came to intimacy, I had no regrets about saying I thoroughly enjoyed what I’d gotten last night.

It was no secret I’d dated several women over the years. I’d even had two long-term relationships ever since I’d became seriously interested in girls when I was a teenager, one of those lasting just over three years. For the most part, those relationships were fine, and I held no ill will toward my former girlfriends.

But they weren’t her.

I couldn’t remember ever kissing someone for as long as I spent kissing Harlow last night. And if I was honest, I was surprised that I found myself believing sex not being on the table was the best thing that could have happened for us. In fact, I was grateful for it.

Because it took all the pressure off for both of us, and it allowed me to have something with Harlow that I hadn’t had with anyone else.

Understanding we had plenty of time to just kiss and touch, I relished in it. For the first time in my life, I really immersed myself in a whole new aspect of intimacy. I took advantage of the opportunity and allowed my hands to explore Harlow’s figure. I was convinced I now knew every curve of her body, and I was confident in what it would take to please her. She didn’t hold back from sharing what things I did to her that she enjoyed, giving me that information in the form of a moan or a whimper.

Neither one of us had lost a single article of clothing on that couch last night, and yet, I still wound up feeling more connected to her than anyone else I’d ever been with before her.

That’s why I couldn’t sleep last night. Not only did I learn just how much fun it could be to take things slow with someone I cared about, but I was excited about what was ahead. If things felt this good with her now, I could only imagine just how great it would be when and if I had the privilege of being able to touch her naked skin.

There was no mistaking just how badly I wanted that at some point with her. I would wait until she was ready, of course, but there was no question I wanted to be the first and only one to give her that experience. After getting that confirmation from her, I had no doubt my desire to be that man for her was the one thing that would continuously pop into my head both throughout my days and in the evenings.

Now that I was five minutes away from work, I was hoping the concentration I needed to be able to focus on my workload would be there today so I could be productive. It’d be far too simple to allow my mind to drift right back to Harlow, if I wasn’t careful.

At that moment, my phone rang. I’d have been lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed that Harlow wasn’t the one calling, but I took the call anyway, since it was coming from the office.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Blaze. It’s Avalon.”

“Are you calling me with bad news again, or did you want me to run and pick up some doughnuts for the office?” I asked, hoping it was the latter.

She let out an uneasy laugh. “I really have only been calling you with bad news lately, haven’t I? I mean, to answer your question, you’ll probably be able to get the doughnuts, if you do what I’m calling to ask you to do.”

“Fuck,” I clipped, already sensing this wasn’t going to be good. “What’s going on?”

“Royce just got a call from Tarryn,” she shared.

Immediately alarmed, I asked, “Is everyone okay?”

“I believe so, but there’s been an incident,” she revealed.

As I turned my truck around, so I could head to The Early Bird, I pressed, “What kind of incident?”

“Tarryn, her sister, and the other two girls who work with them all arrive very early in the morning, so they can prepare the doughnuts for the day, obviously. At some point this morning, one of them went outside to grab something from her car, and that’s when she noticed all their cars had been vandalized. I don’t know much beyond that.”

Why would someone vandalize those cars? “That’s odd,” I mumbled, more so to myself than Avalon. “I’m already heading in that direction. Thanks for giving me a call.”

“No problem. Thanks for heading over there. I’ll reach out to Tarryn later, but give her my love, please,” Avalon requested.

“Sure. I’ll talk to you later,” I said.

Avalon and I said goodbye and disconnected our call.

A few minutes later, I drove down the street in front of The Early Bird. It seemed to be business as usual inside the shop, and I didn’t want to disturb what was happening there, so I drove around the back, where Tarryn and her crew would have parked their cars. Sure enough, there were two police officers there, along with Royce and Tarryn.

I pulled into the lot at the back of the coffee shop, parked, and made my way toward my boss and his wife. When I came to a stop in front of them, I asked, “What happened?”

Royce jerked his head in the opposite direction and said, “Tarryn, Presley, Bailey, and Sabrina all got here early this morning like they always do to prep everything before the morning rush, and when Sabrina walked out about twenty minutes ago to grab something she forgot in her car, she realized all the cars had been vandalized. All four tires on all four cars have been slashed and each of them has at least two windows broken. Tarryn’s car is the worst of it. Her car was also keyed.”

My eyes slid to the side. “Are you and the girls okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah, we’re all physically fine. This sucks, though.”

I dipped my chin. “I agree. I assume none of you saw anything.”

Tarryn shook her head. “No, unfortunately, we did not.”

Returning my attention to Royce, I asked, “Did you check the camera footage?”

“Yep. And while there is still no proof of exactly who these men are, I’m confident that the men who did this here this morning are the same men who’ve been terrorizing this town over the last few weeks.”

I shook my head and sighed.

“Baby?” Tarryn said.

Royce turned his attention to her. “Yeah?”

“I need to go inside and help out the girls now that we’ve all had an opportunity to speak with the police. There’s not much for me to do while the police are finishing up what they’ve got to do with these cars,” she informed him.

He offered her a nod. “Go ahead. I’m going to talk to Blaze for a few minutes. I’ll be inside shortly.”

“Okay.” After she gave him a kiss, she looked at me and said, “It was nice seeing you, Blaze. Thanks for stopping by.”

“It’s not a problem at all. Avalon called and told me to head here instead of the office this morning, so that’s why I’m here. By the way, she did want me to tell you that she sends her love and will call you later.”

A smile formed on her face. “That was sweet of her. Make sure you stop in before you leave. I’ll send some doughnuts to the office.”

“Will do.”

The next thing I knew, Tarryn had walked away and returned to her shop.

My mind was already whirling with a bunch of thoughts, and none of them were good, but I wanted to assess a bit more of the situation and get Royce’s take on it before I shared what was going through my head.

“She seems surprisingly calm,” I noted.

He shrugged and let out a laugh. I thought that was a good thing, considering the reality of the situation we were facing. “There’s not a lot that rattles my wife. But I think she was trying to keep it together for the rest of the girls.”

“That’s good. On the bright side, at least they were all safe inside when this happened, and nobody was hurt,” I reasoned.

“Yeah. Well, as well as they all seem to be doing, I’m the one that’s a mess,” he revealed. “I went through this shit once where I was worried about something bad happening to her. I know this stuff happens, but what are the chances she has this bad stuff happening to her twice?”

Perhaps it was time to share what was going through my head. “You know, Royce, I might be out of line here, but I don’t like this at all.”

He narrowed his eyes, clearly trying to work out where I was headed with this. “What are you talking about?”

Never would I have thought a conversation I’d had with Harlow would ever pop into my head at a moment like this and offer some clarity on the situation, but here I was. I swallowed hard, thinking for just a minute longer about the words Harlow had said to me. An overwhelming sense of unease rippled through me.

“I’ve started seeing someone,” I finally shared, taking Royce by surprise.

“Really?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I met her a couple of weeks ago, and it’s getting pretty serious for the both of us. I took her out to the drive-in theater the week after the fire at Hanna’s place, and we wound up talking about what happened there and at The Steel Pub. At the time, I didn’t think anything about it, but something Harlow said to me that night is hitting me full force now.”

Royce’s surprise had turned to curiosity and something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Alarm, maybe? “As much as I know I need to hear whatever it is you’re going to share with me, I get this feeling I’m not going to like what you have to say.”

I shook my head and offered an apologetic look. “After sharing the details of both situations with her, Harlow had mentioned how she was just glad to hear that the people I knew in both situations, referring to Sawyer and Hanna, were okay. There’s been a third incident by people we believe might be the same suspects in every situation, and we’ve got Tarryn in the mix now.”

Realization dawned on Royce’s features. “It’s us. There’s nothing else that seems to connect these things.”

Nodding again, I reasoned, “We might want to get the whole team in on this so everyone is aware of what’s going on. I think it’s important in all scenarios, but critical in the cases where there’s a business to be attacked. We’ve got Mallory at Grant’s Deli, and she’s pregnant.”

“Fuck, Nixon is going to lose his mind,” Royce clipped.

I didn’t doubt that for one second and noted, “Brix might, too, because Liv’s also pregnant. On the bright side, at least she and Avalon are with us in the office. I’m not suggesting Jax shouldn’t keep an eye on Sophie, Jagger shouldn’t be diligent about keeping Lily safe, or that any other man who’s got a woman shouldn’t be doing whatever is necessary to keep them safe. For now, it seems like they’re sticking to the businesses. My hope is that it stays that way while we try to figure this out.”

Frustration washed over Royce’s face. “Now we’ve got to figure out who the hell has a problem with us.”

“Yeah. Got any ideas on where I can start when I get back to the office?”

“Telling you to start at the beginning feels foolish and unreasonable, considering how many years we’ve been around. We could have pissed off a lot of people in that time,” he said.

“Maybe we start with more recent cases,” I suggested. “I don’t think it’s likely that someone we had an issue with five years ago is going to be attempting to settle a grudge now. It’s possible, but I think something recent is more likely.”

He dipped his chin in agreement. “That sounds like a plan. Why don’t you head back to the office while I bring the officers up to speed? After I do that and talk to Tarryn, I’ll meet you there.”

“Are you going to grab those doughnuts she wants to send?” I asked.

His lips twitched. “You better do that, or she’ll be pissed I told you to go back without letting you take them.”

I laughed and didn’t waste any time. After stopping in the shop to grab the doughnuts Tarryn wanted to send with me to office, I hopped back in my truck and made my way back to work.

And on the way there, I found my thoughts drifting back to Harlow.

Only this time, I wasn’t so lucky to be thinking about all the wonderful moments I’d shared with her over the last several weeks. Instead, I was stuck wondering how she’d handle it if she knew that it was likely the businesses of the women connected to the men who worked at Harper Security Ops were being targeted.

If I was honest with myself, the thoughts I had were more about the way I felt, thinking that she might not want to be with me if she thought her business was in danger. It was overwhelming to think I could lose her because of this.

But I couldn’t keep it from her, either.

I wanted to believe she wouldn’t have anything to worry about since not even my own co-workers knew she was in my life, but I cared too much for her to take any chances.

So, after I put in a long day at work and attempted to come up with a list of names of people who could have it out for us, I needed to go to her and share the truth.

I could only hope it wouldn’t be the last time I saw her.