Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
“Where are you?” I demand.
“You tell me. You’re the one who stuck a tracker in my neck.”
“Charlotte,” I snap, getting pissy now. “I’ve been home all day. I’m not following you right now. Where the fuck are you?”
“I’m not playing this game with you.” She hangs up, and I call her back, but it goes to voicemail. She’s turned her cell off.
“Goddammit,” I hiss, pulling up the app on my phone. By the look of her current location and the direction she’s moving, I’d say she’s headed to her house.
Rushing into my garage, I grab the keys to my bike off the hook and speed to her place. I’m pulling into her driveway just as her garage door closes. Getting off, I unlock her front door and barge in. “Charlotte?” I bark out.
I find her standing in her kitchen, pouring a glass of wine. She turns to face me, her dark hair flipping her in the face. She places one arm across her chest, and the other one is bent, holding her glass to her lips. Arching a brow, she gives a soft laugh before taking a sip. “Wasn’t following me, huh?”
“It wasn’t me,” I say through gritted teeth.
She takes another drink before she sets it down on the counter. “Yet here you are standing in my kitchen. You expect me to believe you made record time from your house to mine?” She rolls her pretty blue eyes at her own question.
I walk forward, closing the distance between us. “Who was it?” I demand.
“You.” Her eyes narrow up at me.
“What were they driving?” I go on.
She huffs but indulges me. “You were on your bike.”
I grab her arm and drag her toward the front door. “Haidyn?” she growls, and I pull her through the front door and turn her to face her driveway, where I’ve parked.
“That bike?” I point at it as if we’re in a parking lot with hundreds of vehicles. “How could I have been riding my black bike if I just rode this one from my house to yours?” I have multiple bikes. I chose to drive one that she didn’t know I had. I was able to get here in half the time on my white ZX-10R by breaking the law and lane splitting.
I feel her body stiffen against mine as she stares at it. Her breathing picks up, and I grab her shoulders, turning her to face me. Her blue eyes look up at mine, and the color has drained from her face. “You said it was following you yesterday and today?”
She nods slowly and wraps her arms around her chest.
Pulling her back into the house, I shut the door and ask, “Where all did you go?” I could look up her location, but she needs to tell me. I spent too much time going over the surveillance from the Mason brothers of the mystery man I received to watch her.
Her eyes drop to the floor, and her brows pull together as she thinks. “Yesterday, I met with my friends for an early lunch??”
“Which friends?” She lives two lives, and I need to know who she was pretending to be. “Do they know you as Annabelle or Charlotte?”
“Annabelle,” she answers softly.
I nod. “Keep going.”
“After that, I went to my mother’s.”
“Straight from lunch?”
“Yeah.”
“When was the first time you noticed them?”
She finally looks back up at me again to answer. “I saw them behind me on my way to lunch. Then I noticed them again today while I was at the spa.”
“What were they doing? Just sitting on the bike outside of the restaurant yesterday?”
She shakes her head. “It was just the bike. When I left, it was gone, but I saw it on the highway. Then again after I left my mother’s.”
“And today at the spa?”
“They were sitting on it at the back of the parking lot, wearing a leather jacket, gloves, and a helmet.”
I run a hand down my face, releasing a sigh. Why would someone be watching her? Maybe it’s Saint thinking he’s keeping an eye on me? No. He wouldn’t do that. Saint doesn’t hide. Plus, he showed up at my house, so he knows where to find me if he needs me. “Pack a bag,” I order.
“Haidyn?” Her wide eyes meet mine. “I can’t??”
“You’re not staying here.” I stop whatever argument she was about to give me. “I can’t watch you twenty-four seven, and I’m not staying here with you.” I have cameras in her house, but I can’t control when she leaves the house or where she goes. The only thing a tracker is going to do is tell me where she’s been taken. If someone is following her, it will only take them a second to snatch her. I saw that happen with Ashtyn at Carnage after our car wreck, and we were all unprepared. That was when there were three of us watching her. I’m the only one watching over Charlotte. Plus, they can cut it out in a few seconds. “Now.” I grab her shoulders, spin her around, and add, “If you’re not packed and ready to go in thirty minutes, I’ll drag you out of this house with whatever you have on.”
FORTY-ONE
CHARLOTTE
I’m sitting at a stoplight with my windows cracked. My three packed bags are in the back while Muffin is in the passenger seat meowing in her carrier. She hates the car.
“I know,” I say, looking over at her yellow eyes. “It’ll be okay.” A part of me hopes she poops on Haidyn’s pillow tonight since he’s practically making me move in with him.
So much for my me day. This is not how I saw my day going. I thought I was doing something by calling Haidyn out for following me. My eyes look at the rearview mirror to see him on his bike behind me in the turning lane.
The pictures that the Lords sent me didn’t do him justice. Or maybe it’s because I know what he’s capable of now in the bedroom.
He’s got his left boot on the gear, his right one on the pavement, and his tatted hands rest on his jean-clad thighs. He’s got a white baseball hat on backward and wears black aviators.
Goddamn! My body heats as if he’s staring right at me. He probably is. Men get off on that. Being admired. He probably set this whole thing up and paid someone to follow me, knowing I’d call him, and he’d come running in and save the day. Or at the very least to force me out of my home. Either way, this has a Lord written all over it. I know how they work, and I wasn’t born yesterday.
A topless red Jeep pulls up next to me at the light, and I take a quick look. It’s occupied with four girls. The one in the passenger seat stands up and spins around, looking right at Haidyn. “You can ride us.” She immediately falls into her seat and covers her face, and her friends laugh as if it were a dare.
My hands tighten on the steering wheel, and I adjust myself. My eyes quickly go to him, and he chooses to ignore her. I have the urge to roll down my passenger window the rest of the way and call out you can’t handle him but refrain. They look like high school girls, for Christ’s sake.
Glaring at them, I hope they feel my stare through my sunglasses. I adjust my eyes ahead of me just as the light turns green. I slam on the gas and turn a little too sharp. Muffin meows as her carrier hits the interior door. “Sorry.” I reach over to adjust it upright and fix my glasses, letting out a huff.
The thought of being jealous makes me frown. I’ve never belonged to anyone before. Is this what it feels like not to want to share what’s yours? I mean, a lot of women have had him, but it’s my turn, even if I have to act like I don’t want it. Or for how little time it will last. If someone gets his attention, he’ll push me to the side, and I just can’t allow that. Not until I’ve finished my assignment.
My eyes shoot to him again in the rearview mirror as he rides behind me. His right hand on the throttle and left resting on his thigh. He looks relaxed. Much more than I am. But those who are in charge never worry.
He’s taking me to his house. I can’t decide if that’s better or worse than Carnage. At least I know others live at Carnage. At his house, it’ll just be him and me. He can do whatever he wants to me, and no one will hear me scream or know to look for me there.
It’s the perfect plan to wipe me from this world. You don’t need to worry about if the devil is real or not when you know the Lords exist.
I learned at a young age that you don’t need a steel cage to be a prisoner. Sometimes all you need is to be left alone in a room by yourself with nothing but your own thoughts. You can drive yourself crazy all on your own. Or at least I know I can.
I nose my SUV up to his gate so he can pull up behind me and press in the security code. Even though I know it. The gate opens, and I pull through and park in front of the garage. He parks next to me and walks to the back of the hatch as I pop it open.
He removes my three bags, and I grab the empty litter box and Muffin before following him into his house.
It feels…awkward. To be here knowing that I don’t know when I’ll leave. How long will he make me stay? How long will I want to be here?
I don’t have the answer to either question. But then again, a prisoner doesn’t get to choose how long they serve.