Bare Necessities by Lacey Wolfe Page A

them. But seeing him wasn’t a good idea. Maybe she’d call him later.
    She quickly replied, hating herself for it but letting him know she would call him later to talk. After she hit the send button, she heard a weird sound from the back room. It sounded almost like a phone’s noise when someone received a notification. Surely, she was hearing things, but how strange it would happen right after she’d sent a message.
    Her phone lit up and then followed the sound of a new text message from John. He told her he was looking forward to it. Even though she wasn’t, she decided to send one more message. She typed, Me, too . and then nervously let her finger hover above the send button. What the hell was she going to do if she heard the sound again? There was no way John was in her back room. No fucking way.
    Now she was scaring the shit out of herself. Her heart raced. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the button.
    Seconds later, she heard the same sound. She froze, staring at the closed door that led to the back room. Had she closed it? There was just no way. He couldn’t be. With her phone clutched tightly in her hand, she started to walk backwards toward the front of the store, praying whoever it was wouldn’t decide to show their face. She had to get out of here and to Seth.
    Her purse sat on a table near the front door. She tiptoed to it, and just as she put the strap over her shoulder, someone said her name. Turning, she came face-to-face with John.
    “I’ve been waiting on you. I wanted to talk to you,” he said. He didn’t look like himself. He was usually well dressed and clean shaven, but his clothes were wrinkled, his hair was a mess, and he was in desperate need of a razor.
    “John, hi.” Stay calm. “I was just going to leave and call you on my way back to the cabin. But instead you’re here. It’s good to see you.”
    “Is it really? I’ve been trying to find you. You never should’ve left me.”
    “You needed help, and we just weren’t good for one another.”
    “That’s not true. We were very good together.” He stepped closer.
    “Let’s be serious. We fought—a lot. It got out of control.”
    “You always liked it rough. And that last time, I didn’t mean to. I never meant to hit that beautiful face of yours.”
    Ava slowly took another step back. “This doesn’t sound much like that apology you said you wanted to give. I have a meeting I need to get to. Can we do this later?”
    “A meeting? I thought you said you were just heading home and you were going to call me? Still a pretty little liar. That’s what got you into so much trouble.”
    “I never would’ve lied if you didn’t want to control me so much. Who the hell wants to tell someone their every move? It’s not normal.”
    “If you weren’t up to no good all the time, it never would’ve mattered.”
    Ava slipped her phone into her back pocket and reached behind herself to see if she could feel the door yet.
    “We have company,” John said, looking out the glass.
    Turning around, she saw Kimberly. Just as Kimberly opened the door, Ava shouted, “Get out of here!”
    Kimberly stopped mid-step and assessed what was going on. She then grabbed her phone from her pocket and quickly went back out the door. Relief started to set in that help would be here soon, but that quickly vanished when John grabbed Ava by her forearm and started forcing her out the front.
    “You’re going to walk with me as though we are friends to my car. We are leaving, and you are coming home with me. If you don’t do as I tell you, I will hurt that girl along with your cousin and her daughter. And don’t think I won’t. People who have money also have power.”
    Ava gulped and nodded. She then walked out the door with him as he’d asked and crossed the street to a blue sports car. She’d seen this car in Brookfield before, several times, but it had never registered in her head that it might be his.
    Once she took her seat, he climbed in