Page 36 of A Monster's Obsession

“You could’ve come to me, Sasha. I have offered my help a million times. You never had to go to a loan shark for goodness sakes.”

“I didn’t want you to think I was another user. I don’t want your money, Rae.” I tried to explain it for the gazillionth time. I didn’t want to borrow Raven’s money. At the time, she hadn’t received her trust fund yet, and she was working just as hard as me. I would’ve never asked her for anything. We were both just trying to make it through tough times.

“I would never think you were a user, Sasha. I love you, sis. You know that we would do anything for each other.” Raven’s words were sincere, and I smiled. I knew all of those things to be true, but I still didn’t want to rely on my friend. I wanted to do it myself.

“I love you too, sis. Do you forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive. I’m just glad Sawyer was able to be there for you. I saw how you two look at each other, so I’m guessing this arrangement is permanent.” Raven cocked a brow with a sassy smirk.

I giggled, “Yeah, it’s definitely forever with that one. He wouldn’t let me go anyway.” I shrug at the memory of me giving Sawyer anout.He was pissed, but he dicked me down like never before.

“That possessiveness runs in the family.” Raven giggled in response. “Speaking of family, we’rerealsisters now.” She smiled, and we hugged one another tightly.

“Yeah, who would’ve thought we would marry brothers?”

“Shit, I didn’t think I would marry anyone. Much less someone like Lennox Nash.” Raven smiled thoughtfully.

“I know, right.” I nodded.

“So, what are you going to tell Mama and Papa Phillips? Cause I know they don’t play.” Raven’s words sobered me up instantly.

“They got back last night, so we have dinner with them tonight,” I said with a sigh.

My parents just might disown me. There would be a whole lot of begging and explaining on my end. Hopefully, they would be so blissed out from their vacation they would let me slide. I sighed because I knew that Rosie Phillips was going to beat me.

Soon after our heart to heart, I left Raven’s house to go back to the gallery. Yohan had signed the contract, and we were preparing for his show in a couple of weeks, so there were more people in and out of the gallery than normal.

I noticed the exterminators were here again, and I frowned. Bambi had called someone over a week ago, and they had come out. However, they had found more than rats in our basement. Apparently, we had more than one type of rodent, and it grossed me out. I told them to do what they had to do to get rid of the pests. We couldn’t have them venturing out of the basement and onto the gallery floor. It would cost hundreds of dollars, but I didn’t care as long as the problem was taken care of.

I give a small wave as I approached Jack, our security guard. Jack Lewis was retired military. He was a large man standing over six feet, and he always has a welcoming smile on his dark chocolate face. His brown eyes twinkled with laughter at all times, and he always had a kind word for everyone.

“Hey, Jack. How’s it going?” I asked as I made my way to the front desk. Jack had been coming in early because of all the preparations that were going on. I was glad for his help.

“Oh, you know. Same ole’ same.” Jack gave me his usual greeting with a bright smile.

“Well, same ole same is better than different and chaotic.”

Jack chuckled with a shrug, “True. My granddaughter says hi, and she wanted to thank you for the advance tickets to that Yahoo’s showing in a few weeks.”

I laughed at Jack because he knew Yohan’s name. However, I had a feeling that my husband had gotten in his ear. Sawyer didn’t like any of my security guards when we first got together, except for Jack. All the rest of the men were slowly replaced with guys from Sawyer’s team. He said they were underqualified, and I knew how serious he was about my safety, so I didn’t argue.

“I’ll be in my office if you need anything. Flynn should be in shortly; he’s doing his sweep.” Jack nodded, and I headed upstairs.

Flynn had been even quieter than his usual. This morning, Sawyer and Darby had left before the sun came up, and I’m pretty sure Flynn was pissed that he couldn’t go with them. I don’t know what is going on, but last night Sawyer came in extremely late and left early.

***

I finished all of the paperwork that I was willing to do for the day, so I pulled out my sketchbook and decided to draw. I hadn’t had the time to work on my own art in quite some time, but at least sketching helped to release some of the stress that I’d been carrying around.

I was deep into my drawing when there was a tap on the door. It was Jack wearing a worried expression on his face.

“Hey, Jack. What’s wrong?” I asked, putting my pencil down on my desk.

“My wife called. Someone tried to break into the house while she was at the grocery store. Is it okay if I go and check on her?”

“Oh, my goodness! I hope everything is okay. Of course, you can go. I’ll be fine here. Flynn is around somewhere.” I waved off his concern standing from my chair.

“Great. The exterminators are still working, but I called Fred, and he can come in about an hour to cover the rest of my shift.”