Page 26 of Hidden Ties (Made Men #11)

TWENTY

STICKY SITUATION

“ A re you sure you’ll be okay by yourself for thirty minutes?”

“It’s not like I’m going to run away.” Valerie stopped her packing to see that he wasn’t fully convinced, even after last night.

They hadn’t spent the night bickering or having sex. They had spent it talking about not only their past but their hopes and dreams, too. Sal opening up about Lucifer had only been the beginning, and while she hadn’t learned everything there was to know about Sal yet, in time, she would.

“Listen, I promise you’re stuck with me until either I go to prison or your dick gets sick of me, okay?”

The smirk that played on Sal’s lip lasted only for a moment. “Okay, I’ll be next door, picking up a few things. I’ll be right back.”

She shooed him to go on as she continued her packing.

Having only just started, Sal was convinced he easily had thirty minutes to get next door and to get in and out.

It wasn’t that Sal was afraid of her being a flight risk anymore.

He was afraid about how unpredictable she was.

He was unable to convince her not to take her bat with them, because she thought riding with a made man meant she needed to be “strapped” at all times, and there was no telling her that was what his gun was for.

In this sticky situation, he decided on waiting to tell her that he was the one who actually had her computer all along until he could get her weaponless and preferably in a padded safe room.

After unlocking his front door and entering his house, he made sure the blinds were firmly shut from Valerie’s prying eyes and sat down at her computer, wanting to give it a deeper look now that he knew she was capable of incognito’ing her shit.

Sal wasn’t doing it for his usual prying reasons, certain Valerie was the girl for him; he was doing it in case he had missed something to help her case.

Then, if he was really lucky and quick, he might be able to play a couple of rounds of Bubblegum Blitz.

It had taken longer for Valerie to pack her drinks, snacks, and candy than her clothes.

Finishing in record time, she loaded her things into Sal’s car, convinced that there was no way she could talk him into taking her car again.

When he had still yet to come out of his place, she went up to his front door, contemplating going in.

Thinking she might never get the chance again to see inside his house, she barged in …

only to find a sight she thought she’d never see.

With her jaw dropping to the ground and anger seething in part of her every being, it was worse than witnessing Sal sleeping with another woman.

Much …

Much …

Worse.

“What the fuckity fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Only catching the end of her screams when the headphones were snatched off his head, Sal whipped around in his chair to see Valerie standing right behind him.

“I—” Making sure she wasn’t holding her bat, Sal regretted not having a wireless headset and could only hope that she wouldn’t use the wire to strangle him to death. “Valerie, I can explai—”

“Oh, you can, can you?” She threw down his headset in a brazen fury, breaking it.

Welp, at least she didn’t plan on strangling him, so that’s a plus.

“Please fucking explain to me why it is you’re playing my game, on my computer that you have conveniently let me believe the police have been holding hostage this whole time!”

With each word being shrieked out louder than the last, Sal held out his hands, officially fearing for his life. “Listen, maybe when you calm down, I can—”

“ Calm down ?”

Her voice shrilled to an auditory level that Sal never thought was possible, causing his eyes to slam shut. Anticipating more of her wrath, he squinted his eyes open to find that she had spun on her heels and was walking right back out his front door.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

“Come on, Valerie. Please, you know Lucca will kill me if I let you leave. We can talk about this.” Following behind her at a safe distance had been his second mistake, thinking she had just planned on leaving when she actually went to slide her bat from out of her car. “Holy shit, Valerie!”

Pointing the bat a centimeter away from his face, she suddenly looked eerily calm. Sal didn’t like that look, not one bit.

“As much as I’d love to add a murder charge onto my ongoing record, I think I’ll take your advice and let the Boogieman take care of that for me.”

That was the last time he planned to give her any ideas.

Only brave enough to approach when the bat was gone from his face and she was in her car, he tried opening the driver’s side door she had just disappeared into.

His hand flew off the handle in a rush after she had already locked the doors.

With the car starting and being put in Reverse , he hit her driver’s side window, begging while trying to be careful not to bust the glass on her.

“Don’t do this, Valerie! We can talk this out! ”

He went for the keys in his pocket; his last resort was to follow her in his car, but his hand reached the end of the material and came up empty. “Fuckity fuck!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, knowing Valerie must’ve swiped the keys off him during her tirade.

Far enough down the street away from him, she finally rolled down her window to give him the bird. “That’s right, motherfucker!”

Losing his own temper, Sal held up two of his own fingers, flicking off the back of her car, hoping she’d catch it in her rearview mirror.

Her honking the horn of her Scion XB over and over again as she went down the street told him that she had gotten the message.

He contemplated pulling his gun out to shoot out one of the tires on her ugly-ass car but decided against it when he caught sight of his neighbor across the street with her mouth dropped open in stupor while holding her baby on her hip.

Sal politely waved over at her. “Hey, Katie. Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

With nowhere to go in the city that she was forcibly contained to, as she was currently only out on bail, she needed help.

And there was only one person who could rationally calm, let alone give her any sane advice with how she should move forward, and she hadn’t been able to contact him due to her situation.

After going to a party one of her coworkers had thrown when she first got hired, it had not only been her first party experience but also the last. She was already regretting heading in that direction, but it was the only place she knew to go.

Making a right on the next street, she adjusted her rearview mirror just to be sure he wasn’t following her. She did technically have his keys in her pocket, but a girl had to be certain.

Positive she couldn’t possibly be followed, Valerie turned into the neighborhood, hoping her memory was correct. When she spotted the vomit-green door, she pulled into the driveway, still not able to forget the first time she had seen the hideous color.

Valerie adored color, but when men tried to do absolutely anything with color, they always picked the worst fucking shades. Heaven forbid they ever asked a woman’s opinion before they did anything. It was actually her biggest gripe with Apple.

Hey, Apple, have you ever actually seen the color pink?

Turning her car off, she exited it and walked right up to the door, knocking loudly. She thought she might’ve gotten unlucky and that he wasn’t home, when the door flung open.

“Valerie?”

“Hey, Lyle.” She wasted no time letting herself in. “I need you to get in contact with someone for me.”

“Wait a second.” Lyle still had his headset on and Xbox controller in his hand, clearly taken off guard. “I thought you were in prison?”

“No, not yet. I’m out on bail at the moment,” she clarified, trying to get this going. “So, can you help me out or not?”

“Okay, sure,” he finally agreed with the shake of his head. “How can I help?”

“Where’s your gaming PC?”

Scratching the back of his head, he tried to laugh it off. “I don’t have one at the moment. I just have an Xbox.”

What a noob. Rolling her eyes in disgust, she held out her hand out for the Xbox controller, finding it sticky.

Ew.

She looked around at this bachelor pad; it was totally different than the bachelor pad Sal had. Dammit, maybe he wasn’t only the best of the bunch by made men standards, but men in general.

Valerie sat down on his couch in front of his TV, planning to burn the clothes she was wearing later.

Moving the controller sticks with her thumbs, she quickly wrote Justice a message through Xbox, telling him it was urgent and to contact her on this account ASAP.

Hoping it would make it to Justice’s PC account, she hit Send .

“What do we do now?” Lyle asked.

Valerie set the dirty controller down, being sure to rub the stickiness off on her pants. “Now, we wait.”

“Okay.” Taking an awkward seat next to her, Lyle finally took off his headset. “So, what do you want to do until then?”

“I want you to stay on that side of the couch”—she made herself clear at seeing the hopeful possibilities swirling in his mind—“and order me a pizza.”