Page 21 of The Pretender

“Cool. I’m glad you like it.” I glance around the quiet room. “We could unpack a little.”

“Sounds good.”

I start to walk down the hallway, then pause. “Um, there’s only one bedroom.”

“I expected as much. Besides, what kind of couple would we be if we slept in separate rooms?”

“Right. Good point. I can’t promise you a ton of privacy from my family, but the outside world won’t get to us. You have to seek it out if you want it.”

“Perfect. I can handle a friendly family.”

I nod, tugging my suitcase along with me. Now that I’m home, it feels right, like I made the right decision. I hope bringing a man I just met to pretend he’s my boyfriend falls into the right decision category too, but only time will tell.

SEVEN

balthazar

After we spendsome time straightening the house enough to get through a few days, I excuse myself to the bathroom, my business phone in tow, to check if I’ve received any more messages. I’ve already had it looked at to make sure there’s no tracking on it so I could rest easy turning it on.

As it powers up, I lean on the vanity, bracing myself for what might come through. The bathroom is a little tight for two people, and I think it’s the only one in the cottage, but it’s fine. A little musty from lack of use, but we’ll bring some life back into it.

The phone beeps in my hand and I silence it, swiping to open the text messages. Sure enough, there’s one from the man himself.

Vin: Where the fuck are you, Money Man?

Vin: I swear to fucking god if you took off I’ll cut your balls off and keep them on my bookcase.

A shiver moves down my spine. He’s serious about that threat.

Vin: Where’s my money, asshole?

I don’t know if messaging him back to tell him something or just going radio silent would be better.

Vin: You know what, Money? I’mma give you a pass. Let’s have a meeting and clear up the misunderstanding. Just you and me.

I laugh at that. Does he think I’m a fucking idiot? Vin doesn’t go anywhere alone, nor should

he. I read over the texts again, wondering how or if I should respond. Maybe if I don’t, he’ll think I’m dead or something. That’s what I should’ve done, faked my death, but Vin needs a body or he wouldn’t buy it.

I turn the phone off, deciding silence is best. If he’d do a little more research instead of hunting me down, he’d figure out the rumors aren’t true. Not entirely, anyway. The longer he can’t find me, the better chance I have that he’ll do just that, and then I’ll be off the hook.

I flush the toilet and wash my hands to make it seem like I used it then step out into the hallway. I can hear Deo humming a song from the bedroom, so I walk that way, finding him dancing to the beat of the song in his head as he puts clothes in the dresser.

He turns around, gasping and putting his hand on his chest as I startle him. “Balt.”

“Sorry. I was just watching you.”

“Like what you see?”

“I sure do.”

He smiles, patting my chest as he saunters past me to the bed, where one of his suitcases is open. “I left two drawers open for you. Is that enough?”

I nod, leaning against the edge of the bed next to him. “I don’t have much that goes in drawers. Actually, I need to buy some casual clothes. Anywhere we can do that?”

“Sure. We can go into Madison.”

“Great. This is all I have, and I had to buy it to travel.”