Page 56 of Dominion
“Tell her to meet me at my place,” she said, picking up her purse and fishing out the keys.
“Will do,” Zolla said, opening the door and waiting for her to go through it first.
“Thanks,” she said, turning and giving Zolla a hug.
He froze, patting her awkwardly on the back. He cleared his throat. “Uh, no problem. You shouldn’t need to put anything on that bite—no hydrogen peroxide or antibiotic. The serum will protect you from infection. Are you okay to drive or do you still feel drugged?”
“I’m okay to drive,” she said. She felt odd, but the vertigo had worn off. “Is it okay to get it wet? I could use a long shower.”
“Should be fine. Just take it easy today. Put my number in your phone and call me if you have any questions or if you feel worse. Or if you need anything.”
She entered him into her contacts and gave him a weak smile. “Thanks again, Zolla.”
“Yeah. Be kind to your wolf, Ashley. He really is sorry.”
She shrugged. “He has yet to tell me that.”Not that she’d given him the opportunity.
She was grateful that Zolla didn’t point out that would have been impossible since she’d refused to take Ben’s call. She knew she was being somewhat irrational, but Ben’s abandonment was the clincher in a whole string of emotional shut-outs from the very beginning of their relationship.
She’d had enough. She didn’t know where they’d be going from here, but she was damn sure she wasn’t going to let it continue like this. She couldn’t go on feeling this unsteady. She didn’t give herself to a guy only to have him vanish every time things got intense.
10
That afternoon, Ben sat in his office, the quiet deafening. Zolla had come to consult with Ben’s IT guys to get all the servers back up and running and the security back in place.
His stomach stayed in knots all day thinking about Ashley. The fact that she didn’t take his call provided a fresh source of torture. He tried again several times, but each time it went straight to voicemail, as if she’d shut her phone off or her battery was dead.
He prayed she wasn’t suffering. He had doubts about how well Zolla had cared for her. Maybe he should’ve insisted she be taken into emergency for stitches. Had she been given any painkillers? Would she ever speak to him again?
As he walked out to his car, he tried her again. Once more it went straight to voicemail. He hadn’t left a message the other times, but he made an attempt. “Ashley,” he said. His mind went blank. What the hell did you say in this situation? Was there a Hallmark card for this?I’m sorry I almost tore your throat out, will you be my valentine?Or maybeI’m ready to go to the next step with you… do you mind if I permanently scar your flesh to embed my scent?No, even better,I’d like to endanger you by making sure all my enemies know I care. Hope you don’t mind the scarring.
Damn. He was really the biggest asshat, wasn’t he?
He drew a breath and exhaled. “Please call me. I really need to talk to you. I—I’m sorry, Ashley. I need to see you…” He started to sayplease call me,but realizing he’d already said that, hit ‘end,’ and rubbed his forehead.
What if she didn’t call? Should he show up at her house? Or wait to see her at work? God, would she even come to work? The thought of running Stone without her left him empty. In less than a week, she had become his everything. Because of her, he wanted to fix Stone, he wanted to man up and be the leader his brother had expected him to be. Leon deserved that. Ashley somehow had woken him up from the stupor he’d been in since his brother’s death.
He got in his car and drove to her house. The lights were on and he could see Ashley and Melissa sitting together on the sofa. He sat with the car idling for a moment, considering. Both women probably had a lot to share with each other. Maybe it was better to let them lick their wounds together without him interrupting.
He put the Mustang back in gear and drove home.
Turningoff her phone when she was angry with Ben for abandoning her rivaled cutting off her nose to spite her face. Probably some part of her wanted to punish him. And maybe the other just wasn’t ready to talk. She needed to sort out her feelings about the whole ‘marking’ thing.
By the time she had told the entire story to Mel, she’d begun to feel the magnitude of it all. It wasn’t just about being shocked over the violence or angry over the abandonment. Ben had forever marked her as his mate. She had to admit her heart did a giddy dance when she realized the implications. She’d been right—he did have a thing for her. A serious thing, by the sounds of it. She didn’t know what it meant to be a wolf’s mate, but if they could work past the walls Ben put up, she sure as hell wanted to give it a try.
She had turned her phone back on before she went to bed, and was satisfied to hear Ben’s message. He’d sounded terrible. She still hadn’t been ready to talk to him, but she felt a lot better. Today, she could face him at work. They would talk and could move forward from there.
She drove in early and found a place in the garage close to the elevator. “Hang on,” she called out as the elevator doors shut on a man she didn’t recognize. She shoved her hand between the doors to open them and slid in. “Thirty-fifth floor, please,” she said.
He pressed the button without looking at her. She took in his shiny shoes first, then his crisp, clean designer business suit. He had dark hair, graying at the temples, and olive skin, darker than Ben’s. His eyes met hers and he wrinkled his nose as he sniffed the air.
She froze at the distinctly wolf-like gesture.
Her tension seemed to be the confirmation he needed because his lips curled into an ugly smile. “You’ve been freshly marked,” he observed in a thick Spanish accent.
She jerked her gaze away and looked up at the illuminated floor numbers above the doors. “I don’t know what you mean.”
In one swift movement, he pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket and pointed it at her. “When the elevator reaches the destination, you will stay on, close the doors, and take it back down to the garage.”