Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 15617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 78(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 52(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 78(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 52(@300wpm)
“Having fun.” Mikayla snorted. “Okay, Lennox. Keep lying to yourself.”
I huffed and grabbed the new flyers she printed this morning to hang up on the windows. “I’m going to hang these up, and maybe when I come back, you’ll be done with your delulu nonsense.”
She laughed so hard, she snorted. “Did you just say delulu?”
I gave her a stiff middle finger before walking out of the office, and her laughter only grew in volume. It only took about fifteen minutes to hang the flyers up. When I was done, I poked my head into Mikayla’s office, where she was working on spreadsheets. “Hey, I’m going to grab lunch real quick. You want anything?”
She shook her head. “I brought lunch with me today. Take your time. It’s slow right now.”
I nodded and headed out of the gym, smiling at one of the patrons who was walking in. When I got to my car, I tightened my hands around my keys, my teeth clenched so tight, my jaw ached.
All but one of my tires had been slashed. Fucking slashed.
My hands shook as I pulled my phone out of my pocket, calling the police. I scanned the parking lot for Tyler—because I knew this was his doing—but he wasn’t around. Neither was his vehicle. At least it was daylight—harder for him to try something stupid. And I had to admit, seeing my tires slashed had fear crawling up my throat.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
I swallowed thickly. “Someone slashed three of my tires.”
The dispatcher collected my information, assured me an officer was on the way, and then I ended the call. After taking my phone out of emergency mode, I called Harlan. I barely managed to find his contact because my hands were shaking so badly that I almost couldn’t navigate the phone.
“Lennox?” I heard power tools running in the background, but they were quickly growing quieter. He must have walked outside. “What’s going on, doll?”
I drew in a deep shaky breath, tears springing to my eyes. I swallowed them down. I would not fucking cry. Tyler wouldn’t get the goddamn satisfaction.
“Three of my tires have been cut,” I rasped.
He was silent for a moment. The only reason I knew the call hadn’t been dropped was because I could still hear the other guys working. “Sorry,” he growled after a moment. “Did you say your fucking tires were slashed?” he snarled.
“Yes,” I croaked, my hand tightening around the phone. “You just—you told me to call if—” I was stumbling over my words so bad, panic making me freak out.
“Did you call the police?” he asked, cutting me off. When I gave an affirmative, he continued, “Get your fucking ass in the gym, and do not come out until the officers arrive. Do you understand me?”
“Okay,” I whispered, quickly turning on my heel and heading back into the gym. Mikayla was helping someone with one of the stair masters, but she immediately separated herself, apologizing quickly, before making her way over to me. I must have looked really damn bad.
“I’m in the gym,” I told him.
“Good. I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Harlan promised right before the line went dead.
Mikayla grasped my shoulders as I slowly lowered the phone from my ear. “Lennox, what in the hell is going on? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face, willing myself to get my shit under control. Tyler was a fucking bully. That was it. He was trying to scare me. He was accomplishing it for sure, but he wouldn’t really do anything to hurt me, would he? I didn’t think he would. He had never seemed like the type.
But then again, slashing my tires and publicly attacking me didn’t seem like the Tyler I knew either.
God, what the fuck had I started?
“Lennox?” Mikayla asked again.
“He, um…” I heaved a tired breath. “Tyler cut three of my tires.”
Her eyes blazed with fury. “He did what?”
I shrugged. “They’re cut. Completely deflated. No hope of fixing them. I’m not sure what his plan is, but…” My voice trailed off. Because I didn’t know the but. Without knowing his plan, I had no way of making some kind of real plan to protect myself.
Mikayla looked over my shoulder. “Cops are here.”
I pulled away from her. “I need to go out there.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. “And I think I’m going to take the rest of the day off after this.”
She waved me off. “Go. And be careful, okay? I’ll call you later and check on you.”
I nodded and walked out of the gym, heading to the parking lot where two squad cars were pulled in behind my vehicle. People were pouring out of stores to see what was going on. I did my best to ignore them. They would eventually get bored when they saw it was nothing more than busted ass fucking tires.