Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 111359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Short of breaking in, there wasn’t much he could do.
And then when he’d seen her at the pharmacy, she’d been so cold to him. He wasn’t going to force himself on her.
Hannah had given Mia his jacket to return it to him. Mia had given him an interested look, but hadn’t said anything.
Which was a freaking miracle.
Tanner glanced up from his food and looked from him to them with interest.
“Hey. You guys want to sit?” Tanner asked.
“Um, no, we just spotted you as we were walking past,” Melody said with uncharacteristic hesitancy. “I just . . . was Hannah all right with you walking her home last weekend? Was she . . . did she seem okay?”
He saw the worry etched into Melody’s face. Brye’s, as well. Brye ran the local gym, of which Raid was a member but didn’t make it there that often. Still, he knew they were both good people.
“No,” he said. “She didn’t seem okay. Do you have some insight into what’s going on with her?”
They both shared a look, and Brye sighed. “Tell him, Mel.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know where her head is. She might not forgive me for saying anything to you about this.”
“If you have some idea of what is going on with Hannah, you need to tell me,” he demanded, unused to not getting his way.
Melody straightened her shoulders. “Not if you’re not really into her.”
“I followed her home the other night. Kept her safe.”
“Which a lot of guys around here would do. And you haven’t exactly shown an interest in her before now. She had a crush on you for so long and you barely knew she was alive.”
Fuck.
It took all he had not to flinch at the accusation.
“Hannah needs someone who cares about her wellbeing. Who’s invested in her enough to keep pushing even when she pushes them away.”
Raid narrowed his gaze at Melody. Brye wrapped an arm around her and drew her close, sending Raid a warning look. He obviously didn’t like the look on Raid’s face.
“I was going to ask her out months ago,” Raid admitted.
He knew she was shocked when she jolted, staring at him wide-eyed. “What? You were?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you?” A look of such anguish crossed Melody’s face that it took his breath away. The hurt and pain in there . . . fuck.
What had happened to Hannah to make Melody feel like this?
And did he really want to know?
“Because by the time I got back from New Orleans, she was already seeing someone else.”
Melody glanced away for a moment. “And now? How do you feel about her?”
“Not sure that’s really your business.”
“Maybe it wasn’t before. But Hannah is different now. And she needs us to look out for her since we didn’t before.” Melody chewed her lip, looking unsure.
“Look, Hannah doesn’t seem interested in talking to me. I’ve tried knocking on her door a few times this week and she never answers. The one other time I did see her, she totally brushed me off.”
“She’s avoiding all of us,” Melody told him. “We’re scared for her. Really worried. She’s not herself. She’s pulling away from us and we don’t . . . we don’t know what to do.” Her voice cracked and all three men leaned toward her.
Brye drew her into his chest. “Hush, sweetheart. It will be all right.”
“But what if it’s not? We’ve all tried to help her and she keeps putting up this wall.”
What the hell had happened to her? Worry churned in his gut.
“You know that Hannah started dating this guy, Steven,” Brye told them. “She met him on a dating site.”
“What?” Raid snapped. A dating site?
“Yeah.” Brye ran his hand over his face. “I didn’t find out until after she’d started talking to him that she’d signed up for the site.” He sent Melody another stern look.
She started shifting from foot to foot, but she started talking. “It was a site that specialized in helping submissives find a Dominant.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, are you kidding me?” Raid shot out.
Around him, people stopped and stared. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before leaning forward. “You let her fucking do that? What were you thinking?”
“Hey! Watch your tone!” Brye glared at Raid.
“The two of you better sit,” Tanner said, moving out and sitting next to him so they could sit across from them.
Brye continued to glare at Raid.
“Brye, honey, it’s okay,” Melody said. “Raid’s right. We shouldn’t have let her use that site, let alone encourage her. But Josie’s cousin used it and found this amazing guy. And on the website they said that they vetted people and they gave her a number to call if she thought anything felt wrong during her first date. They even offer a chaperoning service and advise people to have their first date somewhere public, like in the bar area of their club.”