Called to Order (26 page)

When she got to her door, she reached for her pockets that weren’t there and frowned. “Do you have my keys?”

“No. I left them with my items at the farm.” He shut his eyes and the door gave a click and popped open.

“Well that’s a neat trick.” She pushed through the door and plopped on the couch and sighed. “There’s no place like home.”

Adam closed the door and stood watching her. “Do you need to do anything before we contact your employer?”

“I was thinking we could do that in the morning.”

“I cannot risk going out in the daylight, Anna.”

“You can stay here. I’ll go.”

“I do not think so.”

She frowned at him and crossed her arms. “Why not?”

“One, because I do not know this Jim. Two, because I do not care for this Kyle. But mostly because, three, we still do not know where Cain is.”

She scoffed. “Well he’s not here.”

“No one knows where he is, Anna. Until he is found or you are bonded, I do not trust him.”

“Fine. Let me e-mail my professors first.”

An hour later she shut down her laptop and sighed. “Let’s hope that works. I guess we should get some boxes from the bar to pack some of my stuff in.”

“We cannot bring all of these things with us, Anna.”

“Well I can’t leave everything here. Someone will steal it, and once I stop paying my rent, my landlord will throw it all out.”

“I will pay your rent six months in advance to make sure your items are left alone.”

“Adam, that’s ridiculous. What if I come back in a few days? You would hate me, and I would be living off your money.”

He looked incredibly sad at the idea. “Anna, if that is what you chose, I would be dead.”

Her mood deflated dramatically. She spent the next few minutes in the bathroom. Adam had asked her for a piece of paper and began making some sort of list. Anna needed a few minutes to herself.

As she sat on the toilet seat of her cramped, efficiently decorated bathroom, she held the toilet-paper cover her mom had purchased at a yard sale when she was a little girl. It was purple with orange crocheted flowers sewn here and there. She remembered her mother saying something to the woman making the sale. She had asked about a matching plunger cover. Anna didn’t have many memories like that of her mother. Mostly they were of her mom coming and going.

She chuckled softly. How ridiculous was it that Annalise’s one memory of her mother indulging in something for herself was at a yard sale trying to purchase a plunger cover? For a reason unknown to her, Anna pressed the dried crocheted yarn to her nose and breathed in. She wasn’t surprised when it smelled nothing like her mother. She placed it back on the windowsill.

Did any of this stuff really matter? If she didn’t agree to go with Adam, with or without her personal belongings, he would die. How was she supposed to go on with her life knowing she had caused a good man to die?
 
Was there really any question to what the right decision was here? When measuring the value of her possessions against the value of his life, there really was no comparison.

She honestly had not missed the chore of applying makeup over the past few days. Her clothes were nothing special to begin with. As far as furniture, she didn’t really have any good pieces. It was mostly just mismatched junk. The longer she thought about it, the less she felt like lugging any of her crap with her.

She fought the sudden urge to cry. Had her existence always been so inconsequential?
 
No one had even e-mailed her to see why she had missed her midterms. When she checked her missed calls, the only number listed was from the bar, and that was probably because they were missing their server during happy hour. Was her most significant quality her ability to serve up greasy food and refill draft beers?

It seemed as if rather than making her own footprints on the world she had merely been hopping in the beaten tracks of everyone else. In twenty-three years had she really not left a single mark on the world other than as a barmaid?
 

She watched as a tear landed silently on the tile floor.

“Anna?”

She turned to the door, grateful Adam did not simply walk in. “I’ll be out in a sec.”
 
Anna blotted her eyes and stood. Looking in the mirror, she huffed at how quickly her eyes had turned pink. She began to wash her hands. When she turned to reach for the hand towel, she paused. Adam was now watching her from the open door.

“You are upset.”

Despite her soft laugh, another tear fell past her lashes. “No, I’m just being ridiculous. Don’t worry. I’ll stop in a minute. I am not even sure why I am crying.”

He tilted his head and watched her. Why did he have to look at her like that, with such patience and wonder?
 
“Annalise, when I said you could not bring all of your possessions, I did not intend to hurt you. I am sorry.”

She wiped her eyes and sat back on the toilet seat. “It’s not that. I don’t even know why I would want to bring any of this junk.”

“Because it is not junk. These are your possessions. All of these items are a part of the world you are used to. It was wrong of me to make you feel as if they had no place in our future. I cannot promise you a modern home, but I can allow some concessions so long as they are met with discretion.”

He moved to sit on the lip of the tub across from her. Placing a finger under her chin, he gently tipped her face up. She looked into his eyes and wanted to cry all over again for the concern she saw in his expression. “Are you always so understanding, Adam?”

“I do not like to see you cry,
ainsicht.
But yes, I will always try my best to understand you. It is what a partnership should be based on, understanding one another.”

“You are so different, Adam.”

He seemed to retreat slightly, pulling his hands away and averting his gaze. “I wish I was not so different. Perhaps if I was more like the English men you are accustomed to it would be easier for you to accept being my mate.”

“No, Adam. You are so much better than any English man I have ever met. I meant it as a compliment.”

He looked at her then. She noticed the way his lip twitched slightly as if her words made him want to smile. He had distracted her enough that she had stopped crying. Softly, Anna placed her palm along his strong jaw. “Whatever happens, I want you to know I think you will make a wonderful…mate someday.” Then he did smile and proceeded to kiss her sweetly.

* * * *

Adam held the door to the establishment where Anna worked and followed her in. His skin was prickling. There were twelve males in the establishment, too many males in such a small space, too close to his mate. His eyes immediately found the man Kyle.

“Do you want to sit in a booth and wait while I talk to Kyle?” Anna asked.

He gazed down at her. She was beautiful with her hair flowing freely down her shoulders, the yellow of her top making her look fresh and youthful, her skirt hiding her soft, tapered legs. “No, I will go with you.”

She sighed. “Adam, I need to talk to Kyle alone.”

He did not want her speaking to any other male, especially alone. She was his. Since feeding from her earlier that day, he had been feeling more and more possessive. While they were shopping, a sense of unease had settled over him. Males were looking at her, watching her. He could feel their admiration and the weight of their filthy thoughts, thoughts about his mate. “I will come with you.”

She leaned close and whispered, “Don’t do this.”

He had the fleeting thought of carrying her from the bar and taking her directly back to his home. This was a mistake, bringing her back here. He began to suffer waves of vertigo the moment they had parked the car. His head still ached from being in the sun longer than he should have that day, and his gums pulsed and his fingers twitched. He was growing
feeish,
his beast nagging to come out and play. He growled.

She pulled him closer and snapped, “Adam, pull it together!”

“I do not want you here around these men.”

“Well, this is what we agreed on. I need to talk to Kyle, and if Jim is here I need to see him as well. You cannot be there when I talk to Jim. I have worked for him for two years. He will think it’s rude if I bring you. Now stay here. I’ll be right back.”

She turned to head toward the bar. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “I go with you or we leave now.”

He could tell she was growing irritated. He did not want to upset her. He simply did not have a tight hold on his emotions at the moment, and the last thing they needed was to make a scene. “I can feel it,
ainsicht.
”

Frustration rung in her hushed tone as she snapped, “Feel what?”

“My hunger. Being here is no good. Do not push me too far on this. Do what you must and accept the fact that I am not leaving you. Either that, or risk pushing me and I may do something we both regret.”

She looked at him, her eyes traveling over the tight set of his jaw, the tension in his shoulders, and how tightly he clenched his fists. “Okay, Adam,” she quietly agreed in a shaky voice.

He followed her toward the bar, never taking his palm from the protective place he rested it on her back. The man behind the bar turned and paused when he spotted them.

“Lisey! Where have you been?”

“Hi, Kyle. I’ve been sick.”

“Sick? You could have called,” the man said in an irritated tone causing Adam to step closer to Anna and stare down at him, a warning in his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I was really…out of it. I took a lot of cold medicine and was pretty much dead to the world for the past few days. I even had to reschedule my finals.”

“Well, we’ve been really busy here and stuck without a waitress.”

Anna scrunched up her face and placed her fists on her hips. “Well in case you were wondering,
I’m fine!”

“Well good. Your apron’s at your station.”

“Kyle,” she snapped, “weren’t you a little concerned when you didn’t hear from me? Did you even stop by to see if I was okay?”

The man made a confused expression. “Why would I do that? We broke up. I called a few times, but when you didn’t get back to me I figured you were just busy.”

She scoffed. “Well…” Adam knew she had no recollection of them ending their relationship. She had been unconscious, and he had implanted the memory in the man’s mind. This was obviously confusing his mate. “Well I hope you know I dumped you!” she finally snapped.

The man shrugged indifferently. “You better go talk to Jim. When he couldn’t get a hold of you, he put an ad in the paper for a new waitress.”

Anna huffed and turned away. Adam kept pace with her as she walked quickly toward the back of the bar. After they walked through a narrow opening and came to the small hall across from the restrooms, she stopped and stomped her foot angrily. “What an asshole!”

“Anna—”

“Can you believe him? Next month would have been our one-year anniversary, and he acts like I never meant anything to him. Well he can just eat shit. I don’t need him. Him or this stupid job.”

Before Adam could comment on how pleased that statement made him, she was already moving again. She walked to a door from which a sign hung stating ‘Employees Only’ and knocked. Her foot tapped quickly over the scuffed wood floor.

“Come in.”

She opened the door and stepped in. Adam waited at the open door. The office did not offer much room. There were boxes and large rolls of toilet tissue stacked along the wall. An older man missing most of his hair sat at a worn desk with papers spread across the surface.