Page 95 of Abyss

I chuckle again, remembering I asked him something similar the night he found me in the throes of a nightmare. “I’d more likely miss a grizzly with a taste for human blood.” He doesn’t respond, but I have a feeling his lips are twitching. “Are you busy?”

“It doesn’t matter if I am.”

I curl my bottom lip into my mouth, smiling. “I, uh . . . I know you paid for Neil’s hospital bills and my car.”

He doesn’t deny it. “Okay.”

“How did you know which shop I had my car at? I never told you.”

He chuckles. “I heard you call them from your office phone, and when you left your desk a couple of minutes later, I just called the last number and gave them my info.”

My mouth drops open. The sneak! “You didn’t have to do that. You’re already paying me a crazy salary and—”

“I wanted to.”

“Hudson, that was way too—”

“Kav, I wanted to.”

I look down, digging my toes into the carpeted floor. “Why?”

He takes a moment to answer. “I don’t want you to have any debt when you start your new life.”

And just like that, my heart sinks.

My new life.

A life that starts without him—away from him—in just a few weeks.

I nod, wondering if this is the point I ask him what that means for us, but knowing it’s still too soon. We just established something between us last night, and the last thing I want to do is scare him off with questions about our future the day after. “Well, I wanted to say thank you.”

“When do you leave for your art therapy class?”

I look at my watch. “I was going to call an Uber, but now I’ll just drive there.”

“Or I could take you.”

I stop pacing inside my room. “What do you mean? How would you take me?”

“In my car,” he says, causing my heart to race. “I’m outside your house.”

“What?” I’m already running out of my bedroom toward the foyer where my boots and purse are. “When did you . . .? I mean, how long have you been here?”

“Who’s here?” Mom hollers behind me, stepping out of the kitchen.

“No one,” I yell back, pulling on my shoes and breathing heavily into my phone. I can’t believe he’s waiting outside my house! “I’ll see you next weekend.”

“Wait, but you never told me about your friend’s wedding. And what about that man she was going to introduce you to?”

“You told your mom about the backup dancer?” Hudson drawls in my ear, unamused, making me giggle.

He’s made it clear he’s a possessive man, and the feminist inside me should be appalled at the jealousy in his tone, but when it comes to Hudson Case, she’s nowhere to be seen. Instead, she revels in being owned and possessed by him.

“I’ll tell you about it next week.” My voice carries behind me to my mother as I pull my purse strap over my shoulder. “Bye, twirp. Be good!” I holler at my brother as I swing the door open and step out.

I blink rapidly, trying to adjust my eyes to the bright sunlight outside, before finding Hudson’s truck across the street. I rush toward him, hanging up the phone.

He exits the driver’s side as I run to him, stopping abruptly a few feet in front of him with my breath caught in my lungs. “How long have you been here?”

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