Page 83 of Primal Urges

The man looked terrifying when he was pissed as shit.

“Well, I have no proof or anything, and perhaps I might be wrong, but I think it might have been Lucas’s ex who set fire to the barn.”

“His ex?” Marcus asked.

“Yes. The guy was emotionally and physically abusive, and Lucas had to escape by drugging the guy and running off in the night. I don’t know much about the asshole, just that he is dangerous and connected.”

“Connected, how? As in mob-connected or politics-connected?”

“Connected as in he is a cop with a lot of corrupt friends.”

Marcus looked lost in thought as he gazed into the distance. Caden had noticed him like this before, especially when he was plotting a job or considering a complex next move.

“Okay, for now, we keep this shit to ourselves. I’ll see what I can dig up about Lucas and his ex.”

Caden agreed. There was no point in telling Lucas and having him worry if it turned out to be nothing in the end.

The fire was suspicious.

25

LUCAS

Things were starting to get out of control. Everywhere Lucas turned, he swore he saw his ex—at the grocery store, at the park, even waiting in line to get coffee, three customers up. It was getting to the point where Lucas was ready to check himself into a mental institution. How much paranoia could one mind take?

Then there was Caden. Ever since Sheriff Burke hauled him in to ask him a few questions, he’d been acting all secretive and shifty.

It was the kind of shifty that married men became right before they got busted for cheating on their wives—or husbands.

Caden was hiding something, and Lucas wanted to know what the fuck it was.

Sitting in a booth, he picked at the blueberry muffin he’d been working on for the past hour. His body might be sitting in Mona’s Café, but his mind was a million miles away.

What if Darryl really had found him? Where would he run off to next?

Thanks to the fire, he didn’t have any money saved, and he wasn’t really sure where he could run that Darryl wouldn’t be able to find him.

Things were beginning to feel hopeless.

Lucas’s head snapped up when he heard someone call out his name.

“Lucas?” the woman behind the counter asked. “Is your name Lucas?”

She was wearing an apron that announced her name was Jill, possibly the owner of this establishment, but Lucas really wasn’t sure.

“Yes, that’s me,” Lucas answered, confused.

The woman held out a phone to him and shrugged her shoulders. “You have a phone call.”

“Me?” Lucas asked, still confused by the situation.

Caden had bought him a replacement cell phone, so if it were him on the phone, he would have called him on that.

“Yes. They asked to speak to Lucas, the guy wearing the teal shirt and eating a muffin.”

His heart stopped in his chest, and all the air was suddenly sucked from his lungs.

He couldn’t breathe.

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