Page 15 of Tempt My Heart

Sometimes the photos were of her, others were her mom’s place—both unnerved her. She wanted to protect the people she loved, as well as herself, but she wasn’t sure what she should do. Maybe she could speak to an attorney or something and find out what kind of laws he was breaking.

Either way, if she wanted to keep everyone safe then she needed to dosomethingto keep Jared out of her life.

* * *

"Hey, how'd it go?"Jesse called as she shut the front door and flung her purse into the corner of the room. "You're not drunk, so I figure that's a good sign."

Ali looked up and Jesse swore as she took in Ali's puffy eyes ringed in red and the blotchy state of her skin.

"I'll kill him." Jesse spun towards the door as if she was going to do just that when Ali patted the space next to her on the couch.

"It's okay," she said, voice thick from the sobs that had wracked her body as soon as she'd got home and found Jared waiting on her doorstep. He hadn’t said anything to her, just smiled in a way that made her queasy. He had nothing left to say to her until she made a decision, so she could only assume his presence had been a threat—a reminder that he knew where she lived and what her routine was. "Today was just… It sucked."

"What happened?"

She shrugged. "He was waiting outside of the apartment building."

"Bastard." Jesse's nostrils flared and it soothed something inside that her friend was so pissed on her behalf. "Then what happened?"

"He just left, not like last time when he grabbed me and—"Crap. She’d deliberately not mentioned her previous encounter to her friends, mostly because she hadn’t seen much of them at home the past couple of days. It was easier to keep the truth to herself when she didn’t have to see them.

Jesse’s eyes flashed as she frowned at Ali. "And?"

"Christopher showed up and told him to take his hands off me."

Jesse's mouth fell open before her eyes lit up, a smirk crossing her mouth. "I knew I liked him."

Ali snorted. "If I hadn't been so scared, it would have been funny. I think his exact words were something like,if you like your hands attached to your body then I would recommend letting her go."

Jesse cackled and Ali couldn't help but laugh too.

"Is your mom okay? Are you? I can’t believe you didn’t tell us what happened."

She winced. "I’m sorry. My mom’s fine, I asked Freya to send a guy over. I’ll be fine too." For the most part, she was just having trouble reconciling that any of this was actually happening to her or that she'd let herself be taken in by Jared. "I just feel like an idiot to have let him put me in this position."

"You couldn't have known," Jesse murmured and she knew she was right.

"I guess." Ali sighed. "Anyway, enough about me. What's up with you?"

"Me? What makes you think something's wrong with me?"

Ali ran an eye over Jesse's make-up, noting the bright red lipstick, and the fresh piercing at the top of one of her ears. "You only wear red when you're mad and you only get new piercings when you want to cheer yourself up."

"You know me too well." Jesse wrinkled her nose. "It’s nothing really. I slept with someone the other night and they didn't call me back is all."

"I'm sorry. But if they can't see how amazing you are then it's their loss."

Jesse half-smiled and patted her on the leg. "I'll get over it. Is Freya out tonight?"

She nodded. "Seeing her dad I think."

"Wanna watch a movie?"

"Sure," Ali said as she stood. "I'm just going to wash some of the tears off my face first."

Jesse smiled. "You've cried it all out now, babe. Don't waste any more on that asswipe. You'll get dehydrated."

Ali laughed and silently agreed, even if her tears had been more for herself than Jared and borne out of stress and frustration. Tomorrow was a new day, she wasn't going to let anything ruin it. Not even her pending resignation. She was doing the right thing, even if it hurt. There would be other jobs.

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