Page 27 of Only Ever Yours
My ex pulled his phone out of his pocket. “You must have realised I’d been tracking your location for months. When I noticed you were travelling this morning, I thought I’d take the opportunity to catch up.”
“You. Did. What?” I could hardly believe what Gil was saying. Now it all made sense. How he’d turn up on a night out when I hadn’t told him where I’d be. I felt sick.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jase’s hands balling into fists. I didn’t want him to do anything he might regret and blocked his path to Gil.
“Nothing I hadn’t done when we were together. I like to know where you are.” A manic grin crossed his features.
“She’s not with you anymore. Stay away from her.” Jase’s voice came from behind me. “I think you need to leave while you can still walk.”
“Ooh, threats.” Gil’s grin grew wider. “I think I could take you in a fight.”
Given Jase towered over Gil and had a good few pounds on him, I doubted his claim. Plus, Gil wasn’t exactly known for fighting, but Jase could handle himself.
Jase let out a laugh. “Then let’s take this outside, mate.” He sidestepped me and advanced on Gil.
“Let’s not be too hasty.” Gil moved backwards, turningtowards me with a pleading look on his face. “I only wanted to see you again.”
“I’m pretty sure she didn’t want to see you, so why don’t you fuck off?”
Gil stared at me, then at Jase. “Good little guard dog you’ve got here.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’ve got a date tonight, and I don’t want to turn up with a black eye. I’ll say goodbye, Hollis. For now, anyway.” He blew me a kiss and walked out.
A couple of moments later, I heard his footsteps, then the front door opening before it slammed shut.
Slumping back against the wardrobe door, I let out a huge breath.
“That guy is seriously damaged.” Jase waved his hands around. “What the hell happened between you two? Did he ever hurt you?” Concern radiated across his face, and I knew I’d been right about him being protective of me.
“It doesn’t matter.” I brushed it off. “Let’s get my stuff packed and get out of here. I want to go home.”
We worked quickly to get all my belongings packed away into the boxes. Jase loaded up the van and waited while I did a final sweep of the place. It had worked well as a bolthole after I’d moved out of Gil’s, but I was glad to leave it behind.
By the time we left, it was close to five o’clock. As predicted, traffic was gridlocked, and to make matters worse, it had started to rain. We sat in silence while the radio blared in the background. Inane DJ chatter filled the van, the only other sound an occasional squeak from the windscreen wipers on the glass. After we finally got out of London, I expected the journey to be much better. It turned out I couldn’t have been more wrong. If we got above fortymiles an hour on the first motorway, we were lucky. The weather worsened the closer we got to Maplebrook, and the drive was stop-start for ages until we ground to a halt again.
“I just want to get home!” I wailed, knowing I was being unreasonable. Jase was doing me a favour, and I didn’t want to come across like a spoiled brat. But I was tired, the run-in with Gil had unnerved me, and I wanted to get as far away as possible.
“Why don’t you check a travel app and see if you can work out what’s going on?” He sounded as tired as I did.
Fishing my phone from my bag, I held it in my hand and stared at it. “How could he do that?” I wondered, my tone barely above a whisper. “He’s been tracking me?”
Without taking his eyes off the road, Jase reached for my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “We’ll sort it out. Get you a new phone. Whatever it takes to get that fucker out of your life for good.”
I squeezed his hand before he took it back. “Let me see what’s going on with this traffic.” I wished I hadn’t as I read the updates. “There’s been an accident farther down the motorway and no idea of when it will be cleared. They’re suggesting various diversions. It could take hours.” I sighed.
Jase rubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t take sitting in this van much longer. What do you say we get off at the next services? Get something to eat and see how things go.”
The slice of banana cake had been hours ago, and while I didn’t have much of an appetite, I couldn’t deny Jase his request.
“Sure. Sounds good.”
It took us a further half an hour to get off the motorway, and it seemed everyone else had the same idea. Theplace was packed, and in the end, we managed to find a couple who were prepared to share their table with us. I got us burgers, chips, and fizzy drinks, pretty sure anything I couldn’t eat Jase would be able to finish. I nibbled on a few fries and had a couple of bites of the burger before pushing it away.
Jase eyed it. “You finished with that?”
I nodded, sucking the Coke up my straw.
“Mind if I have some?”
I shook my head.
