Page 16 of Tempting Jada

“But it could be today or several days?” Jada asked.

Kyra shrugged. “It’s all the information they would give me. I’m sorry.”

Jada nodded. It’s all that could be done at the moment.

Chapter Eight

The girls turned toward the driveway as the truck for the store rambled by.

“I’m going to head down there and help,” Jada said.

“I’ll get your plate,” Amelia said.

Lina scowled, but she didn’t have a moment to ask her friend why.

Lina said, “I’ll be down in a bit.”

Jada nodded and headed down to the store by herself. A few of them would make it down when they could to help. It wasn’t a problem because the guys would be there as security and to do the heavy lifting.

The man backed up his truck to the store. When she first saw him, he was opening the back doors when she got closer to the shop. He looked around when he saw her and then looked back at her. It was a look that said,“yeah, I’d rape you if given a chance,”and it sent a spike of pure fear through her. She looked around and stayed calm, but her heart was about to burst from her chest when she didn’t see any of the guys.

Jada was practically alone with the creep. She cleared her throat. She shouldn’t worry because people were coming. She just had to stay calm. But it was like facing an angry pit bull. The guy was unpredictable and would attack at any moment. Logically, the guy knew what would happen to him if he fucked with the women, so she didn’t see him taking a chance to touch her. His looks were enough to undress her and violate her, though. His expression was pure black evil. She’d never seen anything like it.

“Good morning. I’ll get the doors for you. The guys are coming.” She propped open the two glass doors with boxes of beer.

“Oh, I know that. They never leave you women unattended. Until now, of course.”

“I’m not by myself, though. They’ll get started if you’d have the doors to your truck secure and the ramp down like usual.” She walked into the store and behind the counter, where a knife was hidden.

The man took several steps into the store toward her.

“I think you should stay outside,” she said. “The guys won’t like you in the store with me.” Her voice shook, and she fought to steady it. God, she hated giving this guy any pleasure, and she knew he was aware she was scared. Instead of making it better, maybe by moving away from the truck or something, he wanted to inflict any kind of pain he could for as long as he could.

“The guys are slacking. That’s not nice or smart. You never know when something bad could happen,”

Could a menacing tone of voice affect someone, or was she just being sensitive because of Titan? The man had seemed friendly and normal before and never even tried to look at the women.

The man smiled and stuck a toothpick into the side of his mouth, turned, and walked back out. Within a second after he stepped out, a few guys came through the door. The fear drained from her so fast she almost felt faint.

“Hey.” Traeger came to stand at the counter and looked her over with concern. “Why were you here by yourself?”

She straightened her shirt, inhaled, and tried to smile. “The delivery guy was waiting, and I knew you guys would be down here shortly.”

He scowled. “If you try to come here alone, I want you to turn right around and head back to the house for some guys. Got it?”

“I will,” Jada said.

“Did something happen?” Traeger asked.

“No. Everything’s fine.”

She could tell he didn’t believe her, but she needed to talk to the girls first. She grabbed a box cutter. “I better get to work. We have a large shipment this week.”

She walked away and knew Traeger’s eyes followed her, keeping them there the whole time. It was disconcerting, for sure. Jada also noticed him studying the delivery driver. Lina, Amelia, Zoe, Harley, and Kyra walked in, talking, and she relaxed even more.

“Where do you want us?” Kyra asked.

“You all know where it goes, so just start getting boxes open. Does someone want to help me put them on the shelves?”

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