Page 19 of Shattered Veil

He wanted to kill Wes, but Dad knew better than to mess with a cop. You mess with one, you mess with them all. My father’s dark secrets in the wrong hands would hurt him.

It pained him to have to protect his sketchy life over my well-being. But I understood. Going after Wesley was a lose/lose decision.

Six months in Sydney helped me recover, and toward the end of our stay, I gave dating another try. That bad date had soured my mood, but being all dressed up on the plane led to Balor noticing me. And talking to me. Even if he mistook me for an escort. He gave me the greatest night of my life.

Not only hadn’t I been afraid, but my mind also opened to the unbelievable pleasure I could receive from a man’s hand without the fear of pain.

Now I have all this extra cash to throw around, but I don’t have to worry about rent. Not that freeloading is my brand. Having nowhere else to live here in New York, I agreed to move into Dad’s luxury apartment in Midtown Manhattan. He thinks I’m broke. I can’t explain where my sudden wealth came from. Plus, I don’t feel comfortable living alone yet.

Even as a cop, Wes can flash his badge and tin his way into any building. I feel safer living in a high-rise with top-notch security and an intercom system to give me a heads up.

But I can’t be afraid of my ex forever. I’m not his girlfriend anymore. It’s not a he said/she said domestic dispute. I’m a civilian. And if he bothers me again, I won’thold back reporting him this time.

I doubt he’ll go near me. I kept my phone, my socials, and my email. There’s been no messages. It’s like he disappeared. Wes doesn’t use social media. Most cops don’t—to avoid retaliation.

Except for an email he uses for work, he’s nearly off the grid.

“Are you going back to Fredricks Elementary?” Hannah asks, knocking me out of my thoughts.

“They filled my spot again. I can apply in a few months for the next school year. My dad got me an assistant job with his new boss.” I stick my tongue out to signal my distaste for the pity position and working for some hot-shot data security manager as his assistant.

“Your dad got a new job?” Hannah asks.

“A week before we left Sydney, he dropped a bombshell on me,” I say, pushing the quiche around on my plate. “He quit his job at World Trade Bank and got hired by a private company here in New York. Said his new boss recruited him at a technical conference he went to about the global outage right before Christmas.”

“That outage was unreal,” Val says, clutching her phone.

“I know.”

“A new job will keep you busy.” Hannah smiles.

I can’t move back in with her since she lives in an unmanned building, and Wes knows Hannah still lives there. I would never put her in danger.

“When do you start?” she adds.

“Next week when Dad gets back.” I exhale.

“It won’t be that bad,” Val says.

“Easy for you to say, you bake cookies out of your apartment, taste test your products,andmake a killing.”

The girls keep talking, but I begin getting stressed about where to deposit the money Balor gave me. I heardbanks track transactions over ten thousand.

I’ll have to open several accounts, or keep several thousand tucked away in my bedroom. Who knew having money could be this exhausting? Thinking about the money leads me back to thinking about Balor.

God, I can’t get him out of my head. I’m considering asking my father to do a little hacking to find out Balor’s last name from his Sydney to L.A. flight info. I just haven’t come up with a reason why I need to know the name of some random guy who sat next to me on the plane.

Since Wes, he’s been very protective of me.

If Dad finds out Balor mistook me for a hooker and then left me in a hotel, my father would destroy him with a single keystroke.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Balor

Several blaring alarms rouse me from sleep. Since the flight from Sydney, my sleeping has been so fucked up again and I feel like a truck hit me in the middle of the night. I’ve needed two alarm clocks and both phones, regular and burner, to wake my ass up every morning.

I’m tempted to just send them all against a wall to shut the hell up, but then I realize it’s Thursday.