“What the hell are you doing?” she asks, trying to move out of my hold.

“You should have brought a jacket,” I explain, keeping her in my embrace.

“Let me go, please,” she says, trying to duck out, but my hold is too firm.

“Quit moving or I’ll throw you over my shoulder,” I threaten, meaning every word of it. Her movements still, her fight not that desperate to leave.

“You never used to be this annoying,” she huffs after a few beats, probably put out knowing my heat is just what she needed.

“No, you used to be the annoying one,” I reply as we walk up to the front of her shop.

“Sy, you don’t have to do this.” She stops suddenly and turns to face me. I can already see the argument play out over her face.

“Holly, don’t even bother. I’m staying. Told you, it’s club business,” I continue to lie. “You should get inside; you’re going to be late.” I nod toward the woman opening up the front doors.

“Fine, but you're wasting your time,” she adds before disappearing inside.

She might be right, but I still stand there for a few minutes watching her through the glass as she prepares for her day. Her fake smile is plastered on as she laughs her unrecognizable laugh. She looks up a few times, but doesn’t acknowledge me. After watching her start on her first client, I walk across the street and get myself a coffee. I look around, searching for a spot where I can watch her for a few hours. I know I’m probably taking this to the extreme, but after the party last week, seeing her lost in her head, I need to do something to pull her out. Everyone back at the clubhouse is worried about her. If only she could see we want to help her. My cell vibrates in my pocket and I fish it out, hoping it’s Rue telling me she managed to clear my weekend so I can make the trip back to Brighton. I pushed my visit out this year, slowly starting to distance myself, but guilt has been eating at me the last few days and the need to see her is strong.

“Yeah?” I answer without checking the caller ID.

“Where the fuck you at?” Nix barks down the phone.

“I’m out,” I reply, not telling him my business.

“Beau needs a second man on his pickup tonight. You free?”

“No, I’m out all day,” I tell him, not prepared to leave Holly alone.

“Where you at?”

“Is it important you know?”

“Quit fuckin’ around, Sy. Can you do it?” he asks, sounding pissed I’m fucking with him. I should say yes. This is the first call Beau has gotten through for the underground recovery we voted in months back. I know it’s huge for him, but I’ve come this far with Holly; I’m not going to leave her alone now.

“I’m with Holly today, so no, I can't fucking do it. Send Hunter with him,” I say, annoyed I just told him what I was doing.

“You’re with Holly, right now?” His tone suggests he doesn’t believe me.

“What the fuck, Nix! Yes, I’m with Holly.”

“Holly is at work, so quit fuckin’ around.”

“I know she’s at work. I just fucking walked her there.”

The line is quiet as he takes in what I just revealed. Fucking great.

“You walked her to work?” he asks in his no bullshit way, but I can hear the smile in his voice.

“Is that all you wanted?” I ignore his question.

“You, Sylas Dean, walked Holly to work?”

“Fuck off, Nix. I’m hanging up now,” I growl into the phone, not in the mood for his shit.

“Have fun,” he chimes down the line before I end the call. Smartass.

I know he has a reason to be shocked. I’ve gone from wanting nothing to do with her, to not being able to keep away, to giving her space. But I’m done. I’ve given her enough time and I’m tired of waiting for her to pull herself out of her head when I know I can help her. She just has to trust me.

“Are you going to buy anything else today?” the waitress asks after I’ve been sitting here for the last hour.

“Do I have to?” I snap, enjoying the quietness of watching Holly work.

“Yeah, you have to,” she replies in her whiney voice.

I stand, not in the mood to listen or argue with her. Dropping a twenty, I leave and decide to watch Holly from afar. I keep her in my line of sight, and try not to read too much into the familiar feelings which settle inside me every time she searches for me. Instead, I focus on what she doesn’t want people to see: the darkness prevailing. It threatens to send her into oblivion, one I know about all too well. I've had years to perfect the façade she's now putting on show for the world to see, but she's so absentminded and lost in her own thoughts she doesn't even realize how obvious it is. I've tried to fight the need to help her through the glooming shadows that lurk around her. But for reasons I don't even understand, this pull she has on me is so strong, walking away is not an option.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Holly

“Girl, I’m telling you now, if that fine piece of man-candy was standing out the front of the shop waiting on me, you’d have to hold me back from mauling him right there on the street,” Gabrielle says, standing next to me. “I mean just look at him, all dark and tattooed. Jesus on a cracker, if you don’t want him, I’ll have a play,” she continues her verbal assessment of Sy.

Gabrielle is one of the other stylists who work at Vault Hair. She took me under her wing on my first day and hasn’t left me alone.