Free Tearing Down Walls (Love Under Construction Series Book 2) by Deanndra Hall Page A

about it.
    Jetting out the side door behind the bar, she put the phone back up to her ear. “Yeah, sorry about that. Can I help you? Are you calling about the ad for a roommate?”
    “No.” Something about the voice made her feel odd. “Laura? Laura Billings?” Her hands went cold and a buzzing started in her ears. “Billings?”
    “Who the hell is this?” she growled into the phone.
    “Laura, I’m so sorry to call you and drag all of this up. This is Brewster. Please don’t hang up on me.”
    “DON’T CALL ME AGAIN!” Laura screamed into the phone, then hit END and dropped the phone on the ground. It promptly rang again; same number.
    She stared at the phone. Everything was coming at her in a rush, and the earth seemed to tilt. She hit ACCEPT and barked through gritted teeth, “What the hell do you want?”
    “Laura, please, don’t hang up. I need to talk to you. I want to make this right; we all do. Well, almost all of us. I hear a lot of noise in the background. Can I call you later? Or tomorrow? It’s important.”
    “I can’t believe you’d have the nerve to call me. How did you find me?” she was whispering, feeling so weak that she could barely speak.
    “Billings, I know it’s hard to believe, but I want to make this right. It’s eaten at me for years, ruined my life and I’m betting yours too, and it’s time to man up. Please. Let me do this, me and the others. Please?”
    Laura’s head was spinning and she felt like she was going to be sick. It was a little late for an apology, but it was more than she’d gotten over the last sixteen years, sixteen years of sheer unending hell. “Call me tomorrow. Ten o’clock tomorrow morning. That’s Eastern Time.”
    “Okay. Ten o’clock tomorrow morning. Will do.” The phone went dead and Laura stood staring at it, her hands trembling so violently that she could barely hold it. After a minute or two, she walked back through the side door and up to the bar.
    “Where the hell were you?” a pissed-off Vic barked. Then he got a good look at her face. “God, Laura, what’s wrong?” She stared at the bar, and Vic grabbed her arms and spun her to look at him. “Talk to me. What is it?”
    Laura shook his hands off. “Don’t touch me. Leave me alone. Nothing’s wrong.” She grabbed the towel and started wiping.
    Then she heard Vic say, “That’s a lie. I don’t believe it for a minute. And when you decide you need someone to talk to about whatever just happened, find me. I can’t speak for anyone else, but you can always trust me. I’d never hurt you, not in a million years.” Laura turned to apologize to him for the way she’d talked to him, but he was gone.
    Vic retreated into the men’s locker room and leaned against the wall. He knew damn well something had happened, but the ice princess wasn’t going to tell him what or take any help from anyone. And he was done with trying to get someone who didn’t want to be around him to open up to him. That was a dead-end street, and he’d walked down too many of those already.

    “Well, no action tonight?” Steve asked.
    “Nope. Lots of nibbles, but no bites,” Vic said as he sat across from Steve in the back office.
    “Patience. You’re a very formidable-looking guy. If just one bottom would do a scene with you, you’d be off and running. I was moving around the room tonight and listening. There were subs and bottoms out there coming just from watching you walk across the room. It’ll happen, just give it time.” Steve took another energy bar out of his desk and started munching away. Then he remembered to offer one to Vic, who immediately declined.
    “Yeah, I’m confident it will happen. Just don’t know how long it’ll take.” Vic stroked his sjambok. It had started to feel like an extension of his own body, and he loved it, so sensuous and organic.
    “Hang in there, buddy. It’ll happen.”
    Then Vic remembered. “Hey, what’s going on with Laura?”
    “What do you