Read Unmasked (New Adult Romance) (The Unmasked Series) for Free Online Page A

actual biting smell of the pine and the
junipers that surrounded the road, and the rest of the earthiness that she
spent so much of her younger years loving.
    As she pulled into the driveway, organizing the
rest of the day's tasks in her mind, and trying not to forget what she needed
to do before she had a chance to write it all down, she reached to her front
pocket where she kept her phone, but it wasn't there.
    "Huh," she grunted. "Wonder if-"
    Inside, she heard the ringer blasting off. She had
it turned up so loud that with fifty feet and three walls separating her from
it, the dulcet tones of her favorite banjo duel were still crystal clear.
    She trotted to the door and swung it open just in
time to see the screen across the room, where she'd left it on the kitchen
table, display the big, red missed call image.
    "Who in the world would be calling me?" A list of
the most horrible things she could imagine crawled through Lys's brain before
she grabbed the phone and when she finally did, it was one of the possibilities
she completely forgot: Bret.
    Her heart sunk in her chest.
    Of course he calls now. Of course he does. He
calls as soon as I finally start getting over him. Of course he does.
    Staring at the screen, finger hovering above the
call-back button, she shook her head.
    "Nope. Not doing this to myself. Not gonna do it."
Decisively, she tapped ignore and set the phone down again in favor of a
notepad and a pen to jot her tasks for the day.
    "Alright, let's see. Grocery store first. Need to
get some milk – not whole – and some vegetables. I think they've been living
out of a freezer for a while, so they probably need some greenery in 'em. Also
need to run by the dry cleaners and drop off my jacket. Oh, and I need to-"
    The phone interrupted her. Somehow the normally
pleasant banjo plucking made Alyssa grit her teeth. She shot a glance over at
it, saw it was Bret again, and rejected the call.
    "Not a chance in Hell. Nope. Not happening."
    Grabbing her notepad, she remembered to write down
a trip to the gym in town to set up a membership, and new shoe-laces for her
dad, since he apparently decided to tug the ends off his, and just left his
Reeboks tied so he didn't have to fight them.
    Just as she was gathering her purse, gym clothes,
dirty jacket, and keys, the phone rang again.
    "Damn it! Leave me alone!" She said, grabbing it
off the table. "This is gonna be a long, long day if he keeps this up."
    But, when she looked, the call was from a
different number. Bret's area code was 826, this number was an 860. She stared
at it for a second, but as the banjo playing intensified, she wondered if it
was Publisher's Clearinghouse, and answered.
    "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," a familiar voice said
before she had a chance to say anything.
    "I haven't won a sweepstakes, have I?" She said
with a bone-dry voice. The curl on her lip matched one in her voice.
    "Sweepstakes? No? I don't know what you're talking
about."
    "So what is it Bret? You've called...let's see,
four times in the last hour? Three of them while I was in earshot. And then you
have the nerve to do it from a different number? Whose phone did you take? I
thought you agreed not to call me until I said it was okay."
    "Yeah, look, I'm sorry. I really am. I just needed
to talk to you. I needed to hear your voice."
    All of a sudden, Alyssa feared the entire day of
plans was shot. She had carefully laid out a schedule, drawn up an efficient
path, and even figured out where she'd go to grab some lunch for her dad from
on the way past the post office. And in the blink of an eye, it was gone.
    "Well you've got me now. And you've also got a
whole bundle of nerves. What is it you want?"
    "I wanted to say that I'm sorry. I was wrong. I
need you back, Alyssa. I can't live without you. And, I-"
    "Ugh, that's enough." She let out a long, breathy
sigh. "Are you being serious right now? You told me that your start-up was
going to – let me get this right – I believe you said that the