Pay the Price: A Dark New Adult Romance

13. Daisy

Istepped out of the office building and breathed a sigh of relief. I’d only been back a week and things were still tense.

Kyle and Natalie were more standoffish than they’d been before, and Diana seemed less than thrilled by my return. I didn’t know whether it was because I probably seemed like the world’s hugest flake (who doesn’t show up to their internship for two weeks, then expects to still have a job?) or because Gray had been poisoning the well while I’d been gone, but I was hoping the awkwardness would ease with time.

I intended to do my part. Distance from the Beasts meant I could focus on my job while I tried to put my life back together. In the darkest part of my mind, the one I was trying to ignore, I knew that meant telling the Beasts to leave the house, cutting ties with them forever. According to society, they’d paid their debt for killing Blake, but it wasn’t like I could look the other way just because they’d done their time and I thought about them 24/7.

My chest constricted, like someone was squeezing my heart. It had become a familiar sensation whenever I thought about the three men who dominated my thoughts — my dreams — but that didn’t mean I was used to it. It felt a lot like grief, an emotion I was pretty familiar with, and I didn’t want to think about what it meant that I was grieving my nearly nonexistent relationship with Blake’s killers.

I glanced across the street, looking for Jace’s bike, then hated myself for the disappointment that washed over me when I saw that it wasn’t there.

I was obviously a train wreck.

I started walking, trying to focus on the warm summer evening instead of my messed up life.

I was still getting used to being at Cassie’s, but one of the things I loved about living in her apartment was that I could walk everywhere. The coffee shop and Cassie’s apartment were on the north side of town, near Chasen’s and an upscale boutique called Stitch, but it was less than a fifteen-minute walk to my job at Cantwell.

I missed my old house, the antique furniture, and the sound of the falls, but I couldn’t deny the convenience of living in town.

Blackwell Falls was humming with activity: locals enjoying the warm weather and stopping to chat on the sidewalk while tourists walked hand in hand, dipping in and out of storefronts the way you did when you were on vacation and had nowhere to be.

I was a block away from Cassie’s when I caught a flash of bright green next to the curb. My heart raced and I had a flash of Wolf driving Benji, his dark hair tousled, a mischievous light in his ice-blue eyes.

The thought of him sent a storm of emotion whirling through my body — sadness and longing and yep, still a healthy dose of lust.

Because my body apparently didn’t care about moral content if the D was good.

And the D had been better than good.

I shut down the thought. The last thing I needed was to daydream about fucking Wolf in the middle of the afternoon. It was bad enough that it was keeping me up at night.

I made a right and started down one of the side streets off Main. I wasn’t sure the car had been Benji, but I wasn’t willing to risk it, especially after my altercation with Jace my first day back at work. I wasn’t ready to talk to Wolf, to any of the Beasts. I needed to figure out what to do about the house, because I hadn’t been lying when I’d first asked them to help me: the budget was tight, and it had only gotten tighter once I’d actually started spending money.

Finishing the house was all mixed in with my complicated feelings about the Beasts, and none of that included the fact that I still hadn’t talked to my dad about what he’d done to me, still hadn’t figured out how much to tell Ruth.

I’d have to deal with it all eventually, but right now I just wanted to get back to Cassie’s, change into my pajamas, and binge TV in an effort to ignore all the decisions I had to make.

Making a loop around the block would buy some time. Hopefully Wolf — if it was him parked outside Cassie’s — would be gone by the time I made my way back to Main Street.

I was embarrassed to realize I hadn’t been off Main Street in a long time, like I was some kind of tourist in my own town, one who only went to Cassie’s Cuppa, Chasen’s, and the Mill (when I was feeling adventurous).

The storefronts were more utilitarian on the side street. I remembered the local hardware store and pawnshop from the days Cassie and Sarai and I would wander through town, talking about school and boys and the future.

But there were new businesses too — a used bookstore, a little nail salon, a Chinese restaurant I’d never heard of. Blackwell was mid-gentrification, old vying with new, locals frequenting familiar haunts while tourists didn’t even know they existed.

I came to the end of the block and was surprised to hear music blaring from around the corner. It wasn’t even 6 p.m. — too early for almost anyone to be partying — but when I rounded the corner I realized the thumping bass was coming not from a nightclub or bar but from a gym.

The door was propped open with a dumbbell, and I looked up to take in the sign.

The Gym.

I almost laughed out loud. It wasn’t original but at least no one would ever be confused.

I slowed my steps and peered through the doorway.

I was pretty sure the place hadn’t been there when I’d been in high school, but it didn’t look like it catered to tourists. There was no smoothie bar, no racks of branded workout leggings or hoodies, just a big open room where an assortment of men and women were sweating and lifting weights, sweating and running on treadmills, sweating and jumping rope.

Basically, a whole lot of sweating.

A big man with a graying beard and muscles that looked like they’d been carved out of granite reached out through the open door, saw me standing there, and paused.

“You coming in?” he asked, clearly ready to close the door. He was wearing shorts and a black tank top that put his huge inked arms on display. “I’m turning on the AC. It’s hotter than shit in here this time of day.”

“No, I…” Why did I want to go in? “I was just— ”

“Molly, right? Come on,” the guy said. “I’ll show you around.”

I stepped through the door like a robot even though I obviously wasn’t Molly, whoever she was. He shut the door behind us, closing us inside the large room.

And he was right: it was hotter than shit in here. The walls were lined with mirrors, and now that I was inside, I saw there was a boxing ring at the back of the gym, two women sparring, complete with soft helmets and boxing gloves.

One of them threw a punch and the other one stumbled backward.

The bearded man turned to face me. “I’m Lock. You said on the phone that you’re looking to change gyms?”

“Um, actually, I’m not Molly.” I hated to rain on his parade, but I didn’t want him to think I was a liar if Molly, whoever she was, showed up. “I was just walking by.”

He looked confused but the moment passed pretty fast. His face relaxed into a smile. “You looking for a gym?”

I hesitated. “I wasn’t, but…”

I thought about my days in captivity at the dam, feeling helpless, waiting for someone to come to my rescue. If the Beasts hadn’t shown up, I would have been at the mercy of my dad and his minions, led to whatever fate they had planned like a lamb to the slaughter.

The Beasts had told me they thought Calvin had delivered the broken vase to the house, that he’d been my stalker, but even if they were wrong (leave it alone), I hadn’t gotten any more packages, any more messages. And anyway, now I knew the Beasts had really killed Blake, so there was no reason to do any more digging.

Still, the world was a lot more dangerous than I’d thought when I’d been sitting in my ivory tower, thinking I knew Blackwell Falls like the back of my hand.

Turned out, it was bulging with secrets. And enemies. And maybe secret enemies.

I’d been lazy, and even worse, naive.

“Not to rush you,” Locke said, “but I have a private session in fifteen minutes.”

“Right. Sorry.” I’d totally zoned out. “I might be interested.”

“Cool.” He glanced at the digital clock mounted on the wall. “Looks like Molly’s a no-show anyway. I’ll give you a tour.”

I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know what was happening, but there was one thing I did know: danger was around every corner, in my own house, my own family.

And I was tired of being a lamb.