Chapter 2
Claire
There is a tall, tattooed man standing in my apartment and pinning me to the wall.
I try to repeat that thought in my head to see if it’ll make any more sense the second time around. It doesn’t.
There continues to be a six-foot muscular man with tattoos up and down his arms standing in front of me, and it continues to be an absolutely wild prospect.
The look on his face is serious, his dark brows slashes over his eyes that pinch inward. I have no idea what this man is thinking, and I still don’t know if I can trust him.
It seems way more likely that he was sent here by Theodore because I tried to talk, because I wanted to bring up what he did to me to the authorities.
Not that it did me any good, of course. Turns out when you’re a wealthy politician, you have a lot of sway with the local cops. Lodging a complaint against one isn’t likely to get far.
Still, I’ll hand it to the guy in front of me. He hasn’t hurt me, aside from the fact that I fell on my ass when he shoved at the door.
But right now, he’s staring me down like I need to make sense of this for him, and I don’t know how to do that.
“Tell me one thing, Claire.”
My spine goes stiff at the sound of my name. How does he know it?
“How do you know Theodore? What happened?”
This guy is asking me for the truth. Someone who clearly knows Mr. McDowell just like I do. But he’s giving me a chance.
Do I say something? How can I be sure that this guy even cares that some stupid horny politician hired me to dance for him and then got way too handsy?
My throat feels sticky, and I force myself to swallow as I tremble beneath this man. He’s so massive and imposing.
But even if I were blind, I’d be able to tell that he’s also one of the most gorgeous people on the face of the planet.
What is my luck that I get pinned to a wall by someone who is both stunning and extremely scary?
Blinking several times, I reach up to wipe the tear I can feel dripping down my cheek. The guy watches my hand move, eyeing it carefully.
It takes several swallows before I’m able to get a word out.
“I have to imagine that you’re here because he sent you to scare me, and you know it’s working. So, what happened? Well, your boss got frisky with me, and I don’t think he loves that I tried to tell someone about it.”
I keep my story a little vague. I’m not interested in telling a stranger the juicy details about how a wealthy politician running for reelection tried to assault me on his ridiculously expensive yacht.
What’s worse is the fact that I’ve said it out loud to someone who isn’t a member of the police department for the first time. Hearing the words makes nausea crawl up the back of my throat.
I’m trembling and the tears are prickling again, and somehow I’m settling on the smell of this man’s cologne, drawn in by it. Something woodsy and warm. It doesn’t match how dangerous he looks.
Get your head out of your ass, Claire.
The guy is also the type you wouldn’t want to mess with. I can see that if somebody tried to get at him, they would fail. Spectacularly.
He’s clearly trained to do some serious damage, and while that is certainly scary, it’s also a bit impressive. It could also be something I can use in my life right now.
But more than anything, this guy just needs to go. I’ve given up hope that anything is going to happen with Theodore.
“And why would Teddy hire my company to come down here and intimidate you? When he says that you’re the one blackmailing him.”
Mr. Muscles cocks an eyebrow at me, and I can’t stop the scoff that escapes my lips.
Theodore McDowell Jr., the senator who’s following in his daddy’s footsteps, is actually telling people that I’m blackmailing him.
That’d be hilarious if it weren’t so offensive and wrong.
“I’m not blackmailing him. Yes, I don’t have much in my life, but I’m not looking to make money by harping on some senator. He asked me for a private dance, and it didn’t go the way it should. I ran off his fucking yacht, and this is what I have to deal with now.”
I watch the person in front of me, who is clearly a professional bully of sorts, and his expression completely changes.
There was this stoic, impassive, impossible-to-read mask over his face, but as the words leave my mouth, there’s a slight flicker of humanity beneath it all.
The hardness of his eyes disappears and goes soft. His arms relax where he frames me on the wall until they completely fall away.
Silence surrounds us now, and I know I could dart away and get out of here if I needed to.
For some reason, though, I’m still standing here, looking at this man who is still way too close to me.
“You ran off his yacht?” he asks, and the ice in my stomach stabs all the harder. “Explain to me what that means.”
His voice is so deep. This animalistic growl. I can’t tell if he’s mad at me or at Theodore.
I guess I have to take my chance, though, because I don’t stand any against him physically.
My hands start to shake as the memories flood back. I ball them into fists at my sides, trying to hide the tremor. But my voice—my voice is harder to control.
“He hired me to dance for him. I work at a club where he found me.” I have to pause, swallowing against the tightness in my throat.
“Yes, I’m light on cash at the moment, so I eventually took the opportunity he presented because it was a lot of money for one dance.
But of course, that was really na?ve of me, because as soon as I got there, it was pretty clear that this wasn’t just going to be me stripping for him like I do at the club. ”
My stomach churns, and I press a hand against it like I can hold the nausea down by force.
“There was no one around except his bodyguards, and none of them were in the room. I did my thing, I played my song, and I was going to at least take a break, if not leave altogether, when he grabbed me and tried to force himself on me.”
The words are coming faster now, tumbling out like if I slow down I won’t be able to finish. My voice cracks on the next part.
“He told me no one would believe a girl like me. That I should be grateful a man of his status even looked twice at someone so... disposable.” I can still hear the way he said it.
Calm. Almost bored. Like he was stating a fact.
“I got lucky. I got really lucky. Because my heels are massive and really heavy and pretty damn sharp on the end. So, I kicked—hard. I made a break for it and got the hell out of there.”
I glare at Mr. Muscles, some of my nerve returning as I raise my arm and shove it toward his face so he’ll see the lingering bruises.
“And now apparently he’s sending big scary bullies to my doorstep to intimidate me because he knows he did something super fucking wrong. So either beat me up or go because I’m done. I can’t do this anymore.”
The guy’s eyes flare as his stare lands on my arm, and he inches a hair closer. His voice is a strained growl when he speaks.
“He did that to you?”
For some weird fucking reason, I feel shy all of a sudden, like it’s my fault I’m wearing the handiwork of one of the world’s biggest dicks. But I nod all the same.
“Yes.”
He releases a heavy breath through his nose, the muscles in his jaw working as he clenches it hard enough to crack a tooth. I find myself staring at that jaw—the sharp cut of it, the dark stubble shadowing his skin.
Why am I noticing this right now? What is wrong with me?
When he looks me dead in the eye, I can hardly breathe.
“I will not let him touch you ever again. Do you understand me?”
Shaking my head, I know I understand his words, but I can’t fathom why he’d care. “I hear you, but why—”
“I don’t hurt women, and I don’t tolerate anyone who does. Clear?”
Even when he’s being objectively nice, this guy is fucking terrifying.
“Are you even allowed to make that call, considering it was Theodore who hired you?” I cock my head at him, eyeing him hard because I’m not an idiot.
Money talks, and I don’t have any.
“I’ll deal with it. Teddy contracted my company. Not me.”
“I don’t even know you. Why the hell would you want to help me? I don’t even know your name.”
The guy offers a crooked nod and then turns away from me, heading toward the door. Apparently, after all that, he’s just going to leave?
What the hell?
“Alec. And trust me,” he calls out over his shoulder, “you won’t have to worry about Teddy ever again.”
My door creaks open, and Alec steps up to it. I hurry up behind him, my socks slippery on the smooth wood floors.
“You just expect me to be okay with this? That you just busted into my apartment and now you’re telling me that everything’s going to be fine? What kind of sense does that make? I still don’t know if you actually work for that guy.”
But then Alec stops dead as he looks in front of my house, his eyes tracking across the street. I have no idea what he’s looking at.
He releases a low groan under his breath and then takes a step backward, closing the door and locking it.
Now we’re both stuck in my apartment together.
“What are you doing? Did you see something?”
He turns around, that mask of severe stoicism plastered all over his face again. His jaw muscles are tight.
“Glinting from across the way in the bushes. Probably binoculars.”
My stomach drops through the floor, and my heart rate immediately skyrockets. I thought I was done with these frights for the day, but it seems like there are still more ahead.
“Someone is outside my apartment? Right now?”
Alec just nods. Before I can say another word, he’s walking through my apartment, heading toward the windows.
He checks each one, pulling up on them and tugging the locks to make sure they’re all securely in place.
“What are you doing? Yes, my windows lock. Can we please discuss what’s happening outside?”
“It’s probably someone Teddy sent. They’re probably keeping an eye on this place to make sure I did my job, but I don’t want you going out there.”