Chapter Four
Our Little Secret
Ginger
“I can’t fucking believe this!”
Startled, I looked up from logging in to the cash register’s point-of-sale system to find my next-door-neighbor, Draco, bursting through the door I’d unlocked not three minutes earlier. Forty-eight hours had passed since I’d sliced open my hand and Tyr had kissed me—no, no, I wasn’t going to think about that, I reminded myself for the millionth time. That subject was forbidden.
What wasn’t forbidden was thinking about other things, like Olive. Her disabled car was now gone from the front of Vixen’s Den, which meant someone—probably her brother—had come along and fixed it for her. So that was one small thing that had turned out okay from that morning’s misadventures. Unfortunately, my hand still throbbed when I let it hang by my side, so I had to keep it elevated in a kind of weirdly frozen Queen’s wave. And Tyr had actually kissed me, on the lips, about this same time just two mornings ago…
Nope.
Not thinking about that.
Not. At. All.
“Draco, slow down.” Brows raised, I watched him blaze a path deeper into the shop, then waved my bandaged hand at Roxie as she pushed through the door right behind him, holding a lovely green and white box of forbidden fruit, A.K.A., Krispy Kreme donuts. “Where’s the fire?”
“Here. Right here.” Wildly he waved a paper in my face. “This is the fire.”
“Okay, I believe you.” I moved a carousel display case of sparkly body piercings out of the way before he sent it flying, then plucked the paper out of his hand as it nearly clipped my nose. “What exactly is this?”
“An eviction notice!”
Both Roxie and I gasped before Roxie put the donuts on the counter and opened the top. In an instant the sinful scents of sweet, sugary glaze and warm, yeasty goodness wafted into the atmosphere. “Honey, have a donut. You need it more than we do.”
“An eviction notice?” I stared at the paper. Sure enough, the word eviction stood out in all caps. “But, what…? I mean, how…?”
“I have no idea! I mean, I just got here a couple weeks ago, and I’m already being evicted! I found that taped to the door just now for all the world to see. Can you believe it?” Clearly upset, he ignored Roxie’s napkin-wrapped offering of a donut so he could pace the length of my shop. “According to that fucking paper, I have twenty-four hours to clear out my stuff and find another place. Jesus, I can’t fucking believe this.”
“Neither can I,” Roxie offered sympathetically, then took a bite out of the donut she held. “You haven’t even been here long enough to miss paying rent, so that obviously wasn’t the problem.”
“There has to be a reason.” I frowned as I read the notice, all the while struggling to keep my suspicions on a tight leash. It could merely be a coincidence that I told Tyr about Draco, and forty-eight hours later the guy was getting bounced out of the shop next door. Tyr was powerful in certain circles, sure, and there was a rumor that he owned this little strip mall across the street from the Gravediggers HQ. But when I’d straight-up asked him about it, he’d rolled his eyes and said he didn’t know if I was an idiot for believing every story that came my way, or a paranoid freak for believing he was always there, lurking behind every damn thing that happened in my life.
So this was a coincidence.
Had to be.
“It says here that the eviction is based on the renter’s failure to disclose past health code violations. It includes a list of them with lots of numbers attached to them, blah blah blah.” Shaking my head, I handed it back to him when his agitated pacing brought him back within range of the counter where I stood. “Does that make any sense to you?”
“No! I mean, yeah. But also no.” He took a breath in a clear struggle for calm. “I worked out of my garage before I managed to scrape up enough money to open my very own shop here. There were one or two violations every year during that time, but they weren’t bad, and I never got closed down. And those violations they got listed there? I paid the fines every time, fixed whatever it was that the state wanted fixed, and that was that. These violations aren’t like a criminal record that follow you the rest of your life, so of course I never mentioned them on the renter’s agreement. I didn’t know I had to.”
“I think you should fight it,” I said while my heart hurt for him. He looked like he was on the verge of crying, the poor guy. “Damn The Man, Draco. Make these jerks at Blue Horizons, LLC pay.”
“How?” Draco finally stopped pacing and looked at me helplessly. “I sank every penny I had into getting my place set up exactly how I wanted it, with new equipment and furnishings. I’m getting the first and last month’s rent and security deposit fully refunded, so I guess that’s something, but I don’t have the cash for a lawyer on top of all that. I’ve gotta go,” he added, shaking his head in a gesture of pure despair. “I just wanted to let you know you were a great neighbor, even if it was only for a couple weeks.”
“Yeah, likewise. Good luck, Draco,” I added when he shuffled out the door, the picture of a broken man. I had a sinking feeling that I would never see him again.
Which was sad, but also very, very odd.
I’d dealt with Blue Horizons, LLC since I’d set up shop here. The corporation owned this property and was our nameless, faceless landlord, not just here but they also owned the loft I rented and called home. For six years, Blue Horizons had pretty much left me alone to do whatever I wanted at Vixen’s Den, including building some fancy changing rooms and installing a stripper pole with a mini stage.
You’d think that pole would have been someone’s breaking point up in corporate HQ, but no. Not only did they give me permission to do it, they sent someone to walk me through the building permits I needed, and then they took care of hiring a construction firm that did an amazing job. I loved Blue Horizons, LLC and considered it a lucky break that I even found this little shop.
Though, I wasn’t the one who had found it, of course. Tyr was the one who’d stumbled across it when he’d decided to set up the Gravediggers MC compound across the street. I’d checked the place out more on a whim than anything, only to find its low rent and amenities were an unbeatable opportunity. Not only did I have the world’s best low rent, every few months or so a property manager popped in to check on the place to make sure the plumbing and all things electrical were in tiptop shape. Twice a year, some lady from customer service called to see if I needed anything. The one time I mentioned I needed easier access in the back for receiving shipments, the next day another construction crew appeared to take down the narrow concrete steps I’d nearly killed myself on, and replaced it with a ramp that was at least twice as wide. I wasn’t billed for a thing, and my rent didn’t suddenly skyrocket. It was like Blue Horizons, LLC was my personal fairy godmother, and all I had to do to make any wish come true was ask for it.
No wonder it seemed weird that Draco had been treated so badly. Those violations must have been extreme—like hidden-body-parts-in-a-freezer kind of extreme—to get him booted so quickly.
Yikes.
On second thought, maybe it was a good thing he was moving on to greener pastures.
“Okay, that’s two days in a row we’ve had upsetting or shocking things happen,” Roxie said, polishing off her donut with a delicate wiping of her fingers on the napkin. “You know what that means, don’t you?”
Still frowning about Draco, I glanced at her. “No, what?”
“Bad things always happen in threes.”
As if on cue, the electronic bell at the shop’s front door chimed, and my brows went up when I saw who walked in. “Romeo, this is a surprise.”
“Threes,” Roxie repeated ominously, before heading to the breakroom to clock in and no doubt start the coffee.
Romeo lifted his chin in the direction that Roxie had gone. “What was that about?”
“Oh, nothing. So, how’s Shiloh doing? I haven’t seen my girl since we all got together to celebrate her new status of having a baby on board. How far along is she now?”
The Vice President of the Gravediggers and all-around security guru beamed like the proud papa-to-be that he was. “Five months and counting. Just last night we were talking about doing a gender-reveal party, but Shiloh didn’t want to run into any party that you were planning. Your birthday’s less than two weeks from now, the day before Halloween, right?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Yeah, and she’s obviously heard I throw killer Halloween bashes to celebrate. Not this year, though, so feel free to plan your shindig. I’m not going to have a birthday party this year, or maybe ever again.”
“Why not?”
“Dude, I’m about to be twenty-nine. Do you know what that means?”
“Why don’t you tell me.”
“It means I’m a year away from being thirty.”
“Yeah, that tracks,” he drawled. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing. It’s actually great, considering there were times when I was convinced I’d never make it to adulthood, much less thirty.” Automatically I touched the faded scars on the tops of my forearms before crossing my arms in front of me. “But I’m feeling a little old-maidish—no man in my life, no kids, no prospects of a family on the horizon. The way I’m feeling, the fewer reminders of how life is passing me by, the better.”
He rolled his eyes. “You don’t get to claim old-maid status until you’re like eighty, and probably not even then. But you are unattached and on your own in the world, and that’s exactly what I need to execute a plan I’m cooking up, and I wanted to see what you think about it.”
“Me?” That was so out of left field I couldn’t help but stare. “What plan are you talking about?”
“I had a long talk with Tyr, and I gotta say, it was pretty damn enlightening. He told me Hades would use you to get Tyr to do what he wanted. Is that how you read the situation back then?”
My mood dropped like an elevator with a cut cable, and suddenly all I wanted to do was hit something. Such was the effect that monster had on me. “Yes. So?”
“So, here’s the idea. Why don’t we try to use that against him?”
I scowled, because just talking about that devil in human skin killed all the light in my world. “What the fuck are you talking about, Romeo?”
“Just hear me out, okay? We’ve been going over Hades’s weaknesses, but he doesn’t really have any, other than his blindness to his flaws. So let’s use that. He wouldn’t suspect a thing if you—a female who lived in his household from the age of five until almost adulthood—suddenly showed up on his doorstep, humble, hat in hand with some sob story asking him to take care of you. There’s a good chance he’d buy it because one, you’re a woman and he’s incapable of seeing any woman as an actual danger to him, and two, he’d see it as an opportunity to steal you away from Tyr. A winning move, or so he would think. Meanwhile, we would have you on the inside getting the intel we need to sink that fucker. Now, we—”
“ Enough .” Shaking. God, I was shaking so bad it was a wonder the whole shop didn’t quake with it, but it wasn’t out of fear.
No.
Rage like I’d never felt before burned through me so intensely it almost— almost —blotted out the soul-deep sense of betrayal drilling a hole right through the center of my heart.
Tyr… how could you?
I knew he didn’t give a shit about me; all the times I’d been punished for his actions had shown me that. But at least I’d thought he understood my damage. My pain.
Clearly he didn’t understand a thing.
Or…
Maybe it was worse than that.
Maybe he understood just fine.
He just didn’t care.
“You…” I heard myself panting with my fury, my throat so locked up it made the breath whistle in and out of me. Little spots danced on the edges of my vision, and dimly I realized I was on the verge of hyperventilating. “You two want me to… to crawl back to Hades? Fucking Hades ?”
“Okay, wait—”
“You two geniuses put your thick heads together trying to figure out that monster’s weaknesses, and all you could come up with was how you guys could use me ? Goddamn it.” The words seethed out of me as I rocketed around the counter and headed for the door. There was only one thing left to do—feed Tyr his ass with both hands for daring to think I could be used as a fucking pawn in his nightmarish game with the man who’d been my de facto stepfather.
I made it across the street in record time. Only vaguely did I register Romeo following me with ridiculous words that urged me to stop my warpath. No way was I stopping. Not even the arrogant gods who’d forged me into the person I was today could stop me. As far as I was concerned, the gods only had themselves to blame for whatever I did to them.
And I planned to do so, so much.
I stalked past the three flagpoles in front of Ride Or Die Choppers—the American flag, the state flag of Illinois, and the Gravediggers logo, a skull with a scythe threaded through a black eye socket. I never saw the showroom windows, as big as cargo bay doors displaying the flashiest choppers the world had ever seen, each one custom-made in the fabrication shop and machine shop out back. I didn’t look at the bikes spotlighted like works of art inside the showroom, or the people who were milling about as they considered buying one of these artistic beauties.
I didn’t care about the fucking bikes.
All I cared about was destroying the source of pain and betrayal shredding my insides to bloody pieces.
“ You .” I burst into Tyr’s office without knocking, and sank every ounce of anger and hurt I had into that one word. I was so insane with rage I barely noted the look of surprise in his whiskey-colored eyes. “You thought it would be a good idea to send me to fucking Hades like a broken waif begging for help so that he would take me in? What’s next, Tyr? Pimping me out to him? Encouraging me to fuck him the same way he liked to fuck my mother—get me so goddamn high on smack it’d be like fucking a corpse, because that’s the way he fucking likes it ?”
“This is on me.” Romeo’s voice came from behind me when I paused for breath, and only then did I realize I was screeching at the top of my lungs. “I had an idea after our talk, but it hit wrong—”
“ Get out .” Tyr’s icily measured tone was somehow worse than my screaming, so it came as no surprise to hear Romeo leave the room and close the door behind him with a smart click. Then Tyr’s full attention fell on me like a ton of bricks. “Ginger—”
“ No .” I didn’t even know what I was saying no to. No to his bullshit. No to his stupid plan. No to his existence on earth. Just… fucking… no . “You know what that beast did to me. To my mother. You know he as good as killed her with that shit he pushed on her, until it was all she wanted in life. Remember when he hit me with that cue ball? I nearly died that day, but instead of taking me to the hospital Audrey told me she couldn’t because Hades might get locked up for child abuse, and she’d miss her fucking medicine . That’s how he got off, Tyr. And in your infinite wisdom, you thought it’d be a great idea to send me back into that hellhole? To that monster? How could you? How fucking could you ?”
“Think it through, Ginger.” He kept on with that icy control that sounded like an overly calm, condescending parent talking to a tantrum-prone child. “I did everything I could to get you and your mom out of my uncle’s clutches, remember? And when we found your mom’s body, I got you out of Hades’s house within minutes. I hid you with my siblings for a year so he couldn’t get to you. I had you bunk up with Hel until you could support yourself and find your own place. Remember?”
Oh, I remembered. I’d tried everything to get enough money to get away from Tyr, including stripping. That had lasted literally fifteen minutes before Tyr had walked onto the stage I’d entered for the first time, picked me up and carried me out of there, all without saying a single word.
“So, if you take all that into account,” he went on while I dreamed of being strong enough to rip his throat out, “why would I ever want you to go back to Hades?”
“Because you hate me almost as much as you hate him.” And there it was. The truth. The core of all the hurt I carried like an anvil around every day of my life. “I even get why. I’m the reason behind every setback Hades ever dealt you. I’m the reason you couldn’t rise to the top in the Chicago Gravediggers. Jesus, I’d hate me too if I were you. But I’m not going to allow your hate for me to become the death of me, Tyr. You hear me? Am I making myself fucking clear? Because if not, let me try again. I’ll never darken the door of Hades Colgrave again. And now that we’re talking about hate, let’s just get it all out there. Every single time Hades beat me because you misbehaved, he let me know my pain was your fault. Over the years I came to hate you for that, but this insult today makes me hate you even more than you could possibly im—”
“ Stop .” With a violence that made my heart try to leap out of my chest, his massive hand came up and closed around my throat. Then I was up against a wall, feeling my pulse hammer against his thumb lying just beneath my jaw. “Never, ever , say those words to me again.”
I found myself gripping his forearm with both hands while arching up to escape his terrifying hold. No dice. I may as well have tried to escape my own shadow. “What… words?”
“That you hate me.” He leaned in, so shockingly close it froze me in place. I heard him take in a slow breath, like he was breathing in my scent, before his nose brushed against the fall of my hair next to my ear, pushing it aside. Confusion exploded in my brain when his lips brushed against my lobe, a shockingly intimate caress of a lover, when we both knew we were enemies. “I get that Hades filled you with poison when it comes to me, but if you think back, I never did a thing to hurt you. Not once. So you’re not allowed to hate me, do you understand that? I won’t allow it. Nod if you understand me.”
“Fuck you.” I might be confused, but no one got to tell me how I felt. I did hate Tyr. Part of me had always hated him for never caring about me enough to simply behave and obey Hades’s rule. That hatred rose anew, because once again it was agonizingly clear he didn’t give a damn about me. “You hate me, you’ve made no secret about it, so fuck you, you dick. Find a way to cope that I’m smart enough and strong enough to hate you back.”
“Let’s compromise, yeah? I’ll allow you to hate me all you want in public.” By degrees, his voice turned from an icy razor to a velvet purr. It short-circuited my already-confused brain like nothing else. No way was he talking to me in the voice of a lover. No way . “That works great for me. Now that I’m at war with the Chicago Gravediggers, let the world believe we live in mutual hatred, struggling to put up with each other because we’re safer together against Hades. Let everyone see that I only keep you close because it pisses my uncle off. Let Hades think I use your presence to fucking spit in his eye every day of the week. That’s what I want. I want everyone to believe hatred is the only thing between us, just as it’s the only thing that binds us together.”
“Hatred is the only thing that exists between us.”
“I might even be okay with you thinking that, at least for a little while longer,” he murmured, as if talking to himself. Then he moved in closer, looking down at me as if he feared I’d vanish if he so much as blinked. Slowly, so slowly at first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, he lowered his face to nuzzle it against my hair.
What.
The.
Hell.
I froze. Even my heart seemed to pause in my chest. Could a person actually die from shock? I tried to speak, to ask what he was doing, but I literally couldn’t get my mouth to work. One undeniably tender move from my enemy, and I had been rendered speechless.
What’s happening? God help me, I don’t understand what’s happening…
“You know what my problem is, Snap?” The heat coming off of his body was weirdly intoxicating, radiating from him to be absorbed by every pore of my body as if I were starved for it. “I believe too much in the Colgrave curse of losing loved ones to this godawful, fucking violent world. So go ahead, baby girl. Believe I hate you. Believe I hate you with everything you’ve got, okay? Maybe that’ll keep you safe, and whole, and fucking alive . But don’t think for a minute that I’ll ever allow you to hate me in return.”
“Too late.” I wasn’t sure the message ever left my mind, because with the slightest pressure of his hand still at my throat, he turned my face to meet the descent of his mouth.
The kiss that happened yesterday had come about as a form of punishment. Since I knew Tyr refused to raise a hand to women, I had chosen to believe that kiss had meant nothing more than a contemptuous slap in the face.
But this…
The scalding heat of his lips was just the same, shocking yet seductive all at the same time. They molded to mine like melted wax, creating a custom fit that sang through every part of me, and that song had only three words.
Made for me, made for me…
It was insane to believe Tyr’s mouth was created to fit against mine. Just as it was insane to try to give him back that same breathless perfection by making my lips cling to his.
But that’s exactly what I did.
And I did it like my life depended on it.
A deep moan in the back of his throat told me that he liked it. Just as importantly, I liked that he liked it, so much so that slick heat bloomed in my girlie parts that throbbed for his attention—his fingers, his mouth, his cock. Any of it. All of it. In whatever order that tickled his fancy.
As long as he tickled my fancy, I would be more than satisfied.
That didn’t mean the rest of me was on board.
I clenched my fingers still wrapped around his forearm, so hard it probably hurt him, but it was the only way to keep them in place. My traitorous hands wanted to sift through his silken hair, or maybe worm their way under his shirt to see if he was as rock-solid as he seemed. I didn’t need to know that.
That way lay madness.
“Open for me, Ginger.” Tyr didn’t raise his head to speak to me. Instead, he kept his lips on mine, made me feel his words break against my lips in a kind of intimacy I hadn’t known existed. Then his tongue licked at the seam of my lips. My brain broke along with whatever was left of my will, and my lips opened for him with a soft gasp.
Devouring.
That was the only word I could come up with. Urgency thrummed through him wherever his skin touched mine, making it feel like this kiss was life-or-death to him, and if it didn’t go just right the world would forever turn to ash. That urgency fed me, heightening my senses so that I could feel every coarse caress of his whiskers, and the taste of his tongue branded itself onto my brain. It didn’t even feel like a kiss. It felt like…
A sacred vow being sealed.
When the pressure of his mouth at last lifted, I opened eyes I couldn’t remember closing and found him staring down at me with such burning intensity it was a wonder I didn’t spontaneously combust.
“This will be our little secret,” he whispered cryptically, then brushed his lips against mine. “Make no mistake, though—the genie’s out of the bottle now. No way in hell is it going back in.”