Chapter 8 #2
I pause with my finger over the call button. The lock clicks open, causing my mouth to drop. The door opens, and Trick strolls in. Behind him, I see Anvil’s hulking figure.
“Hey, good morning. Pack a bag, sweetheart,” he says, snagging the duffle from the floor and pushing it into my arms.
“What’s going on?”
“There was a guy in a hoodie at your door, playing with the lock.”
“Where were you? What are you doing here?”
Anvil, still outside, shines a light in both directions, and I can see he’s got a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other.
“What’s happening?” I say more sharply.
“Some clothes in a bag. Now,” Trick says, pulling me from the wall and giving me a small shove in the direction of my bedroom. I pause, looking back, and he gives my ass a swat.
“Hey, what the hell?” I demand.
“Get moving,” he says firmly. “Or you can come bagless.”
I glare at him, but stalk into the bedroom. I quickly fill the duffle and a second tote with things.
He’s in the doorway in another couple of minutes. “That’s good. Let’s go.”
I want to snap at him, but I’m too startled when he takes me by the arm and ushers me out, closing my door and locking it behind us.
In the truck, Trick’s mood is lighter, but Anvil is still deadly serious. Trick’s in the driver’s seat, in the front on his own. I’m in the back with Anvil, whose gun is resting on his thigh.
“Why do you need that in here?” I ask.
He slides it into a holster that’s strapped to his chest.
“So you were watching my apartment? Waiting for what?”
“Who was the guy in the hoodie?” Trick asks.
“I have no idea, but he knocked, so I don’t know why you had to drag me out in the middle of the night.”
“Random guys visit you at two a.m.?” Anvil asks.
“No.”
“That’s why we dragged you out,” he says and then goes silent.
“Maybe it was the person who planted the cash in my apartment?”
“Yeah, ‘Vil, maybe it was that guy. Why didn’t you catch him?”
I can hear the joke in the question. It’s obvious that something went wrong on the landing.
“What happened?” I ask in a low voice.
They ignore me.
When we reach the C Crue compound, I straighten. As we roll in, I pull my coat tight. I wasn’t expecting to be back so quickly, and I’m not sure how to feel. The gin still has my head buzzing.
When we reach the front door it opens. Connor’s in a black robe and looks like we’ve woken him.
“What went down?” he asks Trick and Anvil.
“Guy in a hoodie knocked and then decided to let himself in. Anvil thinks he heard a second guy. A phone chirped. ‘Vil circles to the other end, but it’s pitch black under the stairs and he kicks something over, a glass maybe. The hoodie guy bolted and if someone was with him, he went too. Anvil could’ve chased the guy in the hoodie, but if I’d stayed on her door, then he’s on his own in the dark with potentially two shooters.
Could’ve left her place unguarded while we looked, but we didn’t know if Hoodie got the door unlocked and would swing back. ”
I swallow. They’d let the guys go because they didn’t want me to be left alone in an unlocked apartment?
“See anything we can use, Anvil?” C asks.
He shakes his head.
“Anvil’s wondering if he guessed right about the choice you’d want him to make in that situation,” Trick says.
“No, he’s not wondering. You know you did the right thing. Go get some sleep.” He looks me over. “You, come with me.”
I reach for my duffle, but he catches my hand.
“You don’t need it.”
I flush and follow him.
“I’m out till the morning, C,” Trick says.
Connor raises a hand in acknowledgment.
“Anvil, you coming?”
“No.”
I glance back as Trick heads out the front door and into the night, while Anvil shuffles down a hall.
“Where is Trick going? It’s almost two in the morning. The bars are closed.”
“If I had to lay bets, I’d say he’s going to get laid,” C says.
“Does he have a girlfriend?”
“He doesn’t need one. No one in his phone turns him down.”
“Why did he want a wingman?”
“You ask a lot of questions, beautiful. Too many for two in the morning.”
I pout because gin and tonics that are three quarters gin will do that to a girl.
He smirks at the sight of my lip jutting out. “My fierce girl’s gonna pout? Trick will be sorry he missed it. He loves pouty girls.”
“You guys have a strange relationship. Has anyone ever told you, you’re weirdly close to your enforcers?”
He laughs. “If they had, do you think I would’ve given a shit?”
“I guess not.”
In his bedroom, he takes a gun from the pocket of his robe and sets it in a safe that’s standing open. There are stacks of cash, another gun, and a small lockbox. He shuts the door of the safe and spins the dial.
He shrugs off the robe, revealing his gorgeous naked body. “You can keep your panties on if you want, but the rest comes off,” he says, getting in bed.
I look down at my wool coat.
“I’m tired, Zoe. Don’t fool around.”
I quickly shed my clothes, keeping my panties on and get in bed. He turns off the light.
“Did you send them to watch my place because—why did you send them?”
“I sent Trick to be sure no one tried to take you from your place.”
“Why would they?”
“Because people saw the way I was with you backstage.”
“So?”
“So someone could think that if they had you, they’d have leverage over me.”
“That’s why I said we should keep things secret.”
“If I wanted it to be a secret, it would be.”
“Are you using me as bait?” I ask softly.
“No, beautiful. That’s something I would never do.”
“So what are you doing then?”
“Staking my claim.”
My stomach flutters. “I didn’t agree to this.”
“Yes, you did.”
The memory of the way I took off my panties and knelt between his knees on command comes roaring back. I’ve been under his spell, blindly turned on by his good looks and power. But I really had no idea how deeply I was getting myself in.
“I didn’t understand what would happen. This is—it’s so fast. What if I want to change my mind?”
“We’ll sort things out tomorrow,” he says, but I’m not sure he means it in the way I want him to.