Chapter 7
I ndie was filled with dread as she headed toward the apartment she lived in with Billy
It was a gorgeous building. Well taken care of and in a nice area of Birmingham.
And yet it felt like a jail. As though she was returning to her doom.
She missed the guys already.
As she stepped onto their floor, she grabbed her handbag, searching for her keys.
Where the heck were they?
Why did she always lose them? Bollocks. If Billy wasn’t home she could be locked out for hours.
She had her gaze down and was muttering to herself as she headed along the hallway.
Smack!
Shit!
Indie stumbled back, dropping her handbag. She would have fallen onto her butt if the person she hadn’t just walked into didn’t grab her arm, stopping her fall.
Indie stared up at the tall man who still had a hold of her and a shiver ran through her. There was a nasty scar running down his face and the look in his eyes told her that he’d seen some terrible things.
Likely done some terrible things.
He wasn’t alone, either. She glanced over at the two men standing behind him. They all wore expensive suits, but it was a veneer of civility.
Because there was definitely no way that these guys were simple businessmen. They were too brutish, too terrifying.
They were thugs.
And what were they doing here? In her apartment building? On her floor? This building only had ten apartments. Three on each floor and the penthouse.
On this floor was Mr. Wembley who was about eighty, deaf as a post, and spent most of his life complaining about the postie. He missed his wife so much that he still had all of her clothes.
And then there was Professor James who worked at the University of Birmingham. He was a soft-spoken man who liked to wear button-down cardigans no matter the weather.
Why would these guys visit either of them? Unless they were here to collect a debt?
No. Debt collectors didn’t dress in Ralph Lauren.
She tried to tug her arm out of the first man’s hold. To her surprise and relief he let her go and she moved back, reaching down to grab her handbag.
Surely, if she yelled, Billy would hear her.
The man who’d had hold of her ran his gaze over her and for a moment she thought she saw something flash in his dark gaze.
Hunger?
No, no, she had to be mistaken.
Act like nothing weird happened. Get out of here.
Now.
Indie reached up to rub at her shoulder which was still throbbing from where she’d banged into this guy .
How had he not seen her coming? Why hadn’t he gotten out of her way?
You ran into him, remember? Why didn’t you watch where you were going?
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
The man raised his eyebrow. “No, you seemed very preoccupied. Something wrong?”
“Just trying to find my keys.” She held up her oversized handbag. She really needed to clean it out. It was so heavy now that it made her back hurt if she carried it for too long.
“You should have them ready,” the man said. “A woman alone should always pay attention to her surroundings. It’s just not safe otherwise.”
After giving that advice, the man walked away, the guys with him following silently behind him.
Indie just stood there and watched after them for a long moment. She prayed she never ran into them again.
She waited until they were definitely gone before moving to her door and knocking.
“Did you forget something?” Billy asked as he opened it. Then he frowned. “Why are you knocking? And why are you back so early?”
Why did he answer the door like that? Unless someone had just been here . . . like those guys.
“Were those men here to visit you? Who are they?” she asked. “They looked like bad news. Why would you invite them here?”
He grabbed hold of her wrist, hard, dragging her into the apartment. Then he slammed her into the wall, kicking the door shut behind him.
She let out a squeal of shock, pain radiating through her body from where he’d smacked her into the wall.
“Listen to me, you never saw them, understand?” he snarled at her. “You don’t know them. If you ever see them again, you look straight through them. Get me?”
Indie nodded, too scared to say anything .
His eyes darted around as though he couldn’t focus on anything. Was he high?
Were those guys drug dealers?
They didn’t look like the drug dealers she’d seen growing up.
But that was a while ago.
Things changed.
“S-sorry,” she whispered. She didn’t even know why she was apologizing. She hadn’t done anything wrong.
He grabbed her forearms, pushing them against the wall next to her head. He held her so tightly that it felt like the bones in her arms were mashing together.
Oh God.
Please, no.
He licked his lips. “I’m just thinking of your safety, Indie. I don’t want anything bad happening to my girl, do I?”
“They’d hurt me?” she asked.
“Without even breaking a sweat.”
Then why had he brought them to their home? Now they knew where they lived! They could come back at any time when she was here alone.
“They know where we live,” she pointed out to the fucking dumbass.
He let go of her right hand and ran a finger down her cheek. “Oh, babe, they’ve always known.”
What?
Knee him in the balls.
Punch him in the throat.
But she couldn’t do it. She didn’t understand this hold he had over her.
“What if they come back when I’m here alone?” she asked.
He narrowed his gaze, anger filling his face.
Oh God.
She could be in real trouble here.
“Then don’t fucking answer the door. Can you do that, Indie? Can you do something right for once? Just don’t answer the door. Besides, why would they come here when I’m not here? Unless you promised them something when you saw them out there? Did you?”
“W-what? No, of c-course not.”
He eyed her. Then, to her shock, he let her go and stepped back.
“Of course not. You’d never do anything to betray me. Would you?”
Why was he talking like that? As though she’d done something to him? Could he sense that she planned to leave?
Calm. There’s no way he knows.
How was she going to leave while protecting her guys, though? Because if Billy had friends like those thugs. . . then maybe his threats to hurt anyone she told about him were real.
She didn’t want her guys to get hurt.
“I’d never betray or lie to you, Billy,” she lied.
She was going to hell.
But that hardly mattered when she was living in it right now.
“That’s my good girl.” Something changed in his face as he took her in. “Why are you so early to get home? What happened?”
“When . . . when I got there, Edward told me that he and Mum are getting a divorce.”
“What?” A strange look filled his face. “A divorce?”
“Yes.”
“Did they have a pre-nup?”
Was he hoping that her mum would get some money from Edward? Even if she did, it wouldn’t benefit Indie. Not that she’d take anything from her mother anyway.
“I guess so.”
“Your mum wasn’t there?” he asked.
“No, apparently she’s in Ibiza. With her new . . . love interest.”
Urgh.
Just saying that made her feel a bit sick.
“Edward told me to get anything I had in the house that I wanted and go. ”
She still felt shocked by that. They weren’t close, but she’d kind of thought he might care about her a bit.
“So you won’t see him again?” Billy asked. “What about those assholes? They won’t want anything to do with you either now that daddy dearest has kicked you out, will they?”
Ouch.
She winced. How did he always know just how to hurt her? It was like he took her worst fear and voiced it.
Indie wished she could tell him that they’d driven her home and asked her to come stay with them.
“How did you get home so quickly?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“It takes at least an hour and a half on the train. Plus travel time to the Slade estate. Then there’s waiting for the train. And lunch. You can’t have made it back so quickly. Unless you didn’t take the train . . .”
There was that look on his face again.
“Well, Indie? How did you get home? Or are you going to lie to me?” he asked in a scary voice.
“Slade gave me a ride,” she whispered, knowing lying would only make it worse.
“Slade . . . fucking Archibald Slade.”
She winced, knowing how much Slade hated his first name. He always went by his last name.
“That. Fucking. Prick. Do they still think they can have you? Because they can’t. You belong to me! Not those fucking dicks,” he roared.
She winced with a whimper as he picked up a vase filled with fake flowers and threw it at the wall.
Oh God.
“Four rich pricks who had Daddy’s money backing them. They didn’t have to claw their way to the top like I did!”
Seriously? It wasn’t like Billy’s family didn’t have money. Why did he resent Slade and the guys so much?
“They think they can get whatever they want because of who they are. But I’ve earned everything I’ve got. I’ve learned to do whatever I need to do to survive. They’ll learn. They’ll learn who is better than them. Who comes out on top. And it won’t be them.”
What was he talking about? On top of what?
Indie wanted to run. But she knew there was no getting away yet.
But soon she’d be gone. In fact, why wait until Thursday?
Tomorrow.
She’d go to them tomorrow.