Chapter 3
3
E lodie
Before I even open my eyes, I know it’s late morning. Every inch of my body hurts to move as I peer into the gloom of the big bedroom. There’s a heavy weight on my chest. A tattooed arm bulging with muscles.
The hunter lies on his stomach, his face planted in a pillow above my head. His hair has dried to a dark gold color, the coils draping down his back and obscuring a brutal-looking brand burned into the skin. It’s a skull—the mark of Fraternitas. The design matches the big silver ring he’s wearing on his left hand.
More proof that I’m in bed with a murderous monster.
I should count myself lucky I survived the night. But I’m not free of him yet.
I push his arm off and carefully slide out from under the covers. He twitches, and I freeze, but he doesn’t wake. I’m able to scoot to the edge of the bed.
The second my right foot hits the floor, I whimper and curl into a half-ball. My ankle is an angry red, swollen, and hot to the touch.
Dammit! How am I going to work my job with a hurt ankle? I can’t afford the time off. A thousand dollars will barely cover the rent.
I might get ten thousand dollars, but I don’t know if I made it to midnight. The jerk sleeping next to me might have lied just to toy with me.
First things first, though. My bladder is screaming at me.
I ease onto my left foot and hang onto the bed. It looks like it’ll take ten steps to get to the bathroom. I try to limp, and pain knifes through me. I bite back a cry.
“Bunny,” a deep voice mutters behind me. A strong arm wraps around my middle, and he pulls me against him.
His dick is hard. Again. Does it never rest?
“Let me go.” I jab an elbow into his gut. His abs might as well be a brick wall. I probably hurt my elbow, and he doesn’t seem to feel it.
“You’re hurt.” He runs a hand down my leg. I cringe when he touches below my knee and bite my lip to hold in my sob.
“I have to pee.” I sound like a child holding back tears.
He lifts me easily and carries me to the bathroom. He sets me on the toilet, and I glare up at him. The pain has made me cranky and incinerated my survival instincts. “A little privacy?”
With a lazy smile, he saunters out of the bathroom but leaves the door open a crack. Somehow he knows when I finish because he’s back, wearing his jeans this time. He picks me up, cradling me against his beautiful chest. I avert my eyes.
“Is my bunny shy?”
“No.” I whip my head around and end up lost in his eyes. “And I’m not your bunny .”
“No?” He lays me back on the bed and plants a palm on my chest so I can’t move. “You have the cutest freckles.” He brushes the tip of my nose.
I don’t hate my freckles, but they are copious, so I usually cover them with an inch of concealer.
What’s more unnerving is how he’s touching me like he owns me. And my pussy likes it.
I push his hand away, watching him carefully to make sure I don’t anger him. I’m fully aware of how he’s clothed and I am not. He’s only in a pair of jeans, but it would only take him a second to get undressed.
“The night’s over. I’m no longer yours.”
“Hmm.” He doesn’t say any more, just leaves the room, strutting as if he knows I’m studying the shifting muscles in his shoulders and back, and returns with a glass of water and two pills. “Painkillers. Take them.”
I hesitate, but the pain wins the argument.
Did I make it to midnight? The question is on the tip of my tongue, but I don’t want to engage with him any more than I have to.
He’s typing on his phone. “I’m going to step out to make a call. Stay here and lie still.”
I’m sitting up, intending to swing my legs over the side of the bed.
“Do it and I’ll tie you down.”
I stop moving and sink back against the covers.
He nods his approval and leaves.
The door opens, and then I hear voices, his voice booming the loudest. I sit up and pull the blanket around me. I’m totally naked, and I don’t like it, but I have no clothes, so I’ll have to deal.
At least I’m clean, and my hair isn’t the leaf-ridden mess I’d expected it to be. He washed it last night, and it dried with minimal frizz. A bad hair day is the least of my problems, but he gets points for taming my curls.
He returns with a tray of dishes covered with silver domes.
“What’s that?” I ask.
He sets the tray down on the bed. It even has a little vase filled with white daisies and everything. “Breakfast.” He lifts the biggest dome, revealing a plate of huge fluffy waffles covered in whipped cream and strawberry compote. “Catered from the kitchens at the Lodge.” The delicious scent hits me, and my stomach growls so hard it can probably be heard from space.
He sits on the side of the bed, looking satisfied. “Eat. The doctor is on his way.”
I pause with a cup of coffee halfway to my lips. “Doctor?”
“To examine your ankle.”
I set down the cup with a click. “No.”
His blue eyes narrow. “Bunny?—”
“Don’t call me that.” I cross my arms over my chest.
He leans back, his mouth tipping into a half smile. He seems to find my recalcitrance amusing, which is annoying but better than making him mad. “What’s your name?”
I press my lips together in a ridiculous show of defiance. I shouldn’t feel reluctant to share my name with him after he’s fucked me so thoroughly.
“Bunny…” he purrs in a way that tells me he’ll make it my permanent name unless I give him what he wants.
“Elodie,” I answer.
“Elodie.” He savors my name like it’s delicious. “I’m Jaeger.” He pronounces it like the drink.
“Good for you,” I say, making clear I am not pleased to meet him at all. “I’ve fulfilled the terms of the contract. And I made it until midnight, right?”
He nods.
Whew. That’s some of the weight off my shoulders. Too bad all that cash has to go straight toward the debt hanging over my and my sister’s heads.
“You have to let me go.” I don’t trust a flimsy piece of paper to shield me from a criminal, but it’s all I’ve got. The gentle way he’s cared for me hints at some secret code of honor.
“You’re hurt. I can’t in good conscience let you leave until the doctor’s seen you.”
How chivalrous. “I can’t afford a doctor.” I’m pissed that I have to admit that.
“It’s no expense. Fraternitas takes care of its own.”
I don’t want to think too closely about that, so I turn my attention back to the coffee and waffles and bacon and sausage I find under another smaller silver dome. I might as well eat. I’ve earned it.
Jaeger watches me eat, a half smile on his handsome face. It’s unnerving, sitting naked in front of such a perfect specimen of manliness. He watches me like a predator, following my every move. I do feel shy, which annoys me even more.
“Sorry, was some of this for you?” I pointedly take a piece of bacon and munch on it.
He leans in, slides a finger through the whipped cream, and holds my gaze as he licks it off slowly. Heat curls through my lower belly. I’m suddenly hungry for something else.
I shove the food away. I do not want to be attracted to this asshole. I still feel wrung out from all the orgasms he’s given me. Not to mention the throbbing pain in my ankle.
He reaches in for more food, and the light catches his silver ring. The skull has empty eye sockets that give it a baleful stare.
“I should’ve known you’re one of them.”
He gives me a questioning grunt.
“Fraternitas.” I point to the ring. “A thug.”
He doesn’t answer, only smiles in a way that makes my breath go faster. My insides curl, and there’s a tugging sensation in my cunt in anticipation of him stroking me.
He leans down to kiss me. I surrender and sigh into his mouth, tasting the whipped cream.
Jaeger suddenly raises his head like a wolf catching a new scent. I expect him to say some crap about eating me for breakfast, but he crosses the room, pulls something out of a drawer, and drops it over my head. The fabric swallows me up, and I struggle until I realize he’s putting a shirt on me. It’s a man’s black T-shirt big enough to fit him. It drapes over me like a dress.
It smells like him, leather and musk and a touch of something wild, like a midnight run through a pine forest.
The front door opens as Jaeger helps me tug the shirt down. “The doctor’s here.”
Great. I’m going to meet another member of the underworld. Some idiot who lost his medical license and scrapes out a living setting the bones of criminals.
But when the doctor walks into the bedroom, gorgeous with light brown skin and a shaved head, I sit up straight. My heart pitter-patters and my body wakes up, realizing I’m surrounded by gorgeous men.
Then, I spy the skull ring on the doctor’s middle finger. Crap, why am I so attracted to dangerous men?
“This is Elodie,” Jaeger says.
The doctor nods to Jaeger before he turns to me. “Elodie, I’m Atticus. I’m here to examine you. Where does it hurt?”
I bite my lip as he handles my ankle with care. Jaeger lurks at my back, a heavy presence. Atticus touches something sensitive, and the flare of pain makes me reach for Jaeger. His hand catches mine, enveloping it in his warmth and strength. I squeeze as hard as I can, and he lets me.
“Looks like a grade two sprain,” Atticus says.
“That sounds bad.”
“It is. You must be in a lot of pain.”
I shake my head and squeeze Jaeger’s hand tighter. He touches my back with his free hand, stroking my hair. It’s a light touch, ghosting over my curls, but it helps.
Atticus opens his case and pulls out a white pack. He crushes it until it turns cold. “Elevation and ice will bring the swelling down. I’m going to give you a compression wrap, but you’re going to need to ice it every three hours.”
“We’ll set a timer,” Jaeger says. I’m too worn out to protest the ‘we.’ The cold feels good on my heated skin.
Atticus opens a second section of his case, revealing row after row of baggies filled with pills. “And for the pain?—”
“No drugs,” I say quickly. “Nothing addictive.”
Jaeger’s fingers go still on my back, but then he keeps rubbing.
Atticus selects a bag of white pills. “You can get these over the counter.”
“She’s just had two aspirin,” Jaeger tells him.
“These are better. Take three.”
Jaeger takes the bag and tips three into my palm. Atticus continues to discuss my care with him right over my head.
“These can be combined with aspirin. She should ice it a little longer and use this to wrap it. Need a demo?”
“I’ve got it.” Jaeger takes the wrap and more instant ice packs. “Ice every three hours, along with the pills.”
“Rest, ice, compression, and elevation. Stick to a routine to get a jump start on the healing. I can check on her again in a few days.”
I’m about to tell him that I can’t afford his services when he says, “But she’ll need to keep weight off the ankle for at least a few weeks.”
“What?” I gasp loudly enough that the guys turn to me. “I can’t do that.”
“Bunny—”
“I have to work. I don’t get sick leave. I can’t take off weeks and weeks?—”
“You have to heal,” Atticus says. He looks sympathetic, but his tone is firm. “Rest is what you need.”
I’m too dazed to argue. I’ve always been broke. I moved in with my sister Margot and her two kids after her ex left her. She’s on disability in a subsidized apartment, but money’s still tight. When I got my job as a waitress at Inferno, we both celebrated. I knew it was owned by the mob, but it paid well enough for me to look the other way. I deal with the temptation of drugs and alcohol and work as many shifts as they’ll give me, but the pay isn’t enough to touch my sister’s medical bills, not to mention the debts that her ex skipped out on.
Last week, a thug showed up, demanding payment for a loan shark. Margot’s ex borrowed from that loan shark, but he’s in the wind, so we’re the ones responsible. He threatened her and the kids. That’s why I agreed to St. James’ proposal and signed the contract so quickly.
The ten thousand has to go straight to that debt, but I still have to work to eat, to live. To pay my part of the rent so the creepy landlord doesn’t throw my family onto the street.
Atticus packs up his case and shakes Jaeger’s hand.
“Thank you, brother,” Jaeger murmurs.
“Anytime. I’ll see you soon, Elodie.”
I shake my head. “I can’t miss work.”
Atticus sighs, and Jaeger claps his arm as if to signal, I’ve got this. The doctor exits, and Jaeger settles next to me. His arms come around me, and his lips press to my head.
It’s not the comfort I’d choose, but it’s comforting all the same. I lean into him, closing my eyes. If only this were a nightmare that would pass when I woke. Because last night feels like a dream, a hallucination. My ankle throbs like a heartbeat, reminding me this is real. The pills have dulled the pain, but it’s still there.
Jaeger rubs my back, and his touch feels so good. How is it that this stranger’s gentleness is the only thing holding me together? “It’ll be okay, bunny,” he says.
My eyes pop open. “No, it won’t. I need that money from Inferno.” I don’t have an emergency fund or insurance or any of the things that an adult is supposed to have sorted out. “Why do you think I agreed to run around naked in the woods in the first place?” I turn my head. I hate sounding desperate. I hate that I am desperate.
He cups my chin with his big, tattooed hand and turns me to face him. “You’ll be okay. We’ll figure it out.”
There’s that ‘we’ again. “Sure,” I agree because I’m too tired to do anything else. This situation is hopeless.
By midday, Jaeger will be long gone, and this will be a memory. If there’s anything life has taught me, it’s that men always leave. My father, my boyfriend, who lured me to the city and then abandoned me. Even my sister’s ex, the father of her children. Men always leave.
Jaeger will be no exception. I’d bet what little money I have on it, plus the hundred thousand dollars I didn’t win.