Chapter 4
4
T he city of New Rome is vast and dense, with millions of people calling it home. My sister Margot moved here as soon as she turned eighteen. A few years later, I followed a boy here and have been scrabbling to eke out a living ever since.
Jaeger insisted on driving me home. My neighborhood is poor but proud. His black and gold Lykan HyperSport does not fit in at all.
I had no idea being in a gang paid well enough to own such an expensive car. But Fraternitas is more than just a gang.
“You can drop me here,” I say, pointing to the curb at the end of my block. The closer we get to the ancient apartment building where I live, the more my tension rises.
Jaeger ignores me. His car purrs right up to my door. The trio of men who always sit and smoke on a sidewalk bench straighten, their eyes wide.
“Let me out.” I shoulder my purse and try the door, but it’s locked.
He parks the car illegally and hops out, coming around to my side. “I’ll see you to your door,” he says, like an old-fashioned suitor. He’s supposed to be a Fraternitas thug. Who taught him manners?
“No—” I argue, but he’s already unbuckled my seat belt and bundled me into his arms. Everyone on the sidewalk is staring like Jaeger’s a celebrity. One of the smokers even scrambles up to open the door for him. Jaeger nods his thanks.
“This is ridiculous,” I complain as he carries me in. The way my ankle is throbbing, I’m grateful I don’t have to walk, but I’m not going to tell him that.
“No use fighting, bunny,” he whispers in my ear. “You’re hurt. You can’t run.”
I knew it. He’s getting a kick out of this.
“Jokes on you,” I mutter back. “The elevator’s out. Has been for years.” I point to the stairs. “I’m on the tenth floor.”
He makes a hmmm noise but doesn’t miss a step. Ten flights up the stuffy staircase usually leaves me sweaty and out of breath. Jaeger isn’t even breathing hard. I start to struggle as soon as he reaches my floor.
“Put me down.” I don’t want my sister and niece and nephew to see me like this. It’s bad enough that I have a wrapped ankle, and I’m wearing brand new clothes—a sky-blue lounge set and cream-colored lingerie miraculously appeared after Atticus left, along with my purse.
He sets me down and steadies me until I’m stable, holding the wall.
“You need to leave.” If I sound ungrateful, I am. It’s his fault I’m hurt.
I want him gone, no matter how much I know I’ll fantasize about our night together. Sometimes we get what we want, but what we want isn’t always good for us. Asshole men are my cocaine. I’ve been addicted before; I’m not getting sucked in again.
“You need help.”
No argument there. “I know. I just don’t want yours.” There, I’ve made myself clear. Too bad I can’t look directly into his stunning blue eyes as I say it.
“All right, bunny. I’ll go.”
I sag against the wall. Thank the gods. It’s a good thing he agrees because I have no way of forcing him to do anything. I’ll just ignore the way my body cries out for his. How I’m already missing his warmth and scent. There’s no reason for me to want him around.
Because I learned a long time ago that cravings aren’t logical.
“Here.” He pulls out a battered, brown leather wallet and extracts a wad of bills, all hundreds.
I tense at the sight of that amount of money. “St. James said the money will be in my account.” Paid through Inferno, marked as a bonus.
He doesn’t urge me to take it. He just tucks it right in the pocket of my joggers, holding my gaze.
A flush rolls over my cheeks and chest. I’m not ashamed of sex work, but standing so close to his burly form, it’s impossible to forget how I earned this cash. How savagely he broke my body in.
How hot we were together.
His eyes burn. I swallow. I don’t want to take this money. I don’t want to need it.
But I do.
“Bye,” I whisper because that’s all that’s left. There’s so much unspoken between us that will never be said. That’s just the way it is. The way it has to be.
I watch him pace to the stairs. He pauses, the muscles in his back working like he’s wrestling with himself.
A rush of desire hits me so hard that I get dizzy. Turn around. Don’t leave.
It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever felt and all the more potent because it’s true and as real as the gravity holding my feet to the floor.
But he does leave. I wait until his bright head disappears before rapping on the door.
The second my sister opens it, I know something’s terribly wrong. My sister doesn’t look like she’s slept all night. Her eyes are puffy like she’s been crying, and her toddlers, Tyson and Janie, are shrieking in the background.
“Where have you been?” she hisses, looking left and right as if expecting someone to leap out at us. “I’ve been calling you.”
“My phone died.” I push past her, propping myself up on the wall, limping as quickly as I can to the couch. “I had a job.”
The apartment’s a mess. Toys in every color cover the floor, the TV plays a kid’s cartoon on low volume, and the place smells like dirty diapers and spilled juice with a faint undertone of mold. In the grimy window, an ancient AC unit cranks out warm air. It’s leaked water so long there’s a black trail from the window to the floor.
This place is home. But instead of the relief and comfort I get from the depressing but familiar surroundings, I have a brief flash of longing for the resort-level cabin where I spent the night.
I sink into the crumb-covered couch. Margot runs to get Tyson out of his high chair. He and his older sister have perpetual bedhead and run around in sagging diapers, but they seem happy. I have to believe my niece and nephew know they’re loved and that we’ve done our best to protect them from the crushing stress of bills, deadbeat dads, and crappy apartments. I can only hope.
Margot gets the kids set up in front of the TV and returns to me.
My older sister was always beautiful. She dropped out of high school and headed to the big city to start her modeling career. She ended up pregnant with Janie instead.
Her multiple sclerosis diagnosis came soon after Tyson, which was when her baby daddy left.
She needs expensive medication. The disease attacks her nervous system, and if she deteriorates, we’re afraid social services will take away her kids.
I pull the money from my joggers and hand it to her.
She sucks in a breath as if I’ve handed her a snake. “What is this?”
“Payment. There’s more where that came from. We can pay off Trey’s debt.”
Instead of looking relieved, her face crumples, and she sags to the couch.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“It’s too late. He came back.” She’s whispering, glancing nervously at her kids and away.
“Baldie?”
She nods. The first time the loan shark’s thug came around, we called him Baldie and laughed behind his back. He was looking for Trey. The next time, he’d told us Trey was gone and that his debt had fallen to us. If we didn’t pay, he would break our legs. We gave him our rent money as a stop gap and quit making Baldie jokes.
“When?”
“Last night. Pounded on the door so hard, I thought he’d wake the kids.” She runs a hand through her hair. It’s a gorgeous auburn that usually falls in a silky wave. But right now, it’s dank and flat, like she’s been running her sweaty hands though it nonstop. “He said now we owe double.”
“Double? How can that be?” Trey had been stupid enough to run up a gambling debt with a loan shark named “Umberto the Executioner.” Skipping town was the smartest thing he’s ever done.
Too bad he left a destitute family behind.
Margot shrugs. “Interest. They can do what they want, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
The full horror descends. The ten thousand I’ve earned won’t touch the new amount. Not even close. And I have no idea how to earn more.
“He’s coming back,” Margot says. “He said he’ll take the kids until we pay him.”
Over my dead body. “That’s not going to happen.”
“I don’t know what to do.” She’s clutching the collar of her shirt and pulling it up like she wants to disappear. Like a child pulling a blanket over her head because if she can’t see the monster, it isn’t real.
“Here’s what we’re going to do.” I have a new plan. It’s not great, but it’s something. “You’re going to pack what you can for you and the kids. Not everything, just what you need. And I’m going to drive you to the train station. He can’t take the kids if he can’t find them.”
“Where am I going to go?”
“West Virginia. Aunt Carol. Remember her?”
Margot straightens, a little color returning to her cheeks. “Mom’s half-sister? Is she still alive?”
“She is. I send her a card every New Year.” The summer I spent with her, weeding the garden and learning to can green beans and tomatoes, was the best season of my life. “She’ll be surprised but glad to see you. And she loves kids.” Best of all, she owns a trailer and a remote patch of land on a mountain. The loan shark won’t be able to find Margot there.
“Get your suitcase,” I say, and Margot jumps up as if she were waiting for the command. She hasn’t thought to ask me what I’ll do while she’s on the run. Which is fine because I don’t know. I could go with her and the kids, but it might attract too much attention and slow them down. Better that someone stays here and keeps the lights on, a decoy to draw the predators in.
I just have to figure out what to do when the thugs come for me. It’s not like I’ll be able to run.
I sag back on the couch. The pain meds are wearing off, and my ankle is throbbing again. I need to ice it.
A hurt ankle is the least of my worries.
For a blissful second, I recall last night and running through the forest. The cool air on my skin and nothing but the threat of the hunter behind me.
Everything in life comes down to a simple calculation of survival. You escape; you live. You get caught, and it’s lights out.
Except for last night, when it was just a game. Running was a thrill, and capture meant orgasms. I never thought I’d enjoy surrendering. Jaeger had made sure I did.
But he’s gone now, and all I have left are my real-life problems.
Margot’s piling up bags outside her bedroom door.
“Don’t forget your medication,” I remind her. I hope she has enough. Just another thing added to the list of things to worry about.
For a crazy moment, I wish Jaeger were here. It makes no sense, but I imagine standing in his arms, leaning on his strength. It’s going to be okay, bunny. We’ll figure it out. It’s a stupid fantasy because a man like Jaeger means more problems. But it’s never going to happen, so it’s safe to dream of his beautiful face and perfect, woodsy scent.
Then I open my eyes, and reality punches me in the face.
My ankle is pulsing with pain. I peel back the wrap a little and wince at how puffy it looks. My sprain might be the least of my problems, but I can do something about it.
I’m about to brave the walk across a block-covered floor to the kitchen for some ice when there’s a creak from the hall outside the apartment. My heart trips.
Someone pounds on our front door.
Margot appears at the bedroom door, wide-eyed and trembling.
“Go hide,” I whisper, getting off the couch. She doesn’t argue and runs to get the kids, pulling them away from their toys. She tells them a story about playing hide and seek as she bundles them into the bedroom. I wait until the bedroom door closes before limping to check the peephole.
A square chin covered in blond stubble greets me. Jaeger’s back. I’m frozen, unable to believe it.
“Let me in,” says the Big, Bad Wolf.
What the heck?
I rip open the door and lean on it, trembling.
“I brought donuts,” he says as if this will explain his presence. He holds up a pink rectangular box tied with string.
“Why?”
He’s already pushing his way in. “You shouldn’t be on your feet.” He takes my arm and lends his weight, helping me to the couch.
“You’re the one who knocked.” My peeved voice comes out breathless. I sink onto the couch with relief.
He pulls out a pack of instant-ice and fusses over my leg. “Did you take your meds?” He lopes to the kitchen and comes back with a glass of water before I can answer.
“Elodie?” My sister peeks out of the bedroom and tenses at the sight of the huge, tattooed enforcer leaning over me with a glass of water.
“It’s okay.” I wave her over. “He’s not here to hurt us.”
As if to prove my point, Jaeger pulls the bottle of pain pills out of my purse and shakes a few out onto my palm.
“This is my…” I start and realize that the only way I can finish the sentence is my one-night stand, who paid to fuck me after he chased me through the woods. “Jaeger. Um. He brought donuts.”
My sister just stares. For a moment, I see Jaeger through her eyes: a six-foot-tall stack of sexy blond. She’s used to skinny male model types. Jaeger could probably bench-press ten of them.
“Nice to meet you,” Jaeger rumbles, and he sounds so civilized my eyes almost pop out of my head. “Would you like a donut?”
Margot swallows as if she’s unsure if this is a trap. The only reason big, burly men have shown up to our door is to shake us down.
The kids have no such qualms.
“Donuts,” Janie screeches, squeezing past her mother. Her two-year-old brother takes up the chant in his toddler-speak, “Do-nuh, do-nuh.”
Jaeger flips the box open.
“Uh, Margot, why don’t you take these?” I grab the box and hand it to her before the kids get their grubby hands on it. “You can cut them into pieces for the kids? I need to talk to Jaeger a sec.”
Still pale, Margot’s eyes dart to Jaeger’s skull ring and away. She presses her lips together and leads the screaming children to the kitchen.
I stare up at Jaeger. “What are you doing here?” I whisper. “I thought you were going to go.”
“I did go. I got donuts.” He looks around, taking in the shabby apartment—the frayed carpet and water stains on the ceiling. Meanwhile, I’m drinking him in. He looks unreal, his hair shining golden in the dim light. Like he’s full color, and the rest of the world is faded.
I try to convince myself his presence is a complication I don’t need, but my body’s quivering like he’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.
“This is where you live? With your sister?”
I stiffen. He doesn’t have the right to ask questions. I don’t ask him how he knows Margot is my sister.
“Uh, she’s leaving.”
He nods, glancing at the suitcase and bags piled outside the bedroom. “When?”
“Right now, actually. Margot,” I call to her. “You should get the kids ready. I’ll call a cab.” I’ll have to use my almost maxed credit card to pay for it. As soon as the ten thousand I’ve earned hits my account, I’ll use some of it to get out of here and find a way to get the rest to Margot and my aunt.
I pull out my phone, but it’s dead.
“I’ll do it,” Jaeger announces. “And let me help you with the bags.”
“No,” I protest. I struggle to my feet, but he takes my shoulder and gently pushes me back down. I crumple under his stormy stare. I can’t fight him, and I don’t know why I would when it hurts to stand.
“What’s wrong with her ankle?” Margot has less of a deer-in-the-headlights look now. She brushes her hair behind her ear, blinking up at Jaeger. She’s not flirting; she’s just using her looks to her advantage. It usually works—even tired with limp hair and dark circles under her eyes, she’s cat-walk-model stunning.
But Jaeger doesn’t seem to notice.
“She hurt it last night,” Jaeger answers for me. I don’t know why they’re talking over my head when I’m right here.
My sister’s stare sharpens. “You were with her last night?”
“We don’t have time for this,” I interrupt. I don’t want her to know the details of how I earned the cash, and we don’t have time. The thugs could be here any minute. “You have to get the kids out.”
“Right.” Margot hustles, getting the kid’s sticky faces and hands cleaned up and bundling them into clothes. Jaeger picks up her suitcase and the few extra bags she’s managed to pack. Janie gets her own tiny backpack. Tyson sucks on the matted fur of his favorite teddy.
I fight tears, holding open my arms to give them kisses and a final farewell.
I recite my Aunt Carol’s address until Margot memorizes it. “Don’t write it down,” I tell her. “And don’t call me. They might be able to track it.” From the corner of my eye, I sense Jaeger’s attention focused on me. So far, he’s been quiet and gone with the flow, but any second, he might speak up and start asking questions. And I don’t know what he’ll do next.
He’s a wild card in this mess. I don’t like it. I want to know why he came back, but again, I have a whole list of problems, and his appearance doesn’t even crack the top ten.
“Don’t use your cards, either. Pay cash for everything so you don’t leave a trail. I’ll send you more cash as soon as I can,” I promise.
Margot nods and leans down to give me a hug. It’s surprising because she’s not usually the hugging type. It makes more sense when she whispers in my ear, “Are you sure you’re okay?” I’m sure she’s wondering why a huge, tattooed Fraternitas thug is bringing me donuts.
“Positive.” I plaster a big ole fake smile on my face and push her away. “Think of this as a vacation.”
She stands, still looking unconvinced.
“Go,” I urge with everything in me.
Her mouth snaps shut, and she steers the kids away. “Come on, everybody. We’re going on an adventure.” Her voice is cheery and bright in a way that tells me she’s a second away from snapping.
I scoot to the edge of the couch, wanting to go walk her to the stairs, but Jaeger places a hand on my shoulder again. “Stay.”
Heat flushes my face. It’s anger, I tell myself. Not a reaction to his touch. “I’m not a dog,” I snap.
He quirks a blond brow and touches his thumb to my lips. Just like that, my body melts into a puddle. My body quivers. My breasts swell. I’m ready for him to take me right here, right now.
Worse, he knows it.
“Stay,” he repeats and heads out behind my sister. He leaves the door open.
I guess he’s planning on coming back. I fall back on the couch and rub my face. Things are happening too quickly, but at least I won’t worry about the kids. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to them.
They’ll all be safe. They have to be. Now, I just have to figure out how to survive.
On top of that, I have to find out what Jaeger is doing here. Why can’t life be simple?
Men always leave. Except, apparently, Jaeger.
He came back.
The steps outside the door creak. “Did everything go okay?” I ask without opening my eyes.
“It most certainly did not,” a peevish voice answers.
My eyes fly open. Mr. Wilson, our creepy landlord, stands over me. His BO hits me as he leans down, scowling. “Is your sister going on a trip? You both owe me back rent.”
Great. Here’s another one of my problems, now moved to the top of the list. “I’ll get it to you,” I lie. I’m a sitting duck in this apartment. As soon as I can, I’m going to run. Get to an ATM and get out as much cash as I can. I’ll find a by-the-week hotel room, pay with cash, and lie low.
I’ve spent my life running from my problems, so why stop now?
“You said that last week.” He steps closer, and his stench wafts over with me, making me gag. “There’ve been a lotta men lurking around here. Asking ’bout you both. They don’t seem very nice. I try to protect my renters—” He’s lying. He’d sell out his grandmother to save his own skin. “But they look dangerous. I’ll have to tell them everything I know unless you make it worth my while.”
I’m too tense to breathe. As threats go, this is a good one. He could spill everything to the loan shark’s thugs, and they could intercept Margot and the kids before she has time to get out of the city.
Godsdamn this man. He’s a loser who preys on people weaker than him. When there’s blood in the water, even the bottom feeders swarm to get their pound of flesh.
“I don’t have any cash on me.” I raise my empty hands.
He shrugs. “We could figure something out.” He’s close enough that I can see the old stains on his faded black pants. “Your sister is the pretty one,” he says with a leer. “But you work at that mob club, right? I bet you suck dick real good.” His hands go to his zipper, and I cringe back, averting my head to avoid smelling his stench and seeing the contents of his pants.
A shadow falls over us both. “Get away from her,” Jaeger rumbles softly. Mr. Wilson doesn’t have time to look up from his half-opened pants before Jaeger grabs his shirt and sends him flying across the room.
I clap my hands over my mouth. I didn’t even hear Jaeger come up the stairs. He’s stealthier than a man of his size has any right to be. I’ll have to remember that.
Mr. Wilson staggers to his feet. His pants are now at his ankles, and I try not to look too closely. At least he’s wearing boxers.
“Who are you?” He gapes at Jaeger.
“You don’t want to know.” Jaeger clamps a hand on the back of his neck and sends him careening toward the door. “You’re no longer welcome here.”
Mr. Wilson is stupider than I thought because he hits the door jamb and stands his ground. “It’s my building. I have rights! She owes me rent.”
Faster than I can follow, Jaeger shoots forward. The next thing I know, Mr. Wilson is falling into the hall, his mouth full of bills.
“There.” Jaeger kicks at a fallen wad of cash. “That should cover it. And spread the word: Elodie and her family are under my protection.”
Mr. Wilson sputters, spraying cash, and Jaeger shuts the door in his face.
I still have my hands over my mouth, panting like I’ve run up ten flights of stairs. I know Jaeger is violent, but watching it unfold before my eyes is another story.
And now I’m alone with him. What is happening? Why is he here?
Why am I under his protection?
Slowly, Jaeger swivels to face me. His face is blank and scary. I know he won’t hurt me, but he’s intimidating as hell right now. He moves closer, blocking the weak light streaming through the window, and his shadow swallows me whole.
“Now, bunny,” he says in a soft voice that sends chills up and down my arms. “You’re going to explain to me what’s going on.”