Chapter 20 #2
I let out a startled shriek and nearly tripped over the bags at the sight of Malachi Black sitting at my kitchen table. Once the shock wore off, rage took its place.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Nice to see you too, sugar.”
“How the hell did you get in my house?” I snapped as my fingers gripped my keys so tight they cut into my palm.
“You don’t have the strongest lock on your front door. Thing took all of two seconds to pick.”
My eyes narrowed angrily as I took in his careless pose.
His booted feet were kicked up on the tabletop, and he had the chair leaning on its back legs.
His good looks did absolutely nothing for me.
Suspecting that he was the cause behind the bruise on sweet McKenna’s beautiful face, I felt nothing but hatred.
“And you just decided to let yourself in?”
He seemed to take my disdain as a challenge, determination rolling off him as he set my chair right and stood to his full height.
Moving toward me, he stopped two feet away, his eyes flaring with hunger as they traced over my body. Forcing my feet to stay rooted in place as I looked up at him, I did my best not to let show how just how much he intimidated me.
“Christ, you’re fuckin’ sexy when you’re acting all tough.”
He was vile. “You need to leave.”
Ignoring my demand, Black took his time looking around at my house, and by the curl of his top lip, it was clear he found it lacking. “Damn, darlin’. If I’d known you were living in such shit, I’d have moved on you sooner. Saved you from a shithole like this.”
“Now you really need to leave.”
A taunting grin tugged at his mouth. “But don’t you wanna know why I came here?”
The teasing lilt in his voice and the brightness in his eyes let me know he viewed this as a game. He was getting off on this scene.
I rolled my eyes at his childishness. “Not particularly.” Taking a step back, I flicked my hand toward the door. “Feel free to let yourself out the same way you came in.”
Snatching up the bags of discarded groceries, I started for the kitchen, keeping my back to the door as I began unloading everything. Pausing for a second, I waited and listened, but the front door never opened or closed.
Anger began to bubble up inside me like a pot about to boil over as I hurriedly stuffed the food in the pantry and fridge.
Making sure to keep the counter between us, I whipped back around. Planting my hands on my hips, I shot him a killing look. “Why are you still here?”
He had resumed his seat like he had all the time in the world. Shifting in my chair, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a thick white envelope, tossing it onto the center of the table with a loud thunk.
I looked at the envelope like it was a snake ready to strike, a sense of unease washing over me. “What is that?”
He tilted his chin toward the table. “It’s the reason I’m here.”
That didn’t make me feel any better. “But what’s in it?”
He shook his head and grinned like he thought I was adorable, which only pissed me off more. “Open it and find out, sugar.”
Every cell in my body froze and my stomach dropped when I looked inside the envelope. I was right to be leery of it. I’d never seen a stack of cash that thick before in my life, and I knew it couldn’t have come from anywhere good.
I dropped the pile of money on the table like it just burned me and took two big steps back. “What the hell? Where’d that money come from?”
“Don’t worry yourself about where it came from,” he answered, standing once more and moving closer.
Some women might have swooned. Some might not have blinked at getting that kind of cash, especially if they needed it as badly as I did.
But I wasn’t one of those women, and I never would be.
I was well aware of where that money had come from and the strings attached to it.
After all, Malachi Black wasn’t known for being charitable. Just the opposite, in fact.
“No.” I shook my head violently. “Nuh-uh, no way. I’m not taking that.”
The humor fled from his expression, and his forehead wrinkled as he frowned down at me. He seemed genuinely surprised that I wasn’t falling over myself to thank him for offering up his ill-gotten money. “What the hell do you mean, you aren’t taking it? Of course you are.”
“No, I’m not. Look, I don’t know what the hell your deal is, or why you can’t seem to take a hint, but I hear people talk, and I know exactly what you do for a living, and there’s no way in hell I’m taking your drug money.” I said the last two words on a sneer, a bitter taste coating my tongue.
I caught a flash of the anger he was truly capably of, and all of a sudden there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he’d left that bruise on Mckenna’s face.
“I don’t think you’re really in a place to turn down such a generous offer.
It’s clear you aren’t capable of taking care of yourself from where I’m standing. ”
God, he was such a condescending asshole. “I’m doing just fine, thanks.”
“Really?” He arched an incredulous brow. “You flash your tits for cash. You live in a run-down trailer, and that van outside is a piece of shit. How the fuck is that doin’ just fine?”
I moved closer, lowering my voice to a menacing hiss. “At least I can sleep at night knowing I’m not scum. I might flash my tits for cash, but I’m still a thousand times better than you.”
“You act like I can’t take that away from you in the blink of an eye,” he threatened.
The fire in his eyes was banked, replaced by a darkness that would’ve scared the shit out of most anyone else.
But I wasn’t anyone, and life hadn’t just hardened me to the bumps along the way. It made me fucking Teflon.
“Try it,” I gritted venomously. “You wouldn’t be the first person to try and knock me down. I’ll just get back up again and again. It’s what I do, and no asshole, including you, will ever change that.”
He moved closer, each step mirroring the one I took backward to get away from him until I hit the wall and was left with nowhere else to go.
“Then maybe I’ll keep playing with your friend McKenna, huh?
” He gave me a lascivious grin that made my stomach twist into knots. “So sweet and innocent. So agreeable.”
“You stay the hell away from her,” I hissed. My hands began to tremble with rage, and I had to clench them into tight fists to keep the shaking under control. “Don’t you dare get her tangled up in your shit.”
“A man’s gotta have his fun somehow,” he said casually, reaching up to caress a strand of my hair. “And since you’re playin’ hard to get, I might as well have some fun.”
Shoving him back with all my might, I grabbed the envelope and slapped it against his chest. “Take your dirty drug money and get the fuck out of my house.”
Pocketing the cash, he turned on his boots and clomped to the front door, pausing with his hand on the knob to issue one last shot. “You just made a big fuckin’ mistake, sugar.”
With that, the door slammed behind him.
Then I jumped into action.