Chapter 20
20
ZARINA
Ashe didn’t spare me a second glance on his way out. I watched his back too long for it to be casual while he disappeared down the street.
Theo headed out onto the footpath with his phone already pressed against his ear, a stern look on his face.
Toni would be skeptical about Ashe’s proposition, but I could only hope that hearing it from Theo might make him take it a little more seriously than if it had come from me.
Maybe that’s why Ashe asked to speak to Theo instead of me in the first place. It was the smartest course of action. It needed to go well if there was any chance of the club and The Family working together.
“What happened?” Larissa grabbed me by the bicep, barely being able to contain the excitement in her tone.
“Attempting a truce,” I mumbled.
Larissa reared back with such force of the shock that it was as if I had pushed her. She blinked in my direction, eyebrows drawing together.
“Between the Redline Angels and The Family?”
I nodded.
“But—”
“I know. I don’t think it’s gonna happen either.”
“So, it really isn’t the Redliners behind all these recent attacks?”
“No,” I said with a confidence that was probably a little too stern. I didn’t know this for sure, of course. This whole thing with Ashe very well could be a long-play to get to Toni.
Hell, I had fallen for stupider things in my time. But my gut told me that it wasn’t true.
“Well, who then?”
I shrugged. “I think it’s gotta be rich kids. More like us than like the MC.”
Larissa nodded. “Like The East Allies?”
My head whipped to her so quickly that she flinched.
“Who?”
“Jesus, Zar,” she took a step back. “Do you remember William from school?”
“William Peck ?”
Larissa nodded. “I ran into him a while ago. We chatted for a bit and caught up. He asked me out but I wasn’t feeling it. But, ugh—” she tipped her head back and groaned, “he just wouldn’t leave me the fuck alone.”
I frowned and pursed my lips. The memories of this douche were definitely coming back.
“So I agreed to drinks one night, just to get him off my fucking back. He kept rambling on and on about this new association he’s in. I just kind of thought it was a fuckin’ bullshit rich boy circle jerk.”
I snorted a laugh.
“But he was trying real hard to impress me, you know? And let slip a couple of things that maybe he shouldn’t have, and I put it together pretty quickly that they were trying to play white-collar criminals like their daddies.”
“What did his family do again?”
Larissa scrubbed at her forehead, mouth popped open into a little O shape as she thought.
“Real estate shit, I think. Maybe like high-rise development stuff?”
I nodded, trying my best to remember William.
The name had rang an immediate bell, but I couldn’t quite picture the guy anymore. He wasn’t in our grade, and we definitely didn’t run in the same circles.
What did surface immediately though, was memories of the stories about him from the other girls in the school. The cocky, pushy, manipulative guy who used to collect nudes of girls to use as blackmail.
So yeah, he was a dick from day one.
The door swung open and Theo headed back inside, still frowning down at his phone.
“How did that go?” I asked as he sighed and pocketed the phone.
He answered with a resigned shrug and a tight smile that told me I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up.
* * *
Theo was quiet for most of the afternoon.
He had become such a constant presence at the shop that he had started to help out with the opening and closing routines. He pulled down the shutters behind the glass windows without prompting and armed the security system as I headed out onto the street.
Larissa had clocked off a little early, and honestly, with Theo there, it was hardly noticeable. But there was something definitely off with Theo. He scrubbed at his stubbled cheek with frustration while I locked the doors.
“Alright, what’s the matter with you?” I chuckled, prodding him in the ribs as we headed towards his car.
He shook his head, opening the door and waiting for me to slide into the passenger seat. But I stayed stubbornly put, arms crossed and eyebrows raised.
Theo rolled his eyes.
“Nothing,” he groaned. “I just,” he ran a hand down his face. “I just worry that I overstepped this morning. I should’ve just told the fuckin’ Redliner to speak to Toni directly.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes.
“Don’t be stupid. You did nothing wrong. All you did was deliver a message.”
“Oh yeah,” he chuckled, motioning for me to hurry up and get into the car. “And your brother is known for never shooting the messenger.”
“Toni would never,” I chuckled too now, relenting and sliding into the seat. “It’s Rome you gotta watch.”
He barked a laugh. “Yeah. She can be worrisome,” he mumbled, before slamming the door shut.
Lately, Theo and I had enjoyed the drive back to my apartment in a comfortable and familiar silence, maybe with a little bit of chatting. There was no need for forced small talk or anything. But this afternoon, the silence felt a little heavier than usual. Theo drove with his shoulders a little stiffer, and his back a little straighter.
“Do you remember William Peck from school?” I asked with two motives in mind.
The first was to get his mind off of whatever Toni might’ve said to him on the phone, and the second was to try and piece together the seemingly unconnected puzzle pieces I’d been given about the people who might’ve been trying to hurt my family.
“Yeah, actually,” Theo huffed a laugh. “I remember that dude well.”
“In a good way or a bad way?”
“Meh, I didn't know too much about him,” he shrugged. “But he was a bit of an arrogant dick.”
I rolled my eyes. “That was 90% of the boys at our school.”
That was kind of the whole problem with going to a school full of rich kids. Everyone was a little bit arrogant, a little bit up their own ass.
The richer they were, the worse it got.
So I could only imagine just how rich William Peck must’ve been.
“Ouch,” Theo put a hand over his heart as if I’d wounded him.
“Come on,” I pushed. “You’ve gotta admit that you were probably a little insufferable. I know I was.”
He snorted a laugh. “Oh, I remembered you well. The way you used to strut around that fucking school like you owned it.”
I snapped my fingers in front of my face. “Damn right I did, Lawe.”
Theo rolled his eyes.
“In my defence, I was probably the opposite of arrogant. I was a lanky little fucker who grew a moustache far too early and was way too into collecting Yu-gi-oh cards.”
“Hot,” I nodded.
Theo shot me an incredulous look and I pressed my lips together to try and keep my laughter at bay. But the mental image of my bodyguard duelling with magic cards was far too good.
“It’s fine,” he sighed. “You can laugh.”
So I did.
“I can’t wait to drag out the old yearbooks now,” I huffed once I had collected myself.
“No,” he snapped.
My head tilted to the side and I frowned up at him. But he closed his eyes for a second, letting out a slow exhale.
“Please don’t,” he said quietly. “I really don’t like thinking about that time in my life.”
The tension was radiating off of him and filling the small space inside the car. He hadn’t spoken too much about his younger years, though he had mentioned all the problems he used to have with his family.
I wondered if maybe this was the reason he was here, doing this job for my brother. Maybe it was some strange way to overcompensate for what he used to be. Or maybe it was a way for him to distance himself from what his family probably demanded of him.
Either way, I could sympathise with the way that he withdrew at the memories.
“Okay,” I said quietly. “I won’t.”
Theo swallowed roughly and nodded, but didn’t look at me, instead keeping his eyes trained on the road.
“Thank you,” he whispered after a while.
We kept driving in silence, but Theo was still tense at the steering wheel of his car. I chewed on the inside of my lip, wondering how to make it better. I felt a little responsible for his bad mood now, and didn’t really want to leave the fella all broody and by himself.
“Do you want me to talk to Toni for you?” I offered as Theo pulled into the underground parking garage of my building.
Maybe I could lighten the load a little, back him up like he had done for me.
But he chuckled. “No fucking way.”
“Why?”
He gave me a look after he shifted the car into park and pulled the handbrake on.
Fine, maybe a call from his baby sister asking Toni to go easy on the new guy wouldn’t be the best look for Theo.
“It’s not even that,” he shook his head, leaning against the headrest.
“Come on,” I jabbed him in the shoulder. “Out with it.”
Theo rolled his head to the side to look at me, eyes lingering and roaming with a little more warmth and hope than I liked and I felt my stomach drop.
God, please no.
NoNoNoNoNoooooo.
That look was all too familiar and suddenly the space inside the car felt claustrophobic.
“I like you, Zarina,” he frowned down at me, fingers flexing like he wanted to reach out to me. I forced my eyes to drop to my lap, to the console, anywhere but at his expecting eyes. “I mean, I really like you.”
Fuck.
There it was.
The words that had ruined any type of friendship I ever managed to have with a man. The words that shifted lifelong friends into hostile pigs, crying assholes, vengeful dickheads.
That was different, though.
“Theo, I…” I had no idea what I was going to say, but I had to fill that silence with something. “I like you as a friend, I really do. But even if I did feel more,” I shook my head, “it wouldn’t be smart?—”
“Oh, I know,” Theo cleared his throat, cutting me off and straightening again.
Any sign of vulnerability was gone, as was that hint of warmth in his eyes. I watched the predictable shift happen, that transformation triggered by rejection.
“Can you imagine?” he chuckled. “Toni would cut my dick off. I just mean… I think that we could have had some fun. In different circumstances, of course.”
He put his hand on my leg, and I froze.
I watched as it moved upwards, and the movement seemed to happen in slow motion. His hand paused at the hem of my skirt before ignoring the material boundary completely. He just kept going, pushing it up, letting his fingers trail higher and higher.
“Right,” I shifted, trying not to make the way my body cringed against his touch too obvious.
And before that little move he made that caused my skin to crawl, I would have agreed with him.
Theo and I probably could’ve had fun. I enjoyed his company, enough so that I didn’t even mind being shadowed by him 24/7. But now, I wanted nothing more than to never see him again.
Especially as he dipped his hand from the top of my thigh to between my legs, trailing up and up until his pinky finger brushed against the seam of my panties.
“Theo. Enough,” I cut out, my voice more wobbly than I liked.
I knew that the ego shift was a defence thing, a protection against his pride, but it didn’t change the way that I now saw him.
If he had accepted it with grace, with respect, maybe I could’ve handled being around him without feeling like I wanted to empty my guts onto the floor of his car.
He recovered by swiftly removing his hand, but not before patting my knee a few times like someone might do while comforting a buddy.
If I hadn’t still felt nauseous by the encounter, I might’ve even second-guessed whether or not it had actually happened. It happened quickly, and he had moved so casually, that someone might’ve even mistaken it for a friendly gesture.
And perhaps that’s what he was hoping for.
So I reached for the door handle and swung the door open as wide as I could before he had a chance to say or do anything else.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow?” I asked, keeping my voice as steady and free of disgust as possible.
He answered with a nod and a friendly smile, and I slammed the door shut. I shot him a wave and could see how his jaw ticked with irritation.
All friendliness was gone as soon as the dark tinted windows shadowed his expressions. His body was still stiff and the way that his hands curled around the wheel too tightly was a little unnerving.
Theo wasn’t just upset at my rejection.
He was angry.
And that meant he was a dangerous man.
As soon as I was out of his sight and inside the elevator, I put a shaky hand to my chest, trying to steady my breathing. And when the elevator door opened, I checked the halls for people before sprinting towards my door, fumbling until I was inside my apartment.
And for once, I locked every single door and window.