Chapter 4
Four
Sam
“Are the tips really good or does someone really like you?” Nathan asks the minute I step inside our rundown apartment. My brother’s at the small desk I bought for him at a thrift store, but the book he was studying lays forgotten since he’s staring at me.
“A customer loaned it to me since it started snowing.” Nathan doesn’t really know what I do at Vinnie’s. He thinks I work as a waiter at the restaurant across the street from the club.
“Looks expensive.”
“It is.” I shrug out of the coat and try my hardest to ignore the scent on it.
A spicy, musky smell that has my mouth watering.
Just because he’s the first guy to treat me with some dignity in a while shouldn’t mean anything.
He’s a complete stranger. Who offers someone twenty grand just to pretend to be their boyfriend for a week?
“You okay?” Nathan’s voice dips. I hate that. I wish he could just sound carefree like the other guys his age. Though he’d probably say the same thing about me. “You’re home early.”
“Yeah.” I move into the kitchen and start pulling some carrots out of the refrigerator so I can make a stew that’ll do us for a few days. “I, uh, I got fired.”
“What?” Nathan pushes his chair back and stands. “What happened?”
“I’ll spare you the details, but one of the guys I was waiting on grabbed me where he shouldn’t have, and it upset another customer. They got into a fight, and I got fired.”
“You got fired because some asshole groped you?” Nathan’s eyes flash with anger. “That’s disgusting and wrong.”
“Well, my boss doesn’t see it that way.”
His jaw clenches. “There has to be some kind of law against that. I’m sure we can—”
“You’re not getting involved. I’ll handle it.”
He’s quiet for a long second while I start slicing the carrots. Then he asks, softer than before, “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
“No. The other guy made him back off.” I remember the anger in Dalton’s eyes, the righteous indignation when he saw what Bryce was doing. No one’s ever cared like that.
I shake my head before turning back to Nathan. “And don’t worry about money. I’ll figure it out.”
He glances at the coat I hung by the door. “Maybe you should ask your friend for some.”
“That belongs to the guy who stepped in and got me fired.”
Nathan looks back at me with a frown. “He did the right thing.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t take his side.”
“Too late. Come on, Sam, like you wouldn’t have done something had you been in his position.”
I don’t respond because he’s right. Instead I say, “You wouldn’t believe what he asked me. He wants me to go home with him for Christmas and pretend to be his boyfriend. He said he’d pay me twenty grand for it.”
“You said no, right?”
“I told him I’d think about it, but obviously I’m going to say no.”
“Did he tell you his name?”
“Dalton Kane. He put his number in my phone.”
Nathan’s eyebrows rise. “Kane? Like as in Kane Holdings?”
“He didn’t tell me what he did for a living.”
Nathan pulls his phone from the front pocket of his hoodie and taps something out while I add the carrots to a pot and then move on to the potatoes.
“Is this the guy?” Nathan turns his phone toward me to show a picture of Dalton in some article talking about land development for a new elementary school.
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“He’s a millionaire. He’s the one who owns those apartment buildings over on Charles Street. Those really nice ones.” He stares down at his phone screen. “I can’t believe a millionaire hit on you, and you turned him down.”
“You were all for me turning him down just a second ago.”
“Yeah, but that was before I realized he was actually telling the truth when he offered twenty grand. Normally, that’d just be some sociopath trying to lure you away so he could dismember you.”
“Dalton could dismember me,” I grumble. Honestly, knowing that he actually has the money to pay me makes me a little more willing to do it, but it still seems like a risky idea.
A lot could go wrong. And Dalton may spend more time around me and realize he can’t stand me. Then we’d be stuck together for a week.
And yet . . .
“Do you think I should do it?” I ask, looking up at Nathan.
He shrugs. “I mean, I’d think it’d be easy money. But I also know that stuff is hard for you, and I don’t want you to do something you’re uncomfortable with. Plus, you have no idea what he’d expect from you when no one else is looking.”
“He said anything we did would be my choice.” The words taste strange.
For so long, things with guys haven’t been my choice.
And here this gorgeous and rich guy is inviting me to do something like this, and I’m hesitating.
What the fuck is wrong with me? The money Dalton’s offering me would keep us afloat for weeks until I found another job.
Maybe one that doesn’t involve me taking my clothes off for money.
“Look, if you’re scared of doing it, then don’t. You don’t owe that guy anything. But if it’s just uncertainty because it’s so out there, maybe you should think on it. If you didn’t have me, this is the kind of thing normal guys your age would get into.”
“I don’t think normal twenty-one-year-old guys get offered twenty grand to pretend to be someone’s boyfriend on the regular.”
Nathan laughs, and it makes me smile. “Maybe not to such an extent, but it’s normal for a guy to want to go out on dates and hook up. So if you want to, then you should. Just keep the GPS turned on in your phone so I can find you.”
“I don’t know . . . What about you? It’s a week, Nathan. And it’s Christmas.”
“I’m not sure if you missed it, but I did turn eighteen earlier this month.
I’m fully capable of taking care of myself.
And Kayla asked me to go to her place for Christmas, so it’d be fine.
” He falls silent for a while, the only sound in the small space is my knife against the cutting board.
Then he says so quietly that I almost miss it, “And I don’t want you working at Vinnie’s anymore. So take the money this guy’s offering.”
I jerk my head up to look at him so quickly that my hand slips and I slice the tip of my thumb along with the potato. “Fuck!”
I leave the knife on the counter and turn for the sink to rinse the cut. I’m almost thankful for it. This conversation will be easier if I’m not looking at Nathan. “How long have you known?”
“A few months. I went by the restaurant to see you, and they told me you didn’t work there. So I waited across the street and saw you coming out of Vinnie’s. I know you weren’t there to watch, so I put two and two together.”
My face burns as I watch the water turning pink with the blood oozing from my thumb. I never wanted Nathan to know I did that. Of course I know he’s not judging me, but I never wanted him to know that stripping is the only job I could get because it’s all I’m worth.
“Sam.” Nathan appears at my side with a cloth and turns the faucet off.
He wraps my thumb in the cloth and applies a little pressure.
“It’s okay. I know you took that job so we wouldn’t lose the apartment, but it’s not safe.
You got fired today because someone tried to hurt you.
There’s nothing wrong with taking what Dalton offered if it keeps you out of that world. ”
“I just don’t know if it’s the right thing to do.”
“If you weren’t supposed to do it, you wouldn’t be hesitating this much,” Nathan replies, reaching into the cupboard above the sink to pull down a box of band-aids.
“All I’m saying is to think about it. Because I really don’t want you going back to a place like Vinnie’s.
I’d leave school before I let you work somewhere like that again. ”
“You’ll do no such thing.” I dropped out of high school to support Nathan, to make sure he could do everything he needed.
He’s in the middle of his second year of college courses while in his senior year of high school.
He’s going to be valedictorian. I’d rather work at Vinnie’s for the rest of my life than watch Nathan throw that away.
“I’m just saying that it’s not right. I’m old enough now to help. If you don’t have a job, I should get one.”
“So if I take Dalton’s offer, and we have a cushion for a while, you’ll stay in school?”
“Yes.” He says it so decisively, and I realize he’s not fucking around. He’d drop out of school today if he thought it was necessary. Because he’s too much like me. For so long, all we’ve had is each other. I’d die for him, and I know he’d do the same for me.
“Okay,” I hear myself say. “I’ll text Dalton.”