Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
~Harlow~
"What do you want?" Raidon asks, startling me.
I bite my lip to keep the words from passing my lips and ignore Raidon.
It isn't like I have any money left to buy anything to eat anymore.
Because of those assholes and their stupid attempts to get me fired, I had to give my last few dollars to Vadum to drive me to their stupid mansion.
I don't want to lose my only job, and all my attempts to go out of my way to keep it resulted in getting attacked by Leon.
Raidon growls at my silence and places an order at the window. He drives through to the next window. My stomach growls in hunger, and at this point, I'm thankful that Raidon decided to turn on the radio to kill the silence in the car, so he can't hear how hungry I am.
He retrieves the paper bag with food, pays the worker and tosses the bag onto my lap, making me jump in my seat.
"Eat your goddamn food and point me in the direction of that dump you live at," Raidon says pulling back onto the main road.
A little shaken up, I direct him to my old apartment building, since that is the address I put on my resume.
I can't let any of them know that I am homeless.
If Thane were to find out about my living situation, he would use it as an excuse to fire me and rid themselves of me for good.
Despite the horror and misery I have to endure from my bosses, I can't afford to lose my job, so I have to suck it up.
I don't dare to touch the food he threw at me while I’m still in the car with him. I don't trust my hands, which are still trembling from the entire ordeal, the cold, and Raidon's aura so close to me.
He parks his car in front of the shitty apartment building and stares ahead at the road, as if the view around here disgusts him. "Get out and don't be late for work tomorrow," he says, dismissing me like a servant.
I retrieve my bag from the footwell of the car and the paper bag of now cold McDonalds he bought for me.
"And make sure you cover your neck. The last thing we want is rumors we have a feeder working for us," Raidon growls out before I shut the car door.
He speeds off before I manage to blink, let alone snap back at him.
Is it my fault now? How? Your stupid mate attacked me, and now I'm to blame for his lack of control?
Those men, they're impossible! All of them!
Taking deep breaths to calm myself, I stand at the side of the street and stare after him, waiting for him to turn at the set of lights at the end of the road.
I feel unusually numb, and an odd calmness overtakes me as I walk back to the office building. The streets are also pretty quiet, providing me with a perfect atmosphere to think.
As I look around and notice a few darker alleys ahead of me, I quicken my step, a little scared to roam the streets alone in the middle of the night.
When I finally reach my workplace, I walk around the building to the hedges that run along the side of the loading dock. I try to remember which hedge I stuffed my backpack in earlier, and it takes me twenty agonizing minutes, but I finally locate it.
Once the backpack is in my hands, I glance around nervously to make sure no one saw me slip past the open gates of the loading dock.
I double—even triple—check my surroundings before I spot the smoke-mart store across the street, and I turn back to the door. Carefully, I place the key in, twist it, and shove the door open to race toward the alarm panel.
I know that I have only forty seconds to shut off the alarm before it alerts the security company that monitors this building at night. My hands shake as I punch in the code, and I let out a heavy breath of relief once I see the panel light turn green.
At first, I wander around a little before heading to the storage locker I plan to use as my secret bedroom. I unlock the door and slip inside, moving right to the back, which is mostly filing shelves.
There is a slim gap behind one which is filled with old, broken computers and some parts. I drag the shelf slightly forward to create a tiny space where I can have a makeshift mini-Den.
No one should be able to see me back here, behind all the broken parts, and I doubt many people come in here. The place is so overtaken with cobwebs that I could gather them quickly and stuff a whole pillow full of them.
I sit on the cold floor and rummage through my backpack. I rustle out my blanket and some extra layers of clothing before grabbing my dirty laundry and making a bed out of it. It's not much, but at the very least, I have somewhere dry to sleep.
I sit on my improvised bed and open the paper bag. I reach inside and pull out the cheeseburger and fries Raidon bought. I don't hold back and take a huge bite of the soggy cheeseburger.
The food is ice cold, but I let out a heavy sigh of contentment once I start chewing it.
At the end of the day, as cold as it is, it's still food, which I couldn't afford. I must be grateful for whatever I can get, especially when it’s free. Perhaps tossing the meal at me is Raidon’s way of trying to pay me off, but I feel like that isn't the case.
Maybe he showed me a little humanity and bought me the cheap meal because he felt a little guilty.
Besides, there is no way any of them knows about my financial troubles. I've been working my ass off to hide those, and so far, I've been doing a great job. They don't know, and they never will know.
As I swallow another chunk of cold meat, I can't even imagine the wild things I would do for one delicious, hot meal. As soon as I get my first paycheck, I’m going to go to the little pasta joint down the street from the office building.
It smells like heaven every time I walk past it, and I have been craving pasta for days.
Well, anything really, as long as it can fill my stomach.
But for now, I devour the burger and fries instead of the food of my dreams. It barely hits the spot, but it's far better than nothing at all.
At least I'm not going to bed on an empty stomach.
Yet, as I lay on my pile of dirty laundry and stare at the darkened ceiling, I can't help but wonder if Leon is okay, back at the mansion. I have never seen him so out of control, so far away from his usual giddy persona, before.
Yes, Leon frightened and attacked me, but despite him almost killing me twice now, I don't fear his presence even half as much as I fear Thane's wrath.