by Eden O'Neill
Alexi displayed a soft smile. “Never worry, friend. Never worry. Fate is on you and your mother’s side. I know it is.” Placing his glass down, he slapped his hands together. “I’m sure she has lots of medical costs. Perhaps I can help. I have many jobs coming up. A perfect way to help? I’d love to relieve some of those burdens for you.”
Alexi never failed to push, create ways to draw us more and more into the dark underworld in which he dealt. The answer had always been a resounding no, but he never ceased to ask.
This was the biggest reason Niko and I never stayed for drinks, interaction best to be limited. I wasn’t the type of guy to be drawn in easy. But even I had been tempted to touch the forbidden fruit of Alexi’s exceedingly lavish life when we first started dealing with him. The man lived large and could make both Niko and I like him, struggling trash from small towns transformed into gods like himself.
The temptation was definitely there, always, and after an exchange with Niko, his eyes cut right back to Alexi. My buddy kept his head shake firm but polite, his hand tight on his glass. He passed that off by putting his hand back on the table, but I did notice it, the denial obviously hard for him, and I couldn’t blame him.
How easy Alexi could fix everything in our lives? It was just how he fixed things that was the problem, and Niko knew better than to get in any deeper than we already had in the past.
Though this denial saddened our friend and brother, Alexi so obviously understood. After all, this hadn’t been the first time we’d told him no. And smiling, Alexi got another drink before tipping his glass at me. “And you, Jay? Things well? How are those sisters? You have one on the way to college, right?”
“Yeah, and hell raising,” I said, chuckling and making the table laugh. Dasha definitely had an attitude on her, strong-willed like me. As she was getting older and stir crazy to be out from under my mom’s roof, the two were basically driving each other up the wall. Like a pair of titans constantly clashing, and without me in the household to keep them away from each other, I’d been getting more than one call lately from mom about her daughter’s “attitude.” I grinned. “She’s doing well. Top of her class.”
Dasha had already gotten into Woodcreek and was getting a full ride scholarship like me. She didn’t even need the savings I’d put aside for her four years, doing her part just like I had to take the burden off our hardworking mother and, technically, me. My family was never a burden, though. I’d do anything for them.
My current dealings with the mob proved this, Alexi’s smile strong on me.
“Of course she is. Gifted like her brother.” He tapped the side of my neck before resting his arm behind the booth. “Well, if she or any of your family needs anything at all, let me know. We don’t have to be done here today.”
“Yeah, but I think it’s time,” I said, exchanging a glance with my boy. When Niko smiled in agreement, I did too. I waved a hand. “It’s time to be getting out on our own, Alexi. But of course, we appreciate all you’ve done for us. You know that.”
“I do, but you both still have a full year left of school, Jay.” He eyed me. “You have to account for other things that might come up. Some spending money perhaps?”
He nudged me with his elbow, and I chuckled again. I shook my head. “Got plenty of nuts stored up for the winter. Should be good.”
And it was all locked down in more than one bank. There’d be enough for me to definitely start a good life post-graduation and plenty there for my other two sisters to get full rides to their own colleges. Mom also would be good and would never have to work herself to the bone again. This was basically guaranteed once I got hired on after school. I was studying to be an architect, something I didn’t even realize I had a knack for until I went to school. I already had companies all over the country buzzing for me, ties I’d made on my own just by being good at what I did and having awesome relationships with my professors. They spoke around about me, something I’d earned with trust and had nothing to do with money or influence. Money couldn’t buy everything in the end. Sometimes it took character, heart and something I always had a lot of.
I started to get into that with Alexi when a silver top caught my eye from the Crystal Palace. Normally, I wouldn’t notice such a thing, but the girl’s top was literally shimmering off the walls of this place. She paired it with a matching skirt way too short, that fiery red hair she had bathing her naked arms like The Little Mermaid. The only issue was this wasn’t the sea but a din of danger and bullshit she had no business being a part of.
Especially considering who her father was.
Rage hit me as I realized The Little Mermaid down there was Billie, Billie at a fucking titty bar when she should be back in her cute little cottage with those breasts behind her sweater sets. I faced Alexi, and while he ordered another round for our table, I got Niko’s attention.
Instantly, his gaze jerked toward the floor, and that let me know Billie was like a fucking beacon in this place. His eyes caught her right away, widening before facing me.
He mouthed, “What the fuck?” and I had the same thought. I didn’t know if Billie was damn daft or just plain stupid to walk into a place where her DA dad had put away half this man’s family. I looked her dad up after what my buddy Knight had told me about him, and the Marvellis had more than one family member behind bars because of that guy.
I casually excused myself.
“Hurry back, brother.” Alexi waved after I did, grinning and already half drunk. Shit, he might be well on his way to shit-faced since I didn’t know what he’d had before Niko and I arrived, and I only thanked the gods for their gift of alcohol and buffoonery in that department tonight.
In my own dark suit, I nodded at Alexi’s henchman Darrell before walking past, the guy the size of a gorilla. I took the elevator to the floor, and needless to say, it didn’t take me long to find the beauty queen.
Billie stood out like a fucking woodland fairy in this place with her shimmering outfit, and it didn’t help that she captured the eyes of pretty much every guy in the room. She had a flock of dudes around her, the girl all wide-eyed and innocent-like. She was innocent and didn’t belong here.
Currently, Billie and her harem of suitors watched a fire eater, the dudes around her basically shoving drinks at her.
That was until they saw me.
A mere look and I parted the sea, and it took a second for Billie to observe the reason why.
Her gaze grappled on me like a kid with his favorite chocolate bar, the look and this place enough to make me recall why I’d stepped away the other day. The way she looked at me once I’d saved her from her iron and did her hair told me I could have gotten anything I wanted from this girl.
I’d just chosen not to.
It would have been so easy, so damn simple, and I considered it a victory until I saw all that damn debate behind her eyes. She had to think about me, and she probably should. I was the guy I was sure her daddy wouldn’t want her having anything to do with.
Like she’d realized she was staring, she stepped back in her stiletto heels, and like the innocent little thing she was, she caught herself on them.
My hands launched out instantly, grabbing her and pulling her over to me, and I couldn’t be more enraged. I was angry that she was here, yes.
But even more so at the feel of her in my hands.
I hated that I wanted to bathe in all that beautiful red hair of hers, that I wanted to kiss and suck on every lickable surface of her. No matter how dirty. Visions of her made my mouth water and my cock fucking steel inside my pants.
“LJ,” she gasped, panting. She was actually panting. So goddamn needy. “What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” I actually laughed, the sound literally booming my chest to the point I probably sounded crazed. Jerking her up to me, I growled. “What the fuck are you doing in a titty bar?”
Like a switch went off, she blanched, and though I thought she’d actually slap me, she settl
ed for ripping her arm away. I found myself relieved by this. She shouldn’t want me, and I definitely shouldn’t be wanting her. Dangerous on both our parts. Especially with her being here. Her eyes blazed. “That’s freaking rich. Last I checked, you’re in this same titty bar, and I go wherever the hell I want. I came with friends if you must know, and you’re not my keeper, Lance.”
The hell I wasn’t. In fact, when she decided to do her little dance of voyeurism in this outfit, she basically gave me permission. My jaw worked. “You look like you belong on the street.”
“And you look like an asshole.” She shoved me off of her.
At least, tried.
She was easily only a fraction of my size and basically couldn’t move me at all. She crossed her arms. “You know, I don’t get you. One moment, you’re rushing into my house, saving me from my iron and doing my hair, and the next, you’re manhandling me and pretty much calling me a whore. So which is it, LJ? Am I the damsel or something you’re trying to break?”
She was right, of course, the lines blurring all the time and to the point where I constantly confused myself. I didn’t know what she was, my curse or my salvation, but every day I felt this intense need to claim her, keep her and make her see that she was mine, and that remained current no matter what the day.
Most especially now.
“Is there a problem, Mr. Johnson?” One of Alexi’s bouncers saddled up to my side, one I was actually very familiar with. I’d even been over to the guy’s house for dinner once, eating with his family.
Billie chased his huge chest up to his eyes, looking a bit relieved by the guy’s presence, but she shouldn’t. He wasn’t here to bat for her, only me.
The look of relief instantly wiped from her face when I grabbed her, doing so with more force than I meant to. I had to prove a point, though. She didn’t belong here, not in this place. Never in this place. I basically threw her at Alexi’s bouncer, and in her heels, she stumbled into him.
“Take care of this one,” I grunted. “She’s causing a disturbance.”
I put my back to her after that, hearing her call me all kinds of things while she was dragged away. I was an asshole, a dick, and I could be anything she wanted as long as she was out of here. She needed to be safe, and here? She was anything but.
Chapter Fifteen
Billie
I was on fire by the time I got myself together enough to text my friends. LJ was so out of line it wasn’t even funny, throwing his weight around at, of all places, a strip club. I’d been reluctant even to come out tonight, but after the whole thing with Sinclair, then LJ appearing and reappearing in my life, I’d just wanted to let off some damn stress. I had a few friends in some of my graduate film classes that were always talking about going out, so tonight I decided to take them up on the offer.
A lot of good it did me.
That bouncer had basically thrown me out on my ass, the place not my scene anyway. LJ was right. This really wasn’t my scene. I’d just wanted to have a good time.
I shot what was going on with me in a group text to my grad friends, hoping they might like to go somewhere else tonight since I’d basically been thrown out. I waited for a response for a while, but when I heard nothing, decided to catch a ride-share. None of us had driven anyway since we didn’t know who’d be drinking.
I used the app to call for a ride, then waited a few minutes before sitting down on the curb. My skirt was so short it rode up my ass, and I chastised myself for being able to be talked into wearing it by my graduate friends. They’d met me up at my house and told me to turn right back around and change, apparently the navy blue dress I’d been wearing not appropriate for where we were going tonight. It was only later after we pulled up to the club I realized we were going to a strip club. A nice strip club but a strip club nonetheless. Honestly, I guessed LJ had been doing me a favor in the end.
But never would he know that.
I growled, literally snarling over my phone app. I’d been assigned a ride, but for whatever reason it wasn’t here yet, and I was getting more and more pissed off as I watched their little icon wander about town like it had no destination. I nearly canceled it for another when I caught the eye of a dude coming out the club. He fist pounded a bouncer, basically looking like one himself with his height and overall stature, and glancing at me, he grinned so wide I thought the club lights might reflect off his teeth.
Christ.
I groaned as LJ’s friend Niko lifted a hand at me, then proceeded to saunter his way over to my corner of the street. He’d been wearing similar clothing to LJ, a suit that smoothed perfectly across his broad chest and big shoulders. Niko was basically big everywhere, looking pretty much like a football player at a draft party. He had his dark hair slicked back out of his eyes, his hand cutting into his suit coat to hold his tie. He was a debonair man of the world, and my mouth dried recalling how LJ looked in a similar suit. His had been a smooth navy, crisp and buttery in tone. Oddly enough, we would have matched tonight had I chosen to wear a similar color, drawing him to me even more, I supposed.
Stepping up to me, Niko bent his massively large frame, trying to find my eyes when he dashed a grin.
“Queen B, that is you,” he said, then gazed about the street. “Mind letting me in on what you’re doing?”
“Ask your friend.” I kicked my feet out onto the pavement. Where was that damn ride-share? “He’s the one who kicked me out of your club.”
“Our club?” Niko bumped a laugh like I’d said anything funny. He removed his hand from inside his jacket. “Hardly. But Jay actually tossed you out?”
The look I cut him let him know, and when he placed out his hand to help me up, I actually took it. I probably shouldn’t be sitting on the street anyway, my goods hanging out. People might get the wrong idea.
“You look like you belong on the street.”
LJ’s words in my head sour, I hugged myself, warming my arms and seeing that, Niko took off his jacket. He started to give it to me, but I waved him off. “I’m fine. Just waiting for a ride-share.”
“How long?” he asked, folding the jacket over his arm. All that remained over his burly arms was a black dress shirt and matching tie. He tossed a thumb back. “I’m leaving now and can take you home if you’d like. We are neighbors.”
He leaned in when he said that, and I really didn’t want anything from him. Before I could answer, though, he was handing a ticket over to the valet, and with only a few words into the valet’s headset, a fire engine red sports car was literally pulling up in front of us. It also had spoilers glistening harder than my outfit.
Hopping out, the valet left the door open for Niko, and when he came around, he pressed a big hand on the top. He waggled his dark eyebrows playfully. “Coming or going, Queenie? I ain’t got all day, you know.”
I checked my phone app again, but since the driver was still wandering around the world, I canceled the thing and got inside. This received a chuckle from Niko, and after tossing the valet a wad of cash, he got in with me.
“Buckle up, Your Majesty,” Niko teased, flashing a set of deep dimples at me. He worked the car into gear. “I drive fast and don’t slow down for royalty.”
Rolling my eyes, I did what he said, then shot back into the seat the moment he pressed his boot to the metal. I literally had to hang on to the car and might have shot through the window at every stop if not for the dashboard.
I slammed my hands on it every time, getting nothing but another chuckle from Niko. He rolled to a stop at most streetlights and ignored stop signs entirely, not giving a fuck. The time or two I thought he might were when we got closer to campus. The campus police were always out, but even then, he didn’t care. He cruised right through, and the cops we saw didn’t do anything about it when he zoomed past them.
Some even waved at him.
These guys even own the campus police.
Their pull seemed to never end.
All too quickly, we came up on our s
treet, and the moment Niko started to slow in front of my house, I sat up. I started to gather my things but stopped at the sight of someone sitting on my porch.
What the fuck?
I left the porch lights on so I could easily see the head of someone sitting there, a tall someone working his hands, and as we got closer, the fact my ex-boyfriend was sitting on my stoop couldn’t be denied.
He had his hands cuffing his arms, facing the night and clearly waiting for me. Ducking immediately, I edged a look over at Niko. “Keep driving.”
“What?”
“Keep driving!” I pressed Niko’s foot to the gas, and he zoomed past the house, basically barking obscenities at me. I only lifted my head once we cleared the block, and growling, Niko put the car in park down the street.
“What the hell, Billie?”
“That was my ex.”
“Your ex? Ex what?” Then his eyes flashed. “The one with that dude the other night?”
Framing my face, I nodded. “Yes. He’s sitting on my porch, and I can’t go back there. Not just yet.”
As far as I was concerned, we could sit here down the street until he left. I had nothing for him, maybe not ever. He hadn’t been shy about trying to talk to me via texts and calls, but I definitely wasn’t talking to him. All that crap that happened, way too soon.
Hugging my chest, I hunkered down but shot up the moment Niko put the car back into gear and made a U-turn. My eyes twitched wide. “What are you doing?”
“We’re going to have a little chat with that fucker,” he said, almost gleeful about it, but then frowned seeing me. “What?”
“Um, no. I don’t want to see him again. Keep driving. No way.”
“Billie, seriously. I’ll make quick work of that shit. Anyway, Jay would kick my ass if I just let you go back to that house and didn’t do anything.”
He would? Yeah right, and I almost laughed but was too panicked by the fact that we were quickly rolling up to my house. I flagged down Niko, hunkering down again. “Would you please just drive or even better take me to your place?”