I nod again before I realise what he said. Last night there had only been two guys. A gorgeous blond with green eyes and day-old stubble and an intimidating, handsome man with short wavy chocolate-brown hair and angry dark eyes. Both looked like they had stepped out of a magazine shoot with their impeccably tailored suits and expensive watches. No, I would have remembered if there were three of them.
“There were only two guys last night.”
“Yes, I know, I saw the camera feed this morning, including your reaction to them. The other guy was here when I opened an hour ago. I told him that you wouldn’t be back until Wednesday and he left.”
I gulp and sit in the chair beside me before my legs give out. “What did he look like?” My voice is barely above a whisper, but I know he heard every word, his whole body becoming tense as he takes in my death grip on the arms of the chair.
“Six feet, silver-haired, fit for an older guy, maybe late forties early fifties. You know him?”
Yeah, I know him. He is the monster from under my bed. Fuck, he must have driven through the night to get here. Stupid, Eden, underestimating him like that will get me killed. Fuck, he could have snatched me at any point this morning. I was lucky that he didn’t know where my flat was. I need to leave now.
“Eve, do you know who he is?”
I stand on shaky legs, holding on to the edge of the chair for balance. “Yeah, Russ, I know who he is. He is the man that left me no choice but to run away in the middle of the night. Please don’t ask me anymore. I have to get out of here.” I head toward the door but stop with my hand on the frame when he calls my name.
“Eve, wait. I’m calling Mason up. He will make sure you get to your car safely.”
I wait as he calls him, standing with my head against the door trying to regulate my breathing.
“He’s on his way up, Eve. Here, take this.”
I turn to him and see a wad of notes in his hand. I couldn’t stop the tears that slip down my cheeks if I tried. I have been humbled by the kindness of others too many times now to ever take it for granted. I walk up to him and throw my arms around his neck. He squeezes me before patting my back awkwardly and pulling away.
“I can’t take this, Russ, but thank you. It means a lot.”
“You can and you will. Just promise me a postcard or something when you’re settled so I know you’re safe.” He shoves the wad into my hand. I’m saved from answering when there’s a knock at the door and Mason walks in. He takes in my tear-stained face and immediately heads toward me, wrapping me tightly in his arms.
“What the fuck is going on, Russ?”
“Not my story to tell, Mason, just get our girl to her car okay. Don’t take your eyes off her until she is safe and on her way.”
He must nod because I’m turned in his arms and ushered to the door. I look over my shoulder at Russ and mouth “thank you,” not trusting myself to speak.
“Take care, Eve.”
We head down the steps, my legs working twice as fast as Mason’s as I try to keep up with him. We make it to my car in silence when I suddenly find myself spun round and pinned back against the driver’s side door. I lift my arm to cover my face and brace myself for the blow that doesn’t come.
I hear, “What the fuck?” shouted in a guttural voice filled with hurt and regret. My eyes fly open, worried that someone has hurt Mason, and take in his anguished face as he stares at me. I look around the parking area and see we’re alone. I risk a look in his eyes and wince at what I find.
“I would never hurt you, Eve, ever. I thought you knew that.” He tells me something I do indeed know.
“I know that, Mason. When you spun me, I didn’t realise it was you and reacted instinctually. I’m sorry.”
“That reaction something you had a lot before?”
“I’m here now, aren’t I? That reaction kept me alive. There are only so many unprotected blows to the head a person can walk away from.”
He pushes against me, bending low so that he can press his forehead against mine.
“Someone is after you.” It’s not a question, merely a statement. It seems he has finally figured it out. “I can keep you safe, Eve.” His warm breath fans against my lips and if I tip my face up slightly, I would be able to feel them against mine. Maybe in another time and another life.
“No, Mason, you can’t. Nobody can. This person is well connected and relentless. He will never stop searching for me. I refuse to drag you into it. Please don’t ask me to do that, Mason. I can’t say no to you. If something happens to you, I will never be able to forgive myself. Please don’t ask me to do that, please.” I finish on a whisper as his soft lips connect with mine in a barely-there touch that I will remember every day for the rest of my life. No girl forgets her first kiss.
“Calm down, Eve. I will never ask for more than you are comfortable with.” He stares at me for a second, weighing his options before sighing and looking away. “I get it. I don’t like it one bit, but I get it. Give me your phone.”
I reach into my pocket and grab the car key pushing Mason gently so that he steps back. I open the door and reach inside for my bag on the passenger seat and riffle through it until I find my phone. Turning around, I hand it to him, ignoring the scowl on his face.
“Jesus, Eve, don’t leave your bag out in the open for everyone to see like that,” he admonishes as he types something into my phone.
“I know, Mason, you’re right. It’s actually something I never normally do but I was in such a rush to get inside and back out again I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“Don’t do it again. Here.” He hands my phone back as I hear his vibrate in his pocket.
“I’ve put my number in there. If you need me, call me. I don’t care if it’s three o’clock in the morning, you fucking call me, got it?”
I nod rapidly, fighting back the tears.
“I want you checking in regularly. I want to hear from you even if it’s just a one-word text every twenty-four hours. I mean it, Eve. If I don’t hear anything, I will be coming after you and make no mistake, I will find you.”
He wouldn’t. I was good at hiding. I grip his arms wishing for more time. I have to close my eyes and take a deep breath fighting to control the regret threatening to suffocate me. Fate can be a cruel bitch sometimes, dangling in front of me a glimpse of what tomorrow could hold for me, never leaving me any other choice but to walk away.
“I have to go.” While it’s true I need to get out of here before Karl manages to find me, it’s the knowledge that if I don’t leave this very second, I’m going to do something reckless, like stay. I want to more than I want my next breath but if I stay, Karl will make sure that breathing is something I cease to do.
“Go.” The words are rough, forced from his mouth, making him grimace as if they leave a bitter residue behind.
I climb in and close the door behind me and buckle up. I start the engine and adjust the dials when cold air blows in my face. Turning back to my window as I put the car in reverse, I have the distinct feeling that I will never see this man again. My fingertips push against the cold glass and I swallow down the lump in my throat when a large scarred hand with strong fingers presses against mine on the other side of the glass. I do the only thing I can, I drive away without looking back. I fortify my heart against the onslaught of emotions I can’t afford to feel right now. I need to focus on just surviving each day. I can’t afford to recklessly pine for the promise of a tomorrow I might never have the chance to live.
With no destination in mind, I just drive north. Any place is better than here at this point. I have been driving for about an hour down quiet country lanes when a black Land Rover decides it wants to be an asshole and drive right up behind me. I slow as we approach a bend in the road ahead of us and indicate for the impatient dick to overtake me. A hard shunt from behind surprises the shit out of me. I look in my rearview but can’t see into his car. What the fuck? Didn’t he see me slowing down? I put on my indica
tors so he can see I’m pulling over when he slams into me again. I struggle to control the car as it swerves dangerously close to the guard rail on the edge of the road. My heart starts racing when I realise this guy is seriously trying to run me off the road. When he hits me again, I’m still struggling to straighten up from the last hit. The car connects with the guard rail in a squeal of metal on metal before it buckles under the weight and I find myself careening over the edge. The seat belt pulls tight and holds me in place as the car flips before sliding down into the ravine at the bottom, my head bouncing off the side of the door making me see stars. My only thought before darkness claims me is that I should have run sooner because if that’s Karl, I hope I don’t wake up. Whatever he has planned for me will make the car crash seem like a piece of cake.
Chapter Three
MASON
As I sit beside a battered and bruised Eve in a hospital bed, I'm given the clarity I've needed, one that wakes me up. Eve has always been untouchable to me. I’d put her up on a golden pedestal, away from my bloody hands. Many people would look at her up on the stage at Midas and make an assumption about what kind of woman she is, and they would be wrong. I have watched her with a detached interest since she started there but the girl on the stage grinding her hips for money isn’t the girl I’m falling for. The Eve that has me questioning myself is the girl who made me chicken soup when I was sick and brought it to work for me. It’s the girl who bought toys for Candy, a fellow dancer, to give to her daughter after she broke her arm in the run-up to Christmas and couldn’t work. These are just a couple of examples of the kindness she has brought over the years to a place that is usually filled with jaded people with broken dreams. Even the damn boss Russ has a soft spot for her but it’s hard not to. She may take her clothes off for a living, but she radiates an innocence that’s rarely seen in this industry.
I was there the day she first arrived and auditioned for Russ. She came in head down in tie-dyed leggings and a white T-shirt wearing a dozen bangles that clinked when she walked. She was quiet and shy and I remember chuckling, thinking that she had no idea what she was getting herself into. But then the music started and anybody who was in the room froze as this confident goddess seem to take over her body as she performed a series of mind-boggling tricks and spins around the pole. She was hired on the spot. Over the years she has come out of her shell a little but never enough to let people in more than as gentle acquaintances with the exception of, maybe, me. We have never seen each other outside of work and up until lunchtime we had never even exchanged our phone numbers, but whenever we were around each other her smile was big and her laughter abundant. I think the difference between me and everyone else is that she trusts me and that is something she never gives to anyone. When I got a call from the hospital telling me she had been rushed in after a car accident, I swear to god my heart stopped. When the police checked her contacts, she didn’t have anything beyond the doctors or the club except me. So here I sit beside the girl who I’ve tried to stay away from, having made the decision that she is now stuck with me because I’m not going anywhere. Even if she doesn’t see me as anything more than a friend, I won’t leave her vulnerable again, not when there is a psycho out there gunning for her.
I watch the rise and fall of her chest and take it as a comfort. She’s alive, that’s all that matters for now. There was a time when I sat beside someone who’s chest refused to rise and fall no matter how much I pleaded and begged.
Carrie was my big sister. With only three years between us, we were incredibly close. Growing up it had been me and her against the world as our mother worked two jobs to make ends meet and our father took off on us when we were kids. She was loud and brash, the life and soul of the party. Until one day she wasn’t. She started dating Duke when she was nineteen and studying to become a midwife. I hated him on sight. He was cocky and arrogant and found sly little ways to put my sister down. He became a bone of contention between us until she started to pull away, becoming more and more withdrawn. She became a shadow of the once vivacious girl I knew. It had been almost a month since I had heard from her so, on a whim, I decided to visit her. When I got there it was to find her lying in a pool of her own blood in the centre of her destroyed living room. The hours that followed are largely a blur. She had a faint pulse but crashed twice in the ambulance. When we finally got to the hospital, I was convinced they would fix her up and everything would be okay, but the damage was too extensive.
She had been savagely beaten, which caused massive internal injuries. My best friend was gone. I left my mother at the hospital weeping over her elder child’s body and in a cloud of despair and grief went to find Duke. As much as I hated the guy, he deserved to know what had happened to his girlfriend. See, at the time I thought it had been a home invasion gone wrong. But an hour later as I walked up behind him in his local pub while he regaled his friends with how he put his bitch in her place for burning his dinner, I realised the monster was much closer to home. Something inside me snapped. The next conscious thought I had was having handcuffs snapped around my wrists as I was pressed face down onto the dirty pub floor with an officer’s knee wedged between my shoulder blades. Lying across from me was the bloody pulp that used to be my sister’s murderer. Except, with his blood on my hands, I was no better than him.
Life was very different after that. I was tried and convicted of manslaughter. The judge took my extenuating circumstances into consideration but with the attack being as savage as it was, I landed myself an eight-year sentence. Even then, I couldn’t find it in myself to care. My sister was gone. I lived in a constant war between guilt at not realising what was going on behind closed doors and anger that she didn’t tell me. It was my mother that took it the hardest. She lost two children that day. When she had a stroke and passed away a year before I was released, it was the wakeup call I needed to snap out of it. I came out and, for the first time, found myself completely alone in the world. I applied for a lot of jobs but most people weren’t interested in hiring an ex-con with anger issues. Russ, however, gave me a shot, using my aggression as a deterrent to the assholes that sometimes frequent Midas. For the next year, I just existed. I got up, I went to work, I paid my bills, and I went home again until a pretty blonde with a megawatt smile walked into my life and made me realise there was more out there to be experienced if I just held on tight enough to enjoy the ride. Well, this is me hanging on. They will have to pry my cold, dead fingers off Eve before I ever leave her alone and vulnerable again.
“Mr. Parker?”
I turn away from sleeping beauty and look into the eyes of the kind elderly nurse who has let me stay well beyond visiting hours.
“There is a police officer here to speak to you. He’ll want to question her when she wakes up too.”
“That’s fine. Can he talk to me in here? I don’t want to leave her alone.”
She places a weathered hand on my shoulder and squeezes, reminding me so much of my mother at that moment that I have to look away.
“That will be fine. I’ll go and grab him for you.” She turns and leaves the room, returning five minutes later with a police officer in tow.
“I’ll be just outside. If you need me just press the button next to the bed.”
I nod and turn to the officer who is looking at Eve with a frown on his face, a muscle ticking in his left cheek. Yeah, I’m right there with you, mate. Violence against women is obviously a sticking point for me but I imagine in his line of work it’s a frightening recurrence.
“Hello. I’m PC Jones. I just want to ask you a few questions, if that’s okay?”
“Sure, but I don’t know how much help I can be when I wasn’t there,” I tell him honestly.
“That’s fine. You would be surprised at the useful information we can gain from what other people consider inconsequential. First of all, what is your full name and relationship to Miss Temptation?” He takes a notebook and pen from his duty belt, ready to take notes.
; “My name is Mason Parker. Eve is my fiancée.”
He grinds his teeth together as his eye ticks slightly. Does he think I had something to do with this? I get it, a six-foot-four ex-con, not that he knows that part yet, covered in tattoos makes most people make snap judgements.
“The evidence suggests that her car was hit from behind, making her lose control. The other car fled the scene afterwards. If you don’t mind me asking, where were you around twelve this afternoon?”
“I was at work at the Midas club which is at the edge of Newcastle city centre. Both Eve and I work there but she only does nights whereas I rotate. I was working from ten until three when I got the call from the hospital that she was here.”
He scribbles down everything I say before continuing. “What is the make, model, and registration of your vehicle please?”
I give him the details, knowing he will need them to rule me out quick. Besides, it’s not like I have anything to hide.
“Do you know where Miss Temptation was heading?”
I shake my head no because that part is true. I don’t even think she knew. I am not going to offer any other information up about Eve being in trouble until I know what we are up against. “No, I’m sorry, I don’t. It was her first day off so she probably decided to just go for a drive. She does that sometimes, to decompress.”
“Right. Well, I will leave you to it. I need to speak to Miss Temptation when she’s feeling up to it. I am more than happy to wait until she’s home so she can be more comfortable.”
Yeah, that sounds great in theory, but Eve doesn’t have a home at the moment. Actually, fuck that. This is perfect. She can stay with me.
“Thank you, officer. Eve has just moved in with me, so she will be well looked after.” I reel off my address and watch as he notes it down. He freezes as Eve stirs in the bed moaning slightly. She settles back down again without opening her eyes.
The Promise of Tomorrow: An Inheritance Novel Page 3