by Nana Malone
It was disconcerting. My success as a con man was predicated on people liking me, or at least believing the ‘me’ I presented.
“Listen, we could actually do all those things. Why can’t we do that?”
She blinked up at me with wide dark eyes, shook her head, and tucked the loose strands of hair behind her ear. “It’s not that I don’t like you. You seem fine. Nice even, or whatever. I just have things I want to do, and you’re not really the kind of guy I want to have help me.”
I frowned. “What kind of guy is that?”
“Look, in case you didn’t know, my mother is doing the whole ‘time to find Bryna a husband thing,’ and you’re just the latest in the long line of guys she’s shoved at me. So it’s not about you personally. It’s just about that whole scenario. I kind of just want to be left alone, you know, because you’re exactly the type to be too good looking for your own good. You seem very nice, but there’s probably some kind of a douche-bag part of you that knows how attractive you are and will eventually make me quite well aware of it. We could just pretend that we did the whole you-show-me-around thing, and we can both be on our way.”
I didn’t like how she’d summed me up. She’d gotten the lay of the land, or what she thought was the lay of the land, anyway. It irritated me. I was even more irritated that there was a part of what she said that was valid. Yeah, I knew what I looked like. I have used it to my advantage more than once. And yes, perhaps I’ve spent half of my life being some asshole fuck-boy. So she might be right, and that ticked me off.
Roone followed at a discreet distance, but I knew he was there as I jogged to catch up with her. “Look, maybe we could actually try to explore together. Just coffee even. At least let me walk you home. I’m not used to—"
“Women telling you no? So, now you’re going to insist?” she finished for me.
I didn’t like that tone. “No. I just—I’m trying here. As far as I know, you’re still new to a strange city.” Damn, I was fucking this up. The one thing Sebastian asked me to do. The one thing. I needed to get this shit right. She rounded the corner, and I recognized her dorm.
“Look, I’ll call my mother. Even though she’s pissed off right now, I’ll tell her you were lovely. Then we can be done with this.”
I threw my hands up. This girl was infuriating. I was offering to help her, but she wouldn’t even give me a shot.
I got it. She didn’t need to be saved or what not, but for some reason she’d taken an immediate dislike of me? Not possible. Or maybe she sees who you really are. “Just tell me why? I’ll leave you be. I’ll walk you to your door, and then you never have to see me again. I’m just curious.”
“Why? Because…” she sighed. Several students exited the front door and she shuffled into the opening before it closed. I followed her straight into the elevator and she frowned. “Look, I knew someone like you once. Very good looking, charming, sweet even, but it turned out that he wasn’t really. And I didn’t recognize those signs until it was too late. So right now, this whole charm offensive thing that you’re doing, I’m done with it. I get it, my parents are bothering you to do this, but it’s unnecessary.”
“I’m sorry some guy dicked you over, but I’m not that guy. Let’s just do this. It’s important to me. Please.”
She tipped her chin up at me. “You realize that’s the first time you’ve said please to me?”
I frowned. I had said please before, hadn’t I? “That’s not true.” I was sure of it.
“Oh yeah it is. You showed up at my doorstep, then you flirted with me outrageously and stared at my boobs and my crotch.”
I coughed a laugh. Jesus Christ she was direct. I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or a product of verbal diarrhea. “Yeah, well you have spectacular breasts, so… But to be fair, it’s not like I made the towel fall off of you.” I shook my head. “And I only briefly glanced at your crotch. Staring would have been rude.”
Her lips twitched as she fought the smile. “No, it was not your fault. It was that crazy dog.”
“If you don’t like the dog, why did you get one?”
She sighed. “He’s my roommate’s. Look, we’re almost there. We can pretend this whole thing never happened.”
The elevator chimed, and the doors slowly slid open. My mind racked itself for ways to change everything, just somehow make it better, and somehow not get screwed up.
“We’re here. I’ll tell my mother that, you know, you walked me from class, we talked, we had conversation, and then you’re done, okay? You don’t need to do this.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She sighed. “No, of course you don’t.” And then she stepped into the apartment and closed the door in my face.
That’s strike two.
Lucas…
Now you’re free. I could tell my brother I’d done my best and that I’d even walked her from her classes once and asked her if there was anything she needed, so now I wasn’t a disappointment. Yay, me! The problem was as I rode down in the elevator, something lingered at the back of my mind. Why was she so uptight about me even helping her? Why did she keep saying ‘someone like me?’ Why wouldn’t she even so much as have a coffee with me? It’s not like I was asking her to marry me.
Let it go. This is not a challenge to be solved. This isn’t the one last mark. Let it go.
I recognized the impulse immediately. It was as if someone was telling me I couldn’t do something, thereby forcing my curiosity. Tony had used that tactic over the years to force me into doing things that I didn’t necessarily want to do. All he had to do was tell me that he didn’t think I had the balls or that I wasn’t capable. He told me I was too stupid to do it. And sure enough, I would be proving him wrong, getting larger and larger scores.
Those days are over now. You don’t have to do that anymore.
No, I didn’t, but I had to resist the urge to scratch that scab.
Once downstairs, I bypassed the front desk with a smile to the attendant who beamed back at me. See? She wasn’t immune. But somehow, I only wanted to go back upstairs to figure out what the hell was wrong with Bryna Tressel.
Leave it.
When I got outside, I jogged down the stairs and found Roone talking to a bohemian-looking grad student. Or rather, she was talking to him, leaning forward, hand on his forearm, giggling at whatever it was he said. I could only laugh because he was completely at ease. But I knew the moment I came outside he knew exactly where I was. I nodded toward a hotdog cart and inclined my head. He nodded in return. ”You want one?”
He shrugged. “Sure, why not.”
When I walked over to pay for the hotdogs, I was surprised by the line. Then I realized this wasn’t your average dirty-wild hotdog stand. This was some kind of permanent food truck. The line was long enough that I had to wait for my specialty dogs to get made. I pulled out my phone to check it and told myself I wasn’t looking up at Bryna Tressel’s apartment. Yeah right, how’s that working out for you?
I knew it from the curtains, because she had a purple unicorn plant that she hooked out on the railing. I’d seen it the last time I was in her place.
Let it go. She’s not the right challenge. I forced myself to look back at my phone as I waited, but something had my hair standing up at the back of my neck, and immediately I looked around. Then I saw him.
Tony… again.
“We got to stop meeting like this kid. By now, you really shouldn’t be surprised. Did you think about what I said?”
“Nope.”
“You’re really so cold you don’t care about your mother? After she was so sick?” Tony rubbed his jaw. “Time is running out. You really want to go out like a pussy?”
“There is nothing you can do to me now.”
“Oh yeah? Does your new friend, the one from the papers, know about you?”
Fuck he knew about Sebastian. What did he know? “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
; Tony grinned. “Oh man, your poker face is still outstanding. It’s a shame you don’t use your talents for good. You were photographed with the prince. You know how your mother is. Anything about royalty, she’s there for it, especially if it’s about the Winston Isle folks. She was obsessed with them. Like she would get everything she could lay her hands on. I could swear she cried when she heard that king died.”
My heart squeezed. My mother and I had a conversation last year about King Cassius. She was forced to confess the truth when I asked her if he was my father. But I hadn’t even thought that she cared about him anymore. Looks like you’re wrong. “Is this story going somewhere? Because I’m waiting for my hotdogs, and I’ve got to get to class.”
“Yeah, class. Fancy NYU. I got to ask though kid, is that real? Or did you hack in? You never seemed that smart to me.”
And there we were… the first insult lobbed over the wall. “Does it actually matter?”
“Come to your senses kid. Don’t jeopardize your life on principle. Besides, you owe me. I want part of your take and all of what you owe me. This kind of mark looks good for it, or you can do the job I want.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I met that guy at a party.” Tony stuck real close behind me, and something poked in my back. My sweat turned suddenly icy. I knew it was a gun. I’d seen Tony pull this very same move on countless other people to force them to play into his hand. “You and I aren’t done kid.”
With the pressure at my lower back, the bile swirled in my gut. I told myself I was not going to puke. No way, no how. And then my fucking number was called. Oddly, the smell of onions and ketchup actually helped settle my stomach. What the fuck was I going to do? If Tony was in town, then my mother was too. It meant every move I made was one that could hurt her.
I heard the now distinct-to-me bite in Bryna’s voice from above as I grabbed my dogs. “Don't touch me!”
Instinctively, I sought her out and my gaze honed in on her on the balcony of her apartment. I couldn’t see clearly, but there was a guy out on the balcony with her. Shit.
I didn’t even stop to think. I dropped the dogs and ran.
9
Lucas
I hadn’t run that fast in ages. Hell, I’d probably only run that fast once, when Tony was going after my mother. I’d been determined to protect her with my life at that point. I ran like that now. Sweat on my brow, legs pumping, heart racing in a not-so-steady gallop. Roone all but forgotten.
When I reached her room, I knocked on her door. Pounded really. I could hear the dog inside barking. “Bryna, open up.”
I heard things crashing to the floor inside the apartment.
“Fuck it.” I stepped back and kicked my foot to the door jamb where the lock would be.
All that happened was me falling back and landing flat on my ass. Motherfucker.
That shit looked easy on Law and Order SVU. What the fuck? I heard more thrashing around inside.
I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my lock pick set. This was a simple door. I could do this in seconds.
If you don’t fuck up. Stay calm, open the door.
I pulled out the slim tools, and hearing the metal clang together was almost reassuring in a way. All of a sudden, calmness washed over me, and I took a deep breath. This was my wheel house. This, I knew how to do. Slide in one, slide in the second, bend the apparatus, and turn.
The door opened without any fuss. I found the asshole pressing his body into Bryna’s against the rail of the balcony.
I didn’t even think. I grabbed the nearest weapon I could find, which was a wine bottle, raised it over my head, and whack… right across the face. No glass shattering, but he did swear as he fell away from her. I didn’t give him any time to recover. I grabbed him and dragged him back inside the apartment. Thn I was on him, fists flying. I picked him up and shoved him against the wall. His head made a satisfying cracking sound as it dented dry wall. “You have two choices, get lost or spend the next several nights in jail. I swear to God, I will make your life a living hell.”
His eyes went wide, and he tried to struggle out of my grip, but I applied pressure across his throat and he wheezed then coughed.
Very calmly, I lowered my voice so Bryna couldn’t hear me. “I will find you, and I will end you if you come anywhere near her again. Do you understand me?”
I knew there was something in my voice, something in my eyes, something that said that I was dangerous. And I was. Those lessons I’d gotten long ago from Tony had included how to get my hands dirty. But no one needed to know that. I let the piece of shit go, and he stumbled away, glaring at Bryna as he went. It wasn’t my first choice to let him go, and if I had been thinking straight, I would have called Roone and given him the guy’s description to detain him and take him to jail. But I was worried about her. She was shell-shocked in the corner, just staring at the door, her tiny body pressed against the wall.
“Bryna, are you okay?”
She stood there still staring, unmoving.
I snapped my fingers in front of her. I didn’t want to touch her without her being fully okay with it. “Hey, are you okay?”
Suddenly, she blinked, shook her head, frowned and then squared her shoulders. “Yeah, I think so. I just—I didn’t know what to do.”
“Yeah, we’ll fix that. In the meantime, get your shit. We’re going.”
She blinked rapidly. “Going where? This is my apartment.”
I pointed at the door. “That guy has access to your apartment. That’s the very definition of not safe. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
“Good. Pack. You’re never coming back.” I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. All I knew was that she couldn’t stay there. I’d figure the rest out once we got to the penthouse. I dragged my phone out of my back pocket and shot a text to Roone.
He came running through the door no less than thirty seconds after I sent the text.
“Dude, you cannot just take off like that.”
I put my finger to my lips and inclined my head toward Bryna’s room where she was rushing and throwing things into her bag, whilst trying to step over the Great Dane. “She’s coming with us.”
His eyes went wide. “Your Highness,” I gave him a sharp shake of my head. “No. None of that. Tell Marcus too. As far as she’s concerned, you’re just two friends of mine across the hall. She clearly needs help, but I don’t trust her father. So, we just won’t say anything about anything. For now, she can’t stay here. I’ll explain later.”
Roone narrowed his gaze at me but gave me a sharp nod. “I’ll wait outside the door.”
“Thanks.” Now all I had to do was figure out what the hell I was going to do with her.
Bryna
I didn’t know what the hell happened with my life. Two weeks ago, I was escaping a ball. All so I could come to New York on my own. Make my own way in life.
It felt good.
Then Murphy and his damn law happened. First, I ran into a too-good-looking-for-his-own-good guy, and he was a friend of the king’s. The last thing I wanted. And apparently, I had a shitty sense of direction, so I had been going the wrong way and missed my ferry.
Then, I moved to the city. My roommate was crazy, and her Great Dane regularly attacked me. Then her boyfriend actually assaulted me. And now, said gorgeous guy, who I never thought I’d see again, ended up saving me from crazy roommate’s asshole boyfriend.
That pretty much summed up my life in a nutshell. I had no apartment anymore. Not one that was safe anyway. I was stuck with the one guy who would probably cause me more trouble than happiness.
Way to go Bryna. Way to go.
He handed me a mug of tea and leaned back against the counter. “I’ll ask you again, are you okay?”
I shook my head. “You don’t have to worry. I’m fine. He didn’t actually hurt me.”
“Whether he actually hurt you or not isn’t the point. The point is his intent. And he ter
rorized you. So, I could kill him for that.”
Heat crawled at my neck in little licks as I flushed. “Thank you. I’m not sure I said it before, but I appreciate it.”
He shrugged. “I would have done it for anyone. You just have to be careful.”
He was right. “I know, and I will be. I’ll be getting out of your hair soon. I’m just waiting for my best friend to call me back, and I’ll grab a hotel maybe. I’ll try to find somewhere else to stay. It was hard enough to find graduate student housing when I did it ahead of time, but now I have to find an apartment.”
He shook his head. “No, you’re staying here. No hunting for apartments will be necessary.”
I widened my eyes. Was he insane? I couldn’t stay here. “Uh, while I appreciate it, there’s no way I’d do that. I don’t even know you.”
“Honey, I have basically seen your uh, lady parts.” He shrugged even as a slow grin spread over his lips. “Okay if I just call you Spanks from now on?”
I shook my head. “Oh my God, this is exactly why I can’t stay here.”
“Why, because I’m awesome and hilarious? And I’ll try not to be hurt about you calling me Tin Man before. I promise, I have a heart… a big one.” He winked.
“You have a high opinion of yourself.”
“When you’re awesome and hilarious, you should. I don’t understand what the problem is.”
“The problem is, I don’t know you. And while you promised my parents you’d look out for me, this, I think, is above and beyond. So, I’ll be getting out of your hair.”
“See, that’s just the thing. When I’m asked for a favor by my friend, I do as I am told. So, you’re not shaking me. You can’t go back to that apartment; it’s not safe. I have more than enough room here.”