“There’s one thing I need to let you know before we go any further,” I said.
Her expression brightened, and she took another sip of her Cristal. “What’s that?”
“I only have a shitty little apartment. It’s a one-bedder, so I can give you a little privacy, but not a lot of space.”
“That sounds divine.”
How on earth my words could possibly sound divine, I had no clue, but I didn’t want to push her and have her upset again. I didn’t want to witness her vulnerability again so that I wouldn’t give up my paycheque. Mostly, I didn’t want myself to fall further under whatever spell she was trying to weave. “So when do you want this two weeks to start?”
“Tonight. If you’re game.”
There was a challenge on her face that my ego rose to meet. “Why not? It’s only a couple of weeks.”
“Exactly. But right now, sit and relax. We’ll share another drink.” She lifted her hand, and her bodyguard appeared again.
She’d said we’d need to ditch this Vince guy to get things started, and I wasn’t looking forward to that. He wasn’t a guy I wanted to tussle with in a hurry. The way the lump of a man had practically materialised at our side whenever Soleil’s hand had lifted proved he watched her like a hawk. Not to mention his reaction whenever we’d gotten within touching distance of each other. If she’d disappeared, wouldn’t I be sought for kidnapping?
Once again as the monkey-suited minder delivered the drinks to the table, he set Soleil’s down gently before all but issuing a warning with the way he placed mine in front of me.
Soleil thanked him and then added, “Can you be a little more discreet now too please, Vince? My friend and I . . . we want to have a little fun.”
Is it prostituting if sex comes into the equation after an agreement is made?
I dismissed the thought as soon as it had struck. She was just trying to get some space, I was sure of it. Especially when the big lug put even more distance between them and cleared out a section of the club on the way.
“So . . .” She trailed off almost as soon as she started. “Why don’t we just start at the beginning? Tyson, that’s an interesting name.”
I groaned. Of course she’d bring that up. My name was something of a joke to my father now, even though the original intention behind it had been more serious. “My dad was a huge boxing fan.” I figured my words would confirm the suspicion she’d no doubt had. “I was born in April though. Two months before . . . the incident.”
She quirked one brow. “The incident?”
“The ear biting incident,” I clarified.
“Who bit an ear?”
“Tyson. Two months after I was born and given his name.”
“Tyson?”
“Mike Tyson . . . the boxer.” I waited to see if there was any spark of recognition on her face. When she continued with her blank stare, I added, “That’s why I’m Tyson Michael Inchcliffe. Dad wanted the names in the right order, but apparently Mum insisted on reversing them.”
Truthfully, I didn’t know which fate was worse. There hadn’t been too many other Tysons on the school playground. I was thankful for that at least. I wasn’t even game to mention my initials to her. Hopefully, we’d be able to get through two weeks without having that conversation.
“Can’t say I’ve heard of him,” Soleil said. “I’ve never been into boxing though.”
“You haven’t heard of Mike Tyson? You don’t even have to know boxing to know him. He was in the second Hangover movie.”
She stared at me blankly.
“Hangover . . . you know . . . the movie? It was big a few years ago. Starred Bradley Cooper. Zach Galifianakis.” The look on her face held no recognition. “No?”
She blinked and shook her head. “Sorry. Did I mention I’ve lived a sheltered life?”
Sheltered was the least of it if she hadn’t even heard of the movie. “You’re not kidding. Man! I’m going to need to make a list of must-watches. We’ve only got two weeks to fill you with culture. What have you been doing with your life?”
“I can speak six other languages, play four instruments, and have a minor degree in public policy that I got through an online course.”
It was my turn to give her a blank stare. Then I chuckled. “Oh, is that all?”
She laughed in response. “Yeah. I haven’t achieved much, I know.”
“What languages?”
“French, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, German, and Yiddish.”
“Instruments?”
“Violin, cello, piano, and guitar. Plus, I can sing a little. At least, I’ve had a few vocal lessons.”
“Wow.” I leaned back against the booth cushion again and stared at her. As if extraordinary wealth wasn’t enough, she had to have that much talent too?
She quirked a brow. “Intimidated?”
“Of course not.” I was, but there was no way I was going to admit it. I’d been going on about my namesake, and she was a literal tree of knowledge.
Just like the one in the Garden of Eden. Look at how well that turned out for all involved.
“Really, it all sounds far more impressive than it really is.” She seemed desperate for me to believe that. “I learned those things because I had nothing else to do. No TV. No friends. Just me and my never-ending roster of tutors.”
I frowned and found myself leaning closer to her again. Maybe I had judged her a little too harshly. Now, I just wanted to ease her sorrow. I debated taking back the deal we’d made and offering to show her how to live without charging anything.
Only, I needed the money far more than she did.
“You mentioned something about ditching Lurch . . .” I said. “Why do you have to ditch him?”
“How many normal people do you know have bodyguards following them everywhere?”
“I get why you want him gone if you’re trying to live a normal life, but why don’t you just dismiss him for two weeks?”
“You didn’t hear him before, did you? He doesn’t work for me. He works for my father, and is under his instruction to never let me out of his sight.”
“So what’s the plan then?”
She grinned at me. “Want another drink?”
“Uh, okay.” I wasn’t entirely sure why she was changing the subject.
With a wave of her hand, she called Vince over again. “Can you get us another drink each? We’re going to dance for a while.”
Vince stared me down for a moment, even as Soleil dragged me toward the dance floor.
I felt the weight of his glare as Soleil moved us into the crowd.
The instant Vince turned his back to us to order the drinks, Soleil closed her hands around mine. “Let’s go. Now.”
She dragged me through the crowd and straight out the front door.
Chapter 4
“KEEP GOING!” SOLEIL shouted as she dragged me out of the club. “We’ve got to put some space between Vince and us.”
She giggled and pulled me along behind her.
Thankfully with her heels and my long legs, I was easily able to keep up with her pace without much more than a light jog. “How much space?”
“Enough to stop him from finding me right away.”
“You know it won’t be long before he finds out my address, right?” I checked over my shoulder. There was no way it would be that easy to lose the gorilla. I half expected Vince to appear out of the shadows at any second.
“He doesn’t know your name yet,” she reassured me.
I wanted to roll my eyes. The way she spoke, it sounded like she had an actual plan to get away from him, not this half-arsed attempt. “It won’t take him long to figure it out. Pretty much all of the staff know me well enough to give him that.” If he spoke to the right people and coaxed it out of them, all of my details were inside in an employee file. Both at the university and Skyland.
When she didn’t seem worried about my statement, I sighed and pointed in the direction of my apartment. It wasn
’t a long walk at all—one of the reasons I’d jumped at the chance to work at Skyland, and celebrated when the university accepted my idea of hosting the party there. Without saying anything else to me, she pulled out her mobile phone and dialled a number. After a moment, she said, “Hi, Daddy.”
I continued at her side as she kept up her quickened pace while talking.
“I just need some time alone for a while. Can you please call him off? I’ve got his cell number for when I’m ready to return.” After a short pause, she added, “Daddy—”
She cut off and frowned.
Why on earth did I agree to this?
“Please? I’ve hired a local bodyguard to keep me safe. I just need to be away from everything Peyton for a while.”
I rolled my eyes at her. Of course that’s all she considered me to be. Anyone below her station was interchangeable with anyone else.
“Covered . . . No, that’s sorted too. Please let me do this? No, I promise I’ll do what I need to there.” The tone she used convinced me that she was familiar with which buttons to push to get the result she wanted. After a little more pleading and cajoling, she gave a victorious grin. “Thank you, Daddy! You’re the best.”
Fighting my gag reflex over the display, I remembered the way I’d felt when I’d seen the bodyguard waiting outside the ladies’ toilet. Would that be my task for the next two weeks? Stand guard like Lurch, fight like my namesake, and generally have to deal with a spoiled princess who had no issues pulling out the baby talk to get her way.
It was going to get real old, real fast if she tried to pull that shit with me.
As soon as she’d hung up the phone, she pushed a few buttons, turned it off, dropped it on the pavement, and then sent her heel through the screen.
“What the fuck?” The phone must have cost close to a thousand dollars, and she’d just destroyed it. With severe intent. “Why did you do that?”
She picked up the phone, removed the sim card, and tossed the damaged phone into a rubbish bin. “I didn’t want Dad to track me, and I didn’t want anyone else using the phone.”
“I’ve told you Lurch is going to be able to find my address easily enough, and you’re worried about getting tracked from the States?”
“Dad said he wasn’t going to get Vince to find me unless I haven’t called him in two weeks or if I don’t turn up to my college lessons. Vince will meet me there each day, but when the time is over, I’ll be free again.”
“But you destroyed your phone. Why would you do that if he said he wasn’t going to try to find you?”
“How can you expect me to be normal with a direct line to Daddy? Trust me, it’s better this way.”
“But that phone is expensive as shit. Couldn’t you have hocked it rather than destroying it?”
She tilted her head in confusion. “What?”
I led her onto my street. “You could’ve taken it to a pawn shop and maybe got a hundred dollars for it.”
“One hundred? Well, that’s hardly worth the effort, is it?”
It struck me again how monumentally hard the task ahead of me was going to be. “Oh boy.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I’m just wondering exactly how big a mistake I’ve made.”
“What do you mean?”
“This is us,” I said instead of responding as we arrived at my building.
“Oh.”
I rubbed the back of my neck as I tried to see the building through her eyes. The squat five-story building was a little ramshackle, but it was home. “Unless you’ve changed your mind, of course? I can take you back to Skyland if you’d prefer?”
“No!” The word rushed from her. “No. I mean, it’s okay. This will do.”
Her word set my teeth on edge. It would do? As if there was a choice and she was willing to compromise. I wanted to back out of the deal, but I didn’t want to say goodbye to the paycheque. “You haven’t seen the inside yet. It only gets worse.”
“I’m sure it will be fine. After all, I’m supposed to be seeing how the other half lives, aren’t I? This is where you live.” She gave me an innocent smile, one that seemed to suggest she had no clue just how insulting she was being.
I clenched my jaw. “Yeah.”
“Are we going in?”
“Whatever,” I muttered under my breath. “C’mon, we’re on the third floor.”
The instant we were in what passed for a lobby, she glanced around. “Where is the elevator?”
With a snicker, I lead her to the door to the stairwell. “There isn’t one, princess. You’ve gotta haul arse up the stairs like us common folk.” I unlocked the door. “If you’re gonna stay, I suppose I should get a key cut.”
The idea hurt. It might’ve only been a few dollars, but it was money I didn’t have and really didn’t want to spend.
“I don’t see any need. I’ve never needed a key before. I’ll be with you the entire time I’m not at college, and you can let me in.”
“Uh, no you won’t, princess. That’s not how real life works. I have work. University. Shit I have to do and that I need to do alone.”
“Oh.”
“You’re the one who wanted me to live normally. This is my normal. Three jobs just to pay for this shithole. My next shift at any of them is at two tomorrow afternoon.”
“Oh.”
A chill raced down my spine. The disappointment in her voice, and my body’s visceral reaction to it warned that I was in so far over my head. “Look, maybe I can call in sick tomorrow. We can go to the shops instead.”
“That sounds like fun.”
I’d rather throw myself down these stairs than go on a shopping trip with you. As soon as I had the thought, I considered the paycheque again. I’d put up with worse customers than her in my time in the service industry so I could handle a few hours at a shopping centre to earn it. “Absolutely delightful,” I muttered.
Her head appeared to be on a swivel as we climbed the stairwell. Thankfully because it was locked to everyone but the tenants, it didn’t contain the faint scent of urine that permeated through so many public staircases in Fortitude Valley. That didn’t mean it was clean, just that it was a step above the others.
“Is that a spider web?” She pointed to one corner of the stairs.
“Yeah. Sorry it’s not like your place. No daily maids through here.”
“I don’t have a maid who comes every day.”
I raised a brow at her again. It was becoming so common I wondered whether I should tape it in place. Of course, she hadn’t denied a maid at all—just not a daily one. “Really? So how often does she come?”
“He comes three times a week. Every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday.”
“A male maid? Progressive.”
“It was my stepmother’s idea. She didn’t want any . . . temptations.”
“Did she think that your father would test the suction of the cleaner otherwise?”
She shrugged. “Probably. Whatever marital issues they have aren’t my problem though.”
I wasn’t sure whether her attitude was a sign of maturity or petulance. Either way, it was easier to move on. “Well, we’re lucky if our cleaners come here once a month. Even then, it’s a miracle if they actually clean properly.”
“Why wouldn’t you hire a new one?”
“They’re cheap, and no one in the building can afford anything better.”
She fell into contemplative silence as we climbed the last flight of stairs.
I pushed open the door to my floor, the one I shared with Bekah, JD, and Bobby—the grouch in the corner apartment. After I’d led her to my door, I paused for a moment. I hadn’t been lying when I’d said my little one bedroom apartment was probably smaller than her closet. Worse than that, I couldn’t remember the state I’d left it in. I hoped like hell I hadn’t left my underwear hanging on the couch or too many dishes in the sink. Soleil already looked down her nose at me, I didn’t want it to get worse if my house was a sty.
<
br /> Relief flooded through me when I swung the front door open and the space beyond was reasonably clean. Looking around the place with the lens I was sure she was applying, my belongings came up short. My TV was tiny by modern standards—it was something my dad had bought for me for my sixteenth birthday. It needed to be small enough to fit my bedroom back then, and he’d saved up for six months to buy it. I hadn’t had any spare funds to replace it in the years since.
“It’s . . . nice,” she said. The pause in her statement made me certain she was struggling to find something positive to say.
“Yeah. Well, it’s home. My bedroom is through here.” It was only when I pushed the door to the room that it struck me she hadn’t brought any clothes with her. “Uh, what are you going to wear? You didn’t bring any bags.”
When she didn’t answer me, I spun to look at her. She was focused intently on my walls. “This artwork is, uh, interesting.”
I moved closer to her to figure out what she found interesting about the photos on my wall. Instead of the photo of Dad and me working on his Chevy, there was an image of two naked men screwing each other. “What the hell?”
My hands instantly reached for the back of the large photo frame, only to find a smear of Vaseline around the edges. I wiped my hands on my shirt and reached out again. Once I’d removed it, I placed it on the ground with the photo facing toward the wall, so I didn’t have to stare at it.
She twisted to meet my gaze. “It’s not bad, I just wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t think you were—”
“I’m not.” I cut her off before she could finish her thought.
“It’s okay if you are. Or even if you’re just into watching. Each to their own and all that.”
“Soleil, I can honestly say I have never seen that image before in my life.
“You don’t have to defend your choices to me. It’s not something I’d expect to see on Daddy’s walls, but it’s artistic at least.”
“It’s bloody Bekah. That’s what it is. She must’ve swapped all my photos.”
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