Page 18

18

FAWN

E ddie paced the length of the house. “Well?”

I shook my head. “The limp is barely noticeable. If you walk slowly, and in the dark outside, no one will notice.”

“Good.” He picked up a bottle of painkillers from the kitchen counter, shook out more than the prescribed dosage, swallowing them down without water. “Hide those somewhere. They’re all fucking snoops out there, and nobody needs to know my business but me.”

I picked up the bottle and tucked it away in my pocket. “Of course.”

He took a handful of my behind in his big hand and squeezed it. “That’s my woman.”

I fought the urge to cringe away from him as he kissed my neck.

I couldn’t even pretend it was Zane’s touch. I knew what that felt like now, and it was nothing like the possessive groping Eddie was fond of.

Zane’s touch was the opposite. It was sweet. Kind. Respectful.

Wanted.

So very, very wanted. Just the look we’d shared earlier before he’d gone outside had sent heat racing through my veins, and that warm bubble of attraction hadn’t disappeared since, even though he’d been out in the yard for hours.

Otis and Margaret had come inside and quietly disappeared upstairs with food I’d pressed into Margaret’s hand as she’d passed. I’d caught her arm just long enough to whisper in her ear to lock Otis’s bedroom door and barricade it with his bed or whatever else the two of them could push in front of it between the two of them.

It was the safest I could make them. I couldn’t hide Margaret in a box the way I did with Otis.

Cars and trucks and bikes rolled in, more and more people arriving for Eddie’s party, his crew and Zane ushering them all to the back of the house where I’d laid out a table with food, and drinks flowed from the keg Spider had brought.

Each new arrival sent my anxiety to a higher level, until I was visibly trembling, watching Eddie practice strutting around the house, so when he made his grand entrance to the party, he looked like the strong, in-command leader he so desperately wanted to be, so Carlos Guerra would see him as an equal.

All I could think about was the last party we’d had here. And how it had ended in a pool of blood and me spending a week wondering if I was going to die, chained up in this godforsaken house, my child perishing right along with me.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get myself under control.

That wasn’t going to happen again.

Zane had promised he wasn’t leaving without me.

Maybe it was stupid to believe him, when he was just as much a prisoner here as I was, but my heart needed to. When Zane had made that promise, I’d seen the raw honesty of it in his eyes, and I’d known he meant every word.

We would get out.

We had to.

The looks he shot me from the back of the yard filled me with a hope I had no right feeling.

Eddie peeped out and swore beneath his breath. “They’re here.”

“Who?”

“Guerra and his wife.” Eddie grinned at me. “A partnership with them is going to mean big things for me, Peach. BIG things.”

I didn’t know what that meant, and I didn’t want to know.

If Eddie wanted to be in business with someone, I doubted they were people I wanted to have anything to do with. So I just murmured an obligatory, “Good luck.”

His cocky arrogance rose to the surface. “Don’t need luck. They’ll be begging for me to step up and take on a bigger role before the end of the night. I’ve been fucking spotless for them. Never missed a payment or a delivery. I’ve earned my place at Guerra’s side, Peach. He fucking owes me.”

I just nodded, unable to dredge up any more empty words for a man who only wanted his ego fed. “I’ll go outside and make sure the food isn’t running low.”

Eddie nodded. “Good. And then I’ll make my entrance.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes and turned away before he could see my expression.

I pushed my way through the back door and hurried down the steps quietly, hoping I blended into the shadows of the night. Zane had replaced the bulb in the single spotlight that helped light the yard, and he’d piled up wood for a bonfire which now crackled with flames, spreading a soft orange glow that helped the spotlight along.

There was enough light to see the large group that had gathered to party, some perched on the old stone retaining wall, others on the array of mismatched cheap plastic chairs we’d collected over the years from God only knows where. Probably the side of the road.

Eddie made his grand entrance to cheers and wolf whistles from his crew, and he smiled charmingly, descending the stairs without so much as a grimace, though I knew it had to be hurting him.

Or maybe that handful of pills he’d downed in the kitchen was already working.

I found a shadowy spot at the edge of the pool of light to watch Eddie’s triumphant public return to the land of the living. There was more than one, “Takes more than a bullet to slow me down,” type statements from his obnoxious mouth, each one making me hate him just a little bit more.

If that were even possible.

Spider found his side and pointed through the crowd to a woman sitting with a couple of men, drinks in their hands. They weren’t far from where I stood, and I could hear their conversation easily, even if none of them appeared to notice I was there. I busied myself with the food so I had an excuse to be hanging around.

Normally I wasn’t interested in Eddie’s business dealings, but normally he ran with low-level gangbangers. Guerra had never graced us with his presence, even if Eddie had been doing things for him for years.

I suspected Guerra was really why Eddie had brought Zane in. Even though he now didn’t trust him and had taken the role back for himself, my gut told me this was the meeting Eddie had been scared of looking weak for.

Which told me whatever it was these people had to offer, Eddie wanted it. It had to be more than money for Eddie.

He wanted power. The respect and admiration of being Guerra’s equal.

But he stopped short at the group, surveying the faces of the woman and four men, and battled to keep his own expression in check. “Evening,” he said eventually. “I was expecting Mr. Guerra.”

The woman stood, her long, shapely legs shown off in a short, tight skirt that clung to curvy hips. She held a hand out to Eddie. “I know. But you got me instead.” She gave him a flirty wink I couldn’t miss even from a distance. “Lucky you.”

Eddie’s confusion was clear in the crinkled lines of his forehead, but there was also no mistaking the slow sweep of approval his gaze made along the woman’s body.

It was clear to me she knew it was her secret weapon.

Or not so secret, considering she had everything on display. I’d once worked as a stripper and loved the feeling of control and power over men it had given me. I didn’t blame her at all for using what she had.

The intelligent awareness in her eyes would have been easy to miss if you were a guy like Eddie, too busy slobbering over her pushed-up tits and jeweled belly button ring.

“Guerra and I had business to take care of tonight,” he eventually managed to stutter.

She peered up at him from beneath thick, black lashes that had to be fake. “There’s a Guerra right here, waiting to do business with you right now.”

I could see the irritation on Eddie’s face. The barely concealed rage that a man thought so little of Eddie he’d sent a woman in his place. Guerra clearly didn’t think Eddie worth his own time.

An uncomfortable trickle of worry slid down my spine. And for a second, I was sure this was going to end in one of Eddie’s outbursts of anger. The kind where he grabbed my head and slammed it into a wall. Or yanked my hair so hard strands came away in his fists. But this time it wouldn’t be me crying in pain, but Guerra’s wife.

A sign Eddie wasn’t to be fucked with.

Every muscle in my body tensed, waiting for him to strike.

But it didn’t come. Eddie’s frown smoothed out, and he nodded at Spider. “Could we get Mrs. Guerra another drink, please? And one for me too.”

“Audrina,” the woman said, holding her hand out.

Eddie took it, but instead of shaking it, he drew it to his lips and kissed the back of her knuckles. “Eddie Sinclair.”

Audrina laughed, a sweet, tinkling sound that cut through the general chatter of the group and the low baseline of rap music. “So you’re charming as well as handsome?”

Eddie chuckled, his laughter almost genuine. Thing was, the woman wasn’t blowing smoke up his ass, and he knew it. Eddie was a good-looking guy, if you liked the beefed-up, gym bro look.

I had once. I’d taken one peek at the thick biceps and rippling abs and hadn’t seen past them until it was too late.

I wanted to yell out to this woman, warn her of what I knew. But she wasn’t a stupid teenager who didn’t know any better.

Audrina Guerra was a fully grown woman who had a clear agenda of her own, even if I didn’t know what it was just yet.

Spider handed Eddie two red Solo cups full of beer, and Eddie passed one to Audrina. At a flick of her wrist, one of her husband’s guys moved aside.

Eddie took up his spot. “So, about this expansion Guerra wants to make—”

Audrina let out a shriek of delight and pointed to the house. “Who is that sweet thing up in the window?” She clutched Eddie’s arm. “Is that your boy, Eddie?”

My heart sank. I whipped my gaze up to Otis’s bedroom window, where a low glow came from behind the curtains. But Otis’s little face peeped out around them, his big eyes taking in the party happening below.

This was exactly why I’d always hidden him in the closet. Because he was a curious child, and the lure of lights and people and music outside his window would be hard for anyone to ignore.

Audrina wriggled her fingers at him and called, “Hey, cutie!” even though common sense would have told her he wouldn’t hear from here.

My sweet boy waved back, big, friendly smile on his rounded face.

Until he noticed his father sitting next to the woman and then he quickly ducked out of sight.

“Oh, he’s so cute!” Audrina squealed. “I just love kids. They’re such sweet souls. I was devastated when we learned Guerra couldn’t have any more.”

Eddie half choked on his beer. “Really?”

She nodded. Then widened her eyes at him. “Oh, don’t tell him I said that though. He’d be so mad.”

Eddie shook his head and mimed zipping closed his mouth.

He’d suddenly gone from being unimpressed with Guerra sending Audrina in his place, to eating right out of her hand.

And from a split second of satisfaction on Audrina’s heavily made-up face, she knew it too.

I couldn’t help but be impressed with the woman.

Until she said, “I’d love to meet your boy, Eddie. He looks just like you.”

Eddie nodded, even though we all knew Otis looked nothing like his father. A fact I was grateful for every day of his life. He actually reminded me a lot of the childhood photos of my brother my parents kept in their house.

Eddie waved a hand toward the house. “Spider. Go get him.”

No. No. No. “Eddie, it’s his bedtime,” I blurted, stepping out of the shadows, putting myself between Spider and the back door.

Eddie’s gaze narrowed on me, anger instantly sprouting behind his eyes. “If you’re here, then you can go get him,” he said with barely controlled temper, completely ignoring my protest about him needing to go to bed.

Audrina put her hand on Eddie’s arm. “Oh no, please. I don’t want to keep the little one up. I can meet him another time. Plus, you and I have business to take care of.”

Eddie gave a curt nod, and I breathed a short sigh of relief, slipping back into the darkness and away into the crowd.

Whatever Eddie was doing with that woman, I didn’t want or need to know about.

I skirted the edge of the party, making my way back toward the house, but detouring away from the light so nobody noticed me.

That was the story of my life. Always making myself small so I didn’t attract any unwanted attention. I was just Eddie’s servant, here to do his bidding but never be noticed.

I was so busy wallowing in my own self-pity I didn’t notice the man step out from the shadowy shed doorway until it was too late.

His hand wrapped around my mouth, and I was hauled back into the darkness, the door slamming shut behind me.