Page 4 of Cherished by the Sinners (Sinners Never Die #4)

Darlene

D arlene finished cleaning the first suite, thanked the guests, and wished them a good day. She exited the room and rolled her cart toward the next set of rooms.

“Miss,” the Japanese man who’d spoken with her called out. He walked over to her, stopped a polite distance away, then held an envelope out with both hands, bowing slightly. “Thank you.”

She bowed back and took the envelope. “You are welcome.”

“Is it acceptable to request that you maintain our suite again?”

The implied praise put a smile back on her face. “Yes, of course. Use the phone in your suite to call housekeeping. Ask to speak with Louise and tell her your request. My name is Darlene.”

“Excellent, thank you.” He returned to his suite.

Darlene waited until the door was closed to look in the envelope.

It had five one-hundred dollar bills in it.

Thanks to her time living in Japan, she knew this was an accepted way to show appreciation to friends and family.

The amount was extravagant to her, but given the quality of their clothing, perhaps not extravagant to them.

She tucked the envelope into her pocket and carried on to the next suite. She knocked and waited for someone to answer.

The door opened and a man stood in the doorway. He didn’t say anything, just stared at her with a blank expression.

“Housekeeping,” she said. “May I clean your room?”

He didn’t react to her question in any way. His eyes were a brown so dark they looked black. Flat. Frozen.

A wave of cold air swept up from her feet, sending a shiver across her body. “Sir?” she asked tentatively.

He moved, stepping back and opening the door wide.

She hesitated, fighting her instinct to turn around and run, then pushed her cart into the suite.

Darlene went about her cleaning the same way she’d just done in the other suite. This time, however, the man who’d let her in followed only two paces behind her.

His breath whispered across the skin at the back of her neck, cold and sharp, scoring her skin as if he’d scratched her.

A cellphone rang somewhere in the suite, reminding her that she wasn’t alone, wasn’t without ways to call for help. Darlene stopped, stood a little straighter, and pulled her cellphone out of her pocket.

She opened the texting app for hotel staff and hesitated over who to send a message to. The guest hadn’t moved, his attention centered on her completely. She didn’t need to turn her head to check. She’d been seen as prey for so long, she knew when a predator was sizing her up.

She could text Louise and ask for someone else to relieve her, but she didn’t want to dump the job on anyone else.

She sucked in a breath and texted Mason. Excuse me, how do I politely tell one of the important guests from India to stop following me so closely? I don’t want to start trouble or anything, but he’s in my space. If he does this to every housekeeper, no one will want to clean their suite .

Mason would know what to say. She hit send.

Darlene frowned. Why was she waiting for someone else to deal with this jerk? She could figure this out for herself. It was her job, her life now.

“What are you doing?” the man standing behind her asked, his voice low and full of menace.

Was he trying to scare her on purpose? She looked at him squarely for the first time since she’d entered the suite, and dropped her phone into her pocket.

He smiled at her, wide enough to show off canine teeth filed sharp. Mason and Magnus had similar teeth, with one difference.

Mason and Magnus, who’d made her promise to call them if she needed help, had never threatened or tried to intimidate her. Mason and Magnus could probably twist this guy into a pretzel without much effort.

The guest licked his lips, but didn’t otherwise move.

Really? She was trying to keep things calm, normal, and... tidy, damn it . And he was acting like a jerk.

What was it with men today?

She looked over at the other guests, another man and three women, sitting in the middle seating area.

“I would appreciate it, if your friend or family member here would stop bothering me while I’m trying to do my work,” she said to them.

One of the women stirred, shifting her weight slightly. “Why would we do that?”

“Because none of the other housekeepers are willing to clean your suite.”

The woman blinked, then frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Do you want your suite cleaned, towels exchanged, and your garbage emptied or not?” Darlene asked. “Because, if I tell Mason and Magnus Breznik that I won’t clean here because he’s—” she angled a thumb at the guy behind her. “—acting creepy and scary, I don’t think anyone else will do it.”

The woman laughed. “You’re nothing but a servant.”

Is that how they saw her? As a lesser person? Someone who could be hurt without consequences?

The others laughed with her and the chuckle from the man behind her was as evil as the serial killer’s who’d tried to kill her.

Oh. Ohhhhh . They were like the rich guys who used to try to get her in their car, get a blow job, but pay nothing or beat her up and take whatever money she’d earned.

Those guys thought they were better than everyone else, but they were just as mean as every other strung-out pimp and john she’d ever met.

And she didn’t have to take that from anyone anymore.

Well, she’d warned them.

Darlene turned and walked back to her cart, made sure she had everything, then turned the cart and began pushing it toward the door.

The man got in front of her, forcing her to stop or run into him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.

“I’m following my boss’s instructions,” she said. “Excuse me.”

The man shook his head.

“Do you want to use the supplies on the cart to clean the room yourself?” she asked.

He frowned. “No.”

“Then move, I’m on a schedule.”

His frown melted into another lecherous grin. “No.”

Darlene pulled out her cellphone again and began typing.

Until one of the female guests, who’d just been sitting on the couch, grabbed her wrist and plucked the phone out of her hand.

How had she gotten over here so fast?

Darlene reached for her phone, but the woman slid away, too quickly, too far.

A cold wave swept over her, chilling her skin, and a knot solidified in the bottom of her stomach.

Something was wrong with these guests, with how they moved, with how they looked at her. As if she were nothing more than an ant on the floor waiting to be squashed. It went beyond bad manners or a cultural misunderstanding. They didn’t see her as a person at all.

They were all staring at her with flat faces, devoid of any emotion. She’d seen that expression once before, on the face of the man who’d cut up her back.

The cold froze her in place, but she had to get out or she was dead. She knew it with every cell in her body.

Her phone buzzed.

The woman who held it, dropped it on the floor, as if she’d never held a phone before and the incoming call surprised her.

“I hate those... those... things,” she said, making no move to pick it up. “They should be banned.”

Banned? What hole had she been hiding in for the last twenty years?

The phone buzzed again.

There were only three people who might be trying to call her. Louise, Mason, or Magnus.

That’s right, she wasn’t alone. Not anymore.

She had to bluff, that’s what Sam said to her one time. She had to pretend to be brave and stand up for herself even if she didn’t feel brave at all. Sometimes, it was the only way to get out of dangerous situations.

“If I don’t answer the phone,” Darlene said with a sigh. “Someone will be here shortly to check on me.”

“Why would they check on you?” The woman who’d taken her phone asked.

“Because I work for the Brezniks and they take care of their people.” She glanced at the man standing even closer to her now than he had been a moment ago. “And we take care of them.”

The phone stopped buzzing.

The woman bent down and picked it up with just the tips of her fingers. She shook it as if it were a piece of spaghetti hanging off her hand. Nothing happened.

A loud knock on the door drew everyone’s attention.

No one moved.

Darlene took a step to the side to go around the man next to her, but he grabbed her by the arm.

Tight. Too tight. Ouch .

The door beeped, opened, and Mason walked in.

He looked at the man and Darlene, and his face twisted into an angry mask. “Release her. Now,” he snarled.

The man holding her didn’t move. “She’s a servant who doesn’t know her place,” he said. “You need to school them better.” He sucked in a deep breath. “And she smells delicious.”

Mason bared his teeth and very carefully, without looking away, closed the door to the suite.

She’d seen him look like this a couple of times, right before he and his brother beat the shit out of someone who’d made a threat in the restaurant. They hadn’t known she’d seen them since they took the guy outside in the alley next to the hotel, but she’d followed and watched.

The man had deserved every kick and punch, but they hadn’t done more than rough him up.

Mason looked angrier now. A lot angrier.

The idiot hurting her was going to get beat to within an inch of his life.

Then Mason would lose his job. Rescuing her.