Page 3 of Ember (Royal Harlots: Yonkers, NY Chapter #1)

“Sorry,” she almost whispered. “I didn’t mean to sound so ungrateful. I guess I’m just tired and hungry.”

Jack looked her over and nodded as though agreeing with her assessment. “That’s understandable,” he said. “When was the last time you ate?”

“Um, well, I have a few protein bars left, but I’m trying to spread them out to make them last.”

“So, it’s been a while then?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I had a quarter of a bar and some water yesterday at the church, but that’s about it,” she admitted. He was quietly watching out the front windshield as they waited for the red light to change. They seemed to be getting stuck at every light, making the trip feel even longer.

“I’m sorry about how long it’s taking, but traffic in Yonkers is the worst. Lights aren’t timed right, and pedestrians don’t give a fuck if they walk out in front of you and you hit them.

Hell, they want that to happen—either to pick a fight or to get a lawyer to go after the drive.

It’s a shit storm waiting to happen, really. ”

“Wow, you make Yonkers sound like just the place a nice girl like me would want to settle down in,” she teased.

“So, you’re a nice girl then?” Jack asked.

“You have no idea what kind of girl I am, Jack,” Ember warned. “You don’t know me.”

“You’re right, I don’t know you,” he admitted.

Hell, they had said only about a half dozen words to each other since he found her at the church.

They knew nothing about each other, and she wasn’t sure if getting into the truck with a total stranger was her finest move, but here she was.

Ember felt as though her decisions lately involved one bad decision after another, and she just couldn’t seem to pull herself out of the dark hole that had her trapped.

“So, why did you agree to get into my truck and let me help you then?” Jack asked.

“That’s a question that I keep asking myself over and over in my head.

You saw Marco and his friend. He has more friends, too, and they’ve all been out looking for me.

What choice did I have but to go with you, Jack?

You were offering me hope, but if I went back to Florida with Marco, he’d only give me despair. That’s all he has ever given to me.”

“I take it that you two were together, then?” he asked.

“Yeah, as bad as that sounds, we were. For way longer than I should have allowed. He wasn’t always an abusive asshole.

That didn’t happen until after his accident,” she admitted.

Why she was still making excuses for the asshole was beyond her, yet here she sat in New York City traffic, doing just that to appease a total stranger.

What did she care what Jack thought about her or her life choices?

He had no reason to judge her for who she had been with and what she had allowed—and to be fair, he wasn’t.

He was simply asking her questions to get to know her, yet Ember couldn’t help but blow his good intentions out of the water by being bitchy to him.

“Yeah, I saw that scar going across his head. I didn’t know what to think about that,” he drawled.

“He was attacked by a janitor with a crowbar. He was at work, and the guy just started hitting him with the tool, and well, it took him a while to get back on his feet,” she said.

She stood by him the whole time, too. She worked as many shifts as she could pick up down at the Beauty Bar.

She was a stylist, and she really loved her job.

Her favorite clients were the ones who came in and told her to cut off all their hair and give them a change.

She loved creating a whole new look for a woman that would have her feeling refreshed and ready to conquer the world—or at least the grocery store.

Ember supported Marco for all the good it did her, and when he was cleared to leave the hospital, he repaid her by verbally abusing her and beating the shit out of her.

Her grandmother used to say that no good deed went unpunished, and she always thought that was such a mean saying when she was a kid.

But now that she was an adult, she understood it perfectly.

She felt that fucking saying down into the depths of her soul.

“Um, I just met your ex, and I’m not a betting man, but if I was, I’d put money on the janitor nailing him for being an asshole,” Jack breathed.

Ember laughed, “Yeah, and you’d win that bet. Marco has always been a live wire, and when he doesn’t feel as though anyone is listening to him, or understands him, he goes a little crazy.”

“As in, following his ex-girlfriend from Florida to New York, crazy?” he asked. Ember was pretty sure that Jack didn’t miss a thing. In fact, he seemed more in tune with everything that she had been saying than most guys would have been.

“You sure pick up a lot of stuff from just one conversation, Jack,” she said. “What did you say that you do for a living?” Ember knew that he hadn’t said anything about what he did for work, but she was beginning to become more and more suspicious that he was a good listener for a reason.

“I’m a cop,” he said. Well, that made a lot of fucking sense.

“Ahh, so not a guy with a heart of gold then. Just a cop out doing his duty. Am I a case or something like that now?” she asked.

“That depends,” he said, “have you broken the law lately?”

“Does breaking into an abandoned church and sleeping there count as a crime?”

“Did you take anything that didn’t belong to you while you were there?” he asked.

She shook her head, “Nope,” she said.

“Did you commit any crimes while you were in the church?” he asked.

“Nope,” she repeated. “I didn’t even have to break down the door or pick the lock. It was already open, and well, that place didn’t seem to even have any locks.

“Then, I think that we can forgo my arresting you. So, no, you aren’t a case for me,” he admitted.

“Why help me then?” she asked again.

He shrugged, “Maybe I’m just a nice guy,” he said. She barked out her laugh, and he feigned hurt. “Hey, we’ve already admitted that we don’t know each other. You don’t know if I’m a nice guy or not,” he insisted.

Ember sobered, “You’re right. I’m sorry,” she said.

She was beginning to believe that he was a nice guy, but she had no idea what to do with that knowledge.

It was so much easier to believe that all people—especially men- were just plain evil.

Marco had proven to be so; why would Jack be any different?

“You don’t trust very easily, do you?” he asked, pulling into a small neighborhood.

If she had blinked, she would have missed the tiny uniform houses that lined the street.

It was quaint and reminded her of neighborhoods on television shows—the ones where kids would play outside until dusk and everyone knew their neighbor.

She had never lived in a place like that—hell, she didn’t think that places like that even existed.

“It’s been hard to trust people lately. I only trust a few people, and well, that’s partially why I’m here.

” When Marco’s mother, Jean, told her to run and never look back, she did.

She trusted Jean and Marco’s little sister, Kelsey.

But the rest of the people from her past were questionable.

Her own mother wasn’t someone she’d trust, and her father was the same.

Of course, it was hard to trust a drunk.

“What about family?” he asked. “Do you have someone you can call to help you?”

“Are you sick of me already, Jack?” she teased.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” he insisted. She couldn’t help her giggle. Her mother used to say that Ember could get under just about the thickest-skinned person out there, and Jack was no exception to the rule. “You were joking,” he grumbled under his breath.

“Yeah—sarcasm is my second language. Sorry,” she said. He pulled into the driveway of the cutest little white house with black shutters. Honestly, she had only dreamed of such quaint little houses existing out in the world.

“This is me,” he said. “I’d park in the garage, but I’ve been working on my bike at night in there, and well, it’s kind of a mess. I know that it’s inconvenient.”

“It’s okay,” she breathed, “I’ve never lived in a house with a garage before. But then again, most single-wide trailers don’t have garages.”

“There isn’t anything wrong with a single wide.

I grew up in one with my mom and sister after my dad left us.

Mom worked two jobs to keep that roof over our heads, and when I was old enough, I got a job to help while going to school.

Some of my favorite memories were in that little trailer with the two of them.

” She chanced a look over at Jack, noting the hint of sadness that she saw in his eye when he talked about his mom and sister.

“What happened to them?” she asked.

“Mom lives about an hour from here, in the little town where I grew up. My sister, Josie, is kind of a nomad. She was attacked by some asshole in college and was never the same after it happened. She dropped out and decided to live in an RV—you know, a camper. She travels full-time and is lucky enough to be able to work from anywhere. I miss her, though, and I know that my mom misses her too.”

“You said your dad took off,” she prompted.

“He did, and I don’t really remember him. He left when I was just a kid. I don’t know where he is and honestly, I don’t care,” he said.

He seemed angry, and she hated that she was the one who made him feel that way. “I shouldn’t have asked such personal questions.”

He shrugged it off, but she could tell that she had hit a nerve. “How about I give you a tour and then you can shower while I make us something to eat. Technically, it’s still morning, so does breakfast sound good?” Her stomach growled, and he chuckled. “I guess it does.”

“Yeah, I love breakfast, and well, as you heard, I’m hungry.” She was more than hungry, but telling him that wouldn’t be helpful. For days now, she had been rationing her protein bars and feeling weaker and weaker by the hour from hunger.

She followed him into the house and walked behind him from room to room as he gave her the tour. It was so warm and cozy, she was sure that a woman had decorated it.

“Are you married?” she asked. What the hell was wrong with her? She couldn’t seem to stop asking him personal questions.

“No,” he said.

“Oh, I only asked because your house is so cozy. It looks like it had a woman’s touch,” she said.

He chuckled. “It did have a woman’s touch—two actually.

My mother helped me to pick out a few things, and my sister returned all her choices and picked out what you see now.

Of course, my mom threw a fit but said that if I liked what Josie had picked out better, then I should keep the house as is.

So, I did. I like it. It makes me feel closer to my little sister since she left. ”

“Well, your sister has very good taste. Not that I’d know.

I’ve never decorated my own place before.

Every apartment that I have lived in has been a furnished sublease, and I never really had the money to go buy all new stuff.

So, I learned to make do with whatever was already there.

Maybe someday I’ll get to decorate my own place.

” She knew that at the rate she was going, someday might never come for her.

Jack stopped in front of the master bedroom, and she peeked in.

“This is my room, and you’re just over there,” he said, nodding to the door on the left.

“It has its own bathroom, so you’ll have privacy.

” Ember looked at him as though he had lost his mind.

Here, the man had only offered her a shower, a change of clothes, and a meal, and now he was acting like she was staying with him for a while.

“Jack, I’m just going to take a shower and get out of your hair,” she assured.

“The problem with that plan is—where will you go? If you go back to the church, Marco and his friend Keith might be waiting for you. And if you end up on the streets, something worse might happen. I’m a cop, so you’re safe here.

And besides, I’m never really home, so I won’t be cramping your style. ”

She giggled, “Who says stuff like that anymore?” she asked.

“Well, I do,” he grumbled. “I offer you a place to stay and you make fun of me,” he complained, making her laugh even harder.

“Thank you for that,” she whispered. “I haven’t had anything to laugh about in a very long time.” She couldn’t remember the last time she actually smiled, let alone laughed.

“So, does that mean you’ll stay?” he asked. She wondered why it seemed so important to him that she use his spare room, but she didn’t want him to think that she wasn’t grateful for his help or his offer of a roof over her head.

“Only if you let me help out around here. I might not have any money right now, but I don’t want to be a freeloader.” He held out his hand to her, and she looked at it as though she didn’t understand what was happening.

“You’ll have to shake on our deal,” he explained.

“You really are a dork,” she teased, taking his hand into her own and shaking it. “And I appreciate everything that you’re doing for me, Jack.” Ember went up on her tiptoes and gently kissed his cheek, loving the way she seemed to be able to take him by surprise.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“For being a good guy,” she said. Ember might not trust everyone, but she had a feeling that Jack was someone she could rely on. She just hoped like hell that she wasn’t wrong about him like she had been in the past about so many others.