Page 31

THIRTY

“Someone left this for you.” Simon says pushing his glasses up.

I look on the counter and see a red envelope with a wax seal stamped on the back. After Draco left me at the club last night, I walked around the club waiting until Rose was done so she can take me home. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone. I was upset. Mad.

“Who’s it from?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. When I went on break and came back, it was there.”

I turn the envelope over and rub my finger on the wax with the letter H. I open it and pull a simple white card along with another VIP ticket to the Circle of Freaks. Flipping the card over there is simple message written in bold letters.

NOT SINCE YOU

Sliding the card and ticket back in the envelope I place it my bag not knowing what or how I should feel.

“Is everything alright?”

I smile. “Yeah, I’m ready to check out.” He hands me the receipt. I look at the bill and frown. “Wait. You didn’t charge me for two nights.”

“I did,” he says without looking up. His nose stuck in another book.

“You didn’t have to do that.” He paid for my last two nights when I told him I found a place and was waiting for the utilities to be turned on.

He flips the page. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Thank you, Simon.”

“Don’t forget to give me a Yelp review.”

“Yeah, and don’t forget not to take anyone’s shit or I’ll have to come back and fuck them up.”

He snorts.

When I get to the apartment after ordering a ride, I get to work cleaning. It didn’t look this bad the other night. But during the day, the place needed elbow grease to get the bathroom, kitchen, and floor as clean as it could be. The walls were another matter entirely. They had black fingerprints, scuffs, and yellow stains from someone who used to smoke inside. I don’t stop until the smell of pine lingers in the air. It was the strongest I could find.

There’s a knock on the door.

After looking through the peep hole, I open the door and see a single rose on the rug Rose gifted me as a housewarming gift.

Looking down the empty hallway, I don’t see anything except a huge dick graffitied on the wall and the bottom that reads.

SIZE MATTERS UNTIL SHE SCREAMS.

I close the door and bring my nose to the soft red petals and smile.

There’s another knock on the door, I look again to see but there is no one. I open the door and this time, there’s a clown sitting on the mat.

I smile and pick up the stuffed clown wearing a shirt that reads.

CLOWNS MAKE ME SCREAM.

My cheeks heat remembering all the ways he did make me scream. I bring the plushie to my nose and breathe it in and there it is. A hint of his smell. Manly. Exotic. Him.

After picking up and taking a shower. I head down to the first floor bypassing the elevator that looks like a death trap when the door opens, the flickering light overhead in warning.

Once I reach the first floor and turn the corner, a car is waiting. A blacked-out sedan that screams luxury. The driver’s side opens, a man in a suit gets out and opens the back passenger door.

“He’s waiting,” the driver says.

He could only mean, Draco.

I glance at the sleek lines of the car so out of place in the parking lot of my shitty apartment building.

Once inside the luxury car, I take in the neon glow of the lights to the man currently staring straight ahead despite the sunlight. The glow of the lights illuminating his white skin highlighting the lines of the tattoos on his hands and neck.

“Why are you here?” I ask right before the driver gets in.

“Because…I wanted to see you.”

“You saw me last night.”

“That’s not enough, Athena.” He places his hand on his knee. He is so tall, he’s knees touch the back of the chair.

“I didn’t know you had a driver.” I look around at the opulence of the car only the super-rich could afford. “But then again, there are a lot of things I don’t know about you.”

Like the fact that he’s romantic in a weird sort of way. The rose, the letters, the surprises, and the plushie. All given with purpose.

“It will come. In time.”

I don’t know what that even means or why he’s here. He followed me and there’s a weird excitement that buzzes in my veins knowing he did. It makes me feel safe, scared, and excited all at the same time despite how angry I still am for the way he treated me.

He did apologize but that doesn’t make the hurt sting any less. Because it’s there, lingering like a stain that won’t go away.

“What do you want?”

“I think you know,” he says.

I don’t but that doesn’t matter right with the way he’s looking at me right now. It’s dark and intense but my walls are up. Trust is something I can’t give him. But my body is another matter entirely. That’s a part of me I’m sure that wants it to happen again. Should I feel safe sharing that part of me with him? Debatable. But who else could I do it with? Once anyone finds out the truth it would be all over. But him? He’s unhinged enough to overlook it. It’s the one thing we share. Something no one else has. A sinister secret. Maybe it’s why I try to convince myself every time not to tell to go fuck himself and get lost.

Then something cold slices through my veins. My admission last night that I needed to work and that he would think I would sell my body for money.

“If it’s sex, I’ll have you know I’m not like the other girls from the club. I don’t fuck men for money. Never have and never will.”

I leave the part out that I haven’t exactly had sex with anyone but he doesn’t need to know because that’s one thing I would have to trust him enough to go that far. Unless that’s all he wants. If that’s the case he can let me out right now.

“That’s good to know,” he quips. “Fewer people I have to get rid of.”

The night with Jack filters in my mind playing like a loop. Is it a coincidence that he hasn’t been back to the club? But that’s impossible because he wasn’t there. The masked man was there but that wasn’t Draco. He can’t be possibly implying that he…

“What?” I laugh. “You’re going to kill everyone touches me?”

His eyes flick to mine and I see that his hand resting on his thigh is curled into a fist. I glance in the rearview mirror and my gaze connects with the driver. He’s an older man. Maybe in his fifties. Does he know that he works for a killer? There is no way he wouldn’t.

Gazing out the window, I realize we are almost out of Stockbridge.

My head snaps to his. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere, just the two of us.”

That somewhere was to lunch at an Italian restaurant. The last time I ate at an actual restaurant was when Chris took me and my mom before he convinced her to move in with him in Stockbridge.

He must see the surprised look on my face when we are seated at a table hidden in the corner when he leads me into the conversation about my childhood, more about my teenaged years.

“Did you have any friends in high school?”

I shake my head. “Didn’t have time to make any.”

“Boyfriend?” he says softly like he’s afraid of the answer.

I shake my head again still mesmerized by how gorgeous he looks all dressed up. “No time for that either.” It’s not until I see the way his eyes are darken that I realize what I just said or when he asks, “So you were in at fifteen and released at eighteen?”

“Yeah, a couple of months ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

I pinch my brows. “For what? It’s not like it was your fault.”

“But sometimes you need to hear it from someone. I’m sorry that happened to you.” He leans forward placing his elbows on the table. “He deserved it. They all did.”

“They?”

“Yeah, like the guy the other night in the van.”

“ That was so much fun,” the little in voice in my head whispers.

“But I didn’t…”

He raises his brows. “You did.”

I shake my head. “No, I didn’t.”

He angles his head and stares at me for a few seconds like he is trying to figure something out. “You don’t remember.”

“Remember what?”

He lowers his voice. “It wasn’t me, Athena. I didn’t do anything. I watched and cleaned up the mess. But the rest was… you know. You.”

It can’t be! I saw him. He killed him.

“You blacked out again.What you saw is what you wanted to see. Him saving you but in a way he did, just in a different way. He was there every step where it counted.”

How but…what if it was me that did it?

“It’s okay. It happens,” he says, like it’s normal. But nothing is. Nothing in my life has ever been normal.

“And you’re okay with it?”

He smiles. His straight white teeth making his skin two shades darker. “I’ve done worse.”

There is something in his gaze that wasn’t there before. It’s like he’s a different person but still him.

“Why are you doing this? Why did you Bring me here?”

“I wanted to take you out. Now that you’ve told me that you’ve never had a boyfriend before it makes sense. It changes things.”

“How does it change anything?” I lean closer to the table. “I work in a strip club. I take my clothes off for money. I think the boyfriend thing is overrated and kind of defeats the point.”

“Oh, it doesn’t.”

“Why is that?”

“Because that last thing you’re going to do, is take your clothes off money.”