Page 27 of The Breeding Cave
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
YEOSIN
“I really don’t have time,” I whispered, keeping my feet glued to the pavement.
A harsh wind whipped my hair into my face, but I refused to move from this spot. My hands were full, so I couldn’t push him away or else I’d spill these goddamn things on me again . But if he pulled, then I’d do what I had to do.
“Alana,” he said, “I’m not playing.”
“Look, I don’t have any more money.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Dragon Clan,” I clarified. “You’re their leader, aren’t you? Is that what this is about?”
While I didn’t trust him, I needed to play stupid for a bit longer until I could get to work or to the penthouse. Anything to stall him, anything to get somewhere safe so he couldn’t steal me away for whatever he was planning.
Alvin’s soft expression was replaced with a small, twitching smirk. “They said that?”
“I don’t understand why,” I said. “You were indebted to them.”
“Yeah, that’s what it was,” he said. “Listen, I can make all your problems disappear.”
“You can get them to stop asking me for money?”
“Yes.”
“What do I have to do?”
Alvin nodded to his car parked at the corner. “Come with me.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek and really wished I had listened to Molly and the beast this morning. I didn’t have time to deal with him, nor did I have the energy. The Dragon Clan was after me, and they … they were really dragons, weren’t they?
My body was covered in burns because of them.
“I have my hands full.” I gestured to my coffee cups. “Can this wait?”
“No.”
“What do you need to tell me?” I asked. “Can’t you tell me here?”
“I don’t need to tell you anything,” he said.
“Then why do you need me?”
He snapped his hand around my upper arm and yanked me closer to him until he was basically breathing down my neck. “Get in the fucking car, Alana, and stop asking stupid questions like you always do.”
My heart pounded so hard that I could hear it in my ears. “No.”
Damn, I am so screwed!
A low chuckle escaped his throat, and he yanked me even closer. “I don’t think you he?—”
“I did hear you, and I said no.”
“She was very clear,” a familiar voice said behind me.
When I turned around, Gideon—one of the regulars that I’d had at Pink Ivory—stepped between me and Alvin.
Gideon had always been nice to me and not grumpy, like Luciano, but there was something about him that told me he could snap a man’s head clean off his shoulders and go about his day without remorse.
And thank God that he was here! His usual time too.
“Everything okay here, Alana?” he asked.
Alvin released my arm and took a couple of steps back. “We’re good.”
“I just need to get to work,” I said, eyeing Alvin.
Once Alvin took another good look at Gideon, he stepped back again. “Ten thousand. I’ll have one of my men swing by the apartment tonight. Leave it outside in a green envelope. No exceptions.”
Green envelope?! This man is reaching with these requests.
“Where am I going to find a green envelope?” I asked. “Plus, I don’t have the money.”
“You work for Luciano Bates. You can get us money.”
He knows Luciano? How?
Not something that I was going to ask him. I needed to get out of here now, and if I had a chance to escape, thanks to Gideon, then I was going to leave and sprint to the office since it was closer.
God, this is all my fault! The Dragon Clan was now after not only the beast, but Luciano and his company too. All because they wanted me for reasons that they wouldn’t tell me. Bottom line: I needed to warn Luciano about the Dragon Clan. Now.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Gideon said to Alvin.
Alvin narrowed his eyes at Gideon, but then—to my surprise—he walked back to his car, slipped into the passenger seat, and drove away with one of his men. My gaze didn’t leave that SUV until it was out of my sight.
“Who was that?” Gideon asked.
“My ex.”
“Ex, huh?”
I glanced up at him. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
“It’s no big deal. I’ll walk you to work.”
“You don’t have to,” I said, another wind chilling me. “Really.”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight until you’re safe, especially after that.”
After a quick nod because I didn’t want to fight with him—I didn’t feel safe after that either—I headed down the road and toward the office. The beast was literally going to murder me once he found out that I had left the penthouse.
Hell, if he hadn’t found out yet.
“You work for Luciano?” Gideon asked on our walk over.
“Yes. How do you know him?”
“Who doesn’t know him?” He sipped on his pumpkin-flavored coffee.
“The grumpy billionaire who’d rather hang out in a coffee shop than his own office just to watch you work.
” A low chuckle escaped his mouth. “I don’t blame him though.
When you have that kind of money, power, and influence, life can be lonely. ”
My mind was reeling with so many different thoughts— Is he insinuating that Luciano … stalked me when I worked at Pink Ivory? And what did he mean by “I don’t blame him”? —but we had reached my office building.
“Well, I should get going,” I said, twisting around to face him. “Thanks for?—”
But Gideon was already gone.