Yeah, I felt it. “I’ll walk you out.” I took the bag off her shoulder and carried it so she wouldn’t have to. I took the lead and headed down the stairs to the vault doors. I closed the door behind us and walked her out to the curb to where her car was. When the door was unlocked, I opened the back door and placed her bag inside. “I want you to have this.” I pulled out the remote keypad.
She took it, clearly not understanding what it was. She stared at it for a few seconds before she looked at me.
“Enter that same combination so you can get into my garage. I don’t want you to park out here.” I nodded to the cross street. “The entrance is on the other side.”
She nodded. “Alright.”
“Come and go as you please.” I never gave anyone else access to my home. Not even Steel had it. “I mean that.” I had nothing to hide from her. She could walk in any time of the day or night, and I would be happy to see her.
She looked at the sincerity in my gaze before she gave a slight smile. “Okay.”
“When are you going to say that to me?” I gave her unlimited access to me, and she still hadn’t mirrored that. “Or do you really want me to hand over your key?”
A blush entered her cheeks like she was actually embarrassed by her previous reaction. “No. You already know you’re welcome…whether I say it or not.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear it.”
“Well…come and go as you please.” She rose on her tiptoes and grabbed the front of my shirt so she could pull me in for a kiss. She breathed into my mouth hard like the kiss burned her, lit her on fire all over again. Her fingers released my shirt, and she cupped my face, like she wanted more than the street could allow.
My arms wrapped around her and gripped her tight, kissing her hard like I didn’t give a damn who saw. One hand gripped her ass, my fingers digging through her jeans to give her a squeeze she wouldn’t forget.
When she pulled away, she looked at my lips before she kissed the corner of my mouth. “I’ll miss you…”
I cupped the back of her head and rubbed her nose with mine. “Me too, baby.”
After a long look, she finally turned away and got into her car.
I watched her drive away.
I squatted down in front of the safe, entering the long combination before I moved to the next step, pressing my palm against the screen to pick up my fingerprints and the webbed lines in the center of my palm. I’d replaced the old-school safe my brother used to use.
The first door opened, and I worked on the next step.
After every security measure was complete, I opened the heavy vault door, a door three times my height.
Steel carried the bags of money inside then used the machines to count everything.
The door behind us was locked, with two armed men protecting the entrance. My men were loyal because they all got a cut of the take, but I was a paranoid man.
Steel started entering the totals into his laptop.
I continued to carry the heavy bags inside before I took the counted bills and organized them in the enormous vault.
“You think Damien will comply next time we see him?”
I kept working, my muscles tight from all the heavy lifting. “Yes.” That piece of shit was making my life difficult, and I didn’t know what to do. If he pulled a stunt again and I didn’t kill him, I would really be in trouble.
“He better. Or you’re gonna have to shoot him in the head. Why don’t you just do that?”
“He makes us too much money.”
Steel shrugged. “It’s not that much.”
We kept working, spending over an hour taking care of the accounting before we locked the safe door and walked out. We moved down the hallway and entered the main hall, where the men were gathered.
Vox sat there alone, watching me from his place at the table. The look he gave me was different from before, far more sinister, like he was pissed off just to look at my face.
I may have to kill one of my own…and very soon.
Four
Catalina
After our performance, we all went out on the town, hitting up a bar and ordering rounds of drinks. I didn’t text Heath because I didn’t want to be one of those women who needed her man at her side every moment of the day.
But I definitely wasn’t having fun.
Nights like these were the kind I used to live for, to let my hair down and have a good time. But now I saw my friends flirt with guys, get free drinks, and knew their nights would never end up the way mine did.
With a man like Heath.
Sometimes guys hit on me, bought me a drink, but I was quick to tell them I was seeing someone.
And I wasn’t interested anyway.
Men I once found attractive were now repulsive. I couldn’t believe the guys I’d already slept with; they looked like boys in comparison. Now I sat there alone, my friends involved with their guys, so I was forgotten.
I sipped my cosmo, debating whether I should throw in the towel and go home.
Bars seemed pointless when I wasn’t single.
A guy came to my table, a good-looking guy who probably would have scored my phone number if I weren’t already seeing someone. He didn’t buy me a drink, but he sat beside me and made conversation. “Are you unavailable? I can’t imagine any other reason for you to be sitting here alone.”
“You guessed right.” I drank from my glass, bored out of my mind.
“Well, he’s not here, right?” He gave me a playful smile.
Heath and I weren’t in a typical romantic relationship, but we were physically committed to each other, and the idea of being with someone else, even if I could get away with it, disgusted me. It felt so wrong, so bad, that it made me physically sick. I raised my hand and gave a flick of my wrist. “I’m not interested.”
“Oh, come on.” He relaxed in the chair. “I’m just trying to break the ice.”
“If you don’t leave, I’ll break your face.” I stared him down so he knew I wasn’t joking.
He rolled his eyes and vacated the chair. “Nice talking to you…”
My phone lit up with a message. Where are you?
My heartbeat immediately quickened when I saw his name on my screen, heard his deep voice in my head. Instead of being defiant, I gave a straight answer. At a bar with the girls.
A lot of guys must be buying you drinks.
Unfortunately.
I’ll join you.
Even if he was here, I still didn’t want to sit there, surrounded by people who had no idea what we had. No. I’m gonna leave.
Because you really hate being seen with me that much?
Reading the text hurt because it was so inaccurate. No. Because I’ve been miserable this entire time…because you aren’t here.
I walked in the door and spotted him on the couch, already stripped down to his boxers. The TV was on, but his eyes immediately left the screen once I walked inside. He grabbed the remote and hit the button without looking at it before he rose to his feet.
I looked him up and down, having no idea how I’d ever picked up a guy at the bar in the first place. Why would I go out when this man was waiting for me? I tossed my clutch aside as he came closer to me.