“Good. Now, I need to get dressed so I’m going to ask you to go back downstairs. I imagine I’ll be seeing more of you and your big concerned eyes, so until next time, little one.”
Chapter One
HOLLIS — PRESENT
She’s too beautiful for something as evil as what I am and the world I live in. I want her to listen to the warnings I’ve given her. I will hurt her. We will hurt her. My world will ruin her life until there is nothing left, but she doesn’t seem to care from what I can tell because she’s far too curious about me and cares too much.
People don’t just care about me because they have goodness in their hearts. That shit doesn’t exist. Everything comes with a price and the price for dealing with me is a pretty high one.
There is no helping me, no caring, so I know when she’s finished being curious she’ll regret it all. I also know the price of her being around me resembles something looking a lot like her happiness or satisfaction. She is too beautiful and too happy, for me to suck it from her. I won’t ever give her what she wants because I’m Hollis Knox.
I give people black eyes and broken noses, not happiness and red roses.
She has a lot of nerve. I’ll give her the recognition she deserves for coming all the way up here to check on me. She’s like a little mouse in comparison to me, but she still came running straight into the lion's den to see if I’d lied about the thorn she’d been sure was in my foot. There’s nothing there, she has nothing to worry about, but she is concerned anyway and it’s a little unsettling for me. She doesn’t even know me.
I don’t need her caring about me, I know what’s meant for me and I deserve all of what comes to me. I am not a good person and bad people don’t get to have good people in their lives without ruining them. And I will surely ruin her.
My phone ringing pulls me from my thoughts and I pick it up and stare at the screen. Elijah’s name is displayed across the screen and I huff. He wants me to tell him what I’m doing but it wasn't his business. I don’t want to go have fun but I answer anyway.
“Hello?”
“Hollis, bad news.”
I curse under my breath and shake my head. “What now?”
“Meet me at the house on Lombardy.”
The line goes dead, but I know what the house on Lombardy is for. He must have found the other shit head who stole from him and now he needs my services again. I throw on another pair of jeans and a fresh shirt before reaching for my wallet and cell phone and heading for the front door.
Concord gives me a curious look on my way out, but I ignore him and press the button for the elevator. I don’t tell him where I’m going. His job is the doorkeeper, he isn’t my keeper, although sometimes he likes to toe the line a little too much for my liking.
I step onto the elevator and he watches me as the doors close. Then it’s Nathan's turn to give me a curious look. I can bet they are both thinking I am chasing after the girl, but she has nothing to do with why I’m leaving the comfort of my apartment.
“Sorry for the visitor earlier,” Nathan says to me out of the blue, but something in the way he says it pisses me off and I cut my eyes to him quickly. “Ruby seems to be a stubborn one, but I think she means well.”
Nathan is older so I try to be more lenient with him, but him knowing the girl he’s referring to as Ruby rubs me so wrong. I want to punch him and I don’t even know why. She is nothing to me and I can’t figure out why I even care.
Instead of punching Nathan for knowing someone I have no claim over I clench my teeth and look at him with malice written all over my face. “I wasn’t bothered by her.”
He understands my stare and lets the subject drop. When we make it to the first floor, I step off the elevator without another word. She is there staring off into space from behind the desk when the doors close behind me. Her face turns to one of inspection when she sees me.
I walk closer to her and she watches me carefully with every step I take. Curious about me.
“I need you to let Jerome know I need my car,” I say harshly, while I stare into her big brown eyes keeping my face stoic.
She frowns at me and huffs in annoyance while picking up the small black walkie-talkie and speaking into it. “Jerome,” she calls into it and waits for him to respond.
“Yes, sweetheart,” he coos into the walkie making me want to march outside and curb stomp him into the ground.
But what she says next takes my attention from Jerome completely.
“The big tough guy from the top floor needs his car.”
She has no care when she says the words. A sinister smirk spreads across my face and so many things start to make more sense. She has no idea who I am which is why she came up to my place like she did. Her not knowing is the only reason she wants to know more about me. She doesn't know I’m Hollis Knox.
“The top floor,” Jerome asks, his voice wavering as he realizes she doesn’t know who I am either.
“Mm-hmm,” she says.
“Hollis?”
She frowns and when the realization hits her, she looks up at me, and curiosity isn’t what I see on her face anymore. Horror is clear as day in her eyes when who I am fully crashes into her mind. She tries hard to wash it away quickly.
Not fast enough.
“Hollis Knox,” she whispers more to herself than to me as she touches her fingers to her lips before looking up at me. I nod, letting her know just how real all of this is.
“The one and only, little one. Still want to be the one to figure me out?”
Her eyes narrow and I am intrigued by the amount of determination she has. Before she can answer me, Jerome is back on the walkie again.
“Rue, do you mean Hollis?”
She yanks herself out of her stupor quickly and grabs the walkie-talkie that fell when she heard my name. “Y-yes! Sorry,” she stutters before laughing awkwardly. “I dropped this stupid thing. Hollis needs his car.”
“Let him know I’ll be up front in five.”
She sets the walkie back onto its station and slowly looks up at me again.
I am surprised when she meets my gaze. It’s not horror across her face anymore but something looking a lot like understanding. She takes the news of finding out I am one of the most deadly men in this city like it’s nothing and I wonder what in the hell she’s been through for her to react so unfazed about me.
Almost as if me being as terrible as I am isn’t an issue at all and her curiosity seems stronger than before. If what I suspect is the case, she may be off her rocker more than she gives off.
“He’ll be out front in five minutes, Hollis.”
The way she says my name makes me narrow my eyes at her. She’s playing with me and I don’t understand why. She knows I’m not someone to play around with, everyone knows, but she is still poking the fire with a big smile on her face.
It’s driving me absolutely mad.
“Who are you?” I growl out, frustration and despondence written across my face.
“Ruby Ta—” she starts, but I cut her off quickly.
“I don’t mean your name.” I deepen my frown at her, and she finally frowns back at me, but doesn’t say a word. “Stay away from me, Ruby, if you know what’s good for you.”