My chest tightened. “Not in our world, brother.”
Terror gripped me. Thought of my son getting in the middle of a crime I’d committed. A sin I’d perpetrated.
Ghost.
I could almost hear my piece-of-shit father hissing it in my ear. Branding me who he wanted me to be. Forming me into a monster.
And a monster I’d become.
Vicious.
Merciless.
Didn’t matter how far I ran, I could never outrun who I was or what I’d done. My debt was deep. Ugly and cruel. And I knew one day, I would have to pay.
Exact reason I knew better than giving into this feeling. The feeling that spurred me across the packed floor and sent me stalking down the hall. The feeling that this girl meant more than she should.
I tore into the employees’ lounge and locker room.
And there she was, sitting on the bench with Leann kneeling in front of her.
So goddamned beautiful.
So fuckin’ wrong in this place.
Knew it the second I’d seen her.
“You okay?” I demanded, moving her direction.
That severity surged.
Goodness and light.
Eden barely nodded, her throat trembling as she swallowed, though she was lifting that defiant chin again. “Yes, I’m fine. It wasn’t a big deal.”
Leann rubbed her knee. “I feel terrible. I should have taken that table. Had I been payin’ closer attention, I would have seen those guys were total jerks before I sent her over there.”
Eden forced a smile. “I told you it was fine. You don’t need to feel bad. I know it’s just a part of working at a bar.”
The growl that’d been building from the beginning ripped from my throat and cracked like thunder in the heated air.
“My exact fuckin’ point,” I spat.
Awkwardly, Leann stood, clearly getting the message that she needed to get gone. She wound around me, casting me a curious glance before she slipped out the door. I glanced behind me to see Jud hovering out in the hall, hands running through his long hair.
I turned back to Eden who’d stood on shaky legs. All sexy as fuck body and a halo of glowing light.
She backed away, seeing the rage coming off me in waves.
I moved forward.
Unable to stop before she was pressed against the wall of lockers. She hit the metal with a thud, her breath heaving from her lungs and caressing over me.
My dick jumped.
“Assholes are gone,” I grunted around the rage. “Tossed them and they won’t be coming back.”
She nodded, her words a forced, jagged tease. “How am I not surprised by that?”
“Fuck…I’m sorry.” Wasn’t good at apologizing, but this…
She shook her head. “For what?”
My insides curled. “I let that prick touch you.”
Or maybe I was just apologizing for the fact I wanted to curl my hands around her waist in possession.
Taint this girl with the darkness that writhed in my soul.
Let her light in for a minute.
Soothe the ache.
Knew she could.
Autumn eyes blinked slowly, taking in my face like it was she who was trying to make things right. “It honestly wasn’t a big deal.”
I lifted her hand, fury igniting all over again when I saw the red ring around her wrist. “Bullshit.”
She trembled.
My mouth watered and my blood drummed.
She straightened herself out like she hadn’t been affected, yanked her hand free, and put on that ferocious façade. Kind I knew well. Kind that promised you’d do anything to make it. “It’s fine, Mr. Lawson, I’m completely fine.” She angled herself so she could slip out from where I had her pinned. “I need to get back to work.”
She started for the door.
I choked out a sound of disbelief as I whirled around. “Are you kidding me? You’re done. No chance I’m letting you back on that floor.”
This time, Eden laughed an offended sound as she swiveled to march back in my direction.
Stealing my breath.
Rocking my sanity.
Shooting daggers as she got up close to my face.
“You hired me, Mr. Lawson, now let me do my job.”
With that, she spun and stormed out into the hall, leaving me standing there gaping at the empty doorway.
What the actual fuck?
I started to follow her into the hall, only to have Jud step out in front of me from where he was hidden in the shadows, smirk on his face as he gave her escape. When her footsteps receded, he cocked his head. “Not gonna touch her, huh?”
Had to keep myself from shoving him against the chest.
“Nope,” I spouted.
“Come now, Trent, tell me your tiny dick isn’t hard as steel right now. Now that’s some sweet temptation right there.”
Little Temptress.
And I was just the fool who might get lost in her siren’s song.
Seven
Eden
The second my shift was over, I flew into the employee locker room and grabbed my things like my life depended on it.
Maybe it did.
Maybe the threat I’d felt the first time I’d walked into this bar had finally manifested itself in human form.
Ice slipped down my spine at the memory.
There was something about the jerk that had left a sick feeling in my stomach. Sticky fear that had prickled across my flesh and had become panic the second his grimy fingers had curled around my wrist.
I think what spun my head the most, though, was how quickly Trent and his brother had descended.
The ferocity.
The hate.
Evidence of what I’d suspected since I’d met him. Every muscle in his beautiful body had rippled with brutality. Thirsty for blood. Hungry for vengeance.
More dangerous than any scummy patron could be.
My body trembled, struck with the image of the way he had looked at me right after it’d happened. As if he were begging for forgiveness, guilty of dragging me into Hell. At the same time, he’d been vibrating so fiercely I’d been certain he was a second from going on a murder spree.
Puffing out the strain, I gave a harsh shake of my head, and with trembling hands, fumbled to shove another fat envelope of cash into my bag. More tonight than I’d ever made since I’d taken a few tables of my own.
It was the kind of money that made my head spin.
It was adding up quick. Quicker than I ever could have anticipated.
Hope filled me, pressing and pulsing, while my heart hammered like a war drum that warned of a coming destruction.
No doubt, I was in over my head, but I was praying with all of me that I could swim.
The only thing I had to do was keep coming here for a few more weeks, six max, make enough to chip away a little of the debt, then I would walk.
I’d earn enough to buy us time. Get the creditors off our backs and the overdue payments up to date.
Then I’d leave this place and never look back.
Still, my spirit warned if I continued to work here, I would never be the same.
If I stayed, I would be changed.
Changed in a vital, fundamental way.
Maybe I was only fooling myself, anyway. It wasn’t like I could outrun Trent Lawson any time soon. The man haunted my nights here at the club and assailed my days at the school.
Worse was the way he’d begun to infiltrate my dreams.