Page 17 of Tops
Why the fuck was I thinking about bringing the hot attorney into all this?
Tanner said he would leave me alone to be under my sheets, as requested. Neither he nor Colten had bothered me since, and I wasn’t brave enough to venture out and see what they were doing. I got ahold of Hannah, who confirmed she was safe and enjoying her “vacation.” I needed a secure email address for Hannah so we could talk openly about all this crazy shit.
Looking around at the smooth painted walls, I wished there were windows in this room. Part of me could feel that it was still raining outside, but I couldn’t hear or see it down here. No wonder Tanner hadn’t understood me when I talked about rainy days. He apparently lived in a world without windows, content to shut himself off from the outside world. Maybe he didn’t like the noise of the city either.
I grabbed the list off the table and finally built up the courage to search for company. My bare feet hit the warm tile floor. That was one of the best things about my new living situation, no cold drafts. The temperature was perfectly comfortable no matter where I was in Bottoms.
I headed for the lounge area first, figuring that would likely be where I could find one of them. There were so many doors and hallways I had no choice but to wander aimlessly as I discovered room after room of nothing. About half of the doors refused to open under my touch, as red lights appeared whenever my wristband didn’t have enough clearance. My ears strained to listen for a single noise in the whole place. It was so fucking quiet, it didn’t feel like New York anymore. I thought I might have heard the pounding bass from Tops, but even then, I wasn’t sure.
Without direction, I decided to continue wandering and get a better look at the place I was going to call home. Or at least home for however long it took for them to get a crazy hitman off my back. I finally found the lounge area as I emerged from a hallway. It featured three sofas arranged in a U-shaped formation around a beautiful table with a glass top. I noticed a TV hung from the corner of the room, but I didn’t see a remote anywhere.
Leaving the lounge was what looked like a solid metal door. My best guess was that it was the doorway into bottoms from the front of the club. I didn’t plan on using that entryway since the back door opened right into the locked parking garage.
I moved on through the space, finding a small eating area that would only sit four people before the impressive open kitchen. I had grown used to the small apartment kitchens of the city, but this one reminded me of the size of my mom’s.
My fingers itched to bake some banana bread with nuts. My mother used to bake a fresh loaf every week. Apparently, my dad had insisted a banana bread wasn’t banana bread unless there were nuts in it. My mother baked it with nuts in it until the day my dad died. Once he was gone, so was every tiny thing that reminded her of him. She went through her grief in her own way, but the echoes of her choices still affected me today. I didn’t need my dad erased from my life like he never existed.
I heard a noise and froze. It took me a few seconds to realize the sound I heard was footsteps, and my body regained movement. I took a quick seat at the table, with my back to the wall.
The sound of the footfalls was slow and meticulously steady. My heart took on a matching beat as the world around me seemed to fade away. My focus was singular as I watched the dark hallway with the steady beating thud. I was trying to figure out which one of them it would be.
Black boots emerged from the shadows, followed by a pair of jeans.Which fucking one of them would wear jeans?
My mind wrapped around the question too tightly as Professor Cage stepped into view. His blond hair wasn’t styled today. Instead, it stuck out in random directions as if he had spent the entire day in bed like I had wanted to. He wore a well-fitting black t-shirt that showed off his muscular arms.
Wow. Professor Cage was really fucking hot. I wished I could snap a picture of him to text Hannah, but I couldn’t exactly do that in the middle of my secret hideout. I would have to try to sneak a picture of him at the lab sometime.
“Hello, Vanessa.” His voice washed over me like a summer rain shower, soaking me the same. He leaned against the wall; his gaze on me was unlike any look I had received before. When I told myself I wasn’t waiting for the right man to take my virginity, I was waiting to feel a burning desire to be with someone. The way my professor looked at me was everything I had been waiting for. His stare pinned me in place. Trying to pull away would only result in me hurting myself.
“Hello, Professor Cage,” I managed once I realized I had simply been staring since he spoke.
His eyebrows rose, and he gave me a smirk. “I think I do like being a professor after all,” he said with a slight laugh before he looked me up and down. His gaze caught on the list, a bright white rectangle contrasting against the dark hardwood. “What’s that?”
“Tanner said I could list the stuff I need from my apartment, and he will send someone to fetch it.”
Professor Cage strode forward and snatched the paper off the table, bringing it up to read my requests. “That’s all you need?” He flipped the paper over just to ensure there wasn’t anything written on the back.
“That’s all,” I shrugged, slightly more embarrassed that I didn’t have more belongings.
“Then go put on a jacket. I will walk you back to your place to get what you need. I’m sure you can find your stuff quicker than Mike would.”
“Oh no, not Mike,” I said, recognizing the name as the dude that shoved my shoulder into the wall when I first tumbled into Tanner’s office. He could fuck off the entire time I was forced to live here.
Professor Cage’s head turned slightly for a moment in confusion. “You know Mike?”
“I met him. He was a little rougher with me than he needed to be,” I said with all the indifference I could. Now wasn’t the time to look weak.
I watched as his blue eyes seemed to darken. A smile played across his lips before disappearing as his face smoothed back over. “Did you want to go grab your stuff?”
“Is it safe to just… go?” I asked. If some crazy hitman was after me, walking around in the rain didn’t sound like the safest of plans.
“I’m a detective. I can get away with a lot more in public than the others can,” he said, pausing to give me an almost flirtatious wink. “You are perfectly safe with me for a quick walk to get your things. Plus, I will be your protection every time you have class. The other guys will protect you at other times when you are out of Bottoms. We are quite capable of taking care of you.” He ended with a suggestive tone, but it was ambiguous enough that I wasn’t sure.
“What do I call you when we aren’t in class? Detective?” I mused as the first question slipped from my mind and out of my mouth before I could even think twice. “Do I call you Professor?” I teased, deciding to test the waters a little with my own suggestive tone.
“Nik works well enough if you need something shorter,Vanessa.” His tone was playful but didn’t help me to definitively answer whether he was feeling something between us.
I usually didn’t like it when people called me by my first name. The only reason why I decided to give him my full name was that his good looks made my brain short circuit, and it was the only excuse I could think of when the asshole commented. The way my name rolled off Nik’s tongue sounded almost foreign and nothing like how my mom said it whenever I was in trouble.
