Page 8 of Dangerous Men
She lives just a few blocks away, and after giving Earl the address, I lean back against the leather seats, trying to calm my thoughts. It doesn’t take long for us to pull up outside her apartment. The building is some sort of café, but when Earl drives around to the other side, there are two apartments taking up the second floor, accessible only from the back.
I find her keys inside her purse, gather her things together, and help her out of the car. She can stand and walk with a little prompting, but whatever they gave her, mixed with whatever she was drinking, has her pliant and unaware of her surroundings.
I don’t believe in God, but I thank whatever deity, real or fictitious, out there that let me be the first to find her. Fortune City might be a hell of a lot better off since my brothers and I took over here, but it’s still not a safe place for a beautiful woman like her to be alone and unconscious.
I guide her up the stairs to her door, unlocking it to let us inside. Her place smells like her—like coconuts and new books.It reminds me of the library they used to take us to when we were kids, on the brief occasions we left the orphanage. I have the sudden urge to see her home with the lights on. I want to experience it the way she sees it every day.
When I close the door behind us, she guides me to the bedroom, my hand on the small of her back to steady her. I lay her gently down on her bed, taking off her shoes and pulling a sheet over her.
Standing next to her bed, I hesitate, suddenly wanting to lie down next to her. The desire to do it is so strong I almost give in.
I grind my teeth together and push that temptation aside, heading to the kitchen to get her some water instead. She’ll need that. I spot a clean kitchen towel and run it under some cold water. She’ll need that, too.
When I make my way back to the bedroom and place the water on her nightstand, her chest is rising and falling steadily, and I assume she must be asleep. I sit down on the bed next to her and lay the cold compress against her forehead. I have to brush some of her wild curls away to get it to lay flat, and after I do, I can’t help but trace the curves of her face, bringing my fingers down her cheek, to her chin, and lower to her throat.
Her eyes are open, I realize.
Her gaze is glassy as she stares up at me. She doesn’t pull away from my touch, doesn’t look frightened. She just looks up at me with those gorgeous brown eyes, like she has all the trust in the world in me. Like I’m someone who deserves that trust.
It’s enough to make me jerk my hand away. I need to leave. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t have touched her. She’s vulnerable, drugged, and I’m no better than the scum waiting for me at Tony’s club if I let myself cross that line.
Before I can second-guess myself, I stand and move awayfrom her, walking quickly to her front door. I let it close behind me and lean against the door frame to take a deep, steadying breath, my heart beating too fast.
What the fuck is happening to me?
3
TWO WEEKS LATER
SYDNEY
The buzzof my phone against the counter is unfathomably loud in the quiet of our shop. I wince, pausing in the middle of restocking the bakery case, as Jade leans over to read the screen. I already know whose name she’ll see there, even before her face darkens.
“Sydney… whyisChasemessaging you?” Jade asks.
Unfazed by her anger, my cell phone vibrates again, happily buzzing on the counter. Jade’s eyes narrow as she glares at it. For a second, I think she might pick it up and throw it.
She’s definitely considering it.
“I don’t even know,” I grumble, standing and removing my thin, plastic, food-safe gloves. I take a moment to appreciate my work. The bakery case is, once again, picture perfect, stocked full of Jade’s incredible creations and beautiful baked goods. I wish organizing my life were half this easy. “He just keeps messaging me. I haven’t even bothered responding to him. It’s not like we have anything to talk about.”
Not anymore, at least. Chase saw tothatwhen he cheated on me, effectively ending our relationship. Though, I’membarrassed to admit, I had still been responding to his occasional messages after our breakup. It wasn’t until I saw him and his new girlfriend at the club together two weeks ago that I finally gained some self-respect and stopped engaging with him.
Apparently, my sudden silence was enough to convince him we needed desperatelyto talk. He’s been blowing up my phone ever since.
Thinking about that night at the club makes me feel uneasy, and not just because I saw Chase. I can only remember bits and pieces of what happened that night before waking up in my bed fully dressed, with a phone full of anxious messages from Jade wondering if I’d made it home okay. It’s rare for me to get that drunk, and even more rare that I’ll black out entirely. And I’d felt horrible for days afterward, like my body was hell bent on punishing me for drinking too many martinis.
All in all, the night had been a disaster.
Another peppy buzz from my phone makes me groan, but before I can reach for it, Jade snatches it from the counter.
“I’m blocking his number,” she says with a finality in her tone I wish I could match. Her fingers race over the screen as she unlocks my phone and navigates to my contact list. “He’s just trying to weasel his way back in your life, Syd, and I’ll be damned if I’ll sit back quietly and let him do it. Not on my watch!”
I snort but make no move to stop her. “I really doubt that’s what he’s trying to do.”
After all, he was withhernow, wasn’t he? Caroline. Even thinking her name makes me feel ill. I know I shouldn’t hate her for it, believe me, I do.Hewas the one in a relationship. Hewas the one who cheated;hewas the one who broke my heart.
The selfish, manipulative little?—
