Page 110 of Devious Kingpin
My heart continued to drum under my rib cage, but still I tried to be brave. Smart. That was what Dad always said. Be smart. So I attempted to scare him off. “M-my brother’s with me.”
He chuckled. “Then I’ll slice his throat too.”
My eyes widened, then darted around in horror. I opened my mouth, readying to scream when another voice interrupted.
“Take another step toward her, and I’ll shoot you.”
My eyes snapped in the direction of the voice. A tall boy stood there, about Killian’s age. Tall. Strong. He flicked a gaze my way, then returned his attention back to the man with the knife.
“Last warning,” he said. “Get lost or I will end you.”
“I know you,” the old man hissed.
“No, you don’t know me,” the boy-slash-man with eyes as dark as midnight claimed. “If you did, you’d be running for your life.”
The man must have decided to live and that I wasn’t worth it, because he scurried away. No, he bolted. I watched him disappear while I held my breath, and it wasn’t until he was out of my sight that I was able to release it.
“You okay?” the boy asked softly.
I swallowed, extending my hand with the bags. “H-here, you can take it all,” I offered. I felt disoriented, worried that maybe this boy saved me from the other thug, only to rob me himself. It wasn’t worth dying over. It would seem shopping right before Christmas was a bad idea, after all.
He smiled, pushing the bags gently back. “You keep the bags.”
My eyes darted between him and the bags. “You… you don’t want them?”
He chuckled. “What am I going to do with Victoria’s Secret bags?” he mused as the smell of rain and damp forest mixed with the crispy winter air, filling my senses.
My cheeks heated when I realized what I was holding in my hands.
“It’s for my aunt.” Wynter and I wanted her to find someone, and this could be the first step. At least, that was whatCosmopolitanmagazine had told us. “I’m buying for my dad next, but I have money,” I mumbled, embarrassed. “I don’t have anything else to give you.” I drowned in his dark gaze. I had never seen such dark eyes. They were like the obsidian pools of night.
“What makes you think I want something?” he asked curiously.
“Don’t all muggers want something?” I retorted.
He smiled, his dark eyes shining like the midnight sky. He was beautiful.
“All right, then,” he agreed, amusement sparking his gaze. “How about…” He appeared to think as I held my breath. What could he possibly want? “Your hair scrunchie.”
I reached up to touch my ponytail. “My scrunchie?” I repeated, confused.
He grinned this time. “Yes. That way when I find you again and you’re older, you’ll remember that you owe me.”
“And if I don’t recognize you?” I wondered.
He smirked confidently. “Don’t worry, I’ll recognize you.”
This time, I smiled too. “So you’ll be like my shadow prince, stalker, or something?”
He nodded. “Or something,” he confirmed.
I pulled my hair band out, my mahogany strands cascading down my shoulders. He extended his hand and I dropped my hot-pink scrunchie into it, the bright color looking silly in his large palm.
“Thank you,” I murmured, offering him a big smile. “For saving me. One day, maybe I’ll be the one to save you.”
As he walked away, sadness lingered in my chest when I realized I had no way of knowing whether I’d ever see him again. I could only hold out hope.
My eyes opened, the memory of the boy and what he did for me still vivid in my mind as I looked around the dark room. I hadn’t thought about that night in so long. I had never quite forgotten it, but I didn’t think of it—and that boy—as often as I did in the beginning. It happened when I was thirteen, Christmas shopping with Killian during my visit to New York. Aunt Aisling never came to visit the East Coast, and that time, Wynter remained behind with her.
