by Deana Birch
I looked over to Rafa, who added, “I seriously don’t even know what just happened.”
Scooter, who had finally closed his mouth, studied me before saying, “You’re like a lethal weapon.”
Yeah. Yeah, I was exactly that. But instead of confirming, I nodded to Jackson. “Leave in twenty?”
“I’ll meet you at the bench. Gotta say goodnight to J.J. He’s at Lisa’s.”
I had to admit that Jackson was a good dad. He always put his son first. How he balanced that with selling drugs was something I recognized from my own criminal father. The difference, though? I didn’t think Jackson wanted the same life for his son.
We met at the bench, drove downtown and ran our dice game. The big burly Scot won all the Asians’ money for once, and even though he was in the mood to celebrate, I just wanted to get back to Covington Heights and my lie of a life.
Chapter Five
Fiona
The storms had kept Violet and me inside for two days. We’d lived off leftover spaghetti and the tuna I’d bought that first day with Leo. When the sun finally poked through the window, I packed Violet into her stroller and headed to the park.
We weren’t the only ones who had gone stir-crazy. The rusted jungle gym and metal swings were crawling with kids. As I bent down and unbuckled Violet, I didn’t need two guesses as to the shadow hovering over me.
Violet toddled over to the swings—her favorite—and waited for me in her little yellow dress. I sighed more dramatically than I needed to and pushed into my bare knees as I rose. Sure enough, Leo stood with his arms crossed over his skintight black tank. Damn, he was ripped. His pecs were a solid double mass of muscle cleavage and his angry fists pushed his biceps to the point that they looked like they would burst out of his olive skin.
“Text. You just have to send a simple fucking text, Fiona.”
He was being utterly ridiculous. I’d had two full days to think of his stupid warnings. Anton and his crew brewed fear. They were just trying to spook me into bed. It wasn’t going to work. There was no way I was going to have sex with any of them. Their plan was flawed. If I didn’t want them, they didn’t want me. Guess what, asshats? I had zero desire to throw myself at those drug-dealing calendar boys. Nope. Not even sexy Satan himself standing before me.
I met his cranky gaze. “I like to keep you on your toes. It’s all part of my master plan to never see your dick again.” I wiggled my fingers and settled on the middle one as I walked away and found Violet.
A swing had opened up and I secured Violet before stepping behind her and pushing. Leo leveled his eyes at me then frowned and walked away. The blonde girl who took care of kids led a group of them inside the gate of the park. Her little pack spread out instantly and I watched as she seemed to have tabs on all of them at the same time. It didn’t look like she needed any help, but it was the one prospect of a job I’d had, so I took Violet over and introduced myself.
“Hi, I’m Fiona and this is Violet. I’ve seen you around.”
“I’m Lisa.” She held out a hand and I switched Violet to my other hip so I could shake her hand. “And she is gorgeous. She looks just like you.”
I smiled down to Violet and kissed the top of her head. “She’s my sister. My mom is—”
“Probably the same as my mom.”
A little boy ran up to Lisa and she squatted down to listen to him. She pulled two toys out of her bag.
“Bunny!” Violet pointed at one.
“Boing! Boing! Boing!” The boy made the stuffed rabbit hop in the air and Violet giggled.
She squirmed to get down and her yellow dress slid up and revealed her diaper.
“Wanna play?” The boy handed her the bunny and they toddled off to the slide, where the bunny and his dinosaur proceeded to have a wonderful, apparently hilarious adventure.
Lisa and I looked on until she said, “Don’t tell anyone, but J.J. is my favorite.” She grinned at the little boy playing with my sister. “I might have just the tiniest crush on his dad too.” She measured out the size of her crush with her thumb and index finger.
I followed her gaze over to the bench, where the Covington Heights crew was in full-on-asshat-drug-dealing mode.
“Ugh. I hate those guys, especially Leo. He’s by far the worst.”
Lisa twisted her face and looked at me as if I had just asked her to serve Jell-O to the Pope. “First of all, Leo is hotter than Hades. Not my type, but he’s gorgeous. So if by ‘worst’ you mean panty-melting masturbation fuel, then yes.”
I couldn’t help but smile at her assessment. It wasn’t like she was wrong, but I had to stand my ground. “Well, he’s annoying.”
“I have no idea. I’ve never talked to him. He sticks to himself. Anyway, they’re not all that bad. I mean, they pay me to watch their kids or siblings. My rent is free and there is always food on my table.”
“You run the drug-dealer daycare,” I said with a smile.
Lisa laughed and shrugged. “I guess I do.”
It was there, in that moment, when I had to ask for help. I hated the tight pride squeezing in my chest, but times were tough and I needed a job. How else would I get Violet out of this hellhole? I let out a breath and asked, “I don’t suppose you need any help? My mom, well…” I started again with more resolve, “I need a job.”
Lisa gave me a tight smile. “I wish I could say yes, but technically I work for Anton. All jobs go through him. Sorry.”
“Right. Thanks, anyway.” I rubbed my upper arms and looked at Leo out of the corner of my eye. If they were going to keep tabs on me, they would probably ruin any chance I had of working—unless I worked for them. I closed my eyes. Maybe I had to get into Covington before I could get out of it.
“Will you watch her for a second?” I asked Lisa, who nodded.
I set my shoulders and walked over to the bench. In all the months since the dealers had claimed their space, I had never once imagined that I would approach it or them. Asking criminals for help was something I’d sworn never to do. But I was officially out of options.
The crew parted as if they knew exactly who I was there for. Leo sat, legs open wide and arms draped over the bench. I swallowed over the lump in my throat.
“Can I talk to you? Privately?”
Leo licked his plump lips and grinned. I hated that grin. It was a victory lap around my pride. He stretched his arms overhead and the black tank he wore slid up his torso just enough to reveal the hint of a sinful happy trail. Lisa was right. He was wickedly divine.
“Sure,” he finally said, and I was certain I’d been caught checking him out. “Be right back, boys.”
Leo stood and draped an arm around me. I wanted to bat it away, but I was eating a shit sandwich, so I might as well let his physical contact be a side of crap chips to go along with it.
He led us over to the thin alley where the buildings met and the hose was stored. I turned to face him, and his arm dropped with the movement. Being so close to him was unsettling in the best and worst kind of way. He smelled nice. His skin was flawless and his eyelashes were abnormally long.
I took a step back. I hated the idea of being under his sex spell. Surely noticing my unease, he crowded my space and framed my body with both of those stupidly muscular arms.
“I…” What did I need? I couldn’t remember. Worse, my pulse was racing and I had actually let the thought of kissing him enter my brain…in a good way. What the hell is happening? I loathed every fiber of his live dick-pic being. Shit. Now I’m thinking about his dick.
Leo nestled into my neck. I didn’t think he was supposed to be doing that and I sure as hell shouldn’t have whimpered when he did. No, no, no. This was all wrong. He was toying with me. Asshole.
I pushed him away right in his solid-as-a-rock chest. “Get off, creep. Eww.”
Leo smirked and jutted his chin. “What did you want, anyway?”
Asking for more help. Ugh. I let out a little huff. “I need a job. I need you to ask Anton
to give me a job.”
Leo studied me then said, “Say please.”
“Fuck you.” That wasn’t a very good ‘please’, but it tasted so nice rolling off my tongue.
“Is that on the table?” He faked surprise. Leo was a horrible actor. He should have stuck with male modeling for Women’s Drug Dealing Weekly.
“Shut up, asshat. I’m serious. You have me on lockdown and I need money. The only solution is you asking Anton to give me a job.”
Leo narrowed his dark eyes and stepped back. “Ask him yourself. He’s coming home tonight.” He walked backward as his eyes trailed the length of my body and back up before turning on his heel and getting lost in the sea of black jeans.
I went back to the park and fetched Violet, whose eyes were beginning to droop. We said goodbye to Lisa and headed upstairs.
While Violet had her afternoon nap, I took a long bath. I couldn’t figure out why I was nervous to see Anton again. I just needed to treat him the same way as I did Leo. It wasn’t like I was in any danger. They were protecting me, whatever that meant.
The water turned cold and I wrapped the towel around my chest after I dried off. I hated that I was going to make an effort to be pretty, but I had to use every asset I had. I found a simple black sundress in the back of my mom’s closet and I took time to blow out my hair. My make-up was old, but a little mascara and light gloss was really all I knew how to do anyway.
Just as I had settled Violet in front of the TV and given her a peanut butter sandwich for a snack, my mom stumbled through the door. Her cheeks were hollow, her skin dirty and, as she passed by, I got a whiff of her stench—body odor mixed with what I’d always likened to burnt Styrofoam. It was not a pleasant smell.
“I’m sorry,” she said, just like she had so many times before.
“I know.”
My mom slipped down the hall and into the bathroom. A quote from my high school counselor came to mind. After I had cried my eyes out and confided that my mom was pregnant for the third time in two years and planning to give the baby away again, the plump, middle-aged woman behind her desk had said, ‘Fiona, you can’t change people. You can only change the way you react to them.’
It had been a turning point for me. I’d realized my mother’s addiction, her disease, was stronger than the bond I was sure a mother and daughter must have deep down. I’d fooled myself for years, thinking that she would choose me one day, that I would come before drugs. But with the counselor’s words, I’d known that my only power was me. So when Violet came along and my mom had decided to keep her, I’d promised myself I would give her a chance. I would never touch drugs. I would be stable.
Once I could prove that I had a steady income and a safe place to live, I could get custody of Violet. As bitter a truth pill as it was, my mother was a lost cause.
Thirty minutes later, in clean clothes and with wet hair, she joined me on the couch. After a greeting to Violet, she said, “You look pretty. Do you have a date with Leo?”
Two points to Vicki Thompson for remembering his name.
“No. I’m not dating him or any of those dealers. I’m going to go try and get another job.” I offered just enough truth to get me by. The overwhelming urge to get out of the apartment and get away from my shitty life rose. I assessed my mother’s state and settled on her being sober enough that I could leave Violet with her. Hell, it wasn’t like I was going on a romantic weekend getaway with the man of my dreams. I was going down four floors to beg for a job of some sort.
I gathered my little backpack where the phone and charger were hidden and said that I would be back in a bit. But it was early and I didn’t want to sit and be glared at by Leo until his boss decided to grace Covington Heights with his presence.
The stairwell offered a cool relief and much-needed retreat. I sat down on the step next to the entrance to the fifth floor and dug out the phone that Leo had given me. There were, indeed, plenty of contacts listed, none of which had the name Anton attached to them. So I’m good enough to offer up my body, but I can’t have his number? Jesus, they really think highly of themselves.
I downloaded a free game and played until I was bored stiff. Then I watched videos of guys getting hit in the nuts by children and pictured Violet ‘accidentally’ taking a swing at Leo’s jewels—not that I was thinking about his dick. Because watching him pee? That was grosser than gross. Although, he did prove that my attempt at a nickname for him had been very, very wrong.
A message popped up and I paused, right before an overweight dad was going to take it in the nuts with a kid running around with a bucket on his head. It was from Leo.
You can stop hiding on the fifth floor. He’s here.
I stared at the message. He knew exactly where I was and he wasn’t even shy about it. Stalker. And damn that phone— I had just started liking it. Now I would have to stomp it into the ground and bash it into a million pieces. Leave it to Leo to ruin a good thing. Add that to my growing list of reasons to despise him.
With my soon-to-be demolished phone in my bag, I walked down to the third floor and pushed through the door. It was hard to believe I was in the same building. When I’d first seen the modern, clean hall that lead to the crew’s apartments, I’d been shocked—even more so when I’d entered Anton and Leo’s place with its massive open kitchen, sectional and flatscreen. We were living in opposite worlds and I’d been completely oblivious. It was probably yet another reason why girls threw themselves at the crew. The promise of money could go a long way. But that wouldn’t be me. I would work for my paycheck, even if it meant shoveling drugs into tiny packets in a back room somewhere. Whatever it took to get Violet and me out…
I rolled my shoulders back and dug deep for my strength. Violet’s sweet face came to mind as I knocked on the door. Leo opened it and that arrogant prick was shirtless. There was no way I could let myself be distracted by his…
Holy Hell.
The man didn’t just have a chiseled six pack. He also had one of those perfect V’s that led all the way down to…
Mother of God.
He was only wearing gym shorts, and they were barely hanging on his trim hips and tighter-than-should-be-allowed ass.
“Eyes up, Fi.”
His smirk could go directly to hell.
Leo opened the door wider and Anton’s spooky-ass eyes pierced a hole in my chest. With just one look, all the confidence drained out of my body. I took a cautious step forward, no longer sure about what I was getting myself into.
Chapter Six
Leo
She’d worn a dress, and it fit her better than a damn glove. Fiona’s tits were pushed up and her cleavage could have made a man go off the grid indefinitely. It was like the potential that I’d always known was there had reached up and smacked me in the face. She was gorgeous. And from the small narrowing of Anton’s eyes, he’d also been bitch-slapped with her hotness.
The bossman taking her in shouldn’t have pissed me off. Hell, I’d been the one to offer her up. But heat spread up my spine as I closed the door, and I was feeling just a wee bit possessive. At least she’d checked me out. Was it a coincidence that I’d answered the door half naked when she was coming to ask my employer for a job? No. I’d wanted to throw her off and maybe show her what she was missing. Petty and childish? Absolutely. But I wasn’t a criminal because of a sophisticated palate and impeccable manners at the dinner table.
And damn it if she didn’t go all wobbly in front of him. Where was her spit? Her vinegar?
“Hi,” she said to Anton with an innocent smile.
Not that. Not the bashful beauty bit. Good God, he would tear her apart. At least it would be entertaining. I brushed past Fiona, who seemed to be dead in the water, and went to the kitchen to make dinner.
The bossman stayed silent, his hold on the room steady. Fiona’s chest rose and fell slowly. I noticed because I was checking out her tits again. Days… I could have gotten lost for days and months in those heavenly lady lumps
. I pretended to be focused on the broccoli but flipped on my acute hearing.
Fiona nodded to herself—probably an internal pep talk going on—then cornered around our huge couch. She plopped right down next to Anton and her boldness almost got him to crack a smile. Almost. Either that or he’d had a muscle spasm in his cheeks.
“I want a job—one that I can’t get fired from if my mom fucks up. And if you are going to insist that I want you, well… I’m going to have to get to know you.”
Wait, wait, wait. What was she saying?
She continued, “I have to at least see you. I can’t just turn on a button and want to have sex with you.”
Uh? She’d come down to ask for a job, not some fucking quality time with a drug dealing asshole. Anton glanced over at me. Maybe he was as confused as I was. He sat back and I didn’t imagine his eyes raking over Fiona.
Anton rubbed his sharp jaw and asked, “Can you make drinks?”
“Absolutely.” Fiona’s answer was too quick. Was I the only one catching all the fucking lies on the other side of the room?
“Then you can bartend at Leo’s poker and dice games. You can keep whatever you make in tips.”
“She’s gonna do what now?” Oh shit. Those words had actually come out of my mouth.
Anton turned to me. “It’s perfect. You can keep an eye on her that way.”
Before I could object—which I definitely was going to do on grounds of my games my rules and one-hundred-percent-stubborn ass—she said, “Oh God. Anything else. I have literally never met anyone I’ve loathed more in my life.”
I raised my eyebrows. Her little shiver earlier in the day had said otherwise.
“You showed me your dick, sicko, and drooled all over my boobs while I was naked in the tub.”
That got a questioning glare from Anton, but she’d come in here to ask for a job, not to nanny-nanny-boo-boo tattle on me for my bad behavior. And now she was going to get in on my hustle? Fuck that.
“No way.” I chucked the knife down and wiped my hands on the towel I’d flung over my shoulder. “I am not taking her to the games with me. I guarantee she couldn’t even make a vodka on the rocks.”
