by Eden O'Neill
I wet my lips. “But something tells me you already know that.”
“I may have heard something,” he said, scratching his neck before putting the curling iron down. He lounged back. “And if it means anything, I didn’t want to be right about him.”
He didn’t? I found that hard to believe. Reaching over, LJ angled his long body over the box on the toilet, and before I could stop him, he was opening it up.
“Hey—”
The long dress fell out of it in shimmering waves, a sapphire blue silk. It came with a note, and when LJ picked it up, he frowned at me. “This is from your dad?”
“Yes, and it’s none of your business,” I said, ripping away both the dress and the card. I threw them both in the box. “And why are you still here?”
“Because I saved you and deserve a consolation prize.”
“Which would be?”
His eyes twinkled before he jerked his chin in the direction of the dress. “An explanation for that?” He leaned forward. “And why you almost set your house on fire twice?”
Groaning, I nearly screamed at him before wrestling in my hair. Something told me he wouldn’t leave either way. I huffed. “If you must know, the dress is a bribe.”
“A bribe?”
I nodded. “My dad wants me to go to his wedding and thinks giving me things will convince me to go.”
His other tactics hadn’t worked, text, phone calls, and ultimately, the wedding invitation itself. I hadn’t responded to any of it, my dad now desperate, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to go to his stupid wedding.
LJ propped his sneaker against my wall. “So what’s the issue then? You just mad because he’s getting remarried?”
Because I’d be that sophomoric, that trivial, and the fact I was talking about this to this guy now floored me. “You know what? Thanks so much for saving me, but you can get out of my house now.”
Instantly, he pushed off the wall, hands on my shoulders when he said, “Hold up,” and hands coming down my shoulders, he made me stay. He looked right at me, his thumbs burning into my flesh.
It didn’t help I was wearing a tank top.
Despite my dad sending me this gift I didn’t want, I was going to try it on, taking the time to do my hair before modeling it. The decision had proved to be a huge mistake since I’d almost burned my house down with the iron.
LJ eyed me. “Did I say something to offend?” he asked, then noticed my hair. I’d started to curl it, nearly finished it. Currently, it sat in dead red curls on my shoulders. He twisted one. “Were you going somewhere?”
I groaned. “Since the dress came, I was going to model it. Naturally, I had to do my hair.”
“Naturally.”
I started to push him away, his body way too hard under my hands. His hands returned to my shoulders again and guiding me to the toilet, he moved the box and sat me down. “What are you doing?”
He worked quick, getting a bunch of products together from my basket above and even a few styling utensils. He grinned again. “I’m obviously going to help you with your hair to model the dress you don’t want to wear for the wedding you don’t want to go to.” He winked, tapping my shoulder with a comb. “Just give me a sec. It’s been a bit since I did this.”
He’d done this before? My eyes widened. “When have you done this before?”
A wickedness in his eyes when he got behind me, lacing his fingers and cracking them before taking one of my dead curls. Getting it out to full length, electricity surged to my scalp when he touched it, and I attempted to ignore the fact he had his hands in my hair. He got behind me in the mirror. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I actually would, amazed when he clipped my hair back and immediately went in to use the styling product. My hair never curled without it, and he somehow knew that.
“So you wanna tell me about this thing with your dad?” he asked, talking to me like a real stylist. The fact that this moment was truly happening right now blew my mind. He went for the curling iron and I froze up. He eyed me. “Seriously, beauty queen. I got you. I’ve probably done this more than you.”
“How so?”
“Try three sisters and a mom who worked four jobs.” Getting the iron on the curl, he held it, the thing steaming and perfect when he let go. The curl fell down on my shoulder in a way I hadn’t even been able to do.
My lips parted. “Shit.”
“Told you.” Another wink before he got one more curl. This one came right out the same way, just as flawless. “Didn’t know my curl game was so strong?”
He was easily over two hundred pounds of muscled male behind me and was doing my hair. So fuck no, I didn’t know his curl game was strong.
“I guess I need to hire you,” I observed, his eyes teasing through the mirror and his hands heaven.
Especially when he massaged my scalp.
He did it to get the product in, his long digits wrapping in my hair, and I looked away from his eyes in the mirror.
“So your dad’s a dick or…”
“No.” And I didn’t want to talk about this. Not with him. I huffed. “He just did a dick thing.”
I considered it that when you married a girl more than half your age. Also, marrying said girl who was half your age that you cheated on your wife and family with.
LJ’s lip pulled into his mouth as he did my hair, a slight frown to his lips. “Still bummed about the divorce then?”
I turned looking at him.
He shrugged. “I may have looked into you.”
“Did you now?”
His look could have been guilty if he did such a thing. But Lance was nothing if not self assured. His shoulder lifted. “I was curious about you.”
“Curious?”
A gravelly chuckle. “You handled me that first night at my house so I looked into you.”
“And what did you find out?”
“I found out your dad seriously screwed you and your mom over,” he said, going behind me when he grabbed my hair again. “And that said screwing over kind of made your mom and you the black sheep in your family.”
He was right about that. My own grandma had the nerve to be mad at my mom for letting her marriage fall apart. That was just how it was in my world, people kept their dirty laundry to themselves. They didn’t put it all out there for others to see.
I had no idea how I felt about LJ knowing so much about my family. About knowing so much about me.
“And your dad’s the district attorney,” he said, his expression a bit harsh when he said it. “Funny, he’s out there fighting crime and he can’t even take care of his own.”
“And what would you know about that?”
“More than you think.” His eyes narrowed. “There’s a reason my mom had to work four jobs, and I was right there working my own beside her. I know a little something about self-serving fathers.”
Silence behind me, steam rolling off his naked body. I hugged my arms as he continued to style my hair. I huffed. “What happened to yours?”
“Walked out on us.” No emotion there. The comb back in my hair. “Never needed him anyway and still don’t. I’m all my mom and my sisters ever needed.”
Clearly, he had a bone to pick with his own dad, but he sounded more over the fact than anything else. His hurt didn’t sound as fresh as mine felt.
But that didn’t make his any less severe.
I obviously didn’t know his story, nor did he have a right to know mine. But when I looked at him doing my hair, I couldn’t helping wanting to share more with him.
“My dad’s a good guy,” I said, because he was. LJ was right. He fought to rid the streets of crime every day, worked his whole life when he could be making much more money in the private sector as an attorney. Truth be told, my dad’s income mostly came from our family’s businesses. Not his job as district attorney. The job was something he chose to do, wanted to do, and I’d always seen him as such a superhero because of it. I dampened my lips. “He
fell in love with someone at the office.”
“Fell in love?”
“Yeah, broke my family apart.” That was one way of putting the colossal damage that had ensued.
“So he’s not a dick because…”
“It was the last thing he wanted.” The words chilled me to say, that last conversation I’d overhead him and my mom having. He hadn’t wanted to leave her, the last thing he wanted.
“We don’t love each other, Gen. Never have, and you know that,” he’d said, holding her as she cried all over him. “Aren’t you tired of pretending? Don’t you want a chance? A chance to be happy for you and not someone else?”
I then got to hear how my parents’ entire marriage was a sham, chess pieces in their world of affluence and money. I guessed they’d met through shared circles and their parents had pushed them into it. They hadn’t even wanted to get married, but had to appease. Dad had been all in, but just couldn’t do it anymore. Not after he found Clarise.
He’d fallen in love.
Swallowing hard, I fought tears now, LJ’s image blurring. The last thing I was going to do was a cry in front of this guy. He might use it against me.
“So he didn’t want to leave,” he said, thank God not noticing my tears. “But he did, beauty queen. If that doesn’t make a guy a dick…”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Then what is?”
“Things can be complicated. Are complicated, but that doesn’t mean I have to watch him flaunt his new love around.”
My voice quivered after that, and I hated it, even more when LJ dragged his fingers through my hair. His touch was absolute heaven, and I absorbed it in.
“I think you should go to the wedding.”
“I should?”
His eyes met mine through the mirror, my hair in perfect waterfall curls across my shoulders. He made me look even better than I possibly could on my own, a miracle as the curls framed my face. He smiled a little. “Because it’s complicated, and you obviously love your dad.”
Words harsh, though they hadn’t meant to be. Still, they jarred my reality. I did love my father.
I was just mad that any of us had to go through this.
It angered me my parents had put us in this position in the first place, and I resented my dad. Resented him for being strong enough to choose his own path. The way in which he did it only made it worse, deceitful and behind my mom’s back. That, outside of everything else, made it even harder for me to ever forgive him. I wasn’t sure I ever would.
“It’s lovely,” I said, giving LJ a compliment. “What you did is lovely. To my hair?”
“Props from the beauty queen herself,” he said, unplugging the curling iron out of the wall. He smiled a little. “I’ll catalog that.”
I was sure he would, my hand looping around his bicep. The flesh hard, I didn’t know what I’d do with him once I had him.
I’d just wanted to touch him.
His eyes smoldered like raging fire, his hand reaching and propping against the wall. He had this way of completely closing me in, clouding my brain. His thumb touched my chin. “Now what?”
I didn’t know what. I didn’t know how or even if I should. This guy was so dangerous and was obviously mixed up in a lot of shit I had no business getting mixed up with. I mean, I was pretty sure my dad put away people like him, dabbling in some of the things he dealt with. A million thoughts traveled behind my eyes, and though I think he had some too, he came up with his conclusions a lot quicker than me.
He let go, his expression hard. “Try not to burn anything else. I might not always be there to save you,” he said and then was giving me his back. He always did that, walked away.
Which made what I was considering not two seconds ago even worse.
Chapter Fourteen
LJ
Alexi Marvelli sat atop his actual throne, topless women cascading from the ceiling around him like greenery. They spun on shimmering silks, a lavish display in Alexi’s crystal palace. Niko and I were presented to him here tonight, the Crystal Palace the viewfinder to the rest of Alexi’s gentlemen and women’s club The Cherry Bomb. The Cherry Bomb held the traditional flair for a club like this, fire eaters, animal tamers, and tits…
Lots and lots of tits.
Niko and I got an eyeful of them upon entering Alexi’s Crystal Palace, the man’s arms wide when he saw Niko and me.
“My boys,” he proclaimed, having gotten up from his throne encrusted in jewels and glistening diamonds. The whole display was a bit much, but who was I to judge a guy for what he was into? Alexi obviously enjoyed nice things, and since I appreciated that too, I merely smiled once I approached.
He gave both Niko and me large and inviting hugs, part of the family until one wasn’t. This was very much known to both Niko and me. A guy didn’t fuck with the Marvellis. Not unless he wanted to be killed. This was precisely why Alexi was getting a generous donation today on top of what we owed him for his product on campus. Today was the last business drop, a day I’d been very much looking forward too. With the semester of my junior year winding down, I’d finally gotten to a place where I felt my family and I would be all right. I had plenty of money tucked away, and if I wanted a little something, I’d just promote my parties again. It was quick and easy money and held less of the stress of being the “kingpin” on campus.
I still can’t believe Beauty Queen called me that.
Obviously, that was what people called me but her calling me that felt weird. A kingpin was in charge of his surroundings, called the say of the who and the what. He was also ruthless and willing to do anything to get his. I may be a few or more of those things, but I wasn’t sure I necessarily wanted her to see me that way. I was also unsure, like many things, why I actually cared about her opinion, but I guess seeing her almost burn her house down the other day with herself inside had some kind of affect on me.
There was also her hair, soft and fragrant and nothing like doing my sisters’ hair. I’d had to rub one off that night badly after touching it, and getting my head out of the gutter now, I checked back in on my meeting with Alexi and his bodyguards. He had them strategically sprinkled around the room like houseplants, “just in case.”
Dual kisses on either side of my face from Alexi and Niko got the same when he came over to my buddy. Seeing what we held today, Alexi guided one of his goons, er um, bodyguards, to take today’s large and final payment from us.
A nod and I had Niko hand the lot over, our hands behind our backs after that. We didn’t typically come over to Alexi’s clubs to conduct business exchanges, an exception made for today. Today was the last one so we did, and when we did do exchanges, we never stayed long. This was just how the pair of us did things, well-known on Alexi’s end, but that didn’t stop the man from inviting us into his sanctum for a drink after he got his money.
“Just one, my brothers?” he asked us, guiding a girl with glittery skin and gorgeous tits to get it started. Alexi’s smile widened. “After all, it is the last time. Please? You’d do me the honor. We’ve had such a great relationship.”
We had, and we wanted to keep it that way. Since he was right, today’s drop the last time, I supposed I could break my limited contact rule—just once, of course.
Niko gave me a look, and when I nodded, Alexi clasped his meaty hands together, a large motherfucker in a suit the color of blood red, full crimson with black silk shirt and necktie. Alexi gestured toward his viewfinder, his private booth with an overlook of the entire club. “Please. My space is yours.”
We took him up on the seat, the circle booth like a VIP section at a normal titty bar.
His club was gorgeous, high stakes clientele, and nothing like the smaller, more modest venues he had closer to campus. Those were more moderately priced to attract college students and the less affluent in town, but Alexi had people to oversee those. He maybe dropped in on them once a month for a check-in, something I knew since before Niko and I had started doing b
usiness with him, we’d seen him there on occasion. Of course, once we’d started working with him, he had given us the ins and outs of his business. This was a sign of trust, and I did take notes. I was nothing if not an entrepreneur, and though the guy and his family may have their hands in stuff I’d never touch, it couldn’t be denied the Marvellis ran a smart and successful business. Alexi himself was head of the family, younger, but I’d heard his father had died of heart disease or something back in the nineties. He’d had to step up to the throne pretty quick, something I related to as well since I also came from a household sans a father.
Niko and I both clinked glasses with Alexi, but I nursed my scotch while Niko played with his. Alexi kicked his back right away, of course, grinning like the mob boss he was when he stamped his glass down. He lounged his big body back in the booth. “So sad to see you both go, but this will be a happy day, yes? How are your families? Niko, your mother? She doing well?”
We really were like family, and Alexi did know a lot about our lives. I guessed he had to, more of that trust, and we did know a little bit about his too. As much as he’d give up, of course, over our quick drop visits and check-ins about how our own business was doing.
Niko nursed that glass again, his smile a slight one in his gray suit. I was well aware of his mom’s condition. She could definitely be better, but she hadn’t been as bad as she was in the past. Her most recent clinical trial had been doing well. Niko pulled his drink over. “She’s responding to her most recent clinical trial. She does have a long road, though.”
“I can imagine.” This saddened Alexi and upon getting his glass topped off, he clinked it with Niko’s. “Cheers to you, my brother. I also had a mother with breast cancer. It will turn out all right. My mom’s did.”
“I hope so.” The gruffness in Niko’s words worked at my heart, this guy my own brother since coming to college. No one could ever replace my boys from my hometown, Maywood Heights, but that family definitely could grow. Niko had done that for me, the guy my real fucking brother, and I hurt for him. Especially when he was hurting.
