by Lexy Timms
* * *
She woke suddenly to a strange sound.
Someone was in her apartment.
Dammit! The pitfall of being on the ground level. Kallie tried her best to control her physical reaction, and not scream. She steadied her breathing and her heartbeat. Otherwise she was a sitting duck. She could either play like she was really out of it and hope whoever it might be wouldn’t rape her, or she could fight. Or she could make a run for it.
She chose flight. The only escape was the window. She’d have to do it with a sheet wrapped around her, then figure out how to get through the window and then down the alley in one piece. Slipping out of bed, she silently wrapped her sheet around her and snuck toward the window.
She paused when she heard a creak in the other room. Shit!
Whoever was there opened the front door and closed it again. Then there was silence.
Dead silence.
Hopefully because they’d left. Maybe they came to rob the place, found nothing but cockroaches, and took off. Didn’t matter the reason, at least they’d left. She hoped.
She ran to her bedroom door and locked it. Then jumped into her jeans, threw on a tank top which was the first shirt she could find, and grabbed her phone.
Armed with her phone and a spike-heeled shoe, she slowly braved the other room. Seeing the coast was clear, she quickly locked the front door and the window. She must’ve been so tired and hungry last night that she’d forgotten to lock it. She felt grateful she was once again safe in her apartment, until she was struck by a horrible intuition.
Kallie searched for her apron. It and her tips were gone. All of it.
The realization destroyed her. Gone. “Asshole!” she screamed out to no one. She sank to her knees and sobbed. She was flat broke. Again. Yeah, she had money in savings, but she couldn’t touch it. Not yet.
Tears slid down her cheeks. A shooting yesterday, and today someone had the audacity to come into her apartment and steal from her. Just another in a long line of blows. It broke her. It felt like she’d lost everything all over again.
When she could finally catch her breath, she dragged herself to the bathroom and drew a bath. Being as sad as she was it felt like having the flu, and Kallie treated it as such. Whenever she felt sick or super sad, she alternated between hot baths and bed rest. She stripped out of her underwear, stepped into the tub, and let the water fill around her. She slouched against the back of the tub and pressed her eyes as tight as she could, trying to squeeze out all the tears.
She let her mind drift back to when her heartache began, six months prior. She’d been the owner of her own employment agency, placing executive assistants with some of the wealthiest, most powerful players in the metropolitan area. She was in business with the man who was her fiancé.
Then, one day, a knock sounded at her office door. Some men with badges wanted to ask her a few questions. Seemed her beloved fiancé, Jeremy Corcoran, had been running a high-priced escort service right under her nose. Through her business. While she sat at her desk, meeting with the agents, she had the good sense to move the contents of one account to an account she had before she’d gotten involved with her partner-fiancé-crook.
It was a good thing she did.
Because he’d had the same thought, and before the feds had a chance to question him he’d taken all the cash in their accounts and split. Kallie had her attorney liquidate everything, but when the scandal broke and the phone calls, the hate mail, the social media attacks began, Kallie knew she couldn’t start over again.
She paid what she could to her creditors and declared bankruptcy. It would be only a matter of time for the government to catch on to her money move. It wasn’t much. But one day, she hoped she’d be able to use it. The crap that had hit the fan hadn’t been hers. She was innocent. Not that she felt that way anymore. She might face charges one day, but she’d dropped out of everything. Left it all behind and just wandered down the street into an unknown part of town, for no specific reason and with no goal. A short time later she saw the bar, Temnota. And an idea formed. A simple one. Get a place to live, earn some money. Maybe start over. Maybe.
She’d rented the small place she was in now, using the last of the cash in her wallet as her first month’s rent. Then found the courage to apply for the job at the bar.
Sitting in the tub in an apartment unit that didn’t have much hot water, she admitted that she hated her place. She hated her stupid job. She hated herself. What did she think would happen? She would build up this new life and pretend her failure had never happened?
Disgusted with herself, she dunked under the cold water, shampooed her hair, shaved, and did whatever else she had to do to maintain. Kallie then wrapped herself in a towel, crawled back to bed, and hid from the world. It seemed that was all she was good at now. I’m not even good enough at disappearing.
Well, if she was honest, she wasn’t even good at disappearing. First two gunmen nearly killed her, then a burglar walked into her apartment and stole her money. Yeah, she hadn’t been killed either time, which was fortunate, but she sucked at life.
If there was such a thing as luck, she sure didn’t have any.
Chapter Four
Spring loved to be cold, rainy, and dreary in Pikesville, so it was a mercy when the weather became tolerable. Kallie left her apartment as early as possible, so she could take her time and walk to work while it was still daylight and relatively safe. She’d have to request adding another bolt to the door, and made a mental note to call the landlord to tell him she’d been burgled. She intended to call the cops also, but didn’t want to stay in the apartment any longer. She looked around the shit hole she called home.
Life sucked.
Big time.
She really didn’t want to go to work, but clearly didn’t have a choice. Yesterday morning, she’d been excited about having a job and a fresh start; now nothing looked fresh, and starting over seemed even more terrifying than before. She was in the same kind of predicament she’d been in the moment she found out about Jeremy. So much for the great guy she thought she would marry. She’d been blind, betrayed by someone she’d let into her heart. If she was honest with herself, she knew what she wanted, what she craved: weeks and weeks of comfort, recovering from the trauma of her life. But that cost money. You couldn’t just disappear and find somewhere safe to hide and just heal.
Uniform packed in her backpack, she e didn’t regret her decision to walk even as she saw the public buses pass her by. The day was nice. The sun shone, despite her mood. She needed the air, and the sense of freedom a walk would provide. She dressed in faded, tight jeans—the ones Jeremy said made him want to weep he found them so hot—and a T-shirt, faded and light. Only her hair was work-ready, in the stick-straight ponytail.
She stopped at a liquor store with an ATM and broke into her savings account. She took out twenty dollars and bought herself a pack of cigarettes and an already-mixed bourbon and coke. She wasn’t a drinker or smoker, but every now and then she indulged. This was one of those times. She felt entitled to the booze, and it made smoking so much easier to take. After all, she’d almost been shot and she’d been robbed. A woman could only take so much abuse, and then she needed to let go and do a few things that were normally forbidden. Besides, she liked the feel of deciding for herself what she wanted to do. No man to tell her, like Jeremy always did. “Don’t wear those clothes, don’t eat that, don’t have a smoke.” Well, stealing your fiancée blind while lying to her and cheating on her made you trash! Freakin’ ass—Give it a rest, Kallie! She tried to rein in her anger and frustration as she walked.
Her intention was to arrive early at the bar and chill before work started. She figured by the time she began her duties she’d be fine. It was a dark bar and got busy as well; she felt sure no one would notice if one of the waitresses was smiling a bit too much, being a little drunk. Opening the drink, she figured she’d be better off drinking her drink before she got there. What was the worst th
ing that could happen? She’d get fired? She snorted—like that was going to be any different than the way her life was heading.
Halfway to work a slight buzz started, and she felt herself relaxing a bit. The walk through the quaint and ethnic part of town wasn’t so bad. The place she now called home seemed to grow on her a little. It felt liberating; at least she controlled some part of her life. This could be an adventure. Like a sudden positive that dulled the sting from the robbery and everything before it.
When she arrived at Darkness, she sat at the furthest end of the bar so she could call her landlord again in private and enjoy a cigarette at the same time. Plus, she didn’t want Sal, or anyone else, to smell any alcohol on her. “Hey Sal,” she said as she took a seat.
“You’re early,” he greeted pleasantly. “There was a small bet as to whether you would show.”
“I’m here. I’ll get dressed in a bit. Is it okay if I have a diet soda?” She probably should have a water, she thought, because soda with a smoke might upset her stomach, but she decided to risk it anyway. Adventure, right? Don’t overthink everything; just go with it. Once situated, she huddled in the corner and dialed her landlord.
Her call went straight to voicemail, so she left a message with him to say she’d been burgled. In the time it took to listen to the voicemail message, the landlord began calling her immediately.
She hit answer on the phone and set it to her. “Hi! This is Kallie. Thanks for calling me back. Did you hear my message? My apartment was broken into a couple of hours ago.” As she waited for her landlord’s response, she held the phone to her ear with one hand and her cigarette to her lips with the other. Kallie drew in. Smoking did not taste the way it looked.
“Why’d you wait so long to report this?” the landlord demanded.
“I wanted to get out to someplace safe,” she replied. “I’m at work now.”
“You waited till you got all the way to work to report this to me or the cops?” he asked suspiciously. “Now we gotta wait till you get home until we investigate? Is that what you’re saying?”
She didn’t like his tone. Then she wondered in retrospect if he hadn’t been just screening his calls.
“Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll let the cops in.”
“No, I’d like to be there.” She knew he had the authority to go into her place if he needed to but, suddenly, it felt like she was losing control of the situation…again. Stressed pressed again her chest like a weight. “No,” she insisted. “Just forget it. I’ll call the cops when I get home.”
“What’s the problem? If you were robbed, you were robbed.”
He’d raised his voice, so she raised hers. “What’s the problem with waiting for me to get there?” she countered. She reined back challenging the landlord too much, realizing he could enter her apartment whenever he wanted.
“You have something to hide?” He wasn’t going to let it go.
“Look. My place was just broken into and my money stolen. I wasn’t telling you to report on your apartment. I just wanted to ask for another bolt to be added to the door. I’ll take care of reporting the incident.”
“Have you got someone living there with you? I can charge you for back rent? Or you trying to scam something out of me, little lady? I’m not—”
“No! You know what? Forget it!” The entire conversation was falling apart quickly. Before she could open her mouth to finish, her back was engulfed in incredible warmth.
She looked over her shoulder to see Sasha staring down at her.
With his dark, disheveled hair, his thick eyelashes lining wicked blue eyes, he looked like a wolf, though he didn’t have his potentially menacing look in his eye. He actually wore a faint smile. He placed his hand on her shoulder to interrupt her. “What’s going on?” he asked calmly. He leaned in like he was smelling her perfume. Then he withdrew and gave her a look of disappointment. He didn’t name his disappointment, but he didn’t have to. He knew. He’d figured out somehow that she’d been drinking.
She stared at him, unable to pull away. He was disappointed? It was kind of cute in a way. Except she wasn’t drunk. She’d had one mixed drink, and not while at work. And the cigarette? She pushed it out on the ashtray. She’d barely had any of it either. “Just a landlord issue,” she said lamely.
“Can you call him back?” he asked her.
The smoothness of his request made Kallie want to do what he asked, plus the fact she was getting nowhere fast on this call anyway. She ended the call and, for whatever reason, didn’t have any anxiety about doing so.
“What’s going on?” he repeated, sitting next to her. He picked up her full pack of cigarettes, arched his brow, and put them back down.
Message received, thought Kallie. He didn’t approve of smoking apparently, either. “Was I too loud?” she asked nervously. Then let her shoulders drop as she exhaled a pent-up breath. He had the ability to make her feel…safe. He’d winged two guys who stormed the bar just a day earlier and, now, he’d somehow become a secret bright spot in her day.
“Kind of…” He winked at her. “I heard ‘cops’ and ‘stolen’,” he admitted frankly. “I see cigarettes and I smell alcohol.”
“We’re in a bar,” she reminded him with a raised brow.
“A lot of people work in places like this to hide that fact.” He shrugged. “I don’t let drunk people sell booze in my bar.”
“If you’re thinking I’m drunk, just say it outright,” she replied, on the verge of anger.
“I think I just did,” he said, staring at her without so much as blinking his eyes. “Are you a drinker?”
“No. I had a rough morning. Just a rough…” she couldn’t finish her sentence. She pinched the bridge of her nose to keep from falling apart. Dammit, now he’d see her like this. Scared yesterday, cry-baby today. What the hell? Couldn’t she keep it together for ten minutes?
“What happened?” he asked calmly, patiently.
She sighed. What did it matter if she told him? “I got robbed.”
“When?” he asked, a new coldness rumbling in his voice.
“This morning. While I was in bed, sleeping. Whoever it was took my apron with my tips…” She had to stop and choke back the tears. She sipped her soda, trying to calm her nerves. Why’d I put the cigarette out? I could use a drag.
Sasha gently moved the ashtray out of her reach and slid a seat closer. He reached for the box of smokes and moved that also. “If you got robbed, you can’t afford to be doing this,” he gently lectured with a smile.
Kallie stared down at her hands. Why would he care if she was smoking or drinking or living—
“Look at me,” he said softly.
She didn’t have the nerve for so many reasons. His presence was overwhelming, in a good way. He was being kind to her, and yet she felt intimidated. It took all she had to finally lift her head and look him straight in the eye.
“Did the landlord just give you shi—trouble for calling the cops?” His head tilted to the side, his hair falling slightly with it.
“Yeah,” she answered, realizing her answer really sounded much louder than she’d intended.
“You got the keys to your apartment?”
“Of course.”
He held out his giant bear paw, asking for them.
She pulled the keys out of her jeans and dropped them into his outstretched hand, grazing his in the process. She was blasted with a sudden flare of arousal. A crazy, begging-to-be-taken-right-on-the-bar-and-she-didn’t-care who-saw kind of arousal. Dammit! Just swallow me up now, floor, I beg of you!
“Here’s what I want you to do,” he said as a wave of his cologne drifted past her, making her swallow hard. “When I get to your place, I’ll call you. Then you call your landlord and tell him you’ll meet him at your place, no cops, to discuss the crime scene.” He grinned from ear to ear. “Hey, Sal, you wanna take a ride?” He leaned over and motioned to the other waitress already in for work. “Angie, watch the bar if anyone w
ants anything.”
Sal was already removing his apron, grinning like a mad man. “Love to, boss.”
Sasha turned, his gaze directly on Kallie. “In the meantime, you girls make sure you have your shift meal before you start work, understood?” He waited a beat before adding, “It’s nutritious.”
Kallie had a feeling Sal might’ve filled him in on all the food she’d ordered last night. She didn’t know whether that made her feel good or smothered. Great. Let’s add some more confusion to the top of the pile of shit I’m living in.
Simplifying her life didn’t include having the Incredible Russian Hulk managing her diet.
Chapter Five
“I’m going to change my clothes before I eat,” Kallie told Angie. The other waitress shot her an annoyed look and didn’t respond. Kallie shrugged and carried her backpack into the ladies’ room. She locked the door, and stripped down to her underwear. As she bent over to unzip her backpack for her uniform, her cellphone began ringing. She didn’t recognize the number, so she ignored it.
Then immediately a text came through.
PICK UP THE PHONE. SASHA.
It immediately began ringing again.
Whoops. “Hello?” she answered, her voice quivering.
“Call your landlord and tell him you’re at your place now.”
How’d he know where she lived? Sal. She sighed. She could just imagine what he thought of her while looking inside her meager apartment. She sighed again and turned herself in the full-length mirror.
“Kallie, did you hear me?”
She was staring at her practically naked body with his voice in her ear. Wicked thoughts raced through her mind. His dark blue eyes raking her bare body…his huge hands grabbing her up, fondling her, then spreading her thighs and lowering himself to—
