“Actually I could use your help. But first,” I walked toward the little sphere that was Mini-Oz, my home management AI. “Mini-Oz, can you tell me where user: Sam is?”
“User: Sam is on the 2nd floor with users: Oz, Valery and Tolliver.” The automated voice replied.
“Thanks Mini-Oz. Can you unlock user: Sam’s door for me?”
“Door unlocked.”
I picked up the parcel that had been on my doorstep this morning. “Grab that box. It's on.” I waggled my eyebrows and Ri laughed. It was time for me to save some Sins.
Chapter Sixteen
“Sam is going to be so mad when he realizes you stole his precious cologne. I'm pretty sure it's made with real tiger sweat or something. He gets it shipped here from Paris. Costs like $500 a bottle,” Ri sounded positively gleeful about it.
I placed Sam’s razors, face creams, the twelve different hair products, and other assorted beauty products in the box in Ri’s arms.
“Who needs cologne that expensive? Sam needs to stop worry that he is the best looking person in the room. I googled the opposite of envy, and apparently it is kindness. That's why he has to stop being Sam the Model and start being Sam the Benevolent.”
“He can't be benevolent and have smooth skin?” He asked holding up a jar of night cream.
I sighed, taking the jar and putting it back on Sam’s vanity.
“I'm making this up as I go along. I'm petrified that I'm going to screw it all up and get you guys condemned to the depths of hell forever.”
Ri shifted the box to his hip and gave me a one armed hug.
“You're doing great. How about we leave him one of everything and steal all his shoes instead? Though we might need a bigger box. Or a shipping container.”
I placed one of everything back on the counter. I held up the cologne. “Fine, but I'm keeping this. This is just lunacy.”
“Agreed.”
We dropped the box filled with beauty stuff, even after putting one of everything back, back at my apartment and headed down to Tolliver's floor.
I had Mini-Oz open the door, the package still tucked under my arm. The guys were sitting around playing poker. Everyone except Eli and Lux. I knew Eli was on his ED night shift rotation, but I hadn't seen Lux all day.
“Where's Lux?”
“His fight is coming up in a couple of days, so he spends most of the time at the gym training,” Oz said, offering me a seat on his lap. I wasn't going to say no to that. I looked at Oz's hand. A pair of Kings, not bad.
I looked at the chips in front of everyone and laughed. “How long until Tolliver has everyone's money? Because I need to borrow him and Sam for the night.”
Ri waggled his eyebrows, “The whole night? I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little jealous.”
I poked my tongue out at him. “That's not what I meant, and you know it.”
Oz's hand ran up and down my thigh soothingly. Well, kind of soothingly. His fingers kept brushing the inside of my thigh and the gesture was definitely climbing from soothing into something a lot hotter.
Sam and Valery folded, Oz showed his hand, and Tolliver revealed three of a kind. Oz let out a frustrated grunt.
“Don't worry, I'm out. Tolliver always wins. Greedy bastard,” Oz grumbled and I kissed his cheek. He turned my face and kissed me softly on the lips, a contented sigh escaping me before I could suck it back.
“I think I am being struck with Sam's Envy. I want to be the one making her sigh like that right now,” Valery groaned.
I blushed at the chorus of agreement. Despite Valery's words, there was no jealousy in their faces, just longing. This situation was beyond weird, almost unnatural, but I'd be damned (probably literally) if it didn't work just fine. They were happy to share and I was more than happy to be shared.
I stood, stretching slowly, feeling their eyes on me like predators observing their prey. But I didn't feel cornered, I felt powerful.
I passed the package that I'd been carrying around with me all night to Sam. “Can you go put this on? I ordered it online last night and got it express shipped. Yay for Amazon.”
Sam looked in the bag, his pretty mouth turned down in a frown. He pulled out the all black costume from the bag.
“Arcadia, why am I dressing up like a ninja?”
“You'll see, just get changed. Oz, did you find what I asked for?”
Oz shifted me on his lap, so I was pressed tighter against him.
“I did. It took some time to figure out the real ones from the phonies but I crossed checked it and this one fit you specifications perfectly and is legit. I found them on Craigslist, can you believe it?”
I watched Sam get undressed right there in the living room. I couldn't drag my eyes away as he slowly revealed smooth, hard muscles, his skin a creamy white. He ran his jeans down strong, muscular thighs and I forgot I had to breathe as he stood there in the nude.
“You don't wear underpants,” I whispered, unable to drag my eyes away even though my brain said that I should.
Not this part of your brain. Stare all day long. I'm starting to appreciate what you see in the pretty ones. He certainly is quite anatomically perfect, Ace purred.
Tolliver cleared his throat. “Would you two like the rest of us to leave?”
I snapped my head towards him. “What? Uh, no. It's okay. I'm just going to close my eyes until he's done though.” I scrunched my eyes shut to the sound of masculine laughter. Assholes. They knew how attractive they were.
There was rustling as Sam slid on the outfit. “Okay, I'm covered from head to toe like a harem girl now, so you can look.”
How anyone could still look attractive covered from head to toe in black with nothing but his eyes showing was beyond me, but Sam could achieve it. It didn’t help that he had beautiful eyes that sparkled with mischief. I sighed. Still enviable. I would have to try harder.
“Let’s go. Does anyone else want to come? Valery? Oz? Tolliver doesn't have much choice and Ri said he’d drive the getaway car, but everyone is welcome.”
“I wish I could, but I must get to bed. I have to go to the fish market at 4am to get fresh Icelandic trout before those hacks from Gastronomy steal them all out of spite. But I wish to hear all about you adventures tomorrow, oui?” Valery said as he came to stand beside me.
Apparently the restaurant business was just as cutthroat as the modelling business. “I will.” I kissed his cheek. Oz stood.
“I’m in. I just want to take a picture of Tolliver's face to show Lux and Eli. This is going to be good.”
Tolliver scowled. “Just wait until it’s your turn. I hope she makes you do boot camp or cross-fit or something.”
Oz paled, but that was actually a pretty good idea. I’d look into it. I would kind of like watching him get all sweaty. I made a note to ask Lux if his gym did that kind of thing.
As a group we descended to the garage. One girl, one guy, one lumberjack, one model and one ninja. We made an interesting group.
We stood in front of Tolliver’s SUV’s. The Range Rover, the Escalade, the Explorer and the Jeep.
“Pick one,” I told Tolliver, but I went over and held his hand. Although this seemed easy to me, what I had planned was going to be difficult for Tolliver. He had a compulsion that wasn't going to be easy to break.
He shook his head. “What am I choosing it for?”
I pulled out my phone and scrolled to the email Oz had sent me. I clicked on the photo of a woman with three adorable children sitting on the porch steps of a small house in the suburbs.
“This is Letitia Martin. She is a single mother of three. Her husband died two and a half years ago in a car accident. Six months ago, her youngest daughter, who is only three and a half, was diagnosed with a heart defect. Because it was classed as a pre-existing condition, Letitia's insurance refused to pay for the treatment. She had to sell everything to pay for this surgery. She lost her job because she had to care for her daughter. She lost the house where so many memories of her husband still reside
d. She is barely making ends meet. She catches a bus two hours each way to drop her kids off at their old school because she didn’t want to uproot them after so many other changes. So today, we are going to change her life. We are going to give one of your cars to her and her family. What do you say?”
Tolliver stared at me for a long time. His jaw worked as he ground his teeth. Then he turned and walked back to the lift, not looking at me as the doors closed.
My shoulders slumped. He wasn't going to do it. I wanted to cry. I’d needed this to work. Maybe I’d gone about it the wrong way. Maybe I should have consulted him more, instead of dropping it on him.
I looked at the guys, who were all staring at me. “I’m sorry. Maybe I’m not the Redeemer. I thought this would work.” I swallowed the lump in my throat, and blinked back tears. Sam was the first to give me a hug.
“Hey, it’s okay. It was a good idea. And Tolliver will come around. He probably just needs time to adjust.” He kissed my cheek, brushing stray strands of my hair behind my ears. “Besides, I totally rock this ninja suit.”
I gave him a half-hearted smile. “I’m beginning to think you could rock a potato sack.”
“I did a photo shoot once dressed in an indigo dyed hessian sack, so I can tell you from firsthand experience that I do indeed look great in a potato sack. Itchy as hell though.”
We waited a little longer in silence, but Tolliver didn't return.
“Well, we may as well go back up.”
I headed towards the lift when the doors suddenly slid back open.
Tolliver stood there holding a black workout bag. “Let's take the Escalade.”
I ran into his arms and held him tight. “I was a little worried you weren’t coming back.”
He wrapped his free arm around my back and kissed the top of my head. “Cady, don’t you realize that each of us would do just about anything to make you happy? I can give up a car to make you smile.”
I screwed up my nose. “All you cars. And the boat. And the yacht, bikes and the Jet Ski.”
His eyebrows rose. “All of them?”
“Well most of them. Except maybe two. We still need to get around too. But the rest… we’ll be giving them to good homes. I promise.”
Tolliver sighed. “You better give me this lady’s details so I can sign the Escalade over.” I handed him my phone with all of the details that Oz had retrieved about her from the web. It was a scary amount of detail really. Right down to her social security number, and her driver’s license details.
Ri laughed. “I’ll be damned. Well, damned again. I would never have thought that Tolliver would willingly give away something for nothing.” He turned from the man in question back to me. “But what I don’t get is why Sam is dressed in a ninja outfit?”
This was the second part of my plan. If the opposite of Greed was Charity, then the opposite of Envy is Kindness. And kindness doesn’t need to be big and splashy with lots of recognition. Kindness can be just leaving something that would change a person's life on the doorstep. Kindness is helping someone with no reward.
“Sam is going to deliver the goods. But I didn’t want him to be recognizable, which is hard considering his face is on the side of every bus from here to Alabama. I didn’t think a hat and some glasses were going to be enough.”
“Don’t you think this lady is going to freak seeing a six and a half foot Ninja at her door?” Oz asked. Good point.
“Let’s stop at the gas station on the way. We should fill up the escalade anyway.”
Tolliver finally finished the paperwork. “Let’s roll. It’s almost nine p.m. She’ll be asleep if we don’t get a move on.”
I piled into the Escalade with Sam and Tolliver, and Oz and Ri went in the Explorer so we had a lift back.
I paused as Tolliver placed the gym bag on the back seat. “What’s in the gym bag?”
He held the door open for me so I could slide into the back. “Twenty thousand dollars and the number to a burner phone in case the baby ever needs any more surgery.”
That moment right then, standing in the garage of the apartment building, I realized what the guys felt for me might be more than just longing or lust. And what I felt for them might be more than just an overactive libido and oodles of attraction. It might be another L word that scared the shit out of me. They’d forgotten - I’d forgotten - that I was only a temporary thing. My life was temporary. It’s like some part of my psyche decided that I was here now, I was complete with all these guys around me, making sure I was cared for better than any woman could possibly dream of, so I had the right to love them and be loved in return. My psyche was wrong. They couldn’t fix everything. I was still sick. I was still dying. And when I had finally redeemed them all, I would be dead.
“Hey, what put that look on you face?” Tolliver tilted my face up.
I forced a smile. “Nothing. I’m just really proud of you right now. But you’re right, we better get going.” I slid in the back of the car, but could feel Tolliver’s eyes watching me, before he shrugged and slid into the driver's seat. He shared a look with Sam, whose eyes sought mine in the rear view mirror. I gave him a smile, and he smiled back. Well, his eyes smiled back. His mouth was still covered by his ninja hood.
We stopped at the gas station, where Tolliver filled up the SUV with gas and I bought a bunch of flowers. A ninja was scary at 9pm at night, but a ninja with flowers couldn’t possibly be a murderer, right?
We parked a block away, behind the Explorer, and Tolliver slid out of the driver's seat, handing Sam the keys. He gave the Escalade one last longing look, and slid into the back of the Explorer.
I handed Sam the flowers, and Oz laughed. “That didn't help, Cady. Now he just looks like a serial killer with a gimmick. You’re going to have to go with him.” He pulled a cap and sunglasses from the glove compartment and stuck them on my head. “There you go. A disguise in the tradition of every bad spy movie ever.”
We pulled up in the driveway of a house that looked a little run down, but the flowerbeds were weed free and the yard was tidy. A single light was on in the living room, the rest of the house was in darkness.
I grabbed the duffle from the back seat and took it to the door with me, placing it on the welcome mat. Sam came and stood next to me.
“You should knock,” I told him, and he reached over and gave three hard raps at the door.
“You knock like the police,” I told him. “Or the repo man.” He rolled his eyes at me, and the door swung open.
Letitia Martin stood there, holding a baseball bat at her side. I didn’t blame her.
“Can I help you?” She sounded suspicious, and rightly so. Her eyes never strayed from Sam's Ninja form.
“Uh, hi Mrs Martin. We are actually here to help you. We have heard about your troubles, and about the problems you've been having with the insurance company, and I think we can help you. Well, I know we can.”
“Why is he dressed like a ninja?” she asked again, sounding even more suspicious if that were possible. If I knew I had to be at the door, I would have rehearsed a speech or something.
“I don’t wish to be recognized,” Sam said. “What I do want is to give you this car, and this money on behalf of a wealthy benefactor, in the hopes that we can make your life, and the life of your children, easier. The car is paid for, and legally transferred to your name. The papers are in the glove compartment. The money is all completely legally obtained. The Benefactor just wants to give back to society anonymously, so please don’t try and track him down. Anonymity is important to him and this process. That's all we ask. The rest is yours, free and clear.”
“There's no catch?”
I shook my head. “No catch. I know you are the kind of person who has a charitable heart, and it’s only right that we can do the same for you, now that it's your time of need. I know that if you are ever in that position again, you will pay it forward.”
“How could you possible know that about me?”
�
�I know that until your husband died, your family sponsored three children in third world countries, in honor of each of your own. I know even now you donate what little you can to the Red Cross in times of disaster of crisis. I know that you still give blood even though you are time poor. I know you give change to the homeless man near your bus stop every day, even though you are struggling to make ends meet. The internet is a scary place, Mrs Martin. You can find out all sorts of things about people. You are a good person, and you deserve this.”
Letitia Martin burst into tears. Huge, wracking sobs that made my own well eyes well up. She hugged me so tight that I was worried I was going to crack a rib.
Then she fell into Sam’s arms, and he held the woman as she cried tears of relief. Something shone in his eye, something that looked like pride, but not in the bad way. Letitia Martin finally pulled away with an uncomfortable clearing of her throat.
“I'm sorry. It's just… it's like God answered my prayers.”
Huh. Well, it was actually Lucifer in a roundabout way, but I decided not to tell her that. There were fresh tears when she opened Tolliver's duffle bag and saw all the fat wads of cash stacked in there.
“I can’t take this. It’s too much.”
She tried to hand the bag back to me but I moved my hands behind my back. Not very mature, but extremely effective.
“You can take it and you will. You’ll take it for your kids, and their futures. You can squirrel it away for emergencies, or you can pay off your medical bills, or you can just use it to keep you and the kids fed for a year. I don’t care what you do with it, because I know whatever you decide will be the right thing.”
“Don’t blow it on strippers and cocaine though. And I’d avoid Vegas,” Sam added, and I elbowed him in the ribs.
“We want you to have it. In fact, the Benefactor has left a phone number in the bag. He wants you to call if your babies ever need any more medical services. We are happy to pay, no questions asked.” I turned to Sam. “We should go.”
Letitia gave each of us one more hug. “Thank you. It doesn’t seem like enough. I'm afraid that I’ve fallen asleep on the couch and this is all a dream.”
Hell's Redemption- The Complete Series Boxset Page 12
