But I had to see him.
Darla talked more in the thirty minutes I was there than she normally did, mentioning some of the books she’d bought—she’d already read five—with the money I’d put into the account I’d set up for her.
I would just keep topping off that gift card. She could buy the whole damn universe and I wouldn’t care.
She looked almost happy.
“Want to see a picture of my brother?” she asked just as I was getting ready to go.
“I…” Pausing, I looked back at her. “A brother.”
“Yeah. Um, well. You asked about my family and … well, he’s all I got.” She glanced away, her cheeks going pink. She had better color the past few days, and I’d heard the nurse telling her that she was glad that Darla had found her appetite. “We’ve only got each other, see.”
She shrugged then and darted a look at me. “I didn’t know about him until a few years ago. My mum died and I…”
My mum.
My heart seemed to falter, skipping beats until I wasn’t breathing normally.
“I ended up in foster care. But I started nosing around and found out about him. He’d moved to the States a long time ago. Mum and I ended up over here when some boyfriend of hers promised her…” Darla sighed. “Stupid things. But he ended up arrested, and Mum overdosed one night—accident. She didn’t do it on purpose. She loved herself too much to just end it.”
“Loved herself?” I asked, my voice tight.
“Yeah.” The thread of music worked its way in her voice, and I couldn’t help but wonder at it, wonder why I’d never noticed before.
“You’re from Scotland, aren’t you?”
“Born there.” Darla’s chin went up. “Mum dragged me over here when I was ten…”
She stopped again and shook her head. “Here. You should see my brother. I tracked him down online, using a computer at the library. He’d been arrested…” Her voice trailed away once more. She just shoved the tablet at me and forged on. “Anyway, it let me track him down. The stupid government here, they won’t leave us alone, but I get to see him some.”
The words came together in a strange, twisted sort of beauty, and even before I accepted the tablet from her, I knew.
My breathing hitched as I stared at Sean’s face. He’d obviously used the tablet to take the picture, and sometime recently. I could see the gift card sitting on the edge of her bedside table, exactly where it was now. He was smiling at the camera, head pressed to Darla’s. But his smile was strained. Almost grim.
Darla, though, she was smiling, and the curve of her mouth, the set of her eyes … I looked this time and saw it.
“Your brother,” I said thickly, tracing my fingers over the image of his face.
“Yeah. I … well, we’ve only known each other a couple of years, and the state won’t let me go live with him. I did for a while, but then I got sick and they took me away. When I’m not here, I’m stuck in a group home or with foster parents. Sean … well, he visits me a lot. He’s my brother. I … I love him,” she whispered.
I couldn’t say anything.
I could only nod.
Not only had I been wrong the other day—I already knew that—I’d been cruel and stupid and small-minded.
I had to find him.
* * *
“I swear, honey, if they find out I’ve been digging through the computer for you, they’ll fire me.” Sasha gave me a dark look and went back to pounding on the keys.
I stayed where I was, a nervous lookout who jumped at every sound.
I hadn’t been in Tilt Stop for well over a month. Not that it had changed—it never changed.
Schedules changed, and apparently so did employees, because Sean had worked there a few days after he walked away from me and then he’d quit.
Somebody must have told him I was hanging around.
There was only one thing to be done—have Sasha hack into the computer and get his address.
“You know, honey, you got the money to hire a PI to find him.”
I shot her adark look. “No. I don’t want anybody digging into his past, I just want his address.”
She heaved out a gusty sigh and continued to bang at the keys on the computer. “Oh, come on, you sack of…” Then she grinned. “That’s it, talk to Mama.”
Sasha had almost gotten expelled in college because of her talent with all things tech. She loved doing things she shouldn’t, stopping short of anything criminal.
Why she was working at a place like Tilt Stop when she could be working for some of the biggest software companies around, I didn’t know.
For now, though, her skills were mine.
“Got it.”
I looked over just in time to see her scrawling something on a note and tearing it from the pad.
A moment later, I had his address in my hand.
“Is everything okay?” Sasha asked me after we’d slipped into the hall. “I mean … hell. I know you hired him.”
She slid me an appraising look. “If you’re heartbroken and shit, you’re wasting your time. He’s in this for the business, for the money.”
I had a feeling there was a lot more to it than that, but I wasn’t going to argue. Whether I was wrong or not, the things I knew about Sean were between us.
“We just have some unsettled business.”
* * *
That was exactly what I told myself when I pulled the car up in front of a building that looked like it should have been knocked down around the time of the World War. The first one.
Crumbling red brick, windows with paint either peeling away or completely gone, each of the squat little buildings was a miserable mark on the world, and the people who gathered around them didn’t look much happier than the busted-up homes.
I eyed the one in front of me.
The address was correct.
I’d let myself double-check that one thing after I saw what part of town he lived in. I was determined, yes. But I wasn’t stupid.
Now the question was …
I pulled my car forward about fifteen feet and then stopped. If he saw my car, he wasn’t going to come outside. I knew that well enough. That done, I grabbed my phone and dialed.
There was no answer, just as there hadn’t been for some time.
So I sent him a message.
He never responded back, but I had a feeling he read them. Maybe I was clinging to hope, I don’t know.
I sent him another message, short and sweet—and it would likely set a fire under his fine ass, so if he was home, I’d know.
I’m on my way to your place. I dug up your address. We need to talk and since you won’t answer my calls, I’m coming to you.
I hit send and looked up at the dismal block where Sean lived. Well, he lived in one part of that block—Apartment B.
Not even five minutes passed before he was striding outside and heading off down the sidewalk, head bent against the wind, the collar of a battered jean jacket turned up against the cold.
I went to shove open my door and froze.
A man was leering at me. He stood in front of the car, and while I sat there, unable to move, he reached down and stroked his penis through his jeans.
A thousand nightmares came to life.
I went to throw the car into drive, desperate to escape.
No! Some small, defiant part of me resisted the need to run. I’d been running for so long. Staring at the man in fear, I grasped the handle of the door while my heart raced and breath shuddered in and out of my lungs.
No.
Then I whispered it. “No.”
Tearing open the door, I all but fell out of the car, never once looking away from the man with his lecherous leer.
Slowly, I backed away. Glancing quickly behind me, I saw Sean’s back, rapidly disappearing down the sidewalk as he moved off into the night, completely unaware of me.
“Sean!”
I darted another look over my shoulder—just one, so fast
I couldn’t tell if he’d heard me.
Then I looked back.
A couple of kids were leaning against a car across the street and laughing as the man approached, that leer stretching and distorting his face.
“You want a treat, pretty little lady?” he asked, his voice slurred. “I got one for ya … you can pet it. Taste it if you want.”
The kids across the street started to whoop.
Voices I’d tried so hard to forget raged against the storm brewing inside me.
I moved faster, desperate to be away.
I tripped.
Terror screamed—
Strong hands caught me.
The familiar scent of Sean Lachlan wrapped around me, and dazed, I looked up at him, but he wasn’t watching me. “Percy, you perverted prick, I told you what I’d do to you the next time I saw you trying to wave that pitiful penis of yours at some woman down here.”
The man—Percy—darted his eyes away from me to Sean.
I had no idea what he saw when he looked at Sean, but it had all the blood draining out from his face.
And the kids across the street weren’t laughing anymore.
Sean shot out a hand—I’d forgotten how big and cruel those hands might seem. He grabbed the skinny man and jerked him forward.
I swallowed a yelp as he drove a fist into the man’s gut and then caught him by his hair, hauling him upright. Blood splattered.
In seconds, it was over. Percy ended up curled onto his side and sobbing, half choking through a mess of mucus and blood.
Shaken, I just stared at him.
Want a treat, little girl …
“Oi, Ella!”
I jumped at the sound of his voice and looked up to see Sean glaring at me.
There was rage all over his face, and I … I think I just broke.
I burst into tears. Blinded by them, I tried to dart around him. He stopped me. He said something, but I couldn’t understand it through the blood roaring in my ears, through the sound of my crying.
When he picked me up, I swung out, trying to fight.
It did no good.
The world started to tilt and whirl—he was carrying me. There was a grunt, followed by a bang that had me jolting in his arms.
“You wanted to talk?”
Sean dumped me on the couch and I looked around, dazed. It dawned on me then that the bang had been from him slamming the door shut.
He went to open his mouth and then stopped, shaking his head.
Silent, tears still burning my eyes, I watched him stride back to the door and jerk it open, staring outside.
“If that car’s still in one piece when the lady is done, you each get twenty dollars, cash!” he shouted.
“Twenty? Shiiiiit … make it fifty.”
“How about I make it nothing, and when it gets stolen or torn up, I take it out of your ass?”
There was a little more back and forth, and the world began to feel more and more surreal.
I needed to get out of there.
I’d messed up, and then I’d messed up again by coming here.
Lurching to my feet, I went to cross the floor, but Sean stopped me. “Not so fast, Your Highness,” he said.
Mocking me now. There was no kindness in his voice, no tenderness.
Icy gray eyes stared at me, and I could feel myself shriveling away.
No. I’d come this far.
“I owe you an apology.”
Blond brows winging up, Sean studied me. Then he shrugged. “So you’ve said on your messages—all fucking two hundred. Fine. You’re sorry. We’re square.” He leaned in closer and whispered, “Now get out of my home and out of my life.”
“I…”
He turned on his heel and stormed back to the door.
“I can’t.”
He tensed, one hand on the door handle. “It’s not that hard. You just tuck that ugly notion you had back into your skull, convince yourself it’s true—it didn’t take much for you to think it, did it?” The look he fired my way flayed me open, straight to the bone. He turned away quickly, though, as if he couldn’t stand to look at me.
It wasn’t the anger that did me in.
It was the hurt.
“Wait a damn minute,” I said, my voice tightening.
Something in my tone had him stilling, but he didn’t look back at me.
“You lashed out at me not that long ago, and I gave you a chance to explain. You owe me the same courtesy.”
“I had a fucking bad day and acted like an arse,” Sean said, turning slowly to face me. “You made a fucking low accusation. There’s a bit of a difference, Your Highness.”
“Don’t call me that!” I shouted. “And stop turning away from me. You’re going to stand there and let me apologize, damn it. Or … or…”
His eyes narrowed speculatively. In a taunting voice, he said, “You’ll what, Ella? It’s not like I own some fucking company you can take over. I don’t have anything. It’s almost freeing, really. I have nothing you can take and I’m a bloody whore. It’s not like you can ruin my good name. What can you do to me?”
“I can hit you.” I curled a hand into a fist, glaring at him.
A blond brow winged up. “You’d break your hand, assuming you even know how to hit.”
“Try me.” I jutted my chin up. “Now shut up and let me apologize. I’m sorry I hurt you.”
He jerked his head back. There was a flash, for just a moment. Then he started to laugh. “Ella, pet … you’re a fucking paycheck as far as I’m concerned. Or rather … you were. You can hurt me about as much as a pile of money could—you made life a lot easier, but once you’re gone … well, it wasn’t like I ever had much anyway. You can’t hurt me. You’re just a job.”
He said the words so easily, so calmly. Matter-of-factly, even, and if I hadn’t seen the glint in his eyes, if I hadn’t seen the way his jaw went tight … and if I couldn’t remember the rage that had exploded out of him only moments ago on the street.
I wasn’t just a job.
I didn’t think.
But if that was the way he wanted to play it, then who was I to argue?
I grabbed a handkerchief from my purse and wiped my eyes, dabbing away the tears that had come on during the near–panic attack. I looked like a nightmare and I knew it.
It was now or never, though. Once I went out that door, Sean would never talk to me again. Not unless I fixed this.
Rising, I put my purse down. “Just a job?”
“That’s right, love.” He shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest, the grin on his face just the faintest bit bored. “A job. A little more involved than most, but the payoff…” He slid his eyes down my body and then continued. “It was worth it in more ways than one.”
“Then maybe you’d like a bonus for a job well done.”
I stripped.
Standing right there in front of him and fueled only by the thought of losing him, I removed every single stitch of clothing. Fear made my hands clumsy. The thought of losing him—even an hour with him—made me clumsier, though, and terrified.
Sean’s jaw went tight.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“I’d like one final … service.” I angled my chin up, and in the obnoxious voice I used with the sly businessmen who thought they could get the better of me, I dared him. “One last job, Sean. Do well and I’ll pay you one million dollars.”
He gaped at me.
A chill drifted across my skin, and despite the heated rush brought on by my embarrassment, I shivered. My nipples went tight.
Sean’s gaze dipped, and then he shook his head faintly. “Maybe I was wrong,” he rasped. “Maybe you are a fucking nutter.”
“No.” Sadness burned inside me as I continued to wait. And I decided … what the hell. He already hates me. “I’m not crazy. I’m just…”
His gaze strayed down to my naked breasts and then back to my face. “Just what?”
“In love with y
ou.”
End of Part 2
Don’t miss Thirty Nights with a Dirty Boy’s electrifying finale in Part 3 …
Don’t miss a moment of Shiloh Walker’s sensational 3-part e-serial Thirty Nights with a Dirty Boy from HeroesandHeartbreakers.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid. She loves reading and writing, anything paranormal, anything fantasy, and nearly every kind of romance. Once upon a time she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the Midwest. She has authored dozens of works of romantic suspense, contemporary and paranormal romance, and urban fantasy under the name J.C. Daniels. Look for her new romance Headed for Trouble, coming soon from St. Martin’s Press. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
“Thirty Nights with a Dirty Boy: Part 2” Copyright © 2016 by Shiloh Walker.
All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover photograph © Servo/Shutterstock
Author photo © Ayrica Bishop
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
Thirty Nights with a Dirty Boy: Part 2: A Heroes and Heartbreakers Serial Page 7
