“You have his scotch?” A tall thin blond man asked.
“Duh.” She held up the bottle as if he needed visual proof. Just like the scotch, Lacey tended to be an acquired taste.
The man eyed Lacey, and then me, and stepped aside to let us in. “Put the scotch on the bar in the other room.”
The moment we walked in, I felt a tingle of electricity flow over my skin, and my hair stood on end. A prehistoric remnant, left over from thousands of years ago, issued a warning that my evolved brain could no longer decipher. Combined with my lack of direction, it was hard not to wonder if evolution hadn’t cut some corners along the way.
I looked over at Lacey, and when she met my gaze her eyes doubled in diameter with a blatant, I told you I didn’t want to come here. Now do you get it?
I simply nodded and gave a silent reply to her with my eyes that said let’s drop off the bottle and get the hell out of here.
The entire far wall of the foyer was glass, and it offered a spectacular view of the Vegas Strip. At night, like it was now, with the lights dimmed low, you could see the light going on for miles. I had a hard time breaking my gaze away from the stunning view.
I followed her into the next room that looked to be the living room. It had the same outer wall of windows, with a large screen TV that somehow floated in the center. A matching set of tan suede couches faced each other and a full-length bar made of black stone ran along the back wall. My eyes searched out the view again. All I could think of was how wonderful it must be to live high up here with the world at your feet.
The apartment was eerily quiet, and we instinctively honored the silence. Somehow afraid if we uttered a word, we would draw the attention of whatever was lying in wait, the eerie presence hovering nearby that we couldn’t quite define. Lacey was just about to place the bottle on the bar when we heard a rustling from the other room.
“Hello.”
The deep gravelly voice sent a shiver down my spine. I looked over at the doorway to see a pair of the palest blue eyes I’d ever encountered, set like aquamarines in a frame of dark black lashes. His dark tan skin, and black wavy hair framing them, just made them even more unusual. I knew instantly that this had to be Cormac Hawking. I would have known him even in a crowded room, surrounded by hundreds of others. Lacey wasn’t the type to avoid attractive men, and he was incredibly handsome in a deeply sexual way. He was nicely over six feet, with broad shoulders encased in a white tuxedo shirt that hung slightly open. But it was the power that seeped from him, not his size, that made him alarming to even my senses, not that I’d ever show it, but I felt it in spades. It rolled off him in wave after wave until it practically smothered all my other senses. He was the kind of man who dominated a room without even trying. The primitive part of my brain was screaming for me to leave, but the female in me wanted to get closer, even as I knew that this man was dangerous.
I looked at Lacey to see if she was ready to make an exit, but at the current moment, she stood so still she would have made a deer in the headlights look animated.
“We were just dropping off your scotch,” I stated, as Lacey remained where she was frozen.
“Thank you.” He looked sparingly at Lacey, but quickly dismissed her and returned his gaze to mine. “Would you mind?” He held out his hand that had a pair of cuff links resting on his palm. “It’s easier with two hands.”
“Sure.” He stood where he was, making me walk to him as he waited, and I think maybe assessing me. I took one link from his hand, trying to make as little contact with his skin as possible, afraid that somehow he’d discover my unease. One thing I’ve learned from a life of shuffling from place to place, never let them know you’re nervous. Then I blew it and dropped the second link on the carpet.
“Sorry,” I said, as I reached down and grabbed it.
“No problem,” he replied with a smile on his lips.
I felt like he was playing a game with me, but no one had bothered to fill me in on the rules.
“Your eyes are very unusual, such a vivid green.”
I met his stare fully now. I didn’t like being toyed with, and some part of me knew he was playing my reactions like a fiddle.
“Thank you,” I replied, and continued to hold his gaze.
“Do they run in your family?”
I hesitated, which probably seemed weird to him, being such a straightforward question. “No,” I lied. Some kernel of preservation in my brain was screaming the less he knew the better. Another part of me, maybe the larger part, didn’t want to admit to not knowing my parents.
He lost his smile and looked at me intently, but not aggressively. He knew I was lying. By that simple answer, I had just somehow cemented my position on his radar. He knew something was off.
He lifted his hand slowly toward my face. This game I knew well, he was playing chicken, seeing if I’d stand my ground or pull back. I stood my ground and he ran his index finger along my cheekbone.
“Pretty.”
His smile was back. It was a smile of a man used to winning.
“Thank you,” I countered in the blasé tone of a woman used to being pursued. He was going to have to up his game if he was going to try to storm this castle. Men had chased me for months, let alone weeks, and had gotten nowhere.
The clanking sound of Lacey banging into a glass drew our notice and broke the tension.
“Sorry,” she muttered softly across the room, a few shards of glass lay at her feet.
He looked unfazed. “Leave it; I’ll have one of the maids get it.” He turned his attention back to me. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you, again.” He turned and left.
The minute he was gone, Lacey had her hand clamped around my wrist and tugged me out of there, as quickly as she could drag me.
Lacey came back to her normal self once the elevator doors slid shut, leaving the two of us alone, again. “Oh, my god!” she said. “He was so into you! I’ve never seen him act like that with anyone. He barely acknowledges Vicky and he’s slept with her!”
“It’s only because he’s never seen me before. Those kinds of men are always like that.” I hoped that was what it was, because I didn’t want his kind of attention. I was all about keeping my nose clean, getting into med school, and hopefully figuring out what the hell was wrong with me before NASA came and decided to find out for me. Getting derailed by some thirty something playboy, in his expensive penthouse, who wanted a little amusement wasn’t what I needed. I was well past the point in my life where I believed in happily ever after. My reality didn’t include castles and gallant knights, and I didn’t need them. I handled my own problems. Romance and men were a luxury I couldn’t afford, right now.
Chapter Three
“Hi, Jonny, I need a Bombay martini straight up with olives.”
“Hi, Darling, what are you doing here?” Jonny gave me the smile he used on the girls he was working for tips, or other more personal pursuits as Lacey had informed me. He did always seem to be preoccupied, that was for sure.
“Lacey asked me to cover. She had a date tonight.” I’d been there for only two weeks, and I’d already filled in for Lacey three times.
“How come you don’t?” he asked shifting into full gear.
“Jonny, I don’t have time to date. I told you that.”
“I could take you to that nice steak house that just opened up in the Bellagio.”
I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but it was hard not to laugh at his persistence. It was starting to become a routine with us. He asked. I declined. Rinse and repeat.
“Jonny, aren’t you getting tired of asking?”
“Tired of asking what?” Vicky laid her tray down on the bar as she came and stood next to me. “To go out with you, again? Don’t look at me all shocked. Everyone knows he’s been sniffing around you nonstop for weeks.”
“Why are you standing over here? Didn’t you see the boss come in?” Jonny struck back at her.
“Where?” Vicky, too interested
in Cormac’s possible arrival, didn’t even blink an eye at the dig, but instead scanned the casino floor like a hawk trying to spot her prey. “Where? I don’t see him.”
“You need glasses. You’re as blind as a bat. He’s at table seven,” Jonny replied with barely concealed dislike.
I couldn’t help myself, and turned to look as well. I inwardly cringed when I realized he was sitting in my area, talking to the high roller who was betting fifty thousand a hand at black jack for the last hour. Knots instantly formed in my stomach and reached all the way up to my throat. I had seen him coming and going since the night in his penthouse but always at a distance. I’d caught him watching me a handful of times, but he’d never approached me.
From what I had noticed, other than Lacey and I, most of the women here flocked to him. The very danger that made me steer clear of him, seemed to have the opposite effect, and pulled them in like magnets.
“Can I take your table? I’ll give you table three. The guy’s been giving me a ten every round. Please!”
She whined for a moment while I hesitated, not wanting anyone to know that I was actually relieved to relinquish the table. “Okay, but you owe me.” She was gone before I’d finished speaking.
“Now, back to dinner.”
“Jonny, you’re a nice guy, but I’m not interested. Doesn’t matter who you are or how great you are, I don’t date.” I added the last part to try to smooth his ego. Truth was, I couldn’t date. Even if I had the time and wanted to date him, which I didn’t, I’d never be able to explain the weird things that happened around me. Sometimes I got tired of being alone, but that didn’t change anything. I had tried dating before. Sooner or later it would get serious, and they would want to stay the night. I knew from my childhood, I couldn’t risk having anyone around when I slept. That’s when it got the strangest, but I couldn’t think about that right now.
As I got back to checking on my section, I tried to keep my distance from table seven as much as I could. That was hard since that table sat in the middle of my area. Luckily, Vicky offered a distraction and draped herself over Cormac like a cheap suit anytime I was near. I had the distinct feeling it was because he kept watching my movements, and I wasn’t the only one who had noticed. After about an hour, I started to get a little high-strung about being under constant surveillance. But, just when I’d about had it with being visually stalked, he was gone.
I was grateful, I wanted to keep this job. I’d finally been able to watch a couple of movies and have some downtime. I’d been sleeping more and even baked cookies with Mrs. Harvey. I felt like a human being again.
By time the night was done, my feet ached and I couldn’t wait to get my shoes off. I hated heels and couldn’t wait to get my sneakers on. Tomorrow morning, I would go for a run, another thing I had time for lately. I hadn’t put on weight. I was curvy but thin. Running was simply my release from the world.
When I looked up at the bar, I saw Cormac Hawking had reappeared and was now sitting at the far end with the high roller. They looked like they were having a disagreement of sorts, and they didn’t even notice me. I let out a sigh of relief that I was done for the night, and could go hide in obscurity.
“Hey, Jonny, this should be all of it,” I said, as I handed him the change from the last round and a pile of singles he was going to change in for larger bills. I’d done amazingly well tonight. I’d made almost enough for half a month’s rent.
When the high roller that Mr. Hawking had been sitting with approached me, I pretended to be preoccupied. The guy had been hitting on everything with legs, and I didn’t feel like being the next.
“All done?” he asked
He definitely wasn’t the type to take a subtle hint. I turned to see him.
“Yes,” I said in a slightly clipped voice and went back to what I was doing. That was my second level rejection. In my experience, that only had a fifty percent success rate, so I wasn’t surprised when he continued.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
“I don’t drink.” I did, but it was none of his business. He wasn’t a bad looking guy, a few inches taller than my five feet four inches and solid looking with longish light brown hair. He clearly had money as well, the way he was betting, but even if I could date, and I wasn’t a freak, something about him reminded me of nails on a chalk board.
“How ’bout a coffee?”
Ugh, the guy just wouldn’t take the hint, or maybe you could call it a sledge hammer in this case. “I’m not interested.” I could smell alcohol and a recent smoke on his breath as he moved in closer.
“I don’t think you know who I am. You’d be lucky to date me.”
“Right now, I’d feel lucky if you would back off, because you smell like a burned out brewery.” I took a deep breath, knowing I was about to really step over the line with a customer, but the guy was starting to really piss me off. I looked up wondering where the hell Jonny had gone. I wanted to get my tips so I could get out of there, and he was nowhere to be found.
The guy reached out and grabbed my upper arm in a tight, but not painful, grip. He pulled me closer and leaned in my face, “You better ask around and learn your place quick.”
Something in me snapped. I knew how I looked to people because I went out of my way to perpetrate the image. Everyone assumed a pretty little thing like me was innocent, that without a man, I was helpless. But, that was only to those who weren’t looking closely enough, which luckily for me, were most. I’d spent enough time taking care of myself to handle a jerk like this.
I held his stare. “I don’t know who you are, and I’m certainly not going to ask around.” I leaned in as close as I could stand and whispered in a voice so low only he could hear. “And you know why? Because I don’t give a shit. Now get your hand off of me, or you’re going to be crawling out of here.”
His grip tightened just enough to be uncomfortable. “What do you think you’re going to do?” he asked.
I knew what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t do that here without people knowing something wasn’t right with me, but I’d learned how to get around that over the years. I’d couch what I wanted to do for something that would be almost as effective.
Kneeing a guy in between the legs works much less often than people think. Men aren’t stupid about that area. It’s the first place they block, so as I jerked my knee up, I knew I wasn’t going to get a clean shot, but I also knew I wouldn’t need one. I just had to connect to his body in that ultra sensitive area to shoot a little pain his way. No one would ever guess that anything abnormal was happening. They’d simply think I’d managed to connect better than I had.
He had no idea it was coming. One second he was leaning over me as the aggressor, and the next he was crying at my feet like a baby.
I took a step away from him, looking for Jonny, knowing it was time to flee the scene before the guy made it to his feet. When I looked around, I found quite a few people, including Jonny, had witnessed the scene.
“Thanks for the help,” I said sarcastically to Jonny. I knew the next time he offered to walk me out, I’d laugh in his face.
“Didn’t look like you needed any,” a deep voice from behind me answered for him. With my back still to him, I grimaced slightly, then turned around, and waited to see if I was going to be fired.
I looked into Cormac’s chiseled face and had no idea what he was thinking. His eyes were intense as he looked at me, and I had a fleeting thought that maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing if he fired me. Just his presence affected me more than any other man I’d ever met. “Am I fired?”
“Why would you be fired?”
Without a hint of emotion shown, I wasn’t sure if he was baiting me or being obtuse. I doubted he was obtuse but I stated the obvious anyway, “Because I attacked your customer?” It was a bit awkward while the man was still lying on the ground, practically at my feet, and still occasionally moaned.
“Yes, I saw. Looked like he had it coming.” He waved over a coupl
e of men whom I hadn’t noticed. “Help Tracker to his car,” he told them, and they each grabbed him under the arm. “Where did you learn to take care of yourself like that?”
He was eyeing me intensely, and even though he couldn’t know that there was something wrong with me, I felt like he did. I don’t know how, but he knew I wasn’t who I pretended to be.
“I took some self-defense classes.” I’d never taken a self-defense class in my life.
He didn’t say anything, just nodded his head. He knew I’d lied… again. I’d done my fair share of lying because of my secrets. I knew the tells people gave and I knew I didn’t do them. I was a good liar. I was pretty confident I’d even pass a lie detector test if I had to. How did he know?
We stood there for a moment appraising each other. I waited, on the inside I was sweating bullets, waiting for him to call me a liar or ask where I’d taken a class, but on the outside I was completely poised. I stood my ground like his equal. He was the owner of the hottest casino on the strip. I’d heard whispers of him having holdings in half of the other casinos in Vegas, which was stunning for a man in his thirties. Me, on the other hand, I worried how I’d pay my rent for a trailer that looked like it’s best years had come, gone, and then been forgotten. But, I didn’t care.
I’d watched people tip toe around him for the last three weeks. If that was the type of employee he needed, better to fire me now. I bowed to no one.
He slowly looked me up and down. He was testing my mettle, trying to get me to shrink back, to break the silence first or bend in some telling way that would prove my inferiority. I wouldn’t. What would normally be an insignificant amount of time dragged by, second after second, until he raised his eyebrows and tilted his head toward me in a silent acknowledgment. I’d passed. I didn’t know exactly what I’d passed, but I’d passed. It wasn’t surprising to me that I wasn’t fully cued in on what had gone down. This was the second time I’d had real interaction with him. Whatever rules he lived by, I decided, were not the run-of-the-mill existence.
The Keepers (The Alchemy Series) Page 2
