Madam Temptress

by Meghan March

  “Because I’m not Ernie, you sick fuck.”

  My attacker charged toward the light, but it went dark, and all I heard next was a struggle.

  I prayed to God that whoever shined the flashlight was my literal light in the darkness. I shrieked beneath the duct tape, my throat feeling like it had been sliced to ribbons on the inside, and prayed he heard the scream that Ernie said was loud enough to cover six blocks.

  Please, God. Please tell me you sent this guy.

  God didn’t answer. He never did. Which meant I’d have to wait to see who survived, and if it was the flashlight guy, I hoped like hell he wasn’t here to do something even worse.

  I didn’t know how long the thrashing on the floor lasted, but it felt like an eternity. Until finally . . . it stopped.

  I stayed silent, terrified the one with sour breath was going to stand up and go back to jacking his cock to rape me. But the flashlight came on again.

  “You okay?”

  My entire body went limp and tears sprang to my eyes. The light moved with him as he came toward the bed, but this time, it wasn’t shining in my face and blinding me.

  I mumbled beneath the duct tape, and he flipped the edge of the blanket over my naked body.

  Thank you, God. Thank you so fucking much. He wouldn’t cover me if he was going to rape me, would he?

  “This is gonna hurt somethin’ fierce coming off. But there ain’t shit I can do about it. You understand?”

  I nodded, and he angled the flashlight so he could see what he was doing. His fingertips touched my skin, but instead of shrinking away, I felt no fear.

  I felt saved. Like I’d been pardoned from certain death. Like I’d been delivered from the depths of hell itself.

  “Okay. One. Two—” He tore it off on two.

  “Fuck,” I screeched. “Jesus, that stings.”

  His voice was deeper than the Mississippi, yet smooth like line-dried satin. “Let me get you a cold cloth. Unless you got ice that ain’t melted yet.”

  I couldn’t give a fuck about the stinging on my face, and I shook my head from side to side. “Cut me loose. Please, just cut me loose.”

  We both heard it, the desperation cloaking my words.

  “All right. I will. Give me just a second.” He reached into his pocket, produced a knife, and a sharp, involuntary surge of panic ripped through my belly.

  He must have noticed me jerk back, because he paused, knife in hand. “Hey. It’s okay. I’m just gonna cut you loose. Not gonna hurt you. What’s your name, anyway?”

  “Magnolia,” I said, forcing myself to calm the fuck down.

  “I’m Moses. And fucking unwilling women ain’t my kink, so you’ve got nothing to worry about right now, okay?”

  I swallowed, but my mouth was bone dry. “Okay.”

  He sliced through the duct tape at my wrists, and I yanked them apart and drew them to my chest the instant they were free. Holding the flashlight down by my legs, he carefully cut the tape from my ankles. As soon as I was unbound, I rolled off the bed and dove for the shotgun.

  “Whoa. Whoa. Hey, now.” He lifted his hands into the air, the knife still clutched in one. “I just fucking helped you. I ain’t here to hurt you. So don’t fucking shoot me, Magnolia.”

  It had been a long time since I’d been this sore, and I wasn’t in the mood to beat around the bush. I’d been beaten enough. “Why are you here?”

  “I was checking on an old family friend across the street, but the house was empty. I heard you scream. Thought I should check it out. Tried to ask the first dude what was going on, but he didn’t so much want to talk as he wanted to kill me. And, well, I’m guessing you can tell how that story ended.”

  I choked back the lump in my throat. “Ernie.”

  “Yeah, Ernie. You knew him?”

  I shook my head, but since the man wasn’t shining the flashlight directly at my face, he might not have been able to see me. “No. I don’t know either of them, where they came from or why they were here, but—”

  “It’s okay. Just . . . put the gun down. Like I told you, unwilling women aren’t my thing.” The beam of the flashlight moved to his shoulder. “Did he get me? Because that fucking burns like a son of a bitch.”

  That’s when I saw the blood dripping down his arm, and I lowered the shotgun. “Yeah. He got you.”

  The light beam swung back over to me. “Looks like he got you too. Your face is busted to fuck. What do you say we help each other and do some first aid while we figure out where the hell you’re gonna go so this doesn’t happen again.”

  “Go?” I glared at him like he was crazy. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  He came toward me, and although I didn’t point the shotgun in his face again, I kept it handy.

  “You really want to stay here? Because these might not be the only two assholes prowling around aiming to loot shit. This city is a fucking madhouse right now. I’ve never seen it like this before.”

  He was right. It wasn’t safe for me to be here alone. But I’d stayed because the house was all I had. If something happened to it, I wouldn’t have shit, and I’d end up working the corner again. That was something I had to avoid, no matter what.

  “I can’t leave the house. I gotta protect it. It’s all I’ve got.”

  He crouched down in front of me. “Well, hell. I don’t much like the idea of you here all alone, a sitting duck for the next Ernie and friend to come along and . . .” He trailed off, but I didn’t need him to finish the sentence.

  I wouldn’t be as vulnerable again. Never again. “I’ll keep the gun closer. I’ll put a hole in whoever comes in this house next.”

  “Why don’t you start with getting some clothes on first. That’ll be a right good start.”

  I didn’t take orders, or actually even suggestions, from just anyone. But this person had literally delivered me from almost certain death. But why?

  “Who . . . who are you? What are you doing here? Let me see you.”

  He angled the flashlight so the beam illuminated the most beautiful face I’d ever seen on a man. Chiseled and angular. Warm-toned skin. And green eyes that glowed like jewels.

  “Like I said, I’m Moses. And, apparently, I was sent here to save you.”

  Two

  Magnolia

  Present day

  “He’s been lying to you since the moment you met him.” Mount’s words hang in the cabin of the car, mingling with the scent of the fancy leather.

  My gaze cuts to Moses as my imagination goes wild. “What the fuck is he talking about?”

  Moses’s glare could eviscerate a man, but Mount just smiles like he’s proud of himself.

  Fucker. Right now, they’re both the damn enemy.

  “I’m not sure what the fuck kind of game you two are playing, but I don’t want any part of it. I knew this shit was too good to be true.” I shake my head, reaching for the door handle. “I’m out.”

  I yank the handle and climb out, not caring how expensive the car is when I slam the door as hard as I fucking can.

  Another man, another liar. Why am I even surprised?

  I grind my teeth, fighting against the pain that’s coming. Betrayal fucking sucks. I should know better because I’ve been on both sides of the equation.

  Maybe this is karma. Ho-It-All pipes up, and I want to bitch-slap her into submission. The last thing I need is to remind myself that I probably deserve this.

  I stalk toward Bernie’s house but pause at the gate.

  I can’t go back inside. Not like this.

  The other door flings open, and Moses’s massive body emerges from the car right before it pulls away from the curb and rolls down the street like Satan’s chariot. And maybe it is.

  The expression on Moses’s face is hard and unreadable. He stalks toward me and opens his mouth, but I beat him to the punch.

  Hands on my hips, I steel myself for war. “You married? Got kids? How many?”

  “Mama—”

&
nbsp; My head slowly moves from side to side. “Don’t you fucking mama me like it’s going to make me any less pissed. For the first time in a long damn time, I thought I had something. I thought we had something. And now I don’t know what the fuck to think. So, tell me, where’s your goddamned wife, Moses?”

  I’m yelling by the end, but I don’t care. It’s not like Bernie will hear me over her stories, and if Norma does, she won’t interfere beyond sending me a text later to see if I’m okay.

  Moses inches closer, holding out a hand, and his wild eyes make an effort to plead his case.

  I jerk away. “Don’t fucking touch me. I’ve fucked enough married men. I didn’t need to do it again. So unless you’re gonna tell me right now that Mount is fucking with my head for some other goddamned reason, you’d better spit out the truth right the fuck now.”

  “I’m not married. No kids, Mags. That ain’t it. Not even close.”

  A giant whoosh of relief sweeps through me, but I’m afraid to trust it. “You fucking sure?”

  He nods. “Never wanted to be tied to any woman other than you. Whether you believe that or not.”

  The knot in the pit of my stomach loosens, but who knows for how long. “Then what the hell did you lie about?”

  Moses glances around the neighborhood as a car slows at a stop sign down the tree-lined street. “Not here. We can’t take any more chances. Whoever the bastard is who’s coming at you, I’m not taking a chance he’s gonna find you here.”

  He takes a step toward his car, reaching for the passenger door handle . . . to open it for me. Then he pauses and turns.

  “You want to hear it, you’ve gotta come back with me.”

  I press my lips together hard. Like I have a choice. All my shit is at his house, put away when I was naive to the fact Moses has been hiding something from me.

  “Fine. But I want it all. The whole fucking truth. Every bit of it.”

  “Deal,” he says, gesturing to the passenger seat.

  With my head held high, I walk to the car and slide inside. The novelty of it being a Rolls Royce hasn’t worn off, but I’m in no mood to be impressed right now.

  Moses climbs in, and the engine comes to life with a growl. “I could fucking kill Mount for that,” he says, gripping the wheel until his knuckles turn white. “Fucking know-it-all asshole. He gets a sick kick out of meddling in everyone else’s lives.”

  He’s not telling me something I don’t already know, but that’s not what I’m interested in right now. I want the truth out of the man beside me.

  Mount and his motives are irrelevant. He’s not the one who lied.

  “What are you hiding, and why the hell did Mount drop that shit on me like a bomb?” I ask point-blank as Moses steers the car away from the curb.

  His square jaw rocks back and forth as he slows at the first stop sign and flips on the turn signal. Facing me, he looks me in the eye.

  “That night, the night we met . . .” He trails off as his chest rises and falls with deliberately slow breaths. “I wasn’t in the neighborhood checking on a family friend. I was there doing a job for Mount.”

  I blink three times, processing what he just said. “That’s what you lied about?” My mouth drops open as I blink some more. “Jesus fucking Christ.” I scratch my head, trying to figure out how that even matters now. “Who the hell cares why you were there? All that matters is that you were.”

  He keeps going. “I also lied about why those other guys must’ve been in your house. They weren’t there by chance, mama. They were there for the same reason I was.”

  I lean back into the plush leather seat as a sinking feeling settles in my stomach. I cross my arms over my chest. “I don’t get it. What the fuck does that mean?”

  “The job I was doing for Mount—it was stealing something from your house. That’s why they were there too. We were all there for the same reason.”

  A car honks from behind us, and Moses finally turns onto the next street as I work through what he just told me.

  “Mount sent them too?”

  “No. No.” Moses shakes his head as he guides the car into traffic. “I was there to get what they were looking for, so they couldn’t.”

  “What the hell could’ve been in the house that was even worth stealing? And how the hell did I not know it was there?” I ask, staring at his profile as he navigates the road.

  “A hard drive.”

  “What?” I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to make sense of all this. “A fucking hard drive? Where? Whose?”

  Moses shrugs. “It was stashed in one of the girls’ rooms on the third floor by a client. He used to leave shit there as a safe place to hide it. She didn’t know. No one knew. At least, until he got drunk at a bar and started telling a guy how smart he was for hiding it there, and the information made it back to Mount.”

  “And how the fuck did you get tangled up in it?” I ask, not understanding how a gangster from Biloxi took a job from the king of New Orleans to steal something from my house.

  He slows at a stop light behind a line of cars and looks over at me. “I was looking for a way out of the life. I told you, I knew if I stayed in it, I’d be dead by thirty. I needed a big score to set myself up for something new.”

  The pieces start to come together. “So you went to Mount and asked him for a job?” I still didn’t see why that would be an issue for me.

  “Not exactly,” Moses says when the light turns green. As he accelerates, he glances over at me. “I pulled a job in New Orleans. A big job. I thought I’d be able to swing it without Mount finding out, because I wasn’t going to cut him in and pay the toll for working in his town.”

  “Oh,” I whisper, comprehension dawning.

  Moses nods as he checks the rearview. “Yeah, oh.”

  “We got a tail?” I ask, looking to the side mirror out of instinct.

  “No. Just checking. We’re clean so far.”

  “So, then what happened? How did you not get dead immediately? Mount doesn’t exactly give out second chances very often.” I know this because I felt like I’d escaped judgment day when he handed me one.

  “He gave me a week to pay him what I owed—ten times the toll—and I didn’t have that kind of cash on hand. I had to pull another job to get it, but that job went sideways. Someone else jacked the cargo and sold it. I was gonna be fucked. That’s when I got another call from Mount. It was the night Katrina was rolling in.”

  “Wanting his money?”

  Moses huffs. “No, it was like he knew I didn’t have it and couldn’t get it. He had a deal for me instead. Told me if I could get what he needed, he wouldn’t make an example out of me.”

  “Ah,” I say as things start to fit together. “So that’s where the hard drive in my house came in.”

  “Yeah. And then Katrina hit, and none of us expected her to be such a bitch. But it was also the perfect distraction,” he says, looking over at me again as we make another turn, taking the long way back to his place. “Because I figured the house would be empty. I just didn’t count on someone else being there to try to get what I was after.”

  My stomach drops, and for my peace of mind, I have to ask again. “You’re sure Mount didn’t send them too?”

  “Yeah, I asked. But the guy who was drunk and sharing his fucking secrets at the bar wasn’t quiet, and whoever overheard didn’t keep the information to themselves. Mount knew, and someone else did too. You know what happened after that.”

  I’m quiet for several blocks as Moses takes a handful of side streets. When we finally pull into the garage at his house and the door closes behind us, I turn in my seat to study him.

  “And you’ve been keeping this shit to yourself all this time because . . . why?”

  Moses’s throat works as he swallows. “I wasn’t exactly in a position to share much information back then. I think part of me liked the idea you thought I was some kind of hero, even though I was anything but. I wanted to be that guy for you. I didn’
t want you to know I was just as bad as those other bastards who broke in.”

  He scrubs a hand over his jaw. “How the fuck could I tell you after what you’d been through? I couldn’t take the chance that you would’ve kicked my ass out. You would’ve been left unprotected. What if someone else had come looking for it, not knowing I already had it?”

  “Well, fuck, Moses. Why didn’t you tell me now that you were back?”

  He looks up at the ceiling of the car. “I wanted to. I planned to. Mount made me promise I’d come clean with you. I just . . . didn’t want to fuck this up.” His green-gold eyes glow with emotion. “It was too important to me. You are too important. I should’ve told you. It was fucking stupid not to.”

  Three

  Moses

  I wait for Magnolia’s response to my confession. Her initial reaction was definitely not what I expected.

  Thinking I had a wife and kids? Like I would want that with anyone but her? But then again, how could she know? And considering Mount just told her I’d lied to her since day one, I guess her jumping to that conclusion wasn’t any more surprising than the bomb Mount dropped on her.

  She threads her fingers together in her lap, and I wait for her verdict.

  “I get why you didn’t want to tell me then . . . but now? You really think I give a single fuck why you were in that house all these years later?” She takes a deep breath and shifts in the seat. “Listen. Lying isn’t the worst thing you can do to a person. Trust me. I’ve been through hell, Moses. Things I may never fucking tell you about because I refuse to relive them or even say the words. You get what I’m saying?”

  My hands ball into fists as I think of everything Magnolia has faced. “Yeah. I get it,” I say quietly, wishing I could have spared her every terrible experience she’s ever had, even if they forged her into the incredible woman she is.

  She clears her throat and sits up straighter. “So, unless you’ve got a wife and kids hidden away somewhere, because bigamy doesn’t fucking work for me—”