“You’re sadly mistaken. He owes me cash. Don’t take this wrong, sweets, but you are a far cry from cash.”
She tears up as she continues to glance behind me. Her hands are shaking while she tries to keep her emotions under control.
“Please,” she whispers. “Please, can we go inside?”
Without another word, I unlock my door, and she steps inside as a car pulls around the corner then drives away. She exhales loudly, and it is then I realize someone was watching her to see if I accepted.
Well, I don’t fucking accept.
CHAPTER SIX
~LoraLeigh~
I got inside. I got inside. Step one to end my misery is a success.
When Hitman approached originally, I froze. It doesn’t matter now, though. I am inside, and I can’t help exhaling when I hear Joel pull away.
“Sit,” Hitman instructs from behind me.
Slowly, I make my way inside his home and over to his couch. The living room screams bachelor with nothing more than a brown couch, brown recliner, and an overly large television. He has a plain, wooden coffee table that is littered with remotes. The entertainment system is stocked with multiple gaming systems but void of any pictures. In fact, I notice the entire space is void of anything personal as we walked through the entryway, and I get a brief glance at the kitchen.
Sitting down, I start to think over what will happen next. How can I get through until he leaves me alone long enough to end it all?
“Who brought you here? Where are you from?” he starts to fire out questions at me. “Wait, let’s start with, what is your name?”
My name. Boy, that is one loaded question. Do I tell him my real name for when the authorities question him once I end it all? Does it matter? LoraLeigh Riffel doesn’t exist anymore to anyone.
“Annie,” I reply firmly.
He watches me in a way no one has before, his eyes telling me he doesn’t believe me.
“Annie,” he repeats, raising an eyebrow at me. “I’m Heath. I would say, ‘nice to meet you,’ but I’m at a loss for words at the moment, and I’m not sure it’s nice to meet you. I’m a lot of things, but a liar isn’t one of them.” He runs his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Look, sweets, I’m not trying to be a dick, but I want the money, not a girl.”
No. No. No. He is going to try to send me back. Pete’s dead if I go back. I’m dead if Pete is dead.
Once Heath gets up and leaves the room, I am alone. I am not bound. I could run. Where do I go, though? I have no money, no car, and I don’t even have proof of a name.
The kitchen calls to me in my desperate frame of mind. I can hear Heath in the other room, talking on the phone. He is telling someone he didn’t get the money. There is a knife set on his bar, all stainless steel, very shiny, very clean, very sharp, and very much what I need.
The bite of the blade as it pierces the first layer of my epidermis is almost heavenly. The red of my blood seeps out and runs down the blade, down my small wrist, and onto his off-white, laminate countertop.
One line didn’t work last time; it takes too long to drain. I don’t have time.
I pick up the blade, biting my lip in pain, and run another diagonal line parallel to the first. This one cuts across the scar of my last attempt.
I watch as my blood spreads across the countertop. Then I remove the blade and slice again. My skin tingles as the blade cuts deeply. Noise behind me does nothing to distract me as I pull the knife across my wrist yet again.
Slice. Cut. Pierce.
Continuing to carve into my arm, the pain numbs as the blood pools under my arm.
Swiftly, effortlessly, the knife is out of my hand. Heath shuffles me to the sink to let my arm bleed into the basin. He grabs a towel from a drawer beside us and wraps my wrist. Firmly, he holds it in place while making a call.
“Tapper, I need Kenzy over here now. Bring her kit.”
I become dizzy from blood loss or fear, though which I am not sure.
Who is Tapper? Who is Kenzy? What kind of kit? Does it really matter? None of it does. I don’t matter, and I never have to anyone. Why can’t it all just simply end?
Please take the pain away.
“Dear God, anyone listening, just make it end. End it all. Take it all away. No more fights. No more deals. No more losses,” I cry out in a sob as Heath holds my arm firmly, trying to control the bleeding while I beg internally for my life to run down this very drain with my blood.
CHAPTER SEVEN
~Heath~
What in the hell have I gotten myself into now? Not only do I have some strange chick on my doorstep, but when I call Wendol to give him an update, this same chick tries to chop her hand off. Professor owes me a fuck of a lot more than money now.
Maverick ‘Tapper’ Collins and his wife Kenzy arrive before Wendol. Kenzy is an ICU nurse, and Tapper works with me on the rig.
Kenzy doesn’t say a word when she sees me holding Annie’s arm in a bloody towel. She steps in and takes over.
Annie, yeah right. There was a twitch to her eye when she said her name. No way she is telling the truth. What the hell is really going on here?
I go into my bathroom and wash her blood off before I meet Tapper in the living room.
“Who the hell is that?” he questions, knowing I just pulled him and his wife into some serious shit.
“Fuck if I know, man.”
Wendol doesn’t bother knocking and walks right in as I am getting ready to get Tapper up to speed. He takes a quick look in the kitchen before shaking his head and coming over to us.
“Legit, she’s your payment,” Wendol states like we inherited some estate from a dearly departed aunt.
“Fuck that, I want cash. The fight was for cash. The center needs the cash.”
Wendol looks over his shoulder at Annie. “Maybe she needs the center.”
“So take her there. I want no part of this, man,” I reply as my temper builds.
“Can’t,” he comes back calmly.
“What the fuck do you mean, can’t?”
“Come on, Heath. We don’t know what she knows. We can’t risk exposure,” Wendol informs me.
Tapper used to fight. After one too many concussions, he stopped, but he knows what I do and why I do it.
“Why not do for her what the center would?” Tapper chimes in.
“Have you lost your fuckin’ mind? I’m not equipped to handle a woman who has been through God knows what at the hands of the criminals that bet against us and fight alongside us.”
“Keep her here for now. Let’s see what she knows. If she doesn’t know much, we take her to the center. Otherwise, we rebuild her life for her.”
“Of course you would say that. You wanna save everyone. What if we can’t save that one?” I question as panic sets in.
“Fuck you, Heath. You haven’t even had time to find out anything about her. We learn more and determine if we can help her.”
“Take her home with you, then.”
“If it was Shayla…” He glares at me. “All she needed was for one person to show her the way out. I didn’t do that for my sister. If you want to scare her more by shoving her off yet again, fine, I’ll take her.”
“Fuck!” I roar as the failure of losing Shayla washes over me once again. Every single one of these women remind me how Wendol and I both missed multiple opportunities to save his sister—our sister. His family is my family, too.
“You’re not in this alone. I’m here, man. If she can handle it, we’ll set her up at the center. Just give it a few days for her to sort it out in her head that she’s safe with us. That’s all I’m asking for.”
“Makes sense, Heath. Let her know things are different here,” Maverick adds.
Wendol makes it sound so easy. Then again, it would be easy to me, too, if I was leaving her with someone else.
CHAPTER EIGHT
~LoraLeigh~
Sunlight floods my eyelids. I blink back tears as the change in light
burns them. Looking around, it takes me a minute to remember where I am.
Heath.
More specifically, Heath’s room and Heath’s bed, wearing Heath’s T-shirt.
After Kenzy stopped the bleeding and bandaged me up, he sent me here to his room for the night. Feeling overwhelmed and defeated, I fell asleep. Now he is in front of me in a pair of basketball shorts and a T-shirt, covered in sweat.
“Good morning, sunshine,” he greets almost sarcastically.
Timidly, I get out of bed. Then it hits me. I am in his room. I am in his bed. He owns me. He is probably pissed I haven’t offered before. Will he hurt me? Is he going to beat on me? Will he lock me in the closet?
Before I can earn myself further punishment, I begin to pull his shirt over my head. My hands go to the band of my panties when a hand reaches out to my unbandaged wrist to stop me.
“What the hell are you doing?” Heath asks nervously.
“Giving you your payment.”
Immediately, he drops my wrist like I am diseased. Maybe I am. I haven’t seen a doctor since I was fourteen. No one has seemed to care before. Could Heath be different? It isn’t safe for me to have hope, though.
“No!” he barks out.
“I don’t know what you want from me,” I whisper.
“Nothing. Dammit, I want nothing from you, because I don’t fuckin’ want you.” He paces the room, running his hands through his untamed hair.
“I … I…” I stammer.
He throws his hand up to silence me. “Get showered, get dressed, and meet me in the living room. You’re going to start your job today.”
Dread fills me. My job? What is my job?
In the shower, my wrist stings as the hot water washes over me. I lean against the shower wall and let the water cascade aimlessly over me. If only it would wash what is left of me down with it. The water turns cold, yet I remain unmoving. Honestly, I wish I could hide out in here forever.
Suddenly, there is a crash as the bathroom door flies open, and in comes Heath. He yanks the curtain back. Grabbing the towel on the rack, he covers me and pulls me out of the shower.
Despair floods me. Desperation fills me. Dread once again consumes me.
I lay limply in his arms as he carries me to his bed. No words are shared between us. Emotions fill me that I have long suppressed. Tears run down my face that I can’t hold back. Sobs come out that I can’t push down. My throat burns, my eyes hurt, and I just cry.
Heath does nothing except sit behind me against his headboard and hold me in his strong arms as I let everything out.
He says nothing.
I say nothing. I simply cry. I cry for the innocence of childhood lost. I cry for the dead mother I never really knew, because she was always strung out. I cry for the little girl inside of me who wanted with everything she had to believe that fairytales do exist. I cry for the false hope those stories gave me. I cry for the realities of my mere existence. I cry for the woman inside me who has learned there are no knights in shining armor; there are no men to save the day. I cry for the woman inside me who has no will to go on. I cry for the fear of the unknown that cuts me to my core. I simply cry.
Heath never moves, only keeps his arms holding the towel around me. His shirt is soaked from my damp hair and the tears shed. When I get myself under control, he tightens his grip only enough to silently tell me not to move yet.
“I don’t know what your story is. I don’t know what the hell you’ve been through, but you gotta know, sweets, I’m not like the rest of them. Your life begins today. Cry it all out. Wash it all down the drain. You’re safe with me. You’re safe with Wendol. No one will touch you. No one will take you. No one will bring any harm to you.” Heath doesn’t raise his voice. There is no tone of anger, disgust, or anything more than a firm resolve to keep his word.
“Why?” I hiccup from crying so hard. Then my situation hits me. “Why did you get me out of the shower?”
He lays his head back against the headboard. “Old house, old hot water heater. After twenty minutes, the shit runs not just cold but freezing. When the time passed and the water was still running, I was afraid it was a repeat of last night.”
“Oh,” I simply reply.
“Tell me your name.”
I hesitate. Is this one of those crossroads in life? Path one continues much the same as the last few years. Path two is the unknown.
“I can’t help you if I don’t know what I’m up against.”
I breathe deeply. Can I do this? Can I share with him? Do I really have any other choice?
“My name is LoraLeigh Riffel.”
CHAPTER NINE
~Heath~
I have never been so scared in my life as I was when she had her wrist laid out over my counter, bleeding. Panic filled me even as my friends came and helped me handle her. When the shower kept running, I couldn’t stop the anxiety building.
I don’t know what it is about this woman that has everything in me wanting to hold her, save her, and make everything okay. When Kenzy cleaned her up, I had her sleep in my bed for the night. My two bedroom house is simply a place to sleep. It isn’t meant to be cozy, and my spare bedroom is not set up for guests.
I put my ass on the couch and attempted to sleep while my mind raced with a million possibilities of who this woman is and what she has been through. Now, after taking another year off my life with her overly long shower, she is safe, secure, and sobbing in my arms.
“That’s a start, LoraLeigh. And that name suits you much more than Annie.”
She laughs a little in my arms. She may be naked and wet, but she is relaxed in a way that makes all of this feel almost natural, strangely enough.
“I was born to an addict. My mother died when I was fifteen.” She starts talking while I try not to show any emotion or let her see my shock so she will continue. “Her dealer took me to what was supposed to be an uncle’s house. Only Uncle Julio was far from being any relation to me. I had no money, no family, no friends, and nowhere I could think of to go. I was scared and alone.
“I learned I was a payment for a debt owed to Julio. After a few years, Julio lost me to a fighter. Then they lost me in another fight. After a few similar transitions, this life landed me with Pete for over a year now. For a while, Pete didn’t put me up as payment in the fights. Then I guess he had to, and now I am left with you.”
There is a void in her voice that kills me inside. She needs to be at House of Hope where they have victim counselors trained to assist individuals like her. Knowing the underground world, I will have to make a show of accepting the payment to keep her out of danger. If anyone in the league thinks she could rat, she is as good as dead.
“I’m not going to use you. As of today, all debts are paid in full. You are free. Well, as free as you can be. We’ll go to The Basement in a little while. That’s my trainer and friend’s gym. He’s gonna hook you up with a job. You’ll have to live here with me for a bit, but once you’re on your feet, you can move on and leave as much of this behind you as you can.”
Tears fall on my already wet shirt from her face. “Why are you helping me?”
“Well, sweets, I like to think of myself as a good guy.” She laughs lightly at that. “My dad was a sorry son-of-a-bitch that my mom should’ve left but didn’t have the tools necessary. Seen a lot of woman broken by the hands and words of a man, and I don’t wanna be like that when it comes down to it.”
“Thank you, Heath.”
“You think you can manage to cover up with that towel and climb off me. I’m sure Wendol is wondering where we are by now.”
***
Less than an hour later, we walk into The Basement. Wendol eyes me suspiciously as he takes in the red puffy eyes of my companion.
“Hi, Annie,” he greets.
I tense, waiting for a cue from her as to how she wants to reply.
“LoraLeigh. My name is LoraLeigh,” she responds quietly yet confidently.
“Okay, LoraL
eigh. We need to get some paperwork done for you. Tax forms and such. Have you ever had a job before?”
As he asks the questions, and I watch her tense beside me, I realize, yet again, that we are in over our heads on this one. Going into Wendol’s office, he pulls out employee forms as she takes a seat in front of his desk.
“Heath,” she whispers, looking up from the papers. The tax paper sits with only her name filled out.
“Address, you can use mine. One eighteen Applewood Drive.”
She points to another line, cutting me off.
Social security number.
“I don’t know my social security number.”
Of course she wouldn’t. Her mom was an addict that didn’t teach her daughter anything about life. She has never had to fill out insurance paperwork or had a job where she needed to know her social. Her mom died, in essence taking the number to the grave with her.
“Do you have your birth certificate?” It’s a shot in the dark, but with that, we can apply for a new social security card to get the number.
Her eyes glaze over in unshed tears as she fights to keep her emotions in check. She shakes her head.
“It’s okay. We can file for a new one of those, too. Do you know what city you were born in and your mother’s full name at the time of your birth?”
“Yes, I do know all of that.”
Wendol moves over to sit behind his desk and turns on his computer. “We can file online for a certified copy of your birth certificate. Heath will probably be at work, so I can take you after we get that to get your social security card. From there, we can also secure a state issued identification card or a driver’s license.”
I shake my head at Wendol so he understands she doesn’t know how to drive.
As LoraLeigh looks up at me, something pulls inside of me to hold her, but I resist the urge and simply squeeze her shoulder.
Heath (Roughneck Book 2) Page 3
