“No idea. Some waitress? I come here occasionally but I didn’t know they’d memorized my name.” He laughed, acting like he didn’t know her at all. It was like a knife to her chest. Her mind was filled with scenes of a destroyed beach, broken tree limbs, and the scattered refuse of bark and leaves across a bloody shore.
“Um. Oh, right, I’m sorry. I just—” Phee bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying as she pointed at a table Regan had just cleared. “Um, I’ve got a table for you.”
As she took their drink orders in a numb state, all she could think of was her grandfather’s urgings for her to be realistic, to stop fantasizing about some life bigger than she was capable of attaining, and he had been right. This was what she got for thinking she was made for greater things, meant for something grand. She wasn’t. She was just a waitress from the fog, dreams were for idiots.
And she was such a fucking idiot.
As soon as she set their drinks down, and Bryant didn’t even glance at her, she walked into the kitchen and started crying. She had her hand over her mouth to try and stifle the noise but Alex came around the prep station and sighed, crossing his arms. “What happened, Phee?”
“I’m sorry, Alex. It’s nothing. I just need a minute, okay?” She wiped her face and took a shaky breath trying to calm down.
“Fine. Don’t tell me.” Alex threw his hands up and turned around.
“No! Alex, don’t be angry with me, it’s nothing, I promise. We’ve got a full house, and I know you’ve got a lot of orders up. I’ll be back in front in a minute.” Phee forced a brittle smile on her face as he looked back at her, and she could tell Alex was pissed. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but then he just turned away to tend to some pans on the stove. She leaned back against the wall, taking a few deep breaths until the tears stopped. She wasn’t going to give Bryant the satisfaction of seeing her upset.
Grabbing a rag, she wiped her face and walked back out, heading to the opposite end of the café from where she’d seated Bryant and his friend.
Regan must have taken their orders and dropped their check because Phee never went back to them as she threw herself into her work. By the end of the day, Regan had pulled what happened out of her, and promised she’d come over for drinks that night.
That was how they ended up on the floor of Phee’s living room. Phee had her nice bottle of whiskey open, allowing herself one glass of the best before she switched to the cheaper stuff. Heartbreak was worth a glass, even though she had no right to feel heartbroken. She was being stupid. An idiot. A fool.
“I just can’t believe it was a one-night stand.” She sniffed and took a drink, letting the alcohol burn its way down as Regan upended her wine in sympathy.
“He’s a rich downtowner. An asshole. He probably thought he could just dazzle you for an evening and you’d be so grateful to have had the privilege of being in his fancy ass apartment that you’d let it go.” Regan huffed out a breath. “I should’ve poisoned his food.”
“Regan!” Phee rolled her eyes.
“Well, I did spit in his food.”
“Oh my God! You did not!” Phee gawked at Regan who just laughed and took another drink. “Regan! Seriously?!”
“Of course I did, Phee! He has the nerve to act like he likes you, that he wants to see you again, and then he ignores you? And on top of all that he fucking shows up at our café? Fuck him. He deserved it.”
“I cannot believe you!”
“He was the one dumb enough to show up at the Elsinore and pretend not to recognize you. He’s lucky I wasn’t in the kitchen. Who knows what Alex has back there that I could have put in his food?” Regan looked completely serious with the kind of determined vengeance only best friends had for each other.
“Ugh, why can’t we just find decent guys, Regan?” Phee laughed at Regan’s protectiveness and took another drink.
“I don’t know, girl. All I know is that if all these guys have to offer are their cocks, there are battery-operated solutions with a lot less trouble and heartache.” Regan smiled and Phee raised her glass, and they clinked theirs together in a toast.
“I agree with that!” Phee sighed to herself. “It was really great sex though.”
Regan groaned. “It sounded like it. But at least you got a decent night out of it, even if he is a colossal asshole that deserves to get a nice dose of food poisoning, and maybe some kind of erectile dysfunction.”
“Remind me to never piss you off, Regan.”
“Oh, you’ve pissed me off plenty of times, I usually just pee on your toothbrush.” Regan grinned and Phee laughed, kicking her leg. Regan kicked her back, and it was as if they were kids again, except they had to set down their alcohol before they shoved each other back and forth. They spent the night giggling and laughing about all the stupid men they’d dated. Going through their asshole halls of fame together, while Regan finished off her bottle of wine and Phee poured herself two glasses of the cheaper whiskey after her nice glass.
Regan finally left a little after midnight, and Phee snagged her book and dragged herself to her room to read before she fell asleep. The warm, tingling buzz of the alcohol in her veins was a welcome feeling after all the stress of the last few days.
A half hour later she was deeply invested in the story when she should have been sleeping, and a loud knock came at her front door. The clock on her bedside table said it was almost one, and so she slipped on a pair of pajama pants before she headed to the door. “Who is it?” she called through the door.
No answer.
She looked through the peephole, but it was black. A nervous feeling tried to surface under the haze of the alcohol, but Phee remembered the boys on the floor below her had been in trouble for harassing other tenants in the building the week before so she yanked the door open, planning to catch them and drag them to their mom. Instead, Bryant was standing there. He shoved her backwards into the apartment and kicked the door shut behind her, covering her mouth firmly with his hand as she struggled. Spinning around, he pressed her against the wall and she felt panic rise up inside her, the fuzzy edge of the alcohol burning away.
Bryant shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips. The look in his eyes, his incredible, turquoise eyes, caught her attention. He didn’t seem angry, and he wasn’t being aggressive now that she was still and quiet. He pressed the finger harder to his lips and tilted his head as if asking her if she’d be quiet. Phee nodded and he blew out a breath and nodded back, slowly removing his hand from her mouth. When she stayed silent he stepped away and reached into the backpack over his shoulder.
He wasn’t in a suit today. Instead, he was wearing a thick motorcycle jacket, dark jeans, and boots. It made him look nothing like the privileged downtowner that Regan and she had been cursing earlier in the evening. He put the finger to his lips again, and then made a motion urging her to stay there before taking out a strange device. Bryant started to walk around the room, moving the device side to side, around cabinets, her lamps, the windows, the walls. It seemed to take forever before he finally sighed and tucked it away in the backpack.
“Phee…” his voice was soft as he turned to face her, and it was like the sound broke her from a trance.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” she shouted at him and he walked towards her until she backed up against the wall again, and he stopped.
“I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry, Phee. I’m so sorry for ignoring your messages, for ignoring you today at the café. I shouldn’t have even gone to the café today, but I had to see you. I had to see you myself and make sure you were okay.” Bryant shoved a hand into his hair, pacing across her living room. “I should have never taken you home, I was just, fuck, I was just so infatuated with you from the moment you had the balls to tell me to ask you out! When I looked at you, really looked at you? I was sunk. I knew it.”
“So, you came here to apologize for being a complete asshole? I’m fresh out of forgiveness at the moment, maybe you could try a differ
ent waitress,” Phee hissed bitterly, and it had the effect she wanted. He flinched.
“Phee, you have to listen to—”
“NO! No, I actually don’t. I don’t have to listen to any of your bullshit. Get out.” Phee pointed at the door, and he groaned.
“We don’t have time to do this, Phee. You don’t understand, my uncle was with me that day. The first day. He found out I took you on a date.”
“Found out?” Phee stared at him, growing angrier by the moment. As if she were some kind of embarrassing secret. “Well, I’m so sorry he found out you slummed it. Now, you can kindly get the fuck out.”
“No, Phee, you don’t understand.” He growled, frustrated. “I was never ashamed of taking you out! I couldn’t keep my fucking mouth shut about it. I told pretty much anyone who would listen about you.” Bryant took another step towards her, a pained expression on his face as he froze. “This is my fault, all my fault. He went through the security tapes at my fucking apartment, he knows I took you home.”
“Like I said, you don’t need to explain. You can just leave.” Every word hurt, looking at him hurt, because it was so easy to remember his grin, the things he’d whispered in her ear. Biting her tongue, she fought the urge to cry in front of the bastard.
Bryant grimaced and dropped his eyes from hers. “Listen… my uncle has a thing about people from, well, people from where I’m from dating people that are—”
“Your uncle has an issue with downtowners dating people from the fog? Is that what you’re trying to spit out?” Phee crossed her arms. “So, what? You decided to prove to your friend how big of an asshole you could be so you wouldn’t get in trouble with your precious uncle? So you wouldn’t lose—”
“I did it so he wouldn’t kill you!” Bryant shouted, and Phee was stunned for a moment, the words not really processing no matter how many times they rolled around in her head.
“What?”
“I found out the day after you left, the day that I talked about you like a lovesick idiot, that my uncle was going to have you killed. To eliminate any possibility of trouble as he puts it.” Bryant shook his head, his hand buried in his hair again. “I thought that if I just ignored you, if I didn’t contact you, if I stopped talking about you… that he’d give up.
“But he didn’t, Phee. I got confirmation this morning that he had issued the kill order. I came to the café because I needed to see that you were okay. I’ve had an associate following you all day, and then I had to wait for Regan to leave. But we need to leave, right now.”
“I—” Phee’s head was spinning. “Wha— he told you he was going to kill me?”
“No. I have contacts in the COF, friends. They tipped me off.” Bryant was tense, and he took a few steps towards her, but she could barely process what he was saying.
“Why are you even helping me then?” Phee felt tears burning the edges of her eyes. “Don’t you want me eliminated so I don’t cause you trouble?
“WHAT?” he shouted. “Haven’t you heard a single thing I’ve said? I don’t want you eliminated, I want you. I want another date, I want the chance to make all of this up to you. I fucking hate my uncle, Phee. You have no idea, and that’s a really long story that I don’t have time to tell you right now. I need to get you out of here, they’re coming.”
“NO! Tell me. Tell me why you’re helping me!”
“Because I couldn’t lose you over all of my own stupid choices! I care about you. That night, fuck, I’ve never felt like that with anyone. I know you felt it too.”
She had. Part of her still felt the trembling butterflies at the memory of it, stirred up by the sincere tone in his voice, but she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We never should have done this. It’s not news that people like us aren’t supposed to be together.” She let out a bitter laugh. “And it’s not like you’re going to walk away from your life. You’re supposed to follow in your uncle’s footsteps, right? Be a leader in the COF? I’m not an idiot, Bryant, no one walks away from a life like that in Lakehurst.”
“Dammit!” he shouted, and he finally closed the gap between them, grabbing onto her arms as he shook her. “I don’t give a fuck about that life. I’m part of the resistance, Phee, I have been for years! I want to destroy my uncle and the Cabal of Freedom more than anything, or — fuck, at least I thought I wanted that more than anything. But I don’t want it more than you, and I couldn’t let him kill you, no matter the fucking consequences. He’s taken so much from me, and I won’t let him take you too.” Bryant was pleading with his eyes, and she wanted to believe him, wanted to allow herself a second to think over if all the things he said were possible, but the door exploded inward to her left.
He reacted fast. Grabbing her, he shoved her away from the door, fingers painfully tight on her arm. Then there was a gun in his hand and the first man through the door was hit by two bullets as Bryant forced her behind the couch and followed her. “Stay down.”
The Bryant next to her wasn’t the serious one from the café, or the playful one from their date. This was a totally different version — in control, fierce, a warrior. He checked his gun and then leaned up and fired a shot, then two more, and Phee heard the grunt of someone hit and then the thud of their body hitting the floor. She covered her ears, pulse pounding as her heart tried to escape past her ribs. Bryant was up on his knees, his eyes trained on her door as ringing silence filled her apartment.
“We have to move. Now.” Bryant grabbed her arm again and tried to pull her up, but she was frozen. His face shifted until he looked concerned again. “Phee. Ophelia, look at me. I swear to you, I swear I will explain everything, but I need you to trust me right now. I know I haven’t earned it, but I need you to come with me. Please.”
“You’ll explain everything?” She looked up at him, his please echoing in her head along with some kind of shock, and she was grateful that there was a still a buzz of alcohol in her veins. His turquoise eyes met hers and he nodded.
“Everything. I promise.” Bryant lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles before tugging her to her feet. She pushed her feet into sneakers by the door, ignoring the two dead men in pools of blood on her floor, and then he was pulling her down the stairs.
On the first floor he turned towards the front doors, but a voice called out from behind them. “Phee!” She turned around sharply to see Alex standing there, looking panicked. “Phee, are you okay?”
“Alex?” She stared at him, confused, but Bryant shoved her behind him, his gun lifting, and Phee grabbed his arm. “Bryant! Wait! It’s Alex!”
Alex looked confused, and she saw him raise his hands, fear in his eyes as he looked at the gun. Bryant didn’t fire, breathing hard as he whispered to her, “Who is Alex?”
“Phee, get away from that guy! I’m here to help you, just come over to me,” Alex called out to her, but she had to lean to the side to see him around Bryant.
“He’s my boss. He owns the café, Bryant. Just put the gun away.” Phee put her hand on his back, but he didn’t move.
“Okay, he’s your boss, and he has your address? He’s been here before? This is normal?” Bryant asked the questions calmly, his head tilted slightly so she could hear him better, but she didn’t know how to answer. When her grandparents had died, Alex hadn’t known where she lived. He had sent Regan home with a bouquet of flowers, and the reason he’d given for not having them delivered was because she had never given her address. He paid the two of them in cash so the COF wouldn’t take a cut of their wages and didn’t actually have them listed as employees for the same reason. But, that brought up a whole new set of questions.
“How did you know my address? I didn’t give it to you, Bryant.” Phee felt a cold shiver of fear wash over her, and she took a shaky step back.
“I work for the COF, I looked it up. How did he get it, Phee?” Bryant turned to look at her, and as soon as his eyes were off Alex she saw her boss pull out a gun.
“NO!” Phee shoved Bryant to the side
as the gun went off, the whole scene moving in slow motion as she and Bryant almost fell onto the stairs. The bullet Alex fired shattered the glass entry door of the building, and Bryant shielded her as he ducked them behind the wall of the stairs.
“You stupid bitch!” Alex roared. “I told you there were consequences to fucking with a downtowner. And you, Bryant Holbrook…” He said the name with disgust. “Did you really think you could just do whatever you wanted, whoever you wanted?”
“What the fuck, Alex!” Phee shouted and Bryant looked over at her with a sigh, his gun up and his back against the wall.
“What was wrong with me, Phee? I gave you a job! I’ve helped you and your idiot friend out for years. I kept her on even though she’s probably the worst waitress in the history of waitresses. I fucking took care of you! And you choose him?” A shot hit the wall in the front of them and she yelped.
“You reported me, didn’t you? You saw me ask her out, and you tattled on me like a little boy,” Bryant shouted around the corner, and she heard Alex roar as another shot slammed into the wall in front of them.
“Go to hell, Holbrook! You and your uncle can go to hell!”
“You son of a bitch! Phee almost died because of you!” Bryant stepped out from behind the wall, raised his gun, and fired. Then he fired again as he stepped forward, and then again and Phee scrambled up because she couldn’t see him anymore. When she stumbled from behind the wall she saw Alex on the floor, completely still.
Phee couldn’t help but scream. She had known Alex for years, and seeing him on the ground in a rapidly spreading pool of blood, dead, was insane. Realizing he had pulled out a gun to shoot them, that he had caused this, was even more insane.
“At least now I know how they found you.” Bryant grabbed her hand again, turning to the front door. “If he reported me asking you out, that explains everything. How they connected you to the girl on my building’s security footage so quickly. They already had your fucking name.”
“I thought you said you talked about me.” She stumbled over the words as he pulled her out the broken door and then the main door of the building.
Corrupt Desires Page 6