Shane (The Mallick Brothers Book 1)

by Jessica Gadziala

  I gave him a smile, liking that she had someone in the building looking out for her, even if it was an old arthritic forger. I motioned over toward my pile of supplies to the new door I had laying there. It wasn’t some piece of shit hollow wood door. It was a security door with a dozen internal metal bars that would mean a fuckuva lot more work for me to install it. “Got that covered too,” I said.

  “You’ve seen her, right?”

  “She works for my sister-in-law,” I said with a nod, standing to go grab a bottle of water.

  “Pretty girl like that with no man to watch over her.”

  “I’m watching over her,” I said without thinking.

  What the fuck?

  I wasn’t watching over her. That was ridiculous.

  Except that, I was.

  I spent several thousand dollars to fix up my apartment building. For no other reason than her living there.

  “Good. That’s good. She needs a man like you.”

  “Why’s that?” I asked, genuinely curious. Barney, for all his years in the underbelly, had keen eyes and good instincts. I wanted to know what he thought of Lea.

  “Because she’s not what she appears. Pretty? Sure. Self- sufficient, hard working, smart mouthed, and tough? Yes. But she’s something else too.”

  “You gonna tell me or what?”

  He shrugged his frail shoulders, taking a long drag of his cigar. “It’s the little things.”

  “Such as?”

  “Such as the way she looks around the lot when she gets out of her car.”

  “It’s a shitty neighborhood. Any woman would check around.”

  “Nah, not like her. And she stiffens when she hears a bike. And she doesn’t get mail. Not even an advert. Nothing. Now, I’ve made fake IDs for every kid in this area. And I’ve made passports to get crime lords out of the country before they get hauled off to jail. But you know who comes to me the most?”

  “Who?”

  “People who get themselves into shit that they can’t untangle themselves from with their identities intact.”

  “You’re saying Lea is on the run from something.”

  “Girl like that, smart and funny and good as she is, no way is she alone in the world, you know? She’s got people somewhere. Why isn’t she with them?”

  Yeah, well, that was a good point. It didn’t escape my notice how easily she got on with Fee and my brothers. She took their shit and gave it right back. There was no hesitance, no awkwardness. She was social. And yet she lived alone. Fee said she didn’t seem to have any family or friends. It didn’t jibe with her personality.

  “Just figured I’d plant that seed,” Barney said with a shrug. “If you’re watching over her, figured that would be good for you to give some thought to. I’ll expect those keys,” he said, gesturing toward the new door, “under my door.”

  “Got it Barney. Thanks for the info,” I said as he moved away, waving at me.

  With that, I got back to work, finishing the fence then moving on to ripping the old door out, drilling holes for the new bars in the catch, then attaching the security door. I slipped the keys under all the doors in the building, but found myself pocketing hers for later.

  I knew from the very forthcoming Fee that Lea was working that night. And, well, I just so happened to have a key to the building in case of an emergency.

  I felt like Lea having a key to her apartment in a very bad area seemed pretty damn emergent.

  SEVEN

  Lea

  I had a bag slung over my arm and a coffee cup in my hand when I rounded the bend toward the back door, saying a quick hi and bye to Barney before I skidded to a stop.

  “Ah, is that a new door?” I asked, turning back to Barney who was nodding at me.

  “That’s a good man looking out for you like that.”

  My brows drew together at that. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Shane Mallick. He came in here earlier and put in that new security door. That one costs a mint too. Just to make sure you’re safe.”

  “More like he was afraid I would report him for the poor living conditions,” I contradicted him.

  “He also put up a new fence out there to protect you from those dogs.”

  “Barney, what are you talking about? I’m not dating Shane.”

  “No?” he asked, brows raising in mock surprise. “Then maybe you should seeing as he’s going all out of his way for your safety.”

  I shook my head, giving him a tired smile, knowing there was no use arguing with his ass. If there was one thing people generally became as they got older, it was set in their opinions. “Anyway. Did he leave the keys for us somewhere?”

  To that, Barney looked almost mischievous. “Under our doors, darlin’.”

  “There was no key under my door,” I said, shaking my head. “Great. Now I am going to have to call his ass to make him leave me one somewhere. I don’t have time for this,” I said, going to the door, surprised when it was about ten times heavier than a normal door. “I’ll talk to you later, Barney,” I called over my shoulder as I went outside.

  I looked around wearily as the dogs started their usual fit throwing. But Barney was right, the flimsy chainlink with the crappy green stuff was gone, replaced with a sturdy, unbending steel one. Granted, now I could see the evil little beasts, but at least I knew there was no way in hell they were going to get to me.

  For the first time since I moved in, I didn’t run to my car. And I owed Shane freaking Mallick for that small bit of peace of mind.

  I drove to work trying (and obviously failing) to not consider if what Barney said was true, if Shane had put the new door in because it was safer for me. But that made no sense. It made a hell of a lot more sense that he put it up to protect his ass from a possible lawsuit if someone eventually did just sneak in the back door and break down my apartment door to beat or rape me. Or if the dogs finally burst through the fence to maul me half to death.

  For A Good Time, Call… Inc. Seemed like any other office building during the day. But at night, all the bodies gone, all the noises quieted, it was pretty eerie. Even having worked there for a bit, it never got any less creepy. So as soon as I stepped fully inside, I locked the door. Then I systematically walked the entire place and put on all the lights, even the ones for Fee’s office and the storage room. Then I went over and made a pot of coffee; the one I brought with me always half gone by the time I got there. Night shifts could be gotten used to in a way, making it possible to sleep when the sun was coming up even though your body naturally rebelled against such a thing. But I don’t think it mattered if I did it for a decade, you never really felt quite right, relying heavily on coffee or energy drinks to keep you going.

  Coffee in hand, I put whatever I brought with me that night on the desk. Some nights, it was as simple as a crossword puzzle or a book. Other nights, it was nail files and polish. That night was a deck of cards. Sure, I could play solitaire on the computer, but I was old school when it came to card games.

  There really was no telling how busy you were going to be. There was no set of rules that said Saturday night was hopping and Tuesdays were slow. There was no apparent rhyme or reason to when the masses would be horny apparently. So I always made sure I brought something to do in case it was a slow night. The last thing I wanted was to fall asleep out of pure boredom. Fee may have been a pretty lenient boss, but I was pretty sure she wouldn’t pay me to catch up on my beauty rest.

  As it turned out, though, it was a medium volume night. I would get a call then have between fifteen and thirty minutes between the next, sometimes longer. While a part of me might have wished to have nights where I got paid purely to paint my nails, the smarter, slightly greedy part of me knew that while I got paid a decent hourly salary, I also got commission on the actual calls. So the more I got, and the longer I could make them last, the more I made. So while, with my salary, I could afford my bills, it was definitely worth a few more “oohs” and “ahhhs” and “fuck me har
ders” to get some extra lining for my pockets.

  Not that I spent it on stuff; I made sure I buried my urge to shop when I left my old life behind. I needed the money to sock away. Just in case. It actually shocked me how much money it had taken me to get to Navesink Bank and set up shop. You thought of the big things: the gas, the first month of rent, the deposits for the water and electric and gas. But you forgot the incidentals like the connection fees and the fact that some landlords required not only first and security, but last month too. Also, food. Food was where I really screwed it up this time around. I was close to going hungry by the time I started making money, having not factored in the fact that even if I landed a job the same day I moved somewhere new, a paycheck was usually two weeks away.

  So when I made way more money than I needed for basic needs, I put the rest away into a hole I burrowed into the mattress on my bed. It wasn’t the most inventive place to hide money, but it wasn’t the obvious places like the freezer or toilet tank either.

  I had a fair amount, but not nearly enough.

  Fact of the matter was, there was always a chance of needing to get the hell out of dodge again. I wasn’t going to even pretend that I was a pro at starting over, at hiding out, at flying under the radar. I wasn’t. I had been as careful as I knew how to be, but I had no idea if that was careful enough. If it wasn’t, then I would need as big a nest egg as possible to get me from Navesink Bank to wherever I needed to head next.

  So I was happy to be busy.

  I had just hung up a call from one of the furries freaks, having to meow like a kitten when he jerked off, making mewling noises, around midnight when I heard the back door slam close.

  And let’s just say that I wasn’t so far removed from my past to not jump to conclusions. My hand went automatically for the heavy fabric scissors that were in the holder with the pens. They were fabric scissors because the older woman who had my desk during the day actually sewed clothing for her grand babies while she worked.

  I slipped my fingers into the handles, taking comfort in the weight and length of the shears, as I raised my arm and stood to face the back of the building.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I snapped, hand falling down by my side, but my heart not quite getting the memo that someone wasn’t coming in to drag me back to hell. “Are you stalking me?” I asked, looking at Shane as he walked in casually, tucking the keys to the building into his back pocket.

  Of course he had keys.

  “Cocky much?” he asked with a smirk, reaching into another pocket and pulling out a different key.

  “Yeah, I noticed the new door. I also noticed I was the only person in the building who didn’t get a key under their door,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. Then something rushed out before I could contain it. “Why’d you change the door?”

  “It was broken.”

  “A fact you haven’t seemed overly concerned about before,” I said, reaching for the key and rolling my eyes when he snatched it back. “Seriously? What are you, five?”

  “I changed my mind,” he said with a shrug. “And you can have the new key with one condition.”

  Of course.

  “What?”

  He smiled at the surliness in my tone. “You go out with me Saturday night. And don’t try to tell me you’re working because I know you’re not. I checked with Fee.”

  I felt myself jerk back at the demand, surprised, not quite sure I was on the same page as him. “What?”

  “Me. You. Nice clothes. Dinner. In exchange for the key,” he said, obviously enjoying my disbelief.

  “Why do you want to have dinner with me? I clearly want nothing to do with you.”

  “Sure you don’t,” he said with a smile, knowing I was lying. “Maybe I just like to look at something pretty in restaurants.”

  “So look at the decor. Or swipe through a classic art gallery on your phone and leave me alone.”

  “Lea, Jesus, what is so hard about going to dinner with me?”

  “Maybe I don’t like being blackmailed into doing something I don’t want to do.”

  “Or maybe you don’t trust yourself around me,” he said, hitting the nail on the head and he knew it.

  “I trust myself just fine around you.”

  “Good. Then this won’t be a problem. I’ll be picking you up at eight. Better get that,” he said, making me suddenly aware that the phone was ringing. He put the key down on my desk and moved away as I tried to shake off the encounter and the idea of a date with Shane. I sat down, clicking the computer on to see that the credit card info was entered and making sure there were no notes giving me specific directions for the call. Finding none, I grabbed the obnoxious hot pink phone.

  I barely had it to my ear when he spoke.

  “Get on your knees.”

  Oh, great. Freaking wonderful.

  Fee’s comments were a self-fulfilling prophesy.

  And despite more than a couple sessions with the vibrator Fee and I had picked out at the sex shop, there was still the overwhelming need for release. I was pretty sure that vibrators were just like putting a band-aid on an open wound. Sure, it helped in a minor way, but it didn’t fix the underlying issue. I needed sex. I needed to feel a man’s hands sliding over my body. I needed his voice saying dirty things in my ear. I needed to feel a real, live person moving inside me.

  Everything else was going to fall short.

  Damn it.

  “Yes, sir,” I said immediately, taking a deep breath to convince myself to keep my professional walls in place.

  Thirty minutes later, I was sitting with my elbows on my desk, my head in my hands, undeniably turned on. There was an insistent throbbing between my legs and a shortness in my breathing. Before I could even take more than a deep breath or two, trying to calm down my desire, the damn phone was ringing again.

  Checking the computer, I prayed like hell that whoever it was was maybe one of the feet guys or the subs. They did nothing for me. It would be an immediate turn-off.

  “Baby,” the voice said, sending a shiver through my body.

  “Hey, darling,” I cooed, as I always did. Sweet nothings for horny no ones. “How are you?”

  “Hard as fuck after listening to you moan through that last call,” he said and it was immediately clear that it wasn’t some random call. It damn sure wasn’t a foot guy or a sub. And like some stupid as hell horror movie, the call was coming from inside the building.

  “Shane, this is work,” I said, trying to sound firm.

  “Check the computer again, Lea. I’m a paying customer.”

  Damn if he wasn’t.

  “I can’t do this with you,” I said honestly, my voice a needy urge for him to understand.

  “Why not?”

  “You know why.”

  “Because you want me,” he said into the phone, but also right behind me. I could literally feel his presence behind me before I saw his arm reach out and put his cell down on the desk beside my arm, the call still connected. “Admit it.” His hand pulled back and moved out to gather all the hair on the right side of my face and moved it all to the left side. His fingers brushed my neck in the process, making my sex clench hard. Oh, yeah. I wanted him alright. But I couldn’t bring myself to admit it. “Stubborn,” he said, leaning down and placing a kiss beneath my ear.

  “Shane, there are cameras,” I snapped, pulling my chair forward, trying to hold onto at least a small amount of professional integrity. He said nothing for a long second before I felt his hand close around my wrist, pulling me upward.

  “Not in the storage room,” he said, obviously knowing more about that than I did.

  “We can’t…”

  “Sure we can,” he said, turning away and pulling me behind him.

  Honestly, I didn’t even try to resist. I knew I should have, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I was beyond turned on and it had everything to do with trying to resist him. I just didn’t have any defenses left.

  Shane went
inside the storage room, pulling me in, then somehow simultaneously slamming the door and shoving me back against it. I didn’t even have time to register the impact of my body on the solid door before his lips crushed into mine. His arms went onto the door at the sides of my head, caging me in. My arms went around his center, pulling him flush against me, moaning against his lips when I realized he wasn’t lying about being hard; his cock was pressing urgently into my lower stomach.

  His tongue moved in to toy with mine as his hands slid down the door until they planted beside my hips, sinking in hard there for a second before sliding around and grabbing my ass hard. Before I realized his intention, he was pulling me off my feet by my ass, making me wrap my legs around his center instinctively. His hands stayed planted there as my arms went around his neck as he turned us. It was a novelty to be carried. I wasn’t a big girl by any stretch of the word, but I was tall and a healthy weight for my height, not the kind of girl a guy ever wanted to haul around. But Shane, being the giant wall of muscle he was, didn’t seem to be bothered in the least as he easily moved us across the room, turned us again, and then we were going down, Shane sitting with me straddling him.

  I pulled up, brows drawn together. “Why is there a couch in the stock room?” I asked with a confused smile.

  “Fee redecorates a lot,” Shane said, voice sex-rough. “Convenient for us,” he said, hands moving around from my back and up my stomach, slipping under the hem of my shirt and stroking over the skin that seemed to come alive under his touch. His fingers toyed with the lower edge of my bra for an excruciating moment before moving upward and cupping over my breasts, squeezing hard, making me let out a low moan as my hips jerked against him, begging for relief. His fingers grabbed the cups and yanked them down, his palms covering my exposed breasts, his fingers rolling my nipples into hardened points.

  Then, well, there was no going back.

  I leaned forward, arching my back so he could continue his sweet torment to my breasts as I took his lips in mine and let my hips lower down and grind against him, his hard cock gliding over my greedy pussy, slowly driving me upward.