by Roxie Rivera
KEPT BY THE LOAN SHARK
By Roxie Rivera
© 2020 Roxie Rivera
Kindle Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Night Works Books
3515-B Longmire Drive #103
College Station, Texas 77845
www.roxierivera.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Cover Art © Katalinks | Dreamstime.com
KEPT BY THE LOAN SHARK/Roxie Rivera—1st ed.
ISBN 978-1-63042-046-8
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Also by Roxie Rivera
About the Author
Chapter One
“You sure you’re too busy to go out tonight?”
I looked up from the papers I was grading to see Taylor standing in the doorway of the office. Her mischievous smile told me she had quite a night planned. “Yep. Hagen is back in town and picking me up.”
“Boring,” Taylor decreed. “Come out with us instead.”
“Us?”
“Kaya and Maddie from the engineering department, June from chemistry, Minh from neuro, Annabelle and LeeAnn from math and, obviously, me—your best friend in the whole world,” she added dramatically. “It’s a FRIENDS themed pub crawl. You love FRIENDS,” she insisted. “Come out with us!”
“I can barely handle a glass of rosé without getting lightheaded. A pub crawl will kill me!”
“You could be our designated driver?” she suggested hopefully.
“Pass.” I gave her a thumbs-down at the thought of herding half a dozen drunk friends around downtown Houston.
“Boo!” She stuck out her tongue. “Next time?”
I laughed. “Hard pass.”
Taylor rolled her eyes. “Girl, you have got to live a little!” Before I could answer, she held up her hand and said, “Winning the TA SCRABBLE tournament doesn’t count!”
“Says who?”
“Says everyone who knows how to have fun.”
“Hagen thinks I’m fun,” I protested.
Her smile turned sly. “Oh, I’m sure he does.”
I blushed. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
Amused, she said, “No, I’m sure you didn’t. You’re way too sweet to throw your wild sex life with that beast of a man in my face.”
“It’s not wild,” I grumbled, embarrassed. “It’s normal. Perfectly normal.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, unconvinced. “Well, if you change your mind about tonight, call me.”
Giving her my full attention so she would know I was serious, I urged, “Be careful, okay? Almost all of the missing girls disappeared after bar hopping.”
I expected Taylor to roll her eyes and say something sarcastic, but she actually seemed worried. “That sophomore who went missing three weeks ago?”
“McKenna?”
She nodded. “I saw her at the bar. Danny and I were having a drink, and he noticed her and thought she was cute. I told him to go talk to her, but he was too shy and thought she was too young. It’s wild to think we were some of the last people to see her.”
“Did you talk to the police?”
“Yeah. We didn’t have any details that could help them, but we were able to confirm where she was and when.”
Over the last three years, seven young women had gone missing, all of them fellow students. Most were freshman or sophomores, but there had been two grad students among them. All of them had been seen at bars around campus before disappearing. There hadn’t been much done to find them, and it was a growing point of contention between university student groups and the police.
“We’ll be safe,” Taylor promised, knowing full well that I would worry about her. “I’ll text you when I get home, okay?”
“Okay, and if you do need a DD, call me.”
“I will.” She pushed off the door frame and turned to leave. She hesitated and glanced back at me. With a stage whisper, she announced, “Here comes Creeper Kyle.”
I glared and hissed, “Don’t call him that. He’s a nice guy.”
“That’s what they said about Ted Bundy,” she snarked and left.
Hoping Kyle hadn’t heard her, I went back to grading. He wasn’t a creep. His mannerisms were a bit odd, and he didn’t always recognize when he had overstayed his welcome, but he had always been nice to me and a good friend. He even helped me find the apartment where I had lived for the last two years.
“Hey, Cassie!”
“Hey, Kyle.” I glanced up from the paper I was grading. “You headed home?”
“Not yet. I have a shift scheduled at the counseling center. What about you?”
“I have a few more of these to grade before I head out.”
“Any signs of the next Hawking in that stack?”
I made a face. “I mean, it’s only the fourth week of class so…”
“That bad?”
“Yeah.”
“Did my notes help with your math lecture?”
“Yes! Thank you so much,” I gushed appreciatively. “I was in literal tears trying to figure out what the hell was happening. Your notes made everything so much clearer.”
“Good. I’m glad. Don’t hesitate to ask for my help. What’s the point of having a math nerd living across from you if you can’t dig through my old notes?”
Math nerd was his way of being wildly humble. He was four years into his doctorate in mathematics and had won numerous awards throughout his college career. Without his help, I would have struggled to earn a solid B in my tensor and topology courses. I was pretty good at math, but he was truly gifted and a great teacher. Being able to walk a few feet from my apartment to knock on his door and ask for help had been a godsend. I had managed an A in both courses after his tutoring.
“I seriously owe you for talking me down this morning. I was ready to run out of that lecture hall and never come back.”
“You’re at that point in your education where the math and the concepts just keep getting more complex. You need to believe in yourself more. You’re brilliant, Cassie. You have what it takes. I’ve seen your work.”
“Thank you, Kyle. That’s really nice for you to say.”
“It’s the truth. Do you need me to drive you home?”
We had carpooled to the university together that morning. “Hagen is picking me up, but thanks.”
“Date night?” he guessed.
“Yes, but super low key. Hagen has been traveling all week so we’ll probably do something quiet.”
“Not going to meet up with Taylor on their pub crawl?”
“D
efinitely not,” I said with a laugh. “You?”
“Not my scene,” he replied and then smiled almost nervously. “I’m taking Hannah to that new vegan restaurant that just opened.”
“You asked her out!” I had been encouraging him to ask her on a date. He had met her at a grad student mixer a few weeks ago but had been too shy to shoot his shot. From what I knew of him, Kyle hadn’t had much experience dating, but he was so nice that I knew he just had to find the right girl. And he had!
“Yeah.” He grinned. “You were right. She was waiting for me to ask.”
“See! Sometimes it pays to be bold.”
“It sure does.” He glanced at his watch. “I should get going. I’ll see you around?”
“Yes—and good luck on your date! I want all the details the next time I see you.”
After Kyle left, I finished grading the last few exams. I had noticed a theme across more than half of the exams and made a note to the instructor about the physics concepts his students didn’t seem to grasp. I made sure the note was succinct, just ten words. Dr. Plotkin wouldn’t read a note any longer than that.
I sent a quick text to Hagen, letting him know I was done, and then I delivered the graded papers to Dr. Plotkin’s desk, placing them in the correct tray and orienting them so they could be read from his chair. Once that was done, I clocked out, logged off and grabbed my backpack. On my way out of the building, I pulled my phone from the pocket of my jeans and swiped my thumb across the screen.
Hagen: Headed your way
Certain traffic would be hell, I found a shady spot on a bench near our designated pickup area. My gaze drifted to the bulletin board littered with flyers for roommates, used things for sale and MLM opportunities. The tattered, faded flyers for two of the missing women caught my eye.
Like so many fans of crime shows and podcasts, I had done my own sleuthing about the cases, wondering if there was a pattern among the missing girls. Other than being students here, they shared no other similarities. They were different races, heights and builds. Three of them were science students. Two were in liberal arts. The other two were in business and engineering. It would have been less worrying if they had all shared similar looks or interests. At least then we would know why they had been chosen.
If they had been chosen.
The police seemed to believe that most of the missing women had left Houston of their own free will. Some of them were on the verge of failing out of school. A couple of them had just been through horrible breakups.
It was unsettling to think that someone was hunting vulnerable women. Was it another student? A professor? Some random weirdo who had a thing for college-aged girls? Glancing around at the women walking to and from class, I couldn’t help but wonder if the next victim was among them. I suddenly had the morbid thought that it might be me.
Shuddering and refusing to give that line of thought another second, I opened Instagram as a distraction. As I scrolled, I enviously eyed the curvy fitness influencers I followed. I had been trying a workout routine that promised a Brazilian butt lift without surgery, but my sad little booty hadn’t shown much improvement. My legs looked leaner, more defined, but I hadn’t developed the curves I craved. It was hard to embrace my thin, ballerina-like frame when the world seemed to favor lush bombshell figures.
Thankfully, Hagen didn’t seem to mind my lack of assets. The few times I had been self-conscious about my small breasts or bottom, he had gone out of his way to show me how much he enjoyed and appreciated those parts of me. He would use his hands and mouth in the wickedest, dirtiest ways until I couldn’t even look at him without blushing. When we were together, I felt gorgeous and sexy and completely worthy of his love and adoration.
When I had walked into the back room of his bar to try to save my brother, Ronnie, from a gambling debt, I had never expected to meet a man who would sweep me off my feet. Dark, brooding and big, Hagen was the complete opposite of the men I normally dated. He had taken one look at me and had decided I was meant to be his.
When the black Navigator rolled up to the curb, I tucked away my phone and grabbed my backpack. Looking devastatingly handsome in his crisp white shirt and mirrored aviators, Hagen rolled down the front passenger window and called out, “Hey, sweetheart, I’m lost. You wouldn’t happen to have the directions to your heart?”
I rolled my eyes and laughed. He enjoyed teasing me with silly pickup lines, each one worse than the last. “That was awful.”
He laughed and leaned across the console to kiss me. He tasted like sugar and spearmint, the cool after burn of his favorite mints heating my lips. “Buckle up.”
After I fastened my seatbelt, he grabbed my backpack and placed it on the floorboard behind us. He made a face, and I knew what was coming. “I’m not replacing it. It’s still perfectly good.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your face did.”
“Yeah? What’s this face saying?”
I lost it when I saw the ridiculous expression he was making. “Stop!”
Still laughing, he merged into traffic and reached across the console to interlace our fingers. Even after all the times he had held my hand, I still marveled at the size differences between us. I barely stood an inch over five feet, and he towered over me by a foot and five inches. We garnered second glances whenever we were out together, but I had stopped noticing most of them. Only Taylor had been bold enough to ask how our height disparity worked in the bedroom, but I was certain she wasn’t the only one who wondered.
“How was your day?”
“I had a moment in my math class when I wanted to cry, but other than that, it was fine.”
“What? Why? Was your professor an asshole again?” His protective instincts flared, and it made my insides melt.
“No, it was a topology concept that gave me a headache, but Kyle came through with a much easier to follow explanation that helped me nail it.”
“Kyle saved the day, huh?”
“Hagen,” I sighed, “you know he’s just a friend.”
“Does he know that? Because I’ve seen the way he looks at you—”
“He’s dating someone,” I cut in.
“Is she real?”
“Be nice!” I swatted his muscular thigh. “I don’t know why you dislike him so much.”
“I don’t trust him.” He rubbed his thumb over mine in that gentle, soothing way I had come to crave. “I know the type. He’s got ulterior motives.”
“Like you didn’t have ulterior motives when you met me?”
“That was different,” he said, ignoring my pointed stare. “So—dinner?”
“Smooth.” I shook my head in amusement and decided not to needle him about it. Certain he was worn out from all of his flights and hotel stays, I offered to cook. “I can make dinner.”
He hesitated. “You sure? We can go out to eat.”
“I enjoy cooking, and I really enjoy cooking for you.”
“You spoil me, Cass.”
“Not nearly enough,” I said, thinking of how much he had done for me and my brother. Hagen never brought up the money he had spent to clear my brother’s debts. He never made me feel as though I owed him, and I was grateful for that. Still, I liked showing him how much he meant to me, even through simple domestic acts like making dinner.
“I missed you,” Hagen said, his deep, rumbling voice serious. “I don’t…” He faltered. “It’s never been like this for me. Feeling empty and off kilter when you aren’t around,” he explained.
“I understand,” I assured him. He wasn’t the most emotionally open man, and I wanted to encourage him to share thoughts like these again. “It was the same for me. I forgot what it’s like to be lonely at night.”
He lifted our entwined hands and kissed the back of mine. “You sure as hell won’t be lonely tonight.”
Heat crept into my face, and I swallowed hard, already imagining all the wicked ways he would keep me company.
Chapter Two
“Cass, I’ll get those.”
“It’s fine,” I said and shooed him away from the dishwasher. The simple dinner I had pulled together hadn’t left many dirty dishes to handle.
“You cooked. The least I can do is put the dishes in the dishwasher,” he insisted and manhandled me right out of the way, lifting me up and setting me on the counter. “Sit. Hold this.”
Taking the still cold bottle of beer from his hand, I watched as he rinsed and loaded the dishes. Thinking of our earlier dinner conversation about his out of town meetings, I asked, “So—what did you decide? Do you want to invest in one of the firms you visited?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted, swiping the bottle from me and taking a sip. When he handed it back, he said, “I know that I have enough money—legitimate money—to invest with one of the major players, but it’s hard to think about putting everything I worked for in someone else’s hands.”
I ran my thumb along the cold condensation on the neck of the bottle and considered his problem. “So, it’s about trust? About putting your savings with a firm you can trust? With people you can trust?”
“Yes.” He grabbed a dishwasher pod from under the sink, tossed it in and closed the door. “I thought visiting the offices in San Francisco and New York would put my mind at ease. I know that I was lucky to even get meetings with them.”
“They were lucky to have your interest.” He didn’t walk around flaunting his wealth. I had been shocked when he had shown me the true amount he had amassed. He seemed to have known from the beginning that his illicit loan sharking would only take him so far. He had been investing his clean money in businesses, real estate and the markets until he had acquired enough that he needed professional expertise.
He grinned and leaned into me, gripping the counter on either side of me. He teased his mouth over mine. “You’re good for my ego.”
I snorted indelicately and kissed him back. “Your ego doesn’t need my help.”
“No, but I do.” His playful smile deepened into a serious line. “You’re good for me, Cassie. You make me want to be better.” He touched his forehead to mine. “I hope someday I can make you feel the same way. That I can be good for you.”
