Run From Me (Barbed Wire Hearts #2)

3. Xander

THREE

xander

How could a woman that works with the dead seem to have a more haunted look than me? She seemed to mask it well, and who was I to pry open Pandora’s box. I didn’t do that kind of thing. I suppose, if she had something I needed, I’d do a lot. With her, though? I actually wanted to walk with her.

“Sure. I wouldn’t have let you walk with garbage like that lurking around here,” I said.

What the hell was her story? I studied her like some kind of answer would just pop out of nowhere and tell me everything I needed to know about this woman.

Instead, I had to contend with my cock, thinking it was going to get some kind of action and my brain telling me we needed to protect her. I didn’t know that she actually needed my protection though.

She kind of scared me, and then there was the little detail of who she hung around with.

I didn’t like that she was any part of the Vipers. I needed her out of that little shit show of a circus. The issue?

Well, there was a list. But the biggest issue of all was that I might actually be wasting brain space on that shit idea. I was considering how to get her out, and that meant I was a little too into Calliope.

She still hadn’t looked away from me, like she was waiting for more of an answer.

“Alright, Sparky. Lead on. Better leave before he grows a pair and comes back out here and I have to break more than just his nose.”

Her eyes darted to the double doors. Before I could say another word, she spun back around and took off at her ass-on-fire pace. She wasn’t running, but damn if she wasn’t close.

I normally would never chase after a woman, but right now? Fuck. I was willingly keeping up and just following.

My phone beeped and I ignored it. If it were an emergency, they’d call. Still, I was going to have to relay this little mess. Things hadn’t been all that calm with the Vipers recently, but this? I walked a fine line between war and peace.

“Wanna tell me what that was all about? If I’m starting a war, I’d like to know what the war is about.”

We were outside, and I breathed in a lungful of fresh air. Fuck, death smelled real bad when it wasn’t fresh.

She stayed quiet even as we crossed the street, and I had to just guess where she lived. I’d thought about stalking her before, but with all the shit that had happened recently, when did I have time? Just kidding, I knew her address. I just wasn’t letting her know that.

“This is me,” she said, quieter than I’d have expected. Her tone didn’t match the confidence that had been running through that tiny little body of hers a moment ago.

“K? You want me to wait in the lobby?”

It was more like a dark stairwell than a lobby. It looked like no one had bothered fixing up the place since the turn of the century. One more red flag. I shouldn’t care where she lived.

She shook her head slowly at first, like she wasn’t really sure what she wanted. She started toward the keyed door and paused.

I watched her shoulders rise and fall before she turned to me.

“Don’t say anything. Up there. In my apartment. Just don’t say anything.”

My eyes narrowed.

“Why?” I asked.

She shook her head again.

“I’ll explain later. At the party.”

I put my hands in my pockets before they could reach out and either punch something or pull her into a hug. Fuck. A hug? I didn’t hug.

“Right. Well, let’s get you dressed,” was what I ended up saying even though it wasn’t even half of what I’d been thinking. Why couldn’t we talk in her apartment?

She was moving again, turning her key in the lock. It wasn’t what I would call the most secure place. I’d have been able to pick that lock in seconds. So far, I didn’t like how she lived.

The carpet in the entrance?

“I think this matches the pattern of my grandma’s couch,” I said.

The stairs creaked with each footstep. They seemed to groan under my weight. I supposed at least that served as some kind of home security.

“Your grandma has a couch like this?”

She gave me a little smile over her shoulder.

I couldn’t read this woman. One minute, I swear I could see something like fear, or at least a weakness. The next, she’s flashing me a smile like she has the upper hand.

“Yeah. I don’t know. I imagine she’d have a couch like this, though. She moved, like, twenty years ago to Florida or something. No idea if she’s even still alive.”

She stopped on the landing of the second floor.

“Sorry.”

She put a key into the deadbolt of the door to her apartment. This looked marginally more secure, and I’d know because this lock was harder to pick. Still. She was living with a false sense of security.

“No reason to be. I’ve got all the family I need right here. Is that the only lock on this door?”

She looked at where her hand turned the key and back at me.

“Yeah. Sorry I don’t live in Fort Knox like Rylee did. I can’t exactly afford what she could.”

The door seemed to stick as she rammed her hip into it before it opened.

“You can’t tell me that you can’t afford something better than this? The city pays decently, doesn’t it? Fuck—” I stopped as she walked in. Her eyes went blank the second I mentioned that. What the hell was going on here?

“This isn’t Viper property. How come they let you live here?”

She waited for me to step inside before slamming the door and locking not just the dead bolt but several other internal bolts. I was a bit more impressed now.

“Like I said. It wasn’t exactly a choice. Do you see a tattoo on me? I get to live where I want.”

I pressed my lips together and studied the place.

“And you want to live with crunchy carpet?”

My hands were still stuffed in my pockets. Why the hell did I want to pull her into me so bad, like I could fix something?

She wasn’t answering, and the carpet really did crunch when I sidestepped the kitchen island. The counters were even peeling.

“Right. Well, to be fair, you haven’t shown me the rest of your body, now have you? And with that little brand on your hip, I’ll have to take your word for it that you don’t have their tattoo.”

Calliope stood there, and I started to take in the place that she’d chosen to call home.

The walls were painted white, but it looked relatively fresh compared to the rest of the building. There was a small table and chairs. A bookcase across the room.

“What? You don’t just trust me? I’m a friend of Rylee, I wouldn’t lie to you. But if that’s some kind of shit line to see me naked? Well, jury still’s out on whether I should let you,” she said as fabric hit me in the face.

I grabbed it off my head and nearly swallowed my tongue.

“Have a look you giant asshole. No tattoos. I wouldn’t lie to you or Rylee. Did you ask her? She knows I’m not a card-carrying member of the ball less snake crew.”

What the? I couldn’t stop the gut deep laugh.

“Ball less snake crew?”

But hell. She was turning around in just her bra and underwear, and I’d never seen someone so damn gorgeous in my life.

I cleared my throat trying to figure out how to speak.

“Yeah. Snakes don’t have fucking balls. Explains the lot of assholes who think they own my ass.”

She was practically shouting the words right now, and then it all clicked. This place was bugged. Yeah. Couldn’t blame the fuckers regardless of what her place in their organization was.

I just nodded.

“Get dressed. I believe you.”

I was watching her chest heave as she was damn-near hyperventilating. She wasn’t at all the confident woman I’d witnessed flip off a man bleeding out on her floor. Or maybe she was and there was something else. If I was good at reading women, I’d probably have been better at picking ones that didn’t cling.

I held up what I now realized was her crumpled up tank top.

“I am keeping this though. No take backs. I think pink’s my color.” I gave her the grin that seemed to work on all the ladies. Or at least the ones whose beds I wanted to worm my way into. But her?

“Shit, what’s that look for, Sparky?”

She glared.

“Ugh. You are so weird. Rylee never mentioned what a weirdo you were.”

That really gave me something to smile over.

“Aww. You guys talked about me? Was it my sweet ass? Tell me it’s my ass. I really work hard to stay fit and all.”

This time she growled at me and stomped off to what must have been the bedroom.

“So is that a no? You didn’t talk about my ass?”

I followed her since she hadn’t slammed the door. I wouldn’t admit that I needed to know she at least had a bed to sleep on. I was no bleeding heart, but this woman was not being cared and that was like a fucking needle under the nail. Just annoying enough that I couldn’t ignore it.

“No, we didn’t talk about your ass.”

I looked around and didn’t see her as I entered the room. There was a bed. It was messy, like she hadn’t had a good night’s rest or fucking hell. No.

“You don’t have any other hot dates waiting for you? Other than Ripple, that is?” Fuck me. I just couldn’t help myself. Anger boiled deep in the pit of my stomach. If her bed was messed up from some guy fucking her, I would be increasing my body count before the reception.

She appeared out of a door on the side of the room. Bathroom.

“What? No. I wouldn’t have asked some gang asshole to take me if I did.”

The anger died. The way she liked to bait me, though? It triggered something very different inside me.

I closed the distance within a second.

“Gang asshole, huh? Is that all I am? Why did you ask me at all?”

She backed away from me, shoes in hand still.

“I… No… I mean… Do you have a dollar?”

Perhaps the way I looked at her was more of a sneer. I didn’t know. I just liked watching her squirm. But not in the I’m-going-to-stab-you kind of way. I liked watching her like a caged butterfly waiting for release. And I wanted to be that release.

“A dollar? You need a dollar?”

She shook her head.

“No…. yes… the dollar is for something.”

I crept toward her.

Her ass hit the counter behind her, and I caged her in between my arms as I rested my hands on either side of her.

“You can explain the dollar right after you explain what you mean. Finish your sentence, Sparky.”

“I mean that I asked you because otherwise I knew I wouldn’t be able to go. The Vipers. They watch me, except on Spector territory. But they’ve been getting worse and?—”

She broke off the closer I moved. Shit. I hadn’t meant to move closer, but she was like my fucking drug of choice and I needed a hit.

“And what?”

Of course, now I was not only trying to get a taste of my newest addiction, I was bracing myself for who I was going to kill next.

“They’ve been making it harder and harder to do anything outside of work. Ripple? He’s just one of the goons that checks in on me. And,” she paused and took a breath, “I don’t know how much longer I can take it. I needed you to make sure I could get to Rylee. I just need a break. And the dollar?”

Her voice was a whisper, making me remember this place was probably bugged. I looked around at the mirror. The toilet.

“It’s clean in here. I checked. I put away a dollar every time they send Ripple to proposition me.”

Her words were a flutter of air on my ear. Too bad my cock couldn’t tell the difference between words of lust or words telling me she needed help.

“So, do you have a dollar to add to the Honey Badger savings box?”

Fuck, what was she talking about?

“Honey Badger savings box?” I asked.

The warmth of her body was really starting to register, and I was starting to question my self-control.

“Yeah. The empty tampon box I hide the dollars in. Someday I will escape. Someday I will find someone to save me.”

I shifted, biting back the desire that wanted to push me to claim this damsel in distress. No, more like a woman who was sneaky and conniving, and the snake pit didn’t seem to understand who they invited in.

Still, I needed to clear up exactly what she could expect from me. This time it was my turn to whisper in her ear.

“Sparky, I am no one’s hero.”

And with that, I backed away and out toward the door.

“Hurry up. We need to go.”

I grabbed my wallet and tossed all the dollar bills I had on her bed. Because why not donate to the cause? The cause that would win her her freedom. If only she knew there was never freedom.

“Pretty sure this is just paying it forward for the week,” I said before turning around to see her standing in the doorway, watching me.

I hated that I had every intention of stopping Ripple from touching her ever. I shouldn’t be throwing a forest at this damn fire brewing in our little fucked up corner of hell. I shouldn’t want to destroy whatever peace was still happening among the crews in the area, all because of a woman.

I hated it, but when she smiled at me, and not the dangerous smile of a cat catching a mouse but a flash of someone buried deep inside her, I wanted to burn this world down to give her heaven.

“Thanks. I’ll make sure to send you a change of address card.”

I opened my mouth and shut it. I didn’t need to voice the intrusive thought that said the only change of address I was allowing her was to wherever I was.