Damn.
This woman.
This fierce little wildcat who didn’t hesitate to put me in my place.
“Not tryin’ to disrespect you, Salem. I’m only making it clear how you make me feel.”
For a minute, she stared, two of us tied, before she shook herself out of it. “I don’t think it would be a good idea for either of us to explore that.”
She was right. The problem was how fuckin’ bad I was aching for her to be wrong.
She dropped her gaze, inhaling before she peered over at me. She tied me up all over again with the way that striking face deepened with loss and hope. “But I think we could try that friend thing.”
Something fluttered through my chest. Something hard and soft squeezing at my heart. “Okay, then, darlin’， but I’m not going to pretend like I haven’t been imagining more.”
Heat flamed, a rush of red to her skin, and it was clear she’d been imagining it, too.
I blew out the strain and went for a little of that pretending I’d just promised her I couldn’t do, while I searched around for the form I was looking for. “So, have you ever worked as a receptionist before?”
“I worked at the front desk of a dental office for a while.”
“Perfect. Honestly, if you can just answer the phone, that would take a huge burden off my shoulders.”
I felt her frown. “I’m pretty sure I’m capable of handling more.”
“Well, this office is a fuckin’ mess. Not gonna lie. My last office manager left five months ago for maternity leave and never came back. Not that I can blame her.”
Salem popped onto her toes and peered over the counter at the disaster hidden on the other side.
Horror filled her gasp.
“Having second thoughts?” I asked, quirking a brow.
So yeah, there were five months of incomplete contracts and receipts and shit piled everywhere.
You couldn’t see the desk with the stacks of files and papers covering it, so many that I’d taken to piling them on the floor.
“You can’t run a business like this.” Her tone filled with disbelief.
I snorted an incredulous sound. “Obviously.”
I finally found the folder I was looking for, and I lifted it victoriously. “Ah. Here it is.”
I pulled out an application and passed it across the counter in her direction.
If she wanted a job, figured I’d give her one. Clearly, the woman needed some cash, and I needed the help. Seemed like a win-win.
She fingered the paper, her breaths coming short, dread swelling and coming off her in waves.
“What is it, darlin’？”
She dropped her head, but not far enough that I couldn’t see that she was chewing on her lip in worried contemplation. Finally, she lifted her gaze, that chin lifted high, but there was no missing the tremble in her voice. “This can’t be on the books.”
I thought her dread must have burst and jumped directly into my veins.
All while she remained there, fierce and hard and determined. A challenge on her face.
I’d lived a seedy enough life to know people did things under the table for one of two reasons—they were either crooked or they were hiding.
I would bet my ass it was the latter.
There was nothing I could do. My rationale was smashed to dust. Particles that no longer existed.
Every wall she kept trying to toss between us obliterated in that single confession.
Or maybe it was just that my conscience had decided to scale right over the top of them.
Because protectiveness swelled.
Brutal.
Severe.
Violent.
Somehow, I managed to keep my hand steady when I reached out and set my palm on her cheek. My thumb went to stroking the scar on her jaw.
Just fuckin’ knowing.
Seeing the trauma written there.
Her body rocked like an earthquake, and her hands came out to support herself on the counter, her breath gone and her eyes squeezing tight.
I wanted to demand a thousand things, but a name and an address would do. That demon screamed, thrashed and wailed from the darkest place where I kept him chained.
But I reined it.
I knew that wasn’t what this girl needed right then, and I gave her what I was sure she’d been missing.
This time, when I uttered the words, they were a promise. “I have you, Salem.”
She remained there for the longest time, her breaths shallow, barely contained panic vibrating through her body, though she leaned deeper into my touch.
“I have you,” I reiterated, words coarse and raw.
Finally, she opened those eyes, their depths a tormented sea that I recognized too clearly.
Understanding burned between us.
She’d just offered me something she didn’t offer many.
A tiny spec of her trust.
Stepping back, she broke the bubble that’d held us, adjusting her shirt and her breaths and the beat of her heart.
She gestured to the door. “I should get Darius’ truck back to him before he notices I’m gone.”
A surprised bolt of laughter ripped from me. “Sweet Enchantress, you are somethin’， aren’t you?”
She almost smiled as she backed away. “I’ll be back with him, and I’ll start getting this place in order.”
I rested back on the filing cabinet behind me, arms over my chest as I gazed at the girl who got lit in the streak of sunlight blazing through the window.
Black hair and gorgeous body and this spirit that was hard to ignore. “Thank you for saving me.”
A grin spread to her mouth. “I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around.”
She opened the door, then hesitated before she looked back. “Darius is going to be pissed.”
Anger curled in my chest. Apparently, he hadn’t just had words with me.
I hiked an indifferent shoulder. “I can handle it if you can.”
“I can.”
“Good.”
Her expression softened. This fierce, unrelenting girl going sweet.
“I’ll see you in a bit,” I told her.
“Thank you, Jud.”
Every part of me turned tender. “It’s my pleasure, darlin’。”
My fuckin’ pleasure.
NINE
JUD
“You will always be my sweet boy. Never let anyone convince you of anything different.” His mommy whispered the words before she swept her lips over the top of his head. Her eyes were so green, like emeralds in the night. She looked at him like it was the truth when she tucked him into his bed.
He was safe.
Safe.
But the world canted as the years passed. The ground disappeared below him and he was gobbled by the abyss.
He fell and tumbled as darkness rained.
Bullets fired.
Blood.
So much blood.
His mom was gone.
“You belong to me.” His father hissed it into his ear as he wept. As the man forced him from his knees and onto his feet. He pressed the gun into his hands. “You or them.”
Shots rang.
Echoed in his ears for eternity.
His soul shattered as the demon raged.
Nothing mattered.
No right or wrong.
But the wrong glared too bright.
He rocked in the corner. Tore at his hair. Begged to be different. Screamed for peace. For forgiveness. For it to go away.
He crawled from the rubble.
Built walls. A solid ground.