Nightshade, page 12
“Doesn’t mean I like them!” I almost howled when we went in. Jase barely flinched as the freezing water swallowed his calves. He was smart enough to recognize my attitude wasn’t toward him but resulted from fear and pain. “Oh, gosh!” He dropped to his knees. My legs and bottom submerged all at once. I sucked my teeth and gripped the hell out of his neck, squeezed into his warm body out of desperation.
Mascara melted into the crook of his throat as my tears stippled black droplets to his skin. My body burned for different reasons than last night.
“Shhh….” he soothed. “A few days of rest, and you’ll heal. I can drive you to school if you want to visit the sports medicine doctor?”
Rustin waded in, wincing and cursing, making me giggle while I cried against Jase’s stubbled Adam’s apple. Jase’s chuckle joined mine, and Rustin’s hand went to the foot I hadn’t hurt. He lifted the drenched shoe from the ocean. As my sock rained water, he said, “See, it’s barely even got anything wrong.”
“Wrong foot, Country.”
“I knew that.” With a scoff, he gave me his smile, the only visible sunshine on this dreary beach. My injured ankle rose in his hands. The dripping sock carved patterns into the swollen grayish pink flesh. He averted his attention toward the shoreline to avoid my eyes. “You’ve got some concerned spectators.”
My gaze shot over Jase’s shoulder. The beach guy! Moonlight stood at the water’s edge with three others looking on with worry. Part of me thrilled over his concern. Part of me was ashamed, considering whose arms held me.
The reasonable part won out, seeing the attention as a negative. “I need to get out of here with no one knowing I’m hurt. Chad put that article out. I can’t afford speculation I might not be able to perform. People love negative publicity, and too many would love to spread some on me.”
My tone was rough, angry, frustrated. Rustin nodded like I had a great point. Jase studied my expression.
“Jase, forgive me. I need my daddy. My coach will freak, and I don’t want him to unless it’s real. My dad can take me to the doctor, then I’ll deal with the result.”
Jase nodded, cleared his throat and asked Rustin for a favor.
“Yeah? What’s up?” Rustin asked, his hands on his superhero hips, his shorts wet up to his thighs. They shared a look. Rustin walked up and reached beneath me. My arms transferred around his neck, and for the second time today, I was uncomfortably close to too much exposed skin that even water this cold couldn’t steal the heat from. There was something in how Rustin was a stranger that made this more inappropriate. He fought the waves to get us to the shore, and I looked over my shoulder to see Jase dive below the surf. When I winced in sympathy, Rustin chuckled. “Lifeguard. Remember?”
“Ah. Well, crap. Hope it doesn’t look like I needed rescuing,” I cracked. My ankle was numb, but my pulse thrummed in the swollen tissue.
“Ha, I think he needs rescued, Mizz Hayes.” I didn’t lean into Rustin’s chest or neck the way I had Jase’s. I didn’t want the onlookers getting the wrong impression.
“She all right?” Moonlight asked him with the faintest hint of an accent, the concerned citizens waited for an answer.
“Yeah, things got a little too hot between them, if you know what I mean.” Rustin flashed him a grin. My jaw dropped, and my hand snapped against his chest. Moonlight shook his head and looked at me from behind sunglasses.
“You all right?” he demanded, scary and soothing at the same time.
Like that night in the stairwell. I found my voice.
“I’m all right, thank you for asking.” He gave a tight smile and a curt nod. The others I vaguely recognized from morning routines also nodded and went about their business.
I tried to quit studying him. My mind homed in on the pain in my ankle, focused on every panging nerve rather than looking like an ungrateful slut in the arms of another.
“Rustin, will you please set me down? I think I should try walking.”
“No ma’am. Not until we get to the picnic table, Mizz Hayes. Want me to toss you around a little to make it seem like I’m not overcompensating for your injury?” Before his offer registered, he shifted me in his arms and tossed me up and caught me like a child while I squealed in laughing surprise against my will for all the butterflies set loose. He tossed me again while I giggled breathlessly and shouted that he put me down.
“Fine. Have it your way.” He set me on the picnic table. While I caught my breath, I provided my car key and instructed him to get the phone from my console. In the meantime, Moonlight did rounds on the course. His sunglasses seemed to aim in my direction multiple curious times. Dark hair matted with sweat the harder he pushed himself. He was doing pull-ups when Jase walked up with a kiss for my cheek. Jase took to the course like he wanted me to watch him instead. The pain bloomed thick with my embarrassment at getting caught and passively called out.
Rustin, breathing a little hard, slapped the phone in my empty palm with a triumphant ray of sunshine printed over his mouth. Wagging that tail …. “Thanks, Rustin. Excellent job, boy, now go play.” I teased him, then dialed.
My father answered on the first ring. “Daddy? Have you left for work yet?”
Chapter 15
KLIVE
A man I recognized stalked across the sand like a bloke on a mission to retrieve his little girl positioned between two shirtless men.
What caused Kinsley’s injury?
Her agility had given my own a great run, yet the bee was at risk of no longer flying. Nonsense!
I moved about the course as her father knelt for her to hop on his back. She smiled like a happy girl. Too good at that facade. When I jogged from behind the wall to the tires, he helped Kinsley into the passenger seat of a BMW. I took that moment to walk over and shake Jase Taylor’s hand.
“I hope your girlfriend is all right.”
“Girlfriend? Now there’s a foreign word with a ring to it.” He grinned and thanked me. “I hope she’ll be fine, too. If I have time, I might go check on her later.” Envy was hard to conceal. “Something tells me she won’t be serving my drinks tonight, though.” He looked to his friend, and his face was grim.
“Mind if I come watch you perform?” I asked. “Afterward, perhaps we might discuss the happenings at the bar?”
He gave a knowing look, then introduced me to his friend, Rustin Keane. We shook hands.
“Pleased to meet you. Wish under better circumstances,” I offered.
While assessing me from behind shades, he returned the sentiment then agreed the recent events at the bar were, “Escalating and unavoidable.”
Taylor rested his elbows against the picnic table, his legs open as he squinted against the dull light of day.
“Yeah, I’ll see ya later, King.”
I didn’t expect to see them until the evening, nor did I, but I did see Kinsley.
The end of lunch break had me dashing onto the lift to head up to my office, attire expensive, hair sculpted, impatience showing. About twelve floors glowed on the panel of buttons. I added mine, then weaseled into a corner for spare inches, desperate to keep space between myself and a notorious loudmouth who thrived on passively insulting co-workers in ways difficult to prove beyond hearsay.
Before the doors closed, Kinsley and her father joined the crowded box. The others barely noticed due to their phones. A cold rush gripped my ability to breathe while her father checked whether his floor was lit, then shifted her toward the back. He glanced knowingly at the man nearby and cast me an apologetic smile when he tucked Kinsley inside my personal space in order to place himself between her and the pariah. For the first time, the invasion of my bubble did not bother me. I wished I were free to pull her closer, to hold her as I had that fateful night of Gasparilla. Oh, to make this crowd disappear!
Breathe in…two, three…out…two, three….
I almost closed my eyes to recall with vivid clarity how the curves of her hips felt beneath my fingers.
“Daddy, you don’t need to do this,” she whispered. “I don’t even need to wear this stupid thing.” His arm secured her waist, she had a splint on her ankle, and she argued that she could stand by herself. The doors shut. Without bumping me or her father, she wrapped her hands around the bar at our backs. Oh, memories. At least she didn’t want to rip the metal from the wall to beat me over the head this time.
“Mom can pick me up, then I can drive,” she insisted. “The doctor said the swelling will go down soon. He even cleared me for work.”
“What does that doctor know?” he said under his breath. “He’s younger than you are.”
“He is not. This splint is nothing more than a melodramatic placebo. Useless and attention-grabbing.”
“Kinsley Fallon, there’s no use arguing, young lady. Don’t make me pull this elevator over.”
She snickered while her father fought a grin, then cleared his throat. “I’m taking the day. I’ll make calls from my desk at home. This way I can keep you off your feet, and you will not work. What happens when someone bumps you or steps on you and turns this into a full-blown injury?”
Excellent point.
I reached for my personal phone to text Marcus.
Give Kinsley the rest of the week off
When I brushed her by mistake, her head turned in apology, where she did a double take. Her chest inflated. No way she recognized me in this capacity, right? But she exhaled in a manner I mimicked, blood rushing to her cheeks and pounding in my ribs. What madness being this close and playing indifferent, especially since her father picked up on her shift and eyed me in speculation.
“Forgive me,” I rushed and refocused on my device, determined to throw him for both our sakes.
I can’t spare her rn!
She’s injured her ankle and needs to rest
If she doesn’t you could be out a bartender for weeks
Pick your poison mate!
When I finished, half the elevator had emptied—meaning we weren’t sardines, only a school of fish. Kinsley’s father busied himself talking shop with someone I gathered to be a colleague. Kinsley stepped inches away, apologizing and looking down at her foot while she forced the splint to go with her. She didn’t glance up, but she spoke.
“Your cologne smells very nice, sir.”
A full smile stole from my indifferent sham. My hands traveled to my pockets as I studied the veins in the marble floor so her father— and everyone else— might not notice my elation.
“Thank you. You’re the runner from the feature, yes?” My voice was quiet and drowned under the conversation around us, but she nodded without any hearing issues. “I hope your foot is okay.” I gestured.
With a tap to her Mona Lisa lips to silence me, she nodded once more. Her hand dropped to her side next to my own.
“I’ll be at my meet without an issue.” The Mona Lisa transformed into Rembrandt brilliance, then shifted right back. “Looks worse than it is, because my daddy won’t quit coddling me.”
She had me. I smiled at the wall to stifle a laugh. Her father hadn’t heard a word, but we dwindled by more than half of our school. Further communication had to be covert.
What a delicious thrill! What did she think of me without my costume? She was much shorter in flip flops than she’d been in her boots.
A woman in a pantsuit lowered the phone she’d buried her head in and breathed a sigh of relief as the pariah stepped off. When the doors closed, she said, “Oh thank heavens he’s gone. He makes me uncomfortable.” Several agreed with her.
She looked at the mirrored ceiling in praise, then gasped at the reflection. “Oh, Kinsley, your foot. Andy, what happened to her?”
Amazing what people missed due to social media.
Kinsley sighed as the woman faced her father. I brushed my fingers against the back of Kinsley’s hand. Electric shock. Her breathing changed. A muscle jumped in her neck while I clenched my jaw. We had something thick. If this ride didn’t end soon, we’d be exposed.
“She’s okay,” her father supplied, like he knew his daughter was having trouble talking for the moment. “She was running cold on that obstacle course at the beach because some pervert almost accosted her. She had the fortitude not to go to her car so he wouldn’t know what she drove, but still.”
I inhaled my anger so deep, I had no choice but to add something. “That’s unacceptable.” I met the eyes and expressions studying our proximity. Kinsley’s cheeks flushed while I worried. My instinct to protect her showed too obvious, but hell if I knew how to erase the anger the way she masked her emotion.
“I agree. Absolutely unacceptable,” Kinsley’s father stated.
They shared a look before the woman picked back up. “What’s this world coming to when a woman can’t even go jogging in a safe area?”
“I keep telling her to carry a can of wasp spray with her,” her father said. “Hose them down from a distance. Get ’em in the eyes. It’s not a weapon, court shouldn’t be an issue.”
Nice!
“Easy to jog with. Nothing odd there,” Kinsley injected. She snickered along with the others, the sound thawing in the warmth of her timbre.
“Did you report him to the authorities?” I asked. “Or at least carry pepper spray?” I couldn’t resist the dig.
She choked on her giggle and swallowed before shaking her head. Her eyes big, round and guilty, if not shocked I’d spoken directly to her before these people.
Her father studied us then focused on her like a man frustrated and wanting the same thing.
“No. I didn’t think of it, and I don’t remember him well enough,” she told me. A lie. She was lying to my face in fear while I grew agitated. Had my words in this very building two years ago meant nothing to her?
“That’s a shame. Should you remember, get a sketch and a report this. If you expose roaches, they run. Though your father’s bug spray idea is brilliant. Way further reach than pepper spray.”
We chuckled together as I attempted to erase the tension.
“See?” Her father nodded.
“Yes, sir. Thank you,” Kinsley said.
My anger vanished at the stung look on her face. Dammit. I didn’t want to embarrass her! I wanted to squeeze her hand and tell her I’d squeeze the trigger of my gun if this happened again. Things were becoming dangerous at the bar with Inferno, now the beach. I had more than enough suspicion to merit a tail without being a stalker. I should have gone to the beach sooner, dammit! I might have caught that wanker red-handed and dealt with him then and there! Was Inferno responsible for this? What the hell was their angle?
The lift opened on their floor, and her father bid the rest of us adieu. He aided his beautiful daughter through the doors. Her limp resulted from some bastard making her scared and trying to steal my bee’s wings. This was not okay! Hannah was looking to Kinsley as a source of proof in doing what you shouldn’t be able to. Two powerful reasons to fight for one person’s safety, activating my powers of evil for good.
Kinsley peered over her shoulder with that bloody silent plea that wrapped my fealty and fury around her tiny finger.
Anything you want, love.
Could she read my answer?
The doors closed. I avoided the dancing eyes studying our magnetism. Pantsuit lady was sure to gab to her entire break room at the earliest opportunity.
When I got to my office, I locked the door and grabbed my other phone to call the only man I trusted for this job.
“Christophe, I need Joey for an exclusive amount of time,” I told my private investigator.
“Concerning?” He multi-tasked in the background.
“A protective detail.”
“He’s on yours.”
“Not mine. A woman’s.”
“A woman?” He stopped everything. The background noise muted. “Who will watch your back? I’m too busy managing the rest of my staff, and Joe is the only one who knows your double trouble.” Double life.
“I suspect this pertains to the double trouble. Not a direct threat, but one great enough I need an extra set of eyes protecting this girl. I want to hunt without distractions. May I have him, or not?” I struggled with my exasperation. The stack of messages on my desk proved there were many things to take care of before I went to the bar, if I got the chance, and I didn’t need to add more to the list.
“I’ll move him at once. What’s the name? And you never answered my question about your back, King.”
“Eric can watch mine. Her name is Kinsley Fallon Hayes. She’s mid-to-high profile.” I referenced the article and some of her background, then told him about the bar and this morning.
“Klive, is your interest professional or something more? Be honest.”
I didn’t want to hear shit about how dangerous a romantic attachment was. I knew every instance with her could equal a target on my head if I couldn’t recruit a replacement in time.
“Professional. One of my bartenders quit this week. I won’t lose another because some prick can’t keep his hands or knob to himself.”
He whistled. “Professional. Right. Joey’s texting now. He’ll be on point in about an hour. You have a phone number to trace?”
“Not without going through personnel files at the bar. Have Joey text Marcus. He’s got it.”
I hung up, my jaw clenching, palm tingling to do permanent damage. Something larger was afoot. My bar. My staff. My girl. Who could know that, though?
If only I could ask Kinsley what this asshole looked like. Before I went off the deep end, I had to admit some degenerate could have targeted her at random. She revealed more skin than usual this morning, but that shouldn’t matter. Damn near every female jogger in the Bay area revealed more skin than necessary, and that was their prerogative and shouldn’t mean writing an invitation to some tosser.
