House of Payne: Loki, page 15
No.
Loki would lose his job if she touched a customer. She couldn’t.
She just couldn’t.
“Kill you, kill you, kill you…” The mermaid-haired woman sobbed in her rage, ignoring the gift shop’s exit and possible escape. Instead, she was hellbent on launching another wild attack on Alice, and this time she managed to knock the walkie out of her hand.
Oh, shit.
“Chantal, get everyone out of here,” Alice yelled, backing up and keeping eye contact with the woman while gesturing for Chantal to move. All that mattered to Alice now was that she kept the woman’s attention focused on her and protecting the House’s customers. “Ma’am, look at me, okay? Just focus on me, because I want to help you. If you’re on medica—”
“Shut up, whore-bitch demon!” The woman began grabbing glass beer mugs off a shelf and began hurling them at Alice as fast as she could. “I swear to God, I will end you once and for all!”
Shattering glass exploded all around Alice, some hitting her forearms and torso as she put her arms up to protect her head.
Oh, God. Oh, God.
If this didn’t end soon, she was going to be killed by a frigging beer mug with a stupid House Of Payne logo on it. What an embarrassing way to go.
Just as that thought flashed through her mind, a mug hit her hard on the left side of her head. A sharp ringing in her ears sounded even as she went down amid the broken glass, and in half a second the woman was on her.
Horrified, Alice looked up just in time to see a fist heading her way.
*
“While my client is not claiming legal responsibility for the incident that transpired earlier—and therefore will fight any litigation that may arise from said incident—he’s more than willing to compensate you for any damages that may have occurred.” Seated at a glossy conference table in Payne’s snazzy office, a scholarly man by the name of Charles Esteban reached into a briefcase, pulled out a sheet of paper, and slid it Payne’s way. Beside him, Sunny plucked it up and scanned it cursorily before handing it to Payne. “As you can see, this is a basic NDA, requiring your discretion in exchange for monetary compensation that can be negotiated as needed. I’m sure you understand my client wouldn’t want his daughter’s good name to be dragged through the mud over this…unfortunate event.”
“Unfortunate event?” Payne didn’t bother to glance at the nondisclosure agreement. Instead, he shoved it away so hard it skidded down the entire length of the gleaming table. “Jesus, are you fucking serious? An unfortunate event is getting food poisoning and tossing your cookies on your date’s shoes. This was a vicious attack on one of my employees. For fuck’s sake, just look at her.”
As one, the room turned to look at Alice.
Oy.
For her part, Alice perched on the edge of a low-slung black leather couch positioned against the office’s interior wall, with Scout seated next to her as she tried to get a Band-Aid on the cuts Alice had on her arms and hands. Every inch of her exposed skin had been cut to ribbons, thanks to the shattered glass that had been on the floor where she and the mermaid-haired woman had tussled. Scout was now on a second box of Band-Aids that Luke Keyes had scrounged up when Alice had point-blank refused to go to the hospital.
Despite her wariness of Luke, Alice was almost pitifully grateful he’d been onsite at the time of the attack. The woman who’d attacked her was clearly unwell, so it was a relief to have a specialist like Luke on hand. He immediately took charge of controlling the woman, while another member of the security team rushed Alice upstairs and out of public view.
From start to finish, the entire episode had taken less than four minutes.
It was a blessing no one outside the immediate area had been affected. According to Scout, no one on the upper level had even been aware of the attack until security had informed her and Payne that police were on their way, as well as an ambulance for the unhinged woman. Even now, the incident was being kept on the downlow for the sake of both the House’s clientele, and their talented, temperamental tattooists.
This last part had Alice at odds with herself in the strangest way. As she helped Scout pull slivers of glass from her upper arm, she tried to sort her chaotic self out.
On the one hand, she was desperately relieved Loki and the other artists hadn’t been disturbed by what had happened downstairs. Not to mention the professional side of her was pleased she’d done all she could to minimize the danger to both Chantal and the gift shop’s patrons, even though that wasn’t technically in her job description. The proof of how well she’d done her job was that no part of the House beyond the gift shop had been disturbed.
That was the professional side of her.
But the injured, terrified woman side of her needed to feel the protective security of Loki’s strong arms around her.
Weird.
Especially since they’d practically been polite strangers to each other for weeks on end.
She had to be in shock or something, she told herself, wincing as Scout pressed another bandage into place. From the time she’d been orphaned, Alice had prided herself in not needing anyone. And needing to be held? Pffft. Not since she was a child had she ever needed to be held. Not once. Not ever.
But…
She needed Loki now.
Not wanted.
Needed.
Then again, maybe she was concussed. The lump on the side of her head where the beer mug had struck her, as well her left cheek where the woman’s punch hand landed, throbbed out a rhythm of abject misery. If she looked half as bad as she felt, Alice figured she had to resemble a lumpy-headed, blood-covered gargoyle.
Maybe it was a good thing Loki couldn’t see her now.
With that in mind, Alice shifted uncomfortably. “I’m fine, Payne.” Please stop telling people to look at me and my lumpy-headed gargoyle-ness.
“I’m still not convinced you’re fine.” From his place beside Scout, Luke Keyes watched her more closely than ever, and she didn’t know what to make of it. When he was playing mind games with her, he always did it with a grin, as if he wanted her to know he was toying with her the way a cat toyed with a mouse. To see him looking downright worried freaked her the hell out. “On the way back from getting more bandages, I managed to take a quick look at the gift shop security footage. Gotta say, Alice, you took some serious knocks from someone who was in the grips of a psychotic episode.”
“No kidding,” she mumbled, losing count of how many places she hurt. “That lady was a lot stronger than she looked.”
“I’m not surprised. People who are that broken off from reality are incredibly powerful, mainly because they don’t have the empathy that unconsciously holds the majority of us human beings back. They’re just balls of pure, unmitigated violence, and therefore extremely dangerous.”
“You don’t have to convince me of that.” Gingerly she raised her bandaged fingers to probe the throbbing place where cheek met jaw. “How awful do I look? Is it bad? Like, paper-bag-over-my-head kind of bad?”
“Gee, I don’t know,” Payne cut in bluntly, glaring daggers at the people seated at the conference table with him. “Turn around and fucking look at my employee, someone who should’ve been safe under my roof. See how she’s ripped to fucking shreds, and you tell her how she looks. Go on, do it.”
This time Alice couldn’t stop the cringe as Payne once again made her the center of attention.
Gee, thanks, Payne. You’re a pal.
While the lawyer dutifully turned to look at her once more, the silver-haired man sitting beside him didn’t move a muscle, keeping his face averted. Nevertheless, Alice knew what the older gentleman looked like, as did just about every Chicagoan. Richardson Womack, famous financier and host of the National Financial News network’s popular show, Womack’s Money, sat so still it was like he’d turned to stone. The woman who had attacked her was Richardson Womack’s daughter, Annalise, once touted as a wild child of Chicago’s social elites, but Alice couldn’t recall hearing anything about her for a few years.
Knowing her attacker was Annalise Womack answered one question, at least.
That fab Burberry coat had been the real deal.
Calmly, the lawyer fished out another piece of paper from his briefcase and again slid it across the table. “If you’d take the time to read through this document, Mr. Payne, you’ll be happy to note that the NDA also generously provides any medical compensation for possible victims of circumstance—”
“Oh, no, you don’t, slick,” Payne snarled, and Alice was alarmed by the raw savagery of it. “Don’t you dare try to bullshit me. This was no fucking circumstance, and my employee wasn’t a possible victim. She’s a definite victim of fucking whacked-out violence, violence that would’ve happened to my customers if she hadn’t had the wherewithal to direct another one of my employees—who, by the way, is in my manager’s office in goddamn hysterics—to get everyone out of that shop while she drew the fire. So don’t you even think about pissing on what I know are the facts and call it a spring shower.”
“Hear, hear,” Scout muttered, tossing the last Band-Aid wrapper into the waste basket Luke had moved over to where they sat.
The lawyer sighed. “Mr. Payne—”
Without warning, the double doors to Payne’s office exploded open. Loki was suddenly there, his towering fury flooding the office while another security agent by the name of Forge trailed him like a shadow.
“He went down to visit Alice in the gift shop and saw all the blood and destruction,” Forge announced bluntly to Luke, who came to his feet as if he had half a mind to tackle Loki. “I told him we had things in hand, but—”
“Alice. Baby.” With eyes burning more fiercely than she’d ever seen them, Loki reached down to where she sat and hauled her into his arms, only to loosen his hold when he felt her flinch. “Where does it hurt?”
“You’re here now. Nothing hurts anymore.” The words were out before she gave them a thought, but she didn’t care. They were the truth. After what seemed like forever, she was finally back in his arms, and it was better than any heaven she’d ever imagined. The wall that had separated her from him and the rest of the world vanished, and all she could feel was the beauty of finally being not just safe, but where she belonged.
Scout also came to her feet. “Don’t worry about the rest of your shift, Loki. Go home and take care of Alice. You can have tomorrow off, too, so you can keep an eye on her. Just look at this as a four-day weekend.”
“Who did this?” Loki demanded, and Alice genuinely feared he was a heartbeat away from ripping the House apart so he could find someone to murder. “Was this because of that Felix fuckface?”
“It was just some random woman who was off her meds.” Alice tightened her arms around him, in case he wanted to hunt the poor woman down. “I followed protocols—I didn’t touch her and called for support. Unfortunately, this woman was able to do a ton of damage before security was able to get there, but thankfully that damage was just to me and the shop. Chantal was able to get about a dozen or so shoppers out of there, so no one else got hurt.”
“Thankfully?” He stared at her as if she’d just said the worst swear word the universe had ever known. “For fuck’s sake, look at you. You took me on and dropped me like it was nothing, but you couldn’t lay a finger on some crazy bitch?”
“I followed protocols to the letter, Loki,” Alice reiterated while the lawyer tried to butt in on their conversation and Richardson Womack’s shoulders twitched. “I wasn’t a loose cannon with a hot temper and impulse issues, and the surveillance video will prove that out. Payne won’t be sued and you and everyone else won’t lose their jobs. Yes, I was protecting the shoppers and Chantal to the best of my ability, but I was also making sure I protected you and the job you love. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“What the hell, Loki,” Payne muttered, causing Alice to glance his way to find him scowling at them. “What fucking purpose does it serve to tell her about stupid shit I said when I didn’t even know her and had my head up my ass?”
“I didn’t tell her shit, man,” Loki shot back. “Alice was sitting right there and heard every damn word you said. Remember what I said would happen? I knew those stupid fucking protocols you shackled her with would tie her hands and put her in danger. Just so you know, I told her to walk the hell away from this job, because I knew you and Scout had made it too dangerous for her to do it effectively.”
“So that’s why.” Luke hit himself in the head, like he thought he’d had a stupid moment. “I wondered.”
Alice stared at him. “You wondered what?”
“I told you I reviewed the security video, right? It just so happens I spotted that telltale hesitation in you—that moment when you could’ve dropped Annalise Womack gently and without lasting effects. But instead, you deliberately chose to set yourself up as her human punching bag while directing Chantal to get everyone out of harm’s way.”
Alice grimaced. “I wouldn’t put it exactly like that, but whatever.”
“You literally put your life on the line with someone who was clearly deranged because you were worried that if you defended yourself—an act that literally anyone would have done—you’d be putting everyone’s job at risk, especially Loki’s.” He shook his head. “Call me an idiot, but I’m always surprised by how love motivates people to do the craziest damn things. You could have been killed, Alice.”
Alice sucked in a sharp breath, torn between horror and mortification as Loki swung back to look at her. “You’re an idiot. I don’t love anyone.”
Luke had the gall to laugh in her face. “Are you kidding me? You literally overrode Mother Nature’s instinct to survive, as well as all your years of martial arts training. And you did it for the sake of protecting Loki’s job. That’s adorable. Stupid, but adorable.”
Honest to God, one day someone was going to kill Luke for his damn head games. “I also wanted to prove I’m no loose cannon, though I have no doubt Payne and Scout will always think of me as that and nothing more.”
“Okay, fuck that, I want a chance to defend myself,” Payne jumped in, his voice rising. “Swear to Christ, Alice, I didn’t know you when I said that—”
“And if I genuinely thought you were a loose cannon, I never would have hired you,” Scout put in, all but shouting over everyone else. “For God’s sake, Alice, you could have been killed today, don’t you get that? I can’t believe you put your life on the line with a crazy person just to prove a damn point—”
“Enough.” Richardson Womack pushed away from the table and stood, head held high and not looking at anyone. “Charles, get everyone’s information and pay them whatever the hell they need to keep them quiet about my daughter’s…issues. I’m leaving.”
“You cold-hearted sonofabitch.” The savage light that sparked in Loki’s eyes made Alice genuinely fear for the older man’s life. “You haven’t even bothered to look at Alice once, in all the time that I’ve been here. What, is she too much of a little person, too common and inconsequential for you to even fucking acknowledge?”
Oh, boy. “Loki—”
“Let me tell you something, asshole. My Alice is worth a hundred of that fucked-up kid of yours, you get me? That demented bitch nearly killed my woman, yet you won’t even take the goddamn time to look at her.”
“Exactly.” Payne crossed his arms while waves of anger rolled off him. “Preach, brother.”
“All you want to do is throw fucking money at her,” Loki growled, and if he hadn’t been holding her, Alice suspected he would have been right up in Womack’s grill. “Jesus fucking Christ, with a coldhearted bastard like you for a father, maybe it’s no wonder your kid’s a damn nut.”
“Loki, no.” In an instant, Alice jumped between Loki and Richardson Womack, who went for Loki like he had every intention of throttling him. “You don’t know what it’s like to be in this man’s shoes, but I do. I do know what it’s like to have a family member just lose it without warning,” she added as she turned to Richardson Womack. When she saw her hand was planted in the middle of the man’s chest, just like it was with Loki’s, she hastily dropped her arms so she could clutch her bandaged hands in front of her. “Right now it’s just so hard to look anyone in the eye, isn’t it? Some people might think you’re cold and uncaring because of this, but that’s not it at all. It’s like…you’re dying inside, and no one can save you from that horrible inside-dying, because you don’t know how to save the family member that’s gone off the rails. You’re as much of a victim here as anyone, but no one even thinks to consider that. They just condemn you. Or at least, that’s what you think the world is doing, because you’re condemning yourself.”
Richardson Womack cleared his throat and looked away, but not before she saw the glitter of tears.
“No one ever bothered to tell me that it wasn’t my fault when a relative of mine snapped,” she went on, hurting for him, because no one knew what he was going through better than her. “I never really understood how much I needed to hear that until this very moment, because looking at you now and seeing your pain… it’s like recognizing a part of myself. So here it is—none of this is your fault, okay? This isn’t on you. Yes, you do have a genetic connection to someone who completely lost their mind, but that isn’t who you are. In fact, if you could have avoided this, you would have done anything to do so. Please believe that no one here is condemning you, and please don’t punish yourself like… well, like I’ve been doing all this time, until this very moment. I see now that I’ve wasted years of my life doing that, so please be smarter than me and try to remember that none of this is your fault.”
“I…” Again Richardson Womack cleared his throat and seemed to have trouble getting his voice to work. “Young lady, I would appreciate it if you would give Charles your information and let him know of anything that you need. Anything. I mean that.” He began to walk past her, head held high, but he paused at the door to look back at her, and she wondered if everyone else could see how broken this man truly was. “Thank you for your kind words, my dear. I’m… I’m so sorry.”
