And far from being invisible, I had a target painted on my back now. Vic and the other men who’d chased me through the woods obviously had something to hide, and it wasn’t like my address was a secret.
My heart raced and I forced myself to breathe slowly in an attempt to calm it down. Stress was the enemy with AVS and I’d put my heart through a lot in the past twenty-four hours.
It wasn’t over yet. I’d charged my phone just in time to discover a text from Shirley, my boss at the Mountaintop Inn, telling me I’d been fired for not showing up to my shift that morning. That was something a lot of people didn’t understand: people like me, people who worked crappy under-the-table jobs that barely paid the bills, didn’t get snow days. We didn’t get paid sick days and there was no HR department where we could file a complaint.
I’d tried calling Shirley to explain that I’d been stranded without my phone because of the storm but Shirley didn’t give a fuck.
That was two jobs down counting the Dive, which was clearly not a winning career path. Thankfully I wasn’t due at Burger Haven, the tacky chain restaurant where I worked as a waitress twenty hours a week, for another two days.
“Right there,” I said, pointing out the driveway on the right.
Jude turned into a half-empty gravel lot in front of a dingy two-story building. It had definitely seen better days, but I’d gotten used to its peeling paint and old windows, the leaky roof(my unit didn’t leak, but Marv, the old man in the unit next to mine, said his had been leaking for months).
After the Bastards’ luxurious digs (I hadn’t even had a chance to ask them what they did for a living now that they obviously weren’t in the military anymore), it looked extra pathetic.
“This is good,” I said when Jude pulled next to Marv’s shit-brown sedan. “Thanks.”
“Not so fast, boss,” Jude said.
I looked back at him. “What? I appreciate the place to stay last night, but I don’t have any money to give you if that’s what you’re getting at, and you’redefinitelynot getting anything else from me.”
He scowled, and I was truly sorry to say it only made him hotter. “We don’t want money. Or anything else.” He reached for the door. “We’re going up with you, just to make sure everything’s cool.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “Everything looks fine.”
I tried to sound carefree but there was a teensy tiny part of me that definitely wanted them to walk me up, just to make sure Vic wasn’t waiting to put a bullet between my eyes or stuff me into a car like they did to the girl behind the Dive.
“What Jude meant to say is we’re not leaving until we make sure your apartment’s clear,” Rafe said, his voice cold as he opened the door. “Now get out of the fucking car.”
I bit back the retort at the tip of my tongue. Rafe was a dickbag but why cut off my nose to spite my face? I might as well take advantage of being in the company of three trained-to-kill former soldiers while I had them.
I sighed. “Fine.”
14
LILAH
We piledout of the car and I led the way to the narrow vestibule leading to the stairs. The building was small — only four units, two on top and two on bottom — and I was on the second floor. Once upon a time, it had been a single-family home, but somewhere along the way it had been turned into an apartment building.
I led the way up the stairs, then stopped on the second-floor landing when I remembered something. “Shit. I don’t have my keys.”
I’d left them in my bag at the Dive.
Why don’t you just send Vic and those other assholes an engraved invitation to kill you in your apartment, Lilah? You can serve them drinks and appetizers before they shoot you in the head.
“Which unit is yours?” Nolan asked. His face was in shadow thanks to the fact that Tony, the landlord, still hadn’t replaced the broken light in the vestibule.
I touched my door. “This one.”
“Do you have a balcony or something?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Give us a minute.” Rafe started down the stairs with Nolan on his heels, their boots clunking on the treads.
I didn’t know what they were up to but whatever it was, they clearly didn’t need to talk about it to be on the same page.
“What are they doing?” I asked Jude.