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I opened my mouth to reply then closed it again.
What the fuck did he care?
He worked for her, but the way he spoke made it seem like they had a deeper relationship. She rarely mentioned James, aside from saying that he could handle certain simple tasks, and that he was a good fighter if needed. I’d kept him on the sidelines so far, but was considering throwing him into the fray, if at least to prove himself.
Now I wondered if I should toss him into the next fight I could find, just to get him killed.
“Erin is my fiancée and she’s your boss. That means you answer to me now. And I’m telling you to return to the house and stop asking questions.”
“You botched today.” James spoke with a low growl. “Erin could’ve been in there. If she was—”
“I wouldn’t let her get near the fighting.” I moved closer. He watched me carefully. His eyes never moved to the hand I kept hovering above my gun, but I felt him keeping track of it in his peripheral vision. That was smart, very smart. I shouldn’t underestimate him. “She’s my priority now.”
“Good.” He dropped the cigar and stomped it out. “I hope we understand each other. Erin’s the only important person here. She’s the one that walks away in the end.”
“Careful what you say.”
He sneered. “Or else what?”
I dropped my posture and shook my head. I didn’t need to measure dicks with this jumped-up nobody. It was beneath me.
I turned and headed back to the hotel. James’s laughter echoed across the buildings. I wanted to look back, but resisted the urge—it’d only make me look weak.
That man was a problem.
Chapter 12
Erin
Redmond slept like the dead. His breathing was steady and rhythmic. I stood in the living room, watching him carefully.
I refused to share a bed. I’d never had a man in my bed before, and I didn’t plan on starting now. He hadn’t argued though I could tell he wasn’t happy about the situation.
Didn’t matter. I wasn’t his wife—yet.
I snuck to the door and paused with my hand on the knob. It was dark, well past midnight, and I had on all black like some kind of urban ninja. I smiled to myself as I quietly slipped into the hallway, pausing to make sure there were no guards nearby.
None that I could see. That was good. I shut the door with a soft click and waited again, heart racing. Sweat beaded under my arms. God, I was so nervous.
When I was a girl, I used to sneak out of the mansion. Looking back on it, my parents and the staff probably knew. Guards likely followed me as I trod across the lawn and trudged into the forest. I wasn’t good at being stealthy back then, and Livvie used to always make fun of how loud I’d walk, like Godzilla stomping through the hallways.
But those hours alone in the woods at night were some of the best times of my life.
It was sad, really. I was such an angry, lonely girl. I’d drift around in the dark pretending not to be terrified of every noise and every shadow, dreaming of a better life and a better world beyond our little compound. I had food, shelter, comforts beyond what most people could ever imagine, and I still yearned for something more.
I wanted freedom. But freedom wasn’t for people like me.
Those nights, in that darkness, I could pretend. I could act out my fantasies. I’d run and laugh and jump and play like any other child, except it was pitch black and half the time I’d run smack into a tree.
Sometimes it felt like nobody in my life understood, except for Livvie. Darren liked his cage and thrived in captivity. Penny was too meek to bother pushing back. Anthony was too young to care about much.
Livvie saw our lives for what they were and she wished for more—except where I pushed back and snuck out into the night, she gave up and wallowed in the bleakness of our existence.
I hated her for killing herself and leaving me behind.
So much came from that one action. I sometimes wondered if she understood the chain reaction she’d set off in our family, but I didn’t think so. Livvie was kind and caring and loving—she’d never do something that would cause so much pain on purpose.
No, she’d been desperate, and she did something desperate to escape her situation.
I was also desperate.
I slipped down the hallway, treading as carefully as I could. I wasn’t that awkward, ungainly teenager anymore. I paused near the elevators and spotted the guards sitting back in the shadows, one of them was skinny and half dozing, and the other had a square head and frowned down at the floor like he was trying to remember his own name. I stayed completely still until the awake guard stood up straight. “Gotta piss,” he grunted.
