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She looked at the bed. She’d have to change her sheets, since his clothes stunk from contact with the garbage, and he’d been dripping with blood, but that wasn’t what worried her the most. What worried her was the thought that his presence in her flat might attract the wrong kind of attention. Maya had been doing a very good job of living out of sight of her father, and the last thing she wanted to do was get dragged back into that darkness again. She swallowed against the lump in her throat that had popped up the moment she’d realized she was being followed. Maybe it was already too late to protect herself from getting forced to re-enter that world.
“Correct,” said the man on the bed.
“Then we’re going to need to find you a name to go by, and we’re going to need to find you a place to stay. I’ll leave the whole naming thing up to you. Pick something that sounds nice, okay? While you do that, I’m going to go pull some strings so you have a bed to call your own.”
“Nikolai.” He said it without a second thought, and Maya wondered if it was really his name. “Do I need to come up with a last name?”
“No. That will do.” She glanced toward the bedroom door. “You sit tight, okay, Nikolai? I’m going to make a call, and when I come back, I’ll know a little bit more about what we can do about your situation.”
“Thank you.”
Maya left the room and closed the door behind her. She took a moment to breathe. What was she doing? The smart thing would be to call someone to come get him. Then she could forget about this evening and go back to her quiet life. Away from people who liked to hurt others for money.
The man—the very virile man laying on her bed—would be just fine without her help. She should get him out of her flat as quickly as possible, then lock the doors, turn out the lights, and hope tomorrow would be better.
She heard a groan from her bedroom followed by some creative profanity that made her blush. Brushing at her warm cheeks, she chuckled. She wouldn’t be pushing him out the door. At least not yet. Taking her phone from her pocket, she dialed New Beginnings. Loren, who was at the front desk, would be able to help her out.
“You’ve reached New Beginnings,” a voice far too chipper for the time of night said. “This is Loren speaking. How may I help you?”
“Loren, it’s Maya. I…well, I need to ask you a favor.”
“Um, okay.” Loren paused. “It’s not going to be like the last time you asked me for a favor, is it? You promise there isn’t going to be panties involved this time?”
Maya pinched the bridge of her nose. “No, no panties involved, I promise. It has to do with work.”
“All right. Then maybe I can help you.” Loren perked up. “What’s going on?”
“I found someone out on the streets tonight, and he really needs all the help he can get. Is there any way you can find a spare bed he can have tonight? I can’t keep him at my flat, but I can’t let him go back out on the streets, either.”
“You took him off thestreetinto your flat?” Loren gasped. Maya could only imagine her widened eyes and incredulous expression, her hand clamped in front of her mouth in horror. “Well…I guess if anyone would do something so reckless, it’d be you. Your heart’s too golden for its own good. If you’re not careful, one of these days, someone’s going to bend it out of shape.” Loren clicked her tongue. “You know it’s after hours, and it’s already packed in here…”
“I know.”
“But…let me see what I can do. I’m going to put you on hold for a minute, okay? Don’t hang up on me.”
Maya smiled. “I won’t.”
The line went silent. Maya headed for the kitchen while she waited for Loren to come back. She grabbed a wineglass from the cabinet, took an open bottle of wine from the fridge, and filled the glass. After the night she’d had, she deserved it.
When she tilted the glass to her lips, there was noise on the other end of the line. Maya decided to hold off on drinking for the moment. She set the wineglass down on the counter.
“Hey, are you still here?” Loren asked.
“Yep.”
“I managed to find an available bed. How long do you want me to hold it for you? You know that we’re technically not supposed to, but…”
Maya smiled. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes. Thank you so much for doing this, Loren. I know that you’re bending the rules for me, and I really appreciate it.”
“You can pay me back by landing the deal on that new shelter,” Loren said with a laugh. “God knows we need it. I’ll see you soon.”
“In a heartbeat!”
Maya hung up and tucked the phone back into her pocket. She glanced at the wineglass on the table, then shook her head and shot it back in one go. It wasn’t how she preferred to drink her wine, but the phone call had gone much more quickly than she’d anticipated, and she didn’t have time to properly savor a drink. Nikolai needed somewhere to stay, and she needed to make sure he was street-ready.
He certainly couldn’t stay here any longer. Maya didn’t trust her father not to have eyes everywhere. No matter who Nikolai was affiliated with, he didn’t deserve to be caught up in the chaos that was her family.
No one did.
