AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He blinked. “You really aren’t trying to get into the club, are you?”
“I didn’t even know this was a club.”
“This really isn’t a place for children.” His hold on my arms loosened slightly, but he didn’t let go.
I glared at him. “For your information, I’m fifteen. Which is apparently old enough for my family to start talking about my marriage prospects behind my back, so I’m hardly a child.”
He rolled his eyes. “What are you doing here really?” he asked with a sigh. As if my mere presence was a huge inconvenience he didn’t want to deal with.
“Running away from my life and everyone who thinks my life is their business. Especially Freddie Rossi, who is probably in on my family’s plan to marry me off to him.”
As if on cue, Freddie’s voice echoed down the hall from the direction I’d come. “Piper?”
“So you meant the running part literally.” The man released my arms and held out a hand. “You can either come with me or go back the way you came.”
I didn’t have to think about it. Even if this man turned out to be a serial killer, I’d still take going with him over facing Freddie right now. One problem at a time. I took his hand and let him pull me away from the sound of Freddie’s voice.
We ran together through hallway after hallway until we reached a stairwell. I don’t know how many stairs we ran up, but it felt like a thousand.
“I can’t go any farther,” I gasped while I tried to keep from collapsing right there on the stairs.
My maybe-savior wasn’t even breathing hard. How was it possible to run up so many stairs and still look so perfect?
“All right. We’ll take the elevator the rest of the way.”
“That was an option?”
He just smirked and dragged me up to the next landing and then to an elevator. He entered a code into a hidden pad, and the elevator traveled upward for a while before opening onto a rooftop garden.
I looked around in awe. The place was beautiful, bursting with flowers, their perfume filtering into the air. It was a clear night, and the twilight created a soft, comforting atmosphere. This time when I pulled my hand away, he let me. I took a hesitant step into the garden, taking in the paths and lanterns that cast a soft glow over the rooftop.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“Another place you shouldn’t be. But I’ll make an exception for tonight.”
I looked over my shoulder at him. “Who are you?”
“You’re only asking this now?”
I shrugged. “Better late than never.”
“My name is Samuel.” He folded his arms and leaned back against the wall next to the elevator. His eyes dropped and then returned to my face as he studied me. “And you’re Piper Amato. Nacio’s little sister.”
“You know my brother?” Nacio had his hand in a number of various bars, clubs, and casinos around the city. He knew a lot of people, and the people Nacio knew were usually the type he didn’t want me meeting. They weren’t bad people, they just weren’t considered a good influence on teenage me.
“He works with me on occasion. Don’t worry, I won’t tell him I saw you here. Or that you stole his pants.”
I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my lips. It felt so good to laugh. I couldn’t believe I was standing here on the roof of a fifty-story building with a complete stranger, wearing nothing but pajamas and not even a scrap of makeup.
I’d never done anything like this before. My family had created a flawless image. We didn’t wear our brothers’ clothes in public. And we didn’t wander around with sexy older men we’d just met in a dark hallway. This was exactly the kind of experience I’d been looking for when I left the house—to feel like I could step out of my normal life for a night.
Samuel cracked a smile, and it made him look a little more human. I was now ninety percent sure he wasn’t going to murder me.
“Thank you,” I said when I managed to stop giggling. It probably wasn’t a big deal to him, but his easy promise to not tell on me, to let me have this moment of imperfection, meant a lot. My throat tightened. Now that the Freddie threat was behind me, I felt like crying again. Which was decidedly uncool and not something I should be doing in front of Samuel.
Not that my tear ducts cared about what was cool.
I turned away from Samuel as the tears slid down my cheeks despite my attempts to stop them.
