AllFreeNovel
Share Us
You know, some girls had pretty curls. Some girls had nice natural waves. Me? I had a mix of everything; if I did nothing to it, I looked awful. Some of it was straight, some of it had some waves, and near my temples, random curls. It was annoying.
When I was done, I dressed myself in my sweats and my hoodie. As much as I liked wearing Creed’s clean clothes, I also knew I would rather go out in public wearing these than his ill-fitting clothes. They might work for nighttime, but in public I’d much rather look like a couch potato on purpose.
Plus, the hoodie neckline hid the bruising on my neck. It had gotten worse overnight; I had a pretty solid ring of purple now. I’d definitely need to get a whole bunch of makeup to try to conceal that for when I started going back to school.
By the time I was done, Creed was no longer asleep in the hall. I walked out into the living room area, sitting myself down on the same couch we’d sat together on last night. One thing was for sure: there weren’t enough pillows or blankets here. It was like he hardly lived in the place, everything so minimal. Maybe we could get some stuff to make it more homely in here, too…
Although, was I really comfortable spending his money like that? Just because he seemed to do all right for himself didn’t give me any right to ask him for anything.
After a minute or two, Creed walked out of the hall, wearing dark pants and a black shirt. His hair was damp, and even though he’d slept on the floor just outside of my room, he looked well-rested. He looked more rested than I felt, go figure.
When his dark eyes spotted me, he said, “Good morning, Taylor. I hope you slept well.” He walked over to the kitchen area, where he started up the Keurig to make himself some coffee.
“Morning,” I said, turning around on the couch to watch him. The pants he wore were pretty snug in certain areas… areas I should pay no attention to, like his ass. Objectively, he had a nice ass, okay? Moving on. “I slept all right, I guess.”
“How’s your neck and your hand?”
I glanced down at my hand. When I’d showered this morning, I’d kept it out of the water—not the easiest thing, let me tell you, showering with only one hand. “Fine.” But because I knew he’d ask me, I added, “Hurts a little, but it’s not too bad.”
“Good,” he said. “You want any coffee?”
“No,” I told him, “I just drink water in the mornings.”
Creed got a glass out of one of the upper cabinets, going to the refrigerator and getting me some water from it. By the time the water had filled the glass, his coffee was about done, and he grabbed his mug before coming to sit with me on the couch.
I took the glass out of his hand with my good one, pushing away the thoughts that raced through my head when my fingers curled around the cold glass. Smashing something similar against my dad’s head, the tight feeling finally loosening around my throat…
I sipped from the glass, well aware Creed stared at me.
“We’ll grab something to eat while we’re out,” he said.
“You don’t have to work today?” I asked. “I didn’t know when we’d go out. It’s okay if you have to go to work. I don’t mind staying here by myself. I’m sure I could find something to occupy my time with.” He had to have Netflix or something, right?
“My hours are…” Creed paused. “Let’s just say unpredictable sometimes. I don’t work a full forty hours every week. Sometimes there are weeks when I don’t work at all. I don’t have anything planned today, so it’s just you and me.”
It sounded like he hardly worked, and yet he could afford a place like this and a car like that easily. Who knew security was such a profitable field to be in? I certainly didn’t, but then again, there were probably lots of jobs that I didn’t think twice about that paid good money.
“I, uh, don’t have a job, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to pay you back for anything we get today,” I said, running a finger around the rim of the glass.
“You don’t have to worry about any of that. I don’t need you to pay me back for anything, Taylor.” The look he gave me with that sentence made me bite my lip and turn away. “Anything you need, we’ll get. Anything you might want here, besides the essentials.”
“Things add up.”
“I think you’re underestimating how much I have saved up,” Creed said. “It isn’t like I’m spending it on anyone else, and I’m sure you can tell by looking at this place that I’m not spending a fortune on decorating it. Someone might as well get to enjoy the money… and you’re the only one I’d be willing to share it with.” He ended that declaration by taking a slow sip of his coffee, black eyes on me, as if waiting for my response.
The truth was, I didn’t know what to say. Really. It wasn’t every day that your estranged stepbrother offered to spend what might be thousands of dollars on you—and that wasn’t an exaggeration. Clothes, makeup, a laptop for school, a bag for school, new textbooks… all of that stuff added up. And then to throw in stuff I’d want here, in this big, mostly empty apartment; it was a lot.
We sat in silence for a bit, each of us sipping from our chosen drink. He didn’t go to turn the TV on, and neither did I. Those eyes of his were mostly on me, and I pretended not to notice.
I did decide to break the silence by asking, “So, is your code name Black Wolf or something?”
He blinked. “What?”
“For your job,” I explained. “Because when I called that number you gave me, you answered it saying Black Wolf.” When he still looked at me like I’d grown a third eye, I went on, “Do you call yourself that because of your mom? I know she had a tattoo of a black wolf on her back—”
Creed abruptly stood and headed into the kitchen. Instead of addressing my innocent question, he said, “We should go, get a start on the day.” I guess that meant he didn’t want to talk about the Black Wolf thing or his mom.
What could I say? What could I do besides finish my water and get up? If he didn’t want to talk about it, I couldn’t force him to. It just meant I’d stay curious. Maybe he’d tell me later, in the future. It hadn’t even been a full day yet, so I couldn’t expect him to share everything with me.
