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“You think that’s likely to happen now, you sicko?”
“I admire you for protecting her, Craig. I want to protect her too.” I lean forward and lower my voice like I’m letting him in on a secret. “You see, Lily is my girl, and I need her to deliver all of my packages from here on out.”
“And just who the fuck are you?”
“West Archer.” The corners of my lips curve upward. “You’ve heard of me, yeah?”
He rolls his eyes. Everyone in this city knows my name. “What the hell do you want with a sweet young kid like Lily?”
I glare at him. She’snota kid. “Have her deliver all my packages, Craig.”
“Not a chance, you sick fuck.”
Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and then level him with a look. “I assure you that she is in no danger where I’m concerned. I just want to check in with her.”
He snorts.
Looks like I need to play dirty. “And if you don’t want me to check in with my friends at the IRS and tell them about all the deliveries you do off the books”—I pause and watch the blood drain from his face—“you’ll have Lily deliver my packages. Am I making myself clear?”
He looks away, his teeth grinding together, but he eventually nods.
“I’m gonna need you to use your words, Craig.”
“Yes,” he spits.
“Good boy.” There’s a smile on my face as I leave the coffee shop. All I need is to spend some time with her and make her see how sorry we all are. How much we miss her. I can fix all of this, I know I can. If I can just get her to listen to me.
ChapterFifty-One
LILY
Iread through my route for the day, and my stomach drops when I see the location of the last delivery on the list. “Craig, there’s one here for the WXZ building.” I’ve only worked here for two weeks, but I like this job. He’s a good boss who didn’t ask any awkward questions about why I left my previous one.
“Sorry, kid. Got no one else to do it. You’ll have to take this one.”
I look around at everyone filling their backpacks. Surely one of them can swap with me. “But Craig, we agreed. Can’t someone else do it?”
He sighs. “I told you I got no one else.”
Tears prick at my eyes, and he frowns. “What’s your deal with that place, anyway? You in some kind of trouble or something?”
I shake my head. “No, nothing like that. It’s… Please, Craig. I’m begging you.” It wouldn’t be so bad if it were just the building, but the delivery is for the devil himself. He’s had packages sent to his office every day since I started here, and until now, Craig has been cool with my flat-out refusal to take them.
“Deliver the package.” He turns toward his office.
“I can’t.”
He doesn’t stop but calls over his shoulder, “Then you’ll be looking for another job, kid, and it would be a damn shame to lose you.”
* * *
“Can you please just sign it?”I give the security guard my biggest, sweetest smile. “Please? It only needs a signature. It doesn’t have to be Mr. West’s,” I lie.
“I can’t help you, ma’am. More than my job’s worth,” he says with a grim shake of his head.
Goddamn you to hell, West Archer! Grumbling under my breath, I haul Betty to the elevator. Her busted wheel makes a strange squeaking noise with every rotation. I was so distracted by the thought of coming here today that I crashed into a post and fell into a muddy puddle, scraping my cheek on the pavement. I ignore the gawking faces of the employees I pass. I don’t give a tiny rat’s ass what they think of me or that I have mud and mascara streaks on my face. They can all go straight to hell alongside their three megalomaniac bosses.
By the time I get to the top floor, my emotions are about ready to boil over. Rage bubbles in my stomach, threatening to burst through my chest at any moment, but it’s tangled up among all my other emotions. The most pervasive being shame. I’m ashamed that I was such a damn fool. That I believed three of the most powerful men in the country could want me for more than just a little fun and that I allowed them to turn me into a crying, trembling mess almost every hour of every day. But riding shotgun with my anger and mortification is overwhelming misery. It’s not enough that these men humiliated and betrayed me, now they feel the need to continue making my life a goddamn misery. And for what? Their own twisted amusement?
