“I don’t understand why this couldn’t have waited until after I slept,” I mumble with my sucker in the side of my cheek.
She rolls her eyes. “You don’t have to be at work until ten tonight. As soon as we are finished, you can pass out and sleep all day.”
“I don’t even know why I let you talk me into this. I’m gonna get fired tonight anyway.” I’m not gonna know anything different tonight than I did last night. Rachel really wasn’t much of a teacher. I just know Case is gonna fire me after my shift. I’m preparing myself for the worst.
“No, you’re not.” She looks down at her phone again. “He said you needed confidence. This will give you confidence.” She looks at the shower cap that covers my hair. I blame it on the lack of sleep and the horrible night that I had. But I let her drag me to Walmart and talk me into buying a box of blue hair color. As soon as we got home, she dragged me to the bathroom, sat my ass on the toilet, and dyed sections of my hair blue. And honestly, I’m not really that worried what it will look like. I’ve highlighted my hair before, and I’ve darkened it, but I have never, ever dyed it any other color. I’m kinda excited.
Savannah told me that the blue would show up under the lights of the club and that the men would see me coming. She said my brown hair made me invisible. I had no choice but to believe her since every person there last night ran into me as if I wasn’t there.
“It’s time,” she says excitedly as she jumps up from the toilet. This is what she does—hair. This is what she is good at, and she loves it.
I set my Red Bull down on the tub beside me and place my sucker on the countertop before I kneel beside the tub. She turns on the water and removes the shower cap before rinsing my hair. I close my eyes and enjoy the warm water. I could almost fall asleep like this with the soothing warm water running down the side of my face and neck, along with her massaging my scalp. This was a good idea after all.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CASE
I shove the glass door open to my shower as I hear my phone ring. I take a deep breath as I see Blane light up my screen. “Let me explain,” I say to Blane in answer.
“I understand why we are lying to her, but why in the hell are you lying to me?” he demands.
I reach over and grab the towel I had set out. “I’m not lying to you.” I knot it around my hips. “I just chose not to inform you of the truth. Big difference,” I say as I bare my teeth in my bathroom mirror to check them.
He snorts. “You should have told me that you threatened Mr. Binsen and made him fire her.”
I sigh. “I haven’t even had the chance to talk to you about it,” I say truthfully.
“Well, you have the chance now. So explain,” he orders.
I do owe him that much. I can’t tell Taylor the truth, but I can let him in on one of my secrets. “I went and saw her up at the coffee shop the day after you told me your house had been broken into. I figured since I was going to be around, she and I needed to be on good terms. Especially since she thought I was the one who did it. I offered her a job, and she turned me down. She said I was just some drug dealer. I mentioned someone using drugs who worked at her coffee shop. She thought I was referring to another woman who worked there when really it was her boss. Then the next day, she called me when her car broke down. I saw an opportunity and took it. As soon as I hung up with her, I called her boss. I threatened to expose him and told him to fire her. He likes to have a hit every now and then.” I shrug to myself. “I needed to get her into Seven Deadly Sins, and that was my in,” I say simply.
He sighs heavily. “Do you always bend people's will to get what you want?”
“Pretty much,” I say matter-of-factly.
He’s quiet for a long time before he finally speaks again. “I wish you would have told me. I don’t like her working in your club. I just see it ending badly for her.” He’s worried about the wrong thing here. The club can’t hurt her. I’m the one who can hurt her. I’m the one filling her with lies and making up this fake life for her in order to keep her close to me. What will happen when she finds out the truth? ‘Cause the truth will come out and I’m gonna have to face her when it does.
“I told you that you have nothing to worry about,” I say trying to sound carefree. But in all honestly, we both have a lot to worry about.
He chuckles. “So you say. But so far, you haven’t proven that to me. All I do is worry about her.”
She’s so lucky to have someone like Blane. Someone who is always there for her. But sometimes even that isn’t enough. “And the less you know, the better,” I add. “Do you really wanna have to admit to her that you knew about everything I did when the shit hits the fan?”
“Uh …” He lets out a long breath. “No, I do not. I’d rather her hate you and not me.”
“Then let me do what I need to do and you just continue doing what I tell you to do,” I offer.
He hangs up, and I sigh heavily as I look at myself in the mirror. I am already afraid of how this is gonna blow up. How beautiful she will look when the tears roll down her face. It already makes my chest hurt. You’re investing too much time in her, Case!
But I can’t help it. Have you ever met someone who makes you think the impossible is possible? That’s what she does to me. And the crazy thing is I can’t even explain it. Since I was seventeen, I have been alone. I’m now thirty. That’s thirteen years by myself. Sure, I have Brecken, Miller, and of course, there’s Rachel, but at the end of the day, I’m still alone. Ever since I first saw Taylor, I have wanted her in a way I haven’t wanted another woman before. I wanna know what it’s like for her hands to touch my skin. The way her lips would feel on mine. The way her blue eyes would look up at me as I buried myself so deep in her that everything else just falls away. All the memories. All the heartache. I want to feel something other than fucking nothing.
I close my eyes and sigh heavily as I feel my cock hardening just thinking of her. Maybe Blane is right. Maybe I should just let her go. I have connections all over this town; I can get her a job anywhere she wants and out of this club. Maybe even another club here in town. Just as I thought before—the club isn’t what she needs to be afraid of, I am!
Opening my eyes, I turn around and lean back against the countertop, unable to stare at myself in the mirror. I look down at my hands, and I take a deep breath. The scars show the past that I try to hide. Scars that remind me just how evil I can be.
I have sinned, but I don’t regret that for which I cannot be forgiven.
I am a man who has no shame in a life full of humiliation.
