“Or, you know,” Victoria laughs, “maybe he got in too deep with one of the many crews in this slimy city and ended up chum.”
I smile, but I’m not hearing her anymore.Across the street, a man lingers.Too long.Shoulders hunched, head low, eyes flicking like he thinks I won’t notice.No food.No phone.Just watching.
He’s watchingme.
My pulse steadies instead of spikes.In three.Out five.In seven.I reach into my bag, pretend to find lip balm, and flick the safety on the switchblade Cassius insisted I start carrying.The woman in red crooks a finger and points to my feet.Street side, not wall side.I shift my chair.The alley man tips two fingers.Make him turn his hips.
My napkin goes down.I stand.
“Melinda?”Victoria’s voice trails behind me.
I cross the street, calm and sure-footed, and stop directly in front of him.He’s taller up close.Dirty nails.Twitchy fingers.Scent of sweat and last night’s liquor.
“Got something to say?”I ask, loud enough for him to know I’m not afraid.
His eyes narrow.“You shouldn’t?—”
He doesn’t finish.
Cassius appears out of nowhere, stepping between us like he was carved from shadow at my back, coat flaring.The ghosts go very still.So does the man.
“If you so much aslookat her sideways,” Cassius says, voice low and lethal, “or breathe your nasty ass breath in her direction again, I’ll cut your tongue out with a dull knife and shove it down your throat.”
The man stumbles, shaking his head, then bolts.Cassius stares him down, death given form, until he disappears.Alley man watches him run and looks…satisfied.Woman in red lifts a brow at me.Not bad.Gideon tips his brim to Cassius.Then, like a tide pulling back, they fade.
I exhale when Cassius’ hand settles at the small of my back.He turns and gestures for Victoria to follow.“Let’s go.”
Victoria snatches her tote and hustles beside us in stunned silence.Cassius doesn’t speak again, not until he’s escorted us all the way to the door of our office building.He leans close, mouth brushing the shell of my ear.
“You handled yourself well, darling.”
“You knew he was there?”My voice is steady.It surprises me.It pleases him.I feel it in the way his fingers flex at my back.
“I knew the moment you sat down.I tried to let you handle it.I apologize for stepping in.You were doing great.My first reaction will always be to protect you.”
Victoria never speaks a word to Cassius, but her wide eyes say she’s filing away everything for a future interrogation.She fumbles with the door, giving us a long glance before heading inside.
“She’s going to have questions,” I murmur.
“Lie, darling,” he says, the corner of his mouth kicking up.“But not about being my wife.”
He kisses the corner of my jaw and then just like that, he’s gone, disappeared back into the city like he was never there.
But I feel safer.Because I know he always is.
twenty-three
The hingeon the rusted door sighs and the sound swims through the hollow ribs of the warehouse.Space heaters hum like distant generators.Adrian will have heard the creak three seconds before I touched the handle.
“Stay close,” I murmur at the threshold.
“I always will,” she answers, voice as soft as her dress under my hand.
Uncle Leven is already planted by a barrel that passes for a bar.“Mrs.Ashenheart,” he says first, as it should be.Velvet over iron.“I’m surprised you talked Cassius into walking you in here.”
“Leven,” she says, and every man listens for what’s next.“I didn’t have to talk him into anything.The man is lost without me.”She winks.I take her coat.Pull her chair close to my right.I like her where I can touch her inner thighs anytime I want.My fingers trail up her tights, find the warmth between her legs, and cover it with my palm.
“You’re ridiculous,” she whispers.
