“I’ll sort it out,” he replied, and I shook my head firmly. “Belle—”
“No, I have to do this myself.”
It was his turn to look frustrated then, but he nodded all the same. “All right, if that’s what you want. But maybe, when all this shit is behind us—because it will be soon—how about I put the deposit down for you and you just pay me back? Or not. Whichever.”
He smirked, and I smiled at him but shook my head. “No, but when all this is over, how about I let you take me out to dinner?”
“As long as it’s not Italian.” He winked, and despite the awfulness of the situation, I couldn’t help but smile. It quickly fell when I thought about Lorenzo, though, a frown replacing my smile.
“What’s this all about?” he said, indicating my frown.
“I need to speak to Lorenzo.” I looked away from Beast. “I need to end things with him.”
“Fuck him, he’ll know it’s over when he sees you with me,” he bit out, and I shook my head and looked back at him. “I’m serious, Belle, stay away from him.”
“I’m serious too. I need to break up with him. He’s not the man I thought he was; he’s a bully, but he’sjusta man. I’m doing this, with or without your blessing.” I pulled out of his grip and started picking my things back up off the floor and putting them back away.
I noted certain things were gone as I cleaned up: my favorite dress, a pair of heels, some of my makeup, jewelry. I sighed with each new thing gone, a new kind of sadness growing inside my heart.
It took us over an hour to put my trailer back together, and the whole time Beast wouldn’t speak to me. I decided to take his silence as him brooding and not being mad at me, because that was easier to handle. I finally sat back down on the sofa in the small living room and looked back around at my home. I’d found more and more of my things missing as I’d tidied, and I no doubt would find more as the days went on. She’d pretty much cleared me out of food, which was the most hurtful. It was like, not only was she stealing my things—my clothes, my jewelry, my money, but she also didn’t care that I’d have nothing to eat, and as far as she was concerned, no money to buy food with.
I was exhausted, emotionally, physically. It had been the longest day in history, and it was barely 7 p.m. I yawned and stood up to make some coffee, but when I opened the cupboard I noted that she’d even taken my coffee.
Gripping the kitchen work surface, I leaned over and tried not to cry again. Beast came behind me and wrapped his arms around my body.
“Why don’t you go get some sleep? I’ll call and get a prospect to bring us some food for when you wake up,” he said, his lips against my neck. My body sparked at his touch, his breath brushing over my sensitive skin, and I could have quite easily stripped naked for him and let him take my body to forget about all the awful in the world right then. I’d been through so much today already, and tomorrow didn’t seem like it was going to be any better. Why not enjoy Beast while I still had him? While I was still alive? Because Lord knew everything was against him, me, and us.
But my exhaustion was like a heavy blanket, the toll of the day finally wearing me down, so I nodded and headed to my bedroom to sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Four
~ BEAST ~
The prospect handed over three bags of groceries and I put them by my feet while he headed back to the truck to get the takeout I’d told him to pick up for us. I wasn’t sure what Belle liked to eat and I had never really put much thought into what I ate—it was just food to fill a hole—but it mattered for some reason that I got her something she liked. Healthy groceries and Chinese food for now seemed like a good choice.
It seemed as if only Jenna had ever given a shit about her, and though Belle never complained at all, I had a feeling that it would mean something to her.
“So, they didn’t have the wholegrain bread, so I got whole meal,” he said, handing over the takeout bag and then pulling a scrap of paper from his cut.
“I asked for wholegrain,” I snapped, and he looked up. “Why didn’t you go to a different store?”
“I err…” he stammered.
“Here’s a pop quiz for you, prospect: if a man asks for beer and they only have light, do you get him the light, or do you go somewhere else and buy him what he asked for?” I snarled, glaring down at him.
He cowered under my stare. “I guess, I ummm…”
I gripped him by his cut and dragged him close to my face. “You go somewhere else and get him what he goddamn asked for!” I yelled, and he nodded quickly. I dropped him and he stumbled down the little steps, almost falling on his ass. “Next time you fuck up will be your last.”
I slammed the door on him and turned back to the food, happy in the knowledge that the little shit was probably pissing his pants right then. It was all part of prospecting—taking our bullshit, and doing lame-as-shit menial tasks and not being able to complain about it. We’d all done it at one point or another. If they wanted in the club, they gritted their teeth and got on with it. If it was a passing phase they’d fuck off and join some Jap crap club instead. It was no great loss if they chose the latter option. The Devil’s Highwaymen needed men, not pussies that couldn’t follow orders.
I picked up the bag of takeout and placed it inside the little oven so it would stay warm and then I set about putting the groceries away, growing more pissed off when I realized that he had missed other stuff from my list. I’d had to go through Belle’s trash to work out what food she liked to eat and had been dismayed to learn that I didn’t know what half of it was. Humus…what the fuck even was humus? Belle may have been poor as shit, but she liked to eat good food and I kind of liked that about her. Her trailer was busted up but it was clean and tidy to the point of obsession, her cupboards were pretty bare but what they did hold was exotic—at least to a simple man like me, and her clothes may have been thrift store bought but she had great taste and knew what looked good on her beautiful body.
“What’s all this?” Her soft voice reached me as she came out of the small bedroom yawning. She stretched her arms up high, her small tee lifting up to reveal her bronzed stomach, and my dick twitched in response to seeing just the barest bit of flesh on her.
“Nothing much. I got a prospect to bring you some food since your cunt of a mom took most of yours,” I snapped like I was angry with her when it was her mom whose neck I wanted to break.
She looked up at me with those big doe eyes of hers. I’d offended her, or hurt her, or…surprised her? I wasn’t sure which, so I moved on. “I got you some steaks and some healthy green shit, and I saw from your trash that you liked jelly beans, though why you don’t like the apple ones is beyond me because they’re the fucking best, but whatever.”
