Like a damn coward, I gravitate even closer to Everett, using him as a living shield. “It’s not like I have any illusions that I’m only here on you guys’ mercy. If you were repossessing our land, my father must owe a hell of a lot of money, so I’m pretty much slave labor for the next God only knows how many years. I’m not about to make it worse on myself by asking for more stuff that’ll get added onto my tab. I just need somewhere with a door that actually locks and I’ll be golden.”
There’s a heavy silence before arguing breaks out, people speaking over each other and getting louder until he shouts for everybody to shut up. “I’ll go talk to Julian, see where everything stands. Aaron, Seth, and Jake; go get a room set up, alright?”
“Do you have any clue how expensive beds are?” I hiss and he rolls his eyes.
“Julian isn’t going to nickel and dime you to death, new chick. But if he insists on it, consider this a ‘welcome to the club’ gift, alright? You’re not going to sleep on the damn floor for the next decade or starve yourself just to save a few bucks. We take care of each other here.”
Three of them brush past us to get out of the door, and I’m forced to grab the back of Everett’s shirt to keep my balance, trying to take up as little space as possible. “Sorry,” I mutter, stepping back once they leave.
Everett clears his throat. “Don’t be.”
The other guy stretches out his hand, as covered in pearly, faded scars as the rest of him. “Maverick.”
I tentatively shake it, unused to this much social interaction in a short amount of time and already mentally begging for escape. “Elysium, but Elyse is fine.”
He nods, leaving the room and heading out of sight as the heavy door automatically slams shut behind him with a loud echo. I’m suddenly stuck in a weird state of nowhere to go, nothing to do, and not really knowing the only person left in the awkwardly silent room. I simply end up wandering around, avoiding eye contact while Everett remains quiet, and I’m too much of a coward to try and initiate small talk.
A blissful interruption, Everett’s phone goes off, his jaw tightening as he glances at the name before he answers. “Yeah?” There’s silence for a minute as the person on the other side speaks. “I’ll bring her up.”
It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together, so when Everett announces that he’s taking me up to meet the boss, I’m not the least bit surprised. Honestly, I’m amazed that I’ve been here for well over an hour without meeting the man that holds my fate in his hands.
I’m led back upstairs, twisting around the hallways until I’m absolutely lost, but there’s no missing the fact when we’ve arrived. As opposed to all of the grey painted, metal doors in the rest of the building, this one is thick steel, the silver gleaming. Everett’s entire presence changes, more reserved and professional as he knocks, waiting for permission to enter.
“Come in.”
He holds the heavy door open, letting me go first before it slams shut behind us. The office is at least twice the size of Grave’s room, with an antique desk taking up most of the center space and bookshelves lining the entire wall behind it. There are a few leather bound journals, but mostly the shelves display a wide array of trinkets and treasures. You can tell a lot about a person based on what they keep on their shelves, and it takes less than a second to see Julian prioritizes things over even the illusion of knowledge. I dislike him instantly on that principle alone, though I’m admittedly biased.
Sitting behind the desk, he scribbles away in a journal. He’s in at least his forties, with blonde hair starting to pepper in a bit of grey. A dark suit is fitted to his lean form, and for all intents and purposes, he appears the charming businessman. But by the way Everett is so stiff beside me, it’s clear there’s far more than what meets the eye, and I stand a bit straighter.
“Thank you, Everett, you may go,” Julian dismisses, still not looking up. He doesn’t immediately leave, causing Julian to raise his head and lift an eyebrow in challenge. “Is there something you wished to discuss?”
Calmly, he states, “No, sir. I’ll wait in the hall so I can show Elysium around the rest of the place when you’re through.”
Julian clucks his tongue. “That won’t be necessary. They’re short staffed at the gallery; no point wasting time here where your skills would just go to waste.”
There’s another brief hesitation that makes my anxiety flare if even this massive man is nervous, more so when he ultimately turns on his heel without any more protest. Everett’s eyes flick to me and away so quickly that I can’t discern his thoughts before he vanishes, door slamming in his wake and leaving me at Julian’s mercy, or lack thereof.
“So, Elysium Miller.” Julian snaps the journal shut and scoots it to the side, resting his elbows on his desk before folding his hands to rest his chin upon. “I must admit, this is a first for me.” I stay silent, feeling he’s the type to like to hear himself talk. “I’ve yet to have any of my employees disregard a direct order, let alone bring me a waif in lieu of payment before. So what is it about you that’s so special, I wonder?” he muses.
When it’s clear he’s done, I shrug, fighting through my grimace to keep my face casual. “Nothing, to be honest. But if Grave wasn’t lying, being a live in maid at-” I wave a hand to encompass the room “-whatever this place is, beats staying in that hellhole. As far as I’m concerned, you should still repossess the house, though I can’t imagine it’s worth much. I plan to never step foot in that place again, anyway. I just ask that you consider letting me stay here even if you do take it to settle my father’s debt, allow me to work in exchange for the basics to get by and somewhere to stay.”
Raising an eyebrow, he cocks his head to the side slightly. “Not as spineless as I thought.” He rakes his eyes over me, assessing. It doesn’t feel lascivious, just ominous. “You’d be easy to overlook. Small, innocent, and pretty enough to spin things to your advantage, once those marks fade. I might actually have a use for you, after all.”
I tense. “What sort of use?”
He gets to his feet, leaning a hip against the side of his desk. “A set of eyes. I’ve only gotten to where I am by staying three steps ahead, and I need people that I can trust with their ears to the ground.”
He scrubs a hand over his jaw, getting lost in thought while I stay silent. My entire future rests in his hands, no matter what decision he ends up making. If I piss him off before I run, after the sort of things he was implying, I won’t just have to look over my shoulder for my father for the rest of my life. I’ll have Julian and his men after me, and I don’t even know what sort of things he’s involved in or how far his reach goes. Every choice laid out in front of me is tarnished or poisoned, and all I get to do is pick the least offensive. It’s not much of a life, but I can only take things one day at a time.
“I like you, Elysium,” he finally declares, waggling a finger in my direction. “This could be the start of a beautiful relationship between you and me.” When I stiffen, he rolls his eyes. “Trust me, I have very different tastes. It’s an expression, don’t look so grim.”
He pushes off of his desk and snatches the journal he was writing in earlier, leafing through the pages. “Luck so happens that you caught me in a benevolent mood today, so how about we make a deal?”
There’s a malicious glint in his eye, but still, there’s an unsettling disconnect. The eyes are the windows to the soul, and everything about this man screams that he sold his long ago. He rounds the desk and leans against the front, facing me and skimming a finger across the page.
“After the value of the house and land are deducted, your father still owes me just shy of fifty thousand dollars. That small debt is all I’ll transfer to you.” He snaps the book shut, smiling. “You can live here, food included, in exchange for cleaning. I’ll even include a stipend of a few hundred a month for miscellaneous pleasures. The debt though, will be paid back through working for me. The boys will bring you up to speed and handle your training, but it would put you here…” He glances at the ceiling, muttering under his breath and ticking off fingers. “Three to five years, give or take.”
I narrow my eyes. “What is it that youdo,sir?”
