CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

"Vance is waiting in your office." Cyrus pocketed his phone and faced me. "The new documents came in for Go. As well as the liquor license."

I gave a nod that I understood, but continued flipping through a nearby rack of pants in torn and acid denim.

I didn't see Blue in jeans. She didn't seem like the sort, but I did like a short skirt and a pair of shorts that I set on the counter. A silk blouse followed.

"Did the fire inspector go through the club?" I asked, making my way to a display of comfy, flannel shorts Blue could wear to bed. I would have liked her in nothing, but a nice pair of gray shorts could work.

Cyrus checked the text Vance must have sent him. "He doesn't mention it."

"Make a note to ask."

Cyrus's head bent over his screen. His fingers moved to relay the messages.

He paused, brows creasing. "Did you ask Lake to come to the house? He and his crew are currently at the gates asking for entry."

Realizing I'd forgotten to mention the cleaning crew to my head of security, I nodded. "The whole house. Starting with the main areas and Blue's bedroom."

Cyrus raised his head and fixed me with watchful eyes. I knew what he was about to say even before he opened his mouth. "Is she staying then?"

"No," I retorted, meaning it. "But the house should still be clean."

His expression said, since when? But his mouth stayed shut as he relayed the message to the front gate to let Lake in.

I added a short chemise to my pile in lacy red that's only purpose seemed to be to cover her breasts.

A simple, black dress with thin straps got tossed to Cyrus who tossed it on the counter without question. I continued to wander and occasionally found things I liked in Blue's size that I handed to Cyrus.

I was looking at a soft, wool coat when I heard Amari yelling in the changing area. It wasn't so much the words but the urgency behind them that had me pitching the coat at Cyrus and rushing to find Blue.

"What's happening?"

Amari turned away from one of the change room doors, a look of guilt darkening her features. Blue was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Blue?"

"She's in the change room. The lock is stuck and I think she's freaking out."

I was at the door, hand closed over the top. I yanked several times, making the whole frame rattle.

"Blue, open the door, baby."

There was no answer.

I yanked harder on the door. What the fuck kind of lock was this? I was thinking when Cyrus hurried in. He started to pull his gun to blow the latch.

"You'll hit her." I snapped, stalking to where a wooden chair was propped against the wall just inside the door. I dragged it over and climbed up to peer over the top.

I saw the chair in one corner and Blue bundled up against the other. All I saw was the top of her head pulled between her raised knees and the arms looped over top as if protecting it from some invisible blow.

"Blue? Get up, sweetheart. Give me your hand. I'll pull you up."

She doesn't move, but I could hear the jagged heaves of her lungs. The sound of panic and terror. It was the sound of someone holding on to their sanity by a thread.

I didn't pause to think. I heaved out of my coat and tossed the leather to the ground. Bracing my hands along the upper edges, I hauled myself up and over, aiming my descent on the chair just beneath me, praying it held my weight when I landed on it with my right foot. I hopped off before the thing could splinter beneath me and landed in the cramped space with Blue.

"Hey, easy." I bent the best I could within the confines and touched her arm lightly.

Blue flinched but didn't resist when I pulled her into my lap. Her legs instinctively locked around my waist. Her arms around my neck. Both stiff and trembling.

"It's all right now, love. I got you."

"I can't breathe," she groaned into my neck. Each word shredded around a heaving wheeze.

I rubbed the shuddering curve of her spine over the heat coming off the blazer in waves. She seemed to radiate at a temperature that almost burned my palm.

"I'll get you out," I promised. "Just hang on." I pushed to my feet with her still clasped in my arms. "Can you stand?"

At her slight nod, I gingerly set her down on her feet, but kept her securely against my chest when I turned to face the door.

"It won't open," she rasped against the material of my top. "I tried..."

Without thinking, I pressed my lips to the satin strands at the top of her head before turning to face the barricade.

Out of respect for Mariposa, I checked the latch. I worked the slide, trying to unhook it. I even gave the door a shake to loosen the hold. When my attempts failed and Blue hiccupped in my arms, my patience took a backseat.

"Hold on, love." I told her. "Back!" was all the warning I gave when I pulled back a leg and kicked the metal.

The snap and crunch of the bolt coming off the frame filled the room seconds before the door burst open and slammed back. No one had moved the chair I'd used to climb over and it went sailing sideways across the carpet with a muffled thud.

Amari gaped from me to the broken door and the shattered lock lying on the floor. Her lips twisted with indignation before her dark eyes found mine.

"Are you serious—?"

"Be quiet if you know what's good for you," I growled when her mouth opened with no doubt her usual bullshit. Her vendetta against me could fuck right off with her. Any other day, I'd let her cheek slide because of what happened to Elena, but this was too far. "If you deliberately put her in there to get back at me, even the respect I have for your mother won't save you from what I'll do to you. Now, get the fuck out. Now!"

Her visible recoil to my roar did not go unnoticed, but I didn't give a fuck. She was three seconds away from getting a bullet between the eyes and ruining eight years of peace between her mother and I.

Being smart, Amari snapped on her heels and stomped with blunt defiance from the changing area. Cyrus followed after a jerk of my head for him to leave, too.

Once alone, I pulled the chair I'd knocked over upright and sat with the tiny, vibrating woman straddling my lap like a baby Kuala.

"Who was it?" I murmured into her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," was her raspy response.

"Not what I asked, love. Who was it? Who hurt you?" I pressed a kiss into the hammering little pulse at her neck. Her jawline. Her damp cheek. "I swear, sweetheart, I will make them suffer. I'll make them beg at your feet for mercy. Just give me a name."

Her arms only tightened around my shoulders. Her face wedged firmly against the side of my throat. I didn't push but I wanted to.

"It wasn't Amari's fault," she whispered after what felt like a million shuddering breaths getting torn from the very depths of her soul. "She tried to help. It was me. I ... I don't like dark, small places. I can't breathe and the walls..." she sucked in a shaky, serrated balloon of air. "I should have known I couldn't do it, but I thought it would be different."

"You're safe now," I promised with every drop of blood in my lying heart, but I wanted to believe it this time. I wanted to believe I would be successful because I knew nothing about this girl. Not even her fucking name. I had only had her in my life for two days, barely long enough to mean shit. But she had become a thorn embedded so deep in my black soul I didn't know how to live without the pain.

"I'm sorry."

I closed my hand in the heavy weight of her glossy hair and tugged her face up until we were level, and her red rimmed eyes were the balm soothing the ache in my chest.

"That word is fucking banned, sweetheart. Unless you've done something reprehensible, but even then, I'll be the judge of whether or not you're allowed to say it anymore."

Her pert little chin wobbled into a shaky smile even as a tear slid along the side of her upturned nose. "What if—?"

"Even then." I wiped the moisture with the pad of my thumb. "Banned."

She made a sound that could have been a chuckle if it didn't hitch like a sob. "I feel ridiculous."

"You know what's ridiculous, love? A changing room with shitty locks. I'll be talking to Mariposa next time I see her. It's a goddamn hazard."

My fingers skimmed her cheek. Brushed away a silken strand clinging to the corner of her lip.

My thumb replaced the hair. It dipped into the corner and glided lightly along her lower curve. The other fingers slipped into the dimple in her chin and tilted her face higher.

"I won't let that happen again. I promise. No more small places."

She sucked on her bottom lip, doubt clouding the surface of those bottomless blues. "You can't promise that."

"Sure, I can. I'm a pretty determined man, love. I can do anything I want, even if that means taking the doors off every closet and cupboard."

Her chin wobbled. "Why are you being so kind?" she whispered around a hitch in her voice.

I blinked, feigning surprise. "Am I? You sure?"

Amusement lit her eyes. "Fairly."

I gave a soft hum of contemplation at the back of my throat. "I didn't notice."

"You leapt over a stall door," she said, eyes searching mine.

"Oh that. That was nothing."

Her smile was big and wide, flashing straight, white teeth. "Just a normal Tuesday, huh?"

"Sunday, actually. Doing the Lord's work and all."

Her chuckle was wet, but without the strained catch in her chest. She was, however, now watching me with the wary suspicion of someone faced with a puzzle they couldn't solve. Beneath it, I could just make out the hints of doubt and something that shimmered out of focus when she flushed and lowered her dusky lashes to my chest. I hated the loss of my window into her every thought but was momentarily waylaid by the pink tongue that swept over her lips.

"Thank you." Her gaze lifted to mine once more, soft with that thing that tangled itself in the fine strings of my heart. "You didn't ask for any of this but I—"

"Boss?" Cyrus's hesitant voice shattered the moment.

I tore my attention away from the siren in my lap to the man standing discreetly across the room. His back to us.

"What?" My annoyance at the interruption wove into the single utterance.

"Vance is on the phone."

My temper prickled. "I'm busy."

"It's urgent."

Blue shuffled off my lap without being told and I felt the loss almost immediately even as I too pushed to my feet. I resisted the urge to reach for her by retrieving my coat off the floor nearby and swinging it on.

"Change in here. I'll make sure no one bothers you." Without waiting for Blue to answer, I went to Cyrus and took the phone he held out. My gaze flitted to where Amari stood against the front counter, arms folded to matching the defiance painted across her face. I motioned for her to assist Blue before bringing the phone up. "What?"

The sound of grinding metal and shrieking blades filled my ear. I frowned as I made my way to the front of the store and the latch built into the side of the wall by the main opening.

"There was an incident at the factory. One of the machines malfunctioned. There was a casualty."

I didn't ask which factory. The fact that someone got hurt was the very reason I'd been pushing to have that specific one shut down a month ago, but too many shipments were still being directed to the location and rerouting them was a mess of paperwork I was still sifting through.

"Christ," I muttered under my breath. I found the leaver and opened the compartment containing the shop gate. I sealed the place up to keep anyone from coming in. "Are the cops there?"

"Yes. They are waiting to talk with you."

"Tell them I'll meet them at the station."

"And the worker?"

I raked five fingers back through my hair. "Call David. Have him take care of it."

I cut the line before Vance could say anything more. I turned to find Cyrus where I'd left him by the changing rooms, back still to the room with an irate Amari hovering at his side.

It never failed to surprise me just how similar Amari was to Elena. They both had the same gold complexion. The same drive and vibrance. But where Elena was reasonable and levelheaded, Amari was fire and destruction. Her temper was a ticking time bomb that was always set to go off. After Elena's death, I'd had a moment during the funeral where I wondered if Amari wouldn't have been the better choice. Elena hadn't been weak by any standard, but she'd been kind and sweet. Things the house sought in its victims. Her cousin was a different story.

Only Amari and I never got along. There was never a spark. Never even a possibility. She was beautiful without question, but I could never see myself with her and Elena was easy to talk to and charming, and the eldest daughter of a fellow leader so the match made sense. I didn't love her. I thought maybe one day I could, but like the other four that followed year after year, I never got the chance to find out if love was even a possibility.

"You can't just close my store, Lacroix," Amari snapped, stepping into my path when I tried to get to Blue.

I peered down at her upturned face, but ignored her entirely, my patience finally hitting its peak.

"Blue," I called back without looking. She appeared just over Amari's shoulder. "Come on, love."

She didn't ask.

She said nothing as she hurried forward and took the hand I held out to her.

The flicker of confusion replacing Amari's frown would have been comical, except I wasn't in a laughing mood.

I drew Blue to my side and started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Amari shot after us.

"Somewhere else," I retorted, never slowing in my strides. "Give Cyrus my card."

At the entrance, I bent to take hold of the grate I'd brought down but made the mistake of glancing at Blue and the anxious gnawing she was doing on her lip. A tiny crease had formed between her brows, increasing the uncertainty she was trying to hold back.

"We're still getting you clothes," I assured her, misunderstanding her distress. "Just not from here."

"Okay," came her quiet response that contradicted her entire expression.

"Did you want to stay?"

Her fingers flexed at her side in that familiar twitch I was beginning to recognize. "We're already here," she began with a great deal of hesitation. "It would be ... she's already helped so much..." She held her bottom lip with such vicious ferocity between her teeth I almost expected the skin to tear. "I like her."

The last part was blurted in a rush as if the confession were something to be ashamed of.

Unwilling to deny her this small request, I relented. I straightened and exhaled before reaching out a hand and lightly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"If you want to stay, we'll stay."

If the assurance was supposed to erase the unease behind her eyes, it didn't. "If that's okay?"

I merely nodded and turned to the two standing a few feet away. My focus was on the blank faced woman watching the interaction.

"The gate stays down," I told her.

If she was opposed to the idea, Amari kept her mouth shut. She did motion Blue to follow her and the two women moved into the changing rooms.

Once alone with Cyrus, I turned to him. "Vance tell you?"

The other man nodded. "Factory incident."

I sighed. "Told the cops I'd come by the station."

"Now?"

I glanced in the direction Blue had gone. "No. They can wait. David is going to help the family. That's all that matters for now."

Cyrus followed my gaze to where Amari was pulling the zipper up on a green dress that reminded me of something the late Queen would have worn.

"She could be the one," he remarked. "You need a wife. She's here."

"No," I said before he finished. "I won't let the house take her. I'll find someone else."

"From where? And what about her? What woman will allow you to keep her around?"

I knew he was right. I had to figure out what I was doing with Blue if I wanted to save my family home from my grubby cousin, but every option felt like no option.

I couldn't condemn her to the house, but I couldn't let her go.