“For two-hundred dollars I won’t tell your wife you’re cheating on her with the home economics teacher.”
This wasn’t my first blackmail, far from it. Over the years, I’ve become the shadow in the hallways. The eyes and ears of this shithole. I found it disgusting that adults cheated thinking no one saw, that they were smarter than the rest of us. I also realized infidelity was a great way to make money.
Why? Because it was everywhere.
And in this place? If business kept up, I could by my own used Mercedes by senior year.
“Listen, you piece of –” he begins to threaten but my fist in his gut prevented him from finishing his sentence.
“Cash, Mr. Benner,” I whispered in his ear. “I only take cash.”
I’d ended sophomore year just shy of nearly three grand…
Early on, I realized I was wired wrong.
When my classmates were enjoying recess, I was watching the teachers, casing the playground and profiling the parents. As I got older, I learned to manipulate, observe, and blackmail. In middle school, I’d leaned on eighty percent of the staff which included the principal. By high school, I was making money on the streets by doing favors and existing in different shadows. I no longer wanted part of gossip, dating, or drama.
My life had bigger plans.
Little did I know someone else had plans for me too.
But by that time, I was cocky and thought myself untouchable.
Hell, I was eighteen when I lost my virginity to a prostitute for three hundred dollars. And until Finn, I never wanted to be attached to anyone in any way. Especially emotionally. I trusted no man or woman. Because of this I had no knowledge of how a relationship worked.
What I did know was how to lie and use my skills to get what I wanted.
And while I wanted Finn, lying and manipulation wouldn’t work on her.
She deserved better than that.
With her head resting against my chest, I placed my palm over her heart and allowed the steady beat to calm me. Explaining myself was foreign to me. And no matter how I spun it, there was no use in denying she was in the arms of a monster. “Talk to me,” she says softly and opening my eyes, I look out of the hotel window seeing our bodies reflected in it.
“I’ve never held a woman before,” I admit. “I’m certain once I bare my soul, seeing the fear I put in your eyes, I still won’t have the strength to let you go.”
Cupping my face, she asks again, “How did you become the Middle Man, Phoenix?”
“By saving the devil’s life,” I share. “I didn’t know it at the time, but he’d been watching me work the streets. Back then, I made money playing both sides of the fence. I pit criminals against each other. I gathered information, used it to blackmail the right people and next thing you know, I was working a deal that went wrong. Shit happened and I saved the wrong man’s life. I’ve been a pawn ever since.”
“What was his name?”
“To this day, I still don’t know. But he saw it in me and knew my soul was forfeit. He took advantage of the fact I had nothing to lose. No family, no friends, no one to miss me. He set up a meeting, a dispute that needed resolution. It was a test, of course. When neither party would submit to his demands, I had no choice but to end the dispute.”
“You killed them both.”
“I killed them both,” I confess. “From that point on, all future correspondence came from messengers until cell phones came on the scene. Now, all contact is done through a woman who goes by the Operator.”
“So how did you quit?”
“I stopped answering the phone,” I say softly. “But I didn’t shut it down or wipe the number.”
“Why not?”
Kissing her nose, I pull her to me inhaling her scent. “If I had, I would have missed your messages.”
“But by keeping it, you set yourself up to be hunted,” she says sadly.
“You are worth it,” I promise. “And it was a small price to pay for peace.”
“I’m peace for you?”
“Finn,” I say pinning her to the wall. “You are everything to me.”
“I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“Because of me, you have a target on your fucking back. I will not rest until you are safe. I will eliminate every last threat to you, and I will do so alone.”
Gripping me tight, she gets in my face and threatens, “Try ditching me and see what happens.”
“You don’t listen for shit,” I growl back.
“I live for adventure, the next big rush. Thing is, I’ve already done it all. Each film is the same, I know the ending. But this adventure is real, Nix. I want real. I want you.”
“You aren’t backing down, are you?”
“Nope,” she smiles wide. “So, I suggest you start teaching me all I need to know to be the middle woman bag guys fear.”
And while the thought of her in danger turned my blood to ice, the thought of having her by my side set the rest of me on fire.