CHAPTER THREE
My butt was numb from sitting, and the sun had set at least two hours before. I’d managed a shower after my very last ever shift with Butch, but I still knew I smelled like fish. The women at the New City Orphanage sprayed me with perfume, but now I smelled like chemicals and fish. It wasn’t an attractive scent, my nose still crinkling at the horrific odor floating on the air around me.
My brown eyes were no longer puffy and red from crying, but I was still in disarray. The curls framing my face were a frizzy mess, along with the rest of my hair. The late autumn wind continued to batter at my face, chapping my lips even worse than they were.
And still, I sat on my one lone suitcase.
At the end of a driveway.
Unable to make myself stand.
The man I would marry?
Oh, no problem.
It was only…Mr. Alaric Timon Wood!
He was one of the most untamable bachelors in all of New City. The sexiest man alive, in my humble opinion. He was one of the ‘kings’ of New City, rich and famous. The man owned Wood Corporation, the biggest architectural company in the entire world. About seventy-five percent of the functional buildings on earth were designed by him.
And his friends?
They were all just as powerful as he was.
So, was I terrified?
Fuck yes, I was.
I continued to sit and stare at the mansion across the street from his mansion. I couldn’t see his from the road, but I sure as heck could see his neighbor’s. And if Mr. Wood’s home was even half as grand—which I was sure it was—then I was about to step into a world I knew nothing of.
The ins and outs of high society life?
Yeah, right.
Give me a gutting knife and a flopping fish any day over that. I would happily flay a fish than sit around someone’s living room for tea parties. Wait…
Were tea parties even a thing anymore?
Or was that only in ancient romance novels?
Goddammit. I was so in over my head.
Speaking of overhead, my eyes flew to the sky as a train’s clean, blue energy glowed in the distance. I held my breath and surveyed the transport. It was obviously an expensive one, just by the glow of the moon on the side. My eyes narrowed as it passed right over my head and onto Mr. Wood’s property.
He was either having company, or it was him.
I hoped like hell he wasn’t having a party for us. Though no other trains had flown by. Just that one. So that had to have been him.
I groaned, watching as my breath puffed white. I dropped my head down into my hands. The man was waiting for me, right on time for the twenty-four-hour guideline. I brushed my curls away from my face and shoved my hands down onto my suitcase, pushing myself to a standing position.
I cracked my back. Stretched a little more.
Grabbed my suitcase. And swallowed my terror.
It was time to meet my future husband.
* * *
Good. God.
How long was his goddamn driveway?
I’d walked a mile already. And my suitcase wasn’t light. I sniffed at my shoulders. Wonderful. I smelled like sweat, chemicals, and fish now. Even better than before.
And I kept putting one foot in front of the other.
I had to, lest I die in the wilderness that surrounded me, frozen and forgotten. Mr. Striker probably wouldn’t like that much. What started as a joke turned into reality. That was not the way I was going down. I planned to be a senile old woman doing whatever the hell I wanted to do before I croaked.
Crazy old lady? That was going to be me.
Maybe in a sparkling pink nightgown dancing in the streets with a martini in my hand and a smile on my face.
Bring it, you freezing cold weather and driveway for miles!
This bitch had a life to live.
I grumbled my anger at the concrete under my feet. This driveway had to have cost a fortune—not that he couldn’t afford it. But still, it was such a waste. No actual cars were in working condition anymore. Not unless someone was filthy rich—
Fuck. He probably had automobiles!
Okay, that would be awesome to journey around in.
Lost in my own thoughts of riding in a vehicle with actual wheels, I almost missed the fact that lights were on the horizon. I glanced up and blinked, squinting in the distance.
“Ah, hell!” I shouted and dropped my bag. I shook my hands at the house in the far off distance, all my fear vanishing with a bright and fiery new emotion. Anger. I bellowed in a fury, “Are you kidding me? That’s another two miles away!”
An owl hooted to my right. Then silence.
I cleared my throat. Straightened my shirt.
Grabbed my suitcase. Swallowed my anger.
I started walking again.
I would meet my future husband.
Eventually. When the driveway fucking ended.