Chapter 6

Reyna paced the apartment.

She had finally managed to check Beckham’s schedule on her cellphone. He was supposed to be gone most of the day with work appointments. She had double-checked to see if he had scheduled time in his extremely busy calendar to eat but had no luck. She wasn’t on there at all, and as far as she could tell unless she was reading things wrong…he never took a break. He never slowed down. He didn’t seem to do anything except work.

Which was just fine by her.

With him gone for the day that meant she could go see her brothers. It would be a quick trip. No more than three or four hours. She would be back before Beckham even knew she had left the city.

Not that he had said that she couldn’t leave. In fact, he had specifically said that she could. However, it didn’t make her any less frightened about what he would do if she did something else that displeased him. Wearing her old clothes had almost set him off. He was a ticking time bomb, and she was worried that she would end up on the wrong end of his explosion.

Still she had to see her brothers. She would just make sure she didn’t break any of his rules, and she would be golden.

She jotted out a text to Beckham. The buttons were hard to manage, and she had to backtrack a dozen times before she got the message right.

Going out. Won’t be gone long. Bringing phone and card.

A message returned from him almost immediately. How the hell did he type that fast?

Call my driver, Gerard. He will take you anywhere in the city. If you go shopping for new clothes charge them on the card. I don’t want you in anything cheap. Do you understand?

Yes.

Good. Don’t be late tonight. We need to talk.

She gulped. Talk. That couldn’t be good. Is he already upset with me? Or was that some kind of code for him wanting to eat? Either way she would find out tonight. He wouldn’t be back until later, which gave her plenty of time to see her brothers and get back for their talk.

Finding a black cross-body purse in her closet, she placed her cellphone and the precious black card in the bag. The only shoes in the whole closet that weren’t four to six-inch stiletto high heels were a nude wedge. They would have to do. She knew she should call Beckham’s driver, but Beckham had said that the driver would take her anywhere in the city. Where she wanted to go was out of the city. If she had enough money to buy expensive clothes, then she had enough to take a cab in and out of the city.

With that settled, she took the elevator downstairs. Judging by the looks from the people around her, it was clear that no one recognized her as the woman Beckham had brought back with him last night. Somehow in the course of an evening she managed to meet their high standards. A woman even looked envious of her ridiculous wedge heels. What she wouldn’t do for a pair of tennis shoes right now!

The valet snapped to attention when he saw her. “May I help you, ma’am?”

Ma’am. Holy shit!

“Um…I need a cab?”

The valet whistled, and a black Town Car pulled up in front of the building.

“Is that…is that a cab?” she asked him hesitantly. “I thought they were yellow.”

He eyed her curiously. “Only the best for our Visage clients.”

“Oh. Well…do you mind me asking you how much it is?”

God, she felt stupid for asking, but she wasn’t sure she could afford a Town Car for such a long drive in and out of the city.

“You’re new here, aren’t you?” he asked, smiling politely. He didn’t look at her like she was an idiot at all. It was nice to have someone treat her kindly after tiptoeing around Beckham.

“Yes,” she breathed. “Is it that obvious?”

“Just a bit. I’m Everett.”

“Reyna.” They shook hands, and she breathed a sigh of relief for finding an ounce of humanity in this situation.

“Well, don’t worry about the cab. It’s all billed to your room. You have a card?” She produced the black card, and he whistled low.

“What?”

“Those are unlimited cards.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

He frowned at her apologetically. “A black card. It means you have unlimited funds.”

Her eyes widened, and she blinked rapidly a few times. That couldn’t be right. No way. She was getting paid for this. She wasn’t just being given access to Beckham’s immense wealth.

“I think you’re mistaken.”

His smile returned. “You’re probably right.”

But she knew he was lying.

“After you.” He opened the door for her, and she yanked her skirt down as she sat into the leather interior.

“Thanks.”

He smiled again. “Nice to meet you, Reyna.”

“You too, Everett.”

“Where to, miss?” the driver asked.

“Warehouse District, fifty-four Boulevard East.”

His eyebrows rose at the address. He was obviously wondering why a woman leaving this residence, dressed to the nines, was going to a run-down suburb.

“Just tap your card on the screen and we’ll begin.”

She removed the black card, wondering all the while if what Everett said was true. She stared at the computer display in the back of the Town Car, and then did as instructed. Once her card hit the monitor, it lit up.

Beckham Anderson

Reyna Carpenter

Visage Incorporated

Unlimited

Her jaw went slack.

And then the numbers started ticking up. She watched as the cost for the ride increased dramatically. More money than she or her brothers had seen in a lifetime was now being used for one car ride out of the city. Unbelievable.

She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the screen as the city disappeared behind them and they rolled up to her neighborhood. It had only been a day and already it felt like a lifetime. The driver pulled up to the Warehouse District slowly…almost cautiously. Being away in Beckham’s immaculately clean apartment made a stark contrast to her home.

It was filthy.

Filthy was an understatement. It was black. Soot. Pollution.

It was the opposite of Visage.

Ironic that her home would be darker and more eerie than a place filled with vampires who had been known to crave the night, thrive in the night.

“Fifty-four Boulevard East. What building?” the driver asked.

She pointed to a ramshackle apartment building five stories high. Half of the roof had blown off a couple of years back during a bad storm, and so it looked even more dilapidated than the surrounding buildings. Her brothers lived on the third floor in a drafty little hole in the wall.

“I’m just going to see if anyone is home. Will you wait?” she asked.

“Miss, I wouldn’t recommend someone like yourself going up there alone.”

One day away from home and already I don’t belong.

“I’ll be fine. Just wait for me right here.”

As she opened the door, she shivered slightly. Her nude wedges touched the sooty earth. For some reason, the first thought in her mind was that Beckham would never let her keep these shoes now.

She made it up to the third-floor landing uninterrupted. Not even crazy Mrs. Lowry was sitting with her door open ready to yell at anyone who passed. The door to her apartment was never locked, because there was nothing to steal, and she walked right inside.

“Brian! Drew!” she called.

No return reply came. She walked into the one bedroom and found it empty, just three sad pallets on the floor. Her brothers must be at work. She should have gone there first, but she’d wanted to check the apartment just in case.

Hurrying down the stairs, she nearly ran into Gary Forman, the resident pervert. He grabbed her arm roughly. “Can you spare some change? A pretty young thing like yourself is sure to have a little something extra for a poor man like myself.”

“Gary, it’s me, Reyna. Let me go.”

“Reyna?” His eyes bulged, but he didn’t let go of her arm. “Nah. Reyna left yesterday. Her brothers are looking all over for her.”

“Well, I came back,” she snapped. “Will you tell them I’m going to the warehouses if they come looking for me here?”

She yanked her arm free and scurried away as fast as she could. When she sank down mercifully into the backseat again, her stomach was in knots. And she realized with a sigh that she had a black handprint on her otherwise clean skin. No wonder she had never felt clean before.

She directed the driver to the warehouses where her brothers worked and made him park around the corner so the cab wasn’t visible. He offered to come in with her, but she worried more about someone stealing his car than anything happening to her.

Reyna rounded the corner to the front of the warehouse just as a shift was getting out. Her heart stopped as at least a dozen hungry men stared at her. Never in her life had she been afraid of men in this neighborhood, but she didn’t look like a woman from the warehouses. She looked like a high-class city girl. Even she wouldn’t recognize herself here.

Then one of them stepped forward. Steven. She ground her teeth in frustration. This was not a good time for her to see her ex. She hadn’t spoken with him since he had left her to be with another woman, and she didn’t really want to talk to him right now. But she had to if she was going to find her brothers in a reasonable amount of time. The clock was ticking.

“Hey, Steven,” she said, beelining toward him. The other guys dispersed when they saw that she was taken, but a few glanced over at her curiously as they passed.

“Hey, baby. What can I do for you?” His eyes crawled her body.

“I’m looking for my brothers,” she said impatiently.

“Do I know them?”

She gave him a disbelieving look. Holy shit! They had dated for over a year, and he couldn’t even recognize her in a change of clothes and a good long shower.

She snapped her fingers in his face, drawing his eyes up from her tits. “Steven, it’s me, Reyna.”

His eyes nearly popped out of his face. “Reyna Carpenter? Shit, woman!”

“Yeah. It’s different,” she said tonelessly. “Have you seen Brian or Drew?”

“Different? You look fucking amazing.”

“Thanks, but have you seen my brothers?” she asked. She couldn’t keep the impatience from her voice.

“They were out looking for you yesterday.” Steven whistled and ran his hand down her side boldly. “Little Reyna Carpenter all grown up and a woman underneath those jeans and T-shirt.”

“Cut it out, Steven.” She slapped his hand away. “You already know what I look like. I’m not here for you. I just need to see my brothers.”

“Don’t worry about them,” he said persuasively. He started walking her backward with this hungry look in his eye that she had seen before. It meant trouble.

“Steven,” she warned.

“Come on, baby. Don’t you want another round?”

“You’re the one who left me, remember? You wanted to get it elsewhere.”

“That’s not how I remember it,” he said dismissively.

Her back hit the wall of the warehouse, and she gasped. His eyes lit up. It was clear that he knew he had the upper hand, and he liked it. In this neighborhood, no one would stop him from coming on to her. She should have listened to her driver and thought about her safety. She just hadn’t thought she needed it from anyone here, least of all Steven.

“Where did you get these new threads?” he asked, plucking the fabric.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Reyna, you can tell me.” His hand ran down her waist, and she tried to push him away. Any advantage she’d had she lost when her back hit the wall.

“I’m not interested.”

“Explain to me how a girl with nothing can go from that to this overnight. Huh?” He eyed her up and down suggestively. “Either she’s a whore or she’s a blood whore. You been to Visage, Reyna?”

She looked away, unable to see the accusation in his eyes.

“Leave me alone!” But it sounded weak even to her ears.

“So you have! Let me see that neck.” He tilted her head, searching out the customary bite marks that signified someone was working for a vampire. She slapped his hand away, but he just grasped it and pinned it to her side.

“You can be a whore for a vamp. You can be a whore for me.”

His lips lowered to her neck. His large body pinned her roughly against the wall. No matter how much she moved or squirmed or kicked to try to loosen herself, she couldn’t get away.

Tears started flowing down her face. She had decided to go to Visage to help her family. She had worried the whole time that she would be used and taken advantage of by the vampire who took her in. But so far Beckham had done none of those things. He’d given her a place to live, a new wardrobe, and access to unlimited funds. He hadn’t even bitten her yet. Instead, her worst nightmares were coming true from someone she had known at home.

Her world had just flipped upside down.