Chapter Fifteen
WE MADE IT through the lobby without any threats at gunpoint.
We did earn a lot of stares, however.
The lobby of the dorm had seen many wild things, drunken antics and one notorious whipped-cream dunking booth. There had never been a man like Philip Murphy, clearly dangerous, clearly powerful—shirtless and bloody as he strode to the exit. He nodded once, politely, at an openmouthed student clutching a pile of textbooks. And the entire time he kept a firm grip on my arm, propelling me forward.
I didn’t bother to fight him. It would only have slowed us down, maybe get him caught by the cops, who must have been on their way down after us. And definitely none of the soft, slender boys watching us in shock could have rescued me. Only Sloan would have tried, but even his determination was no match for the barrel of a gun.
The sunlight burned my eyes, blinded me. The campus where I had lived and gone to school looked the same as ever, but different too—a fun-house mirror version of the place I knew. In a flash of glinting chrome and shiny paint, a black SUV screeched to a halt at the curb.
Instinctively I took a step back.
The men who took me, the car waiting behind the club that night to take me way—they’d come in a black unmarked car too. It was the kind of car designed to look anonymous, even though it was anything but. Ordinary people may not have known who was in the car, what horrible crime they had committed today, but they knew bad people were inside. Dangerous people.
Nothing good ever came in black cars. Except for now, apparently. Because instead of evading the car, Philip went and opened the door.
“Get in,” he said, but he didn’t wait for my compliance. He used his grip on my arm to bodily push me inside, lifting me from the ground. I toppled onto soft leather seats as he climbed in behind me.
I scrambled upright in time to see the door to the building burst open with Barnes in the lead, gun in both hands as he bolted toward us, surprisingly fast for a man who looked like he was pushing fifty.
The car was already in motion, tires squealing as we moved away from the curb. The car door slammed shut on its own, and I was tossed backward again, my world upending for about the millionth time since I’d found Philip at my door last night.
“Where to?” a man asked.
“Out of town,” Philip said, sounding casual and not out of breath. “I need to let things cool off while I call in a few favors.”
Why did everything he said sound like a riddle? Things to be cooled and favors to be called in. That was how he talked, how he worked, with evasion and secrecy. That was who he was. I couldn’t forget that.
From the outside this car looked like a regular Escalade, the kind rich moms use to drive their kids to soccer practice. From the inside it had clearly been modified to work like a limo. The backseats were gone and replaced with smooth leather rows lining the front and back, the windows heavily tinted.
Philip sat in the seat closer to the driver, facing the back of the vehicle. One arm was slung over the top of the seat, his legs kicked wide. He looked like some kind of savage royalty, with no shirt and hard muscles. A trickle of fresh blood wound down his side and over his black suit pants, turning invisible.
When I righted myself on the backseat, I saw a pair of curious eyes watching me through the rearview mirror. Adrian. I remembered him from before. Philip’s right-hand man—his butler, his driver, his anything-that-needs-to-get-done guy.
“Fancy meeting you here,” he said, a faint note of humor in his voice.
I fought the smile, but it came anyway. Adrian had always been nice to me, and back then I’d needed all the friends I could get. “Right outside my dorm? What a coincidence.”
“A sociology major, huh. I always pegged you for something in business. You know, tough-as-nails manager with a killer manicure.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just because you dream about a woman telling you what to do…”
That earned me a snort-laugh. “If that’s the case, I might need a new boss. One with a little more X chromosome.”
Philip made a sound not unlike a growl. He pressed the button to raise the divider between the front and the backseats. “Stop pestering Adrian.”
As if he had anything to worry about, as if anything I said could annoy Adrian or make him quit. Even back then I had suspected that Adrian had a crush on Philip, but maybe it was unavoidable if you worked that close to him. We were like flowers, helplessly turning our faces to the bright sun of him.
I met Adrian’s eyes right before the black divider reached the top. We shared a moment of mutual understanding and sympathy. It was hard to love a man and know nothing could come of it.
When the divider slid shut, closing us in, I turned on Philip. “What did you mean I’m with you now—for better or for worse?” I said the last part in an exaggerated imitation of his voice, low and slightly menacing.
“Really?” he asked drily.
“That’s how you sound.”
The dire look he gave me promised retribution, and a shiver ran through me. “Do not test me unless you’re willing to face the consequences.”
“The kind of consequences where you let me leave? Because I could go for that one, actually. Helping you when you were hurt is one thing. I have no interest in being a fugitive for…well, nothing. I haven’t done anything.”
“Hostage, remember?”
Yeah, I wouldn’t be forgetting the breath-stealing terror of having a gun pointed at my head for a while. “I’m serious. I want to go back.”
He sobered. “You can’t. They know where you are. They know who you are to me. You wouldn’t be safe.”
“Wait…” My heart was suddenly beating faster. “You mean, ever? I wouldn’t be safe ever?”
He was silent for what felt like an eternity—an eternity in which my entire life, my future, my family all turned to dust, leaving a wasteland of nothingness for me to live in. “They know who you are to me,” he finally said, almost painfully quiet. As if he understood exactly what he was asking me to give up.
No, what he was forcing me to give up.
“This is crazy. I’ll just go back and I’ll—I’ll talk to the cops. I’ll tell them what happened—”
“And what, kitten? They’ll interrogate you for everything you learned about me, both last night and years ago. They’ll arrest you for harboring a fugitive. Is that what you’re so eager to go back to?”
My lower lip trembled, and I bit down hard to make it stop. “They’ll understand.”
“Barnes is out for blood, and he won’t mind fucking you over just to mess with me.”
“This is crazy. There has to be another way. I can’t just be…gone.”
“And that’s just the cops. The men I saw from the window? They were something else. The cops can’t protect you from them, no matter what they tell you. These men—they’d hurt you. I mean really hurt you, kitten.”
I swallowed, knowing exactly what kind of hurt he meant. The kind with rough hands and cruel sneers. The kind that almost got me years ago, that had been in the process of getting me before Shelly stepped in and saved me. The kind that had kept me afraid and withdrawn all this time, unable to bear even a kiss from a boy, even one as sweet as Sloan.
“I can’t,” I whispered. “I can’t just leave.”
Philip’s expression went completely blank. “You’ll be safe with me. I’ll make sure you’re comfortable—”
“God, you sound like you’re reciting a grocery list. This is my life we’re talking about. My friends. My family. You can’t just tell me all that’s over.”
In a flash the blank mask was gone, replaced with a kind of wild fury. “You think I don’t understand what’s at stake? I avoided you all these years. Avoided touching you, avoided talking to you. All so you’d be safe.” He laughed, a hollow sound. “And in one night it’s ruined.”
A wave of dark pleasure washed over me, to know he wanted me. He had said it in the dorm room, but God, it was hard to believe—after all this time. A man like him could have any woman. I had been a broken little girl. He wouldn’t touch me then.
He’d hardly even looked at me.
He was looking at me now, his eyes piercing, probing.
Part of me wanted to ask more questions, to find out what could have happened between us—without the world intruding. A man and woman, without the masks we wore, the criminal and the ingenue, the master and the student.
The world intruded, though—in the form of red and blue flashing lights.
“Shit.” Philip pressed the intercom. “Get us the fuck out of here.”
Pretty sure Adrian had figured that one out already.
The vehicle sped up and took a sharp turn, tilting on two wheels. Philip settled into his seat, looking determined but not especially worried. Apparently they’d done this chase before.
It was a cold splash of reality. We were not just a man and woman. We could never be as simple as that.
He had an entire criminal empire. He had all of Chicago up in arms, fighting against him or for him. He had the entire police force looking for him.
And me? I was just a girl with no place to call home. No family, no future.
Again.