Chapter Sixteen

Nina

My fingers tingled, and this ruin of a bookstore matched our crazy afterglow, like we were the ones who’d destroyed it. I panted under Eli and twisted to give him a look. He was a total barbarian right now, slick with sweat, wild-haired.

“Don’t give me that look,” Eli said, drawing himself out of me and tugging my skirt back down my hips. The draft I could feel up my ass made it obvious how torn this skirt had become. “I know you regret it every time I fuck you.”

“That’s not true,” I said, tugging my cashmere sweater down over my breasts again, tenderly touching my curls like that would fix them. “Every time you fuck me, I feel like we’re coming closer and closer to some disaster, but I don’t know what it will be.” Eli zipped his pants again and stared down at me, waiting for more. His eyes wouldn’t let me go. “I wish I knew what was going to happen next.”

“You’re going to move in with me, first of all,” Eli announced, a command. My eyebrows perked in surprise. “You’re going to live somewhere safe now, somewhere that isn’t under JP’s total control. And we’re going to take Daddy down and make Paper Treasure a real bookstore.”

Everything that he said sounded great... except taking Daddy down. Something deep inside me resisted that thought.

“You can’t tell me to move in with you,” I reminded him, pulling away. I wanted to retreat from this desk, up into the upstairs office. This was all getting too real. I didn’t want to deconstruct my perfect, fake life. “I have an apartment at Masters Heights. I can’t abandon my lease.”

“Nina.” Eli grasped my shoulders and twisted me to face him again, staring with dire importance into my eyes. God, his gaze was intense. “Is that your lease, or is it your father’s?”

I grimaced and settled on my hip. My father had signed the lease. He paid the rent.

“Father’s,” I answered.

“Then abandon it,” Eli whispered to me. “It’s another way he controls you. You’ve got to break free. Now that you let him know that you know and that you’re willing to fight back, this is the point of no return.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded. Break free. Fight back. No return.

I swallowed. “I guess I’ve chosen sides,” I whispered, feeling overwhelmed by everything he was saying.

“It’s a good thing,” Eli assured me. “When JP goes down, he’s going to take a lot of people with him, but there’s no way you’ll be one of them. The courts will see that you had no idea what was going on, and when you discovered it, you did the right thing.”

“Right,” I said, still cold all over. “Wh-what courts? Have you already gone to the police?”

“The police are useless,” Eli answered with a sneer. “I’m going to take it down myself, or take it to the federal government. They’re watching Darkmont, too. So much money flows here, and so little of it goes back to the government. They know something’s up.”

The federal government. Federal prison.

“And what would you do?” I asked, secretly weighing who the worse adversary was: America, or Eli Connelly.

“I need to completely disarm him, and I need solid links—I mean, concrete stuff, more pictures, more files—and the FBI will take over. They know there’s prostitution here. They know there’s gambling. They can’t hit a moving target when they aren’t even in the actual streets.”

I sucked my lower lip beneath my teeth and thought about whether or not I could give Eli the solid evidence he needed. Was I woman enough to ensure that my father saw justice for his crimes? Was I woman enough to tip dominos in a house of matches, to watch my entire world collapse?

“I don’t know if I’m ready to do this,” I whispered. “I don’t know if I’m ready to send my dad to federal prison, Eli.”

But Eli scowled at me. “You won’t send him to prison,” he assured me sharply. “His crimes will. The jury will ultimately decide, based on the evidence. You have nothing to feel ashamed of, Nina. Nothing.”

I swallowed and shook my head. Part of me resisted doing this so much. “He has headquarters. But there’s security, and I don’t know how to get you in. You have to promise me that he won’t get hurt, Eli.” I pressed my lips together. I wanted control over this situation. I didn’t want anything to go too far without my consent, but I knew that it would.

Eli nodded and stepped forward, scooping his hands into my hair and peering down at me closely. “I can’t make any promises, Nina,” he breathed, pulling a kiss from my lips. I gave it to him in spite of how strange this all felt. I couldn’t stop myself.

But as soon as his lips broke from mine, my eyes fluttered open and fastened on his. I reached up to where one of his hands was still partially submerged in my hair, and I hooked my hand around his wrist, prepared to break our physical contact if I had to.

“At least promise me that you won’t hurt him,” I said firmly. “You can promise me that much, can’t you?”

“Nina…” Eli hissed out a thoughtful breath and shook his head, eyes holding mine. “I’m sure that JP expects me. He’s been watching us for long enough.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I spat, gripping his wrist tighter rather than separating myself from him. “He’s been watching us?”

“The broken window in my bar was caused by a brick,” Eli said. “It said to stay away from you. The Freaks have been watching us, Nina. They know where I am. By now, JP knows who I am, too. The only reason he hasn’t killed me is because he hasn’t been able to. I’m sure his ass wants to.” Eli swallowed and tore his eyes away from me. “If he can’t get to me, he’ll take a stab at the people I love. He’s already vandalized the bar and my bike. The next step would be to destroy it. And then, to take the people I care about.”

“Then I’ll move in with you,” I decided. “Dad won’t hurt the building if there’s some chance that I’ll be hurt in the process.”

Eli moved to speak, then thought better of it. “You’re right,” he said, even though I suspected he didn’t believe me. And maybe he was right. Why should I have had faith in my dad? “I want you to be in my apartment this weekend, Nina. Hell… tonight. Even if you think he won’t hurt you, I know… I know different.”

I knew that Dad would come for me if I stayed at Masters Heights. And this sick twist in my gut also knew that Dad would go for Eli if I wasn’t living in an apartment above Toasty’s.

I had to go. Ready or not.

“Okay,” I breathed, a little shaky. Dad was going to be furious when he realized what had happened. Even if Eli was wrong about Dad being this powerful kingpin—which I didn’t doubt anymore—he would still lose his mind that I’d moved in with any man at all, much less a man like Eli Connelly in a place like Toasty’s.

Eli’s phone hummed in his pocket, and he pulled it out. “Hello? Really? What do they look like? I’ll be right there. Just stay calm, Bethel. Don’t open the door for anyone. Is Margot there? Stay with Margot. I’ll be right there. No! Don’t call the police… Don’t call the police. I’ll be right there.” He ended the call and slid the phone back into his pocket, eyes burning like fire. “Bethel says Mikey’s been hanging around Toasty’s all day, even though it’s closed.”

“I don’t know a Mikey,” I said.

“Michael Walter Hornberger, excuse me,” Eli corrected himself. “Zits and lime green hair. Can’t miss him.”

My jaw dropped. Michael Hornberger was Will’s friend and my new part-timer at Paper Treasures.

“Do you want to stay with me?” he asked. “Or do you want to get together later?”

I cast my eyes around the store, feeling lost. I didn’t want to leave Paper Treasure without securing some things. It was too soon. Who knew what might happen to this store once I left its grounds?

“I need to pick up a few things at my place,” I said, forcing a bright, confident smile onto my lips. I was terrified to be alone, but I couldn’t abandon my bookstore yet. “I live at 1202 Masters Heights.”

Eli blinked, and his eyes bulged, but then a giant smile cracked across his face. I couldn’t remember ever seeing a smile so bright, and the love that struck me was instantaneous and deep. His whole face lit up when he let his smile shine. “Toasty’s is going to be a huge step down for you,” he warned me, “but you’ll be free to go wherever you want to go, and to do whatever you want to do.”

I smirked up at Eli and couldn’t help but tease him. “Is it okay if my boyfriend spends the night sometimes?”

“Your boyfriend spends the night every night,” Eli promised me, sidling closer and gripping the hair at the nape of my neck like a dominant lover. He squeezed his fingers into a fist and kissed me hard. I wilted against him as his tongue had its way with mine. “Be at my place before nightfall, or I’m coming looking for you.”

His words sounded intimidating, but it was comforting to know that I was completely safe, even in the middle of all this insanity. He pulled me close for another kiss, and I responded even more passionately to this one. I sucked on his tongue and unraveled his man bun, driving my fingers up into his hair. “By sunset,” I promised in a whisper.

As soon as I installed a night watchman at Paper Treasure, as fucking ridiculous as that may seem.

Eli left to check on Bethel and Margot, and I flipped through web pages for security services from my upstairs office.

The sun was beginning to set as I fingered through the wads of cash in the safe. It was thousands of dollars in dirty money, but I could use it to hire a security guard for the bookstore. There was no way we could afford one without help from Daddy’s private stash.

But then I would be complicit, too.

After an internal battle about whether to use the money, I replaced it into its pouch and spun the combination on the safe yet again. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t use that money.

I headed down the stairs and toward the front door of the bookstore, still locked with the CLOSED sign, then froze and gasped.

Laurence, my father’s best friend, stood on the cracked cement steps, waving to me through the window. He wore a smile and an expensive suit, as usual. His dark hair was styled to appear desperately chic, which showed his middle age. He didn’t look threatening, and I raised one limp hand to slowly wave back to him, a broken smile forming on my lips by force of habit.

There was no security guard ready to start on short notice, in spite of my search. There was no Eli here to protect me, either.

What was I going to do?