Ember ascended the stairwell to her apartment.
She poised on the top step, her gaze fixed on the stranger’s door. Quick, clean, brutal, efficient: he was exactly what she needed. After more than three days since she’d last seen him, she could only hope he was still around.
She stepped up to his door and knocked, the sound of it painfully invasive as it echoed in the hollow of the empty stairwell.
She waited.
And then knocked again.
When there was still no answer, she made her way to her apartment. She grabbed her blanket from the sofa. Partially sitting on it, partially wrapping it around her back to keep the chill out, she perched on the top step.
He could be hours. He might even not come back that night at all. But, for now, she’d sit there and she’d wait. Anything was better than doing nothing. Anything was better than sitting alone in the silence of her apartment. Anything was better than risking him returning and her not knowing he was back, potentially missing him again and losing valuable time.
In the two hours that passed, her extremities turned numb despite the warmth of the blanket. Her mind slipped into slumber mode as she rested her forehead on her knees, so much so that she flinched at the eventual sound of the key in the lock.
As her stranger glanced up at her, her stomach flipped with a concoction of nerves and relief.
He closed and locked the door behind himself before standing at the foot of the stairwell. Thankfully, he was alone.
‘I need to talk to you,’ she said.
Without a word, he ascended with one slow and steady step at a time.
Ember dropped her blanket as she stood ready to greet him.
He stopped at eye level with her. ‘I thought you wanted nothing to do with me.’
His unflinching gaze was laden with detachment, causing her resolution to waver for a moment.
‘I need five minutes of your time, that’s all,’ she said.
She moved aside as he passed her, leaving her in the trail of his silence. But instead of slamming his apartment door behind him, he left it open.
Ember took her cue to follow.
He slipped his jacket off and cast it aside over the nearby chair before leaning against the side of the sofa. Arms firmly folded, his direct stare did little to ease her awkwardness. ‘What do you want, Ember?’
‘I want to hire you.’
His dark eyebrows lifted just a touch. ‘Is that before or after I fuck off and keep well away from you?’
‘I didn’t say it like that.’
His eyes were laced with challenge. ‘What makes you think I’m available for hire?’
‘I’ve seen what you’re capable of. I’ve seen the guns in this apartment. I’ve seen your meetings in the café. You’re a professional of some sort – or could be. I need help and I think you’re the one who can give it to me.’
He frowned as he studied her. ‘Help with what exactly?’
‘The café’s in trouble. It’s being hit by a protection racket. The authorities won’t help me.’
‘The café that you’re going to be shot of in a couple of days. What does it matter to you?’
She maintained her calm. She had no choice but to maintain her calm. ‘The people who work there are my friends.’
‘Friends you’re leaving.’
Her stomach knotted at his accusation. She had to bite back her retort. ‘The racket want more money than the business can afford. They want the staff to work under the equivalent terms of slavery, and have already placed threats on those who don’t conform and comply.’
‘That tends to be how protection rackets work around here.’
‘And that part of Lowtown has been free of them up to now, too small fry. It still is. This is about nothing more than gaining ground. If they own that part of Lowtown too, they’ll own nearly everything. Harry’s will be the first place of many more to come. If the Hordas clan succeed with Harry’s–’
He raised his eyebrows again. ‘The Hordas clan? You expect me to do something about the Hordas clan?’
‘I want you to kill them. I want to hire you to kill them.’
His gaze was steady, almost cold in its analysis. He exhaled tersely before biting into his bottom lip as he looked away. A moment later, his gaze snapped back to hers. He stood. ‘You need to leave.’
Her heart skipped a beat as he stepped away. He sauntered across to what she knew was the bedroom, pulling his T-shirt off as he did so and revealing his toned, heavily tattooed back.
As he disappeared from sight, she clasped the nape of her neck.
She couldn’t give up that easily.
She dropped her hands back to her side. ‘I don’t expect you to do it for nothing. When I said “hire” you, that’s what I meant,’ she said, following him but stopping at the threshold to his bedroom. ‘I’m willing to pay you.’
Side-on to her, he sat on the edge of his bed to remove his boots and socks before standing to drop his jeans. ‘Even if you could afford me, even if I was willing, you most definitely couldn’t afford me for this.’
‘But I’m right,’ she said, crossing the threshold. ‘You can be hired. This is the kind of thing you do. Not just anyone has guns in Lowtown.’
‘First saving a vampire’s life, then being witness to the murder of two humans. Now trying to hire a contract killer.’ He glanced across at her. ‘You’re having quite the week of it, aren’t you, Ember?’
‘Name your price.’
‘You’re a smart girl. Draw a line. Take no for an answer.’ He pulled on a pair of black sweatpants that had been discarded over a near-by chair. He indicated towards the exit. ‘Door’s that way. And we’ll pretend we never had this conversation.’
‘I’m not giving up that easily.’
He closed the gap between them, Ember backing up across the threshold as he did so.
Reaching for the bar bolted above the doorframe, he lifted himself in one easy move, his eyes not leaving hers as he did so. ‘So stand there. Watch me all night.’
‘They killed Jasper. He’s an old guy that used to visit us. Seventy-two and one of them beat him to a pulp. Stirling, his name is. He’s the one who did it.’
‘So now you’re telling me you’re hiring me for revenge?’
‘Revenge and business. I know you can do this. I saw what you did out in that alley. Your responses were calculated. I saw how calm you were. The way you took those guys out–’
‘Was about clearing a debt,’ he said, releasing his grip from the bar, his bare feet silently hitting the floor. ‘I thought I’d made that perfectly clear. We’re done. Something you made more than clear.’
‘Is that why you won’t listen to what I have to say? Because I asked you to leave?’
‘No, Ember, it’s because I’m not suicidal. Take my advice: stay out of it. Focus on getting out of here. In five days, it won’t be your problem any more.’
His exactness with her number of days left threw her off kilter for a moment. ‘I might not even have five days with them in charge.’
‘And that’s the chance we all take,’ he declared before resuming his workout again. ‘Shit happens.’
‘So that’s it? You won’t help me?’
‘Finally, she gets it.’
She removed the wad of cash from her jacket.
‘How much is that?’ he asked, barely glancing at it. ‘Two hundred? You think two hundred is anywhere near enough?’
‘There are plenty who will work for that. I came to you first but you’re not my only option. I’ve lived here a long time. I overhear a lot of conversations in that café. I know where I can go.’
‘And anyone who accepts two hundred to go after the Hordas clan will be just as likely to kill you, rape you or sell you to a sire because they’ll either be playing you or be fucking psychotic. The only people who would even hold this conversation with you will already be working for them. They’ll double-cross you no sooner than look at you.’
‘Then call it a down payment. If you want more, I’ll get more.’
A curt laugh escaped his lips. ‘You’re not this naïve, Ember.’
‘But I do need help. I could be talking a lot of money here. If I talk to all the businesses in the local area, we can gather enough to pay you well. I know they’ll do it. I know they’ll want to bring an end to this. If everyone works together, is proactive…’
His feet were back on the floor a split-second later. The speed with which he closed the gap between them took her breath away. Shadows consumed him, his outline ignited only by the streetlights.
‘And what about you, Ember? What’s your contribution to this cause? Those funds you put away to move to Midtown? Your home: your deposit for your college course? Maybe that would go some way towards my price. Are you willing to do that, Ember? Are you willing to give up your life in Midtown for this? Are you willing to put yourself on the line for this cause like you’re asking me to?’
Her pulse raced as his eyes gazed down into hers, Ember wavering as to whether it was a rhetorical question or a demand.
‘Nothing you can do will be enough,’ he added, confirming it was the former. ‘You can’t prevent this. You’re out of your depth even asking. If they get one sniff of this, they’ll burn the place down rather than make a profit on it, just to get you back. The people you’re going up against, they see and know everything. I know what I’m talking about. You going after them will not save your friends; it’s signing their death sentence – and yours. Quit. That’s advice I’m giving for free.’
He backed up. He lifted himself up by the bar again, every muscle in his abdomen and arms tensing.
‘I’m not going to do nothing,’ she said firmly. ‘This has to stop or they’re only going to grow stronger. They are destroying lives and they’re just going to keep wanting more. And the longer it goes on, the less chance we have of fighting back. That café is a droplet in an ocean to them but to Harry that droplet is his whole world. I can’t let them take that from him.’
‘And this is the last time I’m going to say it,’ he said, letting go of the bar once more, his hands then resting on his hips. ‘Goodnight, Ember. This conversation is over.’