Chapter 16
“Be good,” Cara told her as she left to spend the weekend with her boyfriend. “And don’t go getting up to anything with Xavier Stone.”
“As if. I hate the guy. He’s an A-star jerk, a total douchebag, a complete Neanderthal—”
Cara closed the top of her knapsack and threw it onto her shoulder. “That’s a lot of hate you have for the guy, it makes me wonder ...”
“Wonder what?”
Cara threw her a searching look. “Wonder what you really think of him.”
“After everything I’ve told you about him, you still don’t get it? I don’t like him, and hopefully he won’t be around this weekend. I don’t think he cares much about getting to know Jacob.”
“Then why do you think he’s spending so much time with him?”
“To get on Tobias’s good side?” she explained, when Cara rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, it’s complicated. You won’t understand. Jacob doesn’t realize it and I’m not going to tell him.”
“You’re onto a good thing, Iz. Karma works.”
“How’s that?”
“You saved that kid, and now his mom has you babysitting for her. It was a perfect fit—right after Shoemoney. And I was right, wasn’t I? Tell me I’m right, about Tobias being nothing like Shoemoney?”
“You were right.” Tobias Stone was a family man and he was nothing like Shoemoney.
She shivered at the memory of the first time she had experienced Shoemoney’s perversion. That time, she had been on her knees picking up dried pasta shapes from the kitchen floor. She happened to look up to see Shoemoney standing a few feet away, staring at her, and she’d had no idea how long because she hadn’t heard him come in. He’d been gaping down her shirt. She wasn't sure, even then, even as the hairs on the back of her neck stood to attention, warning her, and even as his stare lingered over her like a dirty stench. She had managed to stand up, somehow, but her knees had gone weak.
And still, she gave him the benefit of the doubt.
“What are you two doing today?”
“Watching a Marvel movie.” Jacob couldn’t get enough of his Marvel superheroes.
“Be good.”
“Likewise.”
Cara left and Izzy quickly washed up her lunchtime dishes, then quickly tugged on her leather jacket. She would Uber it over to the Upper East Side and check over Jacob’s homework—Savannah had asked her to look over it. And then, after the movie, they would go and get something to eat.
She picked up her handbag and slipped it over her shoulder, and opened the door just as the doorbell went off.
The air from her lungs stilled.
Gideon Shoemoney stared down at her, his huge hulking frame almost as big as the doorway.
“Isabel.” His smile made her want to retch. She strengthened her hold on the door, using it more like a riot shield to hide part of her body, and her jaw tightened, making speech impossible.
“Aren’t you going to let me in?”
“Fuck. Off.”
“Fuck …” he said slowly, using the word as a weapon. “Off?”
Creep.
She swallowed, and heard the blood pounding in her ears. You are strong, she told herself, willing for her superpower to emerge, wishing, in this moment, that she had some of Jacob’s belief in the power of super-heroes.
“What are you here?
“I was in the area.” He pushed his foot forward, trying to wedge it inside the door, but she held it firm, so that it only opened a fraction. There was something unhinged in the way he was looking at her. Blood coursed through her body, making her giddy from the sudden adrenaline hit. She was scared, knowing that he was a disgusting and dirty old man, and that he was here.
“What do you want?” Behind the door, with her shoulder hidden out of his sight, she slipped her hand into her handbag, to the inside pocket, and reached for her small pepper spray canister.
“Cassia’s not too happy that you left so suddenly and without an explanation.”
“Maybe I should call her up and tell her?”
“She says we owed you some money,” he said, ignoring her veiled threat, “and she wants you to have it.”
She smelled horseshit—this idea that he had suddenly developed scruples enough to come and pay her face to face. “Why didn’t you pay it directly into my account?”
He wanted something. She didn’t believe he’d come just to give her money.
“I wanted to see how you were, and make sure you were okay.”
She didn’t believe the bullshit.
“I’m fine, but I’d like you to leave.” Where was Cara when she needed her? If her friend had been here now, she wouldn’t have held back about telling this dirt bag exactly what she thought of him, but he was so much bigger than her, and even though she had taken self-defense classes at college, and had her Pepper spray in her hand, she didn’t want to risk anything.
Gideon Shoemoney was the type of Wall Street Master who probably thought he could get away with doing whatever he wanted to her and that she would never say a word. It hit her then that it was exactly what she had done. She hadn’t told a soul, apart from Cara. She had kept quiet about it, wanting nothing more than a peaceful life, not even telling her parents.
It would make her father even more depressed, and another rich and unscrupulous man had already destroyed him before.
Shoemoney held out the wad of money. The twenty dollar bills seemed to be more than the two hundred and fifty dollars she was owed.
“Here’s five hundred.”
Her brows pinched together. “Why the extra?” She smelled more horseshit.
“Just a little something.”
“For what?” She refused to take it. Whatever his motivation, she didn’t want his money.
“Take it,” he ordered.
Slipping the pepper spray into the back pocket of her jeans, she quickly counted and took what he owed her, and returned the extra to him. “This is extra. I don’t want it.”
“It’s yours.”
“What for?” If he was worried she was going to tell anyone, she wasn’t. Despite all these new allegations by women, against all the big bad bosses, despite everything that was starting to come out into the public arena, she couldn’t find it in herself to put her hand up and confess that she too had been the victim of sexual assault, that this had happened to her, too. “Leave.”
“Take the money.” He ground the words out slowly.
“I don’t want it. Are you afraid?” she asked, suddenly gaining strength, gaining comfort from the thought that women were beginning to speak up, and that she wasn’t alone. “Are you scared of the women’s march? Are you scared that we’re outing pigs like you?”
“What are you talking about?” It was clear from his face he had no idea. “Look,” he said, stepping away. “I heard that you’re working for the Stones now.” He coughed again. “I don’t want you to think we deliberately refused to pay you, especially with the way you left. People might talk.”
And then she understood. He was worried she might tell the Stones what he’d done.
“You’re hoping to buy my silence?” Was this compensation? Hush money? And how did he know she was working for Tobias?
He was worried. For all his tough exterior, his loud arrogance, this man didn’t want anyone, least of all Tobias Stone, to know exactly what type of a creep he was. And he was worried that she might let it slip. He coughed again and shuffled back a step. “I don’t want someone like Tobias Stone to think badly of me.”
“You creep.” She threw the money at him and tried to shut the door, but he jammed his foot in the way. “I only want to talk to you. I want to explain what happened that day—”
But she didn’t want to give him the time of day. In a flash she reached for her pepper spray and pointed it directly at him.
He laughed. “You wouldn’t dare.”
She placed her finger over the top, her heart pumping. “Try me.”
“You are a feisty little girl, aren’t you?” His dirty smile did it. She pressed the top and kept her finger on it.
“You fucking bitch!” he cried, his large, fleshy hands shielding his face as he stumbled backwards.
“Get out!” she screamed, “Get out, get out, get out!” She slammed the door and bolted it in both places before securing the door chain. Closing her eyes, she leaned against the door, her insides fluttering violently, like a frightened, caged canary.
Seeing Shoemoney had brought it all back. The feeling of grime, the guilt, the hole in her stomach. She started to sweat, her throat turning drier than sandpaper.
She covered her mouth with her hands, trying to hush her loud, labored breathing, as she strained for sounds that Shoemoney might still be on the other side of the door.
She listened, trying to get her breathing to calm down, and after a while, when the thudding of her heart quietened, she heard nothing.
When her cell phone rang, she quickly silenced it, and answered the call without looking to see who it was.
“You’re late, Izzy!”
“Huh?” she looked up, scowling.
“Don’t worry. We’re coming to pick you up.” Jacob’s voice shook her out of her nightmare. “Izzy? Izzy, are you there?” His sweet words made her want to cry with relief.
“I’m running late, sorry.”
“’Sokay. We’ll be there in…” She heard someone say it in the background first, before Jacob said, “Five minutes.”
“Okay.”
It was only after she had put her cell phone away, after she had waited for her breathing to still, and when she was sure there was no sound coming from the other side of the door, that she realized it had been Xavier’s voice she’d heard in the background.
A short while later she heard a knock on her door. “Izzy!”
She had been sitting on the floor the entire time, slumped up against the door. She got up slowly, unbolted the locks, took off the chain, and opened the door to find Jacob’s smiling eyes looking at up her. Behind him stood Xavier, not smiling. If anything, he looked uneasy.
“How many locks do you have?” he asked.
She had never been so relieved to see him before.
“We’re going to the movies, remember?” Jacob said.
“Yes, we are,” she replied, her voice sounding lackluster, and she couldn’t instantly summon up the energy to hide her emotions.
“What’s the matter?” Jacob asked.
“I was … I was studying for a test, and I got carried away,” she replied. A quick glance at Xavier told her that he didn’t quite believe her.
“Can I take a pee, Izzy?” Jacob asked. He still hadn’t taken a step inside.
“Sorry, come in,” she said, opening the door wider, then, “I don’t know. Can you pee?” She smiled at Jacob, using the boy’s energetic spirit to help dispel some of her shock.
“It’s here,” she said, showing him to the washroom, and by the time she had walked, Xavier was standing inside her apartment with the door closed.
“You were studying?” he asked. “Do you always bolt the door like that when you’re studying?”
“This isn’t the Upper East Side.”
“No. But two deadbolts and a door chain? Who are you hiding from, Laronde?”
“No one.” She clenched her mouth tightly, then forced herself to push out a smile.
“No one. Interesting that because,” he opened his palm and showed her. “It’s been raining money on your doorstep.”
She stared at the dollar bills in his hand. The bastard had left it for her. She still didn’t want it, but if she said anything now, Xavier would have questions.
“Thanks.” She plucked it out of his hands, and placed it in the pocket of her jeans. She would figure out what to do with it later.
She braced herself for the questions, because the way he looked at her, the way his stare reached down into her soul and held there, told her he didn’t believe her.
“What’s your explanation for that?”
She stared back at him. “I was wondering where my rent money had gone. It must have slipped out of my back pocket.”
“Yeah?” He bent down and picked up the pepper spray can from the floor. “Then what’s this?”
She struggled to swallow. “It’s—uh.” She was stuck. And he was more than imposing, more than nosey, more than interfering.
“Something you want to tell me, Laronde?”
She exhaled out slowly. Something about Shoemoney coming here, about him wanting to buy her off, about him getting this close to her, had made her nauseous. And she hated being in a place of weakness. Weak enough that Xavier could sense it.
“There’s nothing to tell,” she said, forcing a laugh.
“You don’t look too good.” Xavier moved so close to her she could feel the heat from his body. She gawked at him, and this time without her usual steely armor. The rising panic inside her, that he might find out her dirty little secret, made her want to implode.
“In fact,” he peered at her, “you’re looking paler than usual. You sure you want to go to the movies?”
“Jacob wants to go.”
“We can watch something here, or we can go back to their apartment, or you could both come to mine,” he said quickly.
It seemed like a better option all of a sudden, being away from the crowds in the movie theater. She was so shaken up, she wanted to withdraw into herself.
“What’s going on, Laronde? I know something went down just now.”
“Nothing went down,” she managed to say. Her body was stiff, every muscle in her body clenched. “Nothing, Stone.” She managed another grin, a tiny laugh.
“That’s twice you’ve attempted to laugh, and you’ve never needed to do that before, not with me. You’re always your usual defensive self.”
His eyes bore down on her, the weight of his stare heavy. She tried to push everything away, his probing, his questioning, his need to discover and get down to the truth. For a moment, she wished the playboy seductor was back, the one who was so wrapped in himself, that he had no awareness of others. This new version of Xavier unnerved her, because he seemed to read her like a book.
“I’m not the pig you seem to think I am. You can tell me. I’m looking after things while Tobias is away.”
“He left you in charge?” It came out as if she was being sarcastic.
He didn’t seem to like that, judging by the way his brows squeezed together. She hadn’t meant to say it like that, why did it come so easily to her, throwing words at him like poisoned blades, and the guy was only trying to be nice to her?
“You are looking after his step-son, and it’s obvious to me that some shit went down. I’d be remiss to turn a blind eye to it.” His voice was hard again, and she couldn’t blame him. “We’ve got a change of plan, kid,” he told Jacob when he returned.
The boy’s face crumpled.
Wait, what? She stepped forward. “No, no. You can’t just walk in and change our plans be—”
He’d turned his back to her and was addressing Jacob.
“We’re going to the movies later on, or maybe even tomorrow,” Xavier said, “but Izzy isn’t feeling so well, so how about you both come over to mine and you can play in my media room? I’ve got better game consoles than Tobias.”
She was about to stab him in the back with her finger when she heard Jacob’s excited “Really?”
“Really.”
“Cool!”
She bit her tongue. How dare Xavier change their plans? He turned around, and gave her a smile that made her want to slap him. “We’re going to my place.”
“Yours?” And now she really did want to slap him.
“Yay!” But an ecstatic Jacob kept that plan at bay.