Worthy of Redemption (14 page)

“Vic has never hurt me,” I argued.

Unlike your boss who may as well had dropped an anvil on my chest.

“Not
yet
,” Corsey said. “I can lose my job if I let you go with him.”

“You can lose your job
and
go to prison if you force me to get into that Escalade,” I snapped. “I don’t understand why I need a babysitter in the first place.”

“I’m not babysitting,” Corsey grumbled. “I’m…escorting.”

“And spying and stalking,” I added. I put my hand to my forehead, frustrated. “Kyle doesn’t even
like
me. It shouldn’t matter to him what I do and with whom.”

Corsey narrowed his eyes at me. I was suddenly aware of his tall, bulky sta
ture. He had big ass hands that could have made Andre the Giant nervous and his muscles looked like they were about to tear through his nice cotton shirt.

“I wouldn’t be here if Kyle Sterling didn’t ‘like’ you, Miss Whitman,” he said in a low tone.

“Okay!” I yelled, waving my hands. “I’m done with this conversation. I appreciate you trying to do your job, but I don’t need you, and you can’t make me go.”

I turned away from him and started across the parking lot to Vic’s truck.

“He’s not going to like this at all,” Corsey called after me.

I ignored him and climbed inside the truck. Vic closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side to get in. Corsey was already on his phone as he climbed back into the Escalade, no doubt reporting to Kyle. As confirmation, my cell phone started ringing before we even pulled out of the parking lot. I sent the call to voicemail, silenced the phone, and pushed it into my jacket pocket.

“What the fuck is going on with you guys?” Vic asked, looking over at me. “Sounds like some kind of Fifty Shades shit. Is that what’s going on?”

“No. What did you want to talk to me about?” I asked in a rush to get away from talking about Kyle.

“That douche bag is following me,” he growled as he looked in the rearview mirror. I checked the side mirror and instantly recognized the Escalade a couple of cars back.

“It’s okay,” I said, unaffected by what had become my bizarre life. “What did you want to talk about?”

He resigned to being followed by Corsey with a sigh and glanced at me a couple of times before talking.

“We’ve known each other for almost three years now,” he said carefully. “I’ve always tried to help you out and be good to you, right?”

I couldn’t deny this. Though I knew he was an arrogant, hot headed, steroid infested meathead, he always went out of his way to appease me and offered his assistance when I needed it. It was Vic that got me the job at
Steve’s
. He had offered me money, use of his car and the spare room in his house, but I had declined. Some of it was a sense of pride, but mostly I was worried about what he would want in return. Corsey wasn’t entirely wrong – Vic could be a little…creepy at times. Not Kyle creepy, but the kind of creepy that made me feel uneasy. He had a habit of showing up at the same places as me and pretending it was a coincidence. Sometimes I had the feeling he was staring at me and undressing me with his eyes, but every time I looked up, he would look away with a creepy smile. Also, I had seen how he treated other women, like they were pieces of meat.

Regardless of all of that, the fact was that he was right. He had always tried to help and he had never mistreated me personally. So I nodded at him, acknow
ledging and agreeing with what he said, though I wasn’t sure where this was going.

“I’ve asked you out a few times, and you always said no because you didn’t think two people who work together should
be
together,” he continued.

I nodded again, though that rule only really applied to him.

“And after your ex died, I thought you needed a little bit of time.”

“How considerate,” I muttered.

“I know you’re moving in with that asshat, but if there really isn’t anything happening between the two of you than you won’t have any objections to us going out.”

He reached across the cab and put his hand on mine. I almost recoiled in r
evulsion, but I managed not to.

“Umm,” I started. “You’re kind of putting me on the spot here, Vic,” I said.

“I love you, Lily,” Vic said, squeezing my hand. “I think you love me, too, and that’s why you wouldn’t move in with me or take my money.”

My eyes grew so big they threatened to explode in my skull. “I don’t unde
rstand how not moving in with you or taking your money equates love.”

“You needed to keep everything neutral while we were working together,” he said as if it should have been obvious to me. “You didn’t want to mix bus
iness…” he pulled my hand to his lips. “With pleasure,” he continued.

“Or…” I said and pulled my hand from his grasp. “I just wasn’t interested.”

Vic laughed and then squeezed my knee. He left his hand there as he grinned over at me.

“I like that you play hard to get, Lily. It’s a real turn on.”

“I’m not playing,” I said, picking his hand off of my knee. “I’m really not interested, Vic. I don’t know why you have everything so twisted.”

“I forgive you for whatever you’re doing with that asshat,” he said, running the back of his hand over my jawline. I flinched away. “I’ll give you a little bit of time to get your shit t
ogether. I mean, I’m not completely innocent. I bagged a girl last night in the office after the bar closed. I hope you don’t hold that against me.”

Oh, my god! How could I have not seen how fucking crazy you are?

I pushed myself as close to the door as possible. I felt foolish for not paying heed to Corsey’s words. In stalking me, he and Kyle no doubt also saw Vic stalking me as well, and they probably dug deep on him, too. There were probably terrifying things about the man that I was unaware of, which pissed me off. They should have told me instead of behaving mysteriously.

“Do you?” Vic asked. He caressed my thigh and groaned.

“Do I what?” I asked, trying to sound irate.

“Hold what I did against me? I mean, it wasn’t just her. There have been others while I waited for you, but they didn’t mean anything to me, Lily. You’re all I’ve really wanted for these past couple of years.”

Maybe I needed to give him the impression that what he did was unforgivable and therefore our ‘relationship’ was un-repairable.

“You want me to forgive you for banging other women?”

He looked at me with a worried expression. “Yes.”

“I can’t forgive you for that,” I snapped.

His fingers slipped down to my inner thigh, too damn close to my crotch. I cried out when he suddenly squeezed my thigh in his meaty hand.

“Now, Lily,” he said disapprovingly. “We both know that you have fucked other guys. If I saw any of them on the street, I’d fucking kill them. Don’t push all of this shit on to me.”

Tears pricked at my eyes as his fingers dug into my flesh. Even though I knew Vic was creepy, I had not expected this. I would have never expected this in a million years. How could I have worked next to him for nearly three years and not know how deeply disturbed he was? I had told Kyle I could take care of myself, and I had cursed having a babysitter in Corsey, and now I was choking on the foot in my mouth.

“You’re hurting me,” I said as evenly as possible and blinked back my tears. I had a fee
ling he wanted to see me cry and beg, but I wasn’t going to give him any of that. “I’m giving you three seconds to release me.”

In the cover of dark and with my body pressed against the door, he didn’t see my right hand fumbling in my jacket pocket for my pepper spray. Spraying him in the face could make him run off the road or crash into something, but it was a risk I was willing to take as my anger began to swell inside of me.

Fortunately, he released me. I looked out of the window and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that we were close to Kyle’s building. I checked the side mirror and saw that Corsey was riding Vic’s bumper. I felt a small sense of relief knowing he was there.

“I’m sorry, Lil,” Vic sighed. “It’s just that I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I’ve done a lot of shit to make this happen. Don’t give up on me.”

I didn’t know what kind of shit he was talking about. I was focusing on the fact that we were very close to Kyle’s building. I was almost surprised to see Kyle standing outside of the lobby, illuminated by a couple of lamps. Almost surprised, but not quite, because it wasn’t even the most bizarre part of my weekend.

“I’ll be in touch,” Vic said as we pulled into the circular driveway in front of the buil
ding.

I was jumping out of the truck before he could even come to a complete stop. Kyle stormed past me towards the truck, but Vic gave him a look of disdain and sped off.

“You’re fired!” Kyle yelled at Corsey who was standing outside of his Escalade.

“Don’t you dare fire him!” I yelled.

Kyle glared at me. “You have no idea what could have happened to you!”

“Yes, I rather do have an idea what could have happened to me,” I snapped with a qu
avering voice that made both men pause.

“What happened?” Kyle demanded, taking a step towards me.

“Nothing,” I said quickly and took a step back away from him. I wasn’t a prideful person, but I didn’t want Kyle and Corsey to be right. I was so angry that they had most likely kept vital details from me about Vic, and I was angry with myself for not knowing Vic even half as well as I thought I did.

“If something happened, I need to know it,” Kyle said patiently as he took another step toward me. Corsey was now behind Kyle, watching me with co
ncerned eyes.

“Nothing happened,” I said and stepped into a circle of light.

Kyle’s eyes widened and then grew hard. Corsey ran his hands through his hair.

“What?” I snapped.

“If nothing happened, why is your makeup smeared like you’ve been crying?” Kyle asked through gritted teeth.

I wiped at the tears I didn’t even know had fallen. Thinking quickly, I cr
adled the hand I got stabbed in against my body. “I hurt my hand in the truck. I didn’t cry,” I said.

Kyle looked at me skeptically. My emotions were really messed up. The anger I felt t
owards Vic was suddenly directed at Kyle.

“I don’t see where it matters! I don’t understand why you have Corsey babysitting me and why you are acting so concerned about my well-being when you’re obviously not!”

“What I did this morning does not change what I said to you before, Lily,” Kyle growled, stepping forward again. “I still care about you.”

“But you wish you didn’t.”

“I really fucking wish I didn’t,” he agreed.

“Then stop,” I said.

“If I knew how, I would,” he said darkly.

I turned away from him and started into the building, but I stopped just inside the doo
rway.

“And do
not
fire Corsey,” I snarled.

I left the men outside and took the elevator to the penthouse. I let myself in with the key Corsey had given to me the night before. I went straight to the bar and grabbed the bottle of bourbon. I had taken two big swigs of the stuff by the time I got to my room and locked the door behind me. I put the bourbon down on my chest of drawers after another sip and started to strip out of my clothes. I always showered after working in the bar, but I felt extra dirty this time. My skin was crawling and I had the sensation that there was a sticky film on my body.

I turned the water on as hot as I could stand it and washed and scrubbed my body head to toe until my hand started to bleed. It had been healing fine, but I had been so into getting clean that I had not immediately noticed the damage I was doing to my hand. I got out and wrapped a towel around myself. I absently applied an antibiotic cream to my hand and bandaged it. I then turned the focus on brushing the knots out of my hair, pulling harder than necessary at the brush.

I brushed and flossed my teeth and then made my way into the bedroom. It wasn’t until then that I noticed the flat screen television mounted on the wall across from my bed. Below it on a mounted shelf, there was a slim cable box and a blue ray player. There were speakers mounted on either side of the television. Below the television equipment on a media cabinet I had also missed, was an expe
nsive looking stereo with a remote, a vinyl player, a cd player, and a docking station for my iPod. I looked around the room to see if there was anything else I had missed, and found that there were more speakers in all of the corners of the room. My bed was made with a new black comforter and the sheets under it were red, my favorite color combination. Fresh Lilies sat in a vase on the table next to the bed, and somehow that seemed to be the most significant thing for me.

I sat down on the bed and leaned over to smell the flowers. I took another look around the room and sighed. Either this really was ‘some kind of Fifty Shades shit’ or Kyle was really good at making his guests feel wanted. Another thought hedged into my mind, but I pushed it away. I didn’t want to think about love shit.