Ruthless: A Mafia Step-Brother Romance - Ruthless: A Mafia Step-Brother Romance Part 24
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Ruthless: A Mafia Step-Brother Romance Part 24

There is the exact dresser I had as a kid. I can't believe it. I mean, I'm sure it isn't the exact one, but it looks just like it. My fingers run along the top of the white painted wood, feeling it with a sense of melancholic joy.

Along with the house, all of my possessions went with it-anything I couldn't take with me in the car. I couldn't even afford storage, and my dad and step-mom never really had any family they were close to.

I miss mom and dad. There's no denying that. I've just been struggling to stay afloat, and every reminder of them gives me a sharp pain in my chest. All I want to do is curl up in my bed, but ever since they passed, it's just been disaster after disaster. I haven't even had a moment to mourn them, and Kaiden... I guess he's doing the guy thing. Pretending it doesn't affect him.

But I can see it in his eyes, that shadow. He misses them too.

I smile a little, just at the familiarity of an object that reminds me of happier times. Of when they were still alive, and we were still a family.

I idly open the top drawer to find that there must have been someone who had stowed away some finds that they couldn't afford. A bundle of clothes.

I'm just about to close it when something shiny draws my gaze. Black patent leather.

I push the clothes aside and hidden beneath is a pair of stiletto platforms like I've never seen. They're gorgeous, not a smudge or scratch on them. But I know better than to hope they're my size.

When I lift them and look at the bottom, not only are they my size, but they're only $6! I'm about to jump for joy, but instead I shove them in my basket, beaming all the way to the checkout line.

Maybe this is meant to be after all.

Chapter 2.

I'm so nervous. I look up at the seedy bar, and my heart is racing. It looks so grungy. The sign is crooked, and the light above the door keeps flickering in and out.

If I was watching a horror movie, this is the time that I'd be screaming at the character to get out of there while she could.

But I haven't gotten another interview in six weeks, Kaiden wants me to pay up or get out, and I have no where else to go.

I push up my bra, tugging down the front of the tank top a little and pray for my pushup to do a little bit better of a job tonight. I'm a solid A-cup usually, which is an annoyance on a normal day, but if it costs me a job, that'll be a whole other thing.

I haven't seen Kaiden since I got home, which I'm grateful for. The last thing I want to deal with is his questions and smartass comments about how I'm not cut out to be a shot girl. I've heard enough of that since I got the call for the interview.

He doesn't believe I'm cut out for it. I'm too perfect, in his words, though he says it like the word is poison on his tongue.

Little miss perfect.

He just hates that I always got straight A's in school. A lot of good that does me now, considering everything that has happened.

My interview is in five minutes. I'd gotten here twenty minutes early, and now I'm just waiting for the right time.

I am bright enough to know that showing up early isn't likely to earn me any brownie points in this place. If the owner is anything like Kaiden, you don't waste someone's time by showing up late... or early.

But I watch as the time on my car dashboard slowly clicks down the minutes of my life as my anxiety grows. Maybe I can't do it. Maybe I'm not good enough.

Maybe I am just too perfect and should just try to apply for some scholarships and go back to school, in a strange place, where I know no one, and no one knows me. Hell, if I leave the state, Kaiden couldn't even follow me if he wanted, thanks to the conditions of his bail.

There's a strange sense of enjoyment I take in the thoughts of starting anew, but a part of me doesn't want to. For all the stuff Kaiden puts me through, he is still the only family I have left.

And I don't want to lose him again. Even if being near him drives me crazy.

The clock turns six fifty-nine, and I leave the vehicle.

Tugging down my skirt and tank top, I look at myself once more in the rear-view mirror. I can hardly recognize myself, with my dark shadowed eyes, heavy mascara, and red lipstick. I teased up my hair a bit too, or at least tried to, to give it more volume, and I hope it doesn't look as bad to Ryder as it looks to me.

I take a deep breath.

Here goes everything.

Walking towards the door, I look at the flickering light, and the sense of foreboding churns in my stomach, but I push it aside.

But just then, two people push their way out of the bar, making out and completely ignorant to my presence. Her hands are all over him, and she is grinding on him. Right there in the parking lot as he slams her up against the wall.

She giggles, and he growls, and as I get closer, I think I'm going to be sick.

"Kaiden?" I practically shout, and I want to run closer, but the heels are way higher than anything I've walked in before, and I have to take each step gingerly, especially on the uneven asphalt.

He doesn't stop as he sucks face with the latest floozy. I already know it isn't the one from last night, or the night before, or the night before that.

He pins her hands above her head before he finally turns to look at me, shooting me the most arrogant, cocky look I've ever seen on his face.

Did he time this just to piss me off?

I scowl at him as I push past them, yanking on the door with a "Whatever" thrown in their direction.

It would've been really smooth and badass if the door didn't choose that moment to get stuck. I yank on it and, of course, it sends me backward, my heels giving way beneath me as I drop unceremoniously to the greasy asphalt.

I'm ready to sink into the ground when I hear her laughter. My cheeks burn hot until suddenly I can feel Kaiden's rough hands on my bare shoulders, hoisting me up as he tosses a "Shut up" at his most recent fling.

She obeys, but I'm already humiliated, and tears sting my eyes.

"I told you - you aren't cut out for this," he whispers in my ear, his words dark and low so that she couldn't hear him.

I want to punch him. The nerve!

Instead, I tug on the door again, and it blissfully opens as I pull myself away from him.

"I didn't ask for your opinion," I remind him as I step inside.

I have to blink as my eyes adjust to the dim light, but the bigger adjustment is the smell of stale beer and vomit.

This is not a place for someone like me. I know that. Honestly, if Kaiden weren't standing right outside the door believing that I couldn't do it, I'd turn around right now. I'm terrified, and it's gross in here.

I look at the few rickety chairs and booths, the fabric torn and some of the chairs looking as if they'd been broken and haphazardly put back together. It's a place where more than a few bar fights happened.

A place an eighteen-year-old has no business being.

I push myself forward, trying to look confident as I teeter in my heels over to the bar. The floor is sticky and makes a sickly sound that I can feel as well as hear over the noise of loud rock music playing out of a jukebox past its prime.

There are a few guys at the bar, hard and mean looking with grizzled faces and beer bellies, but their expressions soften as they look me over in the lewdest way.

I guess "soften" isn't the right word.

I look behind the bar at the greasy-looking man with the thin mustache and the long, black hair and give him what I hope to be a glowing smile. I don't want to look apprehensive or terrified, or to give away any of my impressions of him, about his patrons, or about his job.

"Hi! I'm looking for Ryder?"

I guess Ryder was looking out for me, or maybe just has cameras in his little dive, because the words are barely out of my mouth when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see a towering, blond man.

"You're looking for me, hun," he says, his words patronizing, but his deep voice making it seem natural. Just like how Kaiden speaks to women.

He's broad and built more like a bodyguard than an owner, but I guess they sometimes double up.

I stare up at him, and I can't help but be a little shocked. He's not like the slimy patrons or the greasy bartender. He is probably thirty-five if I was to guess, and if it weren't for the scar that nipped the top of his lip, he'd be flawless. Like, model-flawless.

"Oh! Right, yes, hi," I say with a bright smile, offering him my hand. "I'm Abigail; we talked on the phone?"

"Yeah, I remember. Shot-girl," he says as his steely eyes wander up and down my body, inspecting me like I'm a piece of meat. It made my stomach turn when the others did it, but when he does, it's something different.

I like it a little bit. It's flattering.

I don't want to think about what that says about me, and I don't get a chance to. Kaiden pushes his way into the bar, without the brunette he'd been so recently sucking face with.

He looks at me with his green eyes, his tall and broad body so imposing in the small space. But I shift my gaze back to Ryder, forcing a confident grin on my made-up lips.

I'm an imposter. I'm not a twenty-one-year-old girl, and I don't go around in dark eyeshadow, low-cut tops, short skirts and towering heels.

But I'm going to act like I am.

"You said I could start tonight?"

"Yeah," Ryder says in that deep voice of his. "Yeah, you can start tonight."

He doesn't ask for my ID, my references, nothing. Just like that.

I feel so relieved, almost smug, until I look at Kaiden's face and see the anger brewing beneath the surface.

I guess he's going to have to find another place to pick up chicks if his little sister is going to be around all the time.

That gives me a little bit of joy too.

My legs are killing me. All night was spent standing, walking around from one table of middle-aged men to another, the bar littered with younger men who're trying to suck up to Ryder, from the looks of things.

And to my surprise, the place is packed with women.

Women who call me sugar-tits and spank my ass as I walked by, just like the men. As if they're one in the same.

Women who wear too much perfume and chew gum with their mouth open, and men who leer at everything and smoke pot wherever they please.

It's like working in the Wild West. No law, no order, no nothing.

I'd have been out of there a dozen times over if it wasn't for the fact that my tip purse is risking overflowing.

I haven't seen Ryder or Kaiden in a while, but time is passing so fast.

The town is small, but I swear, most of the people in it are in the bar tonight. I've lived in this place for six weeks and barely see anyone except for at the stores, and I guess I know why now. They're spending all their time here.

And they're all spending their hard-earned money on drinks and tips, and if I'm not being blissfully unaware, I'd guess a little something extra. But I have to turn my head on that because I don't want to get involved in any dirty business.

But when Kaiden emerges from the back office, his face red as he makes his way over to me, I feel a bit scared. My brother is towering, to say the least, and he looks pissed.

His hand wraps around my upper arm as he stares down on me, and I can tell he's already drawing the eyes of the crowd. There's a tense energy in the air, like everyone's waiting for something like this to happen.

He bends down, leaning in towards my ear and practically growling at me.

"You gotta come home with me. Now," he says, his strong hand tightening around my bicep. His hand is huge, just like the rest of him, and it encircles my thin arm easily.

Still, I try to yank it away.

"Buzz off, Kaiden," I hiss back. "I'm doing this for you, remember?" I spit though it's only half true. Sure, I need money to pay him for rent, but I also need money for my own stuff, like moving out and getting a real place to stay in a real city.

He won't let me go, though, and starts dragging me to the door. I'm helpless against his strength, and even as I try to yank my arm back, nearly stumbling to my ass, he just keeps dragging me like I'm a dog on his leash.

I am humiliated beyond compare, even though most of the crowd is probably too drunk and high to remember much of tonight.

Still, it's the principle of the thing.

When the cold air of the outside hits my lungs, and the flashing light above the door spins eerie shadows around us, he finally lets me go as if I wouldn't just run back inside.

I guess he's right on that count because I don't. I don't want my older brother dragging me out of the bar again.

"What the hell, Kaiden?" I spit out as he takes a few steps away from me, putting distance between us. I don't know if it's because he's afraid of me or, more likely, afraid of what he's going to do if I'm too close. The thought sends a shiver down my spine.

"You can't work here," he says.

And I roll my eyes with exasperation.

"You aren't the boss of me," I say, and anger starts welling up within my chest. Is that what this is all about? "And I got this dumb job to pay your rent since apparently letting your sister live with you when she's homeless is such an inconvenience to you!"

"It is a fucking inconvenience." He spins about and glares at me, his green eyes flashing with anger. "And you have no idea what you're talking about. What it's like in there," he says, pointing his finger at the closed door as his other hand runs through his hair.