“You’re not any trouble,” he said, breaking up the weird vibe that was filling the room.
“Are you sure? Because I know I kind of created this whole big shit-storm by intruding in on your lives.”
The corner of his mouth kicked up, and she felt this warmth fill her. It started at her toes and worked its way up her whole body. He shrugged and braced an arm over the back of his chair. “Believe me, this is one of the smallest inconveniences we have ever had.”
Adrianna swallowed and nodded, but she couldn’t get Marx’s words out of her head. “Can I ask what exactly he was saying about payment?” There was a part of her that didn’t want to know, but then again there was another part that already had an idea of what Marx had been referring to. The sound of glasses clanking had her looking to her right and seeing a woman drying dishes behind the bar. Another one, a bit younger than the barmaid, came out of a back room with a crate of beer. She wore a cutoff tank, had teased bleached hair with dark roots, and looked the worse for wear. When she looked back at Malice it was to see him wearing that same hard expression. He looked pissed, but before she could say anything he started speaking.
“I’m sure if you think about it hard enough you can come up with what Marx was implying.” He ground his teeth, and she saw that his hands were in tight balls on top of the table.
“Sex.” She didn’t phrase it like a question, and Malice didn’t respond, but he did clench his jaw even harder. This reaction from him was odd, but maybe there was more of a history between the two men?
“Sex, and more.”
“More?” She sat up straighter, and her mind worked on all that “more” could mean.
“More, Adrianna. As in spreading your legs for a john and making the club money.” He stood suddenly and started pacing. “Willingly of course, because the club doesn’t force women to have sex with men. We can be bastards, but we aren’t sck fucking men that like to see women hurt.” He seemed so off kilter, and she may not know him very well, but for some reason Adrianna had a feeling this wasn’t how he normally was.
Her pulse pounded faster, but she wasn’t surprised by this revelation. In fact, this wasn’t even a new topic for her. She had seen her mother whore herself plenty of times to the men that came and went through their shack of a house. It had been a part of her life, and how sad was that? “Malice?”
He stopped packing and stared at her, and for a second that was all they did. “Yeah, Adrianna?”
The way he said her name shouldn’t have had this tingle moving around in her belly. She opened her mouth, not exactly sure what she was going to say, but the sound of glass breaking on the ground saved her from saying something monumentally stupid.
“Sorry, guys.”
Adrianna looked over at the young woman that had dropped the glass. She smiled and waved at Adrianna, and she found herself smiling back. She felt so weird when a stranger showed her any kind of kindness.
“If you’re ready I can take you to the bank,” Malice said, and she looked back at him. Leaving right now sounded like the best thing to do, especially considering the offer of having sex with random men. She stood, smiled to soften the situation, and waited for him to say something else. Maybe he was going through personal problems, and having her to deal with, and this need to handle Phillip was just the straw that broke him? It seemed plausible, and the sooner she got away the sooner they could both get on with their lives.
“Yeah, okay,” she said in this weird tone.
He tilted his head toward the bedroom she had stayed in last night, and she made her way back there. She didn’t get far limping to the room though. A second later Malice had his arm wrapped around her waist and was supporting her weight as they moved forward.
“I can walk, Malice. My feet do feel better.”
“You’re good like this,” he said gruffly and kept moving forward. “But I don’t think rushing off is the best thing to do right away.”
She tilted her head back and looked into his face, but he was leading her around the corner and into the room before she could say anything. “I think that is actually the best plan.” He put Adrianna on the bed, but stayed back. He moved over to the wall and leaned his big body against it and crossed his arms. He took on this very confrontational position, but she didn’t let it get to her. He was dealing with his own shit clearly, and so was she.
“What if I could get you a job in Colorado?”
That statement had everything inside of her and around her stopping. “What?” She had heard him right … right? “A job?” Adrianna shook her head in puzzlement. “You don’t even know me, and I have more emotional baggage than even I can carry.” To think that he would offer her a job just because he wanted to make sure she was okay had tears forming in the corners of her eyes. But of course the cynical and wary part of her, the one that had kept her alive this whole time because she relied on it, told her that this man had a lot of darkness in him, too. He might be dangerous, but underneath that tough exterior she had experienced a gentler side of him.