Page 23 of Cold Bastard
“Sioux Falls. Worked at a diner there for a year.”
“And before that?”
I met his gaze. “Does it matter? I moved around. Tried different places. Figured out what I wanted.”
“And what do you want, Alex?”
The question hung in the air, heavy with implication.
To disappear. To never be found. To survive.
“I don’t know yet,” I whispered instead. “That’s why I’m here. To figure it out.”
“Convenient,” Caishen muttered.
I turned to look at him. “Excuse me?”
“Just seems convenient,” he said with a shrug. “You disappear for four years. Barely call your brother. No visits. Then suddenly you show up with a sob story about a bad boyfriend, and we’re supposed to just accept it?”
“I’m not asking you to accept anything.” My voice hardened despite my best efforts. “I came home because I needed a place to stay while I got my shit together. Oscar offered. If that’s a problem, I can leave.”
“Nobody said you had to leave,” Zeus said calmly. “We’re just trying to understand the situation.”
“There’s nothing to understand. I had a shitty relationship. It ended. I came home. That’s it.”
“What did you do in Rapid City?” Hermes asked. “For work, I mean.”
Here we go.
“I worked at a club,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “Cocktail waitress.”
“What kind of club?”
“The kind that pays in cash and doesn’t ask too many questions.”
Several of the men exchanged glances. They knew what that meant. Strip club. Probably assumed I’d been dancing, not just serving drinks. They could think whatever they wanted. It was closer to the truth than anything else I could tell them.
“And this Derek,” Atlas spoke up, his voice hard. “He was okay with you working at a place like that?”
“Yes.”
“And he was fine with other men looking at his woman?”
I bristled at the phrasing,his woman,but forced myself to stay calm. “I wasn’t his property.”
“Clearly,” Aries said with a smirk.
Oscar shifted behind me, and I could feel his tension radiating like heat. He didn’t like this. Didn’t like them questioning me, pushing me, treating me like a suspect instead of family. But he wasn’t stopping them because he wanted answers too.
“Did you make any friends up there?” Coeus asked, his fingers still on his laptop keyboard. “Anyone we should know about?”
Fuck.
“A few,” I said carefully. “Other girls at the club. Nobody important.”
“Names?”
“I don’t remember. It’s been a few weeks. And like I said, nobody important.”
