Page 21 of Ruthless Protector

My phone beeped again.

Do you want to get to know me?

What the hell did that mean? My heart started racing faster, my lower belly getting all squirmy and warm. I didn’t like it—mainly because I did. Way more than I should. Okay, yeah, he was hot, but I didn’t want anything more to do with him than landlord and tenant. If that was what he was getting at, I didn’t need it. Maybe I was reading too much into his words, but then again, maybe I wasn’t.

I typed out two words and stared down at them. Too blunt? Should I add more? I didn’t want to piss him off, but I also didn’t need him hanging around, playing the white knight, especially not when I had Trent to deal with. If he was fishing for more, he was looking at the wrong girl. All the men in my life had left or let me down, or both. Why would I want to put myself in a situation that was doomed to end in disappointment? I wouldn’t do that to myself or Tilly.

And you made a promise to Rebecca.

I ignored the weird, kind of queasy feeling in my stomach, left the text as it was, and hit send.

Honestly? No.

I stared down at my reply, watched as Delivered popped up. Then Read. I waited for several minutes, but no reply came.

A phone rang in the other room. Cage’s phone. He talked for a couple minutes then got back to work.

I winced when my phone beeped a short time after that.

I fucked up leaving Cage there without telling you. The last thing I want is to make you feel unsafe. He’ll show you how to change the codes before he leaves.

I read it two more times. He’d owned his mistake and he’d dropped the getting-to-know-you talk.

My message had been received loud and clear.

Good. That was what I wanted, right?

I ignored the instant feeling of regret, the unhappy twist in my stomach, and sat on the edge of my bed, pulling the card Fay had given me from my pocket.

I got the feeling Jude wasn’t the kind of guy to abandon a woman in need. And that’s how he saw me. That’s how he’d keep on seeing me until I got my finances sorted out and paid my rent.

I wanted things to go back to the way they were. Jude Wayland just being a name on a deposit slip. Trent to disappear and stay the hell gone. But if Fay saw him hanging around, she’d call Jude like she had last time. That couldn’t happen.

Which meant I needed money, and lots of it, fast.

I tapped the card against my knee, staring at the gold script.

Shit.

5

Willa

“You won’t make as much working the day shift,” Raul said. “But you’ll still make a hell of a lot more that you were at that bar.”

I nodded, trying not to look as completely terrified and out of place as I felt sitting in this club. “Day shift works better for me with my niece.”

Raul nodded. “Tilly sounds like a good kid. She’s lucky to have you,” he said, eyes kind. “Fay talks about her, both of you, a lot. She likes having you next door.”

Despite my nerves, I smiled. “We’re so lucky to have met her. She’s an amazing lady.”

“That she is.” He nodded, jaw tightening a little before he leaned back, tapping a finger on the table. “Okay, honey, we’ll give you a trial run. Fay likes you and that’s good enough for me.”

“You will?” I didn’t know what I was expecting Raul to be like. A business man, yes. I’d met him in passing, waved hello when I saw him going into Fay’s, but I hadn’t expected him to be this…nice. He wasn’t sleazy or creepy. His eyes hadn’t been on my tits the whole time we talked. I kind of expected him to take me to his office and get me to strip in front of him, to show him “the goods” like you see on movies or whatever. Instead he’d given me a Coke and we’d been chatting for the last hour. Raul had a way of getting you to open up to him without even knowing you were doing it.

I’d told him more about myself and my situation, excluding the Trent issue, than I had almost anyone since everything fell apart.

I swallowed the bolder in my throat. “You know I’ve never done this before, right? Fay told you I’ve never danced before?”