Breaking the Rules (33 page)

Yes, Nic had been full of good advice, all of which Eden had heeded.

She’d also told Eden to save the acting for the stage. Men could be total boneheads (Nic had used a different, more colorful word), so it was best for a beautiful woman to wear a safely neutral expression when the room wasn’t filled with bouncers to protect her.

Right here and now, though, she wasn’t Eden the stripper and she wasn’t Eden the civilian, either. She was Naomi’s beleaguered sister, who was browbeaten by their mother. She most certainly hadn’t attended Nic’s impromptu stripper school, so Eden let herself cower and turn away from the skinhead—but not so far that she couldn’t monitor him in her peripheral vision.

Her reaction again apparently satisfied him, because he followed BJ-Girl down the hall to the food court—to where Izzy was no doubt asking everyone he saw if they’d seen Neesha. Who Ben had been convinced was in some kind of danger, which was why Eden and Izzy had come to the mall.

Was it a coincidence that this man was here? Was he looking for Neesha, too, as Ben believed? Eden didn’t want to take that gamble. Plus, Izzy had said earlier that the man was armed. And she saw it now—a bulge under his left arm, beneath a jacket that he definitely didn’t need in this heat, except to conceal the fact that he was carrying a weapon.

Besides, she’d hung around with plenty of losers who pretended to be tough guys, and some of them actually were. And she knew enough to be willing to put big money—in fact
all
of her savings—on her gut, which told her that this man was beyond dangerous.

“She’s not in there, Mama.” Eden continued her charade, pretending to talk on her phone as she began walking swiftly, following the two of them. “I will. I will. I will.” She exhaled hard. “I
am
running, Mama.
I’ll be
right
there.” She snapped her phone shut and with a murmured, “Excuse me, I’m
so
sorry,” she pushed her way past the skinhead and the girl.

And sure enough Izzy was talking to the men who worked the stir-fry counter. He was laughing at something one of them said as he kept scanning the food court, eating his ice-cream cone.

Eden’s heart actually leaped when she saw him. He was so big and strong and true, and when he saw her coming toward him, his sudden smile of pleasure made him look impossibly handsome, and that, combined with the simmering heat in his eyes …

She knew in that instant, as if she’d been struck by a bolt of lightning, that this situation with Ben was one of the best things that ever happened to her, because it had brought this man roaring back into her life. And she knew that even though Izzy was here, he didn’t trust her completely—why would he? And she
also
knew he was trying to make their time together be all about the sex—why wouldn’t he? She couldn’t blame him for that. Besides, she was glad for it, because she knew it made him want to stay. And if she could just keep doing that—make him want to stay …

Maybe he’d never leave.

But there was no time to jump into his arms and kiss him senseless. Skinhead wasn’t far behind her, and whether he was a police detective or not, he was dangerous. And the last thing she wanted was an altercation with a dangerous man in a nearly empty mall, or even worse, a deserted parking lot. So she ran toward Izzy, widening her eyes at him, hoping he’d understand and play along. “Come on, Billy Bob, we gotta run. Mama’s got her panties in a twist!”

He laughed his delight as she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the entrance where they’d parked. He was clearly happy to be part of whatever game she was playing, even when his ice cream fell off his cone and hit the floor with a splat.

“Hang on there, Irma Lou, I gotta clean up this mess,” he said as he refused to be pulled farther, as he dutifully stopped to clean up the spill.

“Izzy, come on, just leave it, we’ve got to hurry,” Eden whispered as she looked back toward the food court to see the skinhead talking to the Häagen-Dazs counter girl, who turned. And pointed.

Directly at Eden and Izzy. As if she were saying,
Yes, that’s the man who was asking me questions about the same little Asian girl that you’ve been looking for …

Skinhead turned, too, which was when Izzy spotted him, as he tossed the wad of ice-cream-covered napkins, cone and all, into a nearby trash container. “Whoa, isn’t that …?”

“Yes,” Eden said, as Skinhead shouted,
Hey!
“Run!”

Someone was in the apartment.

Dan caught Jenn’s arm and hauled her back behind him as he put his finger to his lips.

“Light’s on,” he told her soundlessly, and her eyes widened. They’d left the place dark after throwing on their clothes and hurrying back to the hospital after Eden’s latest distress call, but now there was a faint glow coming from the bedroom window.

Damn, he was tired, he was sore, and he didn’t want to do this right now. But what he wanted even less was for Jenn to look at him the way she was currently looking at him, like he was some kind of invalid.

“It’s probably nothing,” he breathed as he pushed her even farther back from the door. “The landlord or the super or whoever the hell runs this place probably dropped off a package. Or maybe came in to fix that freaking annoying dripping faucet in the kitchen sink.”

He’d been planning to do that himself, first thing in the morning, because holy Christ.

Jenn wasn’t convinced as she dug through her handbag, frowning slightly. “Still, you always tell me that the right thing to do is to call the police.” She pulled out her cell phone, flipping it open.

Danny stopped her before she dialed 9-1-1, because he seriously doubted that whoever they were going to encounter on the other side of that door was engaged in any felonious activities. What were the
odds of Eden actually having anything that anyone would want to steal?

“Seriously,” he said, “if I really thought someone dangerous was in there? I’d make you go downstairs.”

“Make?” Jenn repeated, eyebrows rising.

“Ask you to go downstairs,” he amended to appease her, even though his
asking
wouldn’t have borne any kind of question mark. It would have been delivered as a command.

He could tell from the look Jenn gave him that she knew that, too.

Still. Potential landlord visit aside, it was probably one of Eden’s ex-boyfriends who’d turned on that light. Or maybe it was a current boyfriend who was going to be disappointed when Dan showed him firmly to the door and took away his booty-call key. And in the cosmic scheme of things, it was probably better that this happened now, while Zanella wasn’t here to make it uglier than it had to be.

And
come to think of it? It was significantly better that it happened now, instead of whoever-he-was creeping in, in the middle of the night, and crawling into bed with Dan and Jenn. No doubt about it, if
that
had happened, someone would have gotten hurt, and it wouldn’t have been Dan or Jenn.

Even with his injury, Dan would have kicked some serious ass.

“Just be ready in case I’m wrong,” he told Jenn now.

She was not happy about that. But she knew him well enough to not tell him—unnecessarily—to be careful. He damn well knew his limitations, although they would go completely out the window should he in fact be wrong and the threat be real.

It was one thing to have to go back to the hospital to get his leg repaired for breaking the rules about strenuous sex, but another entirely to do it after taking out an attacker who’d put his woman at risk.

Still, Jenn was watching him carefully—and he didn’t want her to accuse him of being reckless, so he stepped to the side of the door, and pushed it open with one hand, with a bang, then dipped his head into the doorway, lower than where a head should be, for a quick look-see.

There was no immediate threat—no gunmen standing in a horseshoe,
waiting to cut him into pieces with their room brooms. In fact, there was nothing that he could see that looked out of the ordinary besides those lights being on, so he gave Jenni one last
stay back
look and moved inside, keeping close to the wall.

And there was their intruder—a girl—kneeling on the mattress that Jenn and Zanella had put out on the living-room floor, as if she’d fallen asleep waiting for them to come home. The expression on her face was one of sheer terror, and Dan immediately held his hands palms out and down in a nonthreatening position. “Jenni, I could use you in here …”

Jenn entered the open doorway far less theatrically, but her very female presence didn’t reduce the panic in the girl’s eyes by as much as Dan had hoped it would.

“Whoa,” Jenn said. “Little girl. Very little girl. Hello. Are you … You must be Ben’s friend.” She glanced at Dan. “We should call Izzy and Eden, let them know we found her.” She smiled at the girl. “Ben was really worried about you.”

The girl looked toward the door that Dan was still holding open with his foot, and said through frozen lips, “Is Ben …?”

“He’s not here, but he’s okay,” Jenn said in that easy way she had of making everyone immediately comfortable. It didn’t work on this kid, though. The girl was now looking at the door as if considering making a run for it. “He’s spending the night in the hospital. He got a little sick.”

“His diabetes?” the girl asked, her anxiety level getting even higher, which Dan would not have believed possible if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.

“Yeah, but he’s really all right,” Jenn said. “He’s really only staying over at the hospital because there was a problem with his stepfather. I’m Jenn, by the way, and this is Danny, Ben’s brother.”

The girl’s eyes flickered over to him only briefly as Jenn continued, “We’re staying here, with Eden and Ben for a while. He didn’t say much about you—only that he was worried and he wanted Eden to try to find you. Are you a friend of his from school?”

She took her time answering, as if she had to think about it. But she finally shook her head, no. She offered no other information.

Which didn’t daunt Jenn. “I’m sorry, Ben told me, but it’s been one of those nights, and … What’s your name?” she asked.

But the girl stood up. “I should go.” She picked up a plastic shopping bag.

And because she looked as if she were going to simply dash out the door that Dan was still holding open, he shifted slightly, so that he was directly in front of it.

She stopped short and looked at him as if he were the horrible villain in some melodrama, about to tie her to the railroad tracks while he twirled his mustache. He knew he was tired and he tended to look like shit when he was tired, but come on.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stick around?” Jenn asked. She had her phone out and was dialing it—no doubt calling Eden. “I’m not sure exactly what Ben wanted to tell you, but it was important to him—important enough for Eden to go out looking for you.”

“I have to go.” The girl shook her head, absolute in her desire to leave.

“I went right to voice mail,” Jenn told Danny. “Do you have Izzy’s number?”

He dug for his cell phone, even as he told the girl, “I need the key. That Ben gave you? With so many of us living here—for a while, anyway—it’s better not to have people who aren’t, um, family, coming in and out.” He smiled to soften his words, but she didn’t look reassured.

But she had the key in her pocket and she found it and held it out for him, even as he dialed Izzy’s number. “Ben didn’t give it to me,” she admitted. “I saw where he hid it and … I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come in.”

“How about you knock next time or leave a note on the door,” Dan said as he took the key from her. His fingers touched hers and she actually flinched, pulling swiftly back as if she’d been burned. “Whoa. Thanks. Um. Ben
should
be here tomorrow. And I know he’d love to see you. So come back then, okay?”

Izzy didn’t pick up, either.
Yo
, his recorded voice said in Dan’s ear,
I’m busy. Leave a message. I’ll call you back
.

Busy. Right. No doubt he was
busy
—with Dan’s sister in some dark parking lot.

“Thank you,” the girl said, and Dan was about to step aside to let her go when Jenn spoke up.

“Honey, wait, I think you dropped this,” she said, holding out a twenty-dollar bill that she’d picked up off the bed.

The girl burst into tears, and Dan looked over at Jenn, who was definitely as surprised as he was.

“No,” the girl sobbed. “I didn’t drop it, I left it there. Because I took it. I stole it. From Eden’s … visitor. I shouldn’t have and I’m sorry.”

“Eden’s
visitor
?” Jenn didn’t understand, either.

“Her client,” the girl said fiercely, scrubbing at her face to try to stop her tears. “And I ate her food and used her soap, too, but I can pay her back. I
will
pay her back. There’s work down on Paradise Road. I just needed to borrow some of her shiny clothes. She has so much, I didn’t think she’d mind. I just wanted to look like the others, because I
won’t
dress up like a schoolgirl because I
don’t
want to have sex with the freaks!”

“Okay,” Dan said. “Whoa.
What
?” He looked at Jenn again, but her jaw had dropped, too.

“Just tell her I’ll pay her back,” the girl insisted, “and that I’m sorry.”

She moved toward the door, even though Dan was still solidly blocking her exit as Jenn again said, “Wait.” But she didn’t wait.

She came right up to Dan, and the look in her eyes and on her face was something he’d never seen before and hoped he’d never see again. It was such an awful mix of little-girl sorrow and soulless calculation and bitter, angry defeat. She looked him up and down in such a disconcerting way, like a piece of meat.

“If you want me to stay, you have to pay,” she said as she reached out and grabbed hold of Dan, right through his pants.

“Holy shit!” He was so surprised and horrified that as he jerked himself out of her reach he also moved away from the open door. And she immediately and swiftly slipped out of the apartment, closing that door behind her.

By the time he scrambled back, opened the damn thing, and looked out into the courtyard, she was long gone. And there was no way that he was going to chase
that
girl anywhere where there weren’t several dozen third-party witnesses.