Chapter 13

LOUIS

My shift had ended and I was changing in the changing rooms assigned to us.

“So how was it?” a voice asked from behind me, startling me. I quickly used my shirt to cover up my naked upper body.

“Can you at least inform me before intruding on my privacy like that?” I asked, my irritation already rising.

“This is a changing room, Louis,” she replied. “People come here all the time.”

“And I’m sure women don’t.”

She didn’t say anything to that and also didn’t say anything about the scars and bruises on my back.

I changed quickly in the silence that had settled over us.

“You know the boss?” she finally spoke, breaking the quiet.

“What?”

“The boss,” she continued. “He came to defend you today. Figured you must know him.”

Oh. She was talking about Elias.

“No,” I started. “I don’t.”

“Hmm…” was all she said.

“I have to go now,” I said, holding my back pack. “Later.”

I went around the bench and walked out of the room, not in the mood to continue any conversation with her.

The streets were slick with rain when I stepped out into the night.

I tugged my worn-out jacket tighter around me, hunching my shoulders, and wincing every time my bruised ribs scraped against the fabric.

The cold still seeped in through the threadbare material, but at least now, I might be able to afford another one.

Despite everything, the bruising, exhaustion and mind-numbing fear, I’d experienced today, I couldn’t stop smiling. I'd survived my first shift. I had a paycheck coming my way. I had a way out.

For once, hope didn’t feel like a noose around my neck.

But then, I felt it.

That flutter at the back of my neck. The one that felt like eyes were watching in the darkness.

I hastened m step, my sneakers making distressed sounds against the wet pavement, my heart already pounding.

Perhaps it was nothing. Maybe I was only frightened. I mean, I tend to do that a lot.

But when I dared look back, I saw the glow of a cigarette cherry in the shadows.

Someone was following me.

Panic swept through my entire being and I almost threw up.

I veered off the main road, cutting through an alley toward the back streets.

Stupid. I knew it was stupid. But instinct took over. All I could think of was: find cover, get off the open street.

My pulse thundered in my ears as I ducked into the side alley, gasping hoarsely.

Footsteps echoed behind me, slow and deliberate.

I spun around, my fists balled uselessly at my sides.

I couldn’t even fight, but I’ll be damned if I let anyone take advantage of me today.

I don’t know why I expected one of Elias’s men or a drunkard even. But it was someone else.

Before me stood a man in a dark coat, his face hidden under the brim of his hat.

"You shouldn't stray alone, little lamb," he said, voice oily-smooth.

I swallowed hard, stepping back.

"I don't want any trouble," I croaked, thumbing the knife in my pocket.

The man laughed.

"Trouble found you anyway," he said before lunging.

I stumbled backward, ramming into the brick wall. Pain bloomed through my side pulling a gasp out of me as I doubled over.

Strong hands grabbed my jacket, pulling me up.

"You work for Montgomery now, don't you?" the man spat.

I kept shaking, struggling in the man’s iron grip. Somehow, my knife had sipped from my pocket, leaving me in an open and vulnerable situation.

Who the hell was Montgomery, anyway?

“I asked you a question, boy,” he said, giving me a sharp slap on my cheeks.

My head whipped to the side from the sheer force of it.

"I—I'm just a waiter," I stuttered, my voice shaking. “I don’t know who Montgomery is.”

The man let out a cruel, mocking laugh.

"It seems you're not aware you’re a pawn,” he began. “And pawns break easily."

Something flashed in his hand. It was a knife.

White-hot terror ran through me. I continued struggling to free myself, but my battered body betrayed me, leaving me moving like a pathetic worm whose life was about to be snuffed out.

Tears began to fall from my eyes. I couldn’t hold them back even if I’d tried.

So, this is it, I thought wildly. This is how it ends.

I had already stopped wriggling, resigned to my sorry fate when something happened.

A gunshot broke the silence of the night.

The man jerked, a neat hole appearing in his shoulder.

He cried out, dropping me due to the pain from the bullet wound in his shoulder.

I stumbled to the ground, gasping for air.

Heavy boots echoed down the alley as more men emerged from the darkness, all of them in black suits, guns drawn, moving with lethal precision.

In their midst stood Elias and his expression was that of ice.

Without hesitation, he walked up to the bleeding man, ripped the knife from his hand, and drove a vicious punch to his stomach.

"Did you really think that you could touch what's mine and get away with it?" Elias growled.

Mine?

I probably didn’t hear him right.

I scrambled back from the scene, trying to find a place to hide.

The man spat blood, collapsing at Elias's feet.

Elias turned to me then, and for the very first time ever, I saw true rage flicker beneath his icy exterior.

"You're hurt," he said, stepping over and kneeling down beside me.

"I'm fine," I fibbed, my voice hardly above a whisper.

His hand was gentle, shockingly so, as he brushed damp hair from my forehead.

"You're shaking."

"I'm f-fine." I wasn’t but he didn’t need to know that.

He didn't appear to be convinced until he saw the bruise that was probably already forming on my face.

It was then I knew that Elias hadn’t been angry before. Now, now, he was murderous and I just didn’t understand why.

With a sharp gesture to his men, he snarled, "Clear the area. Nobody lays a hand on that idiot."

They moved instantly, dragging the man away into the shadows.

My eyes followed the man’s figure but I turned my gaze away. I didn’t want to think about what they were going to do to him.

Elias turned back to me, his hand still on my shoulder.

"You're safe now," he said in a rough voice.

I shouldn’t have but I believed him.

God help me, I believed him.

And even as my heart raced.

Even as my body screamed in agony.

Even when fear curdled in my belly.

I believed him.

Because somehow, I knew that when Elias Montgomery made a promise, the whole goddamn world bent to make it a reality.