“No.” The jagged word ripped out of Joelle while the floor dropped out from under Alice’s feet. “Oh, no, Felix. You didn’t do that, did you? Tell me you didn’t steal from us.”
“I owe money to some very bad people, Jo.” Felix couldn’t seem to look at anyone as he again pulled his robe around him. “Don’t you understand? If I don’t pay them back, they’re going to kill me. Is that what you want? Do you want me to die?”
“Don’t you dare turn your selfish shit around on us.” The words dragged themselves out of Alice as the last hope that had been holding her world together crumbled into dust. It was so devastating, that loss, that it snuffed out even her anger. “Everything you've done, everything you're still doing, is motivated by one thing—protecting yourself. Serving yourself. Making sure your life is good at the expense of everyone around you. I thought you’d learned your lesson when you broke your mother's heart in her final days of life, but that was obviously wishful thinking on my part. You haven't learned a thing.”
Felix looked at her with puppy-dog eyes, his powerful shoulders hunched and ridiculously muscled arms threatening to pop the seams of his bathrobe. “I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry.”
“It's not okay, and I don't accept your apology, because I can’t forgive this betrayal. Or should I say, this final betrayal. Remember when your mother kept you in college by giving the university a sizable donation, even though there was no money left in the Fielding coffers? More to the point, didn’t you ever once wonder why I have student loan debt when your parents set up a college savings account for me when they became my foster parents?”
Joelle’s gasp was so sharp it rang around the room. “Oh God, no. Alice.”
“That’s right.” Alice shot her friend a burning look. “That was the real reason why your mom left me those earrings. That poor woman felt so guilty for raiding a fund that had been set up for my future—a fund that I’d paid into myself—that she could hardly live with herself. I promised her I would never tell Felix about it, but I see now that protecting him from knowing the true consequences of his actions was a mistake. If you don't know what the consequences of your actions are, you can never learn. But I have learned, Felix,” she added, swinging her attention back to the pathetic excuse of a foster brother sitting huddled on the couch. “I’ve learned that you’re a plague. Whatever life you touch, you destroy, even your own. So I’m getting as far away from you as I can.”
“Alice, I swear I didn’t want to destroy your life, or anyone’s life.” Felix’s voice cracked, and he looked like he was on the verge of crying. “You’re the last person I’d ever want to hurt, I swear. It’s just… Please understand, there are people out there who are going to kill me if I don’t give them their money.”
“That’s the hole you dug for yourself. I’m just sorry you dragged me down into it with you. At least I have enough sense to crawl out of it while I still can, even if it’s with nothing more than the clothes on my back.”
“Alice, you can’t turn your back on me. You owe the Fielding family. Don’t forget my parents took you in when your father—”
“Don’t.” A knot tightened in her throat so hard it made her eyes water, even as Joelle smacked the back of Felix’s head. Furious with herself for letting him see how upset she was, Alice whirled and snagged up her jacket. “Just don’t, Felix. I’m done with meekly accepting how your fuck-ups alter the course of my life for the worse. I’m done with worrying about what else you might do to blow things up with your goddamn selfish behavior. I’m done, do you hear me? I’m done.” With that, she aimed herself toward the front door, not even pausing when Joelle called out to her. She couldn’t talk anymore right now, not even to her best friend. If she did, she’d start crying, and she didn’t have time for that.
She had to get a job, now.
When she parked her car—a car she now had no choice but to sell in order to cover her rent—in the lot by her apartment building, she was too preoccupied to notice the man standing near the entrance. When she did, she came to a dead stop and wondered if her life could get any worse.
“Loki.” Numbly she stared at the behemoth of a man, today dressed in well-worn black jeans with holes in the knees, khaki Henley shirt and a leather jacket, with this sides of his gorgeous golden hair tied back. “Hello. What are you doing here?”
“You’ve been crying.” Clearly the polite step of offering up a greeting wasn’t high on his list of priorities as he surged down the steps to where she stood. That didn’t surprise her, but she was a bit taken aback when he gripped her shoulders as if he wanted to give her a good shake. “What happened?”
She swallowed hard against the panic that was now her constant companion. “I haven’t been crying.”
“Maybe the tears haven’t come, but there’s definitely crying going on somewhere inside you. You should know I’ve got mad respect for you trying to hold your shit together, but that doesn’t answer my question. What happened? Better yet, just tell me who it is that I need to fuck up. Someone will answer for your tears, you’ve got my word on that.”
Oh, wow. “It’s…” She took a deep breath, but the pressure crushing down on her didn’t let up. “Damn it. I was just about say it’s nothing, but it’s not nothing. Something just happened, and it’s kind of a huge something.”
“I can see that.” At last he let her go to fold his arms across his broad chest, looking like his feet had just sprouted roots into the concrete. His meaning was clear—I’m not going anywhere until you spill all the tea.
Screw it. “I just found out the one ace in the hole I thought I had to save me from absolute destitution was stolen out from under me. I literally don’t have any time to talk to you right now, because I have to find a job before my landlord arbitrarily triples the amount of rent I owe instead of doubling it like he already has, along with that totally fabricated late fee he pulled out of his ass.”
He didn’t move. “We’ll get to the asshole landlord in a sec. Who stole what from you? Details, Stems.”
What part of her not having time to talk did he not understand? “A pair of Tiffany antique ruby and diamond earrings in a platinum setting that my foster mother left to me. They were part of a set—my foster sister Joelle was given the necklace. That’s gone, too. The whole Tiffany set is gone.”
“Uh-huh.” He waited a beat. “That’s the what, but you didn’t say who. And since you didn’t say who,” he went on when she looked at her feet, “I’m guessing the thief who dared to steal your shit is none other than that useless, overly muscled fuck-up of a foster brother you have. Felix fuckface, right?”
Damn it, her eyelids were stinging again. “At this point, I’m ready to start calling him that.”
“Is that who took your shit?”
Grimly she nodded. “You should know he also copped to betting the payroll on himself down in the Lower Lower. He’s in… a lot of trouble.”