Why the hell had she been about to call him?
Habit, she decided, grimly tightening her mouth. Stupid habits like that were what happened when people relied on others. Eventually they wound up like Felix, unable to handle anything on their own.
But she’d learned her lesson.
Both Loki and Felix had finally, finally gotten it through her thick head that letting people too close was to allow only one thing—to give them a perfect shot at her. She was so utterly done with that. She’d handle this issue the same way she’d tackled everything in her life before Loki.
By herself.
“Who are you calling?” Felix demanded, turning toward her in a way that had Alice taking an automatic step back.
“The only person I know who has enough money to get you out of that hole, and cares enough about your sister to make sure you stay alive.” With a frustrated shake of her head, she started to dial. “Gus can be here in about half—”
“No.” With surprising speed, her foster brother snatched her phone out of her grasp and tossed it across the room onto the couch. “Don’t you think I’ve already tried that, Al? Believe me, I tried to convince Gus that he’s the only one who can save me. You know what he did?”
She could imagine. “What?”
“He laughed. Honest to God, he laughed in my face and told me to fuck off. He said he’d rather spend twice as much on private security rather than pay off my debts, and that’s exactly what he’s done. It fucking shits me, knowing how much cash he’s poured into protecting himself and Jo, when it would’ve cost him far less to just pay my bills. I mean, seriously, how screwed up is that?”
“It’s plenty screwed up that you think someone else should pay your damn bills.”
When his attention cut back to her, she barely recognized the viciously furious man before her. “You’re taking his side on this?”
“Of course I am. Gus isn’t a fool, you know. He’s not going to just throw money into a bottomless pit, which is exactly what you are, Felix. You just keep sucking in more and more, eating up the lives of the people around you, and what’s truly sad is that all of the misery you’ve generated still isn’t enough to satisfy you.”
“Alice—”
“Even worse than that, you have a talent for taking the hell you’ve created and twisting it around so that you’re the victim, not us. Then, after you’ve laid your guilt trip, you keep demanding more. But you’re not entitled to more, Felix. You’re not entitled, period. I, however, am entitled to live a peaceful life without you constantly fucking it up. That’s what I’m going to fight for now, one way or another.”
His sandy brows slammed together. “You have no right to talk to me like that, Alice.”
“Oh, don’t I?”
“Absolutely not. Don’t forget your place.”
Her head nearly exploded. “What?”
“My parents took you in after your crazy father killed all those people and himself on the freeway. You’ll always be indebted to the Fieldings, and I’m a Fielding. That means you’re indebted to me.”
Oh, no, he didn’t. “You shameless motherfucker.”
“I’m just saying—”
“The only reason your snob of a father agreed to foster me was because your mom shamed him into believing he would look bad to his social circle at the country club if he didn’t. That decision had nothing to do with you,” she added on a near-yell, furious he’d hit a button that had almost made her buckle. “After everything you’ve done, I don’t owe you the sweat off my brow. You’re the one who owes me several thousand dollars, a car, rent for however long you’ve been staying here, and a whole helluva lot of peace of mind.”
“Why the fuck do I owe you a car?”
“I was forced to sell my car just so I could keep this damn roof over my head, you moron. My head, not yours,” she added on a snarl before stomping over to the couch where he’d tossed her phone. “I didn’t turn myself inside-out trying to survive the never-ending shit you rained down on me all this time just to pay the bill for your little hidey-hole. You’re leaving this apartment now, one way or another.”
“Wait.” Felix lurched forward and grabbed her arm. “What are you doing?”
This time she’d been looking for his move, and she was more than ready for it. In a blink, she got his thumb from around her forearm and twisted it up and back so hard he cried out and crashed to his knees.
Hello, thumb lock.
“I haven’t forgotten who I am, but you obviously have,” she yelled at the top of her lungs, letting the rage flow through her, unabated. And it felt good. “I’m the one who pushed myself to learn every self-defense move in the book, then became a certified trainer so I could be of help to you. Yet it was never enough, was it? I never even got so much as a thank-you for putting my own dreams of becoming a cop on hold so I could help you get your dream, the gym, up on its feet. You say I forget my place? I’ll tell you what my fucking place is, you walking, talking disaster. It’s any fucking place I say it is, so don’t you dare tell me to remember my motherfucking place.”
If Felix had any response to that, it was lost in the explosive opening of the apartment door. Loki surged in as the door crashed into the wall, leaving a sizable dent where the doorknob hit.
Perfect.
There went the security deposit for sure.
“I heard you yelling from all the way outside.” Loki seemed frozen as he took them in—Felix, helpless and on his knees, and Alice standing over him readying to tear his thumb clean out of its socket. Slowly, Loki slid keys into his jeans pocket and started walking toward them. “Let me guess. This is Felix.”
“You,” Felix breathed, no more than a horrified whisper. With Alice holding him, she could feel the shudder that ripped through his ridiculously muscular body. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
Loki’s brows quirked. “Find you? I’m not here for you, you pathetic little ‘roid-rage pissant. You’re nothing. In fact, you’re so much of a nothing I don’t even remember you.”
“Then why the hell are you here? I don’t owe you anything. We met in The Pit, and you fucked me up but good.” The accusation in his tone pissed Alice off enough to increase the angle and pressure on his thumb. Accordingly, Felix cried out again and bowed his head all the way to the floor in hopes of alleviating the worst of the pain. “Alice, you goddamn cunt, stop, you’re gonna break it.”
“Part of me hopes she does, but then she’d only wind up feeling bad about it later on. I’m just going to go ahead and spare her that.” Before she knew what he was going to do, Loki crossed the living room to where they were and snagged Felix up by the scruff of the neck. Half a second later he was slammed against a wall, with Loki going nose-to-nose with him. “Well, how ‘bout that? Even after getting a good, long look at your ridiculous little Lord Fauntleroy face, I still don’t remember you, asshole. But I do know this—I don’t like the look of you, with your bloated muscles and no frigging spine. And I sure as fuck don’t like the sound of you, daring to call my Alice a cunt when you’re here in her apartment.”