“Your Alice?” Felix gaped at Loki before looking to Alice. “What the hell is he talking about?”
“It’s irrelevant,” she said so flatly she sounded dead even to her ears. “Everything is irrelevant except for you getting the fuck out of my apartment, and out of my life.”
“Bad idea, breaking into Alice’s place, when she’s the woman who landed me on my ass. I’m assuming all the yelling you were doing was you trying to persuade this fuckface to get out?” he added, swinging a glance her way.
Conflicting emotions warred within her as she met Loki’s glance, hating that a part of her thrilled at the sight of him. “Yes.”
A shadow flickered through his eyes before he turned his attention back to Felix. “I think you’d better apologize to your foster sister before I put you through a window, fuckface. Though between you and me, I don’t think there are enough apologetic words in the English language to cover all the shit you’ve put her through.”
“I don’t want an apology from Felix.” She couldn’t seem to make her voice anything other than a deadened monotone. It was like she’d discovered the vocal equivalent of flatlining. “In fact, I don’t want anything from him except his absence. Like I told him the last time I saw him, I’m done.”
Felix, who’d been trying to wriggle his way out of Loki’s hold, seemed to freeze in place as he swiveled his head around to stare at her. “Wait. What does that even mean?”
“It means that in all the years you’ve known me, you’ve never realized that I was not put on this earth just to be used by you. It means that if you make the choice to hurt me, I have the choice to drop you like you’re radioactive. It means that I don’t have to put up with anyone’s shit, Felix, not even if their last name is Fielding. It means you’re out of my life, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I hope that was clear enough for you.”
Felix’s flabbergasted expression was priceless. “Al, you… We’ve been together since we were babies. You can’t mean that. You can’t do that.”
“Watch me.” Turning on her heel, she marched to the front door and opened it. “Get out of my apartment, and out of my life. I’m through with holding on to things that are bad for me, so you’re out.”
“But…my parents—”
“Took me in. Come to think of it, you’re the one who never let me forget it.”
He stared at her like he’d never seen her before, and maybe he hadn’t. But now he had no choice but to see her, finally, as a person who deserved respect. “Al, please. I’m sorry, okay? If you send me out there I’m going to be killed.”
“If you stay here, you’re going to be arrested. That, by the way, is probably the best bet for you in the long run. At least the police have no desire to kill you, so I strongly suggest you turn yourself in and throw yourself on the mercy of the court.” She opened the door wider. “Goodbye, Felix.”
“That’s your cue.” Again Loki snagged Felix by the scruff and marched him toward the door.
“Wait, wait! I go out there, I’m dead in twenty-four hours.”
“Wrong, you pussy. I’m taking you to people who’re going to sit on you until we figure out what the fuck to do with you. Believe me, no one’s going to be able to touch you while you’re being babysat by Gravediggers.”
Felix paled as he was shoved through the door. “Gravediggers?”
“That’s what I said. You,” Loki added, shooting Alice a scowl as he passed her, “stay put. We’ve got some talking to do.”
“One thing.” Alice kept her face so unmoving it hurt as she took in the two men who had become the greatest sources of pain in her life. “How did you get into my apartment, Felix?”
“Uh…” Her foster brother looked like he didn’t know whether to be furious or burst into tears. “Joelle. She gave me a set of keys when you first moved in, in case of an emergency. This was an emergency, so I figured you’d be cool with it.”
No doubt Joelle had given him keys in case Alice had been the one with an emergency, not the other way around, but she let it go. “I want those keys.”
“Don’t worry, Stems.” Loki pushed Felix toward the stairs none too gently. “I’ll be sure to get them from him.”
“When you do, be sure to give me yours, too.” She gripped her hands together when his gaze cut back to her so sharply it was all she could do not to flinch. “It didn’t escape my notice that you got through this door and the building’s security door downstairs without any problem. You’ll give me those keys, too.” With her heart thudding so hard it hurt, she made herself shut the door in his face.
Chapter Twenty
It wasn’t the demand of keys that bothered Loki.
And it wasn’t the housekeys lying on the kitchen table he’d found when he’d gone home during lunch hour looking for Alice. Nor was it the way she’d ignored him when he’d blown up her phone with countless texts and phone calls. Being ignored had just pissed him off.
No.
What sliced him all the way to his core was the one-two punch of the dead look in Alice’s eyes and the white-knuckled, tightly laced hands he’d thought he’d seen the last of.
Over the days and weeks they’d spent together, he’d done everything he could to convince her that she could uncork all those emotions she slavishly bottled up inside, because she was safe with him. Little by little, she’d begun to believe that. Tentatively she’d let her true self out to show him the sweet, amazing woman hidden beneath all those thorny defenses. As she’d done so, she’d started to leave behind that habitual clenching of her hands.
Now it was back.
Damn it.
“All right, brother.” Tyr waved off the tank-like SUV carrying the idiotic Felix fuckface, before he turned back to Loki. “We’ll take blondie back to the compound and babysit him for a while, but no one’s going to want to put up with him forever. Little shit’s going to have to make a man’s decision on what he needs to do with his life.”
“One step at a time,” Loki said, refusing to look back at Alice’s apartment building through sheer strength of will. Every cell in his body screamed for him to be inside hashing shit out with her, but first things first. “We need to know who’s holding his markers. I don’t care what happens to that spineless little fuckface, but I do want to make sure there aren’t going to be any rando enforcers heading Alice’s way. To do that, I need to know who we’re dealing with.”
“We’ll get the name of his bookie out of him,” Tyr said, turning to his chopper and starting the engine with a roar. “I get the feeling that little cunt’s already pissing himself at the mere sight of us, so hopefully it shouldn’t be too hard getting answers out of him. Your woman okay?”
Not even close. “She had that idiot on his knees crying like a baby when I showed up. She knows how to take care of herself.”
“Still not sure how she slipped out of House Of Payne without my guys seeing her. She was supposed to be at work until her lunch hour, so how the hell did she wind up here?”