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The last thing Kallie thought she would have trouble with was falling asleep. But here she was, after sharing such an amazing intimacy with Sasha, staring at the ceiling.
To be fair it had been a long, trying day. But with what he’d done to her and everything he had made her feel, Kallie should hardly be able to keep her eyes open. But as she curled in among the pillows, her magnificent lover out cold next to her, she couldn’t keep her mind from racing from one thought to the next. She kept replaying the day over and over. Between imagining do-overs with Sasha’s mother, and the whole mystery of the cash-filled duffle bags, she just couldn’t relax.
Kallie made a great living once, but she didn’t consider herself to be materialistic. And she certainly didn’t need money. The last thing she wanted was trouble. But as she lay there, her mind kept coming back to those stacks of money. The last thing she wanted was to create a problem between her and Sasha, but just how much money was in those bags? And what was it for?
Let’s face it, legitimate funds tended to stay in banks.
Sasha certainly hadn’t seemed too worried about it. The money had just been lying there when they’d walked in. He pushed it aside like it’d been no big deal. The IT guys, if that’s what they really were, had just left it out like it was nothing. Maybe it was nothing. For all she knew the money was fake, a prop for something else. Though, for the life of her, she couldn’t come up with a use for something of that nature that would make sense. Fake money would be used in a movie scene, or a photo shoot. But Sasha wasn’t involved in such things, and even if he were wouldn’t it be stored wherever one stored such things? You wouldn’t just take that kind of thing home with you.
Which meant it was likely real. Which made it a great deal of money.
After hours of lying awake, Kallie finally gave up on the idea of sleep. Her throat was dry, and she desperately wanted a drink of water. What would be the harm in taking a quick peek on her way past the kitchen? It would take...a moment. No more than a moment. She could satisfy her curiosity and then simply crawl back into bed with her magnificent beast of a man.
Kallie held her breath, wishing that the act of doing so would make her lighter somehow, though she knew the thought was ridiculous. She slid with utmost care across the mattress, easing herself out of the bed with only a whisper of fabric as the sheets drew across her body. She waited while the blankets settled, to see if he would move, but he snored on, oblivious. Exhaling softly, she palmed her phone from the nightstand and keyed it to the flashlight app, though she made no move to turn it on until she was safely out of the room and in the hall.
It seemed silly to not just turn on the lights. This was her home, or at least it was the home Sasha had allowed her to have. She had every right to wander through it in the night, to get herself a drink of water. She could even get him one, to show how considerate she was, to think of him even half-asleep and drowsy. At least that would be her argument should she be caught. There was no reason for him to know just how wide awake she was.
The house felt strange in the dark. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the soft light from the phone, but the shadows created by such a small beam created strange creatures on the wall, ghostly figures that danced as she moved and watched her every action. It gave her the surreal feeling that they would find Sasha and wake him the moment her back was turned, to tell on her, and maybe bring his wrath down upon her head.
It was a silly thought. She ignored her wild imaginings, and focused her attention on getting downstairs in one piece.
The living room seemed darker still. She lost her bearings for a minute and moved while the light was still on the opposite wall. Her foot snagged something hard in her path. She doubled over in pain, doing her best to suppress any sound. Bending, she tried to feel what she’d hit, and found the dumbbell she used sometimes when doing weight training. It must have rolled out from under the couch where she usually left it tucked. Maybe one of the guys had knocked against it somehow.
Foot throbbing, Kallie debated over what to do. The bags were right there, just a few steps away. It would only take a second to look and then her curiosity would be satisfied, right? She really only wanted to know if she’d see what she thought she had.
Yet she hesitated. What was she saying about her relationship with Sasha if she looked? Did she truly not trust him, even after everything they’d been through? She bit her lip and debated the matter.
The problem was, she didn’t trust him. Not completely. Not when it meant there were possibly large sums of money being stored in the house where she was living. Couldn’t that make her an accomplice to something?
She flashed her light around the room, trying to find the bags. Oddly enough they glowed when the light hit them. They had some kind of reflective material sewn around them, making them clearly visible in the beam from the flashlight. Why? No one ran at night carrying duffle bags. There was no reason for them to have this kind of tape on them, was there?
Feeling somewhat sick to her stomach, sure now that there was nothing legitimate about this money, she carefully moved across the room and sank down next to the bags. The zipper sounded loud in the quiet room and she picture Sasha sitting upright in the bed, trying to figure out where such a violent sound had come from. It was a silly thought, she told herself, and focused on the task at hand. With shaking fingers, she picked up a stack of money. She thumbed through the bills like they were a deck of cards. She really hadn’t really planned to touch the money; she’d just wanted to take a quick look to get some idea of what was in there. A lot. It was a lot of cash. As she placed the money back in the bag, her knuckles brushed something hard. She peeled back the flap of the gym bag for a closer look and spied a handgun. Was it loaded? She had no idea. She wouldn’t even know how to look. Stunned, she fell backwards, square on her rump and froze, suddenly positive that she was no longer alone in the room.
Her heart raced, pounding so hard in her ears that she could hear nothing else. She could no longer remember why she’d thought this was a good idea. The whole thing now seemed idiotic, now that she knew Sasha was standing right behind her.
The man moved as silently as a ghost. Whether he’d made some sound so slight that she’d been unaware she’d heard it, she knew he was there without looking. It was as if she could feel him, only a few feet away, though he’d said nothing at all.
Kallie pressed her eyelids tight and began a conversation in her head, explaining to him what she had been doing. Unfortunately, none of the things she thought to say sounded even remotely intelligent. There was no excuse for what she had done, and now she would have the pay the piper.
He moved next to her, squatting next to her so that his face was level with hers. She couldn’t look at him. She stared instead at the bag, watching has he carefully zipped it up and moved it out of her reach. “What’s going on?”
His tone was neutral. There was no way to know what he was thinking. Kallie swallowed hard, staring at her phone still in her hands, the beam of light reflecting off the bags, making them too bright to look at. “I couldn’t sleep. I thought I saw something.”
“In the gym bag?” he asked, mildly mocking her.
She could have told the truth and maybe it would have been fine. But the words caught in her throat. “Yeah.”
“What did you think you saw?” Why did he have to sound so calm? So cool? His tone was as gentle as the hand that reached for her, stroking her hair, tangling in the silken strands.
She couldn’t think. Not when he touched her like that. “Money. I came down because I couldn’t sleep, and I saw this money earlier. I was curious.”
“Okay.” He reached around her to the bag and drew it closer to him. He flashed it for her. “This belongs to the guys. It’s how they like to do business. See? Look,” he said, as though it was nothing. As though she was the one with the problem, for being upset by it.
“Why do they have a gun?” she asked, pleading with him to come up with a reasonable explanation, something that wouldn’t leave her with this sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Because they’re carrying around cash,” he replied, as though it was the most obvious explanation in the world. He let her see it and then mussed her hair affectionately. He stood up. “Okay, I gotta go back to bed,” he said. “It’s only a few thousand dollars. Not that exciting. Can’t you see it’s almost entirely small bills? The guys will split it between the two of them later.”
It was a ridiculous amount of money to have just lying around as cash. And even if it wasn’t really that much money to him, it still seemed like a lot to her. “Okay,” she said, taking a steadying breath. It wasn’t Sasha’s money. It was temporary. Just small bills. Nothing important. She could live with that.
She rose with him, allowing him to take her hand to lead her back to bed. His attitude mystified her. Maybe he was a little annoyed with her for snooping—he had every right to be. But he’d been so...mild about it. Maybe if he’d lectured her, she might’ve felt justified in nosing around. But his calm demeanor made her the guilty one, didn’t it? She was the one with a problem, not him. She was the one being crazy, sneaking around in the dark, digging around in things that weren’t hers to begin with. Maybe that was his intention all along, to leave her unbalanced. On edge.
Kallie no longer even wanted to see the money. Or have anything to do with it. She suddenly felt dirty, and couldn’t stand the idea of going back to bed without washing her hands at the very least. Who knew where all those bills had been?
* * * *
AFTER A LOT OF TOSSING and turning, she must have managed to sleep because the ever-stealthy Sasha woke her with his wonderful coffee. He never failed to make her feel like a total princess, especially when he served her in bed.
How could she go through such a range of emotions in such a short period of time? She always felt happy to see him, and this morning was no different. To have him hovering over her as she woke was delicious. Erotic. Perfect. And she loved his coffee. She had no idea what he did to it, but it was the best she’d ever tasted. But then the shame for snooping came crashing down on her. His spoiling her only served to make her feel guiltier still, even though she failed to see where she’d done anything wrong now that she confronted the problem by the light of day. She sipped her coffee and considered this. Wasn’t she right to be upset about something so obviously...shady...going on in her house?
He seemed to sense she had something on her mind. “What’s the matter?” he asked, placing his hand on hers.
“Just...” she began with a sigh. “...Aren’t you even a little be upset I was looking at the money last night?”
His grin told her all she needed to know. Feral. Domineering. Like whatever she did really didn’t matter.
“What?”
“Baby doll,” he said playfully. “I lead an interesting life, what can I say? It’s not something you’re used to. Of course, you’re going to be curious. Hell, I’d look. But it really is harmless. They really do prefer cash, and I just oblige them.”
“I believe you,” she said. “I’m not sure why I get to feel crappy about it, but I believe you.”
“I’ll try to be more careful next time,” he said with an apologetic shrug.
Well, if they were going to be paid in her house, then didn’t she have a right to know what the hell was going on? “What exactly are they doing?”
Her question shifted the atmosphere. His eyes narrowed, as though she’d tripped some kind of alarm.
“They’re adjusting the security,” he replied, giving her the same story he’d given her yesterday. He didn’t want to tell her, and she wasn’t supposed to ask. He might as well have said that out loud. “On another note,” he said, shifting the topic the way he always did when his work came up. “I have this idea. I don’t know if you’re into it, but I thought I would run it by you.”
“Are you changing the subject?” she asked, deciding that if she was going to have to listen to his bullshit, she was at least going to call him on it.
“Yes, I am, but not for the reasons you might think. I’m excited about something. I want to buy a business if they’ll sell it to me, and I think they will. I’m hoping you’ll be interested in it.”
Kallie tilted her head, curious despite herself. “What?”
“I know my buying you a business wouldn’t exactly be the same as starting something by yourself, but it would be ours, from scratch, and you could have carte blanche.”
She couldn’t help it. She laughed. And judging from the look on his face, she’d just hurt his feelings. “No offense, handsome, but I can’t see you letting me do whatever without your approval. You don’t work like that. But I’ll admit that you’ve got me interested. What are we talking about?”
“There’s a sweet little bakery, no pun intended, down the street from Darkness. It’s the only coffee shop in that area.”
She considered this, definitely intrigued. “Not even the little ol’ chain that’s practically in everyone’s back yard? Rhymes with star-struck?”
“I’m actually going to rescue a mom and pop operation. A place called Attman’s. They’ve been around forever. I got treats there as a kid. My mother got treats there as a kid. It’s a Russian bakery with stuff you can’t get anywhere else. They’re wanting to retire, and I just thought...well, you know.”
Dang, but she loved him when he got all sappy like that. “You’re just a huge romantic, aren’t you?” she asked.
“I am.”
She sat back, sipping her coffee and thinking this through. “I know nothing about baking,” she confessed.
“You know about running a business. I know because I saw your books.”
Kallie flinched. She’d really never had the chance to come to grips with the fact that he had, at one time, screwed her over. He’d even set up Jeremy to betray her. It was his sketchy past that made her look at things like duffle bags with cash like something suspicious, which admittedly it was. There were times like this when she wondered if the tradeoff was worth it. If being loved meant it was okay to have been betrayed somewhere in the past, so long as they kept moving forward now.
Sasha touched her thigh tenderly. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to be insensitive. But the truth is you’re good at business and there’s no sense in pretending I don’t know that. This place has a few tables and chairs to sit and enjoy. I thought I would modernize it a little but keep the vintage feel about it. I can find the bakers. I probably don’t even have to look very hard. I just need the brains and the eye candy.” He wore a slight smile as he spoke, and it made his face all the more handsome. The man was just so irresistible.
The sincerity in Sasha’s voice also tugged at her heart. It had been hard enough to say no to him as it was. “Can we go see the place?” she asked finally. “And just so you know, I know Attman’s. One of the girls used to bring in a box of Attman’s donuts as a Friday treat.”
His posture relaxed, apparently happy that she liked his idea. “Yes,” he said, imitating her tone. “We can even take the muscle car.”
That had her sitting up so fast she almost spilled her coffee. “Can I drive?”
His face took on a rather pained expression.
Obviously, he didn’t want anyone driving that car but him.
“That’s pushing it.”
Well, he was honest about that at any rate. But quite frankly, Kallie didn’t care anymore. He owed her, though she wasn’t about to say that to his face. She’d think it. But even she knew enough to keep it to herself. “Too bad, buddy. It’s not like we’re doing highway. It’s all side streets from here to there.”
While she waited for his answer she wondered if he’d ever thought about it, too. That he did in fact owe her. Maybe because she’d made the decision to be with him despite what he’d done to her, she might have let him off the hook somewhat. How did one figure things like that? Besides, though they never sat down and made an accounting of what she’d lost, he was making restitution every day in significant ways without asking.
Here she was, staying in his gorgeous town home without paying a penny of rent. He kept the kitchen stocked, even though they dined out a lot and he always paid. Kallie had a reserve of savings that had hardly been touched since they’d been together.
“All side streets? How do you know where it is?” he said after a moment, during which myriad emotions played across his face.
“You just said it was down the street from Darkness. I do know how to get there.”
“Okay,” Sasha pouted, and with great ceremony found the keys in his pocket and placed them in her hand. “Just checkin’. Whenever you’re ready, we can go. It has a small deli counter there. We’ll pick up our lunch there, too.”
She stared at the keys in her hand for several seconds. Her mouth worked, but she couldn’t get out the words to thank him. With a wild squeal of delight she launched herself out of the bed, stopping only to kiss him on the lips in wordless thanks.
The tension of the night was completely forgotten.
