Ghost searched my eyes when I met his, like he was trying to figure out if I was telling him the truth. Then it struck me…he wasn’t trying to humiliate me. Well, not really. He was trying to find loopholes in my story to see if I was telling the truth, if I was reliable. Clearly, he was a very suspicious man.
“I was supposed to work there for just six months and leave. That was the plan. I had no intention of turning this into a long-term gig.”
His brows furrowed.
“How long did you end up working there?”
“Five months and eighteen days,” I replied and hung my head.
One more reminder of how close I was to getting out. A few more days and I wouldn’t be in this mess right now.
“What did you need the money for?” he asked in a quieter voice.
I met his eyes, enraged.
“That is personal information.”
“You will have to answer the question, Mercy. You can either choose to do so right now which will save you a lot of trouble. Or we can wait till you have no choice but to tell me.”
I didn’t want to discuss my grandmother. I didn’t want to clue him in on how vulnerable she was, and I was too. I didn’t know if I could trust him. What made any of these people better than the guys who ran the Silver Knights?
Even though I kept my head down back there, I noticed the stuff that went on. How they treated the women who worked at the club. We were looked down upon, called names behind our backs, and I knew that eventually, a day would come when the men would start passing me around like they did with some of the others. I wouldn’t be able to protest because it would become a part of my job. I wanted to get out of there before that happened.
But I didn’t know for sure if I was safe from that here. Just because Ghost was sexy didn’t mean I could trust him to keep me safe. And if I told him about Grandma, what if he used it against me somehow?
“I’m waiting…” he growled and I gulped.
“I needed it for school,” I replied and technically, it wasn’t a lie.
“What are you studying?”
“I was training to become a nurse.”
“Was?”
Oops.
“Am. I’m training to become a nurse. So I needed it. I need it still. Because the hours are crazy at school and I couldn’t keep down a decent job.” I started rambling because I was becoming nervous. The mission—to keep Grandma a secret, was starting to prove fatal.
Ghost’s eyes were narrowed. He looked suspicious again.
“When did you quit school?” he asked in a low grim voice. He wasn’t buying my nervous explanation.
“I didn’t…”
“When did you stop going to school, Mercy?” he reiterated in a firmer voice.
I licked my lips. There was no point running from the truth now. Not when he had seen right through it.
“A few months before I took up this job.”
“So if you weren’t going to school, why did you still take this job? What did you need the money for?”
It was like he’d somehow managed to mesmerize me. I couldn’t look away. I was transfixed. I tried to get my brain to work and figure out a lie. Anything to fill in the gap. I didn’t want to have to blurt out about my grandma. But Ghost was looking at me like he knew the truth. Like he knew exactly what I was trying to hide.
Was this some kind of test?
I was drowning in those dangerously deep brown eyes.
“I need the money for my grandmother. She is very ill,” I said.
There was silence in the room now. I felt like I was holding my breath, but was he too? He studied my face closely, maybe still trying to decide if I was being truthful.
“I couldn’t afford the bills or the medication. I had to drop out of school so I could get more part-time work. Even those didn’t pay enough. I needed to find something steady. Something that paid well. The kind of job that would give me the freedom to return to school. I wanted to go back to studying.”
As I spoke, I could feel the tears welling up.
I tried to hold it together for so long but when I started speaking about my life and the uncertainty of my future, and my grandmother, it was like the floodgates had opened. There was no holding them back.
Still, he did not speak. He watched me with his dark stormy eyes, and the longer he stared at me, the more suffocated I felt. I wanted him to hold me and comfort me, and at the same time I knew he was dangerous. I shouldn’t have been there alone in the room with him.
Tears streaked down my cheeks and I wiped them away with my palms.
“So as you can see, no, I had no intention of becoming a stripper and I did not want to get involved in any of this. I just want to go back to my grandma and make sure she’s doing okay. I’m worried.”
5
Ghost
I fuckin’ hated seeing her cry.
Not because it disgusted me, as it did when someone else cried. But not Mercy. What I felt when I saw that first teardrop roll down her cheek was an urgent need to pull her into my arms. I felt that same sting of protectiveness I’d felt for her earlier.
I wanted her to stop and had to clench my fists tightly. The last thing she needed to see was any clue of weakness.
I needed her to be scared. I needed her to know she was under my control and that she would do as she was told. We were still in the middle of a war. If some guys in this MC thought it was over, they were wrong. Just because we had Crash in our custody now, didn’t mean the Silver Knights
