Hot Redemption (15 page)

He pressed the black screen. A beep sounded. The whole display lit up to a bright blue. White lines formed around into boxes. White words labeled each section. Ain pressed a green button in the corner. Symbols and colors bled through the black screen and scattered across the map.

“This is the whole club. When we're done talking about our plan, you can keep this. I have another one at the house.” Ain pushed the monitor to the center of the table as everyone leaned forward to get a better look. “All of the areas with yellow lines are the entrances. Green spots are the dance floors. Red is the rooms where they have sex.”

“Do all of the dancers have sex?” Nix asked.

“No. It's just a small amount of humans that actually give up their pussy, but all of the androids can be taken into the back.” Ain cleared his throat and continued gesturing to the screen. “The black rectangles are the bars. The violet circles are the bathrooms.”

“None of this is sinking through, man.” I let out an exasperated breath. “Do you have a legend for the map? There's no way I'm going to memorize the whole thing just from you talking about it.”

“Oh, sure.” He slid his thumb against the edge. A legend popped up on the right side of the screen, defining every area and what each symbol meant. We all stared at the layout for several minutes. Shade tapped his thumb against the table. I knew what that meant. He was designing the fastest way to get in and out.

Ain looked up at me. “What do you think so far, Epic?”

“I'd have to study the map some more and get a good walk through of the club.” I combed my fingers through my hair. “It would take a week to check it out. I know we planned the end of this week, but I had no idea the club was this big.”

“That's too long.” Ain frowned.

“We could split the work.” Nix touched the back rooms where the dancers' dressing areas were located. The region brightened. “I'll take this area. You can get the rest. That could speed everything up.”

“And what do you need us to do?” Toy asked.

“I want you to know everything there is to know about the outer region. We need to have three aerial cars parked in different areas that we can escape to.” I slid my index finger along the border of the club. “Ain, can you get all of the names and any information on the bouncers?”

Ain nodded.

“I'm talking anything that would give us an indication that they know how to fight and can shoot a gun. Their resumes should tell us enough. Once you have that, give it to Shade.”

“If you can't get their resumes, then just give me their names. I'll do all the background research.” Shade pointed to the white circles. “We could probably hide some extra weapons in the women's bathroom.”

“There's an armored robot that does its rounds in the ladies' area at the beginning of each hour.” Ain shrugged. “But I don't know if it has weapon sensors. The robot mainly goes in there to make sure none of the girls are doing drugs.”

“Then I'll have to test it,” Nix said. “I could slip a small gun in, place it in a vent inside the bathroom, and see what happens.”

“Make sure you let me know when you do it so that I can watch your back.” I avoided looking at her and kept my view on the map. “I want you safe.”

“I'll do it the first day,” she said.

“That's risky.” Ain shook his head.

“Risky is exactly how I like it.” She flashed him a wicked grin.

“Still,” I centered my eyes on Nix to let her know I was serious, “make sure I'm aware when you're back there planting guns.”

She mock saluted. “I won't forget.”

“Toy and I will come inside and pretend like we're regular customers,” Shade said.

“Stay focused on the job, not the ladies.” I motioned to Toy since he was known to botch up a job due to drooling at jiggling bare tits.

“You're clean and now you're on my ass.” He showed me his middle finger, but I knew it was all in good fun.

“What does he mean ‘you're clean'?” Ain raised those eyebrows again.

“Nothing.” I rose from my chair. Everyone else followed. I pressed the button to shut off the screen. “Okay. Tomorrow's the first day. Nix will plant the gun and see if any alarm is triggered. Ain will grab the guards' information for Shade to check out. Toy, you search the outside. Everybody know what they need to do?”

They nodded.

“Then I guess we're done for now.” I shrugged.

“Now let's check out these sexy ladies.” Toy clapped his hands. I laughed as Shade pushed Toy out of the way and charged for the back. “No fair, Shade. No fucking fair!”

“Are they still fighting over women?” Ain walked out.

“Yep,” I called back.

“Epic.” Nix remained standing a few feet across from me. “We need to talk. Now.”

“About what?”

She tapped her feet and lowered her lips into a frown. “About your . . . guests and why they're here.”

“My guests?”

“The sluts.”

“You think they're for me?”

“I can count, Epic. Four ladies for four guys.”

“Shade is pretty lucky with women. He tends to get two or more to follow him to his bed.” I leaned back on the wall across from her. “He's also really stingy too. He's only shared with me once and it was my birthday.”

She rolled her eyes. “Regardless, what are your plans for this evening?”

Why do you even care? You rushed out with that mustache-wearing loser whale a minute after you came on my dick.
All those words balanced on the tip of my tongue, but I held them in. Instead, I zoomed my eyes in and drank in her image—olive cleavage spilled out of her corset, her full lips poked out in my direction, and damn, those soft fingers knew how to grab my dick in just the perfect way.

She bit her lip and had to know I was relishing in her sexiness. “Are you going to answer me?”

“I don't have any plans. I'm just going to put the kids to sleep and then lounge by the pool.” I twisted away and headed off.

“Epic. Wait.”

I paused.

Do I even want to know what else she wants to discuss?

In one moment she made me come, either from her touching my flesh or ordering me to touch myself. In the next instance, she pushed me away and claimed there was nothing between us. Seeing the club's layout screen pushed me back into the momentum of the hit, the real reason why I stood in this house with my family sitting in the room next door. I was here for a job, to rob lots of money that could change my brothers' and sisters' lives. I'd already wasted precious days we didn't have from my recovery of quake.

“What do want, Nix?” I couldn't waste any more seconds by sniffing after her. I faced her one last time.

“I'd rather you not hang out by the pool tonight.”

“Really?”

“Yes. That's what I want.”

“Interesting. You know what I want from you, right?” I dug my hands into my pockets.

She averted her eyes for a few seconds and then looked back at me. They seemed strained. “Yeah, and I can't give you that.”

“Then we don't need to talk about what we want anymore. We just need to leave each other alone and move on. Just keep the hit on your mind and don't worry about what I'm doing this evening.”

Her mouth dropped open. She quickly recovered and asked, “Move on?”

“We remain business partners.”

“Okay.”

“Good.”

“Are you planning on fucking that blonde or any of those other women?” Rage glazed over her eyes.

“Did you fuck Pappy?”

“No.”

“Then I'll go to my room alone tonight.”

She bit her lip again. I hated it. That plump skin should have been between my teeth.

“And will you be going to your room alone tomorrow?”

“I don't know yet. Why does it even matter to you?”

“I don't know why.”

“I'm surprised you care.”

“Me too,” she muttered.

Silence moved between us for several seconds. What could I do? She'd experienced the darkest side of an evil man, the part that desired to hurt, torture, and imprison her. And yet she survived. She'd risen out of the pain when many would have given up and taken their life. She kept living and moving forward.

I hungered for her so hard that it rocked my body when she was in the room and my dick throbbed anytime I heard her name. She was intoxicating and I needed to be clean from her before I shifted into a dark man similar to the guy who hurt her. Because deep within the secret corners of my head, I ached to make her mine, to stop waiting patiently on the side and force her into my will. And if I did and won, she wouldn't survive, so I had to walk away.

Someone has to stop it now before it goes too far.

“I'm becoming addicted to you.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “And I'm losing control.”

She edged back. Maybe it was due to fear, disgust, or just instinct.

“I can't be that evil bastard that hurts and tries to jail you. I won't let myself go that far.” I exhaled. “And I don't think I can have you like I dream.”

“What's your dream?”

“You near me every second of the day. Your body formed against mine at night as we sleep, so much that your scent sinks in my bed sheets.” I advanced her way without meaning to. “I long to taste your skin when I'm hungry for you, which right now is anytime I'm awake.”

“I can't—I just can't.”

“I understand.”

“What about what you said in the hallway of that restaurant, that I owned you?”

“You do,” I whispered.

“Then no other women.” She scowled.

I grinned and tilted my head to the side. “You own me, but you'll have to give me a reason to not use another woman to get you off of my mind. You'll have to be in my bed.”

“But, Epic, I just can't—”

I held my hands up. “I know. You can't and that's okay, but I can't follow you around, sniffing and begging either, because eventually I'll lose full control and do the things I want to do when I see another man next to you, whispering in your hair and touching your hand. I'll kill him.”

She stared at the ground. “Then we're just business partners.”

“Exactly.”

She said nothing else.

“Goodnight, Nix.” I walked out, rushed upstairs, and headed to the bathroom inside my bedroom to take another shower, a cold one to keep me sane through the night as I thought about her laying in her bedroom a few doors down.

Did I make a mistake?

I should have just shut up and tried to fuck her or even worse, gone downstairs, ran outside, and took the blonde to my bed.
No. Bad idea.
Nix wasn't the type of female you played those games with, and even though my sexing the blonde wouldn't have been some sort of retaliation against Nix, I had a feeling that Nix would hurt the blonde and me. It was best to keep women out of my bed for a few days. Maybe at the end of the week our minds would be clear of each other and things would return to normal.

I stepped out of the shower and headed to my room with a towel wrapped around my waist. Darkness draped my bedroom.
I thought I had the lights on?
A figure lay in my bed.

“Who's that?” I asked.

“If you're going to sleep in bed with me, then you'll have to put on some shorts.” Nix kept her back to me.

“This is my room and bed.”

“You want me to leave?”

“No.”

“Then put on some shorts.”

I smiled. “That's the only rule?”

“No sex, kissing, saying things like you love me, or reciting poems.”

“Fuck. I'm actually pissed about the poetry restriction.”

“We're just sleeping together in the same bed.”

“As what?”

“Business partners.”

I licked my lips, imagining what she wore under that sheet. “That's it?”

“Yep, just business partners.”

“And tomorrow night?”

“We'll still just be business partners.”

“But will you be in my bed tomorrow night?”

She sighed. “We'll see.”

CHAPTER 14

Phoenix

The moons' light seeped into Epic's bedroom, casting long eerie shadows across the floor and walls that resembled stretched-out arms and hands. They made me feel caged in and trapped, like their murky fingers were attempting to hold me down beside Epic's sleeping form. I was finding it harder and harder to breathe. And that pissed me off.

I'm colossally stupid.

There's really no other explanation for why I would come to
sleep
in Epic's bed with him. I keep claiming I don't want more from him, that I can't handle it, and yet . . . here I am. Like a friggin' virgin on prom night getting a hotel room with her long-term boyfriend, and still claiming she might not have sex with him.
Yeah, right
. I flopped over onto my back and huffed. The thought of Epic with one of those girls boiled my blood. At least this way I knew who he was with and what he was doing.

Although I shouldn't care—but I do care—but I can't care—FUCK
!

“You're huffing a lot over there. What's wrong? Can't sleep?” Epic's muscled arm snaked out and pulled me into his side. “There are a few things I could do to help you with that.”

Isn't that part of the problem?

I tensed. “No, I'm good.”

Epic snorted but didn't say anything else.

I blinked into the darkness. “Epic?”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you have artificial eyes?”

“I'm surprised it took you so long to ask. That's usually the first thing people seem to want to know.”

“Yeah, well, I've had other things on my mind and we've been busy.”

He laughed. The deep rumble swept across my skin and soothed my ragged nerves. “You know those warning labels on the back of cleaning bots right next to the tubes near the arms? Sometimes they're real tiny and long.”

“Mmmm-hmmm.”

He laughed again in response to some inside joke that only he heard. “And most of the time on the bots there are these huge warning labels in bright blue that say something like, ‘Do not pull out liquid sourcing tubes unless wearing safety goggles.'”

“Yes.” I hit his chest. “Would you just tell me what happened?”

“Well, I'm the reason why that label exists. I'm the first dumbass that wrenched the tubes out.”

“What? You must be joking, right?”

“No. I'd never joke with you like that, Nixie baby.” He pressed his lips against my forehead and inhaled my scent. “When I was a kid, around five years old, I was just messing around by myself. I yanked the tubes out just to see what would happen. The stuff those robots use sprayed into my eyes. I mean I think that stuff is full of lye or ammonia, flesh-burning chemicals. Either way, it burned the shit out of my cornea. I sat in the hospital for days filled with hope that I'd get to see soon. I was too young and figured everything just worked out always, until the doctor said I'd be permanently blind.”

Sympathy filled me as I imagined the young Epic waiting for news about his damaged eyes. “How long were you blind?”

“A year. During that whole time my parents sued the company that made the robots. I guess the case had a human judge, because he ruled against the company, forced them to pay for surgery to give me artificial eyes, and hand over a decent-sized settlement that lasted my family for a several years.”

“Do you still remember what it was like to be blind?”

Minutes of quiet passed and then he finally answered, “Yes. I'm lucky my parents got on the case because I don't think I would have did all the things I've done in my life without these eyes. Although, my mom did teach me how to play guitar the whole time I was blind, to lift my spirits.”

“That's right. You said you performed in a band.”

“Chameleon.”

“
The
Chameleon?” I climbed out of his arms and sat up. “Holy Duchess of Light. They did have another lead singer back in the day, but his bald head was covered in tattoos.”

Epic brightened his eyes, illuminating the room. He parted his thick hair. Electric ink glittered in the light. “The tats are still there. I let my hair grow out for my mom when I stopped performing with the band to take care of her. She loved my hair.”

He pulled me back down to him, his eyes dimmed back to normal. Darkness blanketed us in an intimate cocoon. I ran my fingers through his hair, relishing its softness. “I kind of like your hair too. So what happened to your parents? They sound like they were really caring people.”

“They're both dead.”

“I'm so sorry, Epic.”

“No. Don't be.” He brushed his fingertips against my skin. Shivers branched out from every place he touched. “My mother died from a rare blood disease. It didn't happen all of a sudden. We all had time to say goodbye to her. My dad died soon after, from . . . I guess you can say ‘a broken heart.'”

“That's so sad.”

“It is, but I bet they're together now. They loved each other so much.” He sighed. “I remember watching them and hoping that I'd have just some of what they had, just a lady that loved me half as much as Mom loved Dad.”

I bit my lip, unprepared to push further on the topic. He, in not so many words, told me what he really wanted from me, and I couldn't be that for him. Teddy had burned, beaten, and tortured all that kind of love out of my heart.

“Mom would have loved you if she had met you,” he said.

“I really doubt she would have been all that thrilled to have an ex-stripper con-artist slash robber as a daughter-in-law.”

“You forget that she's my mom. Does it look like Shade, Toy, and I were raised by some virginal, pure goddess?”

I snorted.

“Mom had a rough life. She did a lot of things she didn't want to just to survive, just to put food on our table. She had plenty of secrets in her past that she never wanted to discuss, and I never pushed it.” He gazed into my eyes. “You remind me of her so much. She had this hard, prickly outer shell around her that was almost impossible to break through, but when you did, love poured out to reward you. She was also there when you needed her, like what you did for me in my darkest times.

“It was only business.” I averted my eyes.

“Nevertheless, she always said I needed a no-nonsense woman to keep my attention.”

Silence thickened the air. I was glad he'd left it alone. I just wasn't that woman. I wasn't like his mom. I was just Phoenix—disappointed daughter, runaway, stripper, murderer, whale fisher, and thief. I didn't do relationships anymore. I did things for myself and no one else. Sure I'd only become selfish out of necessity—because I'd discovered that if I didn't take care of myself, then no one else would—but I was selfish all the same.

The one person that had claimed to love and want to take care of me had left me badly burned . . . quite literally. I could only truly trust myself. No one would be getting past my hard, prickly outer shell—as Epic had described it.
Then why am I laying in this bed with him?
Thoughts of Epic and me swirled around in my head. I bit my bottom lip until a tiny dot of blood landed on my tongue.

“Why do you want me so much? You hardly know me.” I really hated how vulnerable and small my voice sounded.

“Besides everything that I've already said? In the end, there's just something about you and—I guess the heart wants what the heart wants. There's no point in arguing with it.” He pulled me closer and nuzzled my neck. I could feel his smile against my suddenly overheated skin. “Why do you ask, Nixie baby? You're not thinking about leaving this bed, are you? Because I'm not letting you go.”

A grin stretched across my face and I hated myself for loving his possessiveness of me. “I don't know why I asked. I guess I was just wondering.”

Minutes of quiet flew by with neither of us needing to say another word as we lay in each other's arms. Epic's breathing started to even out again, letting me know he was falling back asleep. But something nagged in the back of my mind and it wouldn't allow me peace enough to join Epic in slumber.

“Epic?” I said his name again as I ran my hands through his silky hair. I think if he was a cat, he would have purred.

“Yeah, Nixie baby?”

“Nothing, never mind.”
God, why am I acting like a lovesick teenager in the darkness?
I wasn't one to get tongue tied and to seek comfort in any way—especially in a man's arms.
Yet here I am
.

“Are we going to stay up all night and have one of those talks? You know the ones you always see in movies and shit—about all of our feelings and rainbows and bunnies?” Epic chuckled before nipping at the skin just below my ear. I shivered.

“Don't be ridiculous.”

“Yeah, okay. Something is going on in that sexy head of yours.” Epic propped himself up on his elbow and gazed down at me, his eyes illuminated in the dark. “What did he do to you? Besides torture you? Not that that isn't enough—it's just—well, it seems like more somehow.”

“He broke me,” I whispered.

Epic ran a finger down the side of my face. “No Nixie baby, he hurt you, but you're too strong to be broken. No one could ever break you.”

“You're wrong.” Silent tears spilled down my cheeks. “I'll never be able to trust a man again. Not the way I want anyway. And love, I'll never find the kind of love I want. He broke that part of me too. Sure, I survived, but he stole something—I'm not even sure what—but it's gone for good.” I took in huge breath and exhaled, trying to calm myself.

“No, I don't believe that,” Epic murmured. “You wouldn't be here right now if that was all true.”

“You don't know that. I don't even know why I'm here.”

He left a trail of soft, wet kisses across my cheek. “You can trust me. Tell me what I need to do to prove it to you. I'll do anything. I'll be your anything. Just tell me what to do and I'll spend the rest of my life giving you a better life.”

“I-I don't know.” Maybe he was right. Would I even still be capable of wanting those things if I was completely broken? I just wasn't sure anymore. “I wish I could—I want to trust you, but I—”

“You can.” Epic sat up and pulled a thin metal chain from around his neck. On it was what appeared to be a small charm that formed into a heart. I'd asked him earlier if he had a picture in it and he said that he didn't. He gently slipped the chain over my head.

“This is beautiful. What is it?” I guess he hadn't lied about the picture; otherwise he wouldn't be giving it to me. I inspected the charm in the dim lighting that spilled through the windows from the moons.

Carved letters etched into the back of it and spelled out his name. I ran my fingers over it. A buzzing noise emitted from the locket before the heart popped open and light poured out of it. An illuminated screen rose up in front of us. A bright green line horizontally traveled across the screen in a pattern of waves and beeps. Colored dots sat on the side. Some of the labels said mitral valve, tricuspid valve, aortic valve, pulmonary valve, defibrillator, and other words I didn't understand.

Is this a heart key?

I'd heard about the technology, but I'd never actually seen one and barely knew much about it. A heart key was used to upload all information about a person's heart into a special piece of equipment that doctors used to operate with nanotechnology. It meant that Epic had some kind of heart condition. If something went wrong and he didn't have the key to give to doctors, it spelled almost certain death.

Or maybe this is something else.

“Press the button that says pulmonary valve,” Epic said.

I raised my hand and touched the thin air near the section. It warmed my fingertips. The screen shifted to an all-black image. A reddish-orange, oval-shaped image compressed and relaxed over and over in a matter of seconds, never stopping.

“This is my heart.” He pointed to the center of the image. “It's hard to tell since my heart isn't next to a normal one, but my pulmonary valve is smaller than the average human's. I used to have lots of heart attacks as a kid.” A chuckle escaped his lips. “I guess I really gave my parents a hard time during my childhood. Either we were in the hospital for my eyes or we returned for my heart.”

“So this is like a heart monitor for you?” My own heart pounded.

He put it around my neck? Why?

“Monitoring my heart is one of its duties. It does a lot of things, but most importantly—if I have a heart attack . . .” He waved his hand around the screen. The original view returned. He pointed to the bottom where it showed an image of a yellow key. “If I get chest pains or any other indicator of an oncoming heart attack, then I press this key and it does its magic.”

I tried to lift it back over my head to give it to him.

“No.” He formed his lips into a straight line. “You keep it. I love the idea of you wearing the key to my heart.”

“What?” My mouth dropped open with shock. “No, no, no, no—No! I can't—No!”

Is he completely insane?

“You now hold my heart in your hands—almost literally.”

“You're crazy—fucking insane. I'm holding your life in my hands. Do you really get that? You just gave me the power over your life and you practically just met me.” I licked my lips nervously. “I can't.”

Epic grinned. “Aw, Nixie baby, does that mean you care? It's just a valve thing—nothing serious. I haven't had to use that thing for almost ten years now.”

I stared up at Epic's expectant face. Why had he given me the key? Why did he want me?
Does it really matter
? He just gave himself to me. I literally owned him. Something inside of me broke. I mean—fuck—the man just gave me a literal key to his heart.

“Kiss me,” I demanded hoarsely.