Whatever It Takes

Marie Scott

Mason Pierce is an admitted bad boy. He’s content with his
life on the wrong side of the law and doesn’t see any reason to change. That
is, until beautiful, spirited Laurie Donovan walks through his door.

Laurie is a sassy, driven law student bent on success. She
finds herself in a different world when a chance encounter with the
intimidating yet gorgeous criminal puts her in his sights.

Their instant attraction stokes a fire and soon they’re both
consumed—heart, body and soul. Determined to make himself worthy of the girl of
his dreams, Mason sets out to reinvent himself. His hard work begins to pay off
but just when their happy ending is in sight, danger intervenes. Laurie
narrowly escapes several attacks, spurring Mason to track down the source of
the threats. Laurie and Mason will have to fight to hold on to their happiness.

Reader Advisory: This story has graphic sexual language and
scenes—no closed bedroom doors (or other rooms) here!

An
adult contemporary romance
from Ellora’s Cave

Dedication

For my loving husband for always believing in me and for
being brave enough to be the first person willing to meet some of the people
who live in my head.

To all the amazing women in my life—you all know who you
are. Thanks for lending me some courage to go through with this. Love you all.

The old woman sat in her usual spot, watching the throngs of
people pass by. Seated at a table for two outside a small café gave her a good
vantage point, and she could see a prospect coming from far enough away that
she had time to size them up. She’d been seated there since nine that morning
and had made nearly a hundred and eighty dollars, ten of which she’d spent on
lunch.

Winter had been wet and harsh, and business had been slow,
but it was an unseasonably warm day, which brought out all sorts of people to
soak up the sunshine and toss their money around.

Despite the weather and crowds and increase in business, the
old woman had been bored all day. Not once had she delved down into her true
talents to read anything important off a single person. She’d done nothing more
than scam tourists, giving them vague predictions and warnings. With just a few
simple words, she would develop faithful followers as soon as something
exciting entered their mundane world or disaster struck in some form of
another.

A psychic of her talent should be working in her own shop,
giving commonsense stock advice to idiots looking for some divine intervention
into their business lives. She could make money hand over fist, if she took
that route.

Nevertheless, after two ex-husbands and four selfish
children, she found she didn’t have the gumption to chase such a dream. She was
content with making just enough money to pay for her small apartment a few
blocks from the French Quarter. She saved everything else in hopes of going in
halves on a condo in Florida with her sister in a few years.

That was their plan and it sounded like a good one to her.
In the meantime, she spent her days draining tourists for all their pocket
change. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d run into someone truly
special and she didn’t expect that to happen any time soon…which was why she
was so surprised to feel that warm tingling coming from somewhere over her
right shoulder.

But she’d just spotted her newest target—an older, bearded
man with a woman who was way out of his league, which spelled money. They were
headed right for her table when she felt the vibration. She tried to ignore it.
She didn’t need special; she needed money but the pull was too strong. Damn,
something powerful had to be coming up behind her. Unable to stop herself, she
turned and scanned the area, looking for the giant who must be putting off such
a vibe.

Her mouth fell open when she spotted the culprit…a small
girl, no more than ten or eleven years old. The child stood apart from the
crowd and scanned the area, as if taking in all the sights she could. She didn’t
appear to be in the company of an adult and she obviously didn’t belong there.

The old woman told herself to ignore the kid and focus on
the money headed her way. That was exactly what she intended to do, which was
why she was surprised when she reached out and grabbed the kid.

She heard the girl gasp and turned to look at her. The child
appeared startled but at the same time fascinated.

“Sit down,” the old woman ordered impatiently, unable to
release the child’s arm.

The girl immediately did as she was told. Someone had
obviously taken the time to teach the kid some manners.

The old woman gazed at the child and felt sadness that made
her want to pull the girl onto her lap and comfort her, but she resisted. She
turned the small hand over and studied her palm for a moment, feeling more and
more interested in the kid by the second. Yes…definitely one of the special
ones.

What the old woman read made her worry for the girl. So many
paths could lead her to disaster. The old woman felt the weight of the
knowledge settle on her. She wasn’t sure she wanted the responsibility but she
couldn’t just shrug off her obligations. They had fallen into her lap, to do
with what she would.

The brat started to pull away and speak but the old woman slammed
her hand on the table sharply. The girl jumped and stilled, her eyes wide.

“You just hush now until I tell you to move.”

The girl studied the woman for a moment and then nodded.

The old woman took her time and read every line, every path
and every step. For some reason, she felt anxious about the child’s future. She
had to get this right and make this kid understand how to make the appropriate
choices. Of course, the woman would need to be careful not to reveal too much.
Too much information in the hands of a dumbass kid could spell disaster.

Finally, she looked up into the girl’s eyes and began to
speak. She didn’t know where the words came from but somehow she knew they were
the right ones.

When she finished she reached into her goody bag and blindly
pulled out a handmade trinket. She only gave them to a select few. Without
looking, she placed it in the girl’s hand and closed her small fingers over it.

“Now get your narrow ass back to where you belong and keep
it there. You need your butt whipped for being out here alone. Where the hell
do you think you are? Get home!” she snapped as she let go of the child’s hand.

The girl looked startled and darted away from the table.

The old woman laughed. She didn’t know where the intense
sensations that drove that particular foretelling had come from but, as always,
she was willing to go with the flow of the universe. She didn’t make the
choices—fate did. Obviously, fate had wanted her to advise the kid and who was
she to argue?

* * * * *

The old woman sat at her table, gathering her things. It had
been a good day; she’d made more than three hundred dollars and she knew she’d
start making more now that summer had arrived. The city would flood with
tourists and she would capitalize on their presence.

It was a warm evening and the moon was full. She loved
nights like this and always enjoyed the walk home. The slight breeze disturbed
her hair and dried the sweat from her brow, and the scents of the city came to
her.

She would deeply miss this place when she moved with her
sister. Although nothing would change her mind about retiring in Florida, she
had to admit there was no place else like good old New Orleans.

She doubted there was anywhere else in the world where one
could find such an assortment of different cultures, successfully coexisting in
one small area.

Yes, she would miss it. The sights, the sounds, the smells…everything
about this city.

Shaking those thoughts away, she tossed back the last of her
coffee and gathered her tarot cards. She was just shoving them into her bag
when another warm, tingling sensation struck her—this time, right in the face.
Surprised by the intensity of the vibrations, she scanned the area in search of
the source. She scoffed when she spotted it.

Not five feet away were three young men—not one of them
could have been any older than sixteen. They were laughing and sharing a bottle
of cheap vodka, which they had either stolen or had talked some damn fool into
buying for them.

They looked like trouble, the kind most people would cross
the street to avoid. Especially the tall one. That kid had a mean look about
him and was obviously the leader of the group. He was also the source of the
intense vibes she was receiving.
Oh great.
She grumbled to herself and
tried to focus her attention somewhere else, anywhere else as they drew near.

“What the fuck, lady!” the kid cried.

She turned toward him, only mildly surprised that she’d
grabbed his arm.

“Sit down and be quiet, you little shit,” she snapped.

A look of defiance crossed the kid’s face and she softened.

“Come on, kid. I charge everyone else thirty bucks for a
reading. I’m offering you one for free. What do ya say?” He seemed to think
about the offer.

He studied her intently and seemed to consider the offer.
His friends snickered and he stiffened.

“Get out of here, you snot-nosed little brats, before I turn
both of you into toads,” she hissed.

The two young men sobered and looked at each other
apprehensively, before backing away. She had to stifle a chuckle. At times,
being thought of as some kind of witch or voodoo priestess had its perks.

She looked back at the taller kid and motioned to the empty
chair across from her. After a moment, he finally sat down.

“Just so you know, lady, you ain’t my type, so don’t even
think about trying to grab my dick or nothing.” He smirked.

She frowned and pushed her glasses up farther to gaze at
him. Maybe she’d been mistaken. The glow she’d seen around him could have been
just a trick of the light. The breeze had been blowing in her face. The
vibration she’d felt could have come from anywhere. No way the kid could be
that special.

She stared at his face. Nope, the little fucker glowed like
a roman candle. She also couldn’t deny the sense of urgency she felt. This was
important whether she liked it or not. Feeling an odd vibration in her
forehead, she stared at the kid’s palm. Oh dear, this could be bad.

He squirmed in his seat and she decided she needed to work
quickly. She wouldn’t be able to keep the little bastard captive for long.

Looking into his eyes, she began to speak.

“You won’t feel like this forever,” she began, and wondered
where the words had come from.

The kid’s eyes widened for a moment, and she glimpsed a
vulnerable, sad young man before he hardened his expression with a skeptical
smirk. She let the words flow from her of their own volition and doubted he was
letting anything sink in. Finally, she reached into her goody bag. He was one
of the few who got to walk away with a charm. She placed it in his hand and
closed his fist around it before either of them could see what she’d given him.

He stared at her with open interest for another moment
before his friends began to laugh again. That seemed to snap him out of the
spell and he jerked his arm away from her.

“Go cop a feel on someone your own age, you crazy old bat.”
He sprang up out of the chair and followed his laughing companions down the
street.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, feeling as if she had just
wasted her time and talents on a lost cause. After a moment of disgust, she
chanced a glance over her shoulder and spotted the kid again. He’d stopped
several yards away, while his friends continued on. He opened his fist and
gazed at her gift to him. A hint of a smile played at his lips as he studied
the bauble. After a moment, he snagged a napkin from an empty table and
carefully wrapped up her present before he stuffed it in his pocket and jogged
to catch up to his friends.

The old woman smiled. The kid was hardened and put on one
hell of a tough front, but perhaps she had gotten to him in time. Maybe she’d
done some good after all. Feeling optimistic, she leaned back in her chair and
breathed in the scents of the night again. Oh yes, she would definitely miss
this city.

The building looked like a good place to get murdered, and
Laurie Donovan’s apprehension grew as she looked up at the graffiti-covered
walls and boarded-up windows. Her companions, however, seemed unfazed by the
seedy locale. Her boyfriend, Trey, laughed loudly as he tossed away his
cigarette. Carol was Trey’s cousin and Lisa was Carol’s best friend. The two
girls laughed with Trey at some comment Lisa made. Laurie swallowed hard and
wished she felt so at ease with the situation.

Trey and the girls had just come in from a night of drinking
and had convinced Laurie to drive them to take care of this errand. Gazing at
their surroundings, she regretted saying yes. What kind of business could Trey
have in a place like this? She pressed a hand to her churning stomach. Nothing
but trouble could come from being there.

Turning her attention back to the derelict building, she
shook her head, annoyed with Trey. She looked around. The area matched all the
criteria to qualify as a slum. They were standing in an authentic slum. She
never thought she’d find herself in such a place and she was more than a little
pissed off about it. She couldn’t believe he would bring her to a dump like
that and damn if she wanted to meet the kind of person who would choose to live
in such a shithole. Trey’s carefree attitude bothered her more and more as she
surveyed their dangerous surroundings.

“Are you kidding me?” she snapped. “Trey, what were you
thinking, bringing us to this dump? You can’t seriously expect us to go in
there. I mean, look at this place; it’s disgusting. Are you trying to get us
all murdered?”

“Will you shut the hell up?” Trey hissed. “If I had known
you were going to complain the whole time, I would have left you in your dorm
with your books.”

The intensity of his anger surprised her and set her own
temper on edge.

“I told you we shouldn’t bring her,” Carol told him.

Laurie narrowed her eyes at Trey’s cousin. “Oh really, then
who the hell would have driven your drunk asses?” She took a step in the other
girl’s direction as she spoke.

Trey stepped between the two women and faced Laurie.

“Look, you had to have coffee and we stopped for coffee,
didn’t we? Well, now it’s time for you to just be quiet and go along with what
I need to do.”

Laurie crossed her arms over her chest and thought about
walking back to the car, but as much as she didn’t want to go into the building
she was even less inclined to walk back to the car alone. Trey had insisted she
park at least three blocks away. Three blocks of abandoned buildings, dark
alleys, and homeless men shouting obscenities.

Trey pulled her to him and kissed her cheek hard. She could
smell sour whiskey on his breath and nearly gagged. He rubbed her arms and
tried to sound soothing.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you; it’s just that… Look, I know
you don’t understand what I’m doing, but this is really important to me.”

“Yeah, I understand that,” Laurie told him through clenched
teeth. “But I’m not going to stand here and be treated like nothing more than a
pain in your ass. I don’t want to be here in the first place. I’m here as a
favor to you so act like I’m doing you a favor, or I’m leaving and you can all
find your own way back to campus.”

“Okay, babe,” Trey cajoled, as he pulled her close and
hugged her.

She kept her arms crossed and refused to hug him back.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. It’s just that we’re all a little on
edge here. We do appreciate you bringing us. Okay?”

Laurie nodded and turned away from him as soon as he let her
go.

As she had so many times, she wondered why she was even
dating Trey. He could be kind of an asshole, but in her opinion so could
everyone. What bothered her was the fact that she had no strong feelings for
him. The word “lukewarm” best described their connection. At that point, their
relationship was sexless, and Laurie didn’t see that changing any time soon. Strange…because
they hadn’t been dating long. Shortly after summer break, he’d begun pursuing
her. He was good looking and popular, and as her roommate and closest friend,
Olivia, had pointed out, she could use a little of that in her life. Go to some
parties, have some hot sex, live a little, all of which had sounded good to
her. She’d focused on her studies so intently, she hadn’t taken time to have a
social life in years, so she’d agreed to go out with him and dove headlong into
a new relationship.

They’d started out with a lot of heavy petting and even some
good old-fashioned dry humping in his car but then the heat had just kind of
fizzled out. Other than an occasional, halfhearted make-out session, they
rarely touched each other. Worse still, she didn’t desire anything more and he
didn’t seem to either. When she’d tried to talk to him about the lack of
passion, he’d insisted he was in love with her and said the passion would come
back when they were both dealing with less stress.

Deep down, Laurie knew that was bullshit but she was willing
to just roll with it for the time being. Call it her need for attachment. At
least she could say she wasn’t totally alone in the world. She had someone—a good-looking,
popular and charismatic someone. So what if he wasn’t her soul mate. She couldn’t
even admit she believed in the concept but if there was such a thing as soul
mates, hers most certainly was not Trey.

She shoved those superstitious thoughts away. The last thing
she needed at that moment was to start beating herself up over the ridiculous
motivations for the choices she’d made.

Trey smiled, apparently feeling as if he was on top of the
situation, and motioned for everyone to follow as he pulled open the heavy
front door of the building. Laurie let everyone else go ahead of her as the
group started up the stairs. Inside, the staircase was dark and cold and
smelled like mold and old wood. The smell connected in her brain and gave her
the sense that creatures, which lived in the dark, were lurking just out of her
sight. A chill ran down her spine and she walked faster to stay with the group.

On the third floor, Trey led them to a large, heavy, metal
door labeled
maintenance
. He knocked hard and the sound echoed eerily
down the dark, abandoned hallway. Laurie’s heart pounded and she fought the
urge to flee. The door swung open and a beefy, red-haired man wearing a stained
shirt stood looking at them. The unmistakable smell of marijuana wafted out
into the hallway to greet them.

“We’re here to see Mr. Fix-It,” Trey said.

Laurie let out a small, barely audible gasp. She’d heard the
name before around campus and the moniker sounded just as ridiculous now as it
always had. She glared at the back of her boyfriend’s head. This was Trey’s
errand? A meeting with a drug dealer. She’d heard stories about this Mr. Fix-It
and from the sound of things, the man was dangerous. She opened her mouth to
speak but Carol gave her a nudge and shook her head with a warning look. Laurie
closed her mouth. Carol was right—this was not the time to confront Trey.
Causing a ruckus at a violent drug dealer’s apartment was not on her list of
things smart people did. She took a deep breath and mentally shook away her
anxiety, telling herself to calm down and just get through the next few
minutes.

“Oh yeah, you’re Trey,” the man in the doorway said, taking
a bite from a donut. “Come on in; he’ll be out in a minute.”

He stepped back and everyone followed him inside. Laurie was
the last one in so she shut the door behind her and found herself standing in
the entryway of a small apartment.

A radio was playing eighties rock a little too loudly. To
her right was a scarred-up bar that separated a small kitchen from a small
living room. What looked like mechanical parts and tools were scattered over the
countertop, as if someone was fixing or building something. To her surprise,
there were no dirty dishes crawling with cockroaches in the sink, or drug
paraphernalia lying around in plain sight. So much for her expectations…the
place actually seemed livable and fairly clean.

In the living room, beneath a layer of smoke that hung low
in the air, a second man sat on one of two couches. He had shaggy blond hair
and was smaller than the first guy. He would have appeared sloppy and carefree
except Laurie noticed that he was tense, and his dark-blue eyes were sharp and
shrewd as he scanned their faces.

Trey was busy doing his best college frat president
imitation, trying to charm everyone. He was good.

Sweating and shaking with fear, Laurie tuned them out and
focused on trying to slip out of her jacket without spilling her cup of coffee.

“Hi, guys, this is Carol and Lisa, and that’s my girlfriend,
Laurie, over by the door.”

The heavy guy looked from face to face and then nodded. “I’m
Joe, that’s Dewayne.”

The smaller man gave an absent wave while taking a hit off a
purple bong that sat in his lap. The tension he’d showed a moment before was
gone. His boyishly handsome features were soft and relaxed. He now seemed
unconcerned about having strangers in his apartment. Laurie wondered if she had
imagined his tension when they first walked in. Joe clapped his hands then
rubbed them together.

“Okay, folks, lemme see some titties—and I better not see
any wires.”

That got Laurie’s attention. She watched in open-mouth shock
as Carol removed her jacket then stepped into the center of the room and lifted
her shirt, exposing herself for everyone to see. Joe and Dewayne grinned
wolfishly. Of course, they would; Carol was tall and curvy with perfectly dyed
blonde hair. She was also unabashed.

Laurie thought of the flimsy, sheer, red nylon bra she was
wearing. Her roommate had given it to her as a gag and she only wore it on
laundry day. It hid nothing. She bit the inside of her cheek and cursed herself
for putting off her laundry for so long.

She backed toward the door as Lisa took her turn exposing
herself. Lisa, with her red curls and large breasts, never had an aversion to
showing her body either. Next, Trey raised his shirt and then sat with Carol
and Lisa on a smaller couch parallel to the one Joe and Dewayne were sitting
on. Laurie gulped when everyone looked at her.

“Your turn, girlie,” Joe sneered.

Laurie’s heart pounded in her ears as she shook her head and
backed toward the door. Joe stood up and scowled at her.

“I don’t think so. I’ll just wait outside.”

“Laurie.” Trey sighed. “They just want to make sure none of
us are wearing a wire or anything.”

“You’re already inside, girl.” Joe advanced on her with
every word. “Now you can show me your tits or I can make you show me. I gotta
warn you, if I have to make you, it won’t be fun…for you anyway.”

“Hey, Joe, you ought to wait and let Mace handle it,”
Dewayne said, coughing.

“Shut the fuck up, Dewayne,” Joe shot back.

“Laurie, you’re being an idiot,” Trey said. “Just lift your
shirt.”

Laurie took her eyes off Joe just long enough to shoot Trey
an angry glance. An idiot? Really? The bastard.

“It’s not like you have that much to see anyway,” Carol
jeered.

“I can believe that,” Joe remarked, looking her up and down
as laughter filled the room.

He reached for the bottom of her shirt and she put a hand in
front of her and took another step back.

“No.”

Laurie felt the door against her back as Joe came menacingly
closer. There was a faint knocking that no one paid attention to as Joe
continued to advance on her.

“There’s rules here,” he said through clenched teeth. “And
no uptight little bitch is going to ignore them.” He fisted the front of her
shirt and yanked her onto her tiptoes, bringing her face inches from his.