Anguish

“I get it!” I snap. “Stop.”

“You got rocks in your fuckin’ head?” he continues, ignoring my outburst.

“I didn’t know how big he was until after . . .”

“You do have rocks in your head.”

I turn back to Mack. “Can you tell him to shut up?”

“You stole money from Gregor Potani?” he says, his eyes wide, as if I’m a freaking moron.

Like I don’t already know that.

“I know, okay?”

“You fuck around with someone, you don’t fuck around with Gregor Potani.”

“No shit!”

He sighs and runs his hand through his hair. “How much?”

“What?”

“How much do you fuckin’ owe him?”

“Eight grand.”

“And you’ve given him?”

“Close to three and a half.”

Mack mutters a curse, and turns to me, his eyes hard. “Here’s the deal. I’ll give you the cash, you pay him and get him off your back and out of your life.”

“No way,” I say, shaking my head.

“I wasn’t finished. As repayment, you work for me until all that money is repayed.”

“In case you missed the vital point in all this, I’m not a nanny.”

“You are doing a good enough job; the kid is alive. That’s my deal, you take it, or you fuckin’ get your ass blown to bits.”

I stare at him, narrowing my eyes.

“That’s it? I work for free until the money is back to you?”

His lips quirk. “There may be other duties involved, considerin’ I’m gettin’ your ass out of a seriously bad drug debt.”

“I am not going to fuck you.”

He grins at me. Shit, he’s good looking when he grins.

“Don’t grin at me. I’m no one’s whore.”

“I never said sex, but now you’ve mentioned it . . .”

“Dream on.”

He shakes his head, still grinning, and turns to Maddox. “I want someone trailin’ her, even after we’ve paid him off. God only knows what that fucker is up to.”

“Fuck, more?” Maddox growls, but I can see his eyes are tired. “Fine, I’ll put a trail on her.”

Then Mack turns back to me. “We got a deal?”

I stare at him, then look to Maddox, and then I sigh. I don’t have a choice. Unless I’m willing to strip, or worse, I’ll never have that money in time. “Deal.”

“Good, now sit down so I can check your ribs.”

“No, it’s—”

“Sit down, Jaylah,” he orders.

Taking a deep, calming breath, I walk over and sit down next to Santana at the dining table. She gives me a sympathetic smile.

“Welcome to the family,” she says.

“I don’t think so . . .”

She laughs softly. “Poor girl.”

Mack orders me to lift my shirt, and hesitantly, I do. He kneels in front of me, pressing my ribs and asking me exactly where he hit. The feeling of his fingers against my skin has me reconsidering fucking him. Shivers break out, and he notices, oh, he notices. I see his lips quirk, but thankfully, he says nothing. He pulls my shirt down and declares, “You’ll be fine. Just take it easy.”

I nod, standing. I reach out to Diesel. Santana shakes her head. “I’ll stay the night. You get some rest and you can start again in the morning.”

“But—”

“Do as she says,” Mack orders.

Right.

I lean down, pressing a kiss to Diesel’s head.

“Night, little man. Tomorrow on, it’s just you and I.”

I stand straight and head out of the room, but not before I catch the warm look that flickers across Mack’s face.

I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that.

It’ll only complicate things.

I don’t need complications.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

MACK

“You think there’s more goin’ on?” Maddox asks, lighting a cigarette.

I look over my shoulder and glance at Santana, who has fallen asleep on the couch with Diesel tucked in her arms. I nod to Maddox and he closes the door, blocking her from view. I turn back to him.

“I don’t know what’s goin’ down, but my guess is that whoever the boyfriend is, he was in more trouble than just owing a debt.”

Maddox nods, taking a deep drag from his cigarette. “The problem I’ve got is that we don’t know what’s goin’ down. We could pay him out, but it likely won’t end.”

I nod. “Yeah, that’s the fuckin’ problem. We need to know why the boyfriend got himself in debt to fuckin’ begin with, and why Jaylah was so desperate to get his debt paid off. She sold drugs, for fuck’s sake. She would have had to get herself tangled enough to even get hold of them, but to get tangled with Gregor? That’s either bad luck, or it’s exactly how this was meant to go down.”

“Gregor ain’t no small dealer,” Maddox mutters. “He’s one of the biggest in the area. For him to be after her ain’t good.”

“No,” I grunt. “Fuck, so much bullshit.”

Maddox stares hard at me. “You could just fire her, and get another nanny.”

“You saw the response to the advertisement, bro. I couldn’t live with half of those Nancy fuckin’ Goody-Two-Shoes women. Jaylah has got sass, spunk, and she doesn’t take any shit. Plus, the baby likes her.”