Chapter 171

I know fine well she’s called Joanne, but I’ll be damned if he thinks I give a shit about his woman in any way, shape or form. He chose that rancid slut as his bedfellow and hostess, so he can choke on it. He chose her over me. I hope she gave him STDs.

‘She hasn’t been the best choice and now the club is losing money.’ Again, he looks at the floor, and if it wasn’t Alexi the tosser Carrero he would seem defeated and a little submissive. I know better. He’s trying to manipulate me into doing what he wants.

‘Boo hoo. Should have thought about that before you kicked me to the curb then, shouldn’t you?’ I turn away from him and walk to the kitchen with a satisfied smirk, not falling for his BS, to retrieve a drink of water to soothe my parched and raspy throat. Also needing a little head space as his ever-looming presence fills my room like a black cloud. I hate that no matter what; he just pulls all the air out of my orbit effortlessly. It’s like he has his own gravity and I am eternally sucked in by it.

Opening the fridge for the bottles I keep there; I realise it isn’t even on. I close and open it again before feeling inside—it’s completely warm; the sour smell of food going off tells me another shitty appliance in here has packed in and I sigh. Slamming it shut angrily because it’s something else I don’t need right now … I have enough stress. Another little notch on the crap list of crappier things that are trying to send me over the edge this week. My cooker doesn’t work. Now the god damn fridge doesn’t work. The shower already packed in and baths are temperamental. I don’t have a microwave after it exploded and now, I don’t have the money to think about buying anything anymore.

Will anything else go wrong in this godforsaken place this week?

‘I’ll make it worth your while.’ Alexi is behind me almost instantly, scaring the bejesus out of me, and I jump in obvious reaction because I was distracted and didn’t hear him sneak up on me. Cursing him out mentally for scaring me this way, it’s still a sensitive scar—people close behind me in any way. He was probably peering at the darn refrigerator too and I shove him back with my arse aggressively in a bid to make him move, hating that he crept up behind me into my space and made me uncomfortable. Hating that he saw my shitty, empty, rotting broken fridge and knows I am up shit creek with nothing that works. I stalk across the room noisily, sulkily, making it clear I need space from him, carrying my lukewarm bottle even though I have no desire to drink it now.

‘Doubt it.’ I shrug and plonk it on the wobbly table beside my mirror, catching sight of how awful I look, and it’s a shock to the system even though it’s hardly a new reflection … a little punch to the stomach.

My face is black and blue, now that time has allowed it all to come out. My nose is swollen and my top lip has a split that I didn’t see until it got this bad from expansion. I look like I have been run over, specifically my head, and it’s no wonder Alexi is staring at me so weirdly. I would stare too. I look like Quasimodo’s little sister by all accounts.

Brown lifeless hair in a messy bun on my head from sleeping in it, hair falling down everywhere in haphazard untidiness, and I look pale and skinny with crazily huge eyes. A mere shell of the girl he knew and it’s a wonder he thinks I’m capable of being his hostess once more when I look like utter crap. Meghan baby, you really are a plain Jane with shit taste and no skill in making yourself presentable.

Alexi looks at the floor between his feet, and I can’t tell if he is trying to keep that infernal temper of his under control or whether he is at a loss on how to proceed. He seems different but maybe that’s because I’m different.

That hopeless love-sick weak-willed idiot who threw herself at his mercy is now a cold-hearted shadow who wants nothing to do with him. I wouldn’t care if he got up and walked straight back out of my door. In fact, it would give me great joy to see him leave. I wouldn’t cry one single tear if he disappeared back out into the beyond to never return again—I cried over him enough in the first days of leaving, and I won’t ever do it again. I guess he can sense he has lost his edge and is coming up with some devious plan to put me back in line. That’s what he does.

Not a chance, New York!

‘You can have ten percent of the club, use of the apartment above … without me staying there, and a wage rise from managing hostess to club manager; Full control of the club and all aspects of running it.’ He looks up as he says it, disarmingly honest faced and soft, and everything in me flushes down to my toes in surprise as my heart somersaults at the unexpectedness of it. The offer or the look, I have no clue.

He makes me feel uneasy and I look away again, forgetting for a moment how much I hate him when he’s hitting me with an offer that actually makes me second guess my decision to tell him to go fuck himself. I hesitate, swallowing down the sudden lurch of stomach to mouth and fluttering wings in my chest. Instantly light-headed as though anxiety has perked up and my knees go all weak and weird. It’s not like he’s asking me to fuck him, but somehow it has the same internal response.

‘Why would you offer me all that after you tried so hard to get rid of me? You dodged answering that … but I need to know!’ I am the one to lock eyes on him this time, keeping my distance because I don’t trust him to come near me and yet, I can’t help believing him.

I know Alexi when he is in manipulation mode and right now, it’s all deadpan business and lack of devious. He looks relaxed and normal; human like. I saw this version of him when he put his money and club before everything, and we had rare genuine moments between us where our only concern was keeping it ticking over. It is one version of him maybe I can believe in; the businessman who cares about one of his endeavours.

‘I told you … the club is losing money and clients, and it’s running itself into the ground. You built it, you made it tick and I need you to do that again. Only this time with security over your position, so you can’t be made to walk away.’

He’s clever, I’ll give him that. Dangling a part of my club in front of me to own and hold as mine. Even if he wants me gone, I’ll still get a cut of the profits as long as he legally gives me the ten percent. He’s offering a binding agreement in case he has a little temper tantrum and tries to push me out again—he thinks it will sway me.

It’s tempting; so is the apartment, knowing he would never be in it, but I just can’t.

The swirling knot of sickening tension in my stomach is acting as a healthy sign of foreboding. Never get into bed with this man … he will fuck you, fuck you over and fuck you clean out the window without a second look. He did it to me spectacularly.

‘So, you found a use for me and decided it was time to pick me back up out of the gutter, right?’ I can’t hide the hurt in my voice or the disdain, even trying, and Alexi sighs heavily at my tone. He is still seated, rubbing his palms together slowly, and moves to lounge casually back on the couch to watch me further; taking over his space. Obviously annoyed that this isn’t going how he planned, but then he isn’t actually trying hard.

Where is all that charm and easy schmoozing?