Innocence (Tales of Olympus #1)(28)

“Thank you,” Cora murmured, and removed the ‘nice ring,’ stringing it on her necklace before donning gloves. An hour cleaning cages wasn’t something most people would look forward to, but she jumped right in as if the dirty work would make her clean.

In a few weeks she’d be married. Married. To a man who intimidated and intoxicated her all at once. He came into her life, and now he was her life. Every part of her world belonged to Marcus.

Except this part. Was that how it would be after the wedding? Everything that was Marcus swallowing up everything Cora had been? Should she be fighting harder to retain some autonomy? But every time she was with Marcus, all she wanted was more of him.

Nothing else mattered. The rest of the world dropped away so it didn’t seem like a sacrifice. And it wasn’t as if he’d asked her to give anything up. He just slowly occupied more and more territory in her life, like a slow and not unwelcome invasion.

“Cora,” Maeve called a little while later, and she blinked as if awakening from a trance.

“There’s a man out here, looking for you.”

Cora got to her feet so fast the newspaper scattered. The clock above her head read seven o’clock. Sharo was already here.

“Oh,” a curse sprang to her lips. Maeve’s brows flew up. Although Maeve wouldn’t take offense at the word, she looked surprised to hear Cora use it. Cora knew she usually came off so prim and proper, and she covered her mouth with her right hand. Her other toyed with the ring on the chain.

“You okay?”

“Yes, I’m late, I’d better go.”

Maeve hesitated. “Are you sure? He’s kinda rough looking; I nearly sent him away. Are you sure you want to see him?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Cora mumbled, stripping off her apron. She headed out front, smoothing her hair with her fingers. She was in jeans and a t-shirt, but she’d have to change at the club.

She passed through the door that led to the pet store. Rounding the corner past a display of dog food, she stopped dead. The man had brown curly hair. It was him. His back was to her, but she recognized the man who roofied and tried to kidnap her.

Run!

Shout for help!

There wasn’t a front door between them this time. They were all alone in the small shop.

But… I’m never alone. The wild thought comforted her even as her hands shook.

“If I scream, someone will come.” Marcus still had men watching her. They kept out of sight, and she didn’t mention or make a fuss about it because she could pretend everything was normal that way. So how did her former attacker get past them?

That didn’t matter. All that mattered was that if she called, they’d come. She knew it. She wasn’t a victim anymore. She was soon to be wife of Marcus Ubeli, the most powerful man in the city.

She crossed her arms in front of her to hide her tremor. “You need to leave and never come back again.”

The man raised his hands, still facing the front. “I’m not here to hurt you. I swear. Just want to talk.”

He finally turned and Cora gasped. Instead of moving back, she stepped forward. Gods. “What happened to you?”

The man’s face was misshapen, bruises covering his face in multi-colored patchwork. She should run, or speed-dial Marcus on the special cell phone he insisted she carry. But the man wasn’t making any move to come closer, so she stayed.

“Did Sharo do this?” she asked, her heart beating hard.

“Yeah,” the man’s words were a garbled mouthful of pain, spoken through all the bruises and swelling. “Boss don’t like it when a man oversteps his bounds.”

Boss?

“What?” she whispered.

“I came to warn you,” he said. “Boss won’t like it, but you gotta get wise. That way, you’ll be ready. I done wrong and I’m tryin’ to make it right. Makin’ amends is what they call it. So I’m tellin’ ya, you gotta be ready.”

“Ready for what?”

The man shook his head, and groaned as if the movement pained him. It could be a trap. He could be pretending to be hurt worse than he was. She stayed back, the aisle of dog food between them. But she couldn’t help asking, “Are you okay? Do you need a doctor?”

“No,” the man gasped. “Listen, I’m tryin’ to warn you.”

“Warn me?” Her attacker was beaten, weakened. The longer she looked at him, the more convinced she was he wasn’t faking it. Cora uncrossed her arms and rested her fists on her hips. “You come here after drugging my drink, trying to kidnap me—”

“It was them. It was all them. The boss and Sharo. They planned it. They laid it out. I’m down the chain, didn’t hear it straight from them, but they were behind it.”

“What?”

“Watching you. Scouting you. That night in the club, I saw a chance and took it. Figured the boss would be happy if I brought you in early. He wasn’t happy. He had a plan—”

“The boss…” Her mouth was dry and her heart beating what felt like a thousand times a minute. “...you mean Marcus?”

“Yes.” A car slid past the shop and the man startled, staring with the whites of his eyes.

“No.” Cora shook herself. “No, you’re wrong. Marcus helped me. He and Sharo protect me from...from you!”