The Purest Hook (Second Circle Tattoos #3)(52)
Dred brushed her lips with his. “Yeah, but I’m calling you to play. Be ready.” He stepped away from her and pulled the door open. “I’ll miss you, Pix.”
“I’ll miss you, too,” she whispered as the door closed. Pixie wandered back to bed, climbing into still-warm sheets that smelled of Dred. What would he think of her if she told him she’d been clean for six years, that the drugs she took, the ones her stepfather gave her, helped her through some of the most hellish experiences of her teenage years? Wrapping the blankets around her, she closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.
Hours later, the condo buzzer sounded and she answered it.
“Let me in Sarah-Jane.” Arnie.
“I’ll be right down.”
“No, you’ll let me in.”
Sickened at the idea of him tainting her home, she refused to buzz him up. “Give me a couple of minutes.”
Pixie ignored the repeated buzzing. She pulled on some clothes, grabbed the envelope, and hurried to the elevator, the sickening feeling growing in her stomach. He was going to be mad. But in reality, in among the fear that had her palms sweating, so was she. Her dreams of opening her business were in her hand. Five hundred dollars would buy a lot of fabric.
The elevator pinged and she stepped out of it confidently, even though her knees were shaking.
Arnie marched toward her, his face pissed. Desmond the concierge was in his usual spot. All it would take was one shout to him, and he’d be round the desk and on Arnie before he had any real chance to do anything. She held out the envelope to him, and he snatched it greedily.
“Let’s go. Call the elevator back.” His face was mottled red.
“No, Arnie. You aren’t setting foot in my home.”
“Is everything okay, Pixie?” Desmond shouted from across the reception area.
Pixie nodded. “It is, thank you. Arnie will be leaving shortly.”
Arnie moved to the left, where a large planter with tropical ferns provided the illusion of some privacy. “I brought you something, Sarah-Jane. A souvenir of sorts. Thought you might want it.”
“Whatever it is, I don’t want it. I gave you your money. Now go away. Leave me alone or I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” He dropped the leopard-skin scarf into her hands, and Pixie, on automatic reflex, froze. Seeing the fabric so close to her wrists made her gag. It had been years since he’d tied her hands behind her back with it, but the memories hovered so close the surface.
“You see,” he said, lifting it back out of her hands, “you’ve forgotten. You enjoyed the things we did together. So you stop me from getting into your apartment again, and I’ll use this on you.” He stroked the hair back off her face, and Pixie shuddered.
“Two weeks. You’ll have another thousand, and be more . . . agreeable about it. And if that doesn’t work,” he added, “I’ll show your boss, your boyfriend, and the police, the picture of you killing Brewster.”
*
Maybe his lawyer was better than he’d initially given her credit for.
The previous evening, he’d received an email containing Amanda’s new address. A condo in Liberty Village, not too far from Exhibition Place. He was supposed to meet her there in the next hour.
He looked down at his bowl of cereal. If it were up to him, he’d get Petal and fly down to hang out with Pixie. Or have her come to him to meet Petal. Even though it was only two days since he’d seen her on Tuesday. Instead, he was racing to eat breakfast and get to Amanda’s so he could board a plane to Brazil for four nights for what was pretty much a publicity tour that ended with a festival. His heart most definitely wasn’t in it.
His heart also wasn’t up for what he knew was best for Petal. She’d be much better off in a stable home, with two loving parents, preferably a couple who had been trying for a child of their own for years, ones who would be so desperate for a child, they’d cherish the shit out of her. Problem was, every time he visualized her in the arms of someone else, his breathing gave out like someone placed a ton of weight on his chest.
He reached for his lyrics notebook, and added to the lyrics he’d written for the song he thought was for Pixie. I can’t breathe without you. I can’t even sing this song without you
How could he be anything for Petal? Or Pixie?
When the heart wants what it wants, does the heart get what it needs?
Was it love of Petal? Or Pixie? Or both.
Unable to straighten the feelings out in his mind, he took his cereal bowl to the sink and dumped the milk before rinsing the bowl and placing it in the dishwasher.
His suitcase was packed and in the hallway, his carry-on parked next to it. Both ready for Jordan to throw into the limo that was going to collect him on the way to the airport.
He grabbed the bags of supplies he’d bought for Amanda and Petal, and made his way to the street to get in the cab he’d called.
Thankfully all the snow had cleared, but roadwork on the ramp to the Gardiner Expressway slowed his progress, and by the time he pulled up at Amanda’s building and buzzed to be let in, forty minutes had passed. The guys would be by within the hour for him.
He took the elevator to the fourth floor and walked to her condo. The building was clean and tidy. From the hallway he could hear a baby screaming. It had to be Petal. He hurried to the room number and knocked.