Chapter 5 Before you start judging me, I looked at the résumés of the other candidates, and Champagne met with a few of them before I got Liora fired from the coffee shop. They were fine. Average. What you'd expect for this type of role. They were also people who wouldn't last a week with me. They'd be curious and ask questions, and eventually when they realized I'm a certain brand of asshole and trust no one, they'd quit. Liora won't quit because she can't. And she's tough. Single mothers always are, but she's got that I do whatever I have to do grit in her. More than that, her manager was an asshole and treated her like shit. This job will offer her financial freedom, and I'm cool with bending her hours around her school schedule. So yeah, maybe getting her fired was fucked up. In fact, I know it was. And if I told my friends what I did, I'd rightfully get my ass chewed out. But I only did it so she could have something better. Having to deal with her day in and day out will be my issue. Eventually, I'll grow bored or indifferent to how pretty she is, and the image of her body, the way she moved on that stage, will flow into the background and fade into the past. Because that's what she is. The past. A girl I knew once. A girl I cared about once. That's all she is and all she'll ever be to me. A once-upon-a-time who will never turn into a happily ever after. People like me, who do the sorts of things I do, who have been burned the way I've been burned, don't get that. Moreover, I'm not someone she should get involved with. I'm a criminal and she's a single mom. So that's not what this is about. I'm not trying to make a love connection with a past flame. I'm trying to help someone who needs it and maybe absolve some of my former sins with her. And her brother. I'm doing it for Cass too because I owe him as much as I owe Liora. "Thanks, Champagne," I say without removing my eyes from Liora, feeling that ancient and familiar thump in my chest I used to get whenever I'd look at her. "I'll take it from here." Champagne wasn't in on my scheme. Not entirely. I just know her well enough to know that she'd overhear Liora getting fired because I timed it that way, and she'd want to do something about it because no one has a bigger heart than her. The door closes with a resounding click, and silence ensues. I have so many questions. So many things I want to say. "Hello, Angel. It's been a long time." She stares at me, her expression utterly gobsmacked, her eyes owlishly wide. "Hi. Um." She blinks at me, her mind working. "I'm... confused. Why does it feel as though you were expecting me?" This is when lesser men would lie. "I was. More or less." She shakes her head before she tilts it and studies me with narrowed eyes. "Vander, I haven't seen you in-" Her voice abruptly cuts off before she bursts out laughing, only there's no humor in it. "It was you. It was you in the coffee shop. It was you in the club, too. Wasn't it?" "Yes." She blusters out a harsh, nervous breath. "Oh my god. How did I miss that? Why didn't you say anything to me?" "I was shocked to see you, and you didn't recognize me." "How is this even happening?" She covers her face with her hands before they fall to her sides, and the accusation is back. "How did you even find me? Are you stalking me?" I hold up my hands in surrender. "No. It was all a coincidence. I swear. I recognized you in the coffee shop, but unless you recognized me, I wasn't anxious for that reunion with how I looked. I told you I was working a case, and I was at the club for the actor. Not you. I wasn't following you. I promise." She shifts her weight and glances past me toward the window as she tries to work this through. "Um." She licks her lips and twirls her bracelet around her wrist, a nervous habit she's always had, when her gaze slingshots back over to me. "Wait. What does that mean? There for him? Working a case? You're not a cop." I don't answer her, and when she realizes it, she runs her hands up her face and back through her hair. "Funny how some things never change. Still evasive, I see. And I used to think it made you so sexy and mysterious." She rolls her eyes derisively. "Okay. Fine. I'll let that all go. But this morning. Just now." She squints at me. "Did you get me fired?" I nod and answer the same as before. "Yes, I did." She grits her teeth and grips the back of the chair she's standing behind, looking like she wants to pick it up and throw it across the room. Or possibly at my head. "Why? Why would you do that? I need that job, Vander." Her voice climbs in agitation. "I have a child to support, and that job got me a daycare slot at the university." The reality is, I can't tell her the truth behind why I did all of this because she can't know I hacked her. That I know all about her financial situation. All about her daughter, Hazel, and her ex. It's a tricky conundrum. "We have a daycare here that would be part of your employee benefits. It's on the first floor, and I'm told it's very good." She shakes her head and looks away, her chest heaving. "What the fuck is going on here? Like, for real. Please tell me now because this isn't right, and it isn't cool." I stand and head toward the window, keeping plenty of space between us. I fold my arms and lean back against the glass. "You're a nursing student, and you dance at an exotic club. I was also at the café yesterday when you got a call from a daycare. I'm a smart guy, as you might remember, so I put two and two together. Liora, I want to hire you to be my executive assistant. The job pays a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, has full medical and dental benefits, tuition reimbursement, and as I just mentioned, daycare." Her eyes are wild, searching me for the truth. "Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you offering this to me?" "Because I think you need it. Because your brother would want me to look after you." Because I can't stand the thought of you struggling when I can fix it. She stares at me as if I've lost my mind. "That's not your call to make. What gives you the right to do all of this? To insert yourself-unwantedly, I might add-into my life and fuck it all up? And how dare you throw Cass into this as an excuse to play twisted games with me?" "I..." I trail off. But fuck, she's right. What gave me the right to do that? Holy shit. I stare at her bewilderedly. Nothing gave me the right. I just did it as I always do. I expected her to be... I don't know. Relieved, maybe. I didn't expect her to put it together that I got her fired, but then again, she's insanely smart, and I should have realized she would. Regardless, she's right. She's totally and completely right. What I did was sick and twisted and wrong. I thought I was being helpful. I thought I was doing right by her for once, when the reality is, I'm no better than her ex. I took from her. I manipulated her. Hell, I fucking hacked her. I inserted myself into her life when she didn't want me there. She has every right to question and be distrustful of me. It's the oddest thing ever. All the things I've done, all the people I've hacked, and I've rarely, if ever, felt any remorse about it. Until now. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" she berates. "What you've cost me? And for what? So you can feel like the hero? Take the girl out of the strip club and into the office, and hallelujah, she'll be saved." Her hands fly in the air before she regrips the chair, her eyes burning with vitriol. "Did you think because I dance in a club and show my tits that I'm a whore? Did you think I'd be so grateful for your offer that I'd blindly take this job and fuck you for good measure?" My hands butterfly behind my head in frustration. "What? No. I. No. That's not what I thought. I was trying to give you a job that⁠-" "You think I'm going to start working here for you after what you've just done? You're duplicitous and deceitful. Undeniably corrupt. I don't want to be anywhere near you." I stare at her, at a loss for words as a pervasive guilt burns through me, making my skin itch and my hair feel like it's on fire. She points at me. "Stay the fuck away from me, Vander. Stay the fuck out of my life. I never want to see you again." With that she bursts out of the room, the door banging against the wall, and I fall back against the window, my hands over my face. Fuck. Fuck! That's twice now that I've hurt her. My goddamn chest is so tight I can hardly breathe. A moment later, Champagne is there looking just as furious with me as Liora did. "Tell me you didn't make me a patsy in one of your schemes." I blow out a breath and start to pace. "I fucked up." "Yes. You did." "I was trying to help her. I swear I was. There was nothing nefarious about my reasons." But my actions sure as hell were. I can sugarcoat what I did with my reasons all I want, but they're still poison. "I have to fix this." "You have to let that girl be. You've done enough. Sometimes we have to live with the aftermath of the bad decisions we make. Sometimes there is no way to fix the damage we cause other people. You can't fix every problem for every person, and certainly not the way you just did." I stop and look at her. "I hurt her when we were kids. Teenagers. It sat with me for a long time. And she's got it tough right now. I wanted to help with that." "Except you went about it the wrong way, and this isn't about you. You can't just hack your way in and out of people's lives without repercussions. I would have thought you'd already learned that lesson, but clearly you needed a refresher." She's right. I can't. And I did learn that lesson. But I got arrogant again. Stupid and arrogant. Overwhelmed, maybe too. Things I hadn't felt in a long time were poking at me, and I reacted without thinking them through as I should have. But this isn't about me. It's about Liora. I have to fix this. I have to make this right for her. I'm just not sure how.