She shakes her head no.
“Yvette,” I say, sternly. “Come. Here.”
But she shakes her head no again.
“Do you want the monster on your side? Or don’t you?”
“What?”
I smile at her. “I’ll be the monster. I don’t mind. But I can be your monster if you let me.”
“So I’m trading one for the other?”
I shrug. “Would you rather go up against the bad guy alone? Or have an equally bad one by your side?”
“Oh, my God,” she says, gripping her hair up near her ears and shaking her head. Like she wants me to shut up.
“I think it’s a fair offer.”
“What do I have to give you in return?”
“Trust,” I say. “That’s it. Just trust.”
“Tell you where my son is?”
I nod. “Tell me that and I can spin some gold for you.”
“How?”
“Get us all out of this mess. Start a new life. AJ and I have a place in mind. A little island off the coast of Mexico. Just picture a beach house, OK? White sand, blue ocean, hot weather. No blizzards to get stuck in,” I say, then wink at her. “Maybe a little business? You can open an Etsy shop and sell seashells by the seashore—”
She manages a small laugh.
“AJ can give surf lessons… shit like that.”
“You’re serious?”
I nod. “I’m fucking serious. We talked about it. Just ask him when he comes back in. He’ll tell you the same thing I just said.”
“Why?”
“Why am I helping you? Or why do I dream of a life on that island?”
“Both.”
I sigh. This is the hardest part of the plan, I think. So I need to be careful. Say too much or the wrong thing and she’ll figure out what I’m up to. And maybe that doesn’t matter much, but I can’t have AJ getting suspicious. He would never agree to my plan.
So I say, “Do I look like a happy man to you?”
“What?”
“Just answer the question.”
“I don’t know.”
“Take a wild guess.”
“No, then. I’d guess not.”
“Well, you’re correct. I’m not excited about life. I came up here to do a job, figured I’d do it. I’d go back. Probably earn a few points with Damon. Earn his trust for a little bit longer. Bide my time. Wait for someone to kill him. Because someone will. There are bosses people hate but respect, and those dudes take a long time to die. But then there are bosses like Damon. Bosses who force the loyalty by asking men like me to do jobs like this. And those guys never last long because we hate them, but we don’t respect them. Someone will kill him. Maybe not soon enough for us. But within the next few years. Still, that won’t save anyone in this room, ya know?”
She must be thinking about this, because she doesn’t say anything.
“That’s why I’m helping you. I hate him too. There’s actually nothing to like about that guy. And sure, I’m also a monster. But like I said, I could be your monster, Yvette.”
She inhales a long breath like she’s about to say something, but the apartment door opens and AJ comes in stomping his feet. He’s wearing coveralls he must’ve found out in the workshop. They are covered in ice balls and his face is red from the cold.
But he’s smiling.
“Can I get a fuck yeah?” he asks, unzipping his coveralls so he can take them off. “We are outta here as soon as the highway’s cleared. The snow is just about over.”
He looks at us as he peels off his clothes and boots and leaves it all in a heap at the door as he walks over to Yvette and offers her his hand.
Unlike my gesture, she accepts his immediately. He tugs her up to her feet and then leads her across the room and flops onto the couch next to me, pulling her into his lap.
“Keep me warm, cookie. I’m cold.” He places her hands on his cheeks and she shivers. But she laughs too.
Fucking guy. Sometimes I hate him for being so charming.
Chapter Twenty-Five – AJ
“What’d I miss?” I ask. Because I can tell these two have been talking about shit while I was out saving the world from snowdrifts.
“Logan wants to be my monster,” Yvette says.
“Oh.” I laugh. “Well, fuckin’ ay. It’s a nice offer. You gonna take him up on that?” I slip my hands up her shirt and this makes her squeal.
“Stop it! Stop!”
But fuck that. I’ve been out in the cold for more than a hour. I grab her bra under her shirt and tug it down so I can cup my freezing hands around her warm tits.
“Oh, my God.” She laughs.
“I know,” I say. “You gotta warm me up.” I lean in to kiss her and she kisses me back. I don’t know what’s going on here. And I don’t just mean between her and Logan, because clearly something is going on.