“Brian! Drew!” she called.
No return reply came. She walked into the one bedroom and found it empty, just three sad pallets on the floor. Her brothers must be at work. She should have gone there first, but she’d wanted to check the apartment just in case.
Hurrying down the stairs, she nearly ran into Gary Forman, the resident pervert. He grabbed her arm roughly. “Can you spare some change? A pretty young thing like yourself is sure to have a little something extra for a poor man like myself.”
“Gary, it’s me, Reyna. Let me go.”
“Reyna?” His eyes bulged, but he didn’t let go of her arm. “Nah. Reyna left yesterday. Her brothers are looking all over for her.”
“Well, I came back,” she snapped. “Will you tell them I’m going to the warehouses if they come looking for me here?”
She yanked her arm free and scurried away as fast as she could. When she sank down mercifully into the backseat again, her stomach was in knots. And she realized with a sigh that she had a black handprint on her otherwise clean skin. No wonder she had never felt clean before.
She directed the driver to the warehouses where her brothers worked and made him park around the corner so the cab wasn’t visible. He offered to come in with her, but she worried more about someone stealing his car than anything happening to her.
Reyna rounded the corner to the front of the warehouse just as a shift was getting out. Her heart stopped as at least a dozen hungry men stared at her. Never in her life had she been afraid of men in this neighborhood, but she didn’t look like a woman from the warehouses. She looked like a high-class city girl. Even she wouldn’t recognize herself here.
Then one of them stepped forward. Steven. She ground her teeth in frustration. This was not a good time for her to see her ex. She hadn’t spoken with him since he had left her to be with another woman, and she didn’t really want to talk to him right now. But she had to if she was going to find her brothers in a reasonable amount of time. The clock was ticking.
“Hey, Steven,” she said, beelining toward him. The other guys dispersed when they saw that she was taken, but a few glanced over at her curiously as they passed.
“Hey, baby. What can I do for you?” His eyes crawled her body.
“I’m looking for my brothers,” she said impatiently.
“Do I know them?”
She gave him a disbelieving look. Holy shit! They had dated for over a year, and he couldn’t even recognize her in a change of clothes and a good long shower.
She snapped her fingers in his face, drawing his eyes up from her tits. “Steven, it’s me, Reyna.”
His eyes nearly popped out of his face. “Reyna Carpenter? Shit, woman!”
“Yeah. It’s different,” she said tonelessly. “Have you seen Brian or Drew?”
“Different? You look fucking amazing.”
“Thanks, but have you seen my brothers?” she asked. She couldn’t keep the impatience from her voice.
“They were out looking for you yesterday.” Steven whistled and ran his hand down her side boldly. “Little Reyna Carpenter all grown up and a woman underneath those jeans and T-shirt.”
“Cut it out, Steven.” She slapped his hand away. “You already know what I look like. I’m not here for you. I just need to see my brothers.”
“Don’t worry about them,” he said persuasively. He started walking her backward with this hungry look in his eye that she had seen before. It meant trouble.
“Steven,” she warned.
“Come on, baby. Don’t you want another round?”
“You’re the one who left me, remember? You wanted to get it elsewhere.”
“That’s not how I remember it,” he said dismissively.
Her back hit the wall of the warehouse, and she gasped. His eyes lit up. It was clear that he knew he had the upper hand, and he liked it. In this neighborhood, no one would stop him from coming on to her. She should have listened to her driver and thought about her safety. She just hadn’t thought she needed it from anyone here, least of all Steven.
“Where did you get these new threads?” he asked, plucking the fabric.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Reyna, you can tell me.” His hand ran down her waist, and she tried to push him away. Any advantage she’d had she lost when her back hit the wall.
“I’m not interested.”
“Explain to me how a girl with nothing can go from that to this overnight. Huh?” He eyed her up and down suggestively. “Either she’s a whore or she’s a blood whore. You been to Visage, Reyna?”
She looked away, unable to see the accusation in his eyes.
“Leave me alone!” But it sounded weak even to her ears.
“So you have! Let me see that neck.” He tilted her head, searching out the customary bite marks that signified someone was working for a vampire. She slapped his hand away, but he just grasped it and pinned it to her side.
“You can be a whore for a vamp. You can be a whore for me.”
His lips lowered to her neck. His large body pinned her roughly against the wall. No matter how much she moved or squirmed or kicked to try to loosen herself, she couldn’t get away.
Tears started flowing down her face. She had decided to go to Visage to help her family. She had worried the whole time that she would be used and taken advantage of by the vampire who took her in. But so far Beckham had done none of those things. He’d given her a place to live, a new wardrobe, and access to unlimited funds. He hadn’t even bitten her yet. Instead, her worst nightmares were coming true from someone she had known at home.
Her world had just flipped upside down.
Chapter 7
“Get off her!” someone cried behind Reyna.
She closed her eyes and tried to make it go away. This had been a mistake. She shouldn’t have come here. Not looking like this. But she had never anticipated that she wouldn’t even be recognizable. She knew she looked different, but she was the same Reyna.
Steven was hauled off of Reyna, and she stumbled away from him, gasping. She covered her mouth and watched as he was pushed backward.
“Brian! Drew!” she cried. Her brothers had saved her.
But they weren’t paying attention now. They were focused on Steven. He was outnumbered two to one, and while they had been friends at work, her brothers didn’t take kindly to anyone disrespecting a woman. She had seen them come home bloody more nights than she could count. They were the only people around here that stood up for anyone. They had always stood up for her.
Steven tried to throw a punch, but Brian grabbed his arm, twisted him around, and bent it behind his back. Drew landed a solid punch to his kidney and then another to his face. Then he swept Steven’s feet out from under him. Steven landed in a heap on the hard gravel floor. As he sputtered and tried to straighten himself, Brian kicked him hard in his ribs, and Drew got in a swift kick to the temple. Steven went slack, passing out.
“Brian! Drew! Oh my God, I’ve never been happier to see you!” Reyna cried.
They turned and stared at her. Drew’s eyes widened in recognition first. “Reyna?” he asked, confused.
Dear God, do I look so different in these clothes that even my own brothers don’t recognize me?
She rushed into Drew’s arms and buried her face in his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her and patted her twice on the back. “It’s all right. You’re safe now.”
She swallowed hard and nodded. “I can’t believe he would do that.”
“We can’t either. Guy was a jerk. Forget about it. Just tell us where you’ve been. We’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
Brian touched her arm gently and pulled her back from Drew. “What the hell happened to you?”
Both of their eyes went wide when they got a good look at her. She couldn’t imagine what she looked like to them right now. She wasn’t in the fanciest clothes in her new closet, but it was nicer than anything they had ever seen before. Her skin was practically flawless. Her hair was shiny and smelled like lavender and honey.
“Let’s go home, and I’ll tell you all about it,” she promised.