Page 1 of Sold to My Ex's Brother
PROLOGUE
MAYA
I wrapmy jacket around myself and glance over my shoulder, back towards the bar, which is almost empty now that the patrons have emptied out. The only person left inside is Dylan, one of the other waitresses, and she frowns at me as I stand there in the doorway.
“You sure you’re going to be okay getting home alone?” she asks me. “I can walk you, if you want. Or call you a cab?—”
“No, I’m fine,” I reply, plastering a smile on my face and waving my hand. Not like I could afford a cab right now anyway, even if I wanted one. No, the best I can do right now is just get out, get home, and pray that the creeping dread that has been sneaking up my spine all evening is nothing more than paranoia.
Because the alternative might be more than I can take.
I stuff my hands into my pockets, yell a goodbye to Dylan, and take off down the street, in the direction of my apartment block. I just have to keep my legs moving underneath me, and everything will be fine, I can promise myself that.
It’s the same way I have felt all damn week, though I have done my best to ignore that part. Since I finally called things off with Artem, I feel like I haven’t been able to shake the distinct feeling that something is...wrong.
I breathe deep as I walk, the cool air puffing in front of my face. I count my footsteps, keeping my mind busy.See? Nothing is going to happen.It’s just my usual skill of overthinking, threatening to get the better of me.
And then, I hear it, footsteps behind me.
My head whips around. At this time of night, in this part of the city, it’s hard to believe that anyone would be out. I scan the sidewalk behind me, hoping to see the exhausted face of another bartender or something like that, but there’s nothing. Whoever is following me, they don’t want to be spotted.
And I have a horrible feeling I know why.
I steady myself, swallow hard, and carry on down the street. My eyes blur a little around the edges, and I will myself to keep it together, no matter how tempting it might be to let it all fall apart.
Artem is going to lose interest in me eventually, and as soon as he does, I can just get back to my normal life and pretend that stupid little fling with him never happened.
Because it never should have. That much, I can see clearly now. The moment he walked into that bar, I should have known he was trouble.
But he had money.Realmoney. The kind of money that I know I need—and the kind of money that my father put into hisdamn pocket with his ridiculous obsession with betting that had brought this entire family to its knees.
The debt that my father owed, he had acrued it with men like Artem, and Artem himself held the deeds to the small fortune my father had gambled away in the last few years of his life. It was why I had agreed to come work at this shady bar in the first place, because one of Artem’s men had assured me that they would garnish my wages to pay back the debt, and that I would be spared from paying in a more...extremea fashion.
He had charmed me that first night, at least tried to. Left a fat tip for me and told me there was more where that came from if I met him for a drink afterwards. And I did, because God only knows how much I need the money. I’m living paycheck to paycheck, on what little I can put in my pocket after it has been garnished to pay back my father’s debts.
I hate myself for how easy it has become to sink into desperation.
So, I met with him for a drink. And I got tipsy enough that the way he looked at me turned from creepy to charming. And I let him... God, I don’t even want to think about all of that.
I shudder as I walk down the street, imagining his hands on me, the way he touched me. Staring at the ceiling as I waited for all of it to be over.
But he always made sure I got a little more of my paycheck every time, and I couldn’t turn that down. Even if he creeped me the fuck out with his thinning hair and creepy smile.
I let it go on for a few months, meeting up with him after my shift was over and forcing myself through our encounters, but therewas only ever going to be so much I could take. And it finally stopped week before last.
I will work the rest of my life in this shitty place if it means I never have to be close to him like that again.
But my freedom has led to surveillance.
It started out just at the bar, but then I had noticed what felt like people watching me while I had been heading back to my crummy little studio apartment a few blocks away from the bar. I thought it was just paranoia at first, but I caught glimpses out of the corner of my eye, people lurking just out of sight.
And I knew—fuck, Iknewthat it had to be him. If not Artem in the flesh, one of his men.
I pick up the pace as I spot my apartment building, and, to my surprise, I see someone at the far side of the street; a man stepping out of a car, lifting a cigarette to his lips and lighting it, the flash of the lighter in the darkness making me jump.
I stare at him for a second, but he doesn’t seem to be paying me any attention. Maybe there’s nothing going on here, maybe he’s just some guy having a smoke after a long drive, maybe...
I come to a halt as I realize that I have reached the doorway. I fumble in my pocket for my keys, realizing that my hands are shaking as I do so.
