Cold Deception (His Agenda 4): Prequel to the His Agenda Series (2 page)

The words sliced through Terence and he turned as Marion caught up. “I don’t have a family. Where the fuck is Wheeler? He said he’d pick me up.” He seethed with mounting rage.

“He’s back in New York. I told him not to come.” Marion placed a hand on Terence’s shoulder. “You’re not alone. You can choose to believe that or not. Let me help you.”

Terence shrugged off Marion’s hand and backed away. “Get your hands off me. I don’t need your help. Not anymore.”

Marion pushed his hands into his pockets. His eyes took on a haunted look. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you back then. I was a kid too… helpless as you were.” He took in a sharp breath. “I can’t change the past, but I’m here now. I’m here for you. I suffered too, you know. I carry most of the same bad memories as you.”

Marion’s words were broken by the sounds of voices and car doors slamming.

“Damn right you do.” Terence moved aside to allow two somber-looking women to pass by. “You have a car, a life, a clean name. You don’t look like you’re suffering.”

Marion’s eyes softened when he looked back at Terence. “At least let me take you somewhere. Let’s go have a drink. We’ll talk. You can tell me what I can do to help you. And you can stay with me, for a while at least. Please, tell me how to help.”

Terence nodded and walked toward Marion’s car. “I just need a lift. Wheeler said there’s a homeless shelter on Broad Edge Avenue. Drop me off there.”

Chapter Two

“Watch where you’re going, fool.” A dark-clothed man pushed past Terence and disappeared into the night, leaving behind the smell of hot dogs.

Terence swallowed the ball of hate lodged inside his throat, jammed his hands into his pockets, and continued on, pushing his way through the streets of Serendipity. To distract himself from thinking about his fucked-up life, he listened to the sound of his shoes hitting the ground, the crunch of gravel beneath his feet. Two weeks since he’d walked out of prison and he was still pissed off.

The day had not been completely messed up, though. He had landed a job repairing cars at George’s Garage after being turned down by dozens of employers. Being an ex-con sucked. It didn’t matter whether you were sent to prison innocent or guilty. All that counted were the years you spent sleeping in a cell.

As he walked past Grace Chapel, a jarring scream split the silent night. Terence scanned the street but saw nothing except a couple of parked cars, illuminated by the faint yellow light of the streetlamps. He turned slowly in a half circle, his heart pounding. Then the tortured scream shredded the night air once more. This time he followed it to a car parked on the other side of the street: a black Honda Civic that was swaying slightly.

He contemplated going to find out what was going on. At first it looked as though a couple had chosen to have a good time in public, but the screams didn’t stop. They tugged at Terence’s nerves. He had plenty of his own shit to deal with, but he couldn’t walk away. Against his better judgment, he found himself crossing the street, the screams pulling him like an invisible string.

He was right—partially. They were lovers looking for an adventure, but only the man seemed to be having a good time. At least he was trying to. He had a hairy, thick neck and steroid-infused muscles. They looked too fake to be natural. Muscleman pinned down the blond, frail-looking woman in the backseat and was attempting to push her legs apart.

“Shut up, bitch. I know you want it.” Muscleman clamped a hand over her mouth.

The woman’s terrified green eyes fluttered open, locking with Terence’s through the barely open window. Fear and shock swam in them. Terence recognized her at once as one of the helpers from the Oasis Shelter. He had never conversed much with her, but knew her name was Lacey.

As the man pushed a hand between himself and the woman, shoving his jeans down, rage burst through Terence’s earlier resistance. He shot out his hand and yanked open the door of the backseat. Gathering the strength he had acquired behind bars, he grabbed the man by his clothes and yanked him out of the car. He held the guy by his collar, planted a punch on his mouth, and shoved him onto the pavement. Without giving the man a chance to recover from the shock of having a stranger interrupt his plans, Terence swung his foot back and kicked the attacker hard in the groin. For a moment, he watched Muscleman writhe with agony, and then he turned to the woman. He stretched out his hand to help her out of the car, but she hesitated.

“I’m here to help.” His mind instructed his lips to smile. It was an action he was still relearning.

She reached for his hand and he pulled her out. Once her legs were steady, she averted her gaze from his and zipped up her black pants. She looked back up at him with teary eyes and flushed cheeks. He ignored the tug at his heart, shrugged off his secondhand sports jacket, and draped it across her shoulders.

He guided her down the street, wanting to get her as far away from Muscleman as possible. She didn’t stop him. On the other side of the road, he pulled a newspaper out of his backpack and laid it down on the steps of Grace Chapel.

“You might want to sit… for a while. To catch your breath.”

She didn’t look at him as she lowered herself onto the step. Should he ask if she was all right? Walk away? His feet wouldn’t move, so he opted for the former.

“You okay?”

She looked up at him and nodded. He had never really noticed her before at Oasis. As he scanned her face for signs of discomfort or pain, her green eyes riveted him to the spot.

“Good… that’s good.” Terence couldn’t pull his gaze from her eyes, from the shards of glass floating in them. He only looked away to check if her assailant was gone. With satisfaction, he watched Muscleman swipe a hand across his bloody mouth and drag himself to his feet. He swayed a bit before pulling up his pants and getting behind the wheel of his car. He gunned the engine and pulled out of the parking spot, driving away on screeching tires.

“Do you know him?”

She nodded again. “My… my ex-boyfriend.” The fragile softness in her voice reminded Terence of fresh flower petals. “He… he’s been following me around.” Her expression closed. She removed Terence’s jacket and handed it back to him.

“Keep it. You need it more than I do,” Terence said, eyeing her thin long-sleeved top. The autumn night was cool, but he had worn the jacket just for style. A chill in the air was no big deal. He had learned a lot of things in prison, and one of them was how to keep warm in freezing temperatures. The guards had been fond of throwing them out into the bitter cold yard when they misbehaved, and keeping them out there until their lips turned blue and they begged to be let in.

“No.” Lacey pushed the coat into his arms and stood. “You’ve helped me enough.” Without saying another word, she walked away with her arms wrapped around herself. He stared after her with an ache in his heart. He wanted her to stay. Wanted to talk to her some more, to protect her, even escort her to Oasis. But she clearly wanted to be left alone.

He sank onto the steps and lifted his coat to his nose. With his eyes closed, he inhaled, searching for traces of her coconut scent within the folds of the material.

There was something about her, something that made it both painful and exhilarating to look into her eyes. Something that made him feel vulnerable and strong all at once. What was it? He had to find out.

***

Terence arrived at the shelter an hour after Lacey left him at the Grace Chapel. Shaken by her presence, he had stayed on the steps for a long time.

Hunger burned a hole in his stomach, but dinner had already been served. He had no choice but to hit the sack without food. He was lucky there was still space for one more person. Lilliana, a gruff, spiky-haired, middle-aged woman, gave him an old blanket and a pillow.

“Try not to be late next time or you’ll be spending the night outside,” she warned, wagging a thick finger.

“I’ll remember that.” He threw the blanket over his shoulder. “Is… Lacey awake by any chance? I needed to—”

“What business do you have with Lacey?” Lilliana asked, eyebrows raised.

“Nothing.” He gave her a tight smile and shook his head. “It’s not important. Have a good night.” Terence shoved back his anger. He had to keep it under control. Not everyone was out to get him, he reminded himself, even though it had seemed that way for a long time.

“Go to sleep or I’ll give your spot to someone else.”

Five minutes later, Terence was lying fully clothed on a thin mattress in one of the sleeping halls for male residents. The volunteers slept in a separate hall. Even though Lacey was no longer nearby, her coconut smell clung to his skin. He reveled in it. When he closed his eyes, he felt the heat that had radiated from her body as he’d led her down the street. He thought about the haunted look in her eyes. It reminded him of the one he saw every time he looked in a mirror.

He was no stranger to the pull of passion. Since becoming a free man, he had done his best to make up for lost time. But sex was for more than pleasure. He just used it to fill the hole inside his heart. The feeling of leaving his life behind was always temporary, though, lasting no more than a few minutes. Emptiness always took over again. In the two weeks he’d been fucking around, he hadn’t slept with the same woman more than once. He hadn’t even slept with Lacey and she was getting under his skin, lingering in his memory long after she was gone. He had thought love at first sight was a bunch of bullshit. Was life proving him wrong?

He opened his eyes and watched the darkness. Something dawned on him, and his lips stretched into an involuntary smile. He had it in him after all.

In a few minutes of being with him, Lacey had given him something he never thought he’d have: a purpose. She reminded him that his heart was not completely torn apart. With this realization came a new shot of freedom that made him feel alive but also terrified. What if he hadn’t affected her the same way? Rejection was not something Terence knew how to deal with.

Chapter Three

Lacey

He sat at one of the tables she had scrubbed earlier, eating bread and drinking coffee from an old mug. But he didn’t look like he was enjoying his food. In fact, he seemed oblivious to everything and everyone around him. Well, almost everyone. His sharp blue eyes stared straight at her.

Lacey sat at the volunteers’ table at the front of the hall. She bit into her sandwich and licked a drop of jam from her lips, feeling foolish for staring back at him, but she couldn’t help herself. The dining hall was crowded and loud with the residents arguing over food, making dirty jokes, and laughing. But it all seemed to be happening at a distance as she watched him. She didn’t even know his name, and yet she felt as though she knew him at a deeper level. He was homeless, just like she had been when she’d first stepped through the doors of Oasis two years ago, before she volunteered to help out.

Her knight in shining armor didn’t look like he belonged here. Some of the homeless she met were resigned to their situation, but he looked like someone who was simply stopping by and would soon be gone. Everyone came here with a story, most of them heartbreaking. What was his?

Wherever he came from and whatever he was doing at Oasis, she was glad they had crossed paths. He had been brave enough to stand up to Craig when many people feared him. She had been a fool to fall for a man who treated her like dirt. But then, what did she expect? She had always been a magnet for bad situations.

She stifled a grin as their eyes met again, not looking away this time. His intense eyes, golden-brown hair, and strong jaw hypnotized her. A thread of pleasure trailed down her spine and she coughed as she almost choked on her bread. She smiled straight at him. When he didn’t return her smile, she wiped the grin off her face, finished up her food, and returned to work. There were still mouths to feed and tables to clear. But she needed a moment to pull herself together. After one last glance in his direction, she disappeared into the bathroom, where she splashed her face with water and squeezed her eyes shut. Her temperature rose when he flickered in her mind’s eye. He was doing things to her that no man had done in all her twenty-three years.

The fear of getting too close, feeling too much, kept her at a distance. It was why she had avoided him all of yesterday. The way he had gazed into her eyes that night and asked how she was doing… No one had ever looked at her that way before.

The other female volunteers had noticed him too when he’d walked through the doors of Oasis two weeks ago. He kept to himself, only coming to the shelter to eat and sleep, not mingling with anyone, never saying much more than “thank you.”

He was the kind of man who stood out from a group; he walked with a strong and controlled presence that was hard to ignore. But there was something else about him—a broken core. She had seen it when she looked into his eyes. That brokenness only made him more attractive to her.

The door opened. “So this is where you’ve been hiding?” asked Lilliana, another resident-turned-volunteer. She used to be part of a gang and took all kinds of drugs until a nearly fatal overdose forced her to turn her life around. “A new group of people just walked in. Get your butt out there.”

“I’ll be right out.” Lacey’s cheeks burned as if she had been caught doing something naughty.

A few minutes later, she went to the kitchen, then walked out again carrying a tray laden with peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Her gaze swept the room and her heart plummeted. Her knight in shining armor was nowhere to be seen. Just as well. She needed to focus on work, and he was certainly a distraction. But he didn’t need to be in the room for her to think about him.

After breakfast was over and they had cleared the tables, Lilliana pulled Lacey aside.

“I know who you were searching the room for. You should know your knight in shining armor was asking for you last night. It was so crazy around here this morning that I forgot to tell you.” Lilliana smiled, revealing her missing front teeth, a souvenir from her wild days.